Sungai (the River)

Our kampung is located near the Terengganu river. There are two towns on the opposite "ends" of the river, Kuala Berang is upstream and Kuala Terengganu, the state capital is on its estuary. I wish to claim that my kampung lies half-way between the two towns!

In my last posting, I talk about mandi. We clean ourselves using the community well. Other than that, my life was attached to the river. Schools were one-session back then and tuition classes were unheard at that time. After school, I had to attend quranic reciting "classes" first at a "guru quran"'s house not far from my house.

As soon as the session ends, my friends (cousins included) head for the river. In the beginning, I didn't know how to swim so my roaming territory was limited to the edges of the riverbank where, during low-tide, the water were about waist-deep. There were no swimming lessons too at that time.

I started learning to swim by holding "nyior komeng" - matured coconuts that has little content inside - to my chest and paddling my two legs. When there was no "nyior komeng" around, I tied our sarong to our waist and use its bottom to tie it into a knot between our knees. Then we beat the water, an act that pushed enough air into the sarong. Once there was enough air within the sarung, hey presto we were afloat and we could just float like swans (we were in seating position) by paddling our hands or we could swim (in horizontal position) by using our hands now as our back was really afloat by then.

Later on, I was able to swim...and we play "to" (read "toll" with silent "ls") in the water. We spents hours in the water and in the evening just before sunset, I could be assured of a few pinches or ear-twisting treatment courtesy of my mother. We could not find excuses because our eyes were red from being too long in the water.

During the monsoon season, we couldn't be in the river as it was too dangerous to play in the swollen and raging flood water. We still play in the flood water in flooded padi-fields by making rafts from banana trunks. two or three banana trunks were attached together and we went rafting around the inundated fields all day long - the monsoon season coincides with the long school holidays.

One incident I cannot forget was how I almost got drowned in the river. It happened one afternoon at a pangkalan near my future (now) wife's house. At that time, I still could not swim so I played in the shallow part near the bank. All of a sudden, I was pushed by small waves caused by a passing passenger boat into the deeper part...I was gulping waters and tried to jump by pushing my feet off the river bed. I was thinking I would die by then because no one was aware of my predicament with the shouting and merry-making. As sudden as the waves that pushed me outwards, my body was suddenly pushed back to the shallow water with my nose just above water. I felt weak and slowly made my way onto the bank, took may sarong and walked home. My throat was in pain from the water that got into my mouth and my efforts of spitting it out.

We - my friends and I - were in the water just like duck and fish. Unfortunately, nowadays, I dare not take a dip into the river as the water is no longer pristine. I am now become afraid of crocodiles - strange that we never gave thought to their presence during our younger days despite a few sightings of them back then - and the murky waters due to sand-mining operations.

My children were born in Kuala Lumpur and even though there are swimming pools and lessons none of them can swim.