Sunset Over Railway Bridge - II

Look what is running along the track.

The Train is here.


The Train is gone.

I survive.

I stick.

The Sun is setting.

Time to...

... go home.

Sunset Over Railway Bridge - I

Recently a friend asked me where is a good place to take sunset photographs in Port Klang. I told him of a place that I sometimes like (although not often as it is rather secluded and out of the way) to go for evening walk especially when I am feeling down. It is a place where I can clear my head, reminisce and reflect until I can discard all negatives thoughts with the sinking sun.

It was on a railway bridge connecting North Port through South Port to West Port mainly for the transportation of containers between North and West Ports. (Port Klang is the largest port in Malaysia and have these three ports servicing the central of West Malaysia which is the hub of commercial and industrial activities). Except for the trains and anglers fishing on the bridge during high tide, it is quite deserted

This allowed me to take leisurely walk along the railway track, take in the scenery and watched the birds and animals of the mangrove swamps and rivers. Sometimes I took my camera along and took some shots. I had posted some of this in MyKlang forum under “Sunset Over The Railway Bridge” and below are some of the pictures I had taken on two separate occasions, one on a cloudy evening and another on a sunny evening which gave different moods.

The bridge in the distance is the bridge connecting Pulau Indah (Beautiful Island) to the mainland. At the end of this island is West Port. That bridge is for road transport while this bridge where I took the picture from is for rail transport only.

The fishing on the other side of the bridge is kampung Sungai Keladi and further down is to the dying town of Perlama.

This is the mudskipper, so called because when it wanted to escape it will skip of the surface of the water. It can skip much faster than it can swim. It may looked ugly with the bulging eyes and oversize head but it is quite tasty.

The skeleton of an abandoned boat.

A monitor lizard swimming away.

Death Of A Small Town Called Perlama - II

"Oh, those building. They were temporary stable for imported horses before they are moved inland. One night several years ago, the river burst its bank and drowned all the horses. They said the place is now haunted."

"Take our photo!"

Death Of A Small Town Called Perlama - I

Perlama is a small town tucked at one corner of Port Klang, my hometown. The River Aur snaked and curled round it on its way to the sea. In its heyday, it was a busy place inhabited by fishing folks and workers of the sawmill that made use of the river to transport timbers. The timber trade in West Malaysia is practically dead and with that the fortune of the town declined to a sorry state. Squatters started to replace original inhabitants who moved out.




Fishing declined and the town and its surrounding village – Kampung Sungai Keladi fell on hard time. An ill-advised ambitious plan to turn the village into a riverfront development saw its sudden demise. The villagers were offered a monetary compensation to move and the entire village was demolished. Several years later and Perlama is a ghost town.




I had only been to Perlama a few times and did not really have a very strong impression of the place. But it was always there at the peripheral of our consciousness in the years I had stayed in Port Klang as time and again it appeared in our conversation like something that floated up from the depth. I had not visited that place in decades in my growing up, getting a job and moving away. One hot afternoon on a sudden whim, I started a walk along the embankment tracing the river bank from one end to the other. What started as a 15 minutes walk ended up 3 hours later and I did not realize that a place I had visited only so few times in my life had so many suppressed memories. As I have already posted most of my impressions in “Death Of A Small Town In Port Klang” in MyKlang Forum, I won’t rehash them here. Please click on the link to read more.




I have posted some images of my walk here to encourage you to go over to MyKlang to read further. And if you like it there, do register and be a member whether or not you are a Klangites.

The first person I met on the beginning of my walk - "If you cannot give me a photo, why did you take my picture?"

"I return because this is a better place that the new one we had been relocated to."