Kampong Bakong, Arau, Perlis

My kampong had changed a lot since my childhood days. We now have paved road. In the old days, we used only a small dirt path in between the rice fields, good for only bicycles and pedestrians. We did not have electricity. Our kampong used to be the joke of the local town folks as a backward community. There was no piped water supply. Every house relied on wells with murky water for daily water needs. Telephone was a luxury. We needed to go to somebody’s house in town to make a call. We did not even have a postal address. We collected our letters from a shop in town.

The long road to my kampong

Father's House

Dad's Rice Field

Younger brother Zaki back from work

This is a rice farming country

Dad's turkeys

Planting bamboo for its shoot (rebung madu) seemed to be the new craze in Perlis

In the old days, we used buffaloes

Anas taking a ride in the front yard

Trading Forex in the kampong

Hari Raya

Now, everybody lives in relative luxury. We can drive cars to our front porch. The roads may be a bit small but good. The pace in the village had changed, for better or worse. I still miss my old backward kampong.