Thursday 24 February 2011

Roads Seldom Taken

A lot has been written by bloggers about Taiping, a town in Northern Malaysia, so what I am contributing here will hopefully not be repetitions of what others have said - like the 101 'firsts' in the country.  As I walk around some of the less beaten paths, I come across structures which have been neglected, damaged or destroyed for reasons unknown.  Perhaps readers of this blog could provide some insights into what's posted here so that the residents of this town may have a better understanding of its past.   Take for instance this picture of and old bridge.  It is a beautiful bridges built ages ago.  I don't know why it was built,  who built it or where does the footpath across the bridge lead to.   It has been neglected for years until recently a group of international young people came and cleaned it up.  They did a good job, removing all the moss, creepers and bushes that had grown all  over the bridge.  It is located along the road that leads to the Waterworks or the reservoir.

   This is the old bridge, It is a foot-bridge built across a stream.
The young people have done a good job clearing it up so we can walk across it.  formerly, it's covered with undergrowth and creepers.

     This is another view of the bridge with a stream flowing beneath it.


                  The questions  :  Who built it? Where does the footpath lead to?  Why was it built? 

            As mentioned earlier, a stream flows beneath the bridge and this spot is very popular with weekend  
           picnickers.

 A part of the stream just before the bridge, here one can see young children playing in the water during weekends.

 The area around the bridge is a forest reserve. and one must take time to look at the beautiful tall trees.
 
 This tree must be at least a hundred years old, let's hope no one comes up with the idea of widening the road and bringing it down!

Further up the road from the bridge is a Hindu temple. there is also another Hindu shrine just by the bridge. A few months later, I browse through some books at the MPH Bookstore in Ipoh and came across a book which mentioned that this bridge was built by the British for workers to walk up to the reservoir and to do repairs on the large pipes which down the slope of the hill.  Now at least we have some information on why the bridge was built. 

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