Of Hulu Selangor By-Election and Hulu Bernam

Talking about the upcoming Hulu Selangor by-election, I can't help but reminiscing my childhood days where my dad would always bring the whole family 'balik kampung' to Hulu Bernam on weekends to pay a visit to my late grandmother and other family members. Hulu Bernam is only about 50 minutes drive from Subang Jaya or about one and a half hour via the old trunk road.

[Don't get confuse between the small Hulu Bernam kampung and the Hulu Bernam state seat, under the Hulu Selangor parliamentary seat, which encompasses other nearby kampungs such as Kampung Gedangsa, Felda Soeharto and few others.]

Anyways, the most exciting part was of course visiting my family's durian orchard and bathing at the Bernam River, even though I can't stand the smell of durian and didn't know how to swim back then.

I used to joke with my friends how I could swim from "Selangor to Perak" when I was younger. Ha ha. For those not in the know, the Bernam River (picture) is the river that separates the two states of Selangor and Perak. So, that explains how I could swim across from Selangor to Perak in just minutes.

Hulu Bernam is an interesting district in Selangor. Situated at the northern tip of Selangor and due to its close proximity to Tanjung Malim, I believe most folks in Hulu Bernam consider Tanjung Malim as their hometown, not Hulu Bernam. Even my dad would always say Tanjung Malim, Perak as his hometown and never Hulu Bernam, Selangor; even though technically speaking, my dad's kampung is within the Selangor boundary.

Sounds confusing? Not really.

Unsurprisingly, because the nearest town, Tanjung Malim is just a stone's throw away. Not just that, but the nearest post office, bus station, police station, clinic and other public amenities are all in based in Tanjung Malim, including the once famed Sultan Idris Training College, now Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI).

Perhaps because of that, I guess people of Hulu Bernam either have dual loyalty to both Selangor and Perak or no strong affiliation to any of the two state.

My dad used to tell my how he would cycle from his house in Kampung Baru A, Hulu Bernam to Sekolah Melayu Kalumpang in Kalumpang, which is about 7.5 kilometres away! Every day, mind you.

I did some research on the Net and found that the Kalumpang Malay School was established in 1889! It could be one of the oldest in Selangor. It was still a "Sekolah Melayu" during my dad's time in the 1950s, not yet 'Sekolah Kebangsaan'.

As for me, the farthest that I have cycled from my place was to Kelana Jaya, which is about 10kms away from Subang Jaya. So not too bad. :-)

I plan to visit Hulu Bernam again someday. Perhaps the Hulu Selangor by-election would give me a good reason to go there!

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This blog article was first published at Klik4Malaysia.com's 'Blog' section