The Immigration Office

Matt had to book his rail ticket to Thailand, so he was out first, quite early, though it started raining shortly after. As soon as the rain stopped I headed to the Immigration Office, which was located near Fort Cornwallis, to check on whether I needed a Malaysia stamp on my passport (I hadn't received one at the border with Singapore). The immigration official assured me that this was OK—when coming from Singapore only the barcode on the immigration form is scanned.

A Fishing Village

Then I took up the offer of a trishaw driver to show me some fishermen's houses and boats, and some temples to the right of the ferry-port.

The fishing communities—all Chinese, with a temple for each group, and even a stage laid out for a performance of a Chinese opera—were built on stilts all along the water-front. As usual, there were lots of elderly men sitting around chatting, while in another part a large group of women and children were finishing a communal meal. The men were out fishing, and at the end of the jetty was a board with coloured tags on it which showed which boats were carrying out which activities. Although the fronts of the wooden houses were quite narrow, they stretched very far back. The driver explained that in former times one family might have a single room, and up to twenty families might in this way be housed in a single house. To save space, the sleeping quarters were under the eaves of the houses.

Our next stop was a bird-sellers, mainly budgerigars, but with several mynah birds squawking in an unintelligible tongue in the background. The driver explained that when the Chinese wanted a special favour they would buy a bird and then set it free (probably condemning it inadvertently to a quick death!).

The Tang Clan Shrine

Next up was a visit to the Tang clan shrine. Here was recorded in stylized picture format the history of the clan.

As I understand it, for the Chinese, family identity is primary to individual identity. The clan name comes first, followed by the individual's name. The position of birth, i.e. elder son, elder daughter, has an identity of its own that transcends the individual's hopes, wishes, and desires. When a member of the family dies, a reordering occurs.

In ancient China the world after life had three major possibilities:
1. Heaven as a divine ancestor.
2. Earth as a hungry ghost or lost soul.
3. Immortality as a Taoist immortal.

The most auspicious result was to become a divine ancestor and take up residence in heaven. This was auspicious from the viewpoint of the family. Taoist priests would make a series of dots upon the tablet representing the body of the deceased and then the characters for the family name and individual name would be written. In this way the ancestor was present in the tablet. They were able to hear the daily prayers and problems of the living because this helped the family.

The original shrine, somewhat more modest than the current one, was erected in 1950. The sums of money collected for the clan's benevolent fund was listed year by year, along with the names and photos of the clans' high achievers—dozens of graduates of colleges all over the world, whose future income would be expected to contribute to the fund.

In another section of the shrine the deceased clan members were represented by a tablet each.

Kota Bahru? Why you want to go there?

I asked the trishaw driver to drop me off at a travel agent's near the ferry port, to book a bus to Kota Bahru. Unfortunately there were no places free. The buses depart at 9:00 AM and 9:00 PM, and there were places only on the night bus. I returned to the hotel via Lebuh Chulia, trying all travel agents along the way, but with the same result. The reaction of one of the travel agents ("Kota Bahru? Why you want to go there?") became an oft-repeated phrase every time Mat or I said we would go somewhere. Outside one of the shops I was propositioned by two transvestites. One looked about 20, the other about 35. They offered "suck and fuck" for 100 rinngits, both together for 150 rinngits. It was a bit early in the day to start all that...

That evening Mat and I ate at the "foreigners'" restaurant on Lebuh Chulia (can't remember the name, something like "Lemon Tree") and strolled around the nearby stores, mainly second-hand booksellers' stores which doubled as money changers and travel agents.