While I was staying in the village as small kid, there were some dangerous zones that our parents would never allow us to venture any nearer to those places. Kampar and Mambang Diawan, being in the Kinta valley where we were having one of the richest tin ore resources in the world, were filled with used tin mines, once discarded and started to form natural ponds of various sizes and depths. Those ponds were usually deep and blue in color, therefore they were enticing to the kids as most of us were attracted to the water, either to cool ourselves by taking a dip or try to catch some fishes. There was one place near to the northern entrance of the village, a place by the name of "Lingutik" and it means "the tip of the breast" because of its dome shape that became a favorite spot for children taking a jump from that high tip portion and splash into the crystal clear deep part of the pond. There was another pond near to the Indian settlement on the eastern side of the village, we called that the "shorty pond" because of its smaller in size, shallower water and also a big tree truck near to the middle of it that swimmers could swim all the way and then cling on to it to take a break or a rest and chat with the other swimmers. A few of us always told our tuition teacher that we went to see the Chinese opera but actually sneaked out for a dip and headed to the shorty pond! Thinking of it, if any one of us get drown, I wonder how the tuition teacher could ever answer to the parents. How dangerous it could be when children are not properly supervised!
Malaysia does not have any kind of mines buried in war zone ground in countries such as Cambodia or the former Yugoslavakia states etc., but the used mining ponds are equally dangerous that stole the lives of many young children.
There were many incidents that young children were drown that caused so much sorrow to the village folks and parents would not hesitate to mete our severe caning if children were found to swim in any of the ponds or rivers. Children being children, always like to sneak out of the house and take a dip in those rivers or ponds. One of the tricks was to quickly clean our bodies in the running tap water so as to clear any muddy mark on the skin in order to avoid detection. In those days, tap water was not tapped directly into the house but rather at public places where young and old were to carry pails of water back home for consumption or even taking their bath. Those public taps became convenient places for us to erase those traces of mud.
Waterfalls and those natural ponds right after the falling water were another dangerous places. Even many adults were drown by the under current of these pools. There was one famous Chinese opera singer that came to perform in the area and was drown in the Bidor waterfall while he visited the place when taking a break during his performance. Expert swimmers were sometimes stucked in the roots or rocks that they were strangled and could not surface and therefore drowned. A few times in the Kampar waterfall, the heavy rain at the upper stream of the waterfall, somewhere deep inside the tropical jungle near the source or from the remote area of Kampar hill had caused the sudden accumulation of strong current that swept away picnickers and swimmers down stream. All Utar students not familiar with the background and the danger of waterfalls should be fore-warned of such danger. The slippery rock is another dangerous part, I got my forehead stitches in the Kampar hospital done because of my hand slipped while swiming from one end of the pool to the other when trying to cling and pull myself up onto a rock.
One fire that I observed that destroyed a house and killed a baby, that was the greatest tragedy that I knew of while I was still a young kid. That happened to the house next to my grandpa's cousin brother's home some 20 minutes walking distance away. The mother of that killed baby was one of the friends of my mum, I remember visited her together with my mum and saw the big egg of a long stick insect, which was kept as a pet in a glass tank, supposed to be German breed. I still remember this very vividly as I was really fascinated by the insect. It was a tragic ending for this woman, after losing her baby and after some time the husband took a second wife and she left the village and since then I have never seen her anymore.
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