Matang's colourful bird houses

Bird houses are everywhere in Malaysia now. Also called swiftlet farms, or bird hotels, they are places to house swiftlets for the birds nest (soup) industry. The buildings can either be converted from an existing building in a town, or it can be a purpose built place. The latter can be seen in so many rural areas now.

Usually the purpose built places are isolated although sometimes you see two close together. So it was quite a surprise to see a whole "town" of them in Matang, Perak. Even more of a surprise to see some of them painted in bright colours. Normally bird houses are usually plain concrete.

Although it is hard to see in this photo, the bird houses extend the whole width of the photo, behind the coconut trees -

 they can be seen more easily here -

And these are the colourful ones, they are in a row behind some colourful buildings which will be occupied by humans!

These bird houses are located on the main Matang road. The Kota Ngah Ibrahim is nearby

and in the other direction is the Matang mosque

Instead of a dome, it has a spire that looks as if it belongs to a church!

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Another old Ipoh house demolished

At the corner of Jln Sultan Azlan Shah and Jln Gopeng (Rajah Dr. Nazrin Shah) there used to be a fine old colonial house with a porte cochere. By 2004, maybe earlier, it had been converted into a swiftlet house.

I was shocked when I went past in March 2013 and the house had gone. It was just empty land.

These are Google Earth images from 2002 and Nov 2012

© Liz Price

No reproduction without permission

Gombak-Genting-Bentong old road

I always enjoy going up the old Gombak Road to Genting. Once you have gone past the kampungs and Orang Asli museum, the road really feels rural. This is the orang asli museum

It has such a nice feel and you can switch off the car aicon and enjoy the fresh air. And I always feel smug looking down on the vehicles dashing along the highway below, knowing they are not experiencing the fresh air, and also have to pay a highway toll.

The one negative thing about using the road is that you generally have to share it with large trucks, who use it as a means of avoiding the highway.

When I went up on 19 June, there were no macaques on the roadside, which is quite unusual. Wondered if they'd all moved downhill to the urban sprawl where food is more abundant! Also I saw no orang asli walking along.

In Malaysia I am always amused when large sheets of plastic are used to cover landslide areas. I've never worked out if this is to hold the hillside in place, or what. The sad thing is when the plastic has ripped to shreds, it is not removed but remains there as an eyesore.

The other nasty thing is the fact that people dump rubbish alongside the road. This seems mostly contractors rubbish, things like building materials. There was even part of a Chinese shrine.

There are a coupe of small temples along the road, and also some roadside shrines, both Chinese and Indian. Some are at the base of large trees.

When I reached Genting Sempah, I have to admit I went to McDs for breakfast.

Having driven from Gombak to Genting on the old road, I then continued my journey to Bentong, still using the old road. Soon after leaving the Genting junction, I heard gibbons calling. These are my favourite of the apes and with the windows open and radio switched off, I could hear them clearly.

As always I stopped at the waterfall. Waterfall Jan is in Europe at the moment, so these pic are to remind him of what he is missing!!

Bentong road shrine -

Rubbish -

There are many bird houses being built now in Malaysia, and I saw one on the way to Bentong. There were many more on the road from Bentong to Raub.

From Bentong I went on to Raub via Chamang waterfall.

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission