Klang River monitor lizards and otter

On a few occasions I've seen monitor lizards in the Klang river at Brickfields, near the Tun Sambanthan monorail station. Normally I don't have my camera with me. On one occasion I did, but the river had been in flood and flowing very fast and the monitor lizards were also fast. So it was not easy to take photos.

The first photo is a small (young) monitor lizard floating on a pile of vegetation. The 2nd photo shows a larger one swimming away from the camera -

The other day as I was crossing the pedestrian bridge from the station to Kuen Cheng school I spotted an otter by the river. It was not on the bank, but on an area of earth exposed by the river. Once again I didn't have a camera. The otter looked quite big and also quite dark. It must have seen me watching as it dived into the water and I didn't see it again.

I've no idea which species it was. It was only the second time I've seen an otter in the wild in Asia. The first time was in the river at Krabi town, in south Thailand.
[photos taken at Melaka animal safari]

Someone else has blogged about the Klang River otters, see the blog.

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission

Old parts of Brickfields

I read in the New Straits Times on 22 July 2012 that more parts of old Brickfields would be pulled down for development. Already a lot of the old Brickfields has been lost, and there are lots of new highrises, especially around KL Sentral. The old police station closed down as well as the Pines restaurants.

It seems that the 100 government quarters along Jalan Rozario will be the next to be demolished. These are the rows of double storey link houses, between the Vivekananda Ashram and the old green by the traffic lights. The houses have relatively recently been renovated. The green or padang by the traffic lights disappeared when the Little India developments happened. Luckily one tree was spared.

100 govt quarters and the back alleys -

1997 view of the tree

Same tree in 2012 but the field has gone

Vivekananda Ashram

Fresh milk

Methodist school, and tree in school grounds

Jln Padang Belia where the old buffalo sheds were, the kandang kerbau

Old and new -

Blind society , printer

Paper supplier (above), old house -

This tree was in a car park in 2008, same car park 2012

This building is now occupying the car park
Old shop houses with washing hanging out

Siewdor, used by high ranking police 1967- early 1980s

Siva temple 70 yrs old

I will put the temples in a separate album.

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission

Brickfields police station

Brickfields police station has long been a landmark in Brickfields. It closed down at the end of 2010 and was relocated to Sri Petaling. I have driven past it on a weekly basis and never bothered to take any photos. Then in mid 2011 I found it had already been partly demolished.

The same thing happened with the row of restaurants opposite, known as the Pines. One minute they were there, next minute they had gone. According to The Star 13 Aug 2010, "the 47-year-old row of shops where the Pines Restaurant in Brickfields is located will soon be demolished for the building of a modern bazaar in line with the RM35mil Little India project".

So I took the opportunity to take some photos of what remains of the police station on 1 Sept 2011.

I found it ironic that the old police station was being used as a dump site and there were dubious characters hanging around. I suspected it would soon be used by squatters. And this in fact happened, see report in The Star 2 Feb 2012.

These photos were taken Sept 11 -

This is the view prior to demolition. It looks more like a computer recycle centre!

The Pines prior to demolition -

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission

Brickfields - Little India (& one-way chaos)

It was a sad day when Brickfields went one-way on 3 August 2010.

I've always lived in or relatively near to Brickfields so have got to know it well over the years. And I've seen many changes. The biggest one was the development of KL Sentral. It's made life easy for me to get the airport bus. But Sentral is still growing and I wonder when it will stop. There are so many 'skyscrapers' now.

1997 view before Sentral

The worst thing was when Brickfields went one-way.

The traffic jams were horrendous and it was complete chaos. Large vehicles trying to get down small roads, 4 lanes trying to squeeze into 1 in places, and pedestrians including the blind trying to cross 4 lanes of traffic. I surprised there wasn't more noise in the press about the jams.

And another sad day was when I realised the famous Pines row had been demolished. I hadn't realised this was going to happen until I saw the land was totally bare. Apparently this will be a multi-storey carpark and the new Pines Restaurants.

Having got caught in several horrendous traffic jams in Brickfields, at different times of the day and evening, and one especially bad one at 12.30am before Deepavali, I now totally avoid Brickfields. I would prefer to drive extra mileage than go through Bfields. The only time that I will go now is on a Sat afternoon or a Sunday when I know I can still park easily.

Today, a Sunday I went to take some photos. It was relatively quiet and I could cross the roads easily. The Deepavali stalls had gone, and at 10am the pavements were empty and free from stalls.

I was sad to see that the green with the magnificent trees at the Sri Kota traffic lights has now been concreted over. This is now the Lorong Chan Ah Tong hawker centre. It used to be a place for locals to play football and enjoy some open green space. But I noticed that Ah Goh has a small shop here, this used to be one of the restaurants at the Pines row.

Used to be across the road

The elephant fountain is in the centre of the road at the Sri Kota junction, surrounded by what is kindly described as a mini park. The fountain is known as the tallest Malaysian elephant fountain. Are there any others - I don't know of any?!

KL's answer to Trafalgar Square

There are also 2 metal sculptures, but I have no idea what they are.

There is an abundance of ornate lamp posts, and a Little India Gateway on the road leading to Jalan Bangsar.

A second Little India gateway will be constructed near the Brickfields police station.

The main road from Sri Kota to KFC is lined with colourful arches. The whole image is rather gaudy, and I wonder how long the paint will last in Malaysia's tropical weather.

The small lane by Joy supermarket is now a row of small shops. The corner shop opposite, next to the pet shop has been demolished and a new glass fronted building is coming up.

making roti

pavement tables

decorative road

I wrongly thought part of the purpose of the road changes were to ease the traffic problems, by making the roads wider etc, but this hasn't happened, especially with all the arches. And I wonder how long the plants in the centre of the roads will last, as pedestrians have to step on them to cross the road.

One road has been made contraflow, which I found quite unnerving when I was walking along the road - there were no pavements so I was forced to walk in the road and had to avoid getting run down by cars coming the 'wrong' way.

I came back to KL on the LCCT bus on the eve of Deepavali. The access roads to KL Sentral were closed and the bus had to do a major detour to get into Sentral from the Bangsar side. I was a bit stunned that the roads to Malaysia's main transport hub had been closed. And then of course the taxi home had to take a major detour.

The Indian and Malaysian Prime Ministers launched the first phase of the Little India project on Oct 27 2010.

Phase 2 of the RM35mil Little India project will start now. i suppose that will mean more chaos on the roads, especially at the police station end.

Even the 30-year-old Brickfields District Police headquarters won't be spared. It will be relocated to the Sri Petaling station to make way for high-rise development - a multi-storey complex. The police accommodation blocks across the road have been empty for some time. People feel that with the closure of the police station, crime will increase. Apparently snatch thefts are already on the increase (though with the chaotic traffic jams I don't see how any motorbike thief can get away!!!).

We'll just have to wait and see what Phase 2 brings, and if the traffic situation ever improves.
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An interesting piece on Harakah, and part 2.

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission