..Bachok...tourist Islamic town..?

..I took my teenaged kids to the beach the other day..or rather I persuaded my kids to follow their dad to the beach..kids nowadays would rather do any other thing rather than follow their dad..ah..time when they held on tightly to my pants, wailing loudly, wanting to follow their daddy everywhere he went..when I told them that, they just gave me a clueless look, not remembering...but I digress..

..along the way there was this billboard proclaiming 'Bachok..bandar pelancungan Islam 2010..' it caught my eye as I drove past..not that I have not seen it before..I passed by it everyday on my way to Bachok from home and home is only 4 kms away from Pantai Irama..Islamic Tourist Town?..that was the promise during PRU12th..hmmm..I thought the slogan is at best ambiguous...at worst..well..it is a political slogan... Bachok is as islamic as any other town in Kelantan..and tourists that made Bachok a pitstop for cigarettes and ATM withdrawals hardly gave us a glance, their destination being Perhentian Islands..

..but we do have two banks...CIMB and Maybank..and the district mosque, which is being renovated with funds donated by the then TPM..he came a few days before PRU12..on a Friday..after Friday prayers and after a short speech, he handed the cheque to the Imam...I remember sitting in the back row of the mosque and thinking that the timing was all wrong...he should have handed the money very much earlier...then work would have started and completed earlier and his presence that day was to officialise the newly completed wing...the effect would have been better...as it was, it looked like a sweetener...fodder for the opposition...but the lunch that followed was sumptious...

..the two banks with Pasar Malam on Friday evenings and Pasar Tani on Saturday mornings helped kept Bachok alive..well, to a certain extent..they are popular with the locals and non-locals alike, with some coming from as far as Kuala Krai, the district where Manek Urai is...these two pasars are held by the beach on a piece of Police Reserve land..once, in the 80's, the Balai Police Bachok was there...with a row of Class G quarters..wooden buildings that could hardly withstood the onslaught of the monsoon gale..the lot of the rank and file, then...a salary of RM240.00 per month and quarters with a single room...efforts started by Tun Haniff made them very comfortable, indeed, by any standard...

..the administrative cluster, the Land and District Office, the Fire Department, along with Public Works Department and the Registration Department, is at Kg. Kemudi, about 2 kms from Bachok, the town....there is no District Hospital yet, though plans for it were submitted decades earlier under the Malaysian Plan...but nothing has materialised yet..

..roads in Bachok are unnamed...there are no roads named after Dato Awang Adek, or Jalan Nashamuddin Mat Isa, or Jalan Tuan Guru, for that matter...so, addresses are by Lot Numbers, Kampongs and geographic positions...and imaginations of the sender....'Lot 166, Kg. Kemudi, Depan Pejabat Tanah, 16300 Bachok', as an example...

..I thought it ironic that Bachok, Thai for Ban, kampong, Chak, nipah, has a population of 120,000, by the last count in 2005...almost the same as the population of Orang Asli in the country...and the Orang Asli are better allocated than us...so we shall always be associated with tobacco plantations...the only activity that brings with it immediate economic relief...but now that Tuan Guru has likened smokers to cows, tobacco growing is slowing down...with no feasible alternative in sight...

..Pantai Irama has improved...concrete blocks now lined the shore...holding in check wave erosion...a life-guard tower, manned 24 hours by men from the Civil Defence, was erected..hopefully to check the cases of death by drowning that occurred almost every year during the monsoon season...for the retailers of fried seafood and stuff, concrete structures with proper shelters were provided...there is no more the shanty town atmosphere of old..with the beach generally clean, the pace relaxed and slow, with the district mosque improved...teachings from the Holy Quran almost every night after Magrib...night prayers twice a month, Bachok is heaven and a haven for retirees like me....