SAME RIVER, DIFFERENT WATER

This is Sungai Keluang in Besut, Terengganu snapped just a few yards from where it meets The South China Sea. The river is almost at the end of its journey from its source deep in the heart of Bukit Bintang. You read right. Terengganu does have a Bukit Bintang although the debauchery (if any) is considerably less than the other more well-known Bukit Bintang. The streets around THAT Bukit Bintang will be closed tonight so that all the merry-making (and maybe the debauchery) will not be marred by the screams of merry-makers being run over by the assorted Kancils or other lethal vehicles.

Back to the river. When I viewed the pictures of the river as part of the test for my new wide screen monitor, I did something that I do not do often. I began to think. The river is as old as Terengganu itself. The water is not. Same river, different water. You can prove this by pouring some eco-friendly dye of different colours into the river at different intervals. Then you run to the spot near the kuala (river mouth) where I took the photograph. Watch the dye being swallowed by the South China Sea, one colour after another.

Terengganu, I hope, is like the river. The ever-changing water refreshes the river. The water also nourishes the banks (no puns intended). We hope there will not be any undue erosions and the river will never be stagnant. Let the crocodiles remain benign and out of sight.

You are welcome to add your metaphors, whatever either for Terengganu or for Malaysia (either 1 Malaysia or 3 in 1 Malaysia). Thinking gives me a headache.

Labels: Bukit Bintang, river, water