My Hometown, Pasir Gudang
What is there to say about the town Pasir Gudang? It's a plain industrial town, with no notable worthwhile attraction. People come here in search of work in one of the dozens of factories this town is full of. Hardly anyone comes here to revel in culture or to relish in its scarcely plain geographical landscape. Yet, you'd find the people around here are zealously devoted to this little, quaint town which used to be call Kampung Pasir Udang.
It's true, Pasir Gudang can't hold a candle against the big league cities such as Johor Bharu or can it rival against cities like Batu Pahat or Muar in terms of its cultural and historical significance. True to its origin, Pasir Gudang is a humble, middle-class town founded a humble fisherman. Its general populace heavily reflects this image as most of them are the layman, who works in factories and operates small businesses. It also reflects in the landscape of the town. Faded, moss-addled low cost apartments that have seen through the wear and tear of time are saddled between shop houses that aren't quite as diverse and exotic as those you'd find in the city, but serves its role in providing the populace with daily necessities, nevertheless .
The sole, tallest building in town is the Municipals' Government Administration Center dubbed as the Aqabah Tower. The building which rises just shy of 20-stories high reflects a combination of the old and the new in its design. It implements an archetypal office building design, a straight tower with symmetrical arrangements of windows on each side, with motifs from the Middle East in how the the side of buildings are designed with half-domes structures sculpted with intricate floral patterns. It's roof reminisces the roofs of old-conservative Malay houses design, with the added feature of an observatory deck. Back when it was completed, a celebration was held by the Municipal Government to celebrate the firs bona-fide semi-skyscraper in Pasir Gudang where people from all over town came to watch the fireworks and performances held on that day. The whole celebration might seem like an overreaction from an outsiders perspective, but for us, this was a landmark in the town's progress into becoming a noteworthy city.
Two kilometers away from the tower is the Pasir Gudang Municipal Stadium, the home field, previously for the Johor F.C football club, a club founded by Johor Corporation, a prominent patron of the towns' industrial scene. Under new management, the stadium is now the playing grounds for the Johor Darul Ta'zim 2 football team. During important games against prominent rivals, you can expect a bevy of red and blue on the stands of the stadium, those colours being the official colour for the team and their jerseys. The night is basked in bright lights, which if you're driving into the town from the Pasir Gudang highway, can immediately spot, a mile away.
A kilometer away, to the opposite direction however, you will find Bukit Layang-Layang or Kite's Hill. Bukit Layang-Layang is famous for hosting the annual International Kite Kite Festival. It also houses Pasir Gudang's Kite Museum, built to look like a gigantic windmill. During the second week of February, every year, you can expect the skies of Pasir Gudang to be a plethora of colours. Kites take reign in the sky overlooking the town, in all shapes and sizes. The park will be a Mecca for kite lovers around the world, and you can clearly see many foreign faces in the sea of people present in the grounds of Bukit Layang-Layang during this event. This is festival is the only major tourism attraction this town has and is well-celebrated by the locals as a time to welcome the tourists and kite lovers into the town.
However, the town's most prominent features are the factories and ports that make the bulk of the town. It is a common sight to see grey, tall chimneys spewing out clouds of black smoke in the distance. At night these chimneys provides a brilliant light show as fire spew out of its mouth like some terrible dragon in the darkness of the night. These factories provide work for a major percentage of the city's populace. The town is also home to Johor Port, one of the biggest ports in Johor. Nearby the port, is Kampung pasir Putih, a sea-side village known for the many seafood restaurants on its shoreline. Here you can have a nice meal while taking in the view of the many big ships coming in and out of the large port in the distance.
Pasir Gudang might not be as grand and as eccentric as other cities you'd find in Johor, but it has its own charms and I, for one, am proud to call it my hometown.
.
ReplyDelete