I was contemplating a short trip to somewhere and decided to check out the small town of Rasa last Caturday. I chose this small town because I could take the Komuter train to get there. Moreover, it was the school holidays and I wasn’t keen to be stuck on the road.
The train departed Sungai Buloh station on time; however, it stopped for a while to let an ETS train pass before it could continue on. So we arrived at Rasa station seven minutes later than scheduled. I walked out and wandered to the town centre. I was startled to be greeted by a couple of curious dogs and after walking away from them, I noticed there were a lot of cats about.
There was a public market which didn’t look particularly bustling. There were only two traders that I could see but then again it was already after 10:00 and people there probably did their marketing much earlier in the morning. I saw small breakfast kiosks but nothing captured my attention. I walked to Jalan Kuala Kali and followed it up to the closed Chinese primary school before turning back and then taking the underpass to Tan Boon Chia Mansion.
Tan Boon Chia was one of the most influential tin miners in the early 1900s. He started off as a tin miner and later owned mines and also ventured into rubber plantations. The rich businessman was believed to have built the mansion in 1918 on a five-hectare land; apparently, he believed Rasa would develop faster than Kuala Lumpur, hence why he chose to build his mansion there.
However, the Japanese Imperial Army seized the mansion during the WW II and turned it into their headquarters. It was believed that many Chinese residents of Rasa were tortured, killed and buried in the mansion grounds.
The mansion is now overgrown with creepers and the gates are locked. There were two men outside an outbuilding when I was there. One was raking leaves and dressed in a t-shirt and a longyi. The other was squatting and there were dogs with them so I concluded they were from Myanmar. I said hi but they didn’t reply so I left after taking some photos.
I returned to the station and waited for the 11:26 train. There was a train at 10:58 but it would take nine minutes longer to reach Sungai Buloh (its last stop) and the 11:26 train would go all the way to KL Sentral (unfortunately, the train had to stop as it waited for clearance just after Sungai Buloh station so that cut into the nine minutes’ ‘saving’. I had decided to alight at KL Sentral anyway so I sat in there impatiently while reading my book).
And that’s one small town that I managed to visit. Alhamdulillah.
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