Girish Mahajan (Editor)

Bagan Serai

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Country
  
Malaysia

District
  
Kerian

State
  
Perak

Local time
  
Tuesday 4:32 PM

Bagan Serai

Weather
  
25°C, Wind SW at 10 km/h, 91% Humidity

Bagan Serai is a mukim in Kerian District, Perak, Malaysia. It is an important collecting and processing location for the paddy plantation of the Kerian scheme. Bagan Serai is also the name of the parliamentary constituency in which the town is located. It is also notable for its Indian population established in the late 19th century more recently the subject of racism.

Contents

Map of Bagan Serai, Perak, Malaysia

The word “Bagan” in Malay means a jetty or a place of landing for some business activities, and “Serai” means lemon grass, a herb often used in Malay food, which used to be mass-produced here.

Through the hearsay from old generations, Bagan Serai used to be a very busy pier for trading activities, because of the rivers that flows through this small town straight to the sea, making it a strategic location for trading activities and suitable landing spot for goods.

A slightly different version as to how Bagan Serai got its name can be found at the website "Glimpses".

My kampung bagan serai


Demographics and economic activities

Most of Malay residents here were migrated from Banjarmasin, Indonesia which in local dialects is called Banjar language. They have a distinguished dialect with most of it non intelligible to native Malay language speakers. But as all Malaysians, they do speak standard Malay language. Shops are mostly owned by Chinese-Malaysian descendants. Significant amounts of Indian-Malaysians work as rubber tappers in rubber estates. Banjar-Malay-Malaysians and "Malay" descendents work in agricultural activity which in Bagan Serai predominantly is paddy fields and palm oil.

Bagan Serai is one of 8 sub-districts of Kerian district which included Parit Buntar, Bagan Tiang, Tanjung Piandang, Kuala Kurau, Beriah, Bagan Serai, Gunong Semanggol and Selinsing. It is under the jurisdiction and administration of Majlis Daerah Kerian (Kerian District Committee).

Transportation

Public transport is managed by a private company called The Red Omnibus. The town has a main bus stand which located at the New Town of Bagan Serai and close to Main Market of Bagan Serai. The bus stand also provides taxi services. Bus to the center of town from peripheral areas runs daily every 30 minutes. Express buses goes from Bagan Serai to various towns and cities including Kuala Lumpur, Georgetown, Kulim, Alor Setar, and Ipoh. There is also a train station in the town. Prior to the Ipoh-Padang Besar Electrified Double Tracking Project, the Bagan Serai railway station was upgraded.

Temperatures and climate

Yearly, Bagan Serai has relatively colder climate than other parts of Malaysia due to its location near the Straits of Malacca and away from the equator. Taiping is located relatively near and southern to Bagan Serai, which is the wettest place (with frequent rains) in Malaysia. No specific temperature data and precipitation are aired daily in television for Bagan Serai. Thus, usually town people use Ipoh data for Bagan Serai. However, they are not usually true as they may be occasionally correlated with Georgetown, Penang data.

References

Bagan Serai Wikipedia