Rail friends

Siti Nadia Che Pari and Nor Diana Rosli are utterly lost in conversation.

They're sitting at the small stall located beside the Dabong train station. Girlishly giggling from time to time, interspersed with sporadic horseplay, the girls leaf through the Form Two text books for next year, which were distributed at school this morning. But this is just to kill time as they wait for the train home.

They look like real friends. Like they've known each other all their lives. But they actually only met a year ago.

"It was on the train, headed to school in Dabong. Somehow we ended up sitting together," Nadia tells us.

Both the girls live in a small village on the Bukit Abu rubber plantation. It's about half an hour from the town of Dabong, in Kuala Krai. From the turnoff onto the main road to town, it's linked by a partially tarred road that winds through the plantation.

Nadia has always lived here, and both her parents are retired rubber tappers. They're financially supported by her sister who lives in Kuala Lumpur.

Both the girls live in a small village on the Bukit Abu rubber plantation.

Diana on the other hand only recently moved here from Tanah Merah, just over a year ago. Her parents are rubber tappers too, and the couple have managed to raise 8 children by working in the field.

Nadia, Diana and the other kids in the village have to wait at the Bukit Abu station before daybreak to catch the train to school, around 6am each morning.

The commute takes them past one stop in Kuala Gris, before reaching Dabong.

"When we arrive in Dabong, we walk to school together with all the other kids. But we're in different classes. And even though we live in the same village, are houses are located far apart. So we only really get to meet while waiting for the train, on the daily commute to school, and back. After that, we have to go our separate ways," says Diana.

Diana and Nadia are Form One students of the only national secondary school in Dabong, and most of the students come from the nearby villages in Bukit Abu and Kuala Gris. Their school, SMK Dabong, was badly affected by the floods which hit the east coast of the Peninsular a year ago.

Like the Dabong train station, it was spared any structural damage, but the entire school was inundated by mud left behind after the floodwaters receded.

Diana and Nadia are Form One students of the only national secondary school in Dabong, and most of the students come from the nearby villages in Bukit Abu and Kuala Gris.

The effect was worse than in other places here because both the school and the train station are located near the confluence of the Pergau and Galas rivers. The Pergau has a particularly stong current as its waters flow directly from the Stong Mountain. The widespread devastation brought by the flood last year, which by most accounts was the worst in living memory, also tested their fledgling friendship. This is because the floods caused serious damage to the rail system here, putting the train out of service for many months. "As the train was no longer running, we were sent to school each day by motorcycle. So it was really very hard for us to meet as usual during that period. Both of us headed straight home separately as soon as school was out, because the journey by road takes much longer than by train," the girls tell us. The journey from Dabong to Bukit Abu can take up to two hours, while in comparison, the train only takes half an hour. "It's hard to meet up back home in our village. I don't own a mobile phone. And even if I did, there is no network coverage anyway. So we simply couldn't hang out like before, causing me to miss her that much more," Nadia jokingly recalls, as both the girls giggled.

The journey from Dabong to Bukit Abu can take up to two hours, while in comparison, the train only takes half an hour.

The Krai-Tumpat-Krai intercity train service resumed operations on August 31, 2015. But the service did not extend to the Kemubu station as repairs to the rail link were still not complete. Both Nadia and Diana have aspirations, like most girls their age, though neither really have their true paths mapped out just yet. Diana says she wants to start working as soon as she finishes Form Six, as she wants to help support her family. With a straight face, she tells us that she is planning to join the police force. Nadia on the other hand wants to further her studies and become a nurse. Five minutes to five, the train headed to Bukit Abu arrives in Dabong. Nadia and Diana enter the same coach and sit together, like they always do. The resume their conversation, picking up where they left off at the stall earlier. From time to time, they stare out the window. During the coming year-end school holidays, they will be forced to part ways once again. But Nadia and Diana know their friendship, forged on the rail, will journey on. "As long as this train runs, we will surely meet," says Diana. "Or you could see about getting a telco tower set up in our village. Then we could Whatsapp each other every day!" says Nadia, to the laughter and delight of all their other friends.