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Kuala Pilah is a town and district in
Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. Commonly called Pilah by the mainly Malay
Minangkabau inhabitants, it is also the name of a district. It is an old
valley town with many of the pre-war Chinese shop houses still fronting
the main streets surrounded by traditional style Malay village houses
built on stilts nestled among extensive rice fields. Among the local
specialties are Minangkabau food, including masak lemak cili api and
daging salai masak kicap.
Kuala Pilah town itself is a main stopover for transport routes. It has a
sizable Chinese community that has existed since the mining days during
the early British rule. This community today engage in trading and
providing essential services such as workshops, hairdressing and coffee
shops.
On the main road is a Chinese-styled arch dedicated to Martin Lister, who
was the first British Resident of
Negeri Sembilan, commemorating his effort in ending the intermittent
violent conflict between Chinese secret societies then rampant among the
migrant Chinese populace. Lister was killed by his enemies in the nearby
hills at Ulu Bendul. The old Kuala Pilah Rest house was a government built
rest house during the British occupation. In the early years, rest houses
were the only available hotels and where everyone from businessmen to
travellers stayed. Today it still serves this purpose, albeit in a
diminished capacity due to the availability of alternative accommodation.
It is a small town. A police station situated nearby the Pejabat Tanah dan
Daerah and next to it was TNB office and also a Kuala Pilah District
Masjid close to each other. There's a new District Hospital named Hospital
Daerah Tuanku Najihah, at the main road towards
Seremban.
Weekends are busy usually those from
Kuala Lumpur folks returning
to their home town, visiting their parents, tending to family plots, where
around the area is mostly Malays that migrated to
Kuala Lumpur in search of
better prospects and 'the bright lights'.
The town is quite empty at night as most of the shops close as early as
7.00 pm daily. But early mornings are busy as there were workers and
residents staying nearby going to work at government offices such as
hospitals, district offices, schools, an UiTM branch nearby.
Sources: Wikipedia
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