From Segamat to Muar, a stop around the village of Tenang

OK... Time to continue the storytelling here after a lapse of 10 days. My last posting here, Reminiscing the teenage years in Kluang - Part 3 and last... was actually continued the same day but in the Malay blogspot CATATAN SI MERAH SILU . After Kluang, I went to the district of Segamat. So the continuation is called Segar yang amat sangat di Segamat... Ya ke? . Do click and have a look...

In Segamat, despite the invitation of some new acquaintances to spend the night at either one of their houses, I chose to stay at a certain mosque. Perhaps I just like to spend the night alone, perhaps I chose the location because of what's available across it. To find out what is there, read the story Makam-makam lama di (The old tombs at) Lubok Batu, Segamat... in the blogspot SENI LAMA MELAYU (MALAY OLDEN ART) .

This article began with what happened the following morning. My host in Segamat, Khairul decided to join me for the trip back to my hometown Muar. After all there's many places along the way he would like to visit with me showing the way. But first, breakfast with the new acquaintances.

Now, his friend Razman kept talking about a certain deceased man in his native village of Kampung Tenang. So I decided to pay a visit at the tomb of the man... Here's the story...

Some 20km south-east of the town of Segamat, still within the Segamat district though lies a village called Kampung Tenang. Now don't mistake this with a place of similar name Tenang which lies on the route from Segamat to Labis. To reach the Kampung Tenang in question, one have to go to Labis and then take the small road east heading for the mountains.

Here lies a Muslim cemetery with the tomb of the said deceased person. Known simply as Tok Tenang, the building above the tomb should signify that he must be a person of some importance.

Razman obviously have such high regards for Tok Tenang... So much so that he talked about the person with a certain tone aimed to impress, he probably missed the fact that I've travelled, visited, in fact in some places slept at tombs of persons much more acclaimed and well-known. Never mind that... I'm here not to compare the status of such persons. It's just I have high respect for those believed to have achieved saintly status and Tok Tenang is said to be one such person.

Razman kept telling how miracles happened around the place because of the karamah (saintly miracles) of Tok Tenang. He said Tok Tenang is related to the Perlis royal family.

If I remember correctly, Razman told how once the King of Perlis (used to be the Yang di Pertuan Agong) came all the way to visit Kampung Tenang and see the descendants of Tok Tenang. But the King was scolded because he forgot to take off his shoes when entering the house. That to Razman shows the high status of Tok Tenang and his family.

I don't doubt it as I know many cases of members of some old royal families, king's to be, some even former kings who left their throne to start a new life elsewhere. Whatever their reason, they tend to go somewhere far and hid their true identity, only to live a life like a common peasant. But then there's always people who knew their true status. That's why some of this so-called "unknown in the wilderness" are given respect like royals by those who knew...

Now, I don't really know who is Tok Tenang. Suffice to say this plaque at the tomb shows his name as Tuan Sheikh (as in the venerable holy teacher) Ariffin bin... (sorry I can't make out the father, have a look yourself) who died in the year 1274 Hijriah.

The plaque also said he opened Kampung Tenang on the 22 Ramadhan of 1221 Hijriah. That is equivalent to the year 1806 AD. Although the Hijriah lunar year is shorter than the Gregorian year by about 10 days or so, the year in question is still equivalent to more than 200 years ago... So you could say Tok Tenang lived from 18th till 19th century AD.

Came the time to leave the cemetery... Khairul at the car...

He insisted we visited another place not far from the cemetery...

Not far but still a few kilometres away and going inside the jungle. At one point, we had to leave the car and walk as the bridge had collapsed and was under repair. Luckily we had to walk less than 1km before arriving at this point.

So what is this place? Can you read the board? It is a recreational jungle known as Hutan Lipur Taka Melor or the Taka Melor recreational jungle...

Khairul insisted we went here as he liked to show me what's there. Soon enough I got a glimpse of what's available...

Ah... The waterfall is sure alluring. I just can't help sampling a bit of the delight!

At first I thought I just went to dip my feet only. What happened, I ended up dipping my whole body in this rather deep waters with my trousers on as I don't bring any shorts!

Then again, perhaps I was meant to do this... You see, when we arrived at the place where the bridge collapse, I decided it would be better if Khairul turned the car the other way around before we park. What happened then was the car got stuck in mud and I had to go out to push it while he enter the gears.

That's when the mud got spurted into me and my clothing... I guess that gave me the excuse for dipping my whole body inside the waters, hehe!

Then it's time to leave the whole place designated under the name Kampung Tenang...

Oh, forgot to tell... To get to Kampung Tenang, you have to pass the comboy town of Pekan Air Panas, literally translated as the village of hot water. Why is it called that? The picture below should give a clue...

True enough, there are hot water geyzers here, now turned into proper pools for tourism. So without the need for much persuasion (or any actually!) I went there and of course took a dip. After the rather cold water at Taka Melor, what better way to get my body going than to have a dip in the hot waters of Ayer Panas? No need to be a rocket scientist to figure that out!

Soon enought, it's time to leave the district of Segamat... The junction in the picture, on the Segamat to Yong Peng road, is headed for Muar through Bukit Kepong. The story will be continued in the blogspot CATATAN SI MERAH SILU

To get a better idea of where we are, have a look at the map below nicked from some government website, hehe!... See what I meant when I said don't mistake Kampung Tenang for another place called Tenang on the Segamat to Labis route? Too bad this map don't show the location of Kampung Tenang.. It should be somewhere on the east of Pekan Ayer Panas towards the Pahang border while the junction shown above is right at the southern end of Labis town heading towards Muar as could be seen in the map. Cheers! :]