Now, in that piece I did mentioned that there's an old man I met in Jorak who said that the place Olak as mentioned in the dream did not refer to Tanjung (cape of) Olak near Jorak but rather to another place called Olak Sepam nearer to Pagoh. Slightly just over a week ago, after spending much of the festive holidays of Hari Raya Aidilfitri at my parents' place in Muar, I got the urge to visit the tomb of Sultan Alauddin Riayat Shah (ruled Melaka 1477-1488) at Kampung Raja in Pagoh and here goes the story...
At the mosque besides the tomb, I met the local imam (appointed head of congregational prayers). I don't know how it actually came about but while talking to him about historical places related to Sultan Alauddin and his period, I suddenly remembered the dream about the hill which I have forgotten long.
Strangely, the imam without any hesitation immediately said that the hill in my dream is a hill which funnily is called Bukit (hill of) Sebabi! Huh? Came my sudden retort of reaction. Sebabi? I don't know what that means but Babi means pig! Any relation to that?
The imam just smiled. He said whatever, my dream referred to that hill. As it is near a place called Olak, or rather in this case Olak Sepam (there's only two places with the name Olak in Muar and the other, Tanjung Olak has already been ruled out as I've checked it out). And it is very near the Muar river.
He and another elder however cautioned me. The place is rather spooky. Few dared to venture anywhere inside even during daylight while I was about to make the trip quite close to dusk! But seeing how comfortable I was in coming to this mosque alone with the stated intention of visiting the tomb of Sultan Alauddin, the only known existing tomb of an ancient Melaka ruler, he was not surprised at my resolve to have a look.
And so there I was getting to the hill-top alone on my bike. I must admit, the place did felt very spooky. Then again, I've been to many spooky places. And in this case, I must have a look to make sure if the hill fits the one in my dream...
As it turned out, the whole hill-top was peppered with graves. Coupled with the rather thick foliage, it can be scary!
I went around to ascertain my position. That's when I saw the Muar river nearby. Now I could positively say this hill does fit into my dream. But I was still not satisfied so let's continue the story in another piece ya... :]
No comments:
Post a Comment