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This blogspot is a medium to share my thoughts and adventures apart from promoting my books. Below are the books which have been written or authored and published by myself.


"Berpetualang ke Aceh: Mencari Diri dan Erti".

ISBN 983-42031-0-1, Jun 2006


"Berpetualang ke Aceh: Membela Syiar yang Asal"

ISBN 983-42031-1-x, May 2007


"Berpetualang ke Aceh: Sirih Pulang ke Gagang?"

ISBN 978-983-42031-2-2, November 2007


It is interesting to note that while these books were written in Malay it has gained enough attention to merit being part of the collections of the American Library of Congress and National Library of Australia. Look here and here.


While the first three books were published by my own company, the fourth titled "Rumah Azan" was published in April 2009 by a company called Karnadya with the help of the Malaysian national literary body Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka. It features beautiful pictures along with stories behind selected mosques which could be related to the history of Islam and the Malays alongside the formation of the Malaysian nation. Look at the article A collaboration of old collegemates - the book "Rumah Azan".


My fifth book "Ahlul Bait (Family) of Rasulullah SAW and Malay Sultanates", an English translation and adaptation of the Malay book "Ahlul Bait (Keluarga) Rasulullah SAW dan Kesultanan Melayu" authored by Hj Muzaffar Mohamad and Tun Suzana Othman was published early 2010. Look here... My 5th book is out! Ahlul Bait (Family) of Rasulullah SAW and the Malay Sultanates... . For more information check out my Malay blogspot CATATAN SI MERAH SILU.



Like my fourth book "Rumah Azan", the sixth book "Kereta Api Menuju Destinasi" is also a coffee-table book which is published by the company Karnadya with the cooperation of Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (the main Malay literary body in Malaysia). Coming out January 2011 it features pictures and stories on the adventure travelling by train to all of Peninsular Malaysia along with the interesting places which could be reached this way.


My seventh book "Jejak keluarga Yakin : Satu sketsa sejarah" in turn is a coffee-table book which is written, editted, designed and has pictures taken by me. Coming out of the factory October 2011, this book which combines family history with history of places such as Singapura, Johor, Batu Pahat, Muar and in fact the history of the island of Java and England has been reviewed with me interviewed live in the program Selamat Pagi Malaysia at RTM1. Look at the article Siaran langsung ulasan buku "Jejak keluarga Yakin : Satu sketsa sejarah" dan temu ramah di Selamat Pagi Malaysia. Some selected contents have been featured in Sneak peek "Jejak keluarga Yakin : Satu sketsa sejarah".


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The "Berpetualang ke Aceh" series of novels could be obtained in e-book form. Enter http://www.e-sentral.com/, click general novel and go to page 4. You can also type the word "Aceh" at the search box. Or click straight Book 1, Book 2 and Book 3.


Friday, August 08, 2008

Revisiting the memories of my old school SMSJ...

OK. Sometime after completing the article A look at Melaka from the Taming Sari tower..., the second article written here for tonights session of writing, then I realised that is the 231th article in the blogspot. Coincidently at the time, I've just added two more articles in the blogspot SENI LAMA MELAYU (MALAY OLDEN ART) to make a total of 155 articles there while getting ready to post two for the blogspot CATATAN SI MERAH SILU to make the total there 383. That's when my weird sense of numbers wanted to me to create a following 'symetry', by adding one more article here to make it a total of 232. The question is about what...

I left the question a while to prepare for the coming article in CATATAN SI MERAH SILU . Then somehow I felt like making a Google search on a certain subject and found the blogspot http://sajoha.blogspot.com/ which happened to be the unofficial blogspot for my old school SMSJ (short form for Sekolah Menengah Sains Johor or Johor Science Secondary School), my alma mater more than 20 years ago! That's when I found and article there posted 1st August referring to my old articles written half a year ago on Kluang (the town where the school is situated at) and the school itself. Suffice to say, it is so refreshing to find some friendly comments from the old boys on my article although many of them came from different periods of schooling...

So that pushed me to have a look at the old articles. The ones on Kluang were from this blogspot, the titles being Reminiscing the teenage years in Kluang - Part 1 and Reminiscing the teenage years in Kluang - Part 2. The one on the school itself was written in the blogspot CATATAN SI MERAH SILU and the title is Memori lama pahit getir SMSJ, Kluang, Johor...

Here, let me republish the pictures from the article Memori lama pahit getir SMSJ, Kluang, Johor... ya. While the article itself is full of words as I reminisced what happened during my school days, here let us just have the pictures with brief descriptions for posterity. So here it is, while making the number of postings in this blogspot to the more 'symetrical' 232. Good night! :]


The small road off the main road leading to the school.




The schoolyard entrance.



The walkway heading to the school buildings.



A corner which used to be outside the school compounds when I was still studying here more than 20 years ago!


The building which houses the canteen next to the workshop for industrial studies.



A look from the top of the hill besides. The top of the hill used to be a jungle outside the compounds, now it is inside...


A look at the buildings housing the classes from the top of the hill.


A look at the top of the hill area from the sides...


Oh... There's a basketball court on top of the hill!


The back of the school's main hall...



Time to walk closer to the classes...



The canteen...


The nearest block of classes...


A look to the left shows the front of the main hall.


Then a walk besides the main sports field...




Hmm... There's a stadium-like theatre building besides, one of the new buildings built sometime after I'm out of school I guess...


A look to the left of the field shows the school's initial SMSJ and the initials for Kluang, KLG...


The dormitories building...


My old room is somewhere up there!


The girls' dormitories across with the food hall in-between...



A block of classes with walls which used to double as the 'screen' for the once-a-week or so movie shows for the students during weekends...


This used to be the main entrance more than 20 years ago...


Now the school-yard extends well beyond!


So much so that it is some 500 metres out to the current entrance...


And so it's time to leave. Do have a look at the old articles which actually lead to this visit to my old school at the end of 2007, in fact on 31st December, the last day of the year!

Reminiscing the teenage years in Kluang - Part 1

Reminiscing the teenage years in Kluang - Part 2

Bon voyage! :]


Thursday, August 07, 2008

A look at Melaka from the Taming Sari tower...

Continued from the article A visit to the zoo of Melaka... After I'm done at the zoo, it's time to go to the Melaka city centre. There lies a certain new tourist attraction, here it is! :]

OK. Right smack in Melaka's main historical area of Banda Hilir lies this new monument...

For information, here is the 100 metre-high Taming Sari tower built sometime this year, named after the famous keris (Malay wavy vlade) of Taming Sari said to be owned by the legendary warrior Hang Tuah more than five centuries ago. So what is this place? Well, it has a revolving floor which could climb from the bottom to top for people to savour the view!

Too bad, I forgot to take pictures of the revolving floor. Instead, here are some pictures taken from inside the revolving floor ya...

OK... It takes only about 30 seconds for the revolving floor to climb to just under the 100 metre mark. Here is a view towards the Melaka river mouth seen as the floor is about to reach the top...

And here is picture as the floor revolved clockwise and almost reach the 90 metre mark where it will stop climbing. Seen down there is the 'original' Melaka river mouth just next to the red-brick coloured warehouse looking building to the right of the ship...

Oh... Why is this ship sitting tight on dry land? For the record the ship which is a replica of a Western galleon (forgot whether it is Portuguese, Dutch or English. All three Western forces used to colonise Melaka) is the Melaka maritime museum. I don't known what the warehouse-looking building stands for. Perhaps it is just a warehouse? If I remember correctly the row of buildings overlooking the waterfront here used to be owned by the Customs Department.

OK... Why did I used the word 'original' Melaka river mouth in the top paragraph? Because it is the original river mouth! Until the area to the left was reclaimed creating a new river mouth some 500 metres further out to the sea...

Anyway here's a view of the Melaka town centre... The same one as I've seen since decades ago except for the addition of some new buildings...

As the floor revolved on, I decided to retrace a sight to the left again towards the waterfront... Situated within the rows of old shophouses seen down there are many historical monuments including old mosques with original buildings intact from the 1700s to some tombs belonging to significant personalities living in 15th to 17th Century AD!


Then I just followed where the rotation leads to. A view to the south and plenty of development made within the last 10 years or so...

As the floor rotates some 30 degrees more clockwise, one could see Melaka's famous island of Pulau Besar in the background. Do have a look at these recent articles on the island and another related one:-

A whirlwind tour of Pulau Besar in 2 hours or so...

Continuing the whirlwind tour of Pulau Besar in 2 hours or so...

Enough of Pulau Besar. Time to head back to the mainland and a stop at the Kampung Hulu mosque... To ponder the mystery of Sheikh Abdullah there!


Oh, by the way... The area you see in this picture are all part of the land reclaimed since some 15 years ago if I remember correctly.

If I remember correctly again, the land reclaimation project started when Tan Sri Rahim Tamby Chik was still the Chief Minister of Melaka (the state have change a few chief ministers since then). Hmm... That must be more like since 20 years ago!

Anyway if 20 years ago they were still trying to fill the area which was once part of the waters of the straits of Melaka with enough land, now the area is practically built up to the hilt. Why, they even built an island called Pulau Melaka as seen behind the tall building in this picture!

Ah! The new Melaka river mouth in the picture. Complete with a bridge cum highway, if not mistaken with the nama Jalan (road of) Sayyid Abdul Aziz, the name of a certain religious person said to have converted the first king of Melaka to Islam some 600 years ago!

Hmm... We have completed one full rotation as we looked at the part of the Melaka river 'extension' connecting the original river mouth to the new one. Oh, also in the picture, to the far left up is an island called Pulau Upih said be a prominent centre for Islamic learning due to the presence of some saintly personalities centuries ago!

And so, another look at the city centre... By the way, the red buildings below are the historical buildings built by the Dutch after capturing Melaka from the Portuguese in the year 1641.

Seen in this picture is the main hill of Melaka city centre, the hill known as St. Paul hill. I personally don't like the name as it is given by the Portuguese colonisers. I'm sure it has an original name in Malay, perhaps Bukit Melaka or the hill of Melaka as I understand before the Portuguese conquered the city in 1511, the hill used to house the Melaka Sultanate palace on top, the Melaka main mosque near the slopes and the Melaka royal mausoleum at the foothills.

Anyway, the hill used to be situated very near the sea. For the record the main street you see down here used to be coastline before the reclaimation works started some 20 years ago. On the other hand, the building the the left with the rather huge circular part stood on a large opening, a field called Padang Merdeka (field of independence). Because that's where the former Malaysian Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman annouced the date for the indepence of the Federation of Malay states more than 50 years ago, the states which eventually became Malaysia!

Here's a last look from the floor just before it starts descending back down. Just look at the shadow of the tower... You could see the shadow of the floor too mushrooming on top. Cheers! :]

A visit to the zoo of Melaka...

I've always love to go to the zoo. What about you? Well last weekend after two nights in Gemas, I decided to go to Melaka just for fun. Along the way to the Melaka city centre, I passed the area of Ayer Keroh. As the Melaka zoo is there and the last time I went there was probably 20 years ago, I decided to pay a visit. Here are some pictures taken there... Come! :]

Frankly there's quite a lot to be seen here at the zoo but I didn't take much pictures. In fact at first I don't want to take any picture, until I saw this owl inside a cage. I always found owls looking quite funny with their big eyes staring!

Then there's this animal, can't remember the name. I think it's a type of marmoset. Whatever, it's not a monkey, it's a marsupial...

Now this is a monkey, a type of it... Well almost, because it's only the remains... The skull of an orang-utan. Haha! Don't you just love the way it looks and smile, haha! :]

Oh... These are the animals at the zoo's part of safari...
Just outside this safari is an observation tower...

A look from on top to the food and drink stalls nearby...
A look towards the city centre...

And then a look towards the safari itself...

Here is the Malay wild ox called seladang... Pretty fierce animal this is, twice or three times the size of the biggest regular ox!

While it can be fierce looking, on hindsight the seladang can look rather endearing. Enough of the pictures from the zoo, let's move on...