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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, May 22, 2009

The new mangrove walk at Tanjung Ketapang, Muar

Last weekend I returned to my native town of Muar, Johor. While visiting the recreational area of Tanjung Ketapang at the southern tip of the Muar river mouth, I came across this...


This is the new mangrove walk made from concrete to replace a wooden one 100 metres to the left which have long been destroyed by the elements. The last time I returned to Muar half a year ago, there were only a few piles of sand here. Now this walk looked rather complete.


So I decided to take a walk...

There's even a nice concrete hut around...


This mangrove swamp area is famous for its high population of roaming wild monkeys. You could see more during feeding time...



The swamp itself is something to look at. A walk like this provides many interesting angles as you can go deep inside the mangrove swamp...




I like this view as we head towards the sea...





There, another look at the same view...



Then let's go towards the end...



For the first time ever in my almost 39 years of life, about half of it growing up in Muar, I saw the waters around from this part of the area. For the record, this is the straits of Melaka just outside the Muar river. I've never ever been this far across the swamp before... thanks to the new walk which extends far beyond the old wooden walk.



And here's a view looking inland. Good night! :]

Remembering the "A" Level college days. The "scandal" with Ann, my dear sweet Ann...

I don't know what picture to be used for this article, so I made a Google image search using the keywords "Scandals Bukit Bintang" and found this.


Continuing from Remembering the "A" Level college days. My dear sweet Ann... And so I ran up the girls' dormitory at the "A" Level college because I was tired of waiting for Ann to come down. As it turned out, Ann was just about to finish preparing for our next outing. However the other girls inside the room panicked, especially a certain girl which seemed to have a certain bone against me since some time following an argument we had.

The girl started screaming out her lungs. I stayed cool and just asked Ann to move fast. Then I heard someone coming from behind. From the top of the staircase, I could see that it was the college guards.

I had no choice except to enter the girls room and exit from the back staircase. Suffice to say I managed to outrun the guards and safely got into the car waiting in front outside, the car containing my mates ready for our next outing to the discos.

Now, I couldn't remember how we managed to fetch Ann through all the confusion. But soon enough she was safely with me and we headed for Bukit Bintang, the destination being me and my mates' favourite disco Scandals at the back of KL Plaza.

Hmm... actually I'm getting tired of writing but have to finish the story anyway. So let me rush you all through it ya. Forgive me if there's any hole in the story.

As usual in the disco, I immediately headed for the dance floor. Normally this would be the start of my proper seducing ritual for whoever girl that was with me at the moment but with Ann, I felt a certain warmth which I couldn't remember experiencing with any other girl before. This feeling became more pronounced as the floor shifted mood to slow dance music. That's when we started hugging closely and I thought to myself, hey... I could get used to this. I remember telling my buddy Nash about it the following morning. His answer was something like this (I forgot the actual words) : "This could be the start of a beautiful relationship".

He was right. I began to get very close to Ann and started to forget other girls. What more, the following few weeks, we had to work together to correct a certain perception the authorities were trying to force on us.

You see, that night, after I ran out of the girls dorm, the guards came up looking for me at my room 51C. That's when they caught my room-mates in the midst of conducting our then much-vaunted radio broadcast (have a look at the article Remembering the "A" Level college days. The radio station at 51C ). I was only hauled up for questioning the following day (or was it the next few days?). While I did make the mistake of going inside the girls dorm, the college authorites were trying to book me for having an illicit affair with Ann. What?

It seemed that was the main thing on their mind. Maybe because I was considered one of the bad apples there? Maybe. As it is, I had already been booked in the students' court at least three time for some offences including refusing to attend classes for prolonged periods. Since I had the tendency to rebel and cause trouble, they surmised that after I entered the girls dorm, I took Ann somewhere and did something to her. In other words, some thought we slept together somewhere and that is definitely a big offence in college and a much bigger offence in Islam.

What actually happened was we were at Scandals until 4 am or so. Then I can't remember if we went to any other disco but we and the guys did have an early morning breakfast, I think it was in Bangsar or so. Then we hanged out somewhere, maybe at a public park waiting for daylight to appear as that is when we can sneak back into our dorms without raising suspicion. But we can't tell the authorities that we were at the discos as this itself was a big offence.

Suffice to say we managed to wriggle our way out of a bigger punishment after being subjected to the students' court... with the help of Ann's sister and her boyfriend who suggested that we stick to the story that we spent the night at their family place, and they were ready to testify for us. Still I had to pay a hefty fine, if not mistaken about RM250. What happened actually made me closer to Ann and for a while I actually felt really happy sticking to one girl.

We had a happy relationship that actually lasted for more than 3 months. Why, once I even visited her home in Johor and met her mum! But being the ungrateful person that I was, I soon started missing attention from other girls. This lead to our break up and it was only many years later did I realised what a big mistake I have made. That's it ya... :]