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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.


Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Tangkak, the textile town!

Continuing from A quick trip up Gunung Ledang... I got out of the jungles of the mountain and reached the main road way after 6pm. This means, there's no chance of me getting a bus to Tangkak.
So there I was waiting at the sides, waving my thumb in the air once in a while in the hope of getting a hitchike from the quite a number of vehicles plying the route from Segamat... No luck, they just wouldn't stop...

Luckily a taxi came and stopped. I had to pay a bit of course but not much. The main thing is I reached Tangkak before dusk...


This means I have enough time and light to catch fairly good pictures with the cheap digital camera I got. The interesting (and rather strange for me!) thing about Tangkak is the amount of textile it got...


A look towards Gunung Ledang...

Otherwise, what features are the textile shops...


One after another...


More and more...

So what's the deal with Tangkak being a textile town? Frankly I have no idea... I remember the times I went past the town to get to Gunung Ledang just after my school days more than 20 years ago and it was not like this... I remember plying the same route a few times after graduating from London and returned to Malaysia in 1995 and I'm sure I don't notice any development related to textiles.

Perhaps I missed the fact as often my eyes are set on just the beautiful peaks of Gunung Ledang whenever around. All I know is, I was already working as a journalist with The New Straits Times ( I started in 1996) when I came across newspaper articles saying Tangkak is the TEXTILE CAPITAL OF MALAYSIA! And when I mentioned this to some friends, they were already hatching plans on making a day trip to Tangkak for some shopping. Apparently they've known about this for some time...

What? How did this came around? What did I miss? Furthermore, how did Tangkak turned out like that? As far as I'm concerned, except for it's vicinity to Gunung Ledang, Tangkak is in the middle of nowhere.... There's no ports around, no textile factories, so how did it become the main textile retail centre in the whole of Malaysia? How did it manage to sell textiles from as far as China and India, even Europe at an unbeatably cheap price? How?

I tried to google old articles on the matter. Apparently there's many kept and refered to (I'm not sure which is the correct spelling, refered or referred as both have millions of listings when googled...) by some Websites but too bad, they're incomplete because the full articles are lost within the eletronic archives of the newspapers, accesible perhaps only to its staff. The only bits I could find repeat the same gist: "The town of Tangkak is known as the ‘Textile Town’ of Malaysia, offering prices that are substantially lower than those in other cities. The range of fabrics and upholstery are endless, with some being produced locally while others being imported from Asian countries and Europe." I guess that should speak volumes by itself.


Whatever, I decided to spend the night in Tangkak. This is a picture of Gunung Ledang (again?) from the reasonably cheap hotel I stayed at...



I checked out at noon and walked around. A look at the police station...


The main road leading to Muar, aptly known as Jalan Muar, of course...


The older parts of Tangkak. I always find such wooden shops alluring...


Who says wooden shop don't have style... I like this shop selling religious books and such...


And finally, a look along the five-foot walk of the wooden shoprow.

Soon enough, I walked out towards the bus station and immediately got a bus to Melaka which was on its way out. I guess this ends the Johor stories. A reflection on what happened from Segamat to Muar and including a thought or two on the trips to Gunung Ledang and Tangkak will be made later in blogspot CATATAN SI MERAH SILU . Go enjoy life... Cheers!

p/s: This should be my 155th posting in this blogspot.... Yeay!!!

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