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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.


Saturday, December 11, 2010

Fascination with rivers - the East Coast



The East Coast is one of my favourite area when I needed to escape from troubles and find fresh perspective. I've lost track of how many times I've been up the major cities and towns mainly Kuantan in Pahang, Kuala Terengganu in Terengganu and Kota Bahru in Kelantan. These parts also have some of the most outstanding rivers around. Do take note that the Pahang river is the longest in Peninsular Malaysia.




22. Sungai Rompin

The coastal parts of Pahang south of Pekan are quite alien to me. Nevertheless I have passed these parts at least once and that was 13 years ago. I've visited the small town of Kuala Rompin and its river Sungai Rompin. Whatever this is the main river of Pahang between Pekan and the Johor border which is marked by the Endau river (listed under Fascination with rivers - the South.


23. Sungai Pahang

This is the main river of Pahang and the longest in Peninsular Malaysia. To do justice to the length and extensiveness of the Sungai Pahang one should try to explore it up to its two major sources, one being the area of Cameron Highlands at the main range Banjaran Titiwangsa. Here I have featured one of its tributaries which has two well-known waterfall near the Highlands' town of Tanah Rata in two separate articles. The fact that it flows down into the river called Sungai Jelai should help connect the dots along the line...

Parit Falls...

Views around Tanah Rata

Foray to idyllic Kuala Medang in Pahang...

The mouth of the Lipis river... the place where Kuala Lipis began

Kuala Tembeling, the doorway to Taman Negara...

A look at the Pahang river estuary and what's around... The southern part that is...

Now, a look at the northern parts of the Pahang river estuary...


24. Sungai Kuantan

The river of Kuantan provides a nice water-front to the town.

From Pekan to Kuantan... The East Coast journey continues...



25. Sungai Kemaman

The first wide river of Terengganu you'd come across on the way from Pahang

A look around Kemaman, Terengganu...

Pictures around Kemaman


26. Sungai Dungun

I've included this in the list to remind me that I should feature it next time I came around. Sure I have been there many times impressed by the fairly wide river. But I just can't find pictures of it in my personal collection and as turn out I've never made and article on it.


27. Sungai Terengganu

Somehow I'm enamoured of this river as much as I do with Sungai Muar (see Fascination with rivers - South). So like that on the latter I do have a number of articles on it starting with one on Tasik Kenyir, the lake formed when upriver Terengganu and its tributaries started to be contained by dams.

Enter Tasik Kenyir, the largest man-made lake in Malaysia!

A look at Kuala Berang...

Views from Pulau Duyung, Terengganu...

Views from Pulau Duyong, Kuala Terengganu

A boat ride across the river Terengganu from Pulau Duyong

View of Kuala Terengganu from 14 floors up... Or is it 15 or 13? Never mind, just enjoy the view...


28. Sungai Besut

The last major Terengganu river before we enter Kelantan.

Views from the bridge at Kuala Besut


29. Sungai Tok Bali

A rather vertical bridge crossing the widest parts of the river made this Kelantan gem very memorable.

From Kuala Besut on to Tok Bali...

Views around the high bridge of Tok Bali, Kelantan


30. Sungai Kelantan

The main river of Kelantan. Enough said.

Gua Musang to Dabong

Kelantan river around Kok Majid...

Kelantan river around Kok Majid... Part 2 that is...

Kuala Besar, the mouth of the Kelantan river...


Fascination with rivers - the South

OK. Time to add more sections for the current river articles. Continued from Fascination with rivers - the Middle West Coast.



Next we move to the south, mainly the states of Melaka, Negeri Sembilan and Johor. Having been born in Muar, Johor in 1970 and lived in the state until I moved out upon reaching the age of 18 it is natural that I have a liking for these parts of the world. I'm also very familiar with Melaka and Negeri Sembilan as it lies not so far from Muar. Besides, since small I often go to Selangor and the Klang Valley and these states happened to be on the way...





Despite that, the truth is my familiarity with rivers to the south is actually very limited. My interest lies mainly with Sungai Muar as it is the river I grew up with. Once in a while I get fascinated by Sungai Kesang which forms the border between Johor and Melaka, also the Melaka river itself especially since it has been cleaned the last two decades to be turned into a major tourist attraction. In the last 3-4 years only did I discovered the beauty of Sungai Linggi which forms the border between Negeri Sembilan and Melaka and it is only last year that I appreciated Sungai Johor despite the fact that I first saw its vastness while going on a solo round Peninsular Malaysia bike trip 13 years ago.


13. Sungai Linggi

This is the most important waterway in Negeri Sembilan. It seems almost all rivers in the state west of the main mountain range of Banjaran Titiwangsa flows into Sungai Linggi before getting into open waters of the Straits of Melaka.

Interlude: A visit to Kuala Linggi...


14. Sungai Melaka

Despite it being not so long and wide, the popularity of this river seems to match the likes of the River Thames in London and River Seine in Paris at least in Malaysia. I remembered brushing aside the river as a filthy dumpyard when I was growing up, at times following my parents shopping in Melaka. But the last 2 decades saw major transformations turning it into a beautiful major tourist attraction.

Melaka river cruise at night

The watergate sytem of the river Melaka


15. Sungai Kesang

You might have passed and overlook this river in your way down south or back. My advice, took your sweet time to veer into the old Muar-Melaka trunk road and you'd appreciate it as a beauty in itself. Better still find the rural road to the estuary and you'll find views quite interesting and rewarding...

Mouth of the Kesang river


16. Sungai Muar

The beauty of Sungai Muar goes without saying not because I grew up around it. Rather it is one of the major rivers of Malaysia with its upriver parts extending into the heart of Negeri Sembilan, the side east to Banjaran Titiwangsa that is. It has history which at times sound romantic. Just have a look at what I've featured so far...

A look at Talang Dam, the most upstream part of the Muar river...

Where Muar river meets Jempol in Negeri Sembilan...

Views from on top of Muar town...

Muar river cruise part I...

Muar river cruise part II...

Muar river cruise part III


17. Sungai Batu Pahat

Another river I've often passed by when I was small going to areas further south. But it is only in the last few years that I finally saw where it drains out...

The origin of Batu Pahat...


18. Sungai Johor

The could be the widest river in Peninsular Malaysia if not all of Malaysia. Just look at these articles...

The immensely wide Johor river - Views from the jetty at Johor Lama...

The immensely wide Johor river - Views from Kampung Johor Lama...

The immensely wide Johor river - Views from Teluk Sengat...


19. Sungai Sedili

I've just noticed that this river in the district of Kota Tinggi is a major river in these parts, after realising that I forgot to give attention to the rivers on the east coast of Johor. I have been here at least once. God willing I will go here again and feature it in a future article.


20. Sungai Mersing

Mersing is THE major town of Johor's east coast. This gateway to the beautiful resort island of Pulau Tioman also has a beautiful river which gave it its name.

Smelling the sea in Mersing...


21. Sungai Endau

This river forms the natural border between the states of Johor and Pahang. Like Sungai Sedili I have also been here at least once and hope to come again and feature it here soon.


Fascination with rivers - the Middle West Coast




Perak and Selangor are grouped together for this subsection. These parts of the world are so often visited by me that I lost count many years ago. While I was born and raised in Muar, Johor where my mum originated from, my dad was born in Teluk Intan, Perak and still have many relatives around. Even then I rarely went to Perak until reaching the age of 31 and learning about how my father's ancestry has shaped my inner self all this while. Since then I have been to Perak many many times especially to trace roots and other relevant matters.

As for Selangor, on paper I became a Selangorian when I decided to register my father's Kajang house address on my identity card taken upon reaching 18. It was a house my father bought and stayed at when he was working in Kuala Lumpur 1983 to 2000 or so and I actually stayed there in my early years working as a journalist with the New Straits Times. At one time I stayed at an uncle's place in Ampang before getting married again only to move to another part of Selangor. So it should not come as a surprise if I have abundant materials on both states. Furthermore their Sultanates have very close relationship since the first Sultan of Selangor was installed with the blessings of a Sultan of Perak almost 3 centuries ago.




6. Sungai Beruas

While this river does fascinate me mainly because of historical value, I forgot to give it enough credit by making articles dedicated to it. I do have pictures of the river from a few points but it was scattered as part of other stories. God willing I will give it more attention in the future. So for now you have to settle for this...

Looking for Beruas river estuary behind the hills of Segari

7. Sungai Dinding

In contrast to Sungai Beruas, Sungai Dinding especially around Lumut is practically a superstar. Its astounding width made it hard to miss and these articles should give a taste. I just need to feature the smaller upriver parts when I do have the time and opportunity to visit those parts again.

The river Dinding from its bridge

Lumut from Damar Laut

Views from the ferry crossing Sungai (river of) Dinding...

Views at Sungai Sepit

And now a look around Lumut...


8. Sungai Perak

Attention to Sungai Perak, the main river of this state goes without saying. Apart from having an astoundingly large estuary, this longest river in the Peninsular's West Coast stays quite wide very far upriver. Besides there are around 30 deceased Sultans of Perak buried along it...

The bridges across the Perak river at Kuala Kangsar

Mouth of Sayong river and the palace of Bukit Chandan

Visiting the mystical island of Pulau Semat

Looking for the tombs of Sultan Shahabuddin and Sultan Iskandar Zulkarnain...

Confluence of 3 rivers in Teluk Intan...

The Perak river from Hujung Rintis...

Perak river from Kayan...

The Perak river mouth at Bagan Datoh


9. Sungai Bernam

This is another mighty river that merits attention. Though not as mighty as the Perak river its downriver parts are almost as wide and astounding. It's just I first took notice of it at Tanjung Malim which is a long distance from its estuary near Sabak Bernam. This natural border between the states of Perak and Selangor might be 6 metres or so wide at Tanjung Malim but downriver a few bends after Sabak Bernam it is almost a kilometre wide and stays that way for 13 km before reaching the estuary.

Recent views of Tanjung Malim and around

Looking for the Selangor-Perak connection along the Bernam river

River Bernam from Kampung Kota

The river Bernam from Sabak Bernam

Bernam river at Hutan Melintang...

The Bernam river from Sungai Air Tawar


10. Sungai Selangor

The river that gives the state of Selangor its name... or was it the other way around? Never mind, that should give enough idea of its importance. Not as big as Sungai Bernam or Sungai Perak but still wide enough at least near the town of Kuala Selangor to give awe.

A look at the Sungai Selangor dam and catchment

A look at the Selangor river near Batang Berjuntai...

A look at the Sungai (river of) Selangor...

The fireflies at Kampung Kuantan

Taking in the catch at Kuala Selangor

Bukit Melawati by 'train'...

Kuala Selangor Nature Park - The Selangor river mouth at last!


11. Sungai Klang

About as big as Sungai Selangor but given more importance due to the existence of Malaysia's main ports near its mouth apart from the fact that it flows through the city of Kuala Lumpur. I have seen the parts in the city perhaps thousands of times due to the fact that I've spent years staying in the Klang Valley. I have seen the wide parts near the city of Klang maybe tens of times but could have seen more if not for the fact that I try not to go there more often because of its often bad traffic condition. But all in all I never took enough pictures or make stories about it. Perhaps I have taken it for granted and need to make amends... will do one day.

Note: The first piece on this river, Kelang river at Kuala Lumpur city centre was finally made 25 Jan 2011.


12. Sungai Langat

A main river of Selangor and very charming too. Enough said...
























Paragliding at Bukit (hill of) Jugra


Fascination with rivers - the North East Coast

Continuing from Fascination with rivers - Intro.




OK. Let me group the states of Kedah, Perlis and Pulau Pinang together. Besides they are best known as the northern states of Malaysia. To be more specific (as one could argue parts of Kelantan and Terengganu as being north of the Peninsular, in fact Sabah is even further up north albeit at the most extreme east of Malaysia), let the states be grouped under the subsection North East Coast. It is interesting to note that both Perlis and Pulau Pinang used to be parts of Kedah before becoming separate states in the years 1840s and 1780s respectively.






I have been up north many times, perhaps more than 20 times but often only up to Pulau Pinang. Of these trips fewer were made up to Alor Setar, Kedah and even fewer all the way to Perlis, the northenmost state in Malaysia. Hmm... perhaps I should extend my words below the respective links...


1. Sungai Perlis

Like I've said before I've been all the way up to Perlis only a number of times. Let me try to recall. OK, If memory serves me right the first time I went to this smallest state of Malaysia was while riding my big bike alone all around Peninsular Malaysia in 1997. I remembered parking my bike behind a shoplot somewhere on the jetty of Kuala Perlis before taking a ferry to Langkawi, I also remembered riding to the northwest-most point of Perlis only to look with my own eyes where the Thai border meets the sea.

Between 1997 to 2007 I could have gone to Perlis 2-3 times but I really couldn't remember well. After 2001 was a period of much uncertainty in my life when I travelled all over Peninsular Malaysia many times without much thought. I'm more certain of the trips from 2007 because I have started blogging then and wrote down stuff. There's the one in 2007 where I took a ferry to Langkawi via Kuala Kedah only to return to the mainland via Kuala Perlis.

There's also a working trip in Dec 2008 where I brought my then newly-wedded second wife and another working trip all the way to Hatyai by train in May 2010. In fact I went again bringing the wife and our then 10-month-old baby by car in August where I paid more attention to the state's main river, Sungai Perlis. But I have yet to post stories on this one. So at the moment be contented with this one small article ya...

Perlis in one day!


2. Sungai Kedah

I should have paid more attention to this river which is named after the state but I only did so in the most recent trip in August. So again, at this juncture just be contented what could be seen in an article...

Views on top Alor Setar's telecommunication tower...


3. Sungai Merbok

I must admit that I only started taking notice of rivers up north when I first arrived at Tanjung Dawai, a small town at the northern banks of the Merbok river estuary Jan 2007. The main river of olden Kedah, it has one of the biggest and widest estuaries I've ever seen anywhere. It's just that I should have also taken notice of its upriver parts such as near Sungai Petani. Although I've seen those parts including that closest to the source at the foot of the mountain Gunung Jerai I took too few pictures when I should have taken enough to be made into articles fit for this fascination of rivers.

Incursion to Tanjung Dawai

A look at Pantai Merdeka, Kedah...


4. Sungai Muda

The river of Muda which forms the natural state boundary between Kedah and Pulau Pinang only caught my attention when I learned that the fishermen village there suffered from the Tsunami which had wrecked havoc in extensives parts of Asia, even Africa 26th December 2006. I finally had a look about a month later but as it turned out the Penang side was not so badly affected. It was the Kedah side that took the brunt and I only went there in the August 2010 northern trip.

The Penang part of Kuala Muda


5. Sungai Kerian

The natural border between the states of Kedah and Perak since Pulau Pinang was still a part of Kedah, I have passed it many many times when travelling up north. But I only took notice of it when using a rural route in the August trip and will feature it in an article later.


Note: First article for this river, Sungai Kerian, the natural border between Perak and Kedah added 25 Jan 2011.


Fascination with rivers - Intro



Peace be upon you all. It has been 2 weeks since I made the last posting here Tribute to the August Brunei trip. But if you watch closely you would notice that I've changed a bit of this blogspot's layout and added some materials on the sidebar. In fact in the last 4 days I've been working very hard to make all my three blogspots more interesting and past articles easier to access within what I believe should be the right framework, easy to access and follow for anyone.

The process demands that I also make a number of new articles. While I've added some in the other two blogspots I have yet to do one here. It happened that for a while I wanted to make a section called "Fascination with rivers" at this blogspot's sidebar using relevant past articles. While I'm at it why not present the materials first as new articles with contents which then could be easily rearranged to be slotted into the sidebar?

So without much further ado, let me introduce the concept. The idea is to gather old articles on rivers I have featured directly or indirectly here and let it be arranged anti-clockwise following the coastline of Peninsular Malaysia starting from the north. Should there be more than one article on any river then I would try to arrange the links starting with those on the upriver parts down to the estuary which should conform to the coastline lay-out. So here's a list of rivers (called sungai in Malay) to be featured.

After this I will release materials and links based on sections to be called, North West Coast, Middle West Coast, South and the East Coast. You can match the list with the map above. Open the picture in another window for a better look...


North West Coast (Perlis, Kedah, Pulau Pinang)


1. Sungai Perlis

2. Sungai Kedah

3. Sungai Merbok

4. Sungai Muda

5. Sungai Kerian


Middle West Coast (Perak and Selangor)


6. Sungai Beruas

7. Sungai Dinding

8. Sungai Perak

9. Sungai Bernam

10. Sungai Selangor

11. Sungai Klang

12. Sungai Langat


South (Negeri Sembilan, Melaka, Johor)


13. Sungai Linggi

14. Sungai Melaka

15. Sungai Kesang

16. Sungai Muar

17. Sungai Batu Pahat

18. Sungai Johor

19. Sungai Sedili

20. Sungai Mersing

21. Sungai Endau


East Coast (Pahang, Terengganu, Kelantan)


22. Sungai Rompin

23. Sungai Pahang

24. Sungai Kuantan

25. Sungai Kemaman

26. Sungai Dungun

27. Sungai Terengganu

28. Sungai Besut

29. Sungai Tok Bali

30. Sungai Kelantan