Johor Coastal Trip 1

Map of penisnsular Malaysia. The black trace is the route we took to travel coastal road Johor for 11 days for 2,000 km.

It was quite a long break from my blogging. Today I am trying to regain my enthusiasm writing this blog. I have so much to write about my interesting and enchanting trip around Johor through coastal road with Najidah. I enjoyed her company as she is a good navigator and remembered things that I forgot. After an 11 day driving around Johor and immediately continued with supervising internship students, really sapped my energy. I need to just lepak but I need to write my experience and observation before things go out of my memory box. You see, this memory box is getting smaller by the day, ha, ha.

It has been my wish for quite a while to see what my country has to offer. I have visited many local places and enjoyed them but it was done in bits and pieces. My retirement from Unimas gave me the opportunity to plan my exploration of each state with company like Najidah and Sharipah Rohani. Only those who are really keen to tavel will enjoy these missions. So far, I have cleared road trip from KL to Perlis with Najidah but will do it again exploring state by state in detail. The second trip was to Kelantan through Gua Musang with Sharipah Rohani and I have the intention to go into visiting specific state such as Kelantan again. This third trip is Johor.

How do I feel about my country, Malaysia? I am proud of my spectacular country but sad and angry at the same time. Sad and angry that the people do not fully realize how lucky they are living in this rich, peaceful country and they try so very hard to destroy the peace and harmony by being ungrateful, rude and greedy. I am disgusted at the political scene and the kurang ajar behaviour of so called concerned citizens who are bent at destroying the country's harmony. For the Malays, we are weak because we are divided and the Chinese and the Indians use this to exploit the situation. Now is the time for all of us to rally together putting aside our political differences. Together is strength. To my young Malay students, please be aware of this because you are going to be the leaders of tomorrow.

I am so sad and angry at the selfish attitude of irresponsible peole who blatantly littered, damaged and defaced facilities provided for the public. Malaysians are educated people but their behaviour is like savages. I have talked about this in my blog about Paradise Lagoon. The selfishness, the arrogance and the attitude are beyond words. When will all Malaysians appreciate what God has given them? I am also sad and angry at the local councils who seemed to turn blind eyes on the destruction of public properties and rampant littering. One scene that disgusted me most was the state of the beaches along Johor. Beaches in Mersing are mostly so dirty with rubbish piling up and uncollected. The beach in Kg. Sri Lalang for example, was so poluted and smelly with waste that I almost puked. Go there if you don't belive me! So, what is there to be proud of? What's there for us to pull tourists over. I see parents littered and allowed their children to litter too. What kind of citizens are we raising? I hope my students who have children and will have children start thinking about this and really educate their children with good examples in behaviour and attitude so that the future generation will enjoy what God has created for us. The Member of Parliment of Mersing and Pengerang should do their work to make sure that their constituencies are tourist-attractive.

I can go on lamenting about the sad state of Malaysian attitude but let me start with my journey. On 18 January 2009, Najidah and I started our trip through the highway to Malacca. We followed the exit at Ayer Keroh, the drive took us through kampung road to Muar, Batu Pahat, Pontian and to Tanjung Piai. The road is good and driving was easy with the help of a map. I was interested to take photographs of traditional Johor Malay houses but many houses along the way have become so modern and have lost the flavour of traditionality. I also noticed that Johor traditional house owners are not so particular about their garden. The few traditional Johor houses that I photographed seemed to neglect this. Maybe the houses are not lived in and owners are somewhere in the cities. Nevertheless, we managed to get some interesting photos of Malay houses but wondered whether they were of the original design.

There were many interesting sights that made us diagress from our journey to Tg. Piai. I was surprised that we didn't have to go through Muar town for Batu Pahat for there is a new road bypassing it. In some way, I missed the town as it was a town I was familiar with when I stayed with my oldest sister, Zawiyah in 1965. I was working as a research assistant in Kg. Sg. Raya. Muar. Muar was just a little town then. My nephew, Said, owns a seafood restaurant by the Muar river at the bridge and I made many promises to come over and visit. The time hasn't come yet but I hope to make it a reality one day soon. He has quite a well-known spread of menu to offer and many has sung praises for his delicious cooking.

The Batu Pahat I knew a few years ago was placid and slow with a few rows of shops. But now the town has grown so much that I hardly recognised it. I was fascinated by the roundabout of Simpang Rantai. The old tree stood so proudly as if daring anybody to cut it down. It has a charm of it s own. The branches were coated with creepers whick looked hairy from far. To me, it is so unique and it would be a pitry if it has to be taken down. Please old tree of Simpang Rantai, stay strong. You are a symbol of graceful aging!!!!

We moved on to Senggarang, Rengit, Benut to Pontian Besar and Pontian Kecil. Somewhere around that area I stopped many times to photograph traditional Malay houses. I felt quite disappointed to see some really traditional houses were so neglected and run down. Most Malay houses are modern brick houses and somehow has lost its charm.

In Pontian we were attracted by the brown signboard indicating Museum Bugis. I didn't have much knowledge about the Bugis who originated from Celebes. We decided to stop and see. The charming cute house is an attraction by itself . We met the owner, En. Abdullah, an interesting personality. He shared a lot of his experience collecting old relics which people threw away. As he said, once people jeered at him and labeled him as mad. His passion in collecting old forgotten traditional crafts, clothes, money, ceremics, pots and pans etc. etc have earned him a recognition by the State Government and honour his collection as a personal muzeum. He wentt to the extend of marrying a Bugis lady in Celebes in his search for Bugis traditions. For young people who like to know first hand experience of Malay history, go and meet him and have a conversation with him. Your Malay spirit will revive and soar high and you will have an understanding of who you are in your own country. Just like Hj. Nordin in Rumahku Muziumku in Malacca, I do question the kind-heartedness of the Malays. Had this belong to a Chinese, he would have turned it into money and earn an income from it. Hj. Nordin and En. Abdullah don't even collect fee but leave it to visitors to donate but very few do. Some even go to the extend of stealing the exhibits as has happened in Hj. Nordin's case. Call En. Abdullah at 017-76332441 or 016-7275697. On your way, you will not miss the brown signage.

The Bugis Muzeum belongs to En. Abdullah. It's also his personal house.

The collection of traditional Bugis baju.

The precious over 100 years old Quran written on goat skin.

Najidah at the pelamin for Bugis wedding.

En. Abdullah in his beautiful garden.

Before reaching Tg. Piai, we stopped for a while at Kukup for lunch. Unfortunately, it was Sunday the restaurant has stopped taking orders. So we had no choice but to proceed to Tg. Piai Resort for lunch.

Tanjung Piai, a destination I have been wanting to see.