Last month we went in search of historical sites along the Johor River, and to continue in our pursuit of tracing the story of the Old Johor Sultanate, we decided to visit Muar on the west coast of Johor. We knew that it was considered a historical town, but when we visited in 2016 we found it hard to find its history. This time we were given an introduction to James Teo, founder of Muar Historia which is an organisation investigating and promoting the history and culture of Muar. Do check out his website Muar Historia and the FB page Let’s Go Muar
If you want a potted history of Muar, then visit James's restauarant called Rabbit Home (68 Jalan Sisi). The walls of the restaurant are covered in murals depicting the history of the region, and there are show cases containing historical artifacts to look at. You can even eat the same menu as our Sultan Iskandar enjoyed on his visit here!
James wasn’t too confident in English, so he asked a colleague Joanne David to join us to translate from Malay. Although she was also interested in the history of Muar, some of the places we were going to visit were even new to her. And the fifth member of the team today was Alvin O, a cameraman who was going to record our adventures!
Lawrence and I are still sorting out the history of events around Muar, so the information presented here is just a brief summary and may even need changing later. We spent a day and a half in Muar in the company of these lovely people, so I have divided up this account into bite-size pieces to make it easier to follow.
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