Cik Omar’s Barber’s Shop As In AMoT

My mother told me that in ‘A Map of Trengganu (AMoT)‘, Uncle Awang Goneng wrote about Cik Omar’s barber’s shop near Uncle AG’s house in Tanjung.

Cik Omar is Pok Mang’s son (AMoT page 147).

I wrote about it in my blog entitled, ‘My Grandfather Had A Hair Cut’.

But that was Cik Omar’s second barber’s shop.

The barber’s shop that Uncle AG wrote is not there anymore.

He rented his first barber’s shop from my great grand uncle.

Anyway, Cik Omar had retired and it was somebody else who gave my grandfather his hair cut.

I do not know Cik Omar; we got these information from our relative in Tanjung, Kuala Terengganu.

Anyway they are still using Cik Omar’s antique barber’s chair.

I really like the antique barber’s chair.

Atuk sitting on Cik Omar's antique barber's chair.

It is a very old barber’s chair and it was from Cik Omar’s first barber’s shop.

So, Uncle AG can go to the barber’s shop and sit on the antique chair to have a hair cut the next time Uncle AG go back to Tanjung.

[to order A Map of Trengganu – Awang Goneng – click here]

Advertisement

Author: Ahmad Ali Karim

Blogger. Official Ambassador at Muafakat Pendidikan Johor (MPJ). Columnist at Utusan Malaysia. Secretary at Pertubuhan Permuafakatan Pendidikan Malaysia (ME'DIDIK).

4 thoughts on “Cik Omar’s Barber’s Shop As In AMoT”

  1. Dear Che Ali,

    Che Omar was a good man. He used to buy us hot Milo after maghrib prayers at Masjid Abidin and then after Isha I would pop over to Kedai Pok Loh Yunang for the comics and newspapers for my dad. Che Omar’s shop must have been near the present Alam Akademik Tanjong, opposite Surau Besar.

    Pok Mang was a barber on wheels. He came to us on his bike and clipped out hair in the shadow of the kesidang tree in our compound. And then he’d spray our hair with something smelling of cloves before he applied his powder puff on our neck. Just imagine that Che Ali, the smell of the kesidang flower, the clove spray and then the sweet smelling powder puff. We walked away smelling like a garden.

    It is sad to hear that Che Omar has retired. But that’s life. Che Omar’s old customers must all be almost bald now, and his father’s clove concoction has probably been outshone first by Old Spice (which your dad uses) and then the force of Brut.

    Thank you for writing about Che Omar. I shall go and try out the antique chair once again when I’m back in Kuala Trengganu. There’s perhaps my ten sen coin still wedged between the cushion and the chair frame. It dropped out of my pocket the last time I was there. I had intendd to use it to buy an ice cream on a stick from the Ban Hin ice cream maker near the road to Nesan Empat.

    Like

    1. Dear Uncle Awang Goneng,
      Thank you writing a comment. I am very happy because Uncle AG visited my blog again.
      Yes, Cik Omar’s old shop was at the spot of Atuk’s old bookshop in Tanjung. The old shop once belonged to my great grand uncle and Atuk built a new building for his shop. But now, my great grand uncle’s grand children sold it to a Chinese businessman who rented out the place to other people. Only a small part of Atuk’s bookshop is left in Tanjung. Pity the cat and the kitten that used to lived in Atuk’s old shop and played with the staffs. They must be very sad.
      My barber’s spray smells like strawberry and he uses Johnson’s blossom baby powder. I have my hair cut in a small building and not under a tree :mrgreen: It must be very nice to have a hair cut under a tree. I love eating clove and drinking clove tea so I think I’ll love Pok Mang’s clove spray 🙂

      Like

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: