Another Junction town Air Hitam

The fabled town of Air Hitam! In the past, some 10 years back, this was the one terminal that every traveller would have to make a stop! Well, at the present moment, many ulitlising the Federal Route 1 continue that practise.

This is a little community with a concentration of shops that lined both sides of 2 branches of this cross road junction! South from Johore and west to Batu Pahat!
Heaviest concentration is around the southern approach. It had been that way since the introduction of buses and has remained the same ever since!
The hinterland here was rural and still is! Passengers stopping for a rest here did not have much choices in term of shopping. For souvenirs, this place was well known for its agriculture produce i.e. pineapples and vegetables. Today, although the situation has changed, but some remanants of those years practises can still be seen.

Here, farmer ladies with plastic bags of pre-packed vegetables parading along the road and hawkering these to those who had stopped!

Then in the last 5 years, business had gone up beat, the introduction of porcelain ware. Started as a spin off from a local company- Johore Pipe. Importers then flooded the area with wide varieties of competatively priced local produce and imports!

Now a new chapter on history is created, Air Hitam is a porcelain center!

To cater for the hungry souls who had stopped, new food business had also found a niche. Just trying to recall that years ago, hardly found anything edible as snacks during our stop over? It could be due to the facyt that passengers those days brought along their own "on the way" meals!
Something don't change, those old wooden houses have continued to serve the owners well. Perhaps this scene also reflects the limited prosperity that has stifle growth in this remote community!

There is more life at this interjunction, but in a place further south -in the next town of Sungei Renggam

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