In which state am I?

Cape (tanjung) or river mouth (kuala)?

Not in a confused state, I hope.

The above photo was taken during one of my unplanned off-the-beaten-track road trips recently. It shows a road distance marker (or milestones as we used to call them in the days before the metric system) where the name of two different states are mentioned. So am I in the state of Selangor or Pahang?

The answer may be quite obvious to some and an additional clue in the pic would confirm it. This milestone is of course, located in Pahang. Kuala Pahang is where the Pahang River meets the South China Sea. The main town in the same vicinity is Pekan. The 'C 101' label at the top of the marker is the road numbering system used by the Public Works Department (JKR) to record all the main federal and state roads in the country. The prefix 'C' is the one used for Pahang, similar to the registration numbering system for vehicles utilised by the Road Transport Department (JPJ).

What all this simply indicate is that there is a place, specifically a cape (tanjung), on the coastline of Pahang, named after Selangor. Tanjung Selangor in Pahang. It would be interesting to find out why or how this came about.

The use of one state's name as a place-name in another state, although peculiar, is not unique to Pahang. In the Pontian district of my home state of Johor, there is place called Parit Selangor. In Kota Tinggi district, there are two kampungs named after other places; Kg Kelantan (near the town itself) and Kg Singapura (further east near Sedili). In the Kelantan capital of Kota Bharu, there is this place called Pulau Melaka, the kampung of the late Tuan Guru Dato Nik Abdul Aziz. In similar vein, there is a river in Rompin, Pahang called Sg Pontian. The famous place in Kuala Selangor to view fireflies is known as Kg Kuantan. I'm sure readers can name other examples.

When it comes to the names of towns and villages, there are many duplicates or commonly-used ones. The place-name of Sungai Buloh is not exclusive to Selangor. There is one in Perak as well... but did you know that there are actually two separate and different places called Sungai Buloh in Selangor? The more well-known one is the area where the prison is located. The lesser-known Sungai Buloh town is located at the downstream end of the river that lends its name, in the district of Kuala Selangor.

Which place-name do you reckon, is the most commonly used in Malaysia? I have my own guess on this one but let's see if readers have other possible answers...