Visit to SW Johor (Pontian District) Nature Parks ~ Mangroove Swamps

Yesterday, Day 1 of CNY, my sis and I went to visit Tanjung Piai National Park and Pulau Kukup, both of which are mangroove swamps located in the Pontian District in Johor.

So we went there from the 2nd link, in my mind I thought that we could reach there quite quickly by going to Gelang Patah and there would be a direct route to the park. Took around 30min in total to clear the Singapore side of the immigration, MY side took 5 minutes. I guess we just had a bad line with illegal immigrants wanting to leave country, so it took sometime to arrest them and delayed our line.

Once across the border, it was quite smooth driving. We went to Gelang Patah for lunch and settled on Roti Prata/Mutabak. The Mutabak I had was quite good and interestingly, was served with Thai-like chili, which I found to be a good combination.

So after that we proceeded towards Piai. We ended up going northwards and towards Pontian. We realised we were going in the wrong direction so we tried to purchase a map from a Carltex that was along the way. Unfortunately that petrol pump did not sell maps. On thinking about it, it would be more profitable not to see maps as lost cars consume more petrol.

Anyways, we found our way to Kukup. We found out from a tourist office that we missed the turn about 2km back, so it was not a big loss. It was a good mistake nonetheless as after walking in Piai, we had time, so we went to Pulau Kukup, with the help of this lady.

So we went down to Piai, the only exciting thing would be a road designed for one-way traffic but was a two-way road. Lucky there were only 3 cars for me to practise precision driving.

The park itself was like Sungai Buloh, definately much bigger, but the part with the broadwalks could not be larger then Sungai Buloh. There were monkeys moving around, mud skippers and crabs. The cranes and fising birds were also present. I found their Southern-most tip of mainland asia to be quite interesting. They were fighting with Palawan beach for the title that really does not mean anything.

They build a platform there, where there were several people fishing. I guess its a good area to fish, as the fish like to be near mangroove swamps, to breed. Tuas was also visible.

There was also a campsite in the swamp, so the scouts could 1 day camp here and enjoy the swamp as it should be.

We went to Kukup after the swamp trek as we had time to kill. So we went to the information woman who helped us board the correct boat to bring us to Pulau Kukup, which was around 200 meters from the mainland.

She was a talkative woman, speaking in malay no less. But I understood from her that Purple and Brown jellyfish were toxic while white ones were harmless. It was their seasons, so a glance in the water and you could spot 5 of them.

The boat came and picked us up and fetched us across through the kelong clogged waterway. There was an ah lian who took that boat and interestingly, she wore high-heeled boots. I guess someone was not too specific when he advised her to wear boots for trekking.

So we had to pay double entry fees to the island as we said we were from Singapore. I guess you should always say you are local, speak some malay and be more relaxed when visiting these places, if not you waste more money then you should.

Pulau Kukup was also an expanse of mangroove swamp. But here there was a 5 storey tower, from which you could see Karimun (Indonesia). That was a good view. We also took a ride in a motor sampan through the channel that cut through the swamp. 5 minutes for 3RM, ok deal I guess. Also, there was a 20 meter suspension bridge.

On our way back, we were brought around the water-way to see the kelongs. We dropped off on one of the kelongs, which had the fish that shoots water. They were a cool school. All the homes there were built on stilts or pillars. I guess if they had more money, they would be like Venice.

We had dinner at Kukup, Kangkong Belachan, Udang Garam (was soso, too plain flavoured) and mee soto (labeled on the menu as Hong Kong mee). The food was very well decorated, I guess the cook must have wanted to be an artist. I don't place any value on presentation, so even after the cook dies, he value of the food presentation would not go up, even after changing to a modern art piece.

So after that we headed to JB to cross the border from there. I learnt one new lesson that day, keep on the right most lane. Due to the poor traffic flow design of Malaysia, that lane alone expands to 6 counters, as opposed to 2 counters for the other 2 lanes.

I also realised that conducting the driving test by getting the testee to cross and return would be a great way to test a driver. The narrow lane filters, lack of lane discipline by most drivers and poor quality roads would be great to test anyone's driving competency.