Road Trip Johor- Some other places

This is the 3rd post on our recent road trip. Move one post back to read about our search for Seahorses in the Pulai Estuary, and 2 posts back for our visit to Noah's Ark.

This will be a very short post on some other places we visited.

1) Tanjung Piai.  There's an entrance fee of 5Rm for adults and 3RM for children. Basically it is a large mangrove area, which we found fascinating. Tg Piai also marks the lowest point on the continent of Asia. 

We were first greeted by these 2 beautiful, shy, Dusky leaf monkeys who were really curious about us. They kept clambering up to peek at us, at times stopping to play with our National flag. :)

Be careful, as this place is full of macaques! So if visiting, Do not bring food! They will come right at you! Trust me on this.Saw this mama with her baby. Precious!

As we walked the boardwalks we were fascinated by the diversity of life here. A large variety of mangrove plants, shells, fiddler and tree crabs, lots of mating horseshoe crabs, super huge monitor lizards, snakes and birds. Go have a look at it yourself. We spent a long time just watching, fascinated :) !

At the end of our long walk, we arrived at the southern most tip. The first thing the kids did was to climb right into that globe! My handphone started beeping too, welcoming me to Indonesia, providing  me cheaper sms from Indon to Malaysia! :)
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2) We also dropped by Kukup, where we were shocked by the CUT-THROAT prices of seafood! Do ask for prices before you order crabs and fish.

 Well after lunch, we found a boat men who charged us RM60perboat for a ride including several stops. He dropped us on the island of Kukup, but sadly the observation tower and a large part of the island is under renovation. Many broken boards. They gave us a discount on the tickets. The island is nice for bird watching. We spotted Herons, curlews, kingfishers and Brahminy Kites. I'm sure if we stayed longer we'd seen more, but the mosquitoes on this island are very hungry, crazy type who will pierce through your skin, through insect repellant!

So after our brief tour on the island, the boat man took us to a floating fish farm. The children loved this. He showed us the Puffer Fish (which he shook till it got angry and showed its spikes!). The children also got to feel a jelly fish, which  they say doesn't feel like jelly, but a rough surface.

And then, on the bottom right, is the amazing spitting fish (as I call it.) Put an anchovies on a piece of wood, and it will shoot down it down with water very accurately! I'm amazed. The children tried holding the anchovies, but the smart fish would not shoot, unless food was placed on the wood. At one point some of the children, refusing to let go of the anchovies, got shot by strong spitting water, right in the face! Ptuiiii!!! haha...:)
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3) We visited Pak Hussein, who hails from Singapore, but lives in Johor. He makes amazing Jong, which is the long boat he's holding. It actually comes with a sail, but in the pictures below, sail wasn't attached. The Jong is used in competition, usually held in August, but this month it is delayed coz of the Raya festival. To help the boat balance, a piece of  curved wood with a mini boat at the end, is attached to the main boat. Mr. Hussein also makes congkaks, which are in the shape of a jong. This is made of pure wood (he said chempedak/nangka tree wood), and is very heavy! 

Pak Hussein's family also makes Dodol. The one seen below is coconut dodol, basically made of coconut, palm sugar and glutinous flour. It's then wrapped in Pinang leaves.

Picture above are us digging into the dodol, the wok used in dodol making, pinang leaves drying, and of course, children playing Jenga with a stack of dodols. haha..
En. Hussein can be contacted at 0167665253.

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4) A short drive from En. Hussein's place is a   small factory that produces famous keropok lekor. They were very friendly, and generous in sharing knowledge with us. We got to try some of their very delicious fried keropok, and of course we bought some too. :)

Ingredients are mixed (note chilli included), fish added and then placed in machine which grinds it to a dough like texture. This dough is fed into a machine, which presses it into strips which are deep fried in oil. The oil used here is clean, as the lady told us, they change the oil daily. This factory and En. Hussein's place are located in the Gelang Patah area.

We wanted to pop by a gasing (top) maker's house too, but learned he passed away recently.

Ok, that concludes my journal on our recent road trip. :)

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