My Heart Soars: Kukup : Part 1 - Fishing Village in Johor

Happy New Year 2013! The new year where I have yet to list down my travel destinations. For now, it is just Vietnam in March. Somehow, I am more keen on visiting the places in Malaysia. I want to visit the islands, the northern states and East Malaysia. I wish I had a sponsor to visit places. I would so travel willingly. To anywhere.

Though it is the New Year, I am going to post about Kukup which I went in early 2012. Which was actually during Chinese New Year which made it slightly difficult to find a place to stay because most of the places have been booked. I have read about this place in some blogs, and I wondered of the hype behind it. I was so sure it was going to be real fun going to this place. I did some research on the Internet, and got some names to book a place to stay. Initially, I thought I would like to go with my sister only. Well, they do provide accommodations for 2 but it was a bit pricey. So, I was told, to book an entire house, you need a minimum of 10 persons for the price of RM950, and the standard package includes - Day 1: Lunch, Afternoon Snacks, Barbequed dinner; and Day 2: Breakfast and Lunch. Plus, you can visit Pulau Kukup National Park and the Fish Farm. Sounds attractive. And so, I went ahead to book a place but I only managed to find 9 persons. After much negotiation with the owner, he agreed to the 9 persons arrangement but for RM950 too.

04022012 : We started our drive from Muar, a district in Johor. It was about 2.5 hours to Kukup. Kukup is located at the southern tip of Johor. Well, almost the tip. The place at the tip is Tanjung Piai, which is known as the southernmost tip in Mainland Asia. Upon reaching Kukup, I called up the owner who came with his bicycle. He directed us to the carpark lot which is called 'Tikus' (mouse in Malay Language). I can't quite remember the rate of the carpark but I am very sure it is less than RM10. The carpark is huge, and can fit lots of cars. Then, a van from Tikus picked us up from the carpark to Kukup town. It was very near.

We were at the restaurant by 11.30am. The portion was small. The dishes were not fresh. Very disappointing that the seafood looks unappetizing. My expectations just went down the drain. The view from the restaurant was beautiful. We could see the vast Straits of Johore, and some mangrove islands.

After lunch, we were headed to our place of stay. The owner cycled to the house while we walked. It was about a 6 minute walk, and the path was quite confusing as there were many twists and turns. We got the hang of it after walking several times. We just had to remember certain landmarks.

We saw mudskippers too! There were so many of them.

And this is our place of stay - Kukup Water House which belongs to Mr Lim Eng Seng. His number is 019-7643476 or 07-6961527. All the houses in Kukup Fishing Village were of similar structure but different style. They are all built on cemented stilts. Ours was a single storey house. There are some houses which are double-storeyed. The interior of the house was spacious. The house can actually accommodate up to 20 persons since they are all double-decker beds. The fridge was filled with the frozen food ready to be barbequed for that night. In the house, they also provide mahjong game, and also a karaoke set to sing your heart out. Neither of which I am good at. While the others play mahjong and watch the television, I walked out a bit to snap photos. We waited until 1.45pm for our first activity of the day - to visit Pulau Kukup National Park. The activities here are the same in each place of stay.

At 1.45pm, we left our place of stay and walked to the jetty to take the boat to Pulau Kukup National Park. It was just a 5 minute ride on the boat. We were lucky it did not rain that day, or we won't be able to see the National Park.

The national park is actually a mangrove area - the 2nd largest uninhabited mangrove island in the world. We paid RM5 to enter inside. The area was full of mosquitoes, which was expected. There was also an observation tower where we could see the view of the National Park. I thought I could see Singapore, but nope. Still quite far.