Road trip to Kukup, Johor (pics)

This post's waaaay late. Finally photos are up!

Who: LiKai, Samuel, Kimberley, Thomas and Di
When: Sometime over a busy weekend last month

Left KL, stopped by Melaka for a late breakfast (plus pick up Thomas) and then to JB for Kimberley's birthday occasion (a quick case of drop by, blow cake, sing the birthday song and scramble to Kukup before it gets dark)

Here're some of the shots:

Stopping by in Melaka basically means dropping by for this --

Now how does one get to Kukup? And why Kukup you might wonder? Kukup is the village nearest to Tanjung Piai - geographically the southernmost tip of mainland Asia (more on Tj Piai later). Since we've "road-tripped" our way to all other Peninsula states, it was about time we made it to Johor.

To get to Kukup, you don't have to go all the way down to JB. Exit the North-South Highway at Pontian. From Pontian, look out for the signboards to Kukup. Or just head right to the end of Pontian town and turn left. None of my maps show the way in detail, but there's only one road so you won't get lost.

How does Kukup look like? Refer to photo below (er I never said I was a good photographer, so ignore Samuel looking blur)

The photo doesn't show much - simply because there isn't much. Kukup town is just that - one main street, some shops on one side and the bus stop plus the blue immigration office on the other. You know you've reached the end of the road when all you see is the in-the-midst-of-construction customs complex. Oh there's also the salty sea smell to guide you.

Now where'd one stay?

This's how Kukup mostly looks like. Houses on stilts they say, what I'd add is "concrete" houses on stilts. Most tourists (majority are Singaporeans it seems) stay in purpose-built holiday homes on one side of the village. They pay for a "package" which typically includes accomodation, bbq meals (pretty sucky imo cos its just those sotong balls, chicken wings, fried rice etc third-rate stuff), a boat ride out to kelong, and some entertainment of karaoke facilities and mahjong equipment. These packages range from RM70-90 i think.

Us? We ended up at the other side of the village - the side where the kampung people live. Parking at a particular spot in the village meant we were layaned by a very enthusiastic uncle to his er..hotel is an exaggeration. To his house actually, which doubles up as one cos its got extra rooms for visitors.

We stayed the night at this place - if you're not fussy, this's the real deal. More "kampung-like" than those concrete places and less noisy (no being surrounded by your neighbours belting out "I Will Always Love Youuuuuuuu" in the middle of the night)

This room's only RM60. Comes with air-con, TV, clean etc. I suppose its more than decent for that kinda price. You'd have to book in advance to get rooms at the tourist side of the village. Most are maxed out during the school hols.

Also comes with this --

where one can watch the sunset or just bum at night playing cards or something

Our neighbours.. kinda quaint eh

There isn't much to do in Kukup. Here's some of what we did:
1. Walk around - point and go "yukkk" (at least thats what I did when I saw this)

Thomas and Sam going on and on about sea-slugs/snails?, sea-rats, sea-ham etc etc (go figure). And yeah there's plenty of rats running around under the houses/walkways. And yes, they can climb. Y-U-K.

We also saw ---

Sea-snake??

2. Walk around somemore
You might see this temple around - 3 flights of stairs for a view of Kukup.

3. Enter one of those seafood restaurants facing the sea, view a quick sunset..

photo taken near where they're building the new customs complex

4. If you went on a ride to see the kelongs or Pulau Kukup, you'd arrive just in time for dinner

5. Eat!

Seafood's pretty fresh, at a decent price.

That was about all we had time to do, for the day. Night was spent playing cards and sipping on some wine made from dragon-fruit (apparently a Kluang product, retails for RM40 a bottle at grocers in Kukup).

We went to Tanjung Piai the next day.. will post later since this post's way long. Oops have a flight to catch in a coupla hours time. I'll be back next week..