Bakau Tinggi

Bakau Tinggi is on the northern side of the Kemaman town heading towards Kuala Trengganu. The highway from KL stopped at Jabor toll in the south and one has to travel another 30km to reach the Cukai town center. On the way one will pass by Cherating, Club Med, Monica beach (Pantai Mak Nik) etc.

I find Bakau Tinggi and the Cukai river area very scenic, the floating restaurants, the fishing boats, the crystal clear water that one could even see fishes, the mangrove swamp walkway, and the stores that sell mud crabs etc. Here are some of the photos:

Kijal

I had traveled recently after reading all the articles about Bukit Kijal and the tigers of Kijal twins, I took a ride from Teluk Kalung via Bukit Kijal to Pekan Kijal, and took the photos of the vegetation alongside the hill, once roamed by the tigers. I suppose this primary tropical rain forest stays intact and untouched by men, is a suitable habitat for the king of the jungle. I only managed to see the Kijal beach when drove into the so-called Pekan. I saw nice beaches with coconut trees and also stretch of ikan bilis drying under hot sun beside some fishing boats.

Today I happened to attend the wedding lunch (kenduri) of one of my colleagues in Kampung Kubang Kurus and there was a jam at the Bakau Tinggi area near the Cukai river because of a police check point set up probably because of some petty crime, which I am not sure. On sending Azman back to the factory, I decided to take a further route by going all the way to Ibuk so as to avoid the jam and from there again to pass through Kijal one more time. On down hill of Bukit Kijal, the Strawberry Kijal resort and apartments seem to be on receivership and it is up for sale. We dropped in and took a look and it is a nice place.

Just taking a glance at the surrounding areas of Kemaman, so that when people talks about Kemaman I would know which area they are referring to. By the way, a cozy town like Kemaman will have its fair share of traffic jam in the morning and afternoon when people drives to work and back home especially those employees from Perwaja Steel, they form bulk of the working population going that way. The road leading from Bakau Tinggi all the way to the Cukai river bridge and the traffic light of Kampung Bukit Kuang, where two lanes are subsequently merging into one lane on the bridge is the culprit. Heard that the tender was given out to widen the road and the bridge, do not know what is the status now, maybe one has to ask the the BN state government on this. I was told to avoid this stretch of the road especially during the festive season, when the folks here go on the exodus of " Balik Kampung"

Wild Betta - Wild fighting fish (ikan laga liar)

I am always fascinated by the glowing glitter of the local Betta fish as against the water-paint color of its Siamese counterpart.

When I was told that in Binjai, there is a shop by the name of "Tai Seng Pet Shop" located just opposite the mosque, I drove there during one weekend and none was found.

I went back to the office and talked to the local folks about the possible chance of getting them in some of the aquarium shops in Kemaman.

Subsequently with that information, I drove to the 2 shops, San Sui aquarium and then the Tan aquarium, both do not sell the wild type as I was told the demand is not there (Pasal tu, tak laku lah!)


Look like one has to catch them in the wild; normally in the western part of Malaysia, the habitat of this fish is also infested with leeches! We used to catch them with salts rubbed onto the limbs and also spray the shoes with insecticides so as to deter such blood sucking creatures.

Coming to Kemaman Trengganu

I had never thought I will be coming to this part of the country. But new job, I mean new function or sector of business, plus new environment always intrigue me. If the company decides for me to take on a new post which is not cutting my pay starting from ground zero, though I lose all my overseas allowance entitlement, I glady take it for personal experience with no regret. I really think that I have good curiosity always for something new and unexplored.

Coming over since July 5th for a brief look and then went back to home town to borrow an Iswara car from my sister, I began my stay here in Cukai Kemaman on 7th of July 2009.

My habit of coming to new place is to drive around town to find out where the residential areas, eateries, banks, stores etc are, so as to familiarize myself and also searching through the internet on information about Kemaman and Trengganu.

Will tell more about this new place later. My first impression is that this is a cozy place to live and away from the hassles of those big cities which I had stayed before since I started working.