Little Cukai town

Cukai town is cozy and it is a mid-way station for travellers to East Coast states to take a rest, enjoy a coffee break and have their meals before moving on to their final destination. Cukai offers a variety of cuisines from Chinese, Malay, Indian, Thai to Western food and it is a popular eating place amongst those who work in the oil and Gas industry as far north as Kerteh and Paka. A lot of the local residents find their jobs and livelihood in oil and gas industry especially Petronas, and also work in those firms around KSB (Kemaman Supply Base), the Perwaja steel mill and also some other factories in the Telok Kalong industrial estate near Kijal. Cukai was a sleepy old town awakened by oil finds and its growth was further fueled by industrialization, visitors on business, projects or leisure trips passing by.

One could notice that this little town is busy and has the most traffic lights and U turns. If anyone could find a town of this size and has more number of traffic lights than Cukai, please let me know! And most of the time, the traffic lights are not well synchronized; practically you have to stop and wait for them to turn green at everyone at a time. For that reason, seasoned travelers would rather choose the route passing by the Cukai town center instead, though as busy, at least less traffic lights to wait on!

Hai Ping coffee shop is a famous landmark, it is almost a brand name associated with this Cukai town and most outside people would like to pay this place a visit though I find it a bit commercialized and the food is just normal but expensive by Cukai standard! It is situated at a very conspicuous corner near to the PAS building and also there is a lot of parking space opposite the shop and across the road! It is a convenient meeting spot, crowded, and it closes shop on Friday and everyday business hours till 6-7pm only!

Cukai is commercialized and prices are up because of outside visitors from big cities patronizing the place willing to pay higher prices. The more affluent oil and gas consumers are also pushing the prices up especially on properties. A lof of the Cukai local folks would choose to change their tires, repair and spray their vehicles in Kuantan instead. They also go Kuantan for their weekend shopping spree. What they always comment is that, everything in Cukai is expensive and no variety!

Coming to Cukai, be prepared for traffic jam before 9 am and also after 5 pm on the way towards Cukai river bridge from both directions. It is a narrow bridge that could hardly service the increased traffic flow during those peak hours. There were a lot of talks about upgrading and widening the bridge but until now there is no sign of any work in progress. All these are politically linked and they all wanted a big project, which I personally think is unnecessary and could achieve the same result by making smaller investment. First thing the government has to do is, speed up the highway completion which is supposed to link Jabor all the way to Kuala Trengganu; have that portion by-passing Cukai to be given top priority so as to divert all the outside traffic especially big lorries and trailers. Secondly, build another cheaper and simple bridge that spans across the narrow river mouth between Kuala Kemaman and the marine police base in Bukit Kuang, which allows only smaller vehicles to pass through. In that way, the traffic at peak hours would be every much eased off! Our country is on austerity drive now, only think about building a bigger and more luxurious arch shape bridge and multi-layers flyover by expanding on the existing one at a later stage when the government has more money!

The side effects of having the highway ready and by-passing Cukai town would most likely be:

1. All properties in Cukai town whether commerical or residential will drop in value.
2. The economic activities of Cukai town would be reduced by the portion of outside visitors choose to by-pass the town

The good things are, we could expect a smoother ride during those peak hours and perhaps cheaper cost of living for those who choose to live here.

Anyway, I still enjoy living in this small little Cukai town!