My weekend was crab.
I was really in dire of some refreshment after all the emotional turmoil on Friday, so Saturday morning MN and I headed down to Pulau Ketam as early as 7.30am out of spontaneity. I honestly think that MN deserves nothing to be waken up that early on a weekend but the trip did his chubby cheek some justice.
We were half way towards the island when MN told me about the water crisis in Pulau Ketam. Wow! Another great reason to go and pay the place a visit! Apparently, water supplies to the fishing villages (including Kampung Sungai Lima and Bagan Teo Chew) was disrupted since last Monday following a serious leak in the 17km underwater pipeline that connects a reservoir in Pulau Ketam from the mainland.
We were a bit lost while on our way to the Port Klang despite MN's high tech Global Positioning System. Pulau Ketam is accessible by ferry from Port Klang, and actually driving there was a huge mistake for us as the journey was longer than we thought. It’s more convenient to use the KTM-the jetty to Pulau Ketam is just next to the Port Klang KTM station (we found out upon our arrival....an hour and a half later). So take note of that.
We boarded an old rusty ferry after much hassle trying to avoid knocking off any uncles carrying vegetables. The morning ferry was a fun ride even though it was cramped and packed with Indonesians, Vietnamese, chickens, vegetables and local tourists hunting for seafood and crabmeat. I was horrified to see a dead pig floating in the sea whilst waiting for the other passengers to board. Well, we cant really got off since we've already paid the fare but I knew what to expect on our advent - stinkyness. A Jackie Chan movie made the 40 minutes ride less suffering for us. I will tell you which movie was played on our journey back later.
We were greeted by a huge banner stating that the rescue team was there for the water crisis. The town was surprisingly quiet, the huge Kuai Lok Hian restaurant was totally empty. I do not know the reason and didnt quite care to find out as our main reason to go wasn't to find food. We rent bicycles - seems to be the main transportation here besides walking.
I was absolutely in awe looking at the colorful, unique looking houses. The houses are all on stilts and a narrow set of sidewalks runs between them. The island has a full sized school, a police station, a bank, several temples and stores and a small hotel. I was surprise to see how a sleepy town like this has a great wi-fi connection. 3G connection sucks in my area where I live (definitely in the heart of the city).
I have to say nearly 98percent of the residents are Chinese who doesn't speak Malay so basically MN and I were nodding and waving to all the warm, lovable Hokkiens. They were busy doing their daily chores whilst cycling back and forth to carry the water supplies from the Pusat Bantuan to their homes. No riots, no people pushing one another into the sea (and float with a dead pig) to get water supplies.
Saw lots of selling and buying activities going on, as well as cooking, frying, peeling prawns and drying the shrimps. No trouble documenting street here, as everyone was so friendly - we had a little girl following us with her bicycle twice her size, hoping to get her photograph taken, maybe.
Environmentalist might hate this place though as rubbish was thrown indiscriminately here. You can see them almost on every ground you walk/cycle on. Not to mention, dog poops. Almost every houses keep dogs as their pets. If you travel here, be careful with the roaming ones.
Despite the poops, ugly smell and the fact that we were being stalked by a 5 year old, we really love the island. It certainly has its own charm and nostalgic feeling that you wont get elsewhere. Its not your dream getaway but this town is definitely an eye-opener. We had a lot of fun cycling around too!
Oh, the movie on our journey back? They played CJ7. We didnt get to the end, so I'm thinking of buying the DVD.
We arrived in KL at about 4ish with the smell of Pulau Ketam on our shirt. Went to KLCC and Bukit Bintang for another round of street shooting. After the crab visit, I saw the city in a totally different way. My lense refuse to shoot any porcelain-looking dolls in KLCC or those so-called emo/punkrock-whatevayourmacallit-kids that litters around in Bukit Bintang.
Somebody should send those kids to Pulau Ketam and make them wear 'Visit Redang' t-shirt with seluar katak and nothing else.
p/s you can view my street shots of pulau ketam in my flickr.
Post a Comment