I'm wondering if anyone else is interested in a chalet type of trip to
jemaluang, somewhere between kota tinggi and mersing, the only chinese
town for 100km in the area..
The main attraction of the place is
the kampung-like atmosphere. Besides the settlement of maybe 100-150 houses
there, theres just miles and miles of forests and plantations in all
directions. veges, herbs, fruit trees and flowers are all over the place..be they
wild or grown by the house owners. amusingly, there seems to be a
passion fruit growing fad going on there now..
Its kampung-like in that sense, but there are some
modern amenities, since people do live there. But no air-con, internet
nor showers(some have, but others use scoops and large urns of water).
They have modern plumbing(most even have washing machines) and tv, and
amusingly they all watch channel 8 from singapore - probably because
its one of the few channels in mandarin. Most of the rooms will have room-sized mosquito nets installed, but actually on most nights you wont see any mosquitoes. I think its weather dependent.
As of now the main draw
besides the better air and relaxed atmosphere is the food. Free range
"malay" kampung chicken and the best roast pork i know can be had there, as
well as a ham-gin-bang-donut thing with glutinous rice in the middle. The big pau, wanton mee and kopi-o are great - possibly
because of the water, i now think. The tap water there is sweet...; i
had kopi-o in kota tinggi and i think its not a patch on jemaluang's.
You can get deer or boar meat there occasionally too.
And my uncle grows his own vegetables along the side of the house...
His
house has 5 bedrooms, of which he and his wife occupy 1. So i thought i
could get friends to go there and make use of those rooms. Only during
chinese new year, when his 4 sons and 1 daughter come back with their
families, is the house fully(over?) utilised. In fact, 2 cousins and an
aunt also stay in jemaluang..all with big houses that are relatively
empty most of the year. Of the lot, his house has the best tv
reception, likely because its halfway up a small hill.
Besides
getting him to cook us dinner(sample menu we had: i) deep fried little fish caught by one of my cousins on one of his fishing trips ii) steamed kampung chicken with ginger/spring onion dip iii) fresh vege soup iv) crispy batter dipped fried pork - ku lou yok v) long beans fried with eggs ; home fried peanuts with beer and tv later that evening)..we could also do our own bbq. The front
porch is big enuf to park 2 (plus another 2 on the driveway; lots of
space!) small cars.
One of the days we go there
can be spent exploring mersing, which is a 40min bus ride away.
Buses come hourly, and the last bus leaves the terminal at 4pm. 17
years ago, all mersing had was a kfc and salted fish and ikan bilis.
But now theres a hypermarket there.. A bit about the salted
fish...mersing is a fishing port...their salted fish is supposedly
something special...extra smelly/pungent/aromatic....its a local
specialty...
I don't know if we can hitch a ride to see the
plantations(plus a ride back!). Its going to take some arranging, but i
think its possible.
If we like the place enough to go again, we
could invest in bicyles(can buy from mersing or kota tinggi). Then we
could cycle about to explore the place, and maybe go fishing. There are
ponds around the place, but i've never fished there. My cousins(those
who left jemaluang) when they come back during chinese new year,
usually bring a boot full of frogs and then they all go fishing...which
is like the only thing they do there besides playing cards and mahjong.
kota tinggi is probably too far(1 hr bus ride), but i think its
possible to cycle to mersing.
Also, its possible to get to the coast near jemaluang without going to mersing. The people who live there usually go by motorcycle, so i don't know if theres a good road to the sea, but cycling i think should be ok. if we have bicycles.
One of my cousins run a fishing supplies outfit at Mersing, and know all the local fishermen so i think they can help arrange any kind of fishing trip, if thats what we're looking for.
So, all in all, for myself, i
think a 3-5 day trip to jemaluang is not bad. 1 day to go there(arrive
in the afternoon) and 1 day to come back (maybe leaving around noon),
which leaves 1-2 full days there. 1 to visit mersing. 1 more to chill
out. or see a plantation. or go fishing. or go cycling about. or any
combination of them. but any longer, i wouldnt know what to do there.
And we could travel quite light...enough clothes for 2-3 days...can go
one of my cousins' places to use their washing machine if we need to do
laundry.
There are 7-8 coffeeshops there, of which 2 are Malay. And there are also 7-8 provision shops there. The provision shops close at around 8pm at the latest. The coffeeshops have their own different operating hours, but the last one closes at around midnight.
finally, somebody developed the crappy pond at the back of the place into some sort of
chalet thing. they've built bunks and a open-air-balcony cafeteria
thing at the waterside. theres even a boat in tethered to the side of
the pond.
theres a locked gate on the path to the chalet
thing, but the caretaker of the place is one of the neighbours. they
say we can go take a look if we wanted, but we haven't.
they also say the guy who built the place is singaporean and he brings visitors to the thing occasionally. i think if we wanted to do something with that 'lakeside' chalet thing we could always arrange something with the operator.
* i could install wifi/internet there if theres demand, but the local people don't really have a use for internet and it costs maybe 100 ringgit a month for a basic internet access plan in malaysia..
