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Having been working in an urban city for around a year, I decided to go for a trip where I can enjoy the cosy and unpretentious ambience.



Kukup came to my mind as the area is a fishing village and popular for its seafood. I went there together with Joyce.



There are lots of chalet houses you can stay in Kukup. There are tour packages offered to visitors but we have decided to walk on our own. Most of the chalet houses are surrounded by sea and are built on stilts. This Mangrove Floating chalet looks like a bungalow.



I saw some teenagers swimming near their houses. They were shouting and laughing incessantly.



We could see some residents dried the raw prawn crackers. Frankly speaking, it was my first time went to a fishing village. The air was so cool and I could hear the wind blowing in my ear.



Two third of the stilts are submerged during high tide and exposed during low tide.



Interestingly enough, during the low tide period, you can see plenty of mudskippers and clams.



A fisherman was busy mending his fishing net when Joyce interrupted him, "May I know which area we can go here?". "There is a mangrove swamp not far away from here. You can reach there by boat located at that side", he pointed his finger confidently. Before we left, we thanked him for the useful piece of information.



Without further ado, we proceeded to the place and were told to pay RM5 per person to ride on the boat.



There were no passengers on that boat other than Joyce and me.



The boat driver (Ah Long) took us to the mangrove forest. There was an abandoned boat not too far from my sight.



We reached the mangrove forest and were told to contact Ah Long once we finished our visitation. I took down the uncle's handphone number.



At the counter area, I could see there are two packages offered by Taman Negara Johor Pulau Kukup.



We paid for the second time to enter the mangrove forest.



After the payment was done, instead of walking further down, we climbed up the stairs to walk on the suspension bridge. My first time experience walking on suspension bridge was at Bukit Aup Jubilee Park in my hometown several years ago.



There was a passageway made of wooden plank for us to walk. We spotted the clams area after strolling for about 10 minutes.



The area was so muddy that I needed to climb down carefully to take a closer view.



I did not see a single snake at the snake river. So I guess the name was given due to its shape resembling a snake.



Then I saw this information board.



There it was...! I found two wild boars searching frantically for food but I was not dare to walk closer as the wild boars are aggressive at times.



After 45 minutes of walking, we reached fiddler crab area. What I could tell about this crab is that it is a very shy creature and will hide in the mud if anyone approaches it.



I zoomed this photo 3 times in order to prevent being spotted by the crab.



Joyce seemingly enjoyed the view so much and asked me to take photos of her.



We ended our visitation at mangrove forest around 5pm. After that, the uncle took us to fish cages located 200 metres from the mangrove forest.



It was such a coincidence that the scouts from Kuala Lumpur were having excursion on that day. We just followed their tour guide. The place was quite crowded and I could hardly move around.



Suddenly Joyce asked me, " Why did the guy put the anchovies on the plank?". Within few seconds, I saw water shooting up from the surface of water. The guy and the scouts who were watching nearby, tried to avoid the water shooting. To my amazement, the anchovies put on the plank 1 metre from the surface of the water were dropping one by one after being shot by the archer fish. The fish is capable to squirt a jet of water accurately to one anchovy at a time.



The porcupinefish is the fish that I was waiting for. The tour guide briefed about the fish. The fish moved effortlessly as the guy grabbed it for the viewers to see. We were not satisfied by what we seeing as it was too far away for us to view clearly. We asked the guy who feeded the archer fish to show us one more time. This time the view was much clearer. I admired the porcupinefish great methods of self defense.



The horrible image below is the dead puffed-up porcupinefish which had been dried up under the hot sun...sounds cruel, right?



Few minutes later, the uncle approached us and caught a horseshoe crab.



According to him, it contains high cholesterol.



The video shows the conversation between Joyce and the uncle regarding the horseshoe crab.



After released it, he showed us the cat shark and the seahorse.



Watch the short video below.



It's meal time for all the fish in the cages.



One of the workers threw the food to the cage and the fish ate the food hungrily.



Looking at those fish eating, my stomach started to grumble. We went back to the chalet at 6pm. After having a discussion with Joyce, we decided to have our dinner at High King Seafood Restaurant.



We ordered fried prawns with garlic sauce, kangkung belacan, fried crabs and fried squids. My stomach could not resist anymore when my nose sensed the tantalizing smell of the food. The strategic location of the restaurant which is facing to the sea makes it a perfect place for diners. We enjoyed the seaside view while gobbled up all the food. Meanwhile, the fishermen were busy washing their nets and put their catch of the day in the containers to be sold to the local and Singapore market.



The next day, before we went back, a bicycle park near the Kukup's bus station earned my attention. It was an innovative design of basket.



We left Kukup at 12 noon. Before that, we bought a lot of prawn crackers and crispy banana chips to bring home. Joyce enjoyed the trip so much and she told me that the mangrove forest and the fish cages are the most exciting places we had visited. I could not agree more with her!