Access to Pengerang (1): Via Tanjung Pengelih Jetty

For latest information, see updated post by Feb 2010 - Access to Pengerang (3): Via Tanjung Pengelih Jetty

• From Singapore Changi Point Ferry Terminal (the same jetty you used to go to Pulau Ubin).
• Submit your passport to the boatman outside the immigration. They will copy your details in passport and return the passport to you later. The boat will only leave when they get enough of 12 or 13 persons. Each person is S$8 and pay the boatman on the boat.
• Remember who is your boatman and get from him his boat number. All people in the same boat will have to queue up together for immigration clearance.
• The journey is around 1 hr 5 minutes and sometimes the sea can be turbulent.
• When arrive at Tanjung Pengelih Jetty, just go by yourself to the immigration office for immigration clearance.
• You may charter a taxi (RM 16) or share with others (RM 4.50) to go the biggest town, Sungai Rengit. The taxi won't leave without 4 persons.
• The last boat leaves at 4pm. If you don't intend to stay in the town, make sure your taxi leave Sungai Rengit by 3.30pm. The return boat fare is RM10 before 1pm and S$8 after 1pm. (However there are cases that, during public holiday or weekend, due to massive crowd, the boatmen stop taking late comer as early as 3pm. So the boat system is a bit uncontrolled.)
• During your return, submit your passport to the security guard at Tanjung Pengelih. They will pass your passport to the boatman and the boatman will get your passport stamp and return to you on the boat. Before the boat departs, check you passport to make sure that they did stamp it! Inform the boatman immediately if your passport is not stamped. Pay the boat fare on boat.

* Due to the hiking petrol and diesel prices in Malaysia, the boat fare is slightly more expensive now. (As above - updated 10 Apr 06)

* Photo taking near the jetty and custom is now prohibited. So... if you really want to, just avoid to be catched by the security guard. :)

* Updated 1 Sept 06: An anonymous passed this info to me. Might be useful to some of you who are looking for direction or confused.

"Changi Ferry Terminal" is actually another jetty to Desaru.

http://app.ica.gov.sg/about_ica/checkpoints.asp#c9

"Changi Point Ferry Terminal" - This checkpoint serves travellers to and from South Eastern Johor e.g. Pengerang District.

For enquiries, contact: Immigration & Checkpoints Authority, Changi Point Ferry Terminal, 51 Lorong Bekukong, Singapore 499172.

The boats from and to Singapore and Indonesia stop here. The green building is for the immigration and custom. The hill behind of the jetty is the location of Johore Battery, the same structure with Changi Battery (the big gun build by British during World War II to protect Singapore from the invasion of Japanese). While the Singapore Changi Battery is well protected to become a national heritage cum tourist spot, the Johore Battery is left to become a ruin.

A WWII structure left on the hill.

Since the Royal Navy shifted from Woodlands, Singapore to Tanjung Pengelih, there are always news about the government wanted to close down this jetty for security reason of the navy base.

This issue is complex. It involved the rice bowls of the boatmen, taxi drivers and the stall owners who earn their living at the jetty. Many villagers, like me, are working or studying in Singapore and are very much rely on this jetty. Of course we don't want this jetty to close down!

If this jetty does been closed down, then all have to use the ferry terminal in Sebana Golf & Resort, which is 25 minutes away from the main town, Sungai Rengit. The ferry fare is more expensive and so as the taxi fare to access to the resort. Sebana provides their own ferry service, so what will become to the operators of the bumb boat?

* When i went back during Chinese New Year 2006, the boatmen said, the government is not going to close down this jetty already. In fact, some construction works have been carried out to expand the jetty's very narrow road.

Other than Shore (1): The Mazhu Temple

The temple is only a few footsteps away from my home. It used to be a more tiny and decent small temple for the Goddess Mazhu, the protector of the fishermen. When i was still in primary school, the villager renovated it. The sad things when people renovate an old building is, they standardize the design. Chinese architecture is difference in a way that, the dialect group of Teochew, Hokkien, Cantonese, Hainanese... all have their unique difference architecture designs. But nowsaday due to lack of study or lack of people to know in these differences, all renovated temples are follow to the Northen China palace kind of design. Hence the origin of the temple gradually becomes hard to differentiate by the building itself...
At least the roof of the temple not really changed much than the structure i saw when i was young.

The temple is now so prosperous that the committee of the temple built its own building right behind of the tiny temple.

The 'wealth' of this temple is not surprising, consider it is famous among many Singaporean aunties. They either come from Tanjung Pengelih or a lot of time you see them come by chartered tourist buses all the way from Singapore via JB (at least 2.5 hrs).

When i went back home on 11 December 05, it was coincidentally a festive day to thank the Goddess for her protection to the fishermen in the past one year. At the night before, there was a Karaoke singing performance by fellow villagers. This kind of activity has added a little bit of spices to the peaceful and quiet life in the village. Sometimes i would say that, all these activities all more to please the mortal than the immortal.

The temple is near to the river mouth and right in front of the temple is the river.

i think a mud lobster mound managed to survive the 'massacre' of the villagers when they cleared the mangroves and reclaimed the river bank with red soil.

Shore Behind of Yok Poon Primary School (2)

i wonder how many school is blessed with a sea shore as its backyard. When i was studied in Yok Poon, during recess, my two childhood good friends and me liked to sit on the stone chair facing to the sea.

i went back home on 10 December 05. It was an evening and unfortunately very high tide. So i went to the shore in the next morning. The tide was high but the shore is at least accessible. It was raining slightly at that time, so no much creatures were seen. Sea animals don't like fresh water. So i took mostly the pictures of plant.

(The picture is up-side-down. Doesn't it look like a big pineapple plant?)

• This is wild pandan or in Malay mengkuang.
• It has forward thorns and its leaves are used as the wrapper of nyonya dumpling and making map (tikar).

• Sea slater is also call sea cockroach. But, this creature is not an insect. It is a crustacean, which is closely related to crab.

• Each of the Barnacle looks a small mountain. They are not molluscs or shells, in fact crustaceans -- closely related to crab.
• They grow not only on the rock but any surface, including ship and crab. This made them a pest or parasit.
• Ship - they made the ship heavier, hence the ship used more fuel. So the shipping company have to pay extra money to scrape them off from their vessel.
• Crab - the barnacle is so heavy that it constraint the movement of the crab and eventually the crab will have difficulty to hunt for food or even move.

• The leaves of the sea hisbiscus can use to feed cattle.
• The interesting thing is, its flowers open at around 9am and close at around 4pm.
• The leaves is in heart-shape. The underside of the leaves produced nectar to attract ants to staying on the tree. The ants protect the tree from other harmful insect.

• Periwinkle feeding on algae and lichens.
• They are sometimes cooked in soup!

• Avicennia (api-api) is a very common mangrove tree.
• It has pencil roots (pneumetophores) as breathing roots.
• Its flowers in yellow or orange color and its fruits look heart-shape.

• The egg cases of snail.

Shore Behind of Yok Poon Primary School (1)

i went to the shore behind of my primary school, SRJKC Yok Poon on 18 November 2005. This was the first time i went to this shore again ever since i grown up. My last visit was probably few years back!
The different of this visit after so many years was, now, i am able to recognise most of the marine creatures i saw! Thanks to the trainees from Check Jawa and Semakau. :)
Unfortunately, i forgot about the nasty sand fries of this shore. i got a few nasty bites during my visit and the bites itched for a week. The scars from the bite (of course i would scratch since it was so itchy) lasted until now, after 3 weeks!
These are only a few pictures that i managed to take. Well, i am not a good photographer ,so do bear with the quality of the photos. Due to time constraint also, i did not wait patiently to take animal such as friddle crabs, mudskippers, gobbies ...
Next time then. (You do see me in need of helper right?)

Soneratia (Perepat)

The nectar from this mangrove tree is the favorite food of a kind of bat.

The fruits of Soneratia. It is edible.

Black Sea Cucumber
There are a lot of them anchor under of the rock.

i like the fact that there are bacteria staying near their anus for an easier source of food. :)

Hey, this is not a rock!
Doesn't it look like melt chocolate?
This is ascidian, an animal.

The baby ascidian in the free swimming larva form has notochord (vetebrate or back bone), but degenerates when it settle down.

Rhizophora (Bakau)

The seedings grow on the mother tree for a better surviving rate in the harsh environment at mangrove.

The timber can be used to construct kelong.

Sargassum (Brown Seaweed)

The air-filled bladders look like grapes!

The extract from the brown seaweed is used to make ice-cream, so that the ice cream taste or feel more smooth.

A clam in the pool of colonial anemone (the dot-like things).
When i was young, i thought these anemone were the eggs of frog. So i always thought there might be a kind of 'sea frog' laying eggs in the pool! LOL

Sea Letuce (Green Seaweed)

Seaweed has no vein, no flower and no fruit.

Red Seaweed

Sushi!

Japanese Nori is actually made from red seaweed.

A red seaweed might not looking red at all.

Sea Grass

On land, the cow eats grass. In the sea, the sea cow or dugong eats sea grass.

The sea grass is not the same as the grass on land. It lacks of a waxy-covering.

It feels slimy to touch.

Snapping Shrimp

It makes the 'snap' sound when you walk at the shore. The sound is to stun prey or intimidate rival.

i used to think the 'click' sound i heard came from the clam opening or closing its shells or a crab opening or closing its pincer.

Drill

It eats barnacle. They can secrete asid to soften the hard shell of barnacle (drill a hole). It takes them probably 8 hrs to drill a 2mm thick of hole!

In the past, people extract purple color dye from drills.

These are the egg cases of drill. The eggs are inside of the egg cases. The purple color one is the hatched larvae.

Hermit Crab

Its soft abdomen attached to the shell. So pulling it out by force will hurt it. Don't do this!

The hermit crab is not able to produce its own shell. So it will have to change to a new shell (shell from dead snails) as its size growing bigger and bigger. Collecting shells from the beach is depriving the hermit crabs from getting a suitable home.

Crab

The crab is in a defensive position.

There are abundance of them hide around the rocky shore. Please let them have a chance to grow bigger before you just snapped them and cooked them as your dish!

(i saw people collecting clam, so i think they might not spare the crabs if they found a suitable method to catch them.)

Dove Shell

This is a very tiny snail. Its shell is only around 1cm. It is omnivore (meat eater) and normally found at rocky area. Unfortunately live animals are becoming scarce.

Nerite

Take note of their streaming lines. The streaming lines prevent it from being sweep by away by the tide.

Oyster

Unfortunately, these were already opened up and harvested.

Oyster is bivalve (mollusc with two-part shells). One of the shell sticks tightly on rock.

A live oyster has rough and uneven shell while a died one (normally because of harvested by human being) has its smooth inner side of the shell exposed.

The Origin

When i was young, my sister and me liked to go to the mangrove behind of our house to catch thunder crab and catfish. At that time, horseshoe crab and mud lobster were abundant too (although i didn't know the name of these creatures until 2 years ago).

Just these few years, the residents beside of the river had chopped down all the mangrove trees in order to extend their housing compound. It is sad to see no more mangrove trees beside of the river. Without telling, you can guess that the river is going to become shallower as erosion becomes worst. The lose of mangrove also means the lost of fishes or prawn nursery. This can be a disaster to the fishermen.

A lot of development is undergoing in Sungai Rengit , my hometown, and other villages in Pengerang. With these development, we are losing our natural heritage.

Since i graduated from University of Science Malaysia in 2002, i started to work in Singapore. At the same time, i joined the volunteer group to become a shore walk guide at Check Jawa Pulau Ubin and the landfill Pulau Semakau (still under OJT). The efforts put by my fellow volunteer friends in conservation of intertidal in Singapore has really inspired me to do something to the shore in my hometown. So i decided to setup this blog to record the marine lives at the shore in Pengerang. i probably not able to do much to stop our shore from been destroyed or to reduce the lost of habitat of our marine life, but i do hope to make this small record of what we 'used' to have.

i am not a marine life sciencetist, in fact an engineer by profession. I myself is very interested with the scientific facts about these marine creatures. However i think most lay person will be more interested to know about facts that related to them. eg: "Can eat or not?" So i will try to give more interesting facts about my 'finding' instead of the scientific facts (you can actually log on the website of wild singapore for facts). Do you find any errors in my posting, do inform me.

Please help me to spread this blog to your friends either the residents of Sungai Rengit or Pengerang or any other areas, so that people do know what we have in Pengerang.

Should you want to join my effort in recording, do contact me. I will feel happy to conduct a guided walk for you (obviously if you are not a local) if i happend to be in Sungai Rengit at that time.

p/s: From the picture attached, you can see that, no more mangrove... The water used to be greenish and now it is very murky and sedimented.

"We do not inherit this land from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children."