Some Nice Random Shoots of Sungai Rengit

This is my Home, Sungai Rengit



The creator of this video is 林威正 ‎from Sungai Rengit also. i do not know him personally, but thanks for allowing me to put this video here. i watched it a few times, i think it is very well done, comparable to Singapore TCS production and the song bring out the slow pace of life in Sungai Rengit.

Some Good Shoots of Sungai Rengit

My friend, Khoon, was backed to hometown for 'recovering retreat' after removing his wisdom tooth. Some nice pictures of the town from him. Thanks!



The town is so just beside of the sea that if you are staying in a higher building, you can see the lights from the boats at night. There are a few food stalls in operation at night.



The same view as above, but bigger and during day time.
The things that i miss the most in Malaysia no matter where am i, are the delicious street food and the kind of relaxing feelings to have a bite while having a drink and see the world turns around me.
This is really different from sitting at the WIFI starbucks.



This should be the beach or coast line along the road between Tanjung Pengelih Jetty and Sungai Rengit. In my momory, the beach or seaside is never looking as good as this. This looked almost like a tourist beach!



This fruits stall at the site of the old cinema (the cinema was already long gone when i went to primary school) has been there since i can remember. During primary school, my friends and me used to come here in the evening right after the co-curriculum activities in the school, to get some fresh cut fruits.



We called this part of the sea as 'east side', chinese 'dong1 bian1'. East side is a fishermen areas with fishing boats and some small jetties around.



One of the jetties at 'east side'. The fishermen will unload their catches here. It could be a surprising encounter if you are lucky enough to be there when they return from the sea.



This must be the work of a fisherman who is staying here!

My Home Sweet Home

No place is warmer than home

Having a baby and exclusively breastfeeding have taken a lot of my time. The tiny little thing can scream so loud that sometimes it amazed you. The shore has became less accessible to me, as my coming back home time didn't fit to the tide and most importantly, i was just simply too busy taking care of the baby. The first time when i returned to the hometown with the one month old baby, i didn't even get to leave the house compound for more than 20 minutes. The tiny princess just wanted to feed all the times! i looked at the shore from far and thinking, the next time when we come back, may be the princess can already explore the shore together with me.



The behind of my house.
Grandma and mom used to grow vegetable on the land and sale them.
That is their favorite activity and we think that is a form of exercise to them too.
Since grandma got heart attached, the land is now in charged by the maid.
If you go to Pengerang and would like to purchase the fruits or vegetable that you saw at people's house, don't be shy, just ask.
If people don't give it to you, they would still be happy to sell it to you.



The banana trees which my mom grown outside of the house.
The bundle got stolen just right before she wanted to harvest it. She was rather upset with the incident.



I remember a friend cooked aloe vera dessert before. It was some kind of sticky thing.
When we were kids, we cut and apply aloe vera juice directly on the legs as a super moisturizer.
I am not sure how effective it is and as far as i know, some aloe vera is poisonous.



Sweet potato leaves were the best selling vegetable for mom and grandmom.
They sold it to the local restaurant by a serving portion at RM 2 and in turn, this dish is charged RM 8 in the restaurant.
If the restaurant place the order, grandma used to wake up at 5.30am to pluck the leaves from the soil, remove the hard skin of the stem and cut/break the leaves and stem into the cooking size.
Towards the end, the soil would get into the nails and this is a tedious job to be done.



i couldn't believe that grandma managed to grow white carrot!
I thought carrot only grows in mild or cold temperature.





The fireworks during Chinese New Year are always what we all looking forward to.
Many wealthy villagers will light their private big fireworks, comparable to the kind they had for national event.
This one was lighted by the neighbour right beside of my house. The noise was loud at its maximum and the effects are massive.

Access to Pengerang (3): Via Tanjung Pengelih Jetty

I last went back home probably by April 2008, i returned home again on Xmas 2009. Many changes in the town since then. Even the jetty, the boat fees and the taxi fees are different now.



The new immigration complex is completed with modern male and female toilet. There is a room marking as nursing room as well, but unfortunately, it is used as the cleaner room instead.
There are proper seats for passengers waiting for the boat too.



The jetty to alight and board from the board is decorated and have a floating platform now. It seems like safer.



The marina is totally new. It wasn't there at the old jetty last time.
The speed boats, the new boat services, are anchored here.



To go back to Singapore, submit your passport at the first counter. The boat man will keep the passport for a while and when they collected enough passport, they will call you to collect your passport and every passenger will ask to queue up to pass through the immigration together.
The bumb boat leaves when there are 12 passengers, sometimes they ask you to top up the fare so that the boat can leave earlier. Eg. The current boat fee is RM 15 per person if there are 12 passengers. If they are only 10 passengers, the boat man will ask everyone whether they are willing to pay RM 3 in extra, which is RM 18 per person, so that the boat can leave without waiting for another 2 more passengers.
There are at least one boat leaving from Singapore/Tanjung Pengelih to Tanjung Pengelih/Singapore at 7am and 1pm. The boat fee from Singapore is SGD 8 per person and from Tanjung Pengelih is RM 15. But the fees from Tanjung Pengelih will become SGD 8 after 1pm. It means, the boat man will ask for Singapore dollars after 1pm.
The taxi fees from Sungai Rengit to Tanjung Pengelih is RM 20 per taxi or RM 5 per person. The taxi will move only when there are 4 passengers, or else you have to 'top up' the fare (包车).



This is the new office for the speed boat services from Tanjung Pengelih to Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal, Singapore. They have a fixed schedule but the fare is rather expensive. My friend said, it takes only 20 minutes to arrive in Singapore.



The schedule and price of the speedboat.
It is a good option if you don't mind to pay.

Access to Pengerang (2): Via Sebana Golf Resort

Noted: i am currently at North America/ Europe, not likely to come back until next year. i do not intend to abandon this blog, but updating it can be tricky since i do not have the latest pictures or inputs. i would appreciate if someone is kind enough to share his/her pictures in Pengerang with me. Merci.




The marina of Sebana.
Many visitors do not know about the Ferry service between Sebana and Singapore Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal.
From Singapore Bedok or Tanah Merah MRT Station (i don't quite remember now, check SBS service), take shuttle bus to Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal.
Take note that, taxi will apply a surcharge like in Airport.
From Sebana to Sungai Rengit (the biggest town in Pengerang area), transportation can be tricky.
Somehow, you do need to arrange a pick up either with Sebana or local Sungai Rengit taxi driver. It probably costs you a steep RM 50 or so. (A 20 minutes drive.)



This is how the ferry looks like.
The ferry actually takes a detour towards Tanah Merah direction.
So eventhough the speed is definitely faster than the bump boat, but the journey time is around the same. An hour or so.
The Malaysian side immigration is easy and casual (the immigration is only for Sebana ferry passengers only), but the Singaporean side is kind of tedious.
Sometimes, there are long queue and Woodlands custom kind of immigration, due to Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal is also used by Indonesia-Singapore ferry services.



Since it is far from the town, the journey takes around the same time as the bump boat, more costly (far more) and possible of nuisance immigration, so why should someone takes a ferry?
The only reason for local like me to do so is: The ferry service is until late evening at 7pm and it got a fixed schedule.
So if you do not want to stay overnight at Pengerang and want to hang out until late evening (since the bump boat stops the service at around 3.30pm), then this can be your option.

http://www.sebanacove.com/ferry_service.htm



Sebana provide the best accommodation at Pengerang area. (In my personal opinion.)
Resort or hotel kind of room with facilities such as swimming pool, restaurant, sports ...
If you are willing to pay and do not intend to stay at a small RM 30 motel in Sungai Rengit, then you might want to check it out.

http://www.sebanacove.com/accommodation.htm



Not to forget, you can see many mangrove monkeys around the ferry areas.
Obviously somebody has been feeding them as they are not 'that' scared with human beings.
Please do not feed them, so that they won't grow to expect food and when they don't get it, they eventually attack people for food.
They have sources of natural food around, so don't worry about their diet.



Mangrove: source of food and breeding ground for many marine creatures such as fishes and crabs.
It is also the habitat for some mammals, such as monkey and reptiles, such as monitor lizard.

Shore Behind of Yok Poon Primary School (5)

May be, i won't be able to update this blog again for months ...
i will on the road again soon and this time, i do not know when i will come back home again.












Banded bead anemones in the rock crevices.
When out of water, they retract their tentacles and look like beads of jelly.
In the pool, they extend their tentacles and filter feed.













This is a community of sand bubble crabs.
This kind of small crabs eat the coating of detritus on the sand grains.
Processed sand is discarded in little balls.
The tongue structure of the crabs is actually on their legs.



This looks like an elbow crab to me, with its relatively longer pincers.
During the talk with Dr. Dan, he shared about how crabs mate. The male organ of crab will go into the female's body. They can mate for ten days and up to 12 hours continuously for a day. The male will inject around 2 little of sperm into the female!




Barnacle is crustacean, or in simple words, the relative of crabs.
To continue the sex story, barnacles have the longest pennis for animals, relatively to its body size.
They can switch from male to female or vice versa.



Venus clams are normally found under the rocks.
When i was young, picking clams at the shore is a kind of family activity and source of extra-dishes.



Limpet is a kind of snail with the shape like a hat.
They lift their shells and crawl around the rock to graze algae.



Top shells are abundant at the shore. They are a kind of snail which graze on algae.

Shore Behind of Yok Poon Primary School (4)

i always like to explore this this small island. Most part of the island is submerge during high tide and it is only accessible during low tide. This island is right behind of the school and when i was young, during the art lesson, the teacher even asked us to sketch it.



The red tall building is a Sungai Rengit Malay Primary School. Beside it, it is Yok Poon Primary School.

This Soneratia alba mangrove tree (Malay: Perepat) is almost and icon of this small island.
Its circular leaves may be eaten raw or cooked and the ripe fruits are edible.
It is the host tree of fireflies.







i found this red color nerite particularly beautiful.

Nerite is a kind of marine snail and it has one of the strongest shell structure.


































A beautiful blue hermit crab is hiding in the shell.
i used to think collecting shell at the beach is something romantic. :)
But since i become a nature guide, i realised that, shell collection is depriving hermit crabs from their houses.
At the same time, those shells selling by the shop is probably by first killing the snails first, in order to get their beautiful shells.
(Hermit crabs don't kill the snail in order to get the shells. They just used the one which is empty and suit to them.)
i remember Ria said something like: How long are you going to look at the thing if you bring it back home? 3 minutes? and then you just leave it there and eventually forgot all about it.
Then, why not do a good act to just leave the shell alone. A shell in good condition can become the house of a hermit crab and the broken shell eventually become the sand.



Onch is a kind of sea snail without a shell. Its thick skin prevent it from drying out.
It is so well camouflage with the similar skin color and texture with the rocks that, i almost step on this one.
It breathes air through its modified gills at its backside.





The left side is just a shell of an oyster while the right side is an oyster alive. i was actually surprised to find even one live oyster as the residents here are coming to the shore from time to time to harvest free seafood.
Oyster is a kind of soft body animals with 2 shells. They feed by filter the organic particles in the seawater during high tide.











These are my favorite animals at this shore.
They are colonial anemone. They are a kind of animals (not plant) with stinging cells like coral or jellyfish.
They get their food from photosynthesis of the algae living with them and filter feed organic particles in the seawater.

















The name of this snail is drill.
It gets it name from its way of feeding. It can use its tongue like structure to 'drill' a hole at barnacle to feed on it.
Its hatched eggs turned into purple color and the yellow color eggs are the unhatched one.

Others: Accommodation and Bicycle Rental

The New Immigration Building in Operation



General Election of Malaysia.
Different party flags by the bridge in Sungai Rengit town.



i feel like this blog is getting like a tourism site instead of about the seashore. :)
Hope the below information is helpful since some of you have been asking.
i have never ever use their service before, so i have no idea of the quality of the service and others.
If you intend to visit the town during weekend, it is better that you call them and make your reservation.
Try to speak in Mandarin or other Chinese dialects when you call.
By the way, i do not gain any benefits from putting up their name cards here. :)



Accommodation

Chop Let Seng is almost the first hotel (more to a motel) in the town.
The owner said, every room is with attached bathroom and TV.
Room for 2, RM 40
Room for 3, RM 50
Room for 4, RM 65

i have no idea on Seng Huat Hotel. But it has been there for a while too.

Hotel Hiap Hwa is kind of brand new. Started last year and managed by the family of the ex-village head. Simple room range from RM 68 - RM 108.
My sister's friends and family had stayed there last time and they said it was clean.

P/s: The town is so small that the location of these hotels is basically not an issue. These three can be reached in 3 or 3 minutes walk from each other.

Bicycle Rental

i asked some Singaporean cyclist who i saw in the bumb boat.
They said, they rented the bicycle at Changi for SGD 18, 2 days.
Just ask at the bicycle shops near to the hawker centre.

If you prefer to rent the bicycle in the town, call and make reservation.
Kwong Hwa Heng is near to the bridge and the rate is RM 14 for one whole day and RM 2 for an hour.
i have no idea on the condition of the bike.

Other alternative, call 07-8265888
This is another bike rental shop in the town.



Sea Almond tree. This one is near to the jetty. The branches look like a pagoda.
The fruits look like almond and the nuts are edible.
The leaves change color during dry season: Red, copper, gold.
Currently, this one looks red.
The tree Sheds all its leaves twice a year in January-February and July-August.



The new jetty. Going to complete soon.
There is a marina for the yachts, like the one in Tioman.



The new immigration and passenger waiting building.
It has not yet been completed completely, but already in operation.