Sunday, July 08, 2007
Since I left my hometown of Pontian to pursue my dreams, I hardly have any quality time with my family, except during my short breaks.
It was May Day, and it was a long weekend. I took a week off from work to spend time at home, before my
Tioman trip. It has been a long time since I stayed at home for more than 3 days, yet I still call it my home, and it will still be my home in the future.
An interesting fact about my hometown, Pontian, is that it's the southernmost district of mainland Asia. Sounds pretty cool eh? Despite that, it is a small peaceful town, occasionally flocked by large number of Singaporeans. It's located by the sea (
to be exact, the Straits of Malacca),
so a lot of Indonesians swim over illegally which may explain why I love beaches so much.
In recent years, the government has developed the southern part of Pontian into a national park. Tanjung Piai is now classified as Taman Negara. Located not far away from the fishing village, Kukup, Tanjung Piai is actually one of the largest (
or is it the largest) mangrove forests in the world.
In the gloomy afternoon of May Day, we've decided to pay a visit to the Taman Negara...
Before we reached the southernmost tip, we had to walk through the trail in the mangrove forest. Nature lovers would love this place. It houses one of the largest mangrove habitats in the world, is also the home to many different species of birds , beady-eyed mudskippers, multi-coloured mangrove crabs, and crab-eating macaques. Also found here is the tree-climbing and scavenging macaque monkeys.
Obviously, Livepool FC fans were here too...
To all city folks, this is how a mangrove swamp looks like.
A distinctive feature of a mangrove tree is its STILT ROOTS
The name, stilt root, is pretty self-explanatory. They are used to build stilts like this...
After about 20 minutes walk from the visitor complex, we'd finally reached the Southernmost Tip of Mainland Asia.
I came, I saw, I cheesed conquered... This is the point where people described it as Tian Ya Hai Jiao 天涯海角 (the edge of the sky and sea). This is also the southern gateway of the Straits of Malacca. It's where you can see Singapore and Indonesia from just across the sea.
In the background is Pulau Karimun of Indonesia, where the infamous Tg Balai is located
And this is Jurong, Singapore. It's so near that I think I can swim over.
I have conquered this little piece of land, have you?
Obviously, Livepool FC fans were here too... 
To all city folks, this is how a mangrove swamp looks like.
And this is Jurong, Singapore. It's so near that I think I can swim over.
is good of u to enjoy time with your loved ones as they had spent yrs with you.
Posted by
Anonymous |
Tuesday, July 10, 2007 9:20:00 AM