Pulau Ketam, Selangor
Spontaneous trip is always fun. The art of not planning is what makes it more exciting.
Few weeks back on Sunday, my family and I went to Pulau Ketam after a morning walk at a park. It was unplanned and I mentioned to my husband that I would love to go and look what’s in Pulau Ketam and he said the magic word—let’s go. We took the Federal Highway and finding our way was easy, we just followed the signboards to Pulau Ketam Jetty.
We bought tickets at the price of RM7 per adult and RM4 per children (one way). 3 adults and 1 kid, to and fro = RM50. We boarded a ferry with a capacity of at least 70 passengers. Interesting trip as it took us through Pulau Klang to reach Pulau Ketam. The narrow channel is covered in mangrove swamp and is uninhabited.
We reached Pulau Ketam in about 40 minutes time. We saw a lot of crabs when we arrived at the jetty—now we know how the island got it’s name, Ketam means crabs.
We had our lunch there before going around the village for a walk. We were quite hungry and below were the first two dishes that arrived on our table. The rest came later and I totally forgot to snap pictures. Haha. There are a lot of seafood restaurants here and we picked one with a Bismillah signboard. It’s a Chinese restaurant that serves only seafood and I saw that a lot of Muslims came here to eat. I totally forgot the name of this restaurant. But if you come from the jetty, take Jalan Dua and look for a restaurant with the Bismillah sign, it’s on your right side.
After lunch, we went around the fishing village to look at how a fishing village look like mostly the area of Jalan Timur and Sungai Satu. Pulau Ketam is equipped with almost all the basic facilities—there’s hospital, police station, surau, fire station, power station, post office, bank, hotel and shops. Pulau Ketam is free from traffic jam as the main transportation here is bicycle.
Pulau Ketam was founded when three Hainan fishermen from Bagan Hainan, Port Klang, arrived at Pulau Ketam catching crabs for their living. At first, they came and returned to Port Klang daily. The journey took almost a day, so they built a small house to stay overnight. In 1872, they decided to stay permanently and built a temple named “Chuan Eng Bio” located near Jalan Timur. In 1883, the population increased almost to hundred and major activities were catching crabs, fishes and prawns. Some of them built sundries shops, and fish dealer shops. The locals are mainly Teochew and Hoklo (Hokkien) Chinese, with Teochew, Hokkien and Mandarin Chinese the main dialects spoken.
Chuan Eng Bio temple.
As we explored further, we saw houses and more houses built on stilts. I found it interesting that some of the houses have paintings on top of their windows. It is not just new year painting posted on top of their windows during Chinese festivals but more like a permanent fixture of decoration. Some of the houses have hanging lanterns too. I guess other than hanging it during festivals, lantern continue to be a means of artistic expression, both in terms of functionality, design, and decoration.
We came to the end of Sungai Satu where we reached a fish-dealer jetty. Fish dealing was not in sight as we came about 3pm. I think the dealing is in the morning. We took a rest before heading back the same way to the jetty.
We did not get to visit Floating Fish Farm is as we were already tired exploring the other part of the island. We will save the other part for later when time permits. I bought a map at Greenway‘s shop and perhaps I can take the Visit Fish Farm Package. For a trip for 4 persons, the price is RM60. The package will include around the island tour on a wooden boat before arriving at the Fish Farm. At the Fish Farm, there will be a tour guide to explain about fishes reared there. Or perhaps we can take the Day Time Fishing Package which cost about the same price. This will be interesting as my son, Yassin, is very keen on fishing. He has his own fishing rod.
References:
http://greenway2u.com/about.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulau_Ketam
16 Comments
Diana Diane Teo
Went there before with my friends when studied in KL. Stayed for 2D1N and it is a pleasure and relax trips. The seafood is quite cheap too.
Incik RestNrilekS
Salam Alaiyka.
Eh, kenapa ehhh rizal rasa macam dejavu je baca entri ni. Best kak emila, selalu jalan spontaneous. Rasa nak pergi. Jom je. Syiok tu, teringat masa remaja-remaja dulu, gaya kunun carefree. Hehee.
Cun tu sebab pengangkutan utama naik basikal.
Selamat bersahur : )
Adora Kamalia
Assalamualaikum, Emila.
um, I kinda sent you an email, I hope you could reply it ASAP,
please and thanks. (:
AbgferOz
hehehe duduk je selangor tpi pulau ketam pun tatau di mane.. hihihi negeri laen dah jelajah tpi tempat sndiri blum lagi 🙂
emila
Ha…itulah. Mari kita jelalah Selangor bersama-sama!
emila
Waalaikumsalam, replied already. Thanks.
emila
Hehehe, rewrite dan repost.
emila
Indeed very cheap, Diana.
Mariuca
Agree spontaneous trip es exciting! 😉
Mariuca
Never been to pulau ketam but love to makan ketam ha ha… 🙂
emila
Heheh Fatty Crab.
emila
Kan?! It is fun to plan last minute.
yong
hi..are u sure the fee to pulau ketam is RM 7 only for one way?
emila
Very sure. I went independently, not with a group or travel agency. That’s the normal rate for one way as at July 2012.
yong
thanks for your information….:D
imaisha
wah, kak Em dah sampai Pulau Ketam ke.. saya yg tinggal kat Klang ni pun tak sampai2 lagi.. dah lama simpan hasrat nak pegi, tapi asyik tangguh je.. hopefully, can go after this raya.. 🙂