Johor

  • Family travel,  Johor,  TRAVEL/HOLIDAYS

    Southernmost Tip of Mainland Asia: Tanjung Piai National Park, Johor

    “Hey, do you know that the southernmost tip of Mainland Asia is not far from here?” My husband asked me after driving out from Nusajaya, Johor. “Really? Where? Show me,” I replied. And off we went to Pontian where the  the southernmost tip of Mainland Asia is at.

    Located within the district of Pontian, Johor, Tanjung Piai National Park covers an area of over 926ha — 526ha of which comprise of coastal mangroves. Entry into the Tanjung Piai park requires a minimal fee of just RM3 for adults (Malaysians) and RM5 for foreign visitors, payable at  at a small ticket counter just before entering the visitor’s complex.

    Tanjung Piai

    The above monument, made of eco-friendly-reinforced concrete, was erected in 2001 to mark Tanjung Piai’s unique geographical position as the “Southernmost Tip of Mainland Asia”. Measured at 20 metres high and 10 metres wide, the monument’s stark grey colour represents the rich mangroves and mudflats of Tanjung Piai. The monument is adorned by image of Paku Piai Raya (Acrostichum aureum) – the indigenous fern from which Tanjung Piai derives its name. Tanjung means ‘cape’ in Malay, and Piai is the name of the fern species.

    The monument is just a landmark but the real southernmost tip is actually situated some meters away from the visitor’s complex.

    Visitor's Complex

    534m

    We love the fact that there are many information boards provided along the trails to educate visitors.

    infoboard

    educational signboard

    Along the trail we also got to see monkey, kingfisher, mudskipper, telescopium and crab.

    mollusc

    After walking more than 500 meters, we reached the actual site of southernmost tip of mainland Asia. Yay! We made it!

    smt
    Southernmost tip of Mainland Asia.

    smt2
    A globe structure to mark the cape as 0ne of the Ramsar sites.

    piaisunset
    Sunset at Tanjung Piai.

    So how do you get here? From Kuala Lumpur, take the North-South Expressway (NSE) south past Machap, then take the Simpang Rengam exit (Interchange 247) onto the highway headed for Tanjung Piai, via the Benut – Pontian – Kukup highways (Highway 96, Highway 5 and Highway 95). Once near Kukup, follow signboards leading to Tanjung Piai.

    As for public transportation, currently there is no direct bus service to the Tanjung Piai Johor National Park. Take a bus from KL to Pontian and then take taxi from Pontian bus station to Tanjung Piai.

  • Family travel,  Johor,  TRAVEL/HOLIDAYS

    Legoland Malaysia

    When my husband and I told our son that we will be visiting LEGOLAND Malaysia, he jumped to joy. He is a fan of LEGO and surely to be able to visit the land is something to add to his life’s event. And so we departed KL to Johor Bahru (JB) the night before Dec 1, 2012. As LEGOLAND is big, we want to spend the whole day exploring it. We put up the night at a very cheap hotel in the city and checked out the next morning.

    The drive from JB city to LEGOLAND is about half an hour. We drove from JB to Danga Bay and then proceed straight via the Coastal Highway to Nusajaya.

    We went in LEGOLAND Malaysia at about 10am after having breakfast at Medini Lifestyle Mall situated just outside LEGOLAND. Ample parking space here at the mall.

    legoland

    LEGOLAND has lots to offer for families with children looking for adventure – enough for several days of fun and action. Opened in 15 September 2012, LEGOLAND Malaysia is the 1st LEGOLAND in Asia, the 6th in the world and 1st International park in Malaysia. Entrance fee is RM140 for adult and RM110 for children.

    As you can see below (screen-captured from the website), the place is huge, covering a total area of 76 acres!

    legolandmap

    LEGOLAND Malaysia boasts more than 40 interactive rides, shows and attractions; almost everything is hands-on, so you can push, pedal and program, or steer, squirt and splash, your way through a truly interactive experience – and of course there’s building too. LEGOLAND Malaysia has seven themed areas of attractions for all ages such as The Beginning, LEGO® Technic, LEGO Kingdoms, Imagination, LEGO City, Land of Adventure and MINILAND. It’s an inspirational land where the children are the heroes. The centrepiece is MINILAND, where Asian landmarks have been recreated using more than 30 million LEGO bricks. It’s an interactive world on a scale of 1:20, where people, trains and aeroplanes come to life at the touch of a button. From LEGO experiment centres to rollercoasters, the park is a day-long voyage of discovery for all the family. Of course if we were to cover and experience all, it’ll take us few days to finish.

    As we went during school holiday, the crowd was huge! The queue was quite long too. Yassin did not mind queuing for more than an hour to have his first driving session at LEGOLAND’s Driving School.

    yassin drives

    And later we walked and played at areas which doesn’t require queuing. We’ll come back to explore other interactive rides next year. Here are some pictures captured at LEGOLAND:

    happy-Yassin
    Playground area.

    Yassin and his dad
    Yassin and his dad posing at one of the many LEGO bricks structures on display.

    show
    LEGO show.

    LEGO giraffe
    Yassin under the LEGO giraffe structure.

    playing lego
    Yassin having fun playing with LEGO bricks.

    lego bricks
    I joined in the fun creating something too. 🙂

    what we built!
    What we built – From left; a house by Yassin, a boy character by me and an unidentified-structure by my husband.

    Einstein
    Yassin and his dad admiring Einstein.

    YAssin-and-Crocker
    Yassin and his travelling buddy toy, Crocker, posing with LEGO wolf.

    ninja-warrior

    Yassin doing his ninja-warrior thing at one of the playgrounds available here.

    We had great fun and definitely will return soon. If you don’t know where to take your kids during school holiday, take them here. You won’t regret it. If you need to bring food, you can have a picnic anywhere in here. But there are many food outlets here that your kids will love. Everything is Halal, no worries. For more information, Visit LEGOLAND Malaysia’s website.

    And oh, the most exciting part of the visit, to buy something from the Big LEGO Shop! Yassin is one happy boy to buy something here.

    LEGO shop

     

  • Johor,  Malaysia,  TRAVEL/HOLIDAYS

    Tangkak: Textile Heaven

    Am now back in my in-laws in Tangkak for the weekend and school holiday.

    tangkak town

    Tangkak town. Straight ahead on the background is Gunung Ledang.

    Amongst things I love about Tangkak is its countless textile shops. Tangkak used to be a popular textile centre in the 70s and 80s but lost its popularity after places like Nilai in Negeri Sembilan, was developed.

    I’ve been to Nilai but to me Tangkak is the best because I get to see rows of old shophouses.

    textile shops

    old buildings

    more old buildings

    Textile town and old shophouses.

    Realising that Tangkak has the potential to boost the tourism sector, effort has been made by Ministry of  Tourism to promote Tangkak as a hub for local and imported textile, thus the launching of Textile Festival 2011 on 4th March 2011 by its minister, YB Dato’ Sri Dr. Ng Yen Yen. This festival will be made as annual tourism event.

    So how do you go to Tangkak? If you’re driving from Kuala Lumpur on the North South Expressway (NSE), take the Tangkak exit (Exit 23). After the toll, you’ll see a T-junction. Take the right turn (left turn will take you to Muar) and just follow the main road. You’ll see Tangkak town in about 10 minutes drive.

    You can also take a bus there–there are Cepat Ekspress buses departing from Puduraya Station. Jalan Pudu, KL and Terminal Bersepadu Selatan, Bandar Tasek Selatan, KL. But make sure you find the counter that says KL-Tangkak-Segamat.

    Alternatively you take any bus to Segamat (namely Transnasional) and let the driver knows that you want to go to Tangkak. The driver will drop you off at Tangkak Police Station or alongside the road where the textile shops are situated. But before you do that, please check with the counter at the terminal just to be sure. If not just take the Cepat Ekspress, it will drop you off safely at Tangkak Bus Station.

    windows! yay!

    And of course, I got to capture my subject of interest.

    For your information, Tangkak is a district capital of Ledang, in the state of Johor, Malaysia. It lies close to the neighbouring state of Melaka, especially to Jasin town and district of the state and about half an hour drive from Melaka city centre. The town is nicknamed “Fabric Town” or “Syurga Kain” in honor of its many cloth shops. It is also well-known as Gunung Ledang (Mount Ophir), which is the highest mountain in Johor, just 17 km away from the town centre of Tangkak. The mountain is clearly visible from any part of Tangkak.

    Do you want to know how Tangkak got its name?

    The name of Tangkak comes from ‘tang merangkak’. It happens when a settler, Long Mahmud with his seven siblings were said that they have to crawl up (merangkak) from the edge of Tangkak River to go to Tambak Hill at the area of Seri Makmur. The edge of the river is too soft and marshy as many brackens, ‘sendayan’, ferns and sago palm grow there. As the habitually of crawling (merangkak) at the edge of the river, locals calls it ‘tang Merangkak’ as a way to refer to that place. The word ‘tang’ is usually used by Malays in referring to a place.

    For more information about current activities around Tangkak, do visit Tangkak District Council‘s website. Don’t forget to choose your language preference at the top left corner before you surf the website.

  • family,  Johor,  Malaysia,  TRAVEL/HOLIDAYS,  yassin

    Balik kampung

    We went back to Tangkak last Saturday because Yassin was so bored doing nothing at home. We spent time visiting Yassin’s cousin, Idham and Yassin got to meet with his grandparents new kids as well!

    new kid
    Yassin posing with one of the kids; 6 days old

    In the excitement to help his grandmother with the kid’s den, Yassin fell into a ditch and his ankle hit a broken glass. He got 2 stitches for that.

    poor boy

    Yassin was crying during the stitching process and almost kicked the doctor but his dad was quick enough to hold and calm him.

    Here’s more photos from kampung:

    yass_river yass_kid2 anak kambing tok abah

    this is where yassin and his dad walking

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    Dalila