Escapade at Kukup Laut.

We made our way to Kukup, Johor, Malaysia. It was the 2nd consecutive Friday, our department had a welfare activity. The previous Friday we had our annual services-level family day, the Escapade, at East Coast Park. It started with a wet morning, followed by some wet beach games and lotsa mud. It was really more like a buncha engineers playing some uni orientation games. My team ended up last. But as a consolation, we won some GV movie passes thanks to the quick thinking of a teammate who managed to borrow a shoe from the director during the scavenger hunt. I think at the end of the day, it was having fun first, competition second, for us. It was great getting to know people from other divisions. Below is a picture of my team.

Back to the Kukup trip, our first stop along the way was the Pineapple Museum at Pontian. Apparently, growing of pineapples aka Nanas, is a big business there. The government does lotsa research and there are many different species. I still remember there's the famous Nanas Morris and Nanas Josepine (a combination of Johor and Sarawak pineapples - big and sweet). We saw some tools used in the plantation, the different products, and different stages of growth of the pineapples. Below are us posing in front of the pineapples art thingy, and the whole gang outside the museum.

At the outskirts of Kukup, we stopped by a prawn cracker (those orange strips or square pieces which you normally find with kachem puteh) factory. If you are thinking about big factory, workers in white uniforms with face mask, you are wrong. It was a single level shop house beside the road. There were about 4 small machines used to cut the prawn paste. A deep fryer with rotating arm stirred the crackers in and out of the oil (which I had no idea when was the last time they changed it). The last process before packing was a rotating funnel used to dry the crackers. The whole place was cramped and dark. I think I will not be eating prawn crackers anymore in the future. =p

When we got off the coach at Kukup Jetty, a stench greeted our noses. It was the smell of dead fishes. As we walked towards the sea, the smell slowly went away. Perhaps we got used to that smell after a while. We boarded a boat and visited the fish farms in the sea. Unlike kelongs, these farms were made of floating barrels and wooden planks. The fish farm was facing Pulau Kukup, Johor National Park. But we did not have time to explore the island. Anyway the owner showed us some of the fishes he reared, like the groupers, archer fishes, horse shoe crabs, dog sharks, mini-lobsters, etc.

Along the coast, some of the villagers were drying some stuffs used to make sambal chili. And they were like stepping all over them. That was one of the reasons why I never like to eat sambal chili.

When we got back to shore, we had our lunch at the Tong Seng Seafood Restaurant. Outside parked a blue merc with Singapore car-plate. I wonder why someone would drive all the way to Kukup to eat, much to my disappointment, the seafood was not so fantastic.

After lunch, we went to a cosmetic factory and then to Giant. It wasn't exactly interesting, so I don't have much to say about those places. We ended with dinner at a Chinese restaurant in a sports club.

And it was back to home sweet home, Singapore! More pictures of the trip can be found here.