And that's why they teach you about timeliness anyway!
So I went on my trip to Kukup on Saturday, but not before staying over the day before at Daniel's house!
We had the nicest steamboat that I've had in a long time. Although we didn't have enough time to marinate everything, it just tasted right. Wii and Mahjong helped us pass the time. Daniel, Yiping, Liqi, Victor and I played till about 330AM before finally surrendering to our need for some shut eye.
The next day we had vegetarian for breakfast before heading out to City Hall MRT station, where we met the rest of our gang to make up the ten of us - Shaun, Kai Rong, Yu Lian, Andy, Bernice and Wei Fang. We chatted and camwhored on our two-hour bus ride up north to Kukup.
The trip was really much faster than I imagined! Soon enough, the minibus drove through this very narrow, busy road with shops on either side. As we reached the end, we dropped and made our way down this small alley that led us to an entire village.
Going there was exciting because it was as if we took a step back in time. We saw sweets stuffed in countless transparent plastic bottles with their red caps tightly screwed on. The pathway was without bounds, and on either step was a 2 meter drop into mud! The entire village was built on wooden and cement stilts heading all the way out to the sea.
The information given to us by the travel agency was rather inaccurate. We were under the impression that we were going to stay in something like a chalet. However we were all stunned when we stopped in front of a person's house. Liqi and I knew that the house would belong to someone who was renting out the place to us, but I think it would've been more appropriate if the tour had labeled it as a home stay.
Getting over our initial surprise, we went in to be greeted by the spacious living room and checked out our two bedrooms.
The number of mattresses available was startling. In fact it would've been rather appropriate to film the children's story "The Princess and the Pea" right in that very room! We went around exploring and taking more photographs. Coke was also provided as refreshments as we were overwhelmed by the blistering heat!
The houses were built on mud like this. I had never seen that many mudskippers in my entire life! There were crabs and rats finding food and generally looking very happy to be scurrying around the place.
The tour guide gave us a bit more information about the fishing village too. There was a sign at the door that said "No Salesmen". That tickled us quite a lot but he explained that it was due to the fact that the doors were almost never locked and hawkers would come by and sell their ware. It didn't deter the lady who was bringing around all the dried fish though. She came in and asked us to buy her stuff anyway, which, after initially rejecting her, we bought a few packets!
Four of us stayed to play mahjong while the rest of them explored the place.
And took photos. After our lunch of bee hoon and curry chicken, which had everyone having seconds, the lady was nice enough to make us some prawn crackers. I was too full to eat it at first. However after taking a bite, I just couldn't resist myself, and took a couple more. They were really different. Despite being thin, there were various different ingredients in there. They weren't merely crackers.
Shaun and Bernice seem to be enjoying themselves tremendously. The more relaxed pace of life, good food... what could be better! We entertained ourselves with Karaoke and mahjong until it was time for us to visit the fish farms.
We took a long walk back to the main road and turned right. Within minutes, we reached the jetty. There was this building that was under construction and we a couple of photos that looked like that they would have a place on ANTM! What can I say... I could be a noted fashion photographer in the future too! A boat came to pick us up and we had a good look at what was on both sides of the Malacca Straits (TBC). When we reached the fish farm, we saw some unusual fishes, as well as those which looked familiar on our dinner plates! We got the chance to get personal with a starfish, a small shark and...
The horse-shoe crab, otherwise known as the king crab. Yiping commented that it looked like Shaun because of its eyes - small and far apart. I think Shaun is really one of the few people in Hall I would readily admit to being really good-looking (eh, I pageant one ok!) but... I got to agree that I see some resemblance between those two! Hahaha! We went back and entertained ourselves a bit more before enjoying the BBQ seafood dinner.
Needless to say, it was freaking good. I wished there were more seafood but the chicken wings were tasty too! We stuffed ourselves till we could no longer take another bite before moving on to our next activity - fireworks.
It really helped that Kai Rong is such a pro at this! We were thrilled by the display of the various fireworks that were available to us, all their different colours, shapes and sounds. The great thing was actually holding onto one of those and being able to create some of the magic ourselves.
For example, this is one that would just keep spewing light higher and higher till it ran out! It was really amazing.
I had an early night while the rest played till late.
The next morning at 715 AM, I set off for a little adventure of my own around the village. I walked till the end of my little street and reached a house that was under construction. It had the mangrove swamp at its backyard!
I loved the thrill of going into something that was under construction and unfinished. It sort of reminded me of The OC were Marissa and Seth went into a house that was incomplete just to hide Ryan. Sneakily and without permission (something you'd probably not do in Singapore), I went in and explored the place.
Okay, so I took a photo of myself as well.
The path to the jetty was rather long. I walked past things that looked like chalets in Singapore. There were many Singaporean families and one that housed super a lot of grannies who were enjoying their card games and karaoke! I was in disbelief that they were awake so early in the morning. They were up late last night while we went out to play with fireworks!
There were a couple of Malay men fishing. It surprised me because the little portion of the village I stayed in were all occupied by chinese. So That was a little strange. However they were really friendly and taught me the names of their catch in Malay. I only saw one type of fish being caught there though - the catfish!
I was lucky enough to catch the fisherman in action!
After catching it, he took a pair of pliers and started cutting the fins, which he explained were poisonous. I have no idea how are why. As interesting as it was it was also painful to see the fish bleeding and struggling. But that's how fishes are caught everyday anyway.
I took one last photo of the fantastic place and its picturesque view. I hope to be back there again one day, this time to learn even more about the place and its culture. I think one of my biggest "shou huo" is the photos that I painstakingly took! To have see the photographic journey, click here!
PS It was a great trip. Thank you all for putting up with my bit of nonsense at the end. =) We'll hang out again soon!
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