We woke up early to take some sunrise shots.

Promoting my Nokia Lumia.

There are a few other photograhers hanging around, waiting for the sun to be up.

The sun graced us with its appearance!

After the photo taking, I went for a jog to burn some calories for more food.  I remember thinking that if it’s just 30km from the ferry to Sungai Rengit, it’s possible to jog instead of cycling.  After much musing and exploring the compact town, I headed back to the hotel for shower.

And breakfast soon after that!

I’m sure most of us have friends who like to fly home from a vacation in the evening so they can “maximise” their time overseas.  I belong to the sort who prefer to reach home in the afternoon so I have enough time to unpack, meet up with friends to have a nice dinner and rest.  And I always find that the mood on the last day of the vacation is often drag, even if you visit some places of interest, your mind is usually on the things that are waiting for you back home.  So whenever possible, I would time the trip home in the late morning depending on the time needed for the return journey.

No surpises that we decided to leave Sungai Rengit at around 9am.

Passed by a mango farm which we did not visit.

Riding speed of 16.7km/h

That must be a huge lizard.

J should refer to Jam, the malay word for hour.

Back at Pengerang Ferry Terminal.  The modus operandi is the same. You leave your passport to the counter and they will call you when the list of 12 people is full.  Often, it’s quite a long wait.  We waited for an hour.

Well, goodbye Malaysia, till the next trip.

Sungai Rengit is a town in Pengerang located at the southeastern trip of Johor.  Just 35km south of Desaru, Sungai Rengit is an unassuming place with a few good seafood restaurants and small hotels.

For this trip, our plan is to take a bum boat from Singapore to Pengerang and cycle to Sungai Rengit for seafood lunch before heading back to Singapore.  FH and I however decided to spend a night at Sungai Rengit to explore the area a little more.

I brought along a GPS receiver and managed to track the route and waypoints shown below. If you would like a copy of the file in Garmin GDB format, just post a comment and I will send the download link to your email.

Day 1 (Singapore to Sungai Rengit)

We arrived early at Changi Village for breakfast and to rent bicycles.  Originally, we wanted to rent our bicycles from Tristan Park in Pengerang who would pick us up from Pengerang ferry terminal to their place for bicycles.  But they have recently stopped this service so we had to rent from Changi Village.  Anyway, as the bicycle shops at Changi Village do not open that early, it’s advisable to make arrangements with the shops if you intend to set off before 9am.

We rented our bikes from Mr. Bikes Enterprise from Blk 1, #01-250, Changi Village Road, Singapore 500001 (Tel 65420529).  It cost SGD 10 per day of rental of one bike.  After checking our bicycles for road worthiness, we headed to Changi Ferry Terminal (not to be confused with Changi Point Ferry Terminal) which is 100m away.

There are no fixed schedules for the bumboats making the rounds between Singapore and Pengerang.  The bumboats will leave when there are 12 passengers or you can pay for the missing passengers.  It cost S$11 for each passenger for the one way trip.  Bringing along a bicycle cost an additional S$2.  The earliest ferry leaves at around 7am.

We left our passports at the operating desk to join the queue for the bumboats.  We ended waiting quite a fair bit of time.  It’s probably wise to come earlier or make up a big group so your group can occupy a whole bumboat.

Finally, we can load our bicycles onto the bumboats.

Neatly arranged.

I always prefer sitting on the upper deck for wind and sun.  Okay, the truth is that I can get a little sea-sick in an enclosed space on a rocky boat.

Old tech vs new tech. Both has its place in my traveling.

Pengerang in sight.

Just behind the Pengerang Ferry Terminal is a site of a major WWII British battery.  Check out a previous visit here.

Off we go!  The roads at Pengerang are relatively well-maintained and flat.

Scenery along the way.

It’s election time in Malaysia.

Kilometer stones as I grew to depend.

Stopped for some drinks.

I used to cycle a lot when I was a kid but it didn’t become my hobby.  I find cycling rather montonous and lacking the physical demands of running (I probably didn’t cycle hard enough) or complexities of other sports.  But during this trip, I found cycling long distances on good roads to be a enjoyable experience.

Our stop point – Jade Garden Seafood Corner.

Highly endorsed by food critics!  Other popular restaurants are Crystal Jade Seafood and Si Wan Dao Seafood.

We ordered a variety of dishes including local specialities like lobsters and ostrich meat.

Buying some pastries at Kedai Kek Lim Choo Seng to bring back home.

Lao Po Bing aka Old Wife Cake

There isn’t a McDonald or KFC in Sungai Sengit, but there is still the popular local fast-food chain – Marrybrown.

FH and me found Tai Hoe Hotel easily in the small town. There are a few other hotels such as Let Seng Hotel, Hotel Hiap Hwa and Seng Huat Hotel. n the town. Tai Hoe is slightly more expensive but its reviews are mostly good.

You can park your bicycles outside the hotel. At night, when the hotel closes their provision shop, they will bring in the bicycles.

Our basic but clean room.

A bit of reading before a nap.

At 4pm plus, we recovered enough from the sleep for more cycling around town.

Next, we headed to the nearby ostrich farm which is a couple of kilometers to the east.  There is an obvious sign for the right turn along the highway to the farm.

Thumbs up to myself for being so well-prepared.

The ostrich farm is opened from 10am to 6pm daily.  There is an admission charge of RM15 and RM10 for adults and children respectively.

The ostrich farm is opened by Mr Colin Teh who is a former Singapore SAF pilot.

Ostrich dishes at its restaurant.  Oh, both the showroom and restaurant are located outside the farm so you need not pay for the admission charges to visit them.

How can we resist satays!

Mr Teh explaining the toughness of the ostrich egg.  You need to use a hand drill to crack a hole!

Sourvenirs for sale.

Ostrich egg omelette which we dabao (take-away).

Other cyclists along the road.

It’s getting dark soon and we didn’t have bicycle lamps.

But we still found enough time to stop by a durian stall by the road.

Yum yum.

Lobster mascot of Sungai Rengit.  Today happened to be the day where the Lynas Busters would be assembling at Sungai Rengit.  And I happened to be wearing the same green as them. 

A walk around town for dinner places.

Long queues = good food!

Well worth the wait.

Back to hotel where we watched a soccer match before sleeping.

Next

28/11/2012

I sent my car loan application (on a weekday) via my dealer to Standard Chartered unaware about the weekend $100 petrol voucher promotion.

30/11/2012

Learnt about the weekend $100 petrol voucher promotion.  Called Standard Chartered and asked if it’s possible to cancel the application and resubmit over the weekend to enjoy the promotion.  I was given the affirmative.

01/12/2012

Thought it’s quite silly to cancel and resubmit so I explained my case to Standard Chartered via the online mailbox.

A couple of days later, a lady called and told me they would be happy to give me the petrol vouchers once my loan is confirmed.

A couple of days later, my loan was confirmed.

08/01/2012

It’s been one month and I already paid my first installation but I have yet to receive the petrol vouchers (which I read will be sent in one month).  So I dropped another message to Standard Chartered via the online mailbox.

A guy soon called and informed me that there is no record that I would be given the petrol vouchers. And as I am unable to give them the name of the lady who called me, they cannot check for me.

This time, I asked for the guy’s name.  He is Lucas.

He claimed that according to their records, they do not have a person from their department (GE Money?) who called me in early Dec.  He added that the lady might be somebody outside their department.  And he is unable to check. (I have no idea who besides his department has the authority to call customers for such requests and how I can help him check.)

When I asked if I can have an official email response from them, I was given the negative.

So while my memory is fresh, I decided to write out the factual events that happened.

From this whole episode, this is what I learnt:

- Standard Chartered Auto Loan’s willingness to be flexible and provide good will to customers

- Standard Chartered Auto Loan is unable to carry out its offer for various reasons

- Standard Chartered either has no records or has difficulty tracking who calls its customers.

- It’s always smart to ask for the customer service representative’s name

You might also be interested in: Episode with HDFC Bank

On this page, I would list out some of them.  Hopefully, you would find it useful.  Will update it over time.

A Walk from East to West

Pulau Semakau

Bukit Brown

Syonan Jinja

Kranji Farms

Pulau Ubin

Kayaking

Out of place restaurants

• Ulu Ulu Cafe Lounge
• The Coastal Settlement
• Bollywood Veggies
• Bistro at Gardenasia
• Hill Top Japanese Restaurant at Jurong Hill
• Blue Bali

It came to me one night during my 6 month job gap.  I put some stuff into my backpack and caught a late train to Pasir Ris.  And started walking home to Boon Lay where I stay.

My route (in yellow).

Pasir Ris Station, the start of the journey.

Interesting fact (from wiki): The first reference to a village of Pasir Ris, Passier Reis, appeared in 1853. There has been conjecture that perhaps this is a contraction of Pasir Hiris (pasir is “sand” and hiris means “to shred” in Malay).

Tampines Station

Interesting fact (from wiki): The name Tampines goes back to the Franklin & Jackson map of 1828. It is named after Sungei Tampenus, which in turn got its name from the tampines trees (Sloctia siderozylon) which are said to be growing there.

Simei Station

Interesting fact (from wiki): The name Simei is pinyin for “four beauties” in Chinese. Initially, the roads in this area was named after the four great beauties in Chinese history (Xishi, Wang Zhaojun, Diao Chan and Yang Guifei). However, due to difficulties in pronouncing these street names by the non-Chinese ethnicities, the roads were renamed Simei Streets 1 to 4.

Good use of the land beneath the train tracks.

Tanah Merah Station

Tanah Merah was one of my most frequented MRT stations as I used to serve in the nearby military camp.  I still go to the station from time to time when I take the public transport to Changi airport.

Interesting fact (from wiki): The station is the only interchange station not to be part of two or more lines, due to it being an interchange between the main East West Line and the Changi Airport Branch Line. The station is also the only MRT interchange station to have only one alphanumeric symbol (as opposed to other interchange stations, which have at least two).

Bedok Station

Interesting fact (from wiki): The Malay word bedoh refers to a type of slit drum made from a large hollowed log for calling people to a mosque for prayers or to sound the alarm in the days before loudspeakers. There was a prominent mosque in the 1950s at Jalan Bilal that still used the drum about five times a day. The “h” in the word bedoh was replaced with a “k”, and, as with most Malay words that end with a “k”, it is pronounced with an inaudible glottal stop.

Kembangan Station

Interesting fact (from wiki): Kembangan means “expansion” in Malay.

Eunos Station

Interesting fact (from wiki): The station is designed with a traditional Malay roof structure and shape, but using modern materials such as steel beams, similar to that of the Eunos Bus Interchange. This is to provide a sense of identity to the area, as Eunos bus interchange lies close to Geylang Serai and the Malay Village.

Paya Lebar Station

Interesting fact (from wiki): Paya Lebar was a large, swampy area close to the Kallang River, hence its name. Paya means “swamp” and lebar means “wide” in Malay. This was an extensive and notorious squatter district, whose inhabitants engage in cultivating market produce, including pig and poultry rearing.

Aljunied Station

Interesting fact (from wiki): Aljunied Road was officially named in 1926 after Syed Omar bin Ali Al Junied (died 1852).  Syed Omar was a wealthy Arab merchant from Palembang, where he had set up business after migrating from his hometown in Tarim, Hadramaut (Yemen). He was also a highly respected man, looked upon by the Malays as a prince. Syed Omar came from the well-respected Arab family who were descendants of Islamic prophet Muhammad. He was a nephew of Syed Mohammed bin Harun Al Junied, who also came from Palembang to Singapore in the early days before the founding of Singapore in 1819.  Syed Omar was a philanthropist and his charitable acts included donating a large plot of land in Victoria Street for the purposes of a Muslim burial ground and the construction of a mosque in Bencoolen Street. The land where St Andrews Church (see St Andrew’s Cathedral, Singapore) stands was also donated by him. He and his family contributed largely to the setting up of the Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

By this time, I noticed signs of lives.  Newspaper delivery men were making the rounds and hawkers were preparing at their food stalls.

Kallang Station

Interesting fact (from wiki): Kallang is an old Malay reference to the orang laut (people of the sea), called orang biduanda kallang, who lived in the vicinity of the Kallang River and Singapore River.

From Kallang, the tracks start to go undergound so I walked in the general direction towards to the next station.

Lavender Station

Interesting fact (from wiki): Despite the apparent modernity of its surroundings, the station lies at the historic boundary of the original colonial settlement of Singapore in 1819, which was marked by the adjacent Rochor River. The surrounding area comprised old shophouses, factories, villages, rivers and swamps until the 1960s, when the area was transformed by urban renewal and high-rise public housing.  The oldest buildings in the area include the Hajjah Fatimah Mosque and the Kampong Glam heritage district. Besides these, most of the area comprises high-rise public housing estates. Modern multi-storey commercial or mixed-use buildings in the area include Golden Mile Complex and The Concourse, both icons designed by famous architects, as well as Golden Mile Tower, Sultan Plaza, Textile Centre and Keypoint.

Bugis Station

Interesting fact (from wiki): It was built on the site of The New 7th Storey Hotel.

City Hall Station

Interesting fact (from wiki): There is a mural along the wall of the station called Vitreous Enamelled Mural by Simon Wong.

Raffles Place Station

Interesting fact (from wiki): It used to be the largest and deepest MRT station in Singapore, but the record was broken by Dhoby Ghaut in 2003 and then by Bras Basah in 2010, which is around 35 metres below ground.  The station is the only MRT station to ever participate in three terrorist exercises, which are Exercise Northstar IV on January 11, 2004, Exercise Northstar V, when it was one of four stations which participated in the exercise on January 8, 2006, as well as Exercise Northstar VII on July 7, 2009 together with Sentosa and VivoCity.

Tanjong Pagar Station

Hmm, where is Tanjong Pagar?  I must have forgotten to take a photograph.  Anyhow, by this time, my legs started to ache.  It also started raining so I seeked shelter at a coffee shop for rest and refreshments.

Interesting fact (from wiki): Tanjong Pagar in Malay means “cape of stakes”, a name which reflects its origins as a fishing village situated on a former promontory. It has been surmised that the name was inspired by the presence of kelongs (offshore palisade fishing traps constructed using wooden stakes and cross pieces) set up along the stretch of coast from the village of Tanjong Malang to what is now Tanjong Pagar. It is possibly a corruption of the earlier name Tanjong Passar, a road which led from South Bridge Road to the fishing village and which appeared in George Drumgoole Coleman’s 1836 Map of the Town.

Outram Park Station

Interesting fact (from wiki): A plaque relating the history of the Outram Park prison can be found outside of the station. The prison no longer exists as residential blocks (HDB) have been built where the prison once stood.

Tiong Bahru Station

Interesting fact (from wiki): The estate and its residents were the subject of the 10th in the CIVIC LIFE films by Irish filmmakers Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy. TIONG BAHRU, starring 150 volunteers from the estate and from across Singapore, was shot in June 2010 and premiered at the National Museum of Singapore in October 2010. Watch TIONG BAHRU, here: http://player.vimeo.com/video/39187740

Redhill Station

At Redhill Station, the tracks became elevated again. By now, I was limping.

Interesting fact (from wiki): Redhill MRT station is the smallest station in the entire MRT System, and is the only station in which the two platforms are not parallel to each other.

Queenstown Station

Interesting fact (from wiki): Queenstown is one of the early housing estates in Singapore, built before Toa Payoh and Ang Mo Kio, and was a test bed for much of Singapore’s public housing. Queenstown was named after Queen Elizabeth to mark her coronation in 1952. The area used to be called by the Chinese name wu wei gang.

Commonwealth Station

Interesting fact (from wiki): Commonwealth is named after the Commonwealth of Nations

Bouna Vista Station

Interesting fact (from wiki): Buona Vista was so named because of the good view it offers — buona vista means “good sight” in Italian.

Dover Station

Interesting fact (from wiki): Adjacent to the Singapore Polytechnic on one side, and undeveloped land on the other, the building of the station was met with reservations by some members of the public over the small area it serviced. There were criticisms over the spending of “taxpayers’ money” chiefly for use only by students of one educational institution.

Clementi Station

Clementi station was one of the first few stations to be operational.  I remember going there as a kid with my parents during the opening ceremony.  I used to live at Clementi West.

Interesting fact (from wiki): Clementi and the roads therein are named after Sir Cecil Clementi Smith, Governor of the Straits Settlements and High Commissioner from 1887 to 1893. The governor was an accomplished Chinese scholar. Among his achievements during his stint in office were laws brought into force to control secret societies in Singapore.

It’s a long walk from Clementi to Jurong East.  The tracks between these two stations is the longest between any two stations along the line.

Jurong East Station

Interesting fact (from wiki): Jurong is probably derived from the Malay word jerung, which means a “shark”.

Chinese Garden Station

Interesting fact (from wiki): The colour scheme of the station is mostly brown, red and green. It is similar to the colour used in the interior of classical Chinese buildings.

Lakeside Station

Interesting fact (from wiki): As the Jurong Lake lies next to this station which derived its name from geographical feature.

The last stretch of walk!

Boon Lay Station

Interesting fact (from wiki): This station was named after Boon Lay Way, the street along the station, although the actual town of Boon Lay is located about 1 kilometer away.  Boon Lay is a residential precinct in Jurong, named after Chew Boon Lay, a prominent businessman in the late 19th century and early 20th century who owned the land where the precinct stands, when a requisition of 1.012 km² of land from his estate was done by the war department of the then colonial government of Singapore, leading to the growth of Boon Lay Village in the 1940s, with a population of about 420 in the early 1960s.

It took me almost 12 hours for the 50km walk.  I had thought it would be an easy stroll.  Apparently, I wasn’t really that used to the distances.  In fact, I was quite inmobile for the next few days.  But I was determined to get fitter.  I was to jog/walk my first marathon 6 months later.

It’s good thing that when I took the walk in 2008 the western extension wasn’t up yet or else I would have to walk a further 2 stations!

The original plan for the morning was to visit Kukup Island National Park.  But lazing around seem like a pretty good alternative.

So here I was, reading Aravind Adiga‘s Between the Assassinations.  The assassinations refer to Indira Gandhi’s death in 1984 and that of her son, Rajiv Gandhi, in 1991.

Took a few shots of the surrounding Kelongs.  In case you are wondering, Kelong is a malay word for house built on water.

The tide is rising.

Some of our fishing neighbours caught a pufferfish. This is a fish of many names as taken from wikipedia – pufferfish, puffers, balloonfish, blowfish, bubblefish, globefish, swellfish, toadfish, toadies, honey toads, sugar toads, and sea squab.

By late morning, we were packed and took a ferry for some sight-seeing.

The fish farms.

That’s Pulau Kukup National Park.  Pulau is the malay word for island.

A guided tour at a fish farm.

Our tour guide was feeling the blues.

But he soon recovered and delivered a well practised oratory of the fish farm and the sea creatures.

Idyllic surroundings.

Our lunch was arranged at Restoran High King.  We only have to inform the staff that we can from Ah Lin.  There must be a well-established system in place here.

Food came fast despite the crowds.

After lunch, our coach arrived and drove us back to Singapore, again to our individual homes.  It’s been a nice short getaway trip!

We arranged with one of the cab drivers who sent us back yesterday to pick us up this morning to Gunung Lambak.  We bought some breakfast at the entrance of Gunung Lambak.

With this second hike of Gunung Lambak, I came to realise that the routes up Gunung Lambak are in the shape of the figure 8.  At the bottom of the mountain, there are two ways up to the midpoint near a pavilion.  The path on the left (facing the mountain) nearer to the resorts is easier than the path on the right.  Then from the pavilion, there are another two routes up to the summit.  The path on the left (facing the mountain) is a steeper hike than the path on the right which passes through a “Selamat Datang Ke Gunung Lambak” gate.

Midpoint of the hike, going a little further brings us to the pavilion.

The pavilion where we took a short break. (Reusing a photo from an earlier Gunung Lambak trip)

We took the easier path on the right beyond the huge sign below.

Go straight until you hit a cross junction and take the left turn.  Continue straight all the way to the summit.

The 510m Gunung Lambak summit!

Some flowers at the summit.

Didn’t take much photos of the scenery as we spent much time taking jump shots.

Started noticing the mushrooms during the descent.

After the good morning workout, twe took the same cabs back to the hotel to wash up and check out.

Our driver arrived at the appointed time and drove us to Kukup, not before stopping by Pontian town for lunch.

Arrival at Kukup!

Ah Lin’s friend directed us to the chalet.

Seems like a nice place!

With four rooms of various sizes, the place can easily accomodate 20 people.

The living room with Mahjong table, lcd television and karaoke system.  There is a table tennis table outside as well.

Tour of the kitchen. Water, kettle, soft drinks, instant beverages.. basically very well provisioned.

There are only squat toilets.  What goes through the hole goes directly to the sea.  Seems better to do your business during high tide.

The back of the chalet facing the sea.  I received Indonesian telecom’s reception here.

Shot of the surrounding kelongs and fish farms.

Our tea break of fried prawn crackers.

We went for a stroll around the kelongs.

Not exactly clear, but some squirming fish like organisms and crabs during low tide.

Starbucks bought some durian coffee.

Another area of Kukup.

Dinner time.  The food is free flow it seems, just need to put in a request.

Late night activity was mahjong with snacks.

Next

The driver arrived at my place 8am sharp and we went about picking the rest from 5 separate destinations with almost military precision.  It’s nice to travel with punctual people.

By 9am, we were at the causeway.  It can get slightly busy to be crossing the borders at this hour to Malaysia.  But I figured that it’s a good balance between waking up too early and avoiding the busiest hours.

As our ride was a Malaysian registered commercial coach, we had to alight from the vehicle, go through the customs and board the vehicle again.  Using a private vehicle would allow us to cross the customs without getting off the vehicle.  However, a private vehicle need to use the private vehicle lanes versus the dedicated bus lane.  The private vehicle lanes are usually more busy and can come to a near standstill when returning on Sundays.  So there are pros and cons on the use of different type of vehicles.

Another consideration was the use of the causeway versus the second link.  The second link is slightly further with higher fees but is usually not as crowded as the causeway.  I did checked with the driver when making the arrangement and he told me he would be using the causeway.  I respected his choice and did not question further.

After clearing the customs, we stopped by Queen Park Restoran for breakfast.

Most of us had the Laksa Yong Tau Foo.

And a side dish of egg tarts.

And some herbal You Tiao.

Know why the compact discs are hanging above the food?  Apparently, the houseflies are scared of their own reflections.

Zen Xin Organic Farm is located along Jalan Batu Pahat towards the direction of Kluang town.

I had made pre-arrangements with Zen Xin for a farm tour package.

The knowledgeable guide brought us around and explained a lot of things. Unfortunately, I have forgotten most of them.  Admittedly, I wasn’t paying a lot of attention.

Guess what we are making?

Curry puffs!  From the shapes, it’s probably obvious they were self-made.

After a steamboat lunch at Zen Xin and some organic food shopping, we continued our way to Kluang town and checked in at Rail Hotel.

I like this shower head.

After a short rest, the driver brought us to Kluang Mall before he called it a day.  We arranged to meet the driver the next afternoon when he would be driving us to Kukup.

We first went to the cinemas to check if there are any shows worth watching.  James recommended Hantu Gangster, a locally produced movie.  It’s produced by Namewee of Nasi Lemak 2.0 fame.

We had some time before the movie and went for some chai.

I enjoyed the movie thoroughly.  From the movie poster, you might get the impression that it’s a low brow horror-comedy.  But it is a deeper movie than that.  There are many references to the deeper political and social issues in Malaysia.

We took a walk from Kluang Mall through the Pasar Malams (night markets) where we had dinner at a roadside restoran.  We then took 2 cabs back to Rail Hotel and turned in early for a morning hike the next day.

Next

Looking to get out of Singapore for the upcoming Hari Raya long weekend, my friends (ex-colleagues) and I decided on a trip to Malaysia.  Even though I have been to many short trips to Malaysia, this would be the first time I am organising one.

The main goal of the trip is to have a fun and relaxing time.  My friends are not keen hikers but I figured that a variety of activities including an easy summit like Gunung Lambak in Kluang would be interesting.  Zenxin farm visit and local walkabout are other planned activities for Kluang.  We would be spending the night at the highly-rated Rail Hotel.

After Kluang, the next stop would be Kukup.  Known for its rustic kelong life and excellent seafood, Kukup has always been a popular tourist destination among Singaporeans.  But somehow, most of my friends and I had never visited Kukup.  So why not during this trip?

As with most trips, there were a slew of problems to settle.  First off is transport.  I originally wanted us to take the train from Woodlands to Kluang for the experience.  However, when I tried to purchase the train tickets in advance, I realised that for such short distances, we are not allowed to buy train tickets until the day before the journey.  It made sense because KTM need to cater to the popular route from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur.  Usually, unless there are last minute cancellations, there wouldn’t be any tickets left for the short journeys.  I did found a workaround which is to buy an advance ticket to the nearest allowed destination (Segamat) and just alight at Kluang.  It definitely cost more but that’s not the only issue.  As it’s Hari Raya weekend and I didn’t manage to consolidate all passport information early enough, there weren’t enough train tickets left.  So I was left with the easy choice of getting a chartered coach.  I sent out a few emails to the transport operators we have used before for quotes.

While waiting for the transport operators to get back, I tried looking for a kelong at Kukup.  Boy, it’s more difficult than I imagined.  Because of Hari Raya, there were a lot of tour groups going to Kukup.  Most of the kelongs were booked.  The few kelongs which were still not yet booked were holding out for bigger groups of tourists.  Each chalet can house 20 to 30 people.  So you can see why the owners were reluctant to accept our group of 8.  After much rejections from the kelongs, I started looking at alternatives such as Kukup Golf Resort and the boutique hotels at Pontian.

Then I had a lucky break. Ah Lin, owner of one of the more popular kelongs in Kukup, called back and asked if I was interested in staying at his brother’s kelong.  The price was 90 SGD each for a 2D1N stay which includes 1 snack, 1 dinner, 1 breakfast, 1 lunch and a boat tour.  It’s more expensive than usual and the location of the kelong is not as good as Ah Lin’s.  But I took the offer.  I also asked Ah Lin about chartered coach.  He said he had never arranged for transport from Kluang to Kukup but he would check.

The quotes for the transport came back.  The transport operators we have been using quoted much higher than the prices Ah Lin gave me.  Considering Ah Lin’s cut, I realised we have been overpaying for our past trips to Malaysia.  Well, we do and we learn.

So the planning have been done.  Oh, one thing I requested from the transport operator was to pick us up from our homes.  As we all lived in the west and my place would be the first pick-up point, I figured it would not be asking too much from the driver as I would be leading him to my friends’ places.  And conveniences to my friends as well!

The Kluang and Kukup (Malaysia) report is divided into the following sections:

1. Introduction (You are here)
2. Day 1 (Arriving at Kluang)
3. Day 2 (Kluang to Kukup)
4. Day 3 (Kukup and home)

Disclaimer: This trip was taken in August 2012. The information is provided ‘as is’ with no warranties and confers no rights. If you are interested to know more, please add a comment and I will update the post with more details.

Next

NOBODY DECIDES to travel halfway around the world to spend weeks or months of their life undermining a local community. But voluntourism – like that famous quote about the paving on the road to hell – often comes close. The debate about the practice, like most things in life, is far more ethically nuanced than many organisations facilitating such experiences often let on.

Voluntourism has gained an appeal amongst travelers with a wide range of motivations, time, and skills, from volunteers in organised groups such as the Kiva Fellows to handfuls of backpackers stopping off for a week in Siem Reap. The appeal of wanting to get involved in ‘making things better’ for local groups, orphanages, schools or other projects is the glue that holds many different strains of voluntourism together. And the ground on which fierce debates have raged for a few years already on whether particular flavours of voluntourism are helpful, ethically bankrupt, or simply benign.

If you are intending to do some good on your next journey abroad, you have a responsibility to be aware of some of the practical and ethical questions that you are likely to confront on the way. Although, in the end, how and where you decide to volunteer is ultimately going to be up to you, if you have some degree of dedication to the idea of doing good (you are volunteering after all), then these questions matter.

Let’s start from the top. I want to volunteer at an orphanage…
If your prospective NGO/local partner tells you about going to an orphanage and hugging/playing/otherwise interacting with local children, walk away. Orphanage love programs, while fantastic for pulling at the heart strings of travelers, positively overflow with ethical and practical problems.

In the first instance – and particularly in areas of extreme poverty – foreigners paying money either to operators or to orphanages directly for the privilege of interacting actually serves to create a market for orphans. Yes, that’s right. It can incentivize places to find orphans purely for the purpose of leeching dollars from gullible folk who feel they are helping to fix the facilities/feed the children/do general good.

By way of example, Siem Reap in Cambodia was briefly exposed not too long ago for having orphanages that were actually full of children with real parents. It was cost effective for orphanage-pimps to rent them off their parents for the day so that they could play or perform for gullible tourists for a healthy profit in donations. A quick google search for ‘siem riep orphanage volunteer’ on Google suggests that this sordid market remains well-supplied with the cash of well-intentioned travelers.

Research on fraudulent orphanages (yes, it’s enough of a problem to be researched) suggests that pretty much anywhere that appears to have a proliferation of orphanages should be treated with more than a little suspicion. After the tsunami in Aceh, for example, only 60 in 6,000 – 10,000 minors was found to be truly orphaned (in the sense that they had no close family to foster them and were genuinely in need of institutional care).

None of this is to say that orphans don’t exist, or are rarer than unicorns. It does mean that when arriving in a tourist hotspot and being offered the chance to ‘assist’ at one of a handful (or more) of orphanages, you should be a little cynical.

“OK”, you might ask, “but if an orphanage was legitimate, surely helping out there would be a good idea?”

Sadly, and again according to research, the answer is no. It is emphatically no. And it is ‘no’ for at least two very good reasons.

Firstly, for children growing up in an institutionalized, orphanage-type setting, it is of the utmost importance that children be able to develop a stable, long term attachment to their caregivers. Allowing troops of travelers to come in and hug, play and laugh with the kids every few weeks has precisely the opposite effect. Just as it was useful for you as a child to develop long term, stable bonds with the people who cared for you, so it is important for those children. To take part in orphanage volunteering is to take part in a cycle of creating and abandoning relationships that helps nobody emotionally except you.

Secondly, unless the agency you are volunteering with has done background checks on the lot of you, they are being superbly irresponsible in allowing you carte blanche to enter the institution and interact with the kids. No sane orphanage that has the interests of its children at heart would allow hundreds of complete strangers to play with their children each year. Any that does is failing in their duty of care and should not have you as an accomplice in doing so.

These are just the ethical objections to orphanages, mind you. But it should serve to raise questions that may apply to wider sets of projects regarding children.

OK, so no orphanages. What about a building project in…
Building projects, whether helping to paint murals or erect whole structures in places such as Peru may not be quite as obviously fraught with problems as orphanages, but nevertheless deserve a pause and reflection on your part as participant.

It’s useful, for example, to take a look at how the project is structured. Who are you working with? How are you working with them? Is it part of a larger plan?

While NGOs exist that have an exceptional track record of building useful, useable structures, there are equally as many fly by night operations more concerned with giving you something to do than with actually helping a community. A more ethical project will likely have chosen what it is that they will be working on after consultations with the community they are working in, and it will form part of a larger project plan. A one-library project, while satisfying for those who volunteer to build it, is not development if done in isolation. Equally, spending a hundred dollars in an impoverished community painting the inside of a school is never developmental, no matter what the voluntourism coordinator told you.

Check that your partner NGO, or their partner, has a development plan for the community. One in which the work you will be doing is a meaningful contribution. And check that the long term plan that they have for a community’s development sounds legit. Lots of talk about rebuilding community spirit probably means that there isn’t one. A long term plan centered on water and sanitation, housing and infrastructure probably means that someone has put a great deal more thought into it.

It can be as simple as contacting your prospective voluntourism organisation and asking them how they choose their projects and what their overall plan is for the communities they deal with. Or hop onto Google and check them out. If they have been around for a while, odds are good that somewhere, someone has blogged, reviewed or otherwise talked about them. Finding such feedback from previous participants can give you an excellent outline of whether they are a responsibly-run group doing the kind of work that you are interested in doing.

Follow the money. The ethics of the economics
Also worth considering are the economic consequences of your volunteering. At the most basic level, interrogate the operator about how much of the cash you might be paying to volunteer is actually going to the community. You might be impressed or disgusted with the answer. If they can’t tell you, then they are either hiding something or they don’t know. Either way, it makes them a poor choice of local partner.

Beyond questions of how much money though, are questions of where the money is being spent. If you are working on a building project, how much of the materials were bought from local businesses? Development starts with supporting what services and materials the community can provide already, not destroying local initiative by bringing in tools, materials and skills from outside that are currently available in the local economy.

Odds are good, for example, that basic building supplies exist for sale in the area, and that there are people already skilled in masonry and other artisinal practices nearby. Where situations like this exist, your participation as a (probably) unskilled participant might be best directed at doing work that will allow local community members to practice their professions in a paid capacity onsite. Such approaches promote employment, get things built faster, and support the local economy.

Unfortunately, such projects typically mean that you will find yourself a manual labourer working under a local foreman. Which might not be what you bargained for. As Alexia Nestoria, a voluntourism industry consultant and the voice behind the Voluntourism Gal blog points out, an overwhelming proportion of volunteer projects don’t actually need volunteers to do the work that they are volunteering to do. Not only are there often local people willing and able to undertake the projects, but the time required to actually train and monitor unskilled well-wishers often detracts from effort that communities could otherwise put into just getting on with implementing projects themselves.

The reason for taking volunteers on despite their relative inefficiency is generally because those volunteers are funding the projects. Volunteers are seldom willing to send their cash, but stay at home themselves. Even when it would be a more rational and efficient approach.

So the question that you need to then ask yourself is:

Why am I doing this?
If you are purely interested in doing good, to the exclusion of all other aims, then simply donating your volunteering money to a decent and efficient local organisation may well achieve those aims best.

But simply wanting to do good in the abstract is seldom the motivation for those who travel to volunteer. Many would-be voluntourists have a desire to be a physical part of the project and to have a hand in making the world – quite literally – a better place. Here, a voluntourist needs to make some practical decisions about where their assistance will be most helpful (or minimally troublesome) for a community.

If you have particular specialist skills that are not easily available locally, then consider partnering with organisations that can use those skills. Sure, making a website for a local NGO may not be as sexy as getting your hands dirty building a school, but other people may be able to build walls. Not everyone can set up a decent website, and that makes your contribution necessary and valuable in a way that your grunt labour isn’t.

…and who am I doing this for?
No good volunteerism project works by making heroes out of foreigners in the local community – it’s about working with local groups to achieve development aims as directly and usefully as possible. If that means that you aren’t the top dog on the building site, and the local guy who actually knows how mortar and bricks go together is, then so be it.

That said, there is a school of thought that says that voluntourism should be approached from the point of view of the customer. That people want to feel good about themselves, and that should be catered to as much as possible because the free market will work to weed out the poor projects from the good (watch the first few minutes of this conference, for example) and a growth in good volunteer-centered projects will ensue.

The danger here however, is that the kind of voluntourism project that appeals to a naive traveler’s ego is precisely the project that is unlikely to be developmentally helpful to communities. Projects that are primarily about you as the participant tend to be short lived, low-effort and frequently without a long term goal – since the ‘goal’ is not developmental at all. It’s about making you feel good. Putting the power of the free market to efficiently satisfy demands together with narcissistic fantasies of helping the impoverished is a recipe for disaster.

Oh god. Can I do no right?!
You can. And there are many reasons that you should. But it’s important to pay attention to the fine detail. Questions about where the money goes and the intricacies of your relationship to the community you serve are absolutely fundamental to directing your energies wisely. If you are taking the trouble to go out of your comfort zone to make life better for others, the least you can do is your homework, and to be aware of the complexity of the questions you need to ask.

Voluntourism wouldn’t exist as an industry if travelers were happy to efficiently donate money for local organisations to do the work themselves. For better or worse, many folk want to have a hand in the process of helping communities. That desire can be a useful (or at least benign) learning experience, or it can be wholly unhelpful. To what degree your next journey to volunteer abroad will be one or the other depends a great deal on how you are able to honestly confront some difficult questions about why you are going, who you are going for, and whether you are participating in a project that – in the fine detail – is going to be a force for good.

You may find yourself surprised at how quickly the most straightforward school-building project can become an exercise in self-analysis. It’s uncomfortable, but it’s also absolutely necessary.

By Richard Stupart

Taken from http://matadornetwork.com/change/why-you-shouldnt-participate-in-voluntourism/

I woke up very early at 5am and washed my dirty boots and backpack.   At 630am, I went for a walk and a long breakfast.

Even though we have some time in the morning and early afternoon, we just lazed around the hotel.  I spent much of the early afternoon watching the fishermen.

At 230pm, we left the hotel and visited a local restaurant recommended by our tour company.  The lunch cost us 360k.  We selected quite a few unique dishes.

After lunch, we headed to the airport and the flight left on time.  That’s all folks, until the next trip.

And thanks to Bob for organising the trip!

Woke up at 630am to a breakfast of banana fritters, french toast and the usual pineapples.

A video of the crater lake in the morning:

The tour company provide and carry more than enough water for us so there is no need to carry additional water on our own.

Some fellow Singaporeans were also camping by the lake.  It’s always fun to meet fellow countrymen and countrywomen on foreign soils.  We exchanged our Rinjani experience and took a group photo together.

We finally left at 720am.

But not before Abdul received a Singapore flag as souvenir from the other Singaporeans we met. It’s Singapore’s national day and they brought along our flag to plant at Rinjani’s summit.

Another shot of the beautiful caldera lake.

Up we go towards Plawangan 1 Senaru Crater Rim (2,461m) to explore the views of the lake from the other side.

We reached Plawangan 1 Senaru Crater Rim just before 12pm.

We took a lot of photos with the fluffy clouds.  Now that I think about clouds, I find that I am often mesmerized by the different cloud formations and how little I know about them.  A good read over at Wikipedia.

Descend again.

We reached a rest point at 1230pm. After a short rest, I decided to do a run down with Abdul for Pos 3.  Leaving the rest point at 1245pm, we finished the trail in just 20 minutes.  Normal walking would have taken an hour.  I found the run to be exhilarating.  As it’s a steep and winding downward slope, you have to keep your gravity low and place your step carefully to prevent “overruns”.  I wonder if this is how trail running feels like.  I should do it more often.

Pos 3 was pretty crowded as a common stop point for meals.

We had gado-gado.  With the same few basic ingredients, the cooks still managed to dish out a variety of meals every time.

By this time, most of us were tired after these few days of walking.  We were basically just looking forward to reaching the next Pos and completing our journey.

Here are some of the timings I took for the remaining hike down:

• 240pm – Left Pos 3
• 410pm – Pos 2
• 450pm – Pos Extra
• 530pm – Pos 1
• 6pm – Plantation
• 650pm – Rinjani Trek Centre

In case you are wondering what exactly does Pos means, I believe it’s an abbreviation of Position.

The entrance to Gunung Rinjani National Park from Senaru.

But it’s still a walk through some plantations to the Rinjani Trek Centre.

There are basic bathing facilities at Rinjani Trek Centre.  After cleaning up, we gave out tips (100k per porter), took a group photo and bade farewell to our friends.

We reached Senggigi at around 10pm and had a grilled dinner at Restaurant Rembulan located along Jalan Raya Senggigi.  Food was great and price was fair.  We went for the seafood set meals with various drinks and paid less than 700,000 IDR.

We checked in to Jayakarta Hotel at 1130pm.  After a bath, I quickly fell asleep.

Next

After yesterday’s long workout, 2 of us decided not to go for the summit.  Visiting Rinjani does not mean that you really have to reach the summit as the most magnificent views are actually appreciated from the lower trails and crater rims.  In fact, we met many travelers who were happy to give the summit a miss.

So the rest of us woke up at 145am for some final packing.  Essential items were head torch, warm clothes from head to toe, gloves, hiking boots, hiking sticks, snacks, drinks and camera.

After a quick meal of toast and hot chocolate, we moved off at 230am.

It’s a tough 3.5 hour climb to the summit where one would be more concerned on not slipping on the volcano scree and adjusting one’s scarf to better protect the face against the cold wind, than taking photos in the dark.  I took only one blurred shot.

Another two of us dropped out of the climb and Abdul stayed with them, not before giving blessings to the 2 remaining stoics.  So with strained muscles, a numbed face and a running nose, we pushed on.  We moved at individual pace.  It’s yourself and the mountain.  Your mind tells you to give up and there is no glory about climbing such a mountain.  It’s not Everest.  But your heart tells you to continue.  As the debate went on in your mind, you stepped closer to the summit.

There was a sense of deja vu.  In some ways, the hike was similar to Mt. Kinabalu.  Yet, in other ways, such as the soft deep sand that slides you back 1 step for every 2 steps you take makes it different.

The last 300m was particularly tough.  It’s like walking on marshmallows inclined at 45 degrees.  The diminishing oxygen supply ensures that you are constantly out of breathe. What great fun you might think.

After what seemed like an hour, maybe it’s really an hour, I passed a narrow ridge to the very top of Indonesia’s second tallest volcanco – Mt. Rinjani.

Euphoria experienced at 6am.  The sun had not made its appearance yet.

The fellow with the bike made it as well.

A video taken at Rinjani’s summit.

Glorious sunrise.

For some reasons, I carried my book along to the summit.

It’s time to descend and to see what I actually walked on in the dark.

Other hikers still pushing on.

A good hideout from the strong cold winds.

It used to be possible to hike to Gunung Baru (2,300m), the volcano you see in the middle of the lake.  Gunung Baru is an active volcano and last erupted dramatically in 1994.

Plenty of time for photography on the way down.

My whole boots covered by the soft volcanic sand.

I met Bob and LY on the way down and we continued back to base camp where we reached at 850am.

Yummy pancakes and our favourite drink of hot chocolate for breakfast.

Most of the other groups have dismantled their tents and were moving out.  The monkeys came in for spoils.

A much needed rest after the hard climb.

The strong wind kept blowing our mat off so our porter decided to sleep on it.

A fantastic lunch before we set off to the crater lake.

We moved off at 2pm.

It’s a steep trail down to the lake and we met many hikers coming up from this direction.

This should be the edelweiss plants - bunga abadi.

It’s not my unsteady hands. It’s mist.

We finally reached the crater lake at 6pm.

Off we go to the nearby hot springs believed for its healing powers.

Another great dinner, we even had french fries!

View of the lake and surroundings from my tent.

Goodnight folks!

Next

I woke up at 630am and prepared 3 packs:

(1) Backpack for my clothes, camera and things for the climb which I will be carrying

(2) Folding gym bag for my extra walking shoes, chargers and other stuffs not necessary for the climb which would be passed to the tour agency who would deliver them to Senaru at the end of our climb.

(3) Pack of things I would like the porters to help me carry.  I passed them 3 x 600ml bottles of isotonic drinks.

As it’s still early and the others hadn’t appear yet, I roamed the area.

View of Mt Rinjani from Lembah Rinjani. Do not be fooled by the rather gentle looking mountain.

Our porters arrived early to prepare the loads. Most of the porters moved off before us so that they can prepare lunch and set up camp at Plawangan 2 Sembalun crater rim first.  I also think it’s easier for them to set their own pace rather than following our erratic pace punctuated with random stops for rest and photography.  Our guide, Abdul, and his two assistants (who also carried huge backpacks) followed us.

While the rest had toast, Bob and I had Nasi Goreng.

I forgot the names of this flower but it’s supposed to give the same hallucinatory effects as magic mushrooms.

At the Rinjani Information Centre where we settled our registration.

Abdul described to us the volcano, route details, local cultural traditions, what we might see, rubbish management and safety procedures.

We started officially at 8 am, with Abdul leading the way.

Bob and LY lent me a spare hiking stick.

Expensive sunblock from LY.

The trek starts from Sembalun Lawang with a gentle ascent walking through open grassland used as cattle grazing by local people.

While we came with professional looking trekking shoes, this local made do with socks and slippers.

Dung and me.

Abdul’s brother brought along a water-melon.  He was just too happy to get rid of it during our first break at Pos I Pemantauan (1,300m) .

We carried on and arrived at Pos II Tengengean (1,500m) for our lunch.

We met a group of very professionally dressed South Koreans.

Scenery around Pos II Tengengean.

August is a good month for visiting Rinjani for the dry weather and there were many tourists.

Each visitor to Rinjani must carry the tag below.

My Columbia trekking shoes gave way during my recent Gunung Ledang trip and I didn’t have time to get and break in a new pair of shoes so I brought along my ever-reliable army boots.

Our porters serving lunch.

Lunch was a simple yet delicious bowl of noodles with lots of vegetables.

Fruits were part of the menu as well!

At around 1pm, we continued with the hike.

It took about an hour to reach to Pos 3 Pada Balong (1,800m).

After that, it’s a steep 3.5 hour climb amidst the pine-like Casuarina species locally known as Cemara to the camp site at Plawangan 2 Sembalun crater rim.

You would see such scenes throughout the hike, be careful of where you step.

Yes, we have reached Plawangan 2 Sembalun crater rim (2,639m)!  It’s 5pm.

Elite tour packages with field chairs.

One fellow carried his bicycle all the way up.

A small sale booth for drinks and snacks.

Our tents and campsite for the night. I hung my sweat-soaked clothes for drying.

Welcome to my humble abode.  Already reading up for my North Korea trip in September – Escaping North Korea.

I got back my isotonic drinks.  Looking back, the bottled water was enough and there’s no real need to carry additional energy drinks.

That’s our mobile toilet sitting precariously by the cliff.

It’s basically a hole in the ground.

Our porters aka multi-taskers preparing for our dinner.

A nice Nasi Briyani with hot chocolate by the Rinjani crater.

6 of us!

Sunset by the crater lake.

It’s still early and we had a camp fire which kept us comfortably warm.

Next

We took an evening Silkair flight from Singapore direct to Lombok.  Cheaper alternatives are to take the budget airlines and transit at Jakarta or Bali.

During the flight, I sat beside a businessman.  He mines and fish in Lombok and Sumbawa.  But what interests me most is his current project which is to develop a beach resort and retirement home at Sumbawa.  The retirement home seems like a nice concept and the prices seem fair to me.  We exchanged contacts.

Ask for a window seat on the left side of the plane if you want to catch a beautiful view of Mt. Rinjani rising above the clouds.

We arrived at Lombok International Airport around 7pm.  This is the new airport located around 30km southeast of capital Mataram.  The previous airport is situated at Ampenan on the west coast near Mataram.

On the way to Sembalun Lawang which is 2.5 hours away from the airport, we stopped by a convenience store where we bought some personal drinks and snacks for the hike.  Do note that we were never hungry during the hike and there was always enough water provided by the tour.

The road was bumpy and winding as we near Sembalun Lawang.

Our place for the night was Lembah Rinjani.  It’s a clean place with views of Mt. Rinjani and located just 200m along the Rinjani trail.  There, we also met our guide, Abdul, who would be leading us in the hike over the next 3 days.

There was no hot water but I understand that one can request for a bucket for bathing.

For dinner, we requested local food.  The food looks simple but they were all good!

Next