Day 16 : Pontian Kecil - Kukup - Tg.Piai - Kukup - P.Karimun Besar, Indonesia

Date : March 18th, 2009
Distance travelled : 51 km
Time taken : 2.50 hours

Morning! We had a good rest and were eager to reach our second of corner of Malaysia today!

After our breakfast, we walked to the sea front to take some pictures as it was pretty before heading off :o) Actually, we really didn't have a clue of where we wanted to go after Tg. Piai! We knew wanted to go into Singapore but we still haven't decided how to get there! Oh well, I'm sure we'll figure it out along the way......

Sea front at Pontian Kecil....nice right?

Bed of rocks!

Our hotel in Pontian Kecil...clean & nice!

We had to pass Kukup first before going to Tg. Piai, as shown on our waterproof map. By the way, our waterproof map of Malaysia has been awesome! Highly recommended for those who wants to do touring! You might want to close one eye to some inaccurate routes though hehehe....

We cycled through the shady trees on roads which had a slight incline and reached Kukup about an hour later. It was about 20km from Pontian Kecil. Upon arriving Kukup, we made an amazing discovery....it was just a stopover point for those who wanted to go Tg. Balai in Indonesia and to Singapore! Well, what do you know?? hehehe....

When Mak heard this, he got all excited because we had a chance to go to Indonesia too!! We then decided that we will stay one night in Tg. Balai and then off to Singapore the next day :o) There, our problems solved!

The journey to Tg. Balai will take about an hour and the ticket was RM70 per person and our bikes were not charged :o) There were a few money changers around so we could change our money but no banks! The nearest banks around were in Pontian Kecil!

We found out that the ferries were going every hour and thought we'd try for the second last ferry which was about 4pm. That will give us ample time to come back from Tg. Piai since it was only 11.30am.

Welcome to Kukup!

Kukup town...

So, after a cold drink, we were off to Tg. Piai which was about 8km away. People told us not to stay over there for too long because apparently there were a lot of immigrants and it wasn't too safe....oh well, that's the adventure!!!

As we got closer, we realised that there weren't any signs that said "Welcome to the end of Asia!" or any clear direction to it! We kept seeing Taman Negara (Johor) signs along the way! Hmm, you would think there would be clearer signs right? Maybe the kind people at Tourism Malaysia can do something about this??

After a few uncertain turns, we stumbled upon this quiet Tg. Piai Resort. There wasn't anyone in sight but since the view was pretty nice, we took some shots and thought that this was it! Hmm...it was a bit disappointing! We thought it would have more significant landmark or something to mark its existence....

Well, never one to be standing still, our dear friend went exploring and came back with some good news! He met a this guy who was having lunch inside with his family and he told Mak that there was a globe that said "End of Asia"! We had to go out of this resort and bike about 400m and it should be there! Woohoo!! We made another discovery!!

Outside the resort

View from the left side...

Ahh...the welcome sign to where??

A conference hall on stilts ??

After getting all excited about the globe, we went off eagerly searching for it. Following the guy's directions, we cycled through a pretty nice road until we came to a place where they were doing some works by the sea! We thought, hmm....maybe this was the wrong route and started to turn back. We stopped and asked someone who was nearby for directions and he said we were on the right track....it was just about 100m more to go! Goes to show that sometimes, we have to be a bit more patient!!

Finally, we came across this mangrove conservation centre and it's called Taman Negara (Johor) Tg. Piai! They charged RM5 each to go in and have a look around. We didn't care....as long as we got to see the globe!! We pushed our bikes to the end of the boardwalk and came to a place where there were directional arrows pointing to places all over the world from here but no globe!! Sigh! Where was this elusive globe???

The scenic route to Taman Negara (Johor) Tg. Piai

Amazing tall trees along the way....

The gigantic rock piai leaf....

The entrance to Taman Negara (Johor) Tg. Piai

One of the many boardwalks...

Directional arrows pointing to places all over the world from here.... (Singapore is behind)

Ok, since we are here already...why not take a photo? :o)

After asking around, we finally found our way to the globe but it was a pretty long way from the centre!! When we got there, it was well worthed our efforts! The view was spectacular, as you can judge for yourselves :o)

the globe! the globe!!

Feeling on top of the world as we have made it to our second corner!!!
The end of Asia!!....

..... and this quote says it all!!

On our way out from the globe, we stopped by to take some pictures by the gigantic rock piai leaf at the entrance. According to Mak, from his sharp observations, he told me that Tg. Piai was supposedly named after this leaf. Maybe that explained the leaves on the rock??

Feeling pleased with ourselves now that we have completed our second corner, we rode back to Kukup with a sense of accomplishment and looked forward to another adventure in Indonesia :o)

More to come tomorrow :o)

Tg Balai from the ferry....