Cupnoodles | 
10 7th, 2008| 
Con’t from part 4…
After a good meal in Kluang… we head out to our stop for the night, Tanjung Piai Resort, it was a long and tiring drive considering we just had lunch, its hot outside and we are on 2 hours of small roads all the way from Kluang to Simpang Renggam to Benut then Pontian before reaching Kukup. On the way to Kukup there are various fruits stalls to pick up local produces like pineapples, dragon fruits, etc. We got some duku langsat at RM2.00 per kilo, they are really big and super sweet!
Kukup was like packed with people and cars, its like a big market and really crowded on the street. We had wanted to stay in Kukup but all the places here are full and some don’t even entertain us saying our group is too small for them *wtf*?
We initially thought the resort is in Kukup but when we are there and a few phone calls and u-turn we ended up in Tanjung Piai which is about 8km away from Kukup. Its really a weird place, first you go passed various small villages before reaching this parking lot to go to the Tanjung Piai national park… then you there are no sign for the resort until you cross a bridge on foot and walk up in to this raised wooden platform above the mangroves.
Tanjung Piai is known as the most southern tip of the Asia Continent (says the welcome sign in the resort with a few missing words), so this is the most south you can go by land for the whole continent. From the resort, you get a magnificent view of the ocean and the sky are just beautiful. You can also see Singapore’s port from here.
We paid RM100 per room for 3 persons after discount, you will be wondering, discount on peak season? Well, once you go into the room, you will know why.. :(. The exterior of the resort is nice, modern looking windows and nice open area with a gazebo to hang out. But when you open the room door… gahhh.. *speechless*… maintenance seems to really be a problem here! I ran out of water while I shower, had to use mineral water to finish off, the wall, besides no taste, its really painted badly, lighting are too dim… the list goes on. There are so much of potential for this resort if they fix up the interior more… renovation is in progress.. I hope they do a good job soon.. otherwise its really wasted.
Since there are nothing much to eat here, we drove out to Kukup… took us about 15 mins and by night time, the crowd have either left or settled down in those villages’ homestay. Blur blur sotong.. we just picked New Kukup Restaurant as Miharu had a vague memory of eating there before. Being on a budget tour, we torn our face and kept asking the price of each dish we order, ahaha… but the young girl taking the order was kind enough to entertain us.
We ordered a rainbow trout steamed with fried “chai poh” (preserved turnips), its a rare style, had it twice at Tang Yuen in SS15 Subang Jaya but hardly find it elsewhere, its really good, fish is fresh and they gave a lot of chai poh to go with it, I like it. The trout goes for RM50 per 600g, our fish is slightly lighter at RM44.00.
We also ordered fried chili mussels RM16, lemon chicken RM18, belacan kangkung RM8, fried water cress RM9, tofu with mixed veggies RM10, oo chen (fried oysters) RM9. In general, dishes here are pretty good, service is ok and the people there are friendly too. We spend about RM130++ here and everyone walked away full.
New Kukup Village Restaurant
No.1, Kukup Laut, 82300 Pontian, Johor
Tel: 07-6960216
GPS: N1 19.525 E103 26.496
The ambiance is good here, we are seated outdoors by the sea overlooking the Kukup villages. So you get a lot of breeze and its a nice place to sit down and chat after dinner. But the shops here closed early, its about 9pm when we left and the shuttle are already down.
We then decided to walk around this seaside village to check out the homestay that we didn’t manage to book. As we are walking on the main street, we found a shop selling jelly made to the shape of ang ku kueh, there are various flavours with fillings inside. It goes for RM6.50 for 12 pcs in the packet. As we paid, Sky rush over to warn us that the shop in front is selling the same thing for RM6.00 only! Haiya… too late… kena conned but nevermind to even out our cost, we bought another packet at RM6.00, so we paid RM6.25 per pack :P. The jelly is nice especially eating it while its chilled!
As we walked into the village, its basically a typical Chinese seaside village, with concrete stilts platform in the middle all the way out connecting village homes. Some are still in its old wooden shape, some are renovated with bricks and stainless steels (I think some of the people here are a lot loaded than we are!) and some have turned their unit into a mini hotel!
As we strolled, we can see visitors staying there singing karaoke, playing mahjong… I think besides this, there is nothing much to do here :). But if you come in a big group I think its quite fun here but a bit noisy, not really to relax I would think.
Later we called it a night and head back to our “resort” in Tanjung Piai, as we does that, Elaine and Patrick, our kind tour guides of JB is heading over to meet us for the night with supper da bao too! After numerous phone calls and assurance (dark kampung roads really not sure where you heading), they too managed to get to meet us, we continue eating (again) with mahjong (supplied by Pat), uno stacko and chor dai di games.
Con’t to part 6…
Links:
Peninsula Malaysia Makan Trip 2.5 - Part 1 - Day 1
Peninsula Malaysia Makan Trip 2.5 - Part 2 - Day 1
Peninsula Malaysia Makan Trip 2.5 - Part 3 - Day 2
Peninsula Malaysia Makan Trip 2.5 - Part 4 - Day 2
Peninsula Malaysia Makan Trip 2.5 - Part 5 - Day 2
Peninsula Malaysia Makan Trip 2.5 - Part 6 - Day 3
Peninsula Malaysia Makan Trip 2.5 - Part 7 - Day 3
Peninsula Malaysia Makan Trip 2.5 - Part 8- Day 3 & 4
with a little bit too much to drink for some of us, opps!