The Fishing Village, Kukup, Malaysia.

Kukup, is a well-known fishing village with most of its houses built on stilts. Since the middle of the 19th century, Kukup has been populated by farmers and fishermen, particularly of Bugis descent.  It is famous for its fish farms and several restaurants, which serve the freshest seafood dishes, cooked in various delicious and tantalising styles. 

It enjoys its name as a famous fishing village built entirely on stilts, majority of the residents are fishermen or fish farmers. They catch fish from the sea - Straits of Malacca, and sell them to the market place in Pontian.

Located in the seas of Kukup are a lot of Kelongs – aquaculture farms on the water where people breed fishes and crabs. The Floating Fish Farm The first signs of the floating fish farms were seen in 1979. Proving to be a lucrative endeavour, over the years many more were set up and the number gradually rose to sixty eight in 1999.

 The ferry terminal to the Kelong.

Beyond just raring fishes, they actually brought tourists to visit their Kelongs and since it is located in the seas.  The fees is charged at RM 5 per person.

We can experience a five minute journey on an actual fishing boat to one of these farms complete with a guided tour (cum boat-man). he....

 

Arriving at the Kelong.

The "backyard" of the kelong, I think the kelong owner reared dogs to protect their kelong from robbery at night...

We can see how fishes were caught, reared and how they were process before sell to visitors.

"Kelong" is a Malay term of a traditional fish rearing method. Sections will be compartmentalized using fish nets to properly separate the fishes according to their species.

Most of the fishes are exported to foreign countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan except for the small prawns which are exported to neighbouring states Penang and Melaka The main exports are jellyfish and small prawns.




Archer Fish show!
We saw the visitors had fun feeding the archer fish to and test the accuracy shot of the archer fish as they shot out squirts of water to hit the fish food.

  - The archer fish

Snacks such as dried cuttlefish sprinkled with sugar, salted fish, dried prawns, anchovies, fish biscuits and spicy seafood sauces can be bought on the farm relatively cheap and fresh from their harvest.

One fish in particular caught the amazement of tourist, the puffer fish or 'ikan buntal' to locals. (But this is "Mummy" puffer fish).

There are many seafood restaurants here serving very fresh and cheap food of various style of cooking. Most of the restaurants here serve very good and fresh fishes, prawns, crabs, lobsters, cuttlefish and many others.

Not only local varieties of native products are sold in reasonable prices, candies and confectionaries with local taste and native speciality, dried fish and prawn are sold at low prices also.

Handicraft and delicacies such as keropok, belacan and cencaluk are available here.



Bring back the happy memories after tasting the delicious and spicy local seafoods, these souvenirs are best to keep you in memory of Kukup

  The Terminal Ferry only to Tanjung Balai, Indonesia.

The ferry fare will cost RM90 to and from + RM10 for the custom clearance fee. It will take around 1 hour 45 minutes to reach there and the departure interval is every 1 hour.

Many fishermen used to keep some fish, prawns and cuttlefish for themselves, or dried them in the tropical sun. This dried and sometimes salted fish, prawns, and cuttlefish also are sold to tourists.

The Kukup Fishermen's Jetty located at the right-hand side of the main road is shared among the people of both Kukup Laut and Air Masin Fishing Village.

 

Air Masin, as you will see for ourselves here, is an old fishing village with history of a century old.  As recent statistic shown, this old fishing village is occupied by some 1,000 residents wholly from the Chinese race. Out of a total of 152 houses, about 30 are used as Holiday Chalets.

This is a common rear view of  the Kukup residential houses. The residents use the wooden jetty to access to their boats normally parked at their back door. Not far away, a fish farm is visible at sight.

 

The fishing village built entirely on stilts on the sea surrounded by water, is the southmost village found at the southwest tip of the Peninsular of West Malaysia, and suppose to be the southmost village found in the Continental of Asia. Located about 70 kilometres away from Johor Bahru, and 20 kilometres from Pontian, Air Masin has only one road to access by land.

The village will be flooded with flow of tourists on Saturdays and Sundays.

 

Tourists especially from Singapore like to tour and stay here in groups very frequently because of the economic and cheap expenditures, warm hospitality and many interesting places to be visited.

Normally we will only have to spend about RM 75 - RM 150 (about US$22 - US$38) in Kukup chalets, and we will get a lots back: seafood lunch/dinner, barbecue, breakfast, sightseeing, karaoke, visiting fish farm in boat and etc. We can shop here very cheap watches, clothing, and native products.

The village is very well organised by a committee. This committee headed by the local Chief Community Leader Mr. Tan Soo Puan, helps the Government to keep the place well run and peaceful, as well as well developed.

The building cost is definitely higher than any house built on land. From this photograph, the structure of the concrete bridge-road leading into the village is clearly visible.

 

And since it is built on the water, you can imagine one of the conveniences that only they can enjoy is, naturally – the quick disposal of human waste!

The residences use bicycle and motorcycle as their main transport on the village due  to the narrow space and concrete bridge-road.

Pulau Kukup was officially gazetted as a State Park under the jurisdiction of the Johor State Park Corporation (Perbadanan Taman Negara, Negeri Johor) on 27 March 1997, to promote preservation of this habitat as well as promoting eco-tourism sector and providing research avenues.

LIST OF CHALET HOUSES TO CONTACT IN KUKUP


Kukup Chalet Resort.
web site : http://kukupchaletresort.com/

Phone :

Ms Joanne Tan

+6016 747 2852 (Malayasia)

+607 6969 101 (Malaysia)

Mr Lim Eng Hoo

+6019 717 2852 (Malaysia)

Mr John Teo

+65 9297 6627

Email

kukupinfo@gmail.com

海洋休闲屋
Kukup-Ocean Resort
TEL: +607-6960003, +6017-7158703, +6016-7358157


林永敬 ANDREW LIM
TEL: +607-6960687, +6019-7101367


杨文良 YEO BOON LEONG
TEL: +607-6960003, +6017-7158703, +6012-7579258


林添福 LIM THIAM HOCK
TEL: +607-6960461 +6019-7509111


海棠度假屋 TAN SENG GUAN
TEL: +607-69606356 +6017-7353122, +60127673222


海上瑞耀冷气度假屋
Kukup Rui Yao Resort
TEL: +607-6960682 +6012-7615352


海上花度假屋：林永和
Lim Eng Hoo
TEL: +607-6969101 +6019-7172852


林永成 / 张丽琴
Lim Eng Seng
TEL: +607-6961527 +6019-7643476


彩虹渡假屋
Ang Lian Teng / Tiew Chee Sin
TEL: +607-6960634 +607-6960884 +6019-7223335
          +6019-7881000


威尼斯:杨建德 / 张晓芳
Yeo Kean Tek / Teo Xiao Fung
TEL: +607-6961516 +6012-7592478 +6013-7582678