Roaring Forties

After hearing so much about Pulau Ketam or Crab Island, we finally decided to make a day trip there on 29^thApril. M & I took the noon ferry which was cramped and packed. We took separate seats and I sat next to an Indon lass. The air-cond and a Jet Li movie made the 40 minutes ride bearable.The jetty at Pulau Ketam was a new concrete structure and we were greeted with a huge restaurant named Kuai Lok Hian at the end of the jetty. Kuai Lok Hian was utterly packed, so we decided to look for somewhere more peaceful. We went past the volunteer fire brigand station, a clinic, a police station and a temple before reaching the ‘main street’ of Pulau Ketam. It was a ‘main street’ with a difference. There were many vehicles on the street but consisting only of one kind; bicycles. The only way to move around is to walk, by bicycles or by a boat. It would have been an environmentalist’s heaven except that rubbish was thrown indiscriminately. But being a village on stilts, rubbish were dumped into the swamp which on the village was built on. The rubbish stayed and accumulated. There was rubbish everywhere.

Despite the abundance of rubbish and the fact that most of the pathways on the island were now concreted, the village still maintained its charm. The lifestyle was still rustic and the atmosphere was something which you would not get anywhere else, not in Malaysia and maybe not even in the world.

The colourful houses, the numerous temples, the boats, the children swimming in the brackish waters all added to make Pulau Ketam unique on its very own. 

We had a Bak Kut Teh seafood lunch comprising of pork, crabs, fish and prawns. Tasted a bit foreign for my taste. Then we spent a total of four hours wandering about in the maze like walkways by which time, the sun got the better of M and she felt too sick to continue. We left with our curiosity quenched.