Kelong Trip

We were on our way out from City-A-1. As usual we have to go through 3 of these bridges to get up north. This is one of the 3 bridges which span the Dinding River....(I hope I got my Geography correct). Anyway, we decided to stop just under the bridge to 'look-see'. This graffiti caught our eyes.This is the 3rd of the bridges...away from Sitiawan. If you are coming in from the north it will be the 1st bridge you will cross. It is also the longest of the 3 bridges. We walked around...other half and son were clicking their cameras away... saw many hermit crabs. Kids seldom get such opportunity. And being so 'urban', Lil Rainbow was actually afraid to go after them. I remember when I was a kid, we'd chase after them, even dig them out from the sand! Anyway, we saw this boat moored and a young man cleaning a car. So we asked him about taking a boat ride. He agreed to take all of us across the river for RM20.But as we were chugging along, he asked us whether we wanted to go the kelong. A kelong is a structure built in the river or sea to fish. We said okay as we had not been up one before. This is a shot of the kelong taken from the bridge. It's right in the middle of the river. Thankfully it was already almost evening...else it would have been even hotter!The small one on the left from the boat. It's quite small one, as you can see.This is the larger of the two kelong(s)...We took a walk on the kelong. Lil Rainbow was hanging onto the wooden handrails ....she was afraid of falling into the water. Walking on the floating 'bridges' was actually quite fun. They have built some shades all over the kelong so that you can sit under the shade and pancing ikan. Should be quite fun, I think.We spent quite some time walking around the kelong. They even have their own fish enclosures for their own fish which they are rearing. Then there are also rooms for those who want to spend a night on the kelong. They're quite spartan but looked okay. According the proprietress, they charge RM120 per adult and RM70 for kids for a one night 2 day stay, lunch, dinner and breakfast included. Dinner is fresh seafood .... I think the rate is quite reasonable. There is a small area to hang around.... Would be quite a nice place for small groups to get together and do some fishing or hanging out.On our way back to land, I noticed the mangrove swamp. The trees and their roots...reminded me of the history lesson about Malacca which I taught son and his friends when they were in Lower Secondary...how those roots which were sticking out served as a natural defense against invaders. If one were to fall on those 'akar ceracak', he'll be 'speared' by nature. The dense foliage would slow an advancing army. But the scenery was actually quite beautiful.

While chugging along, we saw a seagull circling in the air. The boatman told us he was going to dive for a fish. True enough, as we watched, the majestic bird skimmed the surface of the water and snagged itself a fish. We could see the scales reflecting the sunlight as the gull flew off with its catch for the day. Truly a wonderful experience!However, even before we got off the boat, Lil Rainbow was quite teary-eyed....not from the boat ride but apparently, the palm of her hand had lots of wooden splinters...from hanging on to those wooden handrails on the kelong. Other half counted 14 of them; big and small. We had to stop in Pantai Remis to get a tweezer from the pharmacy to pull them out...and 7-11 to get a drink to quench our thirst... from all the basking under the evening sun.

Twas an interesting trip...