Rakit Pulau Layang

Jess out of the blue SMSed to go JB last night for Skudai Bak Kut Teh. Even though it was a late night already, I agreed. But we were quite tired out and couldn't quite wake up that morning. Luckily we weren't too late and Jess said to wait for us.

BKT shop. Die die must try


Strange car contraption


Meeting her at Danga, we set off for the newly opened BKT shop around Skudai. It turned out that the shop belonged to her JB uncle. And truthfully, the food was indeed good. But the area was a newly developed one, so the traffic was slow.

Jess cousin asked where we heading next, and Jess hinted that I was probably looking for some fishing spots. We were told then that there was a lake behind the shop and we could go check it out.

That sounded interesting, and I was ever game to try out new areas. While Jess's car was being snow washed, we all bunked into my car and took a ride to recce the lake.

The lake looked interesting enough, but the ground was rough. My Pica had to run on undulating ground to get near the edge of the lake. Walking from there, the ground was soft and muddy. I told the rest to return to the car, and ventured out on my own to get some pics and look see.

The scenic looking lake


I just "crawled" out of the soft sands


Where are my $30 sandals!


Alamak, got swallowed again


But as an ultimate hint of my being overweight, I walked into a soft sandy muddy patch and my entire leg sank into the soft mud. Attempting to lift myself off the ground with my other leg, it too sank into the soft mud. There I was, practically swallowed into the ground up to my knee level. Shawn came over to help and took my camera from me. With a stick that he handed to me, I tried to free myself from the predicament. I realized that I couldn't lift my feet up with my sandals still attached, and had to leave them stuck in the mud to move my leg out of the ground. With my hands, I managed to crawled away from the "quick sandy" area and free myself. Now sandaless, I walked away from the area and found myself sinking into another patch. But luckily, the ground here was not as bad and I eventually cleared away from the danger area. Now my legs were entirely encrusted with mud. Good thing that I had water in the car for washing.

So despite my valiant attempt, I couldn't manage to get near to see the lake after all. There were no other way in and with no choice, we decided to head for some shopping.

I suggested TESCO, somewhere in the Seri Alam area. I was comtemplating to bring them to visit Rakit Layang or not but left the decision till later, pending the weather. From TESCO, Rakit Layang would be quite near.

But due to some freak coincidence, my GPS couldn't power up. Therefore, I had to depend on Jess's phone to do the navigating. And then due to some aweful luck, Jess's phone ran out of battery juice. Therefore, we were entirely GPSless that day, and had to rely on plain old memory for remembering the way.

Luckily the route to TESCO was quite simple, with ample signage on the way. From there with some simple shopping and a much needed coffee, we decided to head for Rakit Layang. In my heart, I was thinking that the fishing would be quite bad, and may end up being a boring activity. But Shawn was keen, and off we went.

Reaching there, the wind was strong and the water choppy. There was a slight drizzle. All signs of bad fishing day. I decided to try out the other floating farm, and called someone by the name of Wak Ju.

Lots of folks today






Hmm..saw some fishing people alighting from this floating platform


Beware of cats


Practically the full view of the Rakit


The toilet


Boat came to pick up and off we go. This farm was further away from the Salleh one. When we set eyes on it, we were quite disappointed. In terms of facility, this was a far cry from the usual Salleh farm. There was only a small shelter, and the place was a shamble. But talking to the people, apparently there were fishes. We checked out the icebox of the various group and saw brimful of various good catches. Wow, I was impressed. But an uncle told us that we missed the fishing window, and that time wasn't a good one. Fishes all gone.

First Tamban, by Shawn


I too got a string of catches


Shawn on a roll


This lucky chap got a Queen


Jess doing weight lifting


Rare catch!


So shiny


A demonstrating her DIY rod


Which GOT a fish


And kept our mouths shut


Plentiful of catches by others






Nevertheless, I rigged up 2 tamban jig. One for Shawn and one for me. While Shawn set off fishing and I was setting up the other, Shawn got some catches of tambans. I thot I saw it wrongly, but they were really Tambans. And Selars and Kekeh. There was something very strange about this place, as I thot it was more of a river kind of water. Later someone else also caught a small Queenfish. Wasn't that fantastic or what?

We jigged for about 2 and half hours and in that period, caught a total of 90 bait fishes. Not bad, I would say. Shawn even had a very good catch of a small ribbon on his jig. :)

Around 6pm, we left the place. I didn't want to return too late, due to the darkening sky. That stretch of road wasn't too safe to drive in the dark. From there, we headed for Permas Jaya for a good dinner, and then to the checkpoint. But to our horrors, queue to checkpoint was a longish jam, and the lorry checkpoint wasn't open. I decided to lead the convoy towards 2nd link. It was a much better choice, and traffic was smooth as anything.

All our catches for 2008