"Kukup or Kukup Laut" Top 5 Page for this destination Kukup by chiabh

It has been 40 years since I have been to this part of the country... but I have not been to Kukup... I have passed thru Pontian Kechil and Pekan Nanas on the way to Johor Baru... I have heard so much about this town that I decided to detour and visit it this time around when I was in Johor Baru again... Kukup is about 80km from Johor Baru thru Federal Routes 5 & 95... It is 20km south of Pontian (aka Pontian Kechil) using Federal Route 95...

Kukup (or Kukup Laut as it is known locally) is a fishing village located at the south-western tip of Johor state... It is close to this town, in Tanjung Piai Johor National Park, that the southern-most point of mainland Asia is located... Kukup is a coastal village and the major part of the village is built on stilts over the sea... The town is sheltered from the rough waters of the Straits of Melaka by Kukup Island (or Pulau Kukup) which is about 800m from its shore... Behind the only row of shops flanking the only road in the village, is a thriving community said to date back 150 years...

Kukup was an important regional trading post at the run of the century but soon lost its position to other newer ports... The village has revived as a tourist hub in recent years... The major draw is its rural laid-back lifestyle and cheap fresh seafood... The majority of the visitors are from nearby Singapore... With the new-found prosperity and modernisation, many of the traditional attap-roofed wooden houses have given way to brick-and-cement buildings...

a village on stilts...

Kukup is a fishing village and it is built into the sea... the village is built on stilts... The closest semblence will be Pulau Ketam of the coast of Port Kelang in Selangor... The village, complete with houses, schools, shops, restaurants and temples, hovers on piles over tidal waters with a maze of rickety plank walkways as road...

The people of Kukup has been associated with the sea all their life since the establishment of the village... They were merely fishermen going out daily to sea to fish... However, since the 1980s, fish farming was introduced to the local folks... The sheltered waters are now filled with these fish farms or kelongs... These are essentially fish cages with nets suspended from frames tied to floating drums...

pulau kukup as the background...

Just 800m off the coast of Kukup is Pulau Kukup... The island is a notorious hideout form pirates in olden times... Sprawing over 750ha, Pulau Kukup is the second largest mangrove island in the world... The island is a protected nature reserve since 1997 and named the Pulau Kukup Johor National Park...

To get to the island, you can take a ferry at RM5 per head... You will have to pay an additional RM5 if you want to stop over at any of the fish farms on the way... A boardwalk is constructed for visitors to experience and learn more about the the mangrove swamp... Informative signs are positioned to point out the difference species of mangrove... There is also a 6-level watchtower for visitors to get a bird's eye view of the vastness of the island...