On the second day of #TSBreakaway we (the 12 Xplorers) spent the day at Pulau Ketam (Crab Island). It was a Sunday morning, the main street was busy, filled with locals shopping at the morning market while some enjoying their breakfast at kopitiams.
Uncles were seen engaged in long conversations with their friends over a cup of kopi. I got distracted by the bicycles, upon catching a glimpse of a modified motor-bicycle speeding off while honking at pedestrians, he seems to be in a rush on this sunny Sunday morning.
We entered into an old community hall where Dina Zaman‘s Non-Fiction writing workshop is held. The community hall wooden door was with rusty staple bullets, most likely these doors was used as bulletin board to highlight notices and key events in Pulau Ketam. After settling down, Dina shared with us about character writing and adding colours into text.
Dina highly recommends the book for writers and journalists titled “Telling True Stories” by Mark Kramer. In the 2 hours workshop, personally I was cracking my creative brain juice to write a few paragraphs based on given themes. This is by far my very first writing workshop and I’ve learned a few tricks in writing.
Show! Don’t Tell. – Dina Zaman
The key-takeaways from Dina’s session, in story telling be descriptive of our surrounding, yet never over describe. While in writing opinion pieces, it is important to get into the heart of matter. Lastly, writing teases a reader’s mind, enabling them to feel the same way yet prompting them to think.
Group photo credits to Nigel Low from Food n’ Frame
After having seafood for lunch, we were excited for fish farm tour. Though I’ve visited Pulau Ketam once however I’ve not visited the fish farm. It is known as one of the largest fish farm and after the tour we had the privilege to visit Kampung Sungai Lima, a fishing village which is separated by forest without any connecting roads even though it is part of Pulau Ketam.
Bright yellow and blue wooden ferry passes us by
The 12 Xplorers with zombie crew on speedboat on our way to fish farm
The open space fish farm is rather big situated in the middle of ocean
Fishes swimming under the net, we were told they could jump above water hence the protection
Arriving at Kampung Sungai Lima
Main street of Kampung Sungai Lima where kopitiams, convenient store (kedai runcit) and retails are located
Different parts of the fishing village
While touring around Kampung Sungai Lima, we came across various house painted in bright colours. These houses made the quiet village looks lively and attractive.
The sad part was, beneath these beautiful houses, villagers had to live with pile of rubbish which does not belong to them. Mainly caused by accumulated litters from drain, flushed to the Klang River which flows to the ocean ended up here. These rubbish had cause various issue such as foul smell, mosquito and an unpleasant sight to visitors.
The population in Sungai Lima was nearly 1.5 thousand, most are Hokkien. However, villagers are on a declining state as youths upon completing form 5 move to Klang Valley as they seek opportunity to further study or career options. Which explains why the place was quiet without any bicycles honking their way through, as the older generation live a slow-paced peaceful life.
While Burmese factory workers are seen relaxing on a sunday in a shed
Towards the end of our tour, we arrived at the first home stay called “Sungai Lima Sweet Home Resorts” which was officiated on 26th of October. Sungai Lima is a great place for those who want to live a slow-pace peaceful life away from bustling city, it will be an experience to stay in a fishing village.
Everything is brand new and these highly affordable rooms are based on first come first served.
The view in front of the home stay.
Crossing the bridge built-in 2005, it was a privilege to visit Sungai Lima, its quiet street is a totally a different sight compared to Pulau Ketam.
As evening approach, we gathered back in Pulau Ketam for fried ice cream before we head back.
Fried ice-cream is a must try when you are in Pulau Ketam
Pulau Ketam, literally translated, means “Crab Island”. It is a small island located off the coast of Port Klang, Selangor, Malaysia, and was founded circa 1880. The island is easily accessible from the Port Klang jetty by ferry. The “floating houses” that come to view as visitors approach the island are a sight to awe any city slickers.
For more information about Pulau Ketam visit www.pulauketam.com or stay updated via Facebook.
Getting to Pulau Ketam:
Ideal for a weekend day trip. Take a ferry to Pulau Ketam from Port Klang, which is accessible by KTM Komuter train. The ferry ride is a 30 minutes journey which cost RM 7 per transfer.
There are two village so be sure to alight at the correct stop (Pulau Ketam / Sungai Lima) while ferry entering the island starts from 8am and last ferry is by 5pm. Take note that after dark there are no transportation in or out of the island, so don’t miss the last ferry ride.
* This is one of five entries for #TSBreakaway, a pilot program organized by Tourism Selangor. The 5D4N event was sponsored by Empire Hotel Subang, Canon and Damansara Performing Arts Center (DPAC).
See also other #TSBreakaway entries:
- Common Space and Coffee
- Shelah It’s #MyLife @ DPAC
- Tanjung Sepat Coffee Adventure
- #TSBreakaway Experiences
Show some love, VOTE for me in #TSBreakaway People’s Choice Award (vote by clicking on ❤ like).
YES YOU WROTE ABOUT THE HOMESTAYYY! <3
Too colourful not to mention 😉
Hey I’m glad you actually wrote about Dina’s workshop and hope you applied a bit of what you learned in your writing after this 🙂 Pulau Ketam is such a popular for #TSBreakAway, it’s all good stuff.
Practicing my writing skills applying what I learnt from the workshop. Starting with short paragraphs now 🙂