Asia Mega Tour 2026 - Day Thirty Five Pictures - Exploring Off-The-Beaten-Path Super Post

I had floated to the team the idea of getting a guide to take us around and, specifically, to show us some things that were not the mainstream attractions in the city. Since we made this decision with only a couple of days before the day we had open to do a tour, I wasn't optimistic as finding guides at the last minutes is kind of a hit or miss proposition. I sent out four requests and luckily one responded. He turned out to be a very good find. 

He had a suggested itinerary all felt would be interesting and he organized the transportation. All this was done starting 20 hours before we initiated the tour. Our itinerary would take us to a historical locale where the Chinese immigrants critical to the area's economic prosperity first arrived, the current state administration locale, the southern most tip of continental Asia and the mangrove forests there, and finally a floating village that is in the midst of an economic transformation. It was a full day. Our guide, Henri, was very informative and get the information flow coming through out the day with little of the repetition you often get when guides are just reciting their standard litany. 

First Stop - Kangkar Tebrau 

 The brief history - In 1840 the government of the Sultanate of Johor saw an opportunity to improve its economy. It gave an invitation to immigrate to Chinese who were living in Singapore providing them with land and water transportation access to the sea. Those who immigrated, set up a powerful agricultural community growing and exporting gambir and black pepper. The former was a highly valuable plant for tanning and cloth dying. The latter grows naturally in symbiosis with gambir. Moving into the 20th century, gambir was no longer so valuable, but by that time Johor's economy had been given a kick start and was now on a strong trajectory.

There is actually very little left of the original settlement. There's been talk of developing it for tourism but nothing has gone beyond the talking phase.

Henri begins, his customers paying rapt attention to every word

 

 There is a small Chinese temple

 

 

Temple caretaker lighting incense

 

 Henri explained that while Malaysia has had great success with a number of environmental efforts, cleaning up waterways has not been one of them.

This sign exhorts residents to not do things to pollute the river. A view of the river behind shows there is still a lot to be done

  

Kota Iskandar

This is the new administrative center for the state, conceptualized in the 1990's and officially launched in 2009. 

Administrative offices and Johor Legislature 

These are done in combined Andalusian and Malay architectural style. Unfortunately we could not go in because of insufficient notice because the interior of the legislature is supposed to be impressive.

 

 

 

 

 

There was also the Kota Iskandar Mosque which we also only had limited access

 
 

 It is notable for its glass, geodesic domes, very unique

 

 

 

 Very modern style minarets 

 

 We had lunch and a bit of adventure finding and using an ATM. It took two tries to get one that would give me enough for my needs. And when I did use the later, when it delivered the money, it literally spewed it out in stream on to the ground. There was a breeze and I am on my hands and knees frantically trying to keep it from blowing away, to the great amusement of a couple of bystanders and #3 who then came to help me.

Next - Tanjong Piai 

 Southern most tip of mainland Asia (Singapore is an island so is not a piece of the mainland), and mangrove forest preserve

 

 de-I Sandia Outfitters Mangrove Forest Tour Spectacular

Be prepared to be amazed as we show you all the wonders of this environment

Mangrove trees are one of the most amazing plants. They are the only plants that can survive in salt water, having evolved numerous ways to eliminate the salt. They are also the pioneers for developing land. They move out into water creating environments where mud and dirt can begin accumulating, gradually creating hard ground. 

There are numerous varieties. Some use roots like flying buttresses to gather oxygen from the air as coastal mud tends to be very low in oxygen.

 

 Others put out little periscope like shoots for the same purposes

 

 

The Mangrove forest has a wealth of wildlife associated with it

When I took this picture, I wondered if these lines were associated with the tree roots

 

 But when I zoomed in I found it was multitude of snails!

 

  We learned A LOT about mud skippers

 

 

 Among other things, they have eyes that can rotate so they see 360 degrees around them. They have pouches for carrying water which helps them breath and can be used for hunting by spraying water on prey and sucking the water back in. Mud skippers can be can be carnivorous, herbivores, or omnivores and there are many species. They are consumed as food throughout Asia.

 When they want to mate, the male makes a home, digging into the mud. It finds an obliging female, gets her pregnant, then bails and goes off and does it again. Typical male.

 

But we at de-I Sandia Outfitters of done our own research and discovered even deeper secrets...such as the hidden athletic life of the MUD SKIPPER

Mud Skipper MMA Fighting

 And we filmed them training for Olympic gymnastics!

 We saw storks!

 

 

Stork in action avoiding the 'catching prey' money shot

 And let's not forget crabs

 And lizards

Finally our guide tired of our wildlife preoccupation and dragged us to the 'official' southern most point

 

 Looking out one could see all of the shipping, this being one of the busiest maritime thoroughfares in the world

It looked like these were on a collision course though I'm sure they were far apart

 

 We were totally beat from being out in the hottest part of the day in the full  tropical sun.

Our last stop was back to civilization where Henri wanted to show us a village on stilts that was in the process of economic transformation

The basic locale

 

 

 

 I saw this store which had in it I could swear are chicharonnes

 

 

 Aqua farming

 

 Laundry

 

 This is a neighborhood in transition with many properties being renovated and becoming small guesthouses, hotels, and homestays

 

 Naturally de-I Sandia Outfitters sees the opportunity

Here is what is in our brochure

 

 

 One of our first customers

 

"Hey. Wait. That's not what I saw in the brochure!

 

 

 Ah well. While I'm convincing the customer above that a free 'on the ground' walking tour of the mangrove forest will make him forget all about the bait and switch with the accommodations, why don't you look at...

SIGNS OF THE WORLD

These are various paraphernalia associated with the great office of Sultan. I think de-I should have something like this as well

 

 I think having this in the lounge of our resort here will assuage a lot of complaints