mangroves & coconut trees.

I consider this to be a sequel of sort to the entry " a fishermen's village" which I wrote last year.

We're back in Besut, Terengganu. It is still dusk and the azan had just been recited. I woke up to a loud rooster's crowing.





However the cold sea breeze isn't really helping me in wanting to get up. I rolled myself into my thin blanket several times over but alas, the alarm clock rang not long after. I had no choice but to get up from my slumber.





Do not that this is still a little over 6 AM in the morning. I went out after a quick Subuh prayer for a walk around the village.

Passed by a few village people, one in particular asked me why am I taking pictures all over the place. I replied with a simple "it's for my assignment ma'am."





This lake or river of sort is where my father would take a bath every evening when he was young. He said there used to be many puffer fish (ikan buntal) residing in here. I'm not sure if there's anyone who's taken a bath here anymore. The place doesn't look particularly clean.





Around 7 AM I went back home to take a bath and clean myself up.





Everything is set.





Our plan for today is to go inside a mangrove forest. It's me and my 2 cousins. I was told by one of my cousin that the view in there is amazing.





Off we go - no not to the mangrove but out for breakfast.

We stopped by my aunt's small but lively stall.





Quite a lot of people during this time. We ate nasi berlauk and nasi dagang. We were also given some food to bring along there.

We didn't exactly leave early. You see mangroves have a cycle of low and high tides according to the time of the day. The low tide cycle will start around noon.





So we had a stroll to kill time.

We were at Kuala Besut which is very near to my village. This is its bus stand.




Behind it is a taxi stand. Lots of foreign tourists around the area. Should be good for the local economy.





We set off to Jerteh next. It is a 20 minutes drive from Kuala Besut on a good day. Not very far.





Not many pictures taken when I was here. Not too many people also. We went to a nearby food court for a nice drink.

Played with my cousin's Galaxy SIII.  Personally I think the phone is amazing, a big deal is made about it's ergonomics but I think that it's fine. The Galaxy Note on the other hand is too big for my liking. 

But I agree with most people online that Samsung should reconsider its Touchwiz UI which brings the phone down a lot. Sometimes there would be lag and stutter, which shouldn't happen at all with a phone of this spec and calibre. A shame that they used a Pentile screen though.

As you can see this picture was taken on the 17th of September. Samsung had just announced the Galaxy S4 a few days ago.

I ordered tea, while my 2 cousins Hafiz and Faiz ordered coffee and teh tarik respectively. Living in Egypt, I had grown to love tea as much as the Egyptians are. But overtime I find myself taking a liking to coffee more and more.





Next destination - Kampung Pengkalan Gelap where the mangrove forest is located.





It is such a nice and sunny day.





Perfect for a glass of coconut juice. My personal favourite is mixing coconut with sirap bandung. Why the locals do not do this is beyond me. Try it your self at home if you have the time.





This is the place. It is not exactly like what I had in mind before we came here. I was expecting a more out of this world, jawbreaking beautiful scenery which is kind of a ridiculous expectation.

Over time and looking back I do appreciate the diversity that nature has to offer. If you were to ask me today how did I think of the place - without doubt in my mind that I think this place is beautiful.





Lots of fire ants though around the area. My skin is all red from their bites.






Unfortunately for us, we were not able to buy any rubber shoes as the shop was closed on that day. What this means is that we will not be able to travel as far in as we originally planned to.

But improvising is part of the adventure, so we don't really mind.

However it is sad to see the place in this state. It is just not that well maintained. The story going on is that the state offered the repair tender to the villagers.  In theory this sounds great - a win win situation for both parties. But more often than not, it all falls apart in reality. Due to lack of skilled workers, the work done is less than stellar. You can see it for yourself.

It is really important to hire the right person for a job - that is an important lesson I learnt.





We're going down to the swamp. No rubber shoes but my cousin said it will be alright. "Look out for the spiky twigs though when walking," warns him.





We went down barefooted. Since it's low tide now, the water level is just above our ankles which doesn't make walking that difficult. But it's slippery sometimes and there are loads of toadpoles and small fishes swimming around.





I thought this was a water-lily at first.





My cousin leads the way.





He is currently doing his Master's research here so the place is like second nature to him. His thesis is related to breeding and growing swamp crabs, or something like that.

For a person like me, I can't fathom how one would like to spend months and months in a place like this.





But I think one would grow to like it if they were here long enough.

Lots of green foliage, which is pleasing on the eye.





And the scenery is straight out of a Discovery Channel documentary.

I had to be really careful passing through the area. The sand mud coupled with the little twigs almost made me fell down a couple of times.





The sound of the forest is really relaxing. My cousin said that it was the sound of water flowing out due to the low tide.

We had lunch with food given from my aunts. I ate nasi berlauk coupled with kuih cara. We cleaned up the place after we had finished, making sure not to loiter.

We walked straight towards a nearby lake. Lots of butterfiles around the area.

We can cross to the other side if we had a boat. My cousin said that the view is far more beautiful over there than here. But that would require us to have rubber boots which again we don't have.





I'm spent.





The river had lots and lots of little fishes swimming around. I washed my face and cleaned my feet and had two or three gulps of water to quench my thirst.





We went back to the car, and stopped by a nearby road stall where I finally had my glass of coconut juice.