Eating a crab too many

My family had decided to go to Pulau Ketam(Crab Island) just off the coast of Kuala Selangor. It was my first time there. Upon arrival at the jetty, there were so many cars parked by the side of the road. We had a hard time finding a parking, but eventually my dad squeezed the car between two cars. The journey there was quite short, only taking us 45 mins or less because we lived in Shah Alam which is the capital of Selangor and quite near the sea.

The scenery there is of the Malaccan Strait. The waters were quite blackish and brown in colour. It wasn't that clean. And there were many ships around, with Port Klang stationed nearby. We had to take an expressboat to the island, and that cost RM10 one person one way. The journey took about 30 minutes, and along the way we saw many small islands. This was basically the river bank, and it reminded me of the time when I went camping at Talang Lake. I wondered if there were any crocodiles left.

Even though it was just a 30 mins ride, I breathed a sigh of relief as we were nearing the jetty at Pulau Ketam. On one hand, I was quite bored because I had been staring at basically the same kind of scenery all my way on the boat for the whole journey, which was just small islands and lots of mangrove trees. On the other hand, I was reliefed because the route the boatman took us on was sort of a shortcut, so it seemed at first as if he was going to bring us to some secluded island with his friends on it and try to rob us. Luckily it wasn't so as I saw Pulau Ketam approaching with many restaurants and people.

Pulau Ketam is a nice place. The way people live there is really simple. The kids just run about anywhere they wanted to. The whole island is actually pretty small. You could rent a bicycle for the whole day for ust RM5. And you could ride from one end of the island to the other in 10 minutes. But one thing about the island, there is just too many restaurants that seem to be selling the same thing: crabs. Pulau ketam is mainly famous for their crabs and their o jien(mussels). We had lunch in one restaurant that my dad hand-picked out as the cleanest, for what reason I am not sure, since all the restaurants looked the same. It was quite expensive really, considering all other dishes had a total of RM33, whereas the crab dish alone cost RM48. That doesn't make sense to me no matter how I try to look at it. How can crab meat be so precious at an island where there are full of crabs.

Then my Dad called to meet up with one of his colleagues, Steven Tan, whom was already there on the island because it was his hometown. So we met up and he treated us to some o jien at another restaurant and we just chit chatted for a few hours. I could tell you that on that day, my stomach was just so full of o jien, that I couldn't eat anymore even if I wanted to, but it tasted that good. He was telling us all kinds of stories of his CNY gatherings with his family, like how his grandmother had 8 brothers and all brothers would come home during CNY, and they had tonnes of grandchildren so they all cramped into one house. Going to the bathroom often meant waiting in line of up to 3 people at any time. It makes me think of the luxury I have at my home(or anyone for that matter) that if we wanted to go to the toilet, we wouldn't need to queue in lines of up to 3 people at any one time.

We also got a look at some of the houses there, and they were quite simple but nice. Apparently they cost about RM70,000 per house, which is very affordable. And considering the small community they have, it seems a pleasant place to live. The only drawback to this place is that it is a Bhuddist community with a big temple in the middle of it. I would only ike to retire next time in a Christian community. Oh how lovely that would be.

Finally, after basically exploring the entire island, we decided to head home. The journey back took 45 minutes this time because we took the slower ferry. This time it was only RM7 per person one way. This time though, I was more prepared, and was reading my storybook the whole way back so I wasn't bored nor thinking of stupid things again. I would always remember Pulau Ketam as a relaxed, community-ful, no worries in the world kind of village just by the Strait of Malacca.

Joshua's visitor recommendation rating of the island: 6 out of 10