A Worthwhile Detour via Kuala Sungai Baru

Junction leading to Masjid Tanah and onwards to Kuala Sungai Baru on a wet morning

A fireman getting assistance from the public to unstuck something in the drain in Kuala Sungai Baru town

Fishing boats lining up the Kuala Sungai Baru River

Another old jetty in the distance

At low tide, villagers collecting shells and snails

Edible snails by the thousands @ low tide 

Mangroves are crucial for the coastal ecology here

Lately we ( my better half and I )  are spending around 24 hours max in Melaka for most of our weekends. This is not by design but circumstances have the habit of appearing on most Fridays to interfere with our normal Friday departure to Melaka. Nowadays, we would arrive by 11am on Saturdays and rushing back to Kuala Lumpur by 10 am on Sundays in order to beat the crawl at Nilai along the highway. However, yesterday we decided to take it easy, when we took the "coastal road " instead from Melaka Town through Masjid Tanah, Pengkalan Balak, Kuala Sungai Baru, Kuala Linggi and eventually Sepang where we can swing eastwards back to Kuala Lumpur. It would take us, say around 3.5 hrs with short stops to look at the sights. That was the grand plan !
       There are a number of good and popular beaches along the way if one has the time to explore; amongst others are the Kamunting Beach, Tanjung Bidara and a few more. What one needs to do is just to make a left turn towards the coast and keep on driving till you hear and see the sea ie Straits of Malacca. In most cases one can find numerous chalets cum resorts by the beach run by the villagers themselves. On the average rental per night at these chalets would be in the region of RM60-RM 100 , making it very affordable indeed. But this time around, I did a left turn after Kuala Sungai Baru town and found myself close to a jetty built for fishermen to unload their catch of the day. Being slightly late ( around 10.30am), we could not observe any of this "fishy activities" but managed to buy a few fresh fishes from the shop nearby. We were told that, we should come around 8 in the morning to get the better-looking fishes ! We took note of that. Of course we also took note that there is the Ikan Bakar restaurant nearby this particular jetty. Further up, enroute to Kuala Linggi we stopped at an area called ....( cannot remember ) but what was prominent is the restaurant overlooking the Straits of Malacca. Unfortunately, since it is the month of Ramadhan, we cannot sample any of the food there although the menu listed all sorts of seafood dishes. What a pity.
           Driving out of this place, we realised that time was not in our favour since we have to be in Kuala Lumpur by 1pm. We had to abort our plan to proceed to Selangor via the coastal road. Maybe next time. Indeed we had a good and interesting time on our unplanned adventure en route to Kuala Lumpur via  Kuala Sungai Baru. I promise myself to do it again and this time around, must visit a number of historical sites along the route and Kuala Linggi.

( Someone said : A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the sceanery on a detour.....)