Belangkas = Horseshoe Crab

Do you know that I never knew what belangkas was until I was in upper secondary. I studied in Chinese school so the word belangkas (heard it from an idiom) was pretty foreign to me, and mind you, there’s no Google back in those days. So my relatives have to describe to me how a belangkas looks like (nampak sangat budak bandor). Of course thanks to Mark, I finally knew how it looked like and to why we say ‘ke hulur ke hilir macam belangkas’ {yup! my ‘ah=hah!’ moment)… when I knew that I will be going to a Horseshoe Crab Aquaculture or Sedili Kechil Horseshoe Crab Farm And Hatchery / Pusat Ternakan Dan Penetasan Belangkas, I flip with joy.

Since I am ignorant, I thought I should share infos of what I’ve learnt. Enjoy!

• Horseshoe crab existed 200 million years before dinosaurs even existed, its ancestors can be traced back to 445 million years ago.
• The life span of an horseshoe crab is up to 20 years.
• Surprise! Horseshoe crabs are not true crabs, in fact it is actually related to arachnids.

• Horseshoe crabs live around shallow coastal waters on soft sandy or muddy bottoms.
• They come onto shore to mate, kid you not.
• Females are about 20–30% larger than males.
• The female horseshoe crab digs a hole in the sand and lays her eggs while the male(s) fertilize them.

• The female can lay between 60,000 and 120,000 eggs in batches of a few thousand at a time.
• Most interesting part, because of the copper present in hemocyanin, hence their blood is blue. They are practically royal hokkay.

So how was it? Great infos huh!

Pusat Ternakan Dan Penetasan Belangkas

Kampung Sedili Kechil

81900 Kota Tinggi

Johor

Jom, Johor Fam Trip is in collaboration with Johor Tourism and all its sponsors with #GayaTravel as media coordinator.

Origin | Baju Kurung Johor

Kurung Riau unik sekali

Selesa dipakai semua bangsa

Anggun klasik sentuhan seni

Baju Melayu kancing suasa

Many might not know to why is the baju kurung Johor is also called baju kurung Teluk Belanga. Well, Teluk Belanga or the Belanga Bay is a place located in Singapore, and it is designed by Sultan Abu Bakar in 1866 to celebrate the transfer of Johor's capital from Belanga Bay in Singapore to Johor Bahru. Thus, Teluk Belanga design became the trademark for baju kurung Johor and is now simply referred as baju kurung.

What makes baju kurung Johor unique is in its design, its round collared neck with a slit in front comes with ‘tulang belut’ or cross stitch around the collar that looks like a chocker or necklace. The neater and cleaner the cross stitches are, the more regal it looks. Workmanship of a ‘tulang belut’ is often highly praised if it the gap is closer and tighter, and it is hard to find a tailor that can stitch beautiful and neat tulang belut nowadays, hence the cost of a ‘tulang belut’ baju kurung is expensive and a good tailor is high sought after my designer.

Baju kurung in Johor are known for its 3 main design namely baju kurung pesak kekek, baju kurung pesak gantung and baju kurung cekak musang. Here is where it became interesting, I’ve come to realized that a lot of youngster are not aware of the pesak or the panel on the side of bodice, and the importance of it. There are 2 types of pesak in a baju kurung – pesak kekek and pesak gantung, baju kurung is worn with a matching sarong with triple pleats for easier movement for the wearer.

Pesak kekek (kekek = gusset) is long sleeves loosely cut tunic dress, straight cut due to the pesak where else the pesak gantung (gantung = hang) cut is more shapely yet not figure hugging and it makes the wearer taller and slimmer.

In the olden days, a baju kurung is also paired with a sarong accessories drape either on its shoulder (selempang) or covering the female’s head (kelubung). The sarong is also styled on top of the dress which is popularly know dagang luar, where else for male, the sarong or samping is often worn underneath the baju melayu Johor and this style is know as dagang dalam.

Every part of the malay attire that symbolizes the malay culture or religion. For example, in wearing a samping above the knee represents a single/unmarried man, below the knee means that he is already married. However, if a married man is wearing a samping above the knee, perhaps he is ‘searching’ for another (wife/girlfriend). Baju kurung or baju me’ayu Johor usually comes with 1 button symbolizing of our one and only god, a baju melayu with 5 buttons represents Ruk5 pillars of Islam and our 5 prayers a day.

What makes it even beautiful is that it Is made of Tenun Johor or Johor woven fabric such as Tenun Johor Tanjung Piai, Tenun Johor Mayang Selida, Tenun Johor Corak Muar Berbunga Renek and many more. You can learn about Baju Kurung Johor and Tenung Johor at Yayasan Warisan Johor/ Johor Heritage Foundation.

Yayasan Warisan Johor/ Johor Heritage Foundation

Kompleks Warisan Sultan Abu Bakar,

Lot 888, Jalan Sungai Chat

80100 Johor Bahru, Johor

Tel : +6 07-221 3148 / +6 07-224 5488

Email : pengurusan@ywj.gov.my

Jom, Johor Fam Trip is in collaboration with Johor Tourism and all its sponsors with #GayaTravel as media coordinator.

Teluk Sengat Crocodile World in Kota Tinggi, Johor

Reluctant to visit yet another crocodile farm (been to a few in my life PLUS there’s a lot of ‘buaya darat’ lurking around) proved to be beneficial and educational for me.

Here is where I found that when one is being thrown into a family business, grabbed the opportunity and make it her own has resulted to the birth and success of the Crocodile World Farm, popularly visited by many – locally and internationally. And I am glad to have met her and be able to tell this story.

The Crocodile World must be highlighted when we talk about Teluk Sengat as it was a crocodile farm with nearly a century worth of history, housing more than 1,000 of crocodiles, with the oldest one aged 155 years old. It started when Huang Yan Yue and son Chuang Zhou tried to breed crocodiles they captured from nearby rubber estates. The number grew tremendously, together with their skillset in handling and breeding them, the passion and determination has turned it into one of the biggest crocodile farm around this district.

The farm has currently passed down to the third generation, Huang Guo Ting and it is opened to the public, with admission tickets required. There is also a shop located at the main street of the new village selling crocodile meat cuisine. Some believe that crocodile meat can cure asthma.

I was told that some of the baby crocs live with them (you heard me right alright), she goes on sharing her experiences and knowledge on crocodiles of which you I am sharing with you at the bottom of this entry. For the first time in my life, I am able to hear how a crocodile sounds like, how their eyes work and the fact about their eggs. All this info was rather overwhelming. Don’t get me wrong, am still scared shit of this vicious creature but my perception of it has changed slightly.

Educational and fun facts on saltwater crocodile or buaya tembaga that we've learnt during our visit to Crocodile World in Teluk Sengat, Johor recently.

#TravelTips 1 : Located 1 hour from Johor Bahru and 20mins from Kota Tinggi town.

TravelTips 2 : Over 1000 crocodiles available in the Teluk Sengat Crocodile Farm

TravelTips 3 : Some of the crocodiles here are more than 100 years old

TravelTips 4 : Baby crocodile makes squeky sound.

TravelTips 5 : Apparently they are scared of thunder or roaring sound that is lounder than them. They'll be all stressed out and probably die within 3-7 days

TravelTips 6 : Crocodile egg has 80% and 20% egg white (swipe for pic)

TravelTips 7 : Expensive crocodile skin is from the belly part

TravelTips 8 : Saltwater crocodile have a long lifespans, it is able to live more than 100 years old.

TravelTips 9 : Crocodiles' tongues are attached to the roof of their mouth hence it can't stick its tongue out.

TravelTips 10 : Crocodiles sleep with one eye awake.

The sense of appreciation is there now but the fear, still intact.

Teluk Sengat Crocodile World Farm

Lot 1289 and 1290

Jalan Sembilan

Kampung Belading

Teluk Sengat

Kota Tinggi, Johor

Operating Hours

 9:00am – 6:00pm

Admission Fee

Adult - RM8

Children - RM4

Jom, Johor Fam Trip is in collaboration with Johor Tourism and all its sponsors with #GayaTravel as media coordinator.