Pengarang is the most southeastern area of peninsular Malaysia, in Kota Tinggi district of Johor State. It is just on the other side of Pulau Tekong in Singapore and accessible by bumboat from Changi Village. It has always been known as a place for enjoyable cycling and good cheap seafood. Part of the beauty of this area is that it faces south, instead of east, and is largely sheltered by the monsoon waves and storms.

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How to get there?

A bumboat ride from Changi Village will cost you S$9 or S$10 per trip. S$11 if you are crossing with a bicycle. The little bumboat terminal at Changi Village is just a little ways past the Hawker Centre and Wet Market and next to a large carpark. The small terminal only serves two locations, Pulau Ubin and Pengarang. Just show up and hand your passport to the guy at the counter, when there are enough passagers the guy will return you your passport and you would be directed through customs and into the bumboat. Each bicycle will displace a person from the boat capacity.

The bumboat ride is 45min long, and you should still have Singapore mobile network for most of the trip. There is not a lot to see, most of the trip is next to the sea wall and land reclaimation sites, and Pulau Tekong at a distance. Nice time to get a bit of food and rest. They built a nice terminal building on the Malaysian side so the landing is now quite civilised. There used to be only a tiny office and pretty gross toilets about two years ago. Just outside the terminal there is a little drink store with extremely sweet tea (tell them to put less sugar if you do not want to get diabetes before the cup is empty) and a good place to buy some drinks.

From here, any non-cyclist can get a taxi, there are always taxis waiting at the terminal. Currently it is MYR16 for the 18-20km trip to Sungai Rengit. Sungai Rengit is the main town in this area and where the seafood restaurants are. Cyclists will find the first stretch very easy as there are almost no cars, only the bumboat terminal and the naval base is along this road. Once around the corner from the terminal, there are two concrete bunkers from World War 2. I believe they sited 2 pounder or 6 pounder guns in those bunkers. There was a gun platform and did not look to be meant for machineguns.

Past the naval base, it is pretty much a straight road for the next 9km, the sides of the road has the occasional small lanes, mosque, school, residences and a few drink stores, there is also a beach resort and a Chinese temple that I have never explored. I believe somewhere in this stretch there is a place where off-road cyclists do some trashing. At about 9km look out for a large right turning road. The sign should point towards Sungai Rengit. Take the right turn and it should bring you in a crescent for another 9km after which you should see the town of Sungai Rengit. This stretch has some construction, some farms and a temple.

Sungai Rengit pretty much has two parallel main streets, quite typical of a Malaysian town layout. I like to think of it as a town where Parkson has yet to set up shop. It is a simple town where the centre is predominantly occupied by the Chinese. There is a money changer, a bank with an ATM, a shop to buy local cakes and stuff, and a Marry Brown fried chicken fastfood restaurant. But we are not here for fried chicken.

What’s for lunch?

I will talk about the seafood restaurants later, but be aware that they are open for business at lunchtime as well. If you are a normal person and left Changi Village in the morning, you should find yourself in Sungai Rengit before or during lunchtime. My number one recommendation for lunch is Bak Kut Teh. It is pretty much at the opposite end of the main road from where you would arrive from the bumboat terminal. In the coffeeshop opposite the seafood restaurants, you will find a Bak Kut Teh shop to die for. Get there early because they tend to run out by about 1pm. The Bak Kut Teh is of the dark soup variety and has extra bits like String Mushroom and Tao Ki. They also serve some awesome pork knuckles in dark soya sauce.

Alternative lunch places could be the coffeeshop next to the Taxi station. They serve hand-made Chee Cheong Fun with Char Siew and Prawn fillings. The hand-made Chee Cheong Fun skin just melts in your mouth, absolutely divine. The same coffeeshop also servers Wan Tan Mee, passable but not overwelming. Another lunch choice is the local Laksa store next door to Marry Brown, I have not tried it before but it looks promising.

Where to next?

There are several options of what you can do after this. Desaru, a place known for lovely beach resorts, is about 30km away from Sungai Rengit, so good cyclists can actually make the 100km return trip to Desaru in a single day. Although accomodations are pretty good in Desaru, the food leaves much to be desired. There is a reason why the Desaru resorts bring their customers to Sungai Rengit for seafood in their coaches. If you are a gastronomicon, you might want to spend the night nearer to Sungai Rengit in order to sample more that it can offer. There is only one hotel in the town that I know of, and it looks like a 1 to 2 star job. Pass.

9km after Sungai Rengit is a small cluster of beach resorts (lower end compared to Desaru) mostly catering to Malaysian tourists and Singaporean tourists on a bit of a budget. Look out for a right turn with the Kg. Gambut sign at about that distance after Sungai Rengit. Cyclists can use another landmark. The right turn shortly after quite a steep and curved uphill road that runs along the Ramunia Fabricators factory area. The small Kampung Gambut road will eventually lead to a few lower end beach resorts.

Between Sungai Rengit and Ramunia Fabricators is an ostrich show farm. It is overpriced and not particularly exciting unless you have never seen ostriches before. Stand on an ostrich egg and take a photo and buy a kitsch ostrich skin keychain. Pay no attention to the masturbating monkey.

We stayed at Sunrising Resort, which was the 2nd one down the road. We got a large semi-detached chalet for MYR420 a night and it had nine beds in three bedrooms. There was three seperate shower and toilets, a small kitchenette with a small refrigerator. The 14″ CRT TV was adequate but the pampered Singaporeans broke out their laptops and played their videos instead. The rooms are clean, although the toilets are basic, with only one having hot water. But we by the time you are at the resort and ready for a shower, you would be hot and sweaty so room temperature water would be good enough.

There is a lady that has a little ABC (ice kachang, or flavoured ice) store in Sunrising resort. If you are nearby, please patronise her store and help her with a little income. You can also have the chance of listening to her life story. If the store is not open, you can knock on the door of the house next to it, that is where she and her husband lives.

Sun, Sand and the Sea.

The monsoon season has brought nice metre tall waves to this area, crashing on the shore constantly and is quite therapeutic for me. While Sunrising resort was on the beach, it was quite rocky in this area. A 10minute walk further down will take you to another larger stretch of beach that is really fun. We spent a whole afternoon in the water body surfing and just enjoying the strong waves. The water is full of sediments but is not polluted. The amount of waves at this time of the year is probably quite good for beginner surfing lessons, but the resorts in this area does not really have any equipment of the sort, they are mostly quite laid back. The resorts in this stretch is of a variety of quality and price, I believe that in general there are more expensive than Sunrising.

The other food available here is in two little stores in the resort before Sunrising. One sells breakfast like Nasi Lemak, and another is a typical Warong that serves a simple dinner or supper. But you are not going to have dinner or supper here, you are headed back to Sungai Rengit for that. You can arrange for some cars to take you to Sungai Rengit from Sunrising or any of the other resorts. We had two cars for that, and it costs us MYR60 for the return trip, the drivers waited in town for us while we had our dinner and supper.

Seafood time.

Well, noone will stop you for having seafood for lunch, but lets be normal and go for it for dinner. There are four main seafood restaurants in town, all a little past the main streets. Three are on one street, while another is on a parallel next street across. Of the four, Jade is probably the highest end restaurant. There are more air-conditioned seating for the hot season. They also cater wedding dinners with the typical Malaysian Chinese Karaoke that goes with it.

Lobster is the main seafood people come to Pengarang for. Jade cooks their lobster just right, it is tender and comes off the shell very easily. They also serve quite a spicy but tasty Mee Goreng. All in all, you cannot go wrong if you’re dining at Jade. We spent MYR240 for a dish of four lobsters, and two other side dishes.

Avoid the restaurant next to Jade, my experience with it has not been good. The food was underwelming and the price overwelming. I cannot remember the name, its the one next door.

The restaurant opposite to Jade, another whose name escapes me, also has pretty good food. They tend to cook their lobster a bit more than Jade so the flesh is a bit harder and more difficult to come off the shell. Some people prefer it like this. If you go there, order their Soup Lobster, it is cooked in a herbal sauce, which is quite awesome. The venison is pretty tender as well. This restaurant is also appreciably cheaper than Jade.

On the next street across is Good Luck. This restaurant serves wonderful steamed lobsters and prawns. So if you like your lobsters and prawns steamed in egg white, this is the place to go. All in all a decent restaurant with decent prices. Also recommended.

What? More food?

Just when you thought that ending your day with cheap lobster (relative to Singapore prices) was awesome enough, you better wander towards the main roads of Sungai Rengit and sample what else is on offer.

After 7-8pm, the coffeeshop across from where Jade and the other two restaurants are will start to serve Char Kway Teow, Satay, and some cooked food. But before you can even make it there, you will be accosted by the smell of Ramli Burger. Ok, so what, Ramli Burger is all over Malaysia, big deal. Perhaps being in a town full of good food, the Ramli Burger store in that junction has pushed the envelope. The cook is zealous with his seasoning and the extremely unhealthy result is extremely tasty. Submit to your temptation and have yourself a Beef Special. Do note that the cook is quite generous with the chilli sauce and the burger is quite spicy as a result. So ask for no chilli if you need to.

Now that you have successfully crossed the road with chilli sauce stains on your fingers, you can sit yourself down and order a plate of Char Kway Teow. It is simple but tasty, with small Cockels but no Lap Cheong. A small enough plate that you can still finish despite all the seafood and burger you just had. I have never had the satay, as it has alway ran out before I got around to ordering it, so I assume that it cannot be all bad. The cooked food store in the same coffeeshop sometimes serves shark meat cooked in a similar way to how we serve sambal sting ray in Singapore.

There are more coffeeshops along the way, one of which serves quite delightful Wild Boar. It is the crowded one, there is another one which is not crowded, and for good reason. There is a bakery where you can buy some buns for breakfast, and some provision shops to top up on beer, peanuts and snacks for the night. So its off back to the resort, you should be able to find the drivers in their cars parked next to the seafood restaurants. Whether you are going to spend your night listening to the crashing waves, watching TV or playing mahjong is up to you. Have a late night.

Wakey! Wakey!

Ah, its morning again, or maybe it is already afternoon. Hopefully you have woken up early enough that you can go to the little store in the resort before Sunrising and get some breakfast. A typical Nasi Lemak and Milo breakfast is always appreciated. Of course, chances are, you have slept too late and it is nearing lunchtime, at which point you should get yourself ready to make a move towards Sungai Rengit.

The ride back is easier because the uphills are less gradient and they come at the start of the ride. Once in town, whether you decide to have another round of the awesome Bak Kut Teh or opt for more variety, it is up to you. The people here tend to lunch earlier so try to get there before 1pm.

Get to the terminal on time.

Another reason to make it to town by 1pm is that the bumboat terminal at Tg. Pengelih closes at 4pm, so to be on the safe side, try to reach the terminal by 2-3pm. Before 2pm if it is a public holiday. So time yourself and when you need to leave Sungai Rengit. So ends a nice weekend trip to Pengarang where you can lose a few pounds riding your bicycle and gain a few more pounds with all the lovely food available.