About the pulau... hmmm. Pulau Ketam actually is not a pulau, it has no solid soil ground, all mud... so you would not "step" on the pulau (except those goldfish uncle, see below), but just walking "on top" of the pulau by the wooden made path, unless you fall down to the mud la - by yourself, not by the broken wood, the wooden path is constructed even stronger than Twin Towers concrete, at least the Kepong bridge. This is something I guess crab people (ketam residents) should be very proud of.
Why call Pulau Ketam not Pulau Sekpan 石斑 or Pulau Long Har 龙虾？hehe.. i will reveal the truth later...
The last time i went there was... errr.... about 9 yrs back. the ferry just looked like oridinary fishing boat with chairs n stools... no a/c, n if u sit on top of the engine room, u can sell cha siew rice 叉烧饭 when u reach the island (or tandoori if u r indian), 'cos ur butt could hv been roasted for an hour trip. so if u hv a big fatty 3-layered butt (hokkien called san-cham ba 三层肉), good money for u... oso, tat time no mp3 player, just walkman, n pointless to play ur walkwan with koss or senheiser headphones, u would feel like in sepang F1 circuit if u sit around the engine room, the engine VrOOOmmmm for an hour +...
after an hour + trip, u reach the jetty. watch out ur very first step onto the island, dun worry la, no ketam there waiting to cramp u, just veli slippery. but when u go on the wooden made path heading to island, u better watch n think twice for every single inch u step forward... again, no crab there, it's something that is same color with the wood, sometime it's darker like dark choc, sometime it's lighther n brownish like cadbuary. hmmm... or u might see some brownish with red like ABC gula merah (this one fr sick creature)... n wat is that???!!! u got it?? it's "kao sai" loh, a.k.a dog shit or "kao si" in cantonese. we, the pa sang gang gave another name to pulau ketam tat time, namely pulau kaosai... one of my frens was very fortunate to bcome the very first king of the pulau, the KaoSai Ong (ong = king), he was the first one and only one in our gang to step on kaosai in ketam, i remember not only once, but twice!! but dun laugh first, he could b replaying the history: once upon a time, when the first crab person, probably a fisherman discovered here, he oso encountered the same incident like my fren, he stepped on a kaosai n the aftermatch kaosai looked like a ketam shape, then since the pulau has no name yet, he mah named it pulau ketam loh... of course he initially planned to name it pulau kaosai, but u know la, kaosai not so nice to hear mah, n if he tell ppl he caught the fresh crabs n fishes fr pulau kaosai (sound like fresh kaosai leh), u think those market 3ku 6po 三姑六婆 will still buy fr him ar??? if they do, no matter how they cook the crab n fish, steam fry or sweet sour, phychoologically sure the seafood smell kaosai la... tat's how the name of the pulau came from, believe o not?? actually just bullshit here... :p the origin of the name was bcos many ketams thr la
but dun prlay prlay wor... in 9 yrs time, we can upgrade ourselves fr walkman to ipod, diary to blog, crab ppl oso can upgrade one leh... when reached jetty this time, no more "fishing ferry", the new ferry is airconditioned!! if u r KL boy/gal, dun always langsi u r more canggih advance than sakai fr sabah sarawak, at least they r better than us at "marine automobile industry" leh, the a/c ferry o speedboat is "imported" from them!! somemore is used unit, so east m'sian oso can langsi tat we reuse their rubbish. of course the ticket fare is like cinema ticket la, 100% increase, from 3 to 6 bucks.
since it's a/c, n if u know me or look at my head photo in the blog, i knocked off the whole boat trip... zzZZZzzzz till we reached ketam, the trip is just ~30min ride.
walked up the jetty, heading toward the island, noticed that the "main road" is no longer in brown, but in grey color! since i've been here last time, i still hold the memories, i thought the crab ppl painted the road so the brownish item can be easily spotted in grey road :p (Ah Q's spirit). walked closer, oh! the wooden path is replaced with cement path, no wonder it's in grey la. see la, crab is oso advancing like us leh... regardless the cemented path, i was still damn extra extreme kanjiong careful of my steps to watch out the "brownish object", surprisingly i din see any!!!!! i just feel tat ketam is now much much better than paris now. in paris, when u walk on their street, it's the same experience like u walk in ketam 9 yrs ago!
not to forget the toilet... look at the photo, it's the common toilet in ketam back to 9 yrs ago. so for gals they feel veli uncomfortable to use the toilet, especially low tide period, u nvr know if there's a goldfish uncle 金鱼伯伯 walking on the mud to peep :p But now fear no more, the toilet has evolved like 5 stars hotel toilet liao, unless ppl install hidden camera la...
in the past, some pampered ppl when they go ketam, after taking the meals, sure they laosai lao till ka neng kenot walk. y leh? dun blame the seafood wor, the seafood is guaranteed fresh one... the restaurant not clean? actually not oso, i believe if u can eat in kedai kopi in jalan imbi or hawker centers in jalan alor, u can oso eat in ketam restaurant. then wat? we hv RO reverse osmosis water in mainland, ketam got OR water (not KFC's OR chicken), it's Ordinary Rain water... so the plain water in ketam taste a bit different fr our pipe water, n of course the rain water has no cleaning or chemical process like wat we do for our pipe water at home, so laosai medicine or 保济丸 is good to hv with u during tat old time. now? still got OR water la, but they oso got pipe water liao like us in mainland. the pipe water is all the way coming from kapar town, with a long long undersea pipe transmiting the water to ketam. i dunno how long the pipe la, but sound canggih to me...
1 thing very important to mention, we r still limited to astro entertainment on the mainland, ppl there actually got 5-ft satelite dish to receive china, hk n taiwan channels for FREEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!! no monthly fee, no monthly bill, all to pay is the 1 off installation + decoder, for a mere of RM 400!!! i can't take photo of it since it's illegal by law. of course hehehee... me as pa sang lang abit like s'poren one, veli kiasu one... so i got the "distributor" contact liao, checking some info, n looking for way to install the dish at my house, so no need to dl hk series thru the snail streamyx anymore... can summore record it by my DVR, burn to DVD n sell it... wahahaha, then bcome one of the most famous business taukeh in pa sang. famous not bcos of the good business mind, but bcos kena lockup in klg balai polis next to balai bomba... n now u can on a/c in the house n watch tv 24x7 liao. of course a/c n tv is 24x7 la as long as u like to on it, u sure scold me dumbo now... but tell u wat, last time ketam onli got few hrs electricity supply, i think it's fr 6pm till 6am daily, so fr 6:01am till 5:59pm no electric supply, simply bcos at 6am onwards, all out to school or work (fishing) liao, only left few ppl to stay at home to use electricity... so u can't enjoy at home like in city home, unless ur a/c n tv is run by coal la... now everything thing there is just emerged like u r in the city, or at least like kuala selangor or lumut, u dun feel urself in an island wit no basic facility.
tat's all the differences i spotted during my trip. i din actually walk around, actually nothing to walk around too, nothing unique to buy for souvenir, unless u wan to buy kiamhu 咸鱼 salted fish la... i slept about 4am+ after EPL n was pulled off the bed at 7+am, with big hot redish sun on top, so i caged myself the whole day in an a/c house in ketam, watching china kuanxi 广西 beauty pageants show... this time around din make it to fish farm on the sea, n din take many photos, just lazy...
nevertheless, pulau ketam is still a recommended place to tour to if u've nvr been there. go wit ur gang there for a day trip o a 2d1n trip (hotel onli RM80/nite inclusive of meals) will still bring u joy n fun, regardless its out of city infrastructure there. u can go visit fish farm (n stay there), get some boat rides to some other fishing spots or see how ppl fish etc. but to divers - no dive spot in ketam, the sea water is like milo ice.
p/s: wahlau eh, now onli i noticed i talk too much liao... paiseh~
