Tanjung Piai
The Southernmost Point Of Continental Asia A Mangrove Spit In Johor Where You Can Stand At The End Of A Landmass That Runs All The Way To The Arctic · Pontian, Johor
WALK TO THE END OF THE BOARDWALK AT TANJUNG PIAI AND YOU ARE STANDING ON THE SOUTHERNMOST POINT OF MAINLAND ASIA. Not of Malaysia - OF THE CONTINENT. The landmass behind you runs unbroken north through Thailand, China, Mongolia and Siberia to the Arctic Ocean, and it stops here, at a low mangrove spit in Johor, with a marker and a view of the shipping in the Strait of Malacca. IT IS NOT A SPECTACULAR PLACE AND THAT IS RATHER THE POINT: a boardwalk through mangrove, mudskippers and fiddler crabs in the mud below, macaques in the trees, and Singapore's skyline faint across the water. THE MANGROVE ITSELF IS THE CONSERVATION STORY - a RAMSAR wetland, eroding, and buffered by work that is still going on. Most Malaysians have never been. Almost no foreigner has heard of it. Go near low tide, when the mudskippers and fiddler crabs are out on the exposed flats, check the boardwalk has not closed for repair before driving ninety minutes from Johor Bahru, and eat afterwards at the stilt seafood restaurants at Kukup.
Tanjung Piai, Pontian, Johor, Pontian, Johor, Malaysia
TANJUNG PIAI IS ABOUT AN HOUR AND A HALF BY ROAD FROM JOHOR BAHRU, THROUGH PONTIAN, and there is no public transport worth the name - a car or a driver is the practical arrangement. THE PARK KEEPS DAYTIME HOURS AND CHARGES A MODEST ENTRY FEE with a small visitor centre. THE BOARDWALKS RUN OUT THROUGH THE MANGROVE TO THE POINT and are the whole visit; they are flat and well made but CAN CLOSE IN SECTIONS FOR REPAIR because the sea takes them. GO NEAR LOW TIDE for mudskippers and fiddler crabs in the mud, which is most of what there is to see besides the marker. MACAQUES ARE PRESENT AND WILL TAKE FOOD. THERE ARE SEAFOOD RESTAURANTS ON STILTS nearby at Kukup, which is the usual pairing. It is hot and exposed; go early.