My Passion, My Life v2.0

*Desmond-t always bring to you honest reviews - this time, do expect a rather negative food review*

It’s my 4th year in KL and finally I made my way to Kuala Selangor famous firefly reserve. There’s only a few places in Malaysia where fireflies are spotted in large numbers and this is one of them (apart of Nibong Tebal and another one in Negeri Sembilan, as what I know).

I shall begin with the food introduction first, then more about the fireflies later on, as per the topic of this entry. Kinda disapppointed with the food actually - it is NOT as cheap and tasty as I have expected from generous review from other blogs. Anyway, just so you know, apart from my dissatisfaction from the food, overall the trip was worthwhile as it was my very first time going for this fireflies sighting excursion.

To begin with the food sensation, Kuala Selangor is well-known as a small port city with active fishing industry. Not surprising that the famous seafood dining hotspot is located just by the riverbank itself.

Pasir Penampang is the name of the place with at least 5 huge seafood restaurants and many more smaller stalls. I can’t really recommend which one is the best as this is only my first time to this place, LOL.

My friend who is a local from Kuala Selangor suggested that River View Seafood Restaurant simply because it is well known among tourists. Indeed it was all meant for tourists - with the “tourist” pricing as well. According to her, the locals usually opt for the less known stalls which sells nicer and tastier food, but it’s hard for me to locate them. Ish! They aren’t even in ShiMikY’s Garmin GPS mapping system. So, River View it is…

Let me sum it all up this way to prevent a rather “super” long food entry again. Let’s go clockwise, starting from top lefthand corner. It’s the Deep Fried Mantis Shrimp with Nestum - RM12; Kung Pou Squid - RM12; 1kg of Green Curry Crabs - RM32; Clamps ”Si Ham” with dark sauce - RM10; Thai Style Fish - RM32; Man Tao Bread for the Crab - RM3.50; and the Oyster Omellete - RM12.

Together with drinks, rice, lousy preserved fruit (jeruk) appetizer and hand towels - total damage RM143 for somehow a very small portion of food. From what you can see here, most of the food we ordered are rather snacks like the oyster omellete, clamps and the bread. Worse still, they served the wrong dish: we ordered black pepper crabs instead of this green curry crabs; plus the super disappointing oyster-LESS omellete for a freaking RM12.

Verdict: Not recommendable at all cause, unless you regard yourself as a “foreigner tourist“.

Let’s go to the more fascinating Firefly Park!

In Kuala Selangor, you will have two choices for firefly sighting - The Kampung Kuantan Jetty (at the upper part of the river) and the Kampung Bukit Belimbing Jetty. From friends review, The Kg. Kuantan’s Jetty offer you a smaller sampan ride which fits only 4 pax at one time while the Kg. Bkt. Belimbing Jetty has a larger boat which can fit around 30 pax at once.

Here you go with the pricing, increased about 20% from the beginning of 2008. You know lah, everything also becoming more and more expensive nowadays.

On the left is the ticketing counter for the boating trip while the far right end is the Firefly Park Seafood Restaurant which is totally deserted. I’ve read many reviews and people really highly do no t recommend the food there LOL. Sandwiched between the two shops is the Souvenier Shop.

If you are wondering why there are no pictures from my boating trip, all I got to say is that it is pitch dark on the boat and trust me, you won’t be able to capture any picture from your camera of any fireflies there. What’s more when they impose a RM500 compound for catching fireflies and flash photography is prohibited. (Malaysians being Malaysians… still many people attempting to take pictures and guessed they failed too)

I’m fascinated by the fact that these fireflies blink in harmonic motion - all blinking simultaneously on the same tree, just like the LED on the x’mas tree. Just so you know, the male fireflies emit the lights to attract the female counterpart to do their pleasureable business at night… and yet we lousy human interrupting their fun moments.

Even before I board the boat, a firefly flew onto my hand already at the jetty. This is how it looks like. Just a small dot with yellowish butt! Overall, I am very proud that we have this one-of-a-kind attraction in Malaysia. Just keep my fingers crossed that when I’m 50 years old, the number of fireflies can still be maintained as of what I’ve seen today!

p/s: As per Paul Tan (da famous automotive blogger) request for directions, I shall include a simple directional link HERE, courtesy of Firefly Park Resort.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 8th, 2009 at 6:55 pm and is filed under Food, Malaysia, Travel.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.