Firefly Watching at Sungai Kerian, Nibong Tebal

We saw the promotional price at groupon and bought the package for 2 adults. It seems to be a good family activity for the children for this short school holiday. The package is called Amazing Nibong Tebal I think. When we called to confirm our place, we just found out that the firefly watching trip at Sungai Kerian is only available during Fridays to Sundays, probably due to the low demand during weekdays. This package that we got is not departing from the official pier, but from a little kampung house's own private pier :)

First we went for tea at Auto City as we have to cross Penang Bridge early to avoid weekend traffic. The children always loved to play at this water fountain even though it's a very hot day.

 Went early to scout out location of the place we will go for firefly watching. No one was there when we reached around 6pm. Took this opportunity to take photos before sun goes down.

Since it's too early, we went to look for playground for the children. We found one at the nearby taman. The children were so happy they finally had a chance to play.

Mock rock-climbing

 
Around 7:30pm, we went to wait for the organizer to turn up. They were still not there (went to have dinner??). Good thing we come somewhat prepared, I asked the sweetest member of our family to wear long pants :) And we slather on mosquito repellant lotion all over our exposed skin (even ears, necks, feet and soles). There was another family where some of the ladies were wearing perfume and attracted a lot of mosquito bites. For anyone interested, please remember to bring mosquito repellant lotion, wear long pants, tie up your long hair as it's super hot while waiting at the kampung house :)

Another photo while waiting

After it turns dark, that the organizers arrived. We were given life jackets and paid for the children's fares (RM8 per child is promotional fare as we booked adult fares. Normal fare for children is RM15).

See the lighted stone walkway? That's the path to the little pier to board the boat for firefly watching

The life jacket makes us very hot but have to wear for safety

Once we're on the boat, the breeze make the trip bearable. The organizer gave us a briefing in Mandarin, asking us not to walk around on the boat and not to lean over, not to put on camera flash as it will cause the fireflies to stop lighting up, and to alight carefully only after the boat driver hold the boat. There was a mat salleh lady and someone requested her to repeat in English. She started with "When the boat open..." and there was roars of laughter for all of the passengers :) If you're wondering, it's because she said 开船时 for her Mandarin version and "when the boat open" is direct translation from Mandarin hahaha. Our education is so terrible, ill-preparing our students even in spoken English :) Now why didn't the organizer spend a little time and effort to prepare their announcement in English, Mandarin, BM and just play the recording prior to starting the boat?

We enjoyed the boat ride with the wind blowing on our faces. It's already pitch dark by then.

This is the mangrove trees if you can see from the dark photo

It's an amazingly adventurous ride, it's a small boat so we're very near to the river. And it felt like a crocodile is going to snap up anytime, kind of like Crocodile Dundee. In fact, coming to think of it, we're taking quite a risk as the boat is pretty open, but perhaps the organizer did not encounter any crocodiles there :)

We were taken very near to the mangrove trees by the river, the fireflies are so bright! They look so much like LED light blinking, that we were speculating are they real or just fake LED lights planted on the trees as they are not moving. Once 爸爸 saw a firefly flying, the light was moving away from the tree and flew to another branch, that we believed it was for real :) After all who would be wiring up a whole bunch of LEDs in the jungle? Unable to take any decent photo of the fireflies but it's pretty amazing to see with our own eyes. Right at our backyard too :)

The children thoroughly enjoyed the trip. It ended with a bang, while we were making our way back to the kampung house, it rained heavily! Phew, luckily we're not on the boat. It's already 9pm by the time we make it to our car.

After the firefly watching trip, it's time for late dinner, and we went to Bukit Tambun for the first time with the children. Initially they didn't want any seafood, but they still enjoyed the food. We reach around 9 something but the place is still packed and some people even come later than us.

弟弟 accidentally ate a cili padi and stopped eating after that. He had already had his share of rice, noodles and fish by then. To our surprise he refused the prawns and crab as he said they smelt bad. 姐姐 ate everything, including prawns and crab, except the spicy clams which is the adults' own dish :) We went home tired from the trip but with a very full stomach.

Playing with crab claws