Pulau Ketam

Pulau Ketam is a flat island made completely of mangrove swamps off the coast of Klang in Selangor, Malaysia. A traditional Chinese fishing village sits here, having been around for more than a century, surviving two massive fire outbreaks in 1967 and 1972. Today, the island is a tourist attraction and popular venue for seafood among locals. The simplest way to get to Pulau Ketam is by a commuter train to Port Klang.

From there, alight and hop on a ferry at the nearby jetty, paying about RM5 for a one-way ticket. These ferries are shaped like long bananas, and they are actually retired boats from Borneo that were used to ply the river routes in Sarawak. After a 45-minute journey, you will reach Pulau Ketam for a cultural adventure. The Chinese fishing village that greets you is built completely on stilts, the bottom being a muddy floor with pepperings of discarded debris and trash. As a result, there may be a strong stench at parts where the rubbish has collected heavily. Still, the cleanliness of the island was far worse in the past, and the Pulau Ketam you see today is a vast improvement.

This is due to the efforts to promote Pulau Ketam as a tourist attraction. With hygiene awareness and potential tourism, the village adopted better cleanliness, making it palatable for visitors. During low tide, the shores are swarmed with thousands of tiny blue crabs, which is why the name of the island translates to 'Crab Island' in English. To explore the mangrove swamps, you can hire a boat from the village and begin your river cruise.

Along the way, you'll spot many different types of coastal widlife such as kites, mud skippers, monkeys, otters and monitor lizards. A check with a boatman revealed that snakes are an occassional sight on the shrubs and mangroves along the river, often being the mangrove cat snake, or Boiga dendrophila melanota and the shore pit-viper, or Trimeresurus purpureomaculatus.

Meanwhile, the waters are teeming with marine life such as barramundi, red snapper, prawns and crabs, making it a popular avenue for fishing. Aquaculture is also another predominant activity, with nets suspended in the waters to raise fish fry. Finally, most visitors will head to the many restaurants on Pulau Ketam for a refreshing course of seafood delights!