Our most recent excursion was to the ancient capital of Selangor, Jugra. I have always been curious about this location, mainly because the ruins and the jungle kind of attracted my attention.
Located in the district of Kuala Langat, Jugra is by the coast of West Malaysia, kind of facing the Straits of Malacca but sheltered behind Bukit Jugra. It is about 45 minutes away from Puchong / Petaling Jaya, bypassing Bentong if you take the KESAS Highway towards Port Klang.
The area is predominantly famous for its paragliding, but according to most adventurers, the best place to begin is the museum, housed at a refurbished police station. So we made our way there.
We travelled through lush kampung roads, very green expanses with narrow but well-maintained with hardly a bump or pot-hole along the ride. Nestled next to a hill, we found the police station / museum. In the museum, the displays basically explained the history of Jugra and also the work done to excavate and refurbish the historical sites.
We then asked the caretakers where to find the imprint of Hang Tuah, which apparently is a highlight. Funnily enough, the caretakers were a little hesitant and insisted it was just a “story”, and that we could find the footprint by a Chinese shrine down the road. This was interesting!
Finding the shrine was no problem at all. The road basically went further down until the river bank was close to the road, and fishing aficionados threw in their lines just by the roadside. Unfortunately, no one was at the shrine, and when we asked the fishermen, they had no idea what we were talking about.
So we hung about the shrine, climbed to the top, made friends with the super friendly dogs, and then headed back, basically following our noses. We decided to explore a road that went up a hill behind the police station / museum.
As soon as we were up a bit of a way, we were surprised to come across a hillside of Chinese graves (together with a shrine / temple, again with super friendly dogs and pups). Right across from the grave site was the old ammunition bunker.
Beyond the graveyard up on the hill was the famous Jugra Lighthouse. Unfortunately, it was closed and we couldn’t go in. The view was amazing though, you could see the Langat River snaking through the lush jungles of Malaysia. We really have a lot to offer and I just hope that we keep it that way! Much of the forest around Bukit Jugra appears to be designated as forest reserve so, fingers crossed!
At the lighthouse, we asked the caretaker (I assume) what lay on the road further up the hill. Apparently, it was the abandoned police barracks. We also managed to ask him about the Hang Tuah footprint and he said it was on the rock behind the shrine, so if you like, scan the photo carefully to see if you can see it! We didn’t!
So we drove up the hill beyond the light house, and found the abandoned barracks which looked like it would be a great place to film a horror movie. And enough said about that!
We drove by the Royal Mausoleum, but by then we were really quite hungry, so we didn’t stop. We also stopped by a temple by the river further down towards town, and we discovered that apparently most of the “La Tok” resemble sultans! Interesting!
We headed down to Carey Island for lunch. The food was good as always, with prices comparable to KL.
We then decided to drive through Carey Island to see the Straits of Malacca (well, from the viewpoint from Carey Island).
I was disappointed to find the Mah Meri cultural centre closed, and that there were hardly any traditional Mah Meri houses to view! Hopefully, the culture will be retained because I believe this tribe can only be found on Carey Island in Malaysia, with a unique and separate culture from the other natives in Malaysia.