This time last year, Lawrence and I should have been in Japan enjoying cherry blossom time, but, well….. So when we learnt that Malaysia had its own blossom time, we thought we’d head out for the day and see what we could find. Here in Malaysia the blossoming trees are called tecoma trees, and I had read of streets and parks in Batu Pahat where we could find these. I have a friend who hails from near there and she suggested we visit Senggarang instead, just 13 miles south of Batu Pahat, and drive along Jalan Parit Karjo.
Even before we got to our destination, we drove along tree-lined roads with blossom in evidence. The advantage of Jalan Parit Karjo is that it is not the main road so one can pull over as required. My friend had sent me a video of the tecoma trees here which was full of drone shots and tons of blossom, but by today most of that blossom seemed to be on the ground. As you will see in the photos, these trees are very tall, so best appreciated while actually driving along when you cannot take photos, or from overhead via drone shots! Lawrence will produce a little vlog of the day soon which I will insert at the end of this page later so you can see what I mean. Despite our little disappointment, it was a beautiful day to be travelling through the Malaysian countryside.
Apparently the locals call these tissue paper trees because of the frail, paper-thin flowers; they shrivel up very quickly on the ground.
We continued along the road to the coast at Sungai Lurus. Clearly this was not a lunchtime destination, with only one of the many stalls serving food. For any of you interested in photography, I was trying out a polarising filter today, so the sea and sky are not necessarily the same colours in these photos. I have a new camera so still have my L-plates on!
There’s a muddy river running parallel with the coastline, with some disheveled looking palm trees. The water was very high in all the rivers we saw today, so let’s hope the rains stay away for a while.
Next we headed into Senggarang itself and to the Fai Lock Yen coffee house. Sadly it was closed this lunchtime, so we returned to the car and continued south along Route 5 to Rengit. These towns are renowned for their coffee, as there are coffee plantations in this area.
We had a much-welcomed iced coffee in Rengit Coffee and I bought a bag of coffee beans to try out at home.
We continued on Route 5 most of the way back to Johor Bahru. Although this is a slower route than the highway, it is much much more interesting. And today the sun was shining, the sky was blue, and we were out for a drive! Simple pleasures indeed.
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