Interesting Spots @ Batu Pahat, Johor

An hour drives away from Muar is the Batu Pahat town. I followed my friend who drove here for work last December (2019). Never did I know this quiet town as I have known is so interesting that fewer people ever get to know it. After a round of Googling, I decided to pay a visit to these places with a new friend who I know there. The most interesting spot in BP is this DIY playground that draws a lot of attention with visitors from oversea as far as the US and Hong Kong (before pandemic).

DIY Playground

It's so easy to get to this playground with Waze as someone already located it on the map. The DIY playground is located at the residential area thus parking is limited. The DIY playground is initiated by an old man who stays at the neighbourhood that decided to turn the dumpling area into a children playground with unwanted stuff that people just throw away. 

With his own savings, he paid up to RM6000 (USD 1482) to repair the items that people send to here over the years. He had this idea of starting such a neighbourhood playground when he noticed children nowadays addicted to electronic gadgets than heading out to the playground and perhaps the children had no proper place to play. 

What's more? The playground is free to enter with no entrance fee charged. However, Mr Tan, the DIY playground founder places a donation box at the park that whoever feels like contribute a part of this playground could make it so. He also emphasized that he would check the facilities there to make sure it is safe for kids every morning before the playground opens.

I tried a few rides there and indeed they are well maintained and safe not even to kids but also adults except for some rides which exclusively only for kids.

I had fun with my new friend in this see-saw made from unwanted tyres. Some of the rides are great for the kids to stretch their muscles and achieve the full-body workout while they having fun. The wooden ship was made like a swing that needs 2 persons sitting at the opposite side to pull the rope to swing around.

It was embarrassing for 2 of us as we first sat down we did not know how to operate this until someone came to us to teach us how to swing!😂 Isn't that a great workout for our arm? 

Whoever could think of this rubbish could be someone's treasure? Thanks to Mr Tan to give this stuff another means that could bring joy to the kids.

Not featuring here but available at the DIY playground includes flying fox (kids only), slide, merry-, go-round, net climbing and many more. Be sure to visit here if you happen to drop by Batu Pahat. (KL> Batu Pahat: 3 hours - 250km).

Location:

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Chong Long Gong Temple 崇龙宫

I never know about this place until I found someone recommended it on Google for tourist attraction in Batu Pahat. Due to some reasons, Tourism Malaysia never promotes Chong Long Gong temple on its platform. Nevertheless, it could be seen many people especially Singapore tourists purposely travelled here to touch the big blackfish in the pond for good luck. I'm not a superstitious person but I always curious about a new and exciting thing like this.

The road getting to this place is not less in twists and turns. Chong Long Gong temple is located at a Chinese fishing village next to the sea. Due to the build-up in the early years, the houses are not properly planned as today thus the road getting narrower when approaching the destinations. It is then the roadside parking spot is very limited. Luckily there is a parking lot nearby that one could park there for RM2 per entrance.

This Chinese fishing village where Chong Long Gong temple is called Kampung Segenting 石文丁. Chong (崇) means admire in Chinese whereas Long (龙) means dragon. Gong (宫) is defined as palace. I guess the temple is called upon by the local as the place to worship the dragon to protect their livelihood as a fisherman from any threat like nature disaster.

According to the local belief, touching the big blackfish in the pond could bring good luck. My new friend, Winnie was touching the huge blackfish in the hope that her son could win the Chinese Chess competition that held on that day.

   

Everyone was excited when they spotted the fish since it swam around freely in the big pond and usually it gets rest under the shade which made it hardly seen. I'm not Taoism but it is always interesting to try a new thing like touching the big fish's body that I have never done before. Nevertheless, there is a red signboard stated that those who have someone passed away in the family should not touch the fish.

Location:

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Batu Pahat Well

Batu Pahat Well is about 5 minutes drive away from Chong Long Gong temple.  You must not miss this when you visit Kampung Segenting. The location of Batu Pahat Well is at Minyak Beku Beach which is also a recreation area for the local. Minyak Beku is defined as frozen oil, but then I did not see any links between the name and the place. Is there any local can tell me the origin of the name of the beach?

The well is famous among local for where the place gets its name, Batu Pahat meaning chiselled rock.

The big rock was chiselled by the Siamese (Thailand) to contain freshwater. It was said that the Siamese soldiers came here by boat to attack Malacca but were defeated by Tun Perak in the 15th century. 

Location:

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Old Street Commercial Centre 老街坊

As its name suggested, Old Street Commercial Centre is a commercial area consists of 21 units of shop office in 2 blocks. The roof top area is a skypark that public can go freely to take pictures and wander around.

There are some shops and restaurants open at the skypark area as well.

A shop featuring cute minions were seen with many toys claw machines.

It is a nice place to shoot for your Instagram post. However, I was alone that night thus there was not much pictures of myself with the place.

This reminds me of Cinderella's pumpkin coach. One can ride on it to take a picture but the coach is static.

There are many more cute figurines, props, backdrops that I could not able to feature in this post. Nevertheless, it is worth to pay a visit if you coming to Batu Pahat.

Location:

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