seventh job as tourist guide - 1 day JB tour

Today is my seventh job as tourist guide – 1 day JB tour. The tourists for this trip are a group of China tourists and some Taiwan tourists. They are coming Malaysia Johor JB to attend award recognition conference. The conference venue is Loon Sing Restaurant which is located at Bukit Indah. During the period in JB, their accommodation is located at Johor duty free zone named Berjaya Waterfront hotel, Johor Bahru.

Around 8.45am morning, all tourist guide are gathered at Berjaya Waterfront hotel Johor Bahru. Looking into hotel lobby, there are already many China tourists and Taiwan tourists waiting there. This 1 day JB tour take up to 6 buses to ferry the tourists. Due to no earlier arrangement for which bus to sit for Chinese tourists and Taiwan tourists, all the tourists onboard to bus as they like. All tourist guide onboard to individual assigned bus and take the headcount, then report back to person in charge. We depart at 9.20am from Berjaya Waterfront hotel Johor Bahru, but my bus stop just minutes after depart. One of the tourists stops us and alights to fetch another 4 China tourists who are just coming down from their hotel room. Our bus driver is originate from Klang and don’t know the road route in Johor Bahru and supposes to follow the bus. Now such delay has causing all the bus left and he need to drive to Bukit Indah himself. In the end, he calls the other bus driver to ask for the road route to go there. We reach Loon Sing Restaurant at Bukit Indah around 10am. The award recognition conference event started at 10am and expected to finish at afternoon 3pm. We have 5 hours of free & easy during this period. All the tourist guide and bus drivers go to nearby Aeon Jusco shopping mall for lunch and rest.

Loon Sing Restaurant JB

We return to Loon Sing Restaurant Bukit Indah around 2.45pm afternoon after receiving call. After all China tourists and Taiwan tourists gathered and onboard to bus with headcount done, it is about 3.30pm. Our next destination is Tanjung Piai national park. Tanjung Piai national park is located 90 kilometer away from Johor Bahru city centre. We reach Tanjung Piai national park at 5pm. Due to too many tourists and to facilitate the entrance speed, the entrance tickets is based on headcount of every tourists entering into the Tanjung Piai national park entrance door, and the person in charge pay the total amount after all tourists already going in and headcount done by the ticketing staff. Due to time constraints, tourists only allowed 30 minutes to visit the mangrove forest and photo taking. The wooden bridge pathway leading to the globe is broken near the globe placement, causing tourists unable to take photo with the globe.

When all China tourists and Taiwan tourists return back to bus, onboard and departed to Kulai 88 Guo Tai Restaurant, it is already 6pm. The journey to Kulai 88 Guo Tai Restaurant takes about one and half hour. All tourists are already hungry when reaching there at 7.30pm. We have a scrumptious dinner at Kulai 88 Guo Tai Restaurant for one and half hour until 9pm. After dinner, we depart back to Berjaya Waterfront hotel Johor Bahru. There is a minor accident when our bus reaching near the Berjaya Waterfront hotel, whereby a car has crashed to the lamp post beside the main road and causing the lamp post fall horizontally on the road, blocking the road access both ways. After 15 minutes of waiting on the road, at the end we are directed by police to make a U turn to take another route. A journey of 2 minutes has become 25 minutes journey to reach Berjaya Waterfront hotel due to this unexpected incident. All the tourists look so tired when we reach hotel at 10pm.

Tanjung Piai national park

Tanjung Piai is located southernmost point of Peninsular Malaysia and thus the most southern point of mainland Eurasia. The skyline of Singapore is visible across the Johor Strait from the point.

Tanjung Piai coastal mangrove is an internationally important Ramsar site. Under the Ramsar Convention, the government and relevant stakeholders have an obligation to ensure the mangrove ecosystem and its values are maintained. Erosion at the site needs to be minimized to safeguard the ecological integrity of the mangrove ecosystem. The root causes of the erosion need to be eliminated or reduced.

Tanjung Piai is a nationally important icon, being one of only five Ramsar sites in Malaysia. Tanjung Piai is also an important nature site in Johor, being the 3rd designated park of Johor National Park Corporation. Tanjung Piai has high socio-economic value for fisheries. The site also has high ecotourism potential. The site is located on the southernmost tip of mainland Asia and is listed as a priority site for national ecotourism.

Tanjung Piai national park

Tanjung Piai has a good representation of mangroves (22 mangrove tree species). It is also an important habitat for migratory and resident birds. These include the IUCN-listed vulnerable species, such as the Lesser Adjutant Stork. It is part of the Important Bird Area (IBA) of southwest Johor, which extends from Parit Jawa to Tanjung Piai. The southwest Johor mangroves are ecologically important as a natural barrier to protect the inland villages and agricultural lands from storm events, including tsunamis.