The Beggining

Our day started with a long wait for the bus in school. Everyone got very bored and just started chatting. The cameraman of this photo was bored too. We were all excited to begin our journey and explore the wonders of Malaysia.

Eventually the bus came and we had embarked on our journey towards Johor

The History of Johor

During the mid 19th century, on a condition in a treaty between the british in singapore and the sultan ali of johor, control of the whole empire was passed on to Dato' Temmengong Daing Ibrahim.

Soon, his son, Abu Bakar, had succeded him as Temmegong. In 1866, he was crowned the sultan of Johor, he was nicknamed "The father of Johor". Under Sultan Abu Bakar's rule, that Johor had developed rapidly.

In 1941, Johor fell under Japanese occupation. In 1948 it joined the Federation of Malaya, which gained independence in 1957.

Information adapted from travour.com

Our First Stop at the Sultan's Museum

Our first stop, the Sultan's Museum. Our bus had dropped us off at the carpark behind the Museum. We had to take a 5 min walk to the entrance, that just shows how large and majestic the temple was. Of course, the place was built to be the sultan's new home, but the sultan turned it down and changed it into a museum.

Inside the museum there were grand rooms filled with the sultan's grand furniture. The museum had different rooms such as the children's play room, the bedroom and many others. Another part of the museum had a display of the sultan's gifts from various countries such as japan.

The Kite Gallery

Our next stop would be the kite gallery, located at Pasir Gudang, far far away from the museum.

Once in the gallery, our guide gave us a short explanation of the kite flying tradition and let us browse through the gallery on our own.

At the ground floor, the whole gallery was filled with standing boards which explain the history and style of the kite it was displaying. There was also a small area for a worker to show us how they make the kites, however, they kept the secrets to themselves and worked on a kite in silence.

These are some of the kites we had seen in the gallery.

Right after visiting the kite gallery...

Right after visiting the gallery, we rode our bus to a small town to have lunch. The Muslims went to pizza hut to eat while the rest had ate at a chinese restaurant. Both places had served scrumtious food.

History of Malaysia's Palm Oil Plantation

Long time ago, Johor's plains were filled with rubber plantations. They seemed to seem to stretch out all over the land in their vast amount. Every morning the women will set up their pails to harvest the rubber and every evening the men will bring the rubber to their vehicles to be sent to be sold.

One day the government realised that the rubber harvesting process was taking too long and they only produce a small capital. A man eventually came up with an idea to turn some of the rubber plantations into a palm oil plantation. He then explained the use of palm oil and how easy it is to harvest. Eventually, the government agreed to the use of palm trees instead, and that resulted in the numbers of the palm oil plantations today.

At the Palm Oil Plantation

After Lunch, we were due for another hour long ride to the center of the palm oil plantation, where some workers will be meeting us to demonstrate the correct actions to harvest a mature oil palm tree.

During the bus ride, we could see huge vast plains filled with palm oil trees, even the the view of the horizon was the same. The sights could cause anyone to be amazed by the large amount of greenery in front of them.

Ahh finally, after a hour's worth of snoring, yawning and tiredness, we had finally reached our destination.

When we got out of the bus, the smell of natural fertilizer was dense, and everyone was complaining about the stench, although it seems the workers have already gotten used to it.

The workers had shown us one fully matured fruit. They plucked out a few of these for so all of us could feel it.



Later, another few workers and use a sickle to slice the fruit in half, revealing its contents. Our tour guide had told us that there were two different kinds of oil in the fruit. One, the regular palm oil, which is found in the orange pulp of the fruit and two, kernel oil, which is found in the nut of the fruit.
Palm oil is edible and used as cooking oil. While kernel oil has a large amount of variables it can be used for.

The workers have also taught us how to differentiate the ripe fruit from the immature ones. The ripe ones look dark orange to dark red while the immature ones are brightly coloured yellow or orange.

They also told us the immature ones can also be harvested but they bring in a low amount of oil.

And lastly, they shown us how they would have harvested the bunch of fruits.

First a long blade mounted on a pole is stabbed into any outer layer leaves protecting the fruits, cutting of the leaf leaving the fruit bunch in the open.

Next, they would then shove the blade at the tree trunk that is supporting the fruit bunch, and the fruit bunch would fall freely to the ground, ready to be sent to the factory.

Right after that, we took the bus for a short ride to the factory where more workers will explain the processes to extract the oils in the fruit.

Crossing The Border To Home

After the whole day, or the most of it, we were to ride the bus another 45 mins to reach the customs area. We were finally on the way home and were excited about this news alone.

A summary of what we had learnt.

During the trip, we have learnt many remarkable values of Johor and their treasures.

My group and I learnt that Malaysia's rulers take great pride in their home, this can be seen by the various types of decorations used in the museum. Also, the museum was designed in a western theme.

At the traditional kite gallery. We were taught about the various types of kites used around the world. We also got to view a album of the types of kites participating during a competition.

At the palm oil plantation, the workers of the place had explained how they are able to extract the oil from the fruit. They cover everything from the growing of the tree to the harvesting of the fruits.

The End of Our Quest in Johor

At the very end of the day, we were all exhausted and tired out. However, it seems like some of us still has the energy to blow chewing gum!

Although we may have only been in Johor for one whole day, it felt as if we have not returned for a week.

Nothing beats the feeling of returning home after a long day to shower and sleep comfortably in our own beds.

Picture gallery

These are some of our "fun" pictures taken during our time at Johor.