the declining kuala selangor fireflies

I’d always wanted to go to Kuala Selangor to see the fireflies, and when the Gallivanter announced that he was organising a trip to do just that, I asked if I could tag along 😀

Eight of us drove down (well, two did the driving) to Kuala Selangor. The old road took us past the Sg Buloh prison (which I kept looking out for) and was dotted with rubber and palm trees. And lots of rich kampung folks living in massive (perhaps illegal) houses. It was almost like scene right out of a bad Hollywood movie, where the characters drive through an almost deserted town where there are quaint shops with funny names, then the characters get murdered by odd serial killers. Heh.

We reached Kampung Kelip-Kelip around 8 p.m. It’d been raining before and so we delayed dinner to get on the boat first. It was RM10 per person, 4 to a sampan and below is a video I’d taken on the boat…

Yes, couldn’t capture shit. So no fireflies photos for you. But they looked something like this or this, minus the immense number of fireflies. Like decorated Christmas trees, 3 flashes per second.

The guide told us that it was the rainy season, hence the limited fireflies. Plus the river is kinda polluted and is killing the pokok berembang, which is the only species of trees the fireflies would buzz around. I’d say there were about 2 or 3 trees that had a lot of them, and 7 -8 with not as many. Nothing like in the photos though.

But it was still a good experience — the sampan ride was rather peaceful and calming, though I found myself thinking of crocodiles. I didn’t dare to ask the guide though, as it was night time and there’s this whole superstition about not mentioning buaya pusaka stuff at this time of the night, bla bla bla. I do scare myself sometimes.

Mosquitos I can mention. Mosquitos literally suck.

We took a group photo, here we are, stolen from Daniel’s blog:

Kuala Selangor fireflies visit
Cely, Hong Kiat, Chelva, Wong, Lina, me, Lee Yee and Daniel.

We had seafood dinner at one of the restaurants in Kuala Selangor. Nothing really spectacular like in Teluk Gong, but ridiculously cheap.

Then back to KL for some alcohol lovin’ 😀