Tanjung Piai - a Sorely Neglected Tourist Gem

Apart from Melaka, the other states in the country have not fully capitalized on the existing resources to attract tourists into their territories. The word I would like to emphasize is ‘capitalize’. In my travels of the Asian countries, I found that the Thais are very passionate in their enthusiasm to capitalize on whatever little they have and make them world renown so as to attract tourists to their country. Take for example, the Golden Triangle in northern Thailand. The term applies to the opium growing region covering northern Thailand, eastern Burma and western Laos, an area where the boundaries of these three countries converge. There is really nothing much to see there, but the name Golden Triangle is in itself an attraction and has become part of the tour itinerary. Then there is Mae Sai , the northern-most city of Thailand, and a stepping stone for visits to Myanmar as the 2 countries are connected by a bridge. It is just a small town, but again the Thai has capitalized on its location.

Back in Malaysia, specifically in Johore, we have a famous landmark which hardly appears in any brochure. Some tour agents and most Malaysian don’t even know of its existence. I am referring to a piece of land inTanjung Piai which has been accredited to being the southern-most tip of the Asian continent. And Malaysia, known for its penchant for building and creating the longest, the tallest, the most this and that, it is amazing how the tourism authority could ignore and neglect this ‘most’ southern tip of the world’s largest continent. Greater effort should be made to capitalize on this natural gift of nature. All travelers would want to feel proud of the fact that they are standing on the tip of the world’s largest land mass. Imagine the exhilarating feeling when you step up on one of the platforms (top pic) and stretch your hands and take the whole world into your embrace. But regretfully, except for a stone monument (bottom left) declaring its unique position, nothing much is done to promote this unique place.

What a waste. Probably it’s a question of patriotism. Are the people working in the tourism industry patriotic enough or proud enough to want to show to the whole world that we have something unique or are they just there to “makan gaji saja”.