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| As of August 2013, HotBoys Kelong and the rest of the Kelong near Sibu Island has been evicted and dismantled. There has been no update of HotBoys relocating to any other location as of now. |
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| There was a change in management at HotBoys in 2013. The new owner are Malaysian. With the new management taking over, there have been much renovation works going on. As at Jan 2013, the renovation are still on going. From talking to the kelong hand, the renovation will probably be done by the Chinese New Year. Attached is the contact of the kelong. Incidentally, the Kelong is call "New" Hotboys. |
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| Hotboys Kelong is one of the 4 kelongs you can find within the vicinity of Sibu Island on the east coast of peninsular Malaysia. This Kelong is currently owned by a few Singaporean owners but the running of the kelong is left to a Malaysian crew, they can communicate in Malay, Chinese, Cantonese and simple English. To get to the kelong you need to arrange with the kelong that you're coming so that they can prepare your food while you're on board. The kelong hand will also let you know the timing which the boat from the kelong can pick you from the Tg. Leman jetty. If need be they can also arrange for your transport (even from Singapore). |
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If you drive, you can park at the Jetty's Carpark. Or if you book a transport, they will usually drop you beside this jetty in the image on the left or the front of the Jetty's main building. There is a kind of food court in the building, toilets and a few shops for suppliers and simple shopping. You need to pay a jetty tax, and if I am not mistaken is currently RM 5. From the jetty the kelong hand will seek you out and bring you to the boat. |
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The type of boats used to transport guest to the kelong is as shown. In the wetter month they might use a bigger ferry. There is a tendency for the boatman to over load the boat during peak seasons, eg weekends during school holiday, long weekends, public holidays, etc. Anglers tends to avoid these periods as the kelong will be very crowded and with so many non-anglers dipping a line or two line each, it could get pretty messy. Imagine this kelong can host a max of about 125 people! This is not a problem specific to Hotboys, its the same with the other 3 kelong and sometimes they share the same boats, when their own can handle the crowd. |
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| Above is a picture of Hotboys's office. You make your payment here, buys your can drinks here, rent a rod here, buys some jigs and snacks here (not sure if the jig and snacks are still on sale currently). On the right of the picture is the thermal containers that dispenses tea "O', kopi "O" and plain old sky juice (boiled). |
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| Simple bunk beds are provided, and is as clean as a kelong can be. Not much privacy but anglers don't need privacy do we? We just need a place to wet our lines :). Anyway, this place is okay by any standard of kelong and it's mostly railed up so it's good place for non-anglers young and old. People coming here should not have the "hotel" mentality, I have seen people with high heels and dangling ear rings, I bet they got a culture shock. If you like the rustic kumpong life style this place will be good for you. The best thing is you get sea view from every bed, don't believe me, just peer down on the gaps between the planks that makes up the floor and you'll see the sea! During rainy days I can even fish from the bed, through the planks. |
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| The most important part of the kelong the bathroom and toilets. These are the traditional "drop through" toilets. There has been some improvements over the year, used to be that you have to carry and fill your bath water using jerry cans. But now there is a hose on tap, that makes the job a lot easier especially for the ladies as those jerry can can be quite heavy. |
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| A wider angler shot of the bunks and the dinning area. On the right of the picture there is a "hole" for fishing. It's basically an area inside the main structure that is not floored, so you can fish from within the building without getting out into the sun or rain if it's raining. A rather tricky place to fish as it's easy to get snagged. |
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Food provided on the kelong is as per your standard Zhi Char stall you get from our neighborhood. As for taste, it's actually quite good most of the time and the chef on the kelong are from Mersing's Zhi Char restaurant. There are 4 meals a day, breakfast which is noodle, fried rice or nasi lemak, lunch and dinner is as per the photos and supper is porridge, fried noodle and a sweet desert. |
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For extra, bring along your sushimi knife, soya sauce and wasabi and you can have the freshest raw fish you ever tasted. The large selar and squid that can be caught there makes great sushimi. It helps if you can bring your own Japanese chef too, like we did. :) |
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| The kelong is just a stone throw from Sibu Island. When the weather is good, you can arrange with the kelong hand to bring you to the island for a walk or swim at the beach. This is a way to keep the non-anglers occupied. |
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| Some shots taken on the island itself. The boat ride from the kelong to the island is about 5 to 10 minutes. If it's rains the trip will be off, so if you visiting the kelong during the monsoon period, most probably you wouldn't get to go ashore. |
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| Some shots of anglers during one of the long weekends. Good place to get a tan too. There are ample fishing platform around the kelong for anglers to fish. |
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| This is one of the places that I do like bringing kids fishing. Catching fishes is easy and therefore it's easy to keep them interested, especially the younger ones. But with all place near the sea, parents are doubly advise to always keep an eye out there for them. If I am bring children fishing, i will usually choose going on weekdays during their school holidays as there is less crowd and boat safety is manageable. And it's better if the children are swimmers too. There is not many places in Singapore that children gets exposed to this type of environment, so personally it think it's good to let them get a little dirty, go under the rain or sun, hold and release live fishes and just getting a chance to be children there. |
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| Sunrise like these are worth more than what money can buy. How often do you get to see something like this in out hassle and bustle life? This are shots of sunrise over Sibu Island. |
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How about fishing under the setting sun? Shots of the sun setting over peninsular Malaysia. |
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| Fishing on the kelong is ok, it can be great at times or it can be bad the next. Some spieces of fishes arrive at the kelong on a seasonal basis while other can be caught year long. A lot also depends on your luck. The fish species caught there are vast, diamond, golden, sagai, and trevallies of many types, barracuda, batfish, cobia, grouper, emperor, different snappers, breams, big stingrays, skate, sharks, parang herring, reef fishes like parrots, wrasses, squirrel, trigger, etc, bait fishes like selar, big eyes, tambans, kunnings, etc. There are also lai mang and rabbit fishes. And most impressive of all, there are also record of mature sails being caught on board. |
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| Eging is also another activity most anglers would attempt on the kelong. Their target are squids and cuttlefish, but occasionally you'll also get some octopus. |
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| Lastly the fishing platforms that surrounds the kelong. The images listed respectively, the northern side (four image above), the southern side (3 image above), the eastern side facing Sibu island (2 image above ) and the western side facing mainland Malaysia. |
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