Layang-Layang, Johor
Layang-Layang is a suburban town in Johor, Malaysia. It is situated within the parliamentary constituency of Simpang Renggam.
It is located approximately 72km north of Johor Bahru and 32km south of Kluang district.
It was developed in the early 20th century and became one of the Chinese new villages (Xin Cun) during the military conflict between Malaya Communists and the Britain colonial government.
In the very early development stage, Layang-Layang only had one main access road called Jalan Teck Wah Heng ("jalan" means road in Malay), named after an early well-established company Teck Wah Heng. The company has a half concrete structure office and coolies' hostel which was built in a rubber estate, located approximately 10km away from the town.
Some of the older sundry shops in this town include Layang Provision Shop, Chop Jen Joo and Huan Ah Kean shop.
According to the elderly, in the early 20th century, the boss always took trains from Singapore to Layang-Layang, and was later carried by the coolies with palankeen to the company. The company was said to be occupied by the Japanese during World War Two and was destroyed afterward. Today, residual building can still be seen in the rubber estate and a series of ghost stories have been spread about it.. Jalan Teck Wah Heng still exists today,and is the trunk link to the main town Kluang and Johor Bahru.
Until the 1990s, Layang-Layang's major community was Chinese, but it is gradually transforming to a Malay major community following the outflow of the Chinese young generation, who commonly have a trend of settling in cities such as Johor Bahru, Kuala Lumpur or even neighboring Singapore for higher income and entertaining life style.
A new street has opened here, called Jalan Wyxor 23, and there are various housing areas that have increased the circumference of the town bringing more development.
Economy
The town's economy is centered on plantations and agriculture. The connectivity through rail is a predominant factor for its existence despite being out of the main trunk road linking the southern part of Peninsular Malaysia. Well known plantations owned by corporations in this area are the Ulu Remis Estate, Sembrong Estate, CEP Renggam Estate and many smaller plantations owned by individuals.
Among the plantations, Ulu Remis Estate (then owned by the Guthrie Corporation and now by the Sime Darby Group) is notable for its vast infrastructure established in the early 1960s. Even in those early days this estate had a full fledged Club House, which now has its own golf course. It also had a group hospital serving several nearby estates providing medical services to employees. The Workers Cooperative Society was then running a provisions shop in the estate selling all essential items to members at special prices. It was one of the very well run shops under the purview of a workers initiative.
The Ulu Remis Tamil Primary School (now called Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil, Ladang Ulu Remis) [1] was the only school available for the plantation children at that time. This being a Tamil school, the medium of instruction was in Tamil and a large majority of the children dropped out of school. Towards 1970s the medium of instruction in secondary schools was changed to Bahasa Malaysia, which made adapting easier since most plantation kids spoke some Malay (i.e. Bahasa Malaysia).
One such student from the Ulu Remis school who eventually completed Upper Secondary education and went on to become a dental surgeon is Dr Muthamah Perumal, who then established her practice, Klinik Pergigian Joon (Joon Dental Clinic) in Subang Jaya, Malaysia. A handful of students from the estate made it out of their plantations lives and now live in various parts of Malaysia.
Tourism
The Layang-layang in Johore is an ideal spot for adventure trekkers as it offers several plantations trails leading towards the interior of Johore and connecting to the middle mountain range of Johore towards Kota Tinggi
Not to be confused with Layang-Layang in South China Sea or better known as Swallow Reef situated approximately 300 kilometers north of Labuan Island, off the coasts of Sabah, Malaysia which is known as a tourist destination for its SCUBA diving and bird-watching opportunities. It is home to sweeping coral walls which reach 2000 meters in depth, as well as to many species of pelagic fish. To accommodate tourists, this tourist town has a 1,067-metre airstrip and a 90-room 3-star resort.[2][3]
