My trips

Blast to the Past

2010-03-04T18:06:00.000-08:00

This is outside of my normal writeup about driving trips. But thanks to a friend, I discovered this quaint shop located at Ann Siang Hill (behind Amoy Street Hawker Centre). It is quite a new shop, and from what I see, a kind of cafe + nostalgic knick knacks. The Shop name is "K Ki". (In Hokkien, very polite). It is Japanese for something else.

I feel like I am in Europe

What a strange name

People having coffee and cakes inside

Oh, got a "school bookshop" corner

All very neatly packed

The cakes looked super yummi licious, but I can't afford :(

OMG....school pencil case stuff that I remember!

I think I have one of these before!!

This smelled familiar too..

Girls, please look away

Our kind of barbie dolls those days

Stay any longer will go broke

Today Mall, Sutera Mall

2010-02-15T04:59:00.000-08:00

Went Mall hopping today. Jusco Permas, Today's Mall and Sutera Mall. Today's Mall has just started to open and most of the shops are not yet let out or closed for the CNY period. There were plenty of parking lots and we were surprised to see a steady stream of people going into the mall. Later we found that that they were going to the cinema which was on the upper floor. That seemed like a good idea, and we too bought tickets for the movie, "Wolfman". While waiting for the show, we had fun at the arcade which was opened as well.

After the boring show, we decided to seek out the Sutera Mall that a friend has shared with us. I kind of remember accidentatlly stumbling onto it before. And upon reaching there with the help of the GPS, yeap, it was the one all right. However today, it seemed bigger and nicer. Not sure if they haev just expanded, but the Mall was indeed huge. Quite suitable for a day shopping and eating there.

CNY jam. But luckily, we cleared in 45mins

Secret recipe at Permas Jusco

Aiyah, the money changer was closed

Year of the Tiger, checked

Mummy eating Kid's meal

Today Mall

Even the entrance seemed unfinished

Wolfman is showing

A Cafe here

The Cinema ticketing

D and I had fun with a game of pool which she lost miserably, of course

Ah, we like to play this too

Arriving at Sutera Mall

Hey, it is big here

Got CNY tong chiang tong chiang

Nice pond outside the Mall

We were hungry, this looked interesting

Oh my, the portion is huge

How to resize your pictures

2010-02-03T23:35:00.000-08:00

A number of friends have problems resizing their pictures from their digi cameras. Here, I will show how to do it with Picasa, the photo gallery tool from Google. Initially when I started using this, I was quite confused with the features. But gradually, I found it to be quite useful and powerful.

First go to Picasa, and download the application

Install the application, and once done, you should see a shortcut like this.

To resize your pictures, first copy your pictures out from your digital camera onto the desktop or a folder of you choice.

Run the application. If this is the first time, Picasa will ask if you want to scan your computer for pictures. Say yes.

After scanning, you should see plenty of folders of your pictures you have.

You can locate your folder by using the search feature. Very powerful.

For the pictures that you want to resize, click on the selected folder

Go to the menu, and select "Export folder"

You will be ask for the folder to put the exported pictures. Key in a new folder. I usually will extend the folder and put the word _resize

Indicate also the size that you want to resize to

Once the files have been resized, the resized folder will pop up. The resized files will be found in the newly created folder

If you have any need to locate the folder, you can right click and select "locate on disk"

Drive up to Mersing, Fishing Bay Resort, Air Papan

2010-01-10T22:20:00.001-08:00

This was just an impromptu trip up to Mersing, to check out a resort known as fishing bay resort. As Pat had worked the night shift, we only set off towards it around 2pm. But Mersing wasn't particulary far away and was reachable within slightly more than 2 hours.

The resort was a bit further form the main Mersing Town and was in fact very close to Air Papan. I had visited Air Papan sometime back and quite like the slow lazy feel to it. It was a beach that was called Papan (flat) due to the gradual sloping out. That meant that during the low tide, the water would recede very far away.

Knick Knacks at the Caltex Station that we stopped for refilling

Along the way, Pat stopped at a local petrol station near Mersing. To my amusement, they were selling some vegetables in boxes outside the station.

Arrived here

Ok, correct place

This Mc-Burgler guy keeps taking my photos

View of the lobby

Ooh..a team building is going on

Full of resort type activities

Resort even has a clean swimming pool

Nice "miami" look to it with the tall coconut trees

The rooms facing the beach

We arrived at the resort around 5pm. Although the sign at the entrance said, "parking for guest only", we drove in and parked just outside the rooms. No one came to stop us or question anything.

I was expecting the resort to be on the sea itself. Turned out that it was a beach resort. Facilities are nice, if you are looking for creature comfort. While we were there, there was a company team building going on. Looked like they were having a whale of a time.

Rustic long jetty to the sea

Sir, can I take a picture? Sure, boleh!

Planks well maintained

Family fishing at the end

Catch of a Catfish (Sembilang) and Gelamas (Croakers). Note the worm bait

Looking from the end to the land

Beside the resort, there was a long jetty out to the sea. The jetty was well kept and pretty new. Some local folks were fishing in the water. Water to me, didn't look that good as it was more esturary and even murky. The catches there were mainly Catfishes, and some Gelamas.

Beach looked quite scenic. But has some light oil slicks in the water

Making footprints on the sand

There was a small area of public beach. However, I didn't feel that the beach was clean, as the sand was dark and oily looking. It shouldn't be good to be dipping into the water here

We stopped by a fish farm on the way out

Cow saying, "what you looking at? I "poke" you with my horns then you know"

Arrived at Air Papan

Nope, they don't have Macdonalds here. Ramly burger is the household burger name here

Children better go build a sand castle here

Hmmm...no turtles here for sure

Air Papan shopping mall

Godek resort here

Standard attire here must be bright colored shorts

A beach volley ball match got red flagged

We then went onward to Air Papan which was just round the corner. This time round, the beach looked quite dirty. Due to the monsoon season, the waves were rather strong and due to the strong current, the water had a brownish tint to it from all the disturbed sediments. When we were there, it was high tide. So, we didn't get to see the beach during the low tide, which would be walkable a long distance from the beach front. We rested awhile there and tried out the Ramly burger. After that, it was another 2 hours plus back to JB for more shopping.

Nothing spectacular for this trip. Just a drive up to see if the resort was worth visiting for fishing, given the name. This was also the furthest that Pat had driven on the east coast. The next time, he shall be following me to Redang. *evil laugh*

500 miles to Betong - Part 3

2009-12-28T21:56:00.001-08:00

500 miles to Betong - Part 1 | 500 miles to Betong - Part 2 | 500 miles to Betong - Part 3 | Map of entire route | Map of places in Betong

Tallest Mailbox in the whole of Thailand
[I am not actually sure if I got the right place. From the photos that I have seen, the letter box seemed a lot bigger. It is supposed to be 3 metres tall]

Is this the one or not? Hmmm..*scratch head*

Ok, I think the mystery is solved. What I have taken is the original letter box. The bigger one is a recently built box to be found at the City Convention Hall.

From http://wikitravel.org/en/Betong
"The Largest Mail Box in Thailand (ตู้ไปรษณีย์ใหญ่ที่สุดในประเทศไทย) used to be located at the Bell Tower intersection of Betong. It was built in 1924 before World War II as the communication post for the townspeople, through the radio implanted on top of the box, and the mail slot below it. At present a new box had been built in a larger size (nine meters tall), and is located at the City Convention Hall (Sala Prachakhom). The new mail box attracts a large number of tourists who come to take the photograph."

Chicken rice stall for our breakfast

The Watch Tower in the morning

This Kueh thing is good

Hmm. One of the best chicken rice I have eaten. The chicken here is lean and juicy

Day 3
We woke up around 7am and I got everyone out at 8am (7am, Thai Time) for our last tour of Betong. But finding food was the first important thing to do. I decided to drive to the town centre and see if there was any decent food around. Indeed there were. We spotted a clean looking coffee shop selling chicken rice, just beside the famous big red letterbox. I took some pictures of the chicken rice stall and overheard a local chuckling that "even chicken rice stall I also take photo". Food was surprising good. the chicken was lean and tender, unlike the fatty ones that we get in Singapore. After breakfast, I pored over the "secret" map that I had, and decided to go find the temple that we spotted from Vision View. After driving a few rounds, we realized that the temple was in fact very near to the town center.

A big snack shop

Betong wet market (we just drove pass)

There are road blocks at every exit from Betong. But they were not manned

Arriving at Wat Phutthatiwat
(Phra Mahathat Chedi Phra Buddha Dhamma Prakat)

Information about the place

Wow. Like disney don't you think?

More pictures with the golden stupa

View of the city from the top of the temple

Standing at the top

Hmm. Quite a number of tiles have fallen off. Or was it taken by tourist for good luck?

Touch the eyes and the mouth and make a wish

The statue was huge!

Overlooking the welfare of the city

Betong X'mas tree

Another shot with the statue

Wat Phutthatiwat
I was immediately impressed with the architecture and the workmanship. The building was indeed very grand and very beautiful. I took plenty of pictures and hope that my camera battery could hold. Luckily it did.

Streets of Betong

Leaving Betong. At the custom

Now at the Malaysian Custom

Long Q as a busload of passengers from a tour bus just unloaded

Return the Car declaration form here

My trip meter just outside of the Malaysian Custom

Stopping at the Gerik junction for lunch

This was amazingly good!

This manmade pond..

Is filled with these

Back at Ipoh Parade, where I made my second postings

Leaving Ipoh

Back to Ipoh
After that, we checked out of the hotel at 12am and started our journey back into Malaysia. On the drive out, I saw a sign that said "Ancient Wall" and went looking for it. But after driving on a small road for 15 minutes and not seeing any more signage, I turned back and headed to the custom. At the custom, again we had to park the car, queue at the custom line, return our car document before we can proceed on. At the Malaysian side, it was new Custom papers to fill up. (Same as the one for JB). Here, we could just stay in the car and drive through.

Just coming out from the checkpoint, I ignored my GPS and turned into another way towards Gerik. The way here seemed to have less cars, and the time to arrive at Gerik was about the same. At the main Gerik to Butterworth, To Jeli junction, we saw an eatery and stopped by for lunch. Although it was just a road side stall, the food was good.

After that, it was the hour or so drive back into Ipoh. We arrived in Ipoh at around 2pm. In fact, if I wanted to, I could probably drive all the way back to Singapore and be there by 9pm. But we decided to go back to the same hotel and do some more shopping at Ipoh Parade. We also wanted to catch the show "Avatar" there. Avatar was nice and had a refreshing storyline even to a Sci-fi fan like me. But I had to watch the show amongst a camera full of indians (for some reasons, the Ipoh cinema is filled with Indians. I am not sure why), and many inconsiderate people that had incoming calls. One even had the cheek to talk on the phone.

Busy traffic on a Monday morning

Got on the expressway and made a first stop at the rest point for breakfast

Standard malaysian nasi lemak. (only chilli, small bits of ikan bilis and a half egg)

My Pica mascot got his hands tied up as it was hitting the wire and causing the phone to lose the charging connection

Long drive ahead. Time to snooze

Day 4.
We checked out of the hotel around 8am and made our way back into KL. Along the way, we had a simple breakfast at a rest stop after coming out of the busy traffic at Ipoh. From there, it was all the way down the NSH. At that time, we were thinking to drop by Malacca for chicken rice ball.

Malacca Chicken Rice Ball
Turning off from the Ayer Keroh exit, we quickly discover that it was a mistake. The traffic into Malacca was notoriously bad, and I was grumbling away why people are flocking here?? Just 2 more Km to reach our chicken rice ball, I made an U turn and decided to head back to the Malacaa Jusco for lunch instead. We parked at an open carpark and didn't have any coupons. But a kind malaysian man refused our payment when we asked if we could buy some from him. He gave us an hour of coupon for free. Kind fellow.

Then it was all the way back to Permas Jaya. Along the way, it rained very heavily on the NSH. At some points, the visibility of the cars were like only 100m. Some of the cars would turn on their hazard lights to make themselves more visible.

At Malacca, some kind soul gave us an hour coupon

Heavy rain!

Woah! The tire came out of this car!!

Flying tire!
Just after Pagoh, I was day dreaming on the straight road when a sudden thud woke me from my stupor. Something had hit my car (lightly). I looked ahead and saw a Malaysian car filtering to the left. And then to my horrors, I saw a running tire just ahead of it. It was spinning fast but rolling ahead and towards the left edge of the expressway. Then I realized that the tire of the car ahead had come off and it was balancing on 3 wheels! Fortunately, it was able to control the car and managed to stop it at the side of the road. I was thinking whether to stop to help, but decided to move ahead as there was nothing I could do about a tire running amok on the NSH. :). A managed to take a shot of the car as I whizzed by it.

Food and tea at Permas. Hmm..Harry Lee Tailor...

Pumping ptetrol before heading back. Ok, the 20L rule is in place

Haiyoh, should have gone the 2nd link

Final destination

We arrived at Permas around 5.15pm. But it was too early for me to return to Singapore as mine is an off peak car and could only return back to Singapore at 7pm (w/o tearing a OPC coupon). We shopped around Permas Jusco till 7pm and then headed for the woodlands checkpoint. For some reasons, the custom was packed with cars. Not sure why but the traffic was heavy from Malaysia to Singapore at that time. Shouldn't everyone be working? But luckily the queue was moving and we spent like half an hour in the jam and arrived home safety around 8pm, concluding a momentous 4 days journey up north.

Route of the journey
To and fro to Betong

Places we visited in Betong

500 Miles to Betong - Part 2

2009-12-26T06:52:00.000-08:00

500 miles to Betong - Part 1 | 500 miles to Betong - Part 2 | 500 miles to Betong - Part 3 | Map of entire route | Map of places in Betong

First sights of Betong. Bustling city

The all important Watch Tower of Betong

First impression of Betong
Betong looked every bit like some Thailand small towns that I had been to. At the heart of Betong, was the Watch Tower whereby the entire town centered around it. There was a traffic circle and from there, you could drive out to the various directions from the town. Thailand biggest post box was also found here.

Traffic-wise, the traffic lights and road signs were rather confusing and most were writtin in Thai words. However, over my stay in Betong, we noted that the drivers here are a patient lot, and would give way regardless whether if you were in the right of way or not. Traffic here was also slow moving, mostly at 30-40km/hr. There were lots of motorbikes (mostly ridden by ladies) and extra care was needed to drive carefully. During the night, it rained and we saw an accident involving 2 motorbikes. But no one was hurt as the general speed here was slow.

The people here were mainly Thai Chinese and could converse in Mandarin, Cantonese and Malay. Money wasn't an issue and all you need to convert Thai Baht to RM was to remove the extra 0. eg. 100 Baht = RM10.

Oh, one more observation. There were plenty of stray dogs here. Cats, very few. Seems that Thais in Betong love dogs. The dogs, stray or not, are treated kindly. Some even have the cheek to sleep in the middle of the road. And cars would take care to avoid hitting them.

Trying to locate Hotel Merlin. But it wasn't there

But found this beautiful and clean hotel. RM73 per nite

Private sheltered parking some more

Nice lobby

Nice room, don't you think?

A biker convoy also came here

Finding an accomodation in Betong
I drove to find the Merlin Hotel that I read was ok. But all I found was a Cathay Hotel in place of the POI, and the hotel didn't look clean. I then drove around to see if I can spot any better ones. Luck was to have it that we by pass this Hotel on the outskirt of Betong, Butterfly Princess. It looked clean and new and there wasn't any obvious hookers or agogo girls hanging around. At RM73, it was a steal. And what more, we could check in right away. Betong time is 1 hour behind Singapore Time. That would put us at checking in at 10am, Thai Time.

Mongkolit Tunnel. Frankly, I don't know why they need this tunnel

Inside the Mongkolit Tunnel

The popular Garden View Hotel

A night pasar malam here

This dog was a stray. D loved it very much

Oh. A petrol vending machine. How clever?

Petrol vending machine (close up)

I wasn't sure about the local food yet and wanted to do something safe for a start. For some strange reason, we couldn't find any hotels that have lunch. Driving around, I found the Garden View Hotel that was talked about in a blog. Nearby up on a hill, there was a nice look-out place called Vision View Restaurant around the Hotel vicinity. However, it would open only at 4pm.

I decided then to head for some Betong tourist attractions and maybe, they would have places to eat there. From the information I gathered, there were 2 must see on the itinerary: The Piyamit Tunnel and the Hot Spring. Hot Spring would be the first as it was the nearest and along the way. The two attractions were on the northern side of Betong. But the place there was easy to drive to as there were plenty of road signs guiding the way.

Clear signs to the Hot Spring

Wow, sign board comes with photo!

Yeah, the water is hot!

This part, not that hot. Can soak your smelly feet into it

This part is hotter

Hottest water is caged up. In case you accidentally drop inside

Water was boiling

I was wondering what it says, until I realized that the 7 indicates the time to cook the eggs

Hot day! Time for cooling coconut drink

Nice park by itself

Hmm. That's how they spell it

See the bags of eggs hanging about?

Hot Sp"e"ing
We arrived at the hot spring and found a sprawling park area with the hot spring in the centre. The weather around this time was very hot. The hot spring itself was hot, adding to the hotness of this place. However, it was a nice park and there were some food stalls selling things to eat and even a children playground with toilets. The hot spring here was impressive and you could see the water boiling from the underground thermal heat. Unlike the miserable ones that we have been to in Malaysia. I soon come to realize that the stalls were also selling packets of eggs, for people to cook in the hot spring! I saw a lady doing it and went over to ask if the eggs would taste better. She said yes and we should give it a try. What an interesting idea. I bought 2 eggs for Desiree and get her to go about cooking it. Now I could say that I have eaten hot spring boiled eggs :)

This is the Aunties shop

Eh, the straw so short one?

Wah! Retro coke in a bottle

Road side stall opposite the Aunties shop

Thai specialty - Tom Tam

OOHLALA. So shiok!

BBQ crab for RM6

How to cook an egg in a hot speing
Step 1 - buy the eggs. Don't worry, the plastic bag won't melt

Step 2 - Get near to the caged boiling water

Step 3 - hang your eggs with the holder provided

Step 4 - wait while others copy you to do the same

Step 5 - 7 minutes later, collect eggs

Step 6 - enjoy eating it with your eyes closed

We saw a quaint old shop, kopi tiam styled, manned by 2 Aunties. We decided to get our lunch there. I was forced to use my smattering of Cantonese with her, and because of that, she treated us like important customers. The Aunties were very nice and look out for anything that we needed eg. extra bowls, tissue etc. But they only had noodles on the menu. Hor Fun and Seafood noodles Zhi Char kind of food. Food was ok, as we were not particularly keen on noodles at that point in time. But nevertheless, it was enjoyable. A saw a road side stall selling something interesting and went across to get it. It was known as Tomtam. According to her, it was delicious, although I declined to eat anything that is raw and filled with chilli.

Road to Piyamit Tunnel - it was a hilly ride

Popular tourist spot. Taxis all waiting for business

I suppose they don't have this during the war. It would be a dead giveaway

Entrance to the Tunnel. Pay money first

Ok. Brush up your history

Wah, climb and climb. I thot tunnel is to go down?

This tree survived the war

A guard post. Halt! Who goes there?

Secret map to the labyrinth of tunnels. The british would have paid a high price for this 60 years ago

Hey, the tunnel very cooling

Encounters of the 4th kind

Here, they held power meetings to thwart the British

All the commies torture equipments. (hehe, no lah. Some machineries they used)

Comrades! Ne Hao!

There is a temple here. Losing the war, pray!

Lucky number for Yew

Tourist attractions must have a souvenir shop

Piyamit Tunnel
I drove on next to Piyamit Tunnel. Along the way, we saw many places had landslide along the side of the mountainous road. It looked like quite a problem here, perhaps during the rainy season. But we were lucky for this trip to have bright sunshine throughout. We were also surprised that the tunnel was located at a mountainous area thinking it to be underground instead. In fact, after paying our fee, we had to climb quite a number of stairs just to reach the tunnel main entrance. By the time were were there, I was really panting away from the lack of exercise. But once in the tunnel, it was very cooling, almost like it was air conditioned. There was a guide explaining the history, but he was busy with another big group. We looked around at all the artifacts that were used during the communist war against the British. They were indeed very well organized.

Landslide along the way

Hmm. What is this flower garden? Let's go check it out

More landslides

Mountainous roads

Uh-oh. Unpassable now

Nice country drive

We were about 600 metres high. (When I check this reading, I had driven down for about 5 minutes)

Plenty of signs like this which I couldn't read

Flower Garden
On the way back to Betong Town, I saw a signage that said "Flower Garden". I decided to check it out and drove in. But the road ended up being a hilly one, and we found ourselves climbing up the mountain. Some sections, there were landslides which covered part of the road. That was when I recalled LS mentioning it in his blog and how treacherous the road was. Indeed I came to a section where the tarred roads ended and the ground turn muddy. Up ahead, there was a Excavator and the entire stretch was impassable. The workers saw me coming and signaled me to come ahead while they try to give way to me. But the stretch looked too dangerous. Mind you, we were on a narrow road up on a mountain with a sheer drop on the edge. I carefully maneuver my car to make a turn around. Any misstep, I could fly down the mountain.

Pump Petrol at Thailand
Going back to the hotel, my fuel was running low below the 1/4 mark. Initially, I just wanted to top up a little bit and have a full pump on my way back to Ipoh. But the attendant couldn't speak English nor Chinese well and due to the difficulty to communicate, I said "ok lah, full tank", which they understood perfectly. But to my horrors, I saw the petrol meter jumping up to 1000 bahts! That worked out to something like $43 for a 3/4+ tank. In Singapore, I could do a full tank for just $45. So, the petrol here is like pretty expensive. Now I know why they actually go into Malaysia to pump Petrol which led to the 20L rule for stations at the border. All their fault!

Vision View Steak House

View from the parking. Careful of the giant chickens from space!

All hungry. Waiting for food

Authentic Tom Yam Soup! I like!

Pineapple rice (tasted sour. their style here)

Boxing Chicken on Boxing day!

Dinner at Vision View
From there, we headed back to the Hotel for a wash up, and then it was time to look for dinner. A wanted to try the Vision View place. What's more, they have free WIFI! That's where I put my "greetings from Betong" post in Ning. Food was indeed nice and to my delight, they had Tom Yum Soup. I was craving immensely for Tom Yum Soup, as we were after all in Thailand. We had the best dinner so far for our trip. The food was cheap to us but probably quite expensive for the locals. The manager came over to talk to me and told me that he worked in Singapore for 14 years at Manderin Hotel. Wow. He was very helpful and pointed us to the chinatown in Betong. He even drew us a map on how to get there.

D trying her luck at a game

Opps. The dart missed the target

Somebody's prize would have a hole in the head

Knick knacks to buy

A clip for long hair

Pasar Malam now all lighted up

Pretty lights

A went gaga over the fake flowers

Shopping is safe. The military polices the area

Ice cream popsicles (thai style)

Children rides

Food street

Smells good

Not sure why all the bikes had to lift up their seats. Might be for security purposes

Betong Plaza. The only mall here

Beautiful Betong night scene

See my little blue car?

Alamak. Someone lost a dog

Getting some presents for folks back home

It started to rain

How come the light bulbs not on?

Wait a minute. Those are not light bulbs! They are swifts!

From http://wikitravel.org/en/Betong
"Swifts (นกนางแอ่น) at dusk the swifts would fly about the city center and come to rest at houses, on buildings and on electricity lines, especially on the Bell Tower that is well-lit at night. They have become one of Betong’s symbols, although they are there only during the cool season when they flee from the cold weather of Siberia once a year, usually from September through March."

Street selling food

Chinatown at night
That night, we didn't manage to find it and even the shop owners don't know where it is. But according to one, the whole area is "chinatown" as most of them are chinese. We spent the night after our dinner walking the Pasar Malam there and then proceeding to the town center to check out the shops. It started to rain rather heavily and we were just shopping for goodies to bring back. An interesting sight greeted us near the Town Tower with some thousands of sparrow perching on the wires that were over hanging buildings. And amazingly, they were undeterred by the rain and continue to lay themselves out in nice rows.

500 miles to Betong - Part 3

500 miles to Betong - Part 1

2009-12-25T22:44:00.000-08:00

500 miles to Betong - Part 1 | 500 miles to Betong - Part 2 | 500 miles to Betong - Part 3 | Map of entire route | Map of places in Betong

Day 1
To many people, the thought of driving to up to Thailand borders on insanity and one Tom Yum Soup too many. But after reading some blogs about people venturing there, I figured that it wasn't too hard. Betong is well travelled by the biker community in Singapore. In fact, Thailand is alot nearer than many would think. Thailand by itself is a humongous place, a few factor the size of West Malaysia. But to reach Thailand technically, the nearest place was to head for the southernmost town, Betong in the district of Yala. It is found near the Thai-Malaysian border at the town of Pengkalan Hulu. Once you can wriggle through the old-fashioned custom and the necessary paper work, the town was in fact just a mere 10km away. From my calculations, it was around 800km, which is equivalent to 500 miles. After you have done it, the song "500 miles away from home" would indeed take on a whole new meaning.

I was hoping that some more adventurous friends of mine would come join me. For those who know me, I am as good a road trip guide you would be able to find. TK and ST was initially keen at first, but alas it was cancelled due to work commitments at the last minute. But friends or no friends, Thailand here I come.

The day before, we had a X'mas Steamboat. By the time I hit the bed, I had only 4 hours of sleep before the alarm went off. Rousing from my comfy bed, we all got ready and was driving out to the woodlands custom at around 5.45am. We were fortunate that we were a tad early as we could see the traffic building up. Last year, when I did my drive to Cameron on Xmas day, the traffic was very smooth at this time. But this morning, it was rather different. Looked like quite a lot of Singaporeans were venturing out to Malaysia to celebrate Xmas too.

Woodlands Checkpoint Jam on X'mas morning

It was a foggy day

Kinda like drinking kopi in Genting, isn't it?

Don't bother eating at the food court. The food there is B.A.D

From the custom, the first stop was to hit Machap rest point for breakfast. Perhaps to set the mood, it was very foggy along the NSH that morning. Along the way, I was attacked by the Z monster and found myself nodding off from the lack of sleep. I got A to drive a bit till I get some good mental rest.

Nothing like the bear in the sweater to provide 3 days load of sugar in your bloodstream

The way up from Machap till the next rest stop at Jejantas (which means the bridge) at Ayer Keroh. A managed to handle the car quite well and it was good training for her. At Jejantas A&W, I downed a big mug of the famous American root beer providing me with enough sugar to keep my mind awake. From there, the next stop was Ipoh Excelsior Hotel.

Limestone mountains. We were definitely in Ipoh

Ho Ho..a convoy of Singapore registered cars. Mostly Hondas

The "safety" car

His car looking at me angrily for spoiling their formation

One of the things that I was looking out for this trip was to find the proper route to the Ipoh stretch of the NSH, without having to go via Sg Besi and cutting through mad traffic KL. Somehow, my GPS was in the habit of routing me that way. I took an advice from a search on the internet, and headed towards KLIA. But I couldn't find the way to KLIA/Ipoh, which was what I needed. We got lost coming out from Nilai and after some roundabout driving, we joined back to the NSH towards Ipoh on the E1. From KL to lpoh was another 200 or so kilometres.

At the Ipoh E1 stretch, the 2 lane traffic was rather heavy and the road was lined with cars. Interestingly, we encountered a large convoy of more than 10 singapore cars heading the same way as us. They were rather organised and there were big banner stickers placed across a few cars that were designated as the convoy lead leader and safety car. But I was rather annoyed by their agressive driving stance while they cut in and out at will, probably trying to keep the group together. By some sheer coincidence, they were too heading out at Simpang Pulai, towards Ipoh. My guess was that they were going to Cameron, on a road trip.

I.P.O.H, in case you don't know how to spell it

Excelsior Hotel (3*)

Hungry as a bear. Time to tuck in

Hotel Ipoh City

Hotel Ipoh City lobby

A storm was brewing. (View from the hotel room)

We arrived at Excelsior Hotel and found to our horrors, that there was no room. Actually, it was kind of expected being Xmas day and all. Nevertheless, the first thing on our minds was to have lunch. The Hotel has a Xmas buffet going on and there were some Asian spread of food for RM16 per adult and RM13 for child. We eat to our fill and then decided to go Ipoh hotel hunting. At that point, I wasn't sure if I should proceed further up to Gerik for the night stay instead. The second hotel we tried was Grand View Hotel. It looked a bit cheesy and there was nothing grand about the view. It was to some relief that the recept girl said "we are full".

Third hotel, Ipoh City Hotel, we found was nice bright and sunny and obviously new. To my surprise, the indian recept said "yes, we have rooms". And what's more, it was cheap at RM93. What puzzled me was that at that moment, someone called to enquire and he said "full house'. I asked if we had taken the last room, he replied that for walk-ins, there were 10 rooms reserved for the purpose. Perhaps taking in reservations was more risky if the party didn't turn up. With that, the plan was fixed for us to stay over in Ipoh for the night. We carried up our things and took a quick shower. By this time, it was about 4pm.

Ipoh Parade. Shopping time

A X'mas party was going on

Impressive clown made of balloons

Balloon were released. There were vouchers inside the balloon

Rest & Go!

Aahh! Relief for my weary bones

Jay Chou is my friend

From there, The plan was to hit the malls for some R&R and shopping. "The Store" was quite nearby, but we drove around and found Ipoh Parade more to our liking. Ipoh Parade was huge with 2 cluster of shops over 3 floors. Furthermore, there was a cinema. D spotted her show "treasure hunter". Since she had been clamoring to see the show, "treasure hunter" it was for the night movie in Ipoh. But we were early as the show would start at 10pm. We went back to the hotel, took a quick nap, and then went back around 9pm in time to catch the show. The Movie was pretty bad, but D said her favourite Pop idol was so handsome. *sic*

Leaving the hotel in the early morning (7am)

My trip meter so far (From Hotel Ipoh City)

Our target, exit the NSH at Kuala Kangsar

We are in Gerik now. Thailand is not far from here

GPS says just round the corner

Before that, breakfast first

D observing how roti chennai is cooked

Looks delicious, does it not?

Gerik wet market

My trip meter so far (at Gerik)

Very near now

Ok, last town before going into Thailand terrority

My trip meter at this point

Day 2
The next morning, I woke everyone up by 6am and we were on the road by 7am. I wanted to start early and spend more time in Thailand, which was the main objective this trip. Next stop was Gerik and we reached there rather quickly. The drive was scenic as expected but not as beautiful as the Gerik to Jeli way. We had breakfast at a simple Roti Prata (the locals call it Roti Chennai) Shop in the town of Gerik. From there it was next to Pengkalan hulu and then to the Malaysia Custom to Thailand. The distance was not far and we reached the Malaysian-Thai custom at about 10am.

Reaching the Malaysian custom

I wanna to go Patong

Get your Thai custom papers from these men at the corner. RM1 per pax

Passport Clearing at Pengkalan Hulu Custom
Being our first time, we were unsure as to the procedures. I parked my car to a side and asked around and there was a helpful bunch of Malaysian Bikers who were too on their way into thailand. We were told that we would have to use the custom papers that we had used at Johor. We reversed our parked car and joined the queue of 4-5 vehicles. After the Malaysian custom, we could get the Thai custom documents at the sentry post in front. What we found at the lone building in front was a group of Thais. Figuring that we had to pay for their services, I asked them how we were to go about it. We gave them our passport and one of them took out the forms and filled up our particulars. We were told to sign it. At first I heard it wrongly and I thought they asked for RM30 as payment. But I was wrong at the fee was just RM3 for the 3 of us. I gave them RM5 instead, for them to "minum kopi".

Park your car and queue at the passport control

Document to certify your car is your own

Our Thai custom document chopped

Straight road to Betong

Leaving the Betong custom

Passport Clearing at Betong Custom
At the Thai custom, a stern looking officer said that we were to park our cars, and queue up at the line for the custom to check passports. After checking the passports (which took a while as the people worked slowly), we were to proceed to another room whereby my car documents were checked and a form was issued to me to certify that my car belongs to me. Another fee of RM3 was to be paid. With all the necessary papers in place, we were finally cleared to enter the land of thousand smiles.

Entering Betong
From the custom, the road ahead was straight forward. At this point, my GPS routing couldn't work as my map wasn't routable for the Thailand map. All I had to guide me was a series of roads and very sparse POIs. But it was fairly easy to get to Betong. Driving straight ahead, we arrived there in like 10 minutes.

500 miles to Betong - Part 2

I survived Endau Rompin

2009-12-06T19:57:00.000-08:00

After talking to some friends, I realized that not many people know where and what is Endau Rompin National Park, aka Taman Negara Endau Rompin.

From a quick Googling, the following is a introduction of Taman Negara. "Taman Negara Endau Rompin is the lesser known national park in Peninsular Malaysia, overshadowed by the more famous Taman Negara in Pahang. Due to the lesser accessibility to conventional vehicles, it has kept the Park more pristine and beautiful. Located on the Johor-Pahang border, this 2½-century-old extensive lowland forest is home to several rare and endangered species. This park is popular with conservationists and
nature lovers who enjoy the wildlife and virgin environment."

That's to say, it is as close as you can get to a real rainforest in this region and practically just at our door step being near the Mersing region.

It was a waste that my GPS died. But from some other's gps readings, I think this is the route and roughly where I stopped to turn back

I had seen Endau Rompin on a Map those days when I was exploring Malaysia with paper Maps. It cannot be missed due to the big splotch of green on the map. I had always wondered how to reach there. But from the information that I gathered on the internet, it seems that a permit is required to visit, and the chalets there are not the cheap holiday type. So, I had KIVed it to be explored for some later time.

Lately, I have quite exhausted places that I can visit for day trips to interesting places in Malaysia. Endau Rompin floated into my mind view again and did a more thorough search for information on the place. I had quite a few conflicting information. Some said that driving a conventional car is possible, some said not. I thought: I should find out for myself.

I had planned to run in couple of weeks back, but due to the rainy season, I decided to postpone it. It probably would not be fun if I got my wheels stuck in some muddy pothole.

The "Jam" at the woodlands causeway at 6.10am

This Saturday morning, I had originally planned to head for a Rakit for some relaxing fishing when my pals mistook the time to be on a Sunday instead. But no matter, because my car is due for servicing and I wanted to make sure that it could probably survive the Sin-Thai driving trip that I was going to do.

Heading up Route 3 towards Mersing

After turning at the Endau Rompin/Mersing fork

Reaching there rather early, we had an early breakfast at the Coffee Shop round Taman Molek area. Servicing was surprising rather fast and we were wondering where to go after that. I was thinking then to try driving up to Endau Rompin, rather impromptully. Asking Mr Chen of my Servicing shop, he said it was drivable there, but nothing to see. But I wasn't sure if he was right as he told me that it was near to Kota Tinggi. That was somehow wrong. Seeing his recommendation, I decided to give it a try. From Molek, it was just a drive up North on route 3. It's a road that I am very familiar with, which is the road to Sibu. The Turn-off to Endau Rompin was further up north at a fork between Rompin and Mersing.

From the left turn, the road became more forested with lesser traffic. The weather took a turn for the worse and it started to drizzle. And then, to add to the challenge, my wife's phone went flat. I was relying on it for my GPS as my own phone(with GPS) had gone belly up and I was using D's nokia phone as a standin. That's is to say, I didn't have any backup GPS. And from that point on, we were driving blind without help from the friendly eye in the sky.

Rest point for toilet break

Friendly Uncle says there cannot go!

After driving for a while, D had to answer nature's call and I pulled over by a small eatery near the road. It was also a good time to get more information from the locals. We asked if Rompin was reachable, and he looked at my little car and guffawed that I could not enter from the Kahang entrance. Furthermore, it was raining. But the Malay owner was very helpful and drew for me a map to instruct me to drive via the Rompin way ie. Up to Mersing - Endau - Rompin. He said that there was another entrance with proper tarred roads. But that route from the map, that was another good 100km.

The entrance to Endau Rompin from Kahang

But since I was already so close to the Kahang entrance, I decided to drive there to have a look see. So it was another 3km drive down the road when I saw the turnoff into Endau Rompin. Rain was pelting incessantly and not about to stop. But the rain was light and not too worrisome.

After turning in, a stretch of muddy looking road. A 4WD was coming out

Road wasn't too bad. Quite smooth really

Initially, just wanting to take a picture, I turned in and stop along the road. There were some 4wd driving in and out. But then, I saw an old sedan driving out and I thought, "hey, it is drivable!".

Ok, so we covered 6km now. 50km more to go

So I couldn't resist just driving in for a while to try out. If the road got worse, we will turn back. The sign said that the road to Endau was 56 Km. I was only able to drive about 20-30km/h on the bumpy road. But although it was not smooth, it was doable. By my estimate, we should be able to reach there in 1.5 hours?

Road was still fairly good

First river crossing

Oh! Got a Sedan car, so should be doable?

2nd River crossing. We were to be stuck here later for 3 hours

Teh Tarik River

Hmm, there is a Kampung here!

40km more

Nice fluffy plants on the edge

Yee? got a mosque here. Probably for the workers

Coming to an opening

Dying oil palm plantation

Tires all caked with mud

A turn here. 25km more

Wow. Pristine pond

23km more

Alamak! Put the sign right in the middle. Which is the correct way?

To our surprise, there were 2 kampungs that we passed on the way in. Seeing the traffic in and out gave us more confidence and we pushed on. At some places, I was able to go 40km/h, but most places were like only 20-30km/h. At regular intervals along the road, there were signage to tell us how much further to go. It was mainly forested area, and palm oil plantations. But as we got deeper, the traffic became more scarce. And we passed by more lorries and tractors instead.

Some pictures at the Entrance

Souvenir from Endau Rompin

Close up of the notice

A and D at the Park Entrance

We finally reached the entrance on the National Park, evident by the Signage in front. From my calculations, we had about 10km to go. Meaning that to reach the visitor centre, we had to drive into the jungle for another 10km. Initially, the road in seemed to be tarred. Somehow it was badly maintained and there were numberous potholes around. I was hoping that the road would get better and tried to reach further in. But the road condition remained just as bad. There were some bridges that we had to drive over too and the bridges themselves don't look too sturdy.

Road with plenty of potholes!

Wild boars sighting!

The scenary here was more "wild" and we had an interesting encounter of a family of wild boars crossing the road. I only managed to snap a distant picture of the last 2 small wild boars before they disappeared into the forest. There were also plenty of animal dungs on the road. Monkeys were swinging about on the trees as we passed along. At some places where we came out to take some pictures, we could smell the "wildness" of the area. In fact, our human scent should be quite strong to the animals around.

Aha! I recognise this bridge from someone's posting on their 4wd trip

Bridges made of wood

Right in the Jungle. Despite being on the "road"

The air smelled strange

Wow. These locals go up and down on their motorbikes!

After driving in for 2km, I saw that the road had somewhat gotten dangerous. If my car were to break down here, help would certainly be quite challenging. Furthermore, the mobile signal was not strong and at some places, there was totally no signal. From my calculations, it was yet another 8km into the dense jungle. I decided then to turn back and head for safety. I didn't want to be caught in the dark in this area.

On the way out, my car almost got stucked on a bridge. As I was driving across, something gave way and my tires lost traction for a while. Luckily for us, it found a grip and moanaged to pull itself across.

So it was with some regret, we made our way back to civilisation. We were so close but yet so far. If only the road here was in better condition, I would have been sipping endau coffee brew at the canteen there by now. Going back, we stopped at the entrance to take some pictures and then made our way out via the bumpy road again.

Haiyoh. A piling work going on. Nobody can pass!

Super muddy in my car

We went to the Kampung Mamashop to get some food

Long Jam!

Just as we were nearing the last section of the road at the place where we had to cross a river, there was some sort of piling works taking place. Because the crane was on the bridge, nothing could go in and out of the place. So, we were like caught in this massive jam while waiting for the work to complete. We were there from 3.30pm till 6.45pm before anything moved again. Worse than our legendary causeway jam. And to think that till then, we hadn't had our lunch. We were all famished. But luckily, we passed a smallish mamastore at the kampung and went there to buy some biscuit for some munching.

Barely made it out before it gets really dark

By the time we were out on the mainroad, it was already dark. Driving back to the Mersing turn-off took another hour and from there, another 2 hours to reach Terbrau City Jusco for our long overdue lunch/dinner. After stuffing ourselves, it was back home via Causeway into a Jam. But luckily, the Jam was a quick moving one, and only lasted half an hour. Then it was back home to snooze and wake up at 5.30am for another trip to the Rakit. :)

Danga City Mall

2009-11-28T20:11:00.000-08:00

Danga City Mall was featured some months back in the papers. Previously a quiet and rundown mall known as "Best World", it has received a complete makeover. The interesting part was how the Mall could be reached from Singapore by taking a "choo-choo" train from Tg. Pagar. I had in fact passed it many times after exiting from the CIQ at JB, on my many shopping trips. Little did I know, that just within 2 km from the Malaysia CIQ (Customs, Immigration and Quarantine) exit, there is a fairly good shopping mall just round the corner. The main attraction is the anchor tenant, MetroJaya.

That Saturday, we didn't have any plans on and decided to venture in for some shopping. Wife was craving for the Burong Penyet (flatten bird!) that we had two weeks ago when we were at Permas Jaya. Departing from the usual routine of going into JB at 5.30am, we drove into JB after 3pm instead. But it was a costly mistake, and we were right smacked into a Jam. Reaching the Singaore Checkpoint was rather speedy, but just onto the bridge, the Jam was a tailback of 1.5km traffic all the way from the Sultan Iskandar CIQ at JB. The entire stretch took me an hour to bypass and really push up my blood pressure to the brim when inconsiderates drivers would cut in and out of the traffic at will.

However, upon exiting the CIQ, it was then a smooth straight drive heading towards Skudai. I could see Danga City Mall looming up ahead on my right. However, we needed to make a U-turn to get to the other side fo the road. The U-Turn junction unfortunately was a long drive ahead almost reaching to Danga Bay itself. Coming back on the other side of the road, we navigated right into the mall.

The main entrance

Arriving at the Mall. Long queue into the carpark

First impression was that the car park was huge. Really huge indeed. And even so, the carpark lots were fully taken at the upper levels. I had to burrow into Basement 3 before I could find a lot. Security seems ok, with the carpark brightly lit and clean. From there, we took an escalator and arrived at the ground floor of Danga City Mall.

Digital Valley (IT Mall)

Danga City Mall was clean and obviously pretty new. On the ground levels, there were many assortment of shops selling clothing and fashion accessories. There was a Sony road show event going on, and the level was quite packed with shoppers. Up on level 2, there was the Sim Lim Square Equivalent of their Digital Valley. Most of the entire level 2 was taken up by shops selling computers and IT related products. It was indeed very crowded as there was a fair going on. However, as I browsed around a couple of shops, the prices didn't look very attractive to me. SLS in this aspect, is still better.

Wow. 7 storeys of shopping!

MetroJaya

As mentioned previously, the anchor tenant here was MetroJaya. So big that it occupied 7 storeys of the building. I think that it is related to the Metro that we have in Singapore as the branding and setup is very similar. Prices seem pricey for Malaysian, but I supposed that they are cheaper than the Singapore's counterpart.

We had dinner here at the Penang Corner

Interesting Japanese Food place, Hokka Hokka

We were rather hungry by then and went to the Basement level to have a bite. There were quite a number of interesting foodie shops there and we opted for one that looked rather nicely decor and serving Penang food fares. Food was ok although the staff seemed quite inexperienced. (Food came late, wrong order etc) My guess was that the place was newly opened.

A kiddy ride

Other than the shopping, there wasn't much else to do in the mall. Also, I have no idea of how people are coming in from the train station. From inside, I couldn't see it at all. To see the train schedule, check this link. http://dangacitymall.com/lang/en/getting-here/train-schedule. It only cost $3 to reach here by train.

My take on the place was that since the targeted audience are Singaporeans, the facilities are a tad better than the local Malaysian malls that you find. However, I still find people smoking at the mall, especially at the IT section. But good thing was that it was just a few isolated cases. I am sure that the Mall management would seriously control this situation if they want Singaporeans to stream into their place.

Segamat Durian Trip

2009-06-13T08:18:00.001-07:00

How are you feeling today?

Ya Kun Kaya bread style coffee shop

Uncle handsome, I shoot you

This must certainly be the most difficult trip to get together. Timing was quite bad for most and despite trying all avenues, I only could get 3 cars in total to venture up for Segamat Durians. However, it was rare to have Francis, JS and their little boy zhiyu (knowledge of the whole universe) to join me. Alan, Ry and TC, J and friend also came along.

We were a little late to set out from my house and got held up in a little jam at the checkpoint. Nothing too serious. Now the rest know why I usually asked to go over by 5.30am. We drove straight all the way from the checkpoint to the NSH, and made a rest stop at the Machap R&R. There, we had to wait for TC's car to arrive, which was like an hour.

We had some good breakfast and spent time catching up with each other. It had been some time since I met my good friends and it was nice for them to join me for this trip.

Country road

Followed by a slow poke red car

When TC finally arrived, we took off and reached the farm in about 1.5 hours. I took the advice of the GPS, and branched off from NSH at Yong Peng and took the small roads. Road was fairly clear and we made good speed. Upon arriving at the POI, I didn't see any building or house that screamed "durain farm". So we were like quite lost. We drove further down the road but that later took us away from all the nice durian trees and into a palm plantation. I tried calling mr gan but his phone was not in service. Backtracking, we came upon a clearing and saw people waving at us. That was it. We were finally there.

Yes, this is the road

How to eat durian trainig shed

2 basket of durians as an appetizer

I want to eat this one

This one better, kiddo

MSW

Eat till you broke

Eat your durian boy, it will make you strong

It made us strong too

We will grow and multiply and take over the world

The weak ones eat the leftovers

I will wait for it to drop on my head

Durian mobil

Tapoed for Singapore

The helpers quickly brought out baskets upon baskets of durians for us to eat. We had 101, 13, 18, local, MSW. The others, were not available yet. Durian was fresh and delicious although the many flies there made eating quite difficult. The children were squeamish about the flies landing on their durians and didn't eat much. We also took some pictures under the durian tree, until the workers told us that there is danger of the durians dropping on us.

After having our fill, some of us tapaoed durians back for friends. To my surprise, my little Pica was able to load 25kgs of durians. But my car now smelled durianlicious.

New ah pek car following us

Do you sell condoms?

No they don't

Uncle, how come the water don't have chlorine?

Like this very cooling

Wah, this Cherry QQ very Kiasu! Whole car filled with lew lians

Their internet broke down

After that, I took them to Gunung Ledang for a look see. But the weather started to rain and we didn't enjoy it much. ZY just had a couple minutes of dipping into the water and that was it. From there, it was shopping. But I mistakenly took the small roads which was slow and congested at many areas. I should have gone via the expressway instead. But we had a good dinner and then it was back to Singapore for further dispatches of durians to friends.

I like jie jie stripey

This is better than MSW durian. Can I have some more?

Visit to Watukarung, East Java (Day6)

2009-05-30T05:18:00.000-07:00

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Early next morning, we had to wake up around 4am to catch our plane. The family came with us to the airport which was a 2hrs drive away. I had promised AF a KFC meal and he was eagerly looking forward to it. Reaching there, we had a good meal before parting ways. It was sad to see L crying when we are departing. But I promised her to bring her over for a visit to Singapore some time in Dec.

From there, it was back to Batam and then a boat ride back to Singapore. We reached home rather late at around 4pm concluding a fruitful trip. Already, I am missing L. See her soon.

Mother and daughter in embrace

Stopover at the highest hill near the Yjogakarta airport

Drinking kopi here while enjoying the scenary

Looking like antennas

Clear traffic early in the morning

Truckload of cows for the market

Java cycling club!

This is a mosque. Don't you think it looked rather russian?

Rare sight of bikers wearing helmets

Eagles are a common icon here

Reaching the Airport

Having KFC breakfast here, as promised to AF

Cost of the KFC meal

Our plane home

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Visit to Watukarung, East Java (Day5)

2009-05-29T05:18:00.000-07:00

Day1|Day2|Day3|Day4|Day5|Day6

This being the last day, we told L not to go school. Instead, we went fishing with her. She too reminded us that we promised to bring her fishing. The first time here, she was at school and didn't join us. Today, the place was rather empty. I rigged up a tamban jig with small hooks for her. Earlier on, we were at the boat park and met a lady that sold us some small fishes as bait. Now armed with some bait, our fishing was more promising.

True enough, L dropped down the lines and immediately hit on a small damsel fish. A few more tries, she got a nice ACK. I too had some luck and managed to catch 2 ACK. At the end of the session, we missed some catches and landed a few ACK. She was so proud of her catches.

That afternoon, A wanted to just rest at home. But I didn't want to waste the last day here and insisted to go out to visit some places. From my GPS, there was a tlogo (lake) nearby. On the bike with 3 of us, we rode there. But the way turned out to be very rocky and A and L had to walked part of the way. Reaching there, the tlogo was a disappointment as it was cemented up and look very artificial. But i was told that it wasn't a close system and there were some link from the deep end to some other places. True enough, some folks there were catching fishes.

We moved on from there to visit Srau beach again. But this time, we went to another side. And it was more beautiful here. We were hoping to catch the low tide so that we can wade on the beach to explore the creatures. But the tide wasn't too low and most parts were rather rocky. But it was a beautiful scene and a very nice place indeed.

Fishing
Visit to a small passage way

Hmm, getting squeezy

Someone caught a rabbit fish with net

Not sure what fish this is

We bought bait from this lady (who is a relative as well)

Some catches at the fishing shed

L holding up her catch proudly

I finally got my first Indonesian fish!

A nice snapper (by L)

Someone else caught this baby trevally

Her total catch

Tlogo Blue
Alamak, like a swimming pool

But got fish

The locals fishing here

Srau Beach
This place was amazing

Someone doing netting here

Look at the clean and fine sand

Very picturesque cove

A man who caught a seahorse here

Water like plain water

A and L

She found a shiny purple cony shell

Letters in the sand

Man checking his net

Hmm, man is missing something...hehe

Rendition of Ah Cat

She picked up a sea urchin! (which I thot was very pricky. Actually, no)

A white sea urchin

Turtle shaped hill

Sun is setting

A big urchin (they are edible)

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Visit to Watukarung, East Java (Day4)

2009-05-28T05:17:00.000-07:00

Day1|Day2|Day3|Day4|Day5|Day6

The day before, we had some difficulty moving around as we couldn't get a car. This morning, I realized that A's brother, K had 2 motorbikes. That solved the transport problem and I borrowed the motorbike to move around. Over there, there wasn't any need to wear a helmet. In fact, it was even ok to sit 3 pax on a single bike.

With the new found freedom, we decided to ride to Srau beach that was like a couple of kms away. I had some adjusting to the road conditions there but soon got used to it. The way to Srau was a rather hilly one. Reaching there, I couldn't believe my eyes. The scenery was indeed breath taking.

On the left edge of the beach, there was a rocky cliff. i was wondering if one could fish from there. To our utmost surprise, we saw people seated right on top of the rocks doing fishing! All excited, we too made our way to the top and met up with them.

The man was a friendly sort and shared with us what bait he was using, and what fishes he was targeting. In this place, we were surprised to hear that todaks were a a valued fish and could fetch a high price for its meat. Here, todaks are called "pang jio". Quite funny.

I rigged up our rod and also tried fishing. Since I didn't have any bait, I dropped a tamban jig and hoped to get some bait fishes. But I didn't have any luck. Next was to try out luring. And on my first cast, I saw (water was clear) a grouper chasing after my lure. Encouraged, I lured and lured but the lure soon got stuck in the coral grounds.

That afternoon, A's brother, K had at my request arranged for a boat to bring out to the sea fishing. However, when the boat reached the middle of the sea, the waves were thrashing rather badly. Everyone had sea sick (except for me). I tried tamban jig but no luck. Seeing that, I tried luring and again hopeless. I let out the lure and the boat move around a little for some trolling. But nothing was biting at all. Seeing how everyone was turning green, I asked the boatman to return to shore.

That evening, A brought me to another side of the watukarung beach. At that time, it was low tide. Devoid of water, the whole beach was an interesting spectacle of corals and trapped marine life. We spent the hour picking up interesting things, and top shells which I ate later on.

Srau Beach
Please read the story from here
http://community.mocca.com/articles/rock-fishing-srau-beach-east-java

Boat fishing
Readying our boat

K releasing the rope

Picking us

Now in the Hi Sea

The rocking was none stop

Doing some trolling

Ok, cannot take it already

Splish splash

Only "fish" I caught

Low tide at Watukarung beach

Wide expense of this kind of corals

A fungus coral

Mad guy with fishing rod at such a place

No fish, take a rest

Hermit the crab

Sun is setting

Another angle

Mother & child

Sick goat
Goat fell sick due to eating some wrong food

Had to be killed so that it can be prepared halal

Burning off the fur

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Visit to Watukarung, East Java (Day3)

2009-05-27T05:17:00.000-07:00

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This morning, I decided to try out some fishing. As the beach was quite unfishable, we went to the river spot to fish instead. The day before, we saw quite a number of folks all crowding around a small patch of grass viving for the good spot. As I didn't have any bait, I tried all sorts of methods from lure to flies but couldn't get anything at all. Some kind soul gave me a piece of bread(which they were using) but I didn't have any luck except for the bait to get eaten as soon as it was placed in the water. Definitely lots of nibblers around.

Later that afternoon, as I didn't have any car, we decided to take the public transportation to pacitan city to have a look at the Teleng Ria Beach. This is the bay like area that is visible from google map. However when we reached there, I wasn't too impressed with the beach at all. It was dirty and littered with rubbish.

But there was a nice quaint balinese restaurant there and I brought L to have a meal of her favourite ayam penggang(roast chicken). The meal was not bad and I thought of bringing the whole family here on the last day before we fly back to Singapore.

After lunch, we walked around a little and came across a horse carriage. We decided to give it a try and it took us a round on the beach. it was a novel way to move around the wide beach quickly.

From Teleng Ria, we had a bit of trouble making our way back. Waiting by the road, we couldn't see any public car to fetch us. A friendly policeman came over to chit chat and tried to help. Luckily, A's brother friend was around the area and swung by to give us a lift. With that, our ticket home was secured.

Fishing
Nice and clean place for breakfast

Noodle was yummy

Some puppies playing around

Man on the beach with a catch of grouper

Grouper

Nice beach at Watukarung

Trying to fish here for the first time

No bait, so tried some jigging

All the lures and flies I tried. Only once saw a fish going for a fly

Teleng Ria
This is a tourist attraction

Need to pay entrance

Not an impressive beach

Rows of hotel and cafe

We had lunch here

Taking a stroll

Horse ride for rent

Giddy up

Some souvenir shops here

Leaving the place, some kind of election rally stage

Alarm for fire and such

Woman suning rice

Rice with the chaff

Close up

Tourist information (but it was closed for this tourist)

Police

Another meaning to crowded public transport

Big and nice petrol kisok (only for the rich with nice cars)

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Visit to Watukarung, East Java (Day2)

2009-05-26T16:45:00.000-07:00

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The next morning, I had a better glimpse of the Kampung that I had spent the night in. The night was a tad uncomfortable as I wasn't used to the constant smoking of the folks here. Furthermore, they didn't have any fan, and the night was warm and we were frequently irritated by mosquitoes. Although the living was simple, people here are healthy and happy (except for the smoking part). My in laws place were kind of the better off people in the village as they have telephone and television. I had also given them some years back my old PS2 set and that like made them the only home within 50km to own a PS2.

Over here, everyone is related in some ways or another to each other. I was trying to keep track but soon got lost in the maze of uncle brother sister cousin son grandfather etc. So the safe thing was to smile at everyone I meet.

We visited the Watukarung beach at the end of the road from the village. There were rows of fishing boats parked in the sand. The beach here wasn't too clean and the sand brownish. But we trekked further into another patch of land. There, the rocks formation were impressive. And this time of the year, the waves were strong and big, and they would crush into the rocks with such sheer energy.

A's brother managed to get a friend to lend us a car and we had it for the day. The plan was to head for the famous Goa Gong (Gong Cave) some distance away. After driving over mountainous roads, we arrived. The place was deserted as it was a weekday. We were escorted by guides that would explain to us various artifacts about the gong cave. It was so called as some of the stone structures were hollow and would emit a "gonging" sound when hit.

After the cave visit, I decided to treat them to a lunch at a restaurant. I told them to bring us to a nice restaurant. To my surprise, they had never been to a resturant before. And the nicest one was at a hostel-like looking place. But the food was alright.

Finishing off our sumptous lunch, I asked to do some shopping. As I wanted to travel light during the trip, I didn't bring much over. Now, I wanted to get everyone something special. Again, the best shopping centre was nothing more than sheng shiong standard. I thought of running 70km over to a better one at Solo but was advised not to make the trip as it would take 3 hours. Without much choice, I bought them the best things that they liked. I also got for them 2 standing fans to be used in the house.

Kampung
My favourite goats. (seriously, they meh at me everytime I walked past)

King of the pack

Eggs direct from the hen house (talk about fresh)

A regular lunch fare

I discovered the bike!

L's cat SyPus (opposite of Pussy)

She loves her

L drawing something for D

Playing with clay

Who is this supposed to be?

It's peanut season

Close up

Watukarung Beach
Taking the public transport

At the kampung school

Nice neighbourly folks

We are here!

Boat park

Stretch of beach where the boats are parked

Was he trying to catch a fish?

A picture together

At the coffee house

L and I

Kopi here is thick

Hmm, I missed those

Man returning with a good catch (from the boat)

Villages harvesting the peanuts

This is how it is done

Hey, got people fishing here

Hmm, fishing with helmet too

Lots of spiders around

Watukarung beach (away from the boat park)

The waves were damn strong

My father in law with his pink hat

Cool view

Water misting all over (it was high tide then)

Sand is clean

Is that a strawberry?

One for the album

Another windows background image

L catching something

A "dunno" what insect

scren saving #2

trails on the sand

metres high splashes of wave

Back to the river

What are they eating?

A turtle!

This place is a tsunami zone

School children coming back from school

Hang on in whatever ways possible

Lunch
I did some driving

Best restaurant in Pacitan

Food was alright

Goa Gong
Arriving at Goa Gong (we came in the blue car)

Nice shop houses (but no business)

Rows of stalls leading to the entrance

Guarded by two fearsome statue

Ready?

Impressive array of pointy rocks

Pichar pichar

Drop on you sure die

Hey, the rocks are luminous

Nice lighting effect

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Visit to Watukarung, East Java (Day1)

2009-05-25T05:15:00.000-07:00

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My girl had gone to Wuxi for a 10day trip and I was wondering how to spend the "free" time. Coincidentally, I also left my old job and had a one week break before starting on a new one. After some considerations, I thought it a good time to pay my wife's hometown a visit in Watukarung, Pacitan, East Java.

Unfortunately, this was my very first visit there after so many years. The cost of flying there is not exactly cheap. My wife was naturally very happy to be returning after the last trip 2 years ago. I was looking forward to be finally seeing Ling.

Within a week, we had all the arrangements settled by all her family connections all the way to Batam. The plan was to transit via Batam to Yogyakarta airport. Her family would meet us there and transport us via car over a 2hr mountainous drive to her hometown at Watukarung. The route was slighty cheaper but it took a longer time. By the time we reach the place, it was already late and dark.

When the plane touched down, I met up with Ling and Kap, my brother in law and his cute and chubby son, AlFan as well as my inlaws and all the relatives. In this place, everyone is related in some ways to one another.

The pretty boat we took

Ho ho...someone got a PS3 (Bag showing the game Little Big Planet)

Canteen we had lunch in

While waiting, we did some shopping here (big mall)

Arh, my fishing bag gets present wrapped!

Got handle somemore

Leaving on a Jet plane

Bye!

Arrived at Yogyakarta Airport

Oh, he wearing MIW T-shirt! (which A gave to him)

Night riders

L with the present from D (cat food)

All receiving their presents from Singapore

Day1|Day2|Day3|Day4|Day5|Day6

How to translate from Malay to English

2009-05-06T05:45:00.000-07:00

One of my handicap for travelling in Malaysia is being only able to understand bits and pieces of malay. But not being able to converse them well with the locals, it might be difficult to source for information. I found this tool that can be used to assist in that (although not were you are travelling)

http://www.citcat.com/

click on "Classic"

Click on "Translate" and enter text

Click "Translate" button

To translate from Malay to English, change the Drop down option

Malaysia Round Trip - Day 3

2009-01-27T01:17:00.000-08:00

Malaysia Round Trip - Day 1
Malaysia Round Trip - Day 2
Malaysia Round Trip - Day 3

We woke up and had a standard breakfast before leaving the hotel at about 10am. From there, I plotted the drive towards Bagan lagan. Since we were like having lots of time to spare, I was thinking to check out the other Kelongs at Bagan Lalang. From the GPS, expected time of arrival was 1.30pm.

Trip meter at the start of the downward trip (note: it had clocked one complete cycle, hence add 1000km)

Passing through the town of Tapah

Onto the highway E1

Hollywood style billboard

Toll charges at Rawang

The drive was mainly expressway on the E1. When we arrived at Rawang, we made a wrong turn and the GPS went kooky and couldn't find an alternate route and kept insisting that we make a u-turn. We were on an expressway and that wasn't quite possible. From the direction, I wanted to go via the coastal way rather than the GPS recommended expressway route.

We arrived at Klang

Busy city

Chinese styled building

Traffic jam

Due to this construction

Right in the middle of town

A Jusco here

I then plotted the road to Klang cutting across the town, down to Banting. But the way was congested as there was some road works in the middle of Klang, and the drive as slow. After passing through Klang, the drive got a little better transforming into more country side roads. A motorbike club passed us by on their road trip, making a nuisance of themselves. But they were headed to Bagan Lalang as well and we mostly followed behind them.

Car with NO license plate

Heading to Banting

We had lunch here

Low tide

Bagan Lalang fried rice

Guy practising his bike on the beach

Contended monkey up the tree

We reached Bagan Lalang at about 3.15pm and took our lunch at a small malay eatery just along the beach. After our "lunch", we made a call to Nazri and found that there was only 1 kelong at Bagan Lalang. The other kelong was way down at Lukut and the pickup point wasn't here. I thought about it and decided to do it anyway as we were quite close by. Calling the other Kelong operator, we were directed to head for Sepang, and then to Kg Chua and then to the Jetty. I couldn't find the place on my GPS, and was mostly driving blind. But the directions given by Madmud was a good one, and we saw all the connecting signs all the way to the Jetty itself.

Celebrating CNY here

Kg Pacintan?

Found the Chua place

And the jetty at last

We reached the Jetty about 4pm and made our way to the kelong. There were actually 2, and the group with us was going to the smaller one. Upon arriving at the smaller kelong, I decided to head for the bigger kelong as I only wanted to stay for 2 hours or so. The small one didn't look any good and one glance was all I needed. The boatman was agreeable and send us there.

Mamod Jetty

The smaller kelong

Arriving at the bigger one

Rather crowded

From there, I fished a little and stayed till the evening. I had instructed the boatman to pick us at 7pm as I wanted to leave while there was still light. This was more for safety reasons as going up and down the boat would be more dangerous in the night. Furthermore, our car was parked at darkly lit village and driving out wouldn't be quite safe.

But the boatman came very late, much to my unhappiness. He only arrived at about 8.00pm, by which time, the whole area was enshroulded in darkness. Everytime we called, he was on the way. By the time we left the place, it was already 8.30pm.

Read more about Mamod Kelong

So our schedule was set back by more than an hour, and I estimated the drive back to Singapore would take 4 hours. It was mostly expressway driving and it could get tiring. We stopped at the Ayer Keroh rest point where the big KFC could be seen across the expressway. We did some A&W and then proceed on with the homeward journey.

GPS routed us to the skudai toll unexpectedly even though I asked A to plot for Jurong. But that did save us a $10 toll fee as the checkpoint at Woodlands was quite clear, and nearer to our house. At the end of the trip, the distance shown on the car tripmeter was 1800km, for the entire round trip. I was expecting 2000km actually, and so it seemed that Malaysia wasn't that big after all. :P

Give the man an A&W! (Dinner at Ayer Keroh reststop)

Trip meter at the end of the trip. (It completed 1000 km and started over) Total 1807.9 km

Malaysia Round Trip - Day 2

Readers would also be interested to know that the total amount of petrol that I spent was around RM210 for the entire trip. That would come to about $90 Sin dollars, just about 2 full tank of petrol in Singapore. That should be a surprise to many that at the cost of 2 petrol filling, one could go round Malaysia.

The other expense for this trip was from the Toll fare. Toll was only needed fro the west coast trip, going via the well maintained North bound and South bound expressway. But the drive was easier on the west coast and the fare was worth it. However, I found the last stretch of about 300km the most demanding of all as it was done at night and through very mind numbing scenary. It was mainly just counting off the distance that made the drive very tiring.

End of the trip

Malaysia Round Trip - Day 2

2009-01-27T01:16:00.001-08:00

Malaysia Round Trip - Day 1
Malaysia Round Trip - Day 2
Malaysia Round Trip - Day 3

The next morning, I was woken up by a chorus of alarm clocks from our handphones. We washed up and checked out of the hotel and was on our way at about 8.15am. I wanted to get out of KB before the traffic got bad again. Driving around in KB wasn't pleasant as the traffic was heavy and road rather congested. From there, I plotted a route to Jeli, starting off our cross country to the other side.

Leaving Kota Bahru

Village road with custom post here

Yikes. A flood

Police check

More police check point

From KB, the road took a quick change to more village roads and from the GPS, I found myself very close to the thailand border. At some places, thailand was like a stone throw away. The atmosphere of the drive here was a bit different as there were presence of police customs and soldiers along the road. We had to pass by a few road checks, and some custom post. I wasn't sure as to why I had to go through custom as I shouldn't I still be in Malaysia? Another thing was there were more thai influence in this area, and quite logically so.

Long road straight road

Roti Prata house in the middle of nowhere

Man preparing our prata

We were near the thai border

Delicious prata

Prata eating cat

We were getting hungry as we hadn't had our breakfast since our hurrid departure from Kota Bahru. I was hoping to find somewhere clean to have a good meal. However, the roads seemed mostly deserted and the food stalls at the villages were not too clean for our city standard. But as I was driving along a long straight stretch of straight road, I saw a house/shop selling prata that looked decent. I actually overshot it but I jammed brake and reversed back to get closer. It was around 9.30am.

The food was pleasant and served by a nice traditional malay family. There, roti prata was known as roti chanai and they took awhile to understand us. They must have been thinking what a Singapore car was doing here and not in some Shopping malls. We chatted a little and I told the lady in my smattering of malay that we were heading towards Jeli, and then to Sg Petani. She sounded shocked and replied "Tamat". Tamat I was to learn meant the end. Hmm, I learnt a new word that day.

Going up the mountain

Lots of majestic mountains

Reaching the rest point

Everyone here for hot drinks

Where we were

Were were 1.06km above sea level

This biker came in all drenched

Brrr...

An accident here

I next continued the drive down to Jeli. From there, we found ourselves going higher and higher up the mountain. Not unlike the drive at Cameron. We arrived at a large open area with lots of car parked. There was a canteen with all the travllers stopping there for food and rest. It was drizzling at that time and the air was very cold especially when a strong wind would blow at us once a while.

My trip meter reading at Lake Temenggor

This is the Royal Belum State Park

Strict regulation here

Street fighters at the Heli pad

The bridge that we came over

From there, I drove to Gerik further west of the route. We passed by the Temmanggor lake and there was a look out for rest and recreation. We stopped there for some pictures at this famous lake and then continued along the way to Gerik. I was tempted to take out my fishing rod, but evidently there was to be no fishing there.

Gerik rest point

Going for food

All the same fare from every shop

At rest point, we had our lunch at around 1.30pm. Lunch was traditional malay rice with fried fish. Simple fare and nothing to shout about. From there, it was the drive towards Baling and then Sg Petani. The place I was heading for was the Carnivall theme park that I had found on the internet. This was like the furthest north theme park and coming here was by no means an easy feat for us Singaporeans.

Arriving at Carnivall!

At the main entrance

Nice "monkey island" resort feel to this

Pleasant decor

Hmm, the floats were free, unlike other theme parks

Lazing around

Spa pool

Even the first aid house looked cute

Arh..the dress code is stricter than usual for Malaysia

Giant slide (quite scary according to D)

We arrived at the theme park at 4pm, with a sleepy headed D. When she woke up, she was all excited and wanted to jump into the water immediately. We got tickets and proceeded on to the water park. I asked the counter girl if the resort was nearby and was given a number to call.

Shot of someone else on it

I love this horse

Onward horsey!

This is a boring life

You could hear her scream from Kota bahru

Knick Knack shop outside the park

Leaving the theme park

Did I grow taller?

On the road again, towards Kampar

Leaving Sg Petani

Theme park was rather nice, and the standard here was comparable to those in Sunway Lagoon. The park was constructed with good material, unlike some of the other themeparks done with local craftmanship. However, the park itself was quite small, but I find it sufficient for an afternoon fun. Furthermore, it wasn't crowded at all and the time there was very pleasant.

We checked out the resort and found that the place was reasonable, BUT no room for the night. By now, I was worried that we would again find ourselves "homeless" for the night. I was thinking if I should head for Kampar straight away. That would reduce the distance needed to travel the next day as Kampar would be further down south. But as a precaution, we thought that it would be wiser to call and book the room. Luckily we did that as room was still available, but the hotel was rather full. So with our accomodation settled, there were no need for anymore worry on that part.

After D had her fill of the fun at the theme park, we started off driving out of Sg Petani and down to Kampar. From there, the distance would be about 200km. My expected arrival time from GPS was 9:30pm. That should be ok, and we would do dinner at the hotel when we reached.

Arriving at Kampar around 9.15pm

Checking in

Do I look cute like this god of fortune?

Tired travellers

From the window, I could see my Pica

Reunion dinner

From there, the road was more expressway and the drive was easier. Good thing as the drive was to be at night which would be more tiring than day driving. I reached the place a little earlier at 9.15pm. My girl loved this place from the last time we visited as it was big, clean and had a bath tub. :). Indeed, I would recommend this hotel for anyone in the vicinity as it was cheap for us Singaporeans, and I would easily put this hotel as 3 stars. Only gripe was that the food was kind of clinicky. (can eat, but nothing much to shout about).

Malaysia Round Trip - Day 1
Malaysia Round Trip - Day 3

Malaysia Round Trip - Day 1

2009-01-26T18:26:00.000-08:00

Malaysia Round Trip - Day 1
Malaysia Round Trip - Day 2
Malaysia Round Trip - Day 3

As far as I could remember since I first ventured in JB, I had always wanted to do a complete round trip of Malaysia. At that time, my geographical knowledge of Malaysia was poor, but I could tell that it was really a big place and I had hardly been to most of it. From the map, the distance indeed looked daunting and quite a challenge running across many unknown areas. With the new year 4 days long weekend coming up, I thought it no better time to fulfil this long time wish. In fact last december trip up to Cameron, I was tempted to drive up to Sg Petani. But time was limited and I had put it aside. This time round with better planning, I charted a route up via the East Coast, cut across from the right side of Malaysia to the left side, and then down via the West Coast down back to Singapore via the NSH.

From my preparations, I learnt that the East-West highway was a scenic one. It would skirt the Malaysia-Thai border, cutting across mountaineous regions, and passing by via a bridge across the Temmengor Lake; the second largest man-made lake in Malaysia, after Lake Kenyir. If you were fortunate, it might be possible to come across elephants crossing the road. But for this trip, I didn't have the luck. Since it was the year of the Ox, I encounterd plenty of cows crossing the road instead.

Tracks from my Garmin

Starting off early in my bid to beat the CNY crowd rushing into Malaysia, I set off from Singapore on Sat morning at 4am. By the time I drove to the turn into the checkpoint from woodlands road, the jam was already evident when the traffic light switch from red to green and red again without any car moving. I decided then to join the queue from the BKE way and found myself at the end of a Queue that is about 1km long. That spoilt the start of the trip, and I took more than an hour to clear the Singapore custom. By the time I set off from the Malaysia side, it was already 6am.

View of Mersing from the riverside eatery

What we had for breakfast

One smart "begging" cat

Uses it's paws to get your attention

To catch up with lost time, I hurridly drove up to Mersing via the familiar Sibu Kelong road. Mersing was about 200km away, and we reached there about 8am for a breakfast break. To my surprise, the usual Jetty food court was closed for renovation. I drove across the bridge and had breakfast at a river side eatery. While standing to buy food, I found myself standing on an ant hill was bitten by Mersing fire ants and the itch bothered me throughout the journey. Something to remember the trip by, I supposed.

The colorful shop selling floats and t-shirts

Telok Chempedak 24hrs Mac

View of the beach with the Chempedak rocks

Happy meal toy

Telok Chempedak, Kuantan T-shirt

After fueling ourselves up with food, I drove up to Kuantan expecting to reach there for lunch. From the last trip I was there, we headed for the pleasant 24hr Mac found at the Telok Chempedek beach. There, the stones by the beach looked like giant Chempedak, hence the name. We reached there about 11.30am, and had a fairly nice and cheap happy meal.

Country road to Trengganu

Passing by the occasional Tractor

Road crossing cows to the greener grass on the other side

We were in PAS territory

Even the road signs have arabic transcripts

Direction to Marang

More PAS flag

The floating mosque

Arriving at the Marang Jetty

Resorts all closed for the season

Boat to Redang

Lunching till about 12.30pm, I plotted the route next to the Marang Jetty at Trengganu. This would be the place where you had to board the boat for the famous Pulau Redang. For this trip, I was comtemplating dropping by Redang for a look see. But from the internet, the rates were exorbitantly high, and it didn't look like the season being still the monsoon season. True enough when we arrived, there was nobody in sight at the Jetty. All the stalls were like closed for business. We took some pictures to "pretend" that we had been to Redang and set off for our next stop: Kota Bahru.

Canteen across the Caltex station

Looked Yummy!

And indeed, it was

Quaint place for a tea break

We got lost and chanced upon a group of young boys racing on their motorbikes

Along the drive up the coastal road after 4pm, we got hungry and wanted to stop somewhere for "tea" break. D had to visit the loo for the umpteen times and I stopped by a petrol kiosk. From there, something smelled nice in the air and our nose led us to the little beach park eatery across the road. Seeing that the place was quite clean, I drove across the road to take a food break. The food turned out very nice indeed, with fried sotong and bbq fish. We tucked into and had a pleasant and memorable meal. After freshening up, it was back to the route up to Kota Bahru.

Overhere, boats seem to be an icon

Most of the roads along the east coast were well tarred

Another upmarket looking place

It drizzled a little

A library of sorts

View of a civilised architecture for us city people

Shopping time

We grabbed dinner here

Kota Bahru was still another 100 odd km away and by the time we arrived, it was already evening with the sun going down. I saw a biggish and new mall, KB mall and we drove there for dinner and did some snack shopping. Dinner was an expensive meal at the Kyros Kebab, but it was ok. The mall itself looked very much like the Batu Pahat Mall (BP Mall) that we had gone too. I supposed this was like a chain of Malls across Malaysia. Even the anchor tenant was Pacific Hypermart.

Temenggong Hotel

Found at Temenggong St. (where else :))

Entrance to the "hotel" carpark

We finally found a room!

Mushy room, but we didn't have a choice

We searched high and low for the water heater switch, and found it OUTSIDE the room

My trip meter at the end of the drive up to the east coast

After dinner, the next important thing was to find accomodation. To my great surprise and horror, all the hotels that we turned up to enquire was fully booked. Yikes, this was a replay of the time at Cameron. So it was some frantic driving round and round KB checking out hotels one after the other and moving down my list of the nearest hotel on GPS. Some were downright expensive looking (marbled floor and chandelier) that we didn't bother to ask. We finally came across a hotel with a spare room (due to some cancellations) and we took it. However the hotel looked very "motel" and the facilities were not well maintained and clean. Eg. We turned the water tap and tap came off..but at RM100, it was ok for just a night rest. Luckily the sheets were fairly clean and I managed to have a good night sleep after a long day of driving.

Malaysia Round Trip - Day 2

Countdown to 2009 at Tanjong Rhu

2009-01-01T06:53:00.001-08:00

We had originally planned to run into the secret road to the barrage. However, there was a van ahead of me and it made me stop at the entrance. An indian worker came over and asked me where I was heading. I just said to go in, but he said cannot go in anymore. Haz! With our secret spot barred, I next head to Tanjong Rhu to wait out the countdown. Initially, it was quite empty. But coming to 11pm, the crowd started to build up and soon it was busy as a fish market.

Someone would have a nasty shock after the fireworks to find his car missing. He was parked at the roundabout, and TP came over and called for the tow truck to tow it away. Quite an expensive new year present.

Safari Lagoon, Desa Water Park, Cameron, Bukit Tinggi Berjaya Hills

2008-12-26T19:05:00.000-08:00

It is the year end and I wanted to bring the children to have some final fun before they start another year of school. Since Xmas was on Thursday, taking Friday leave would make it a long break, perfect for a getaway. However, the checkpoints jam would be horrendous and leaving on Xmas day would be unthinkable. Checking all the traffic cams on onemotoring, it was indeed bumper to bumper. Another problem was that my car was due for servicing and my regular workshop in Molek would be close on Xmas day. After work on the eve, I drove around Yishun to find a servicing place. Luckily there was one that was still open and I did a servicing for around $120. In JB, I would have been able to do that for half the amount.

Reached KL

So I was all set for a long trip again. We woke up early on Xmas and embarked on the journey. The checkpoint was rather clear at 5.45 and we were soon in JB heading for NSH. I had read up on the net for the potential places and decided to head for Safari Lagoon somewhere in the vicinity of KL.

Safari Lagun

Theme Park meant to be at the rooftop

This is a theme park? Where everyone?

Inside all empty

Hmm, how come closed?

We finally reached the place and I was dumbfounded to find an oldish looking shopping mall that looked badly in need of a paintwork. The Safari Lagoon theme park was there alright on the roof, but it looked like it was not operating anymore, and in it's place, a seafood restaurant. Even the shopping mall was quite empty and dark with most of the shops closed. We thought it was closed for the holiday and walked around and to ask security guard about the lagoon. He said it was closed. We thought it was just closed for the day, when he continued and said it was closed for 2.5 years. Wahaha. No wonder I couldn't find any more info and photos on the net except for a generic picture.

Desa Water Park

Next destination

It was a great disappointment for the children having drove 300+km to reach here. However, I had another backup location, and plotted my GPS to head for Desa Water Park, which was quite near by. Driving there, the road led to a condo area, and turned into a big open industrial park area. From the Distance, Desa Water Park looked promising and we soon parked and headed for the entrance.

Promising it was alright, but darn crowded. The children were now very excited and couldn't wait to run into the water. On a regular day, this would have indeed be quite a fun place. Today, it was just a complete riot. But it added to the atmosphere of fun although you would have to fight for space to get wet.

Kind of Disney-like, don't you think?

This Tortoise can Surf

Decent umbrella fountain, unlike the one at Gunung Lambak

Lazy river

I will catch a fish this size, one day

Wave Pool

What's next?

They just got spat out by the tube

This is fun!

Waterfall!

Many ways to use the figure 8 float

Cooling down for those in the Q

Drama. Someone got stuck here

Finally our turn

This boy looks Yummy!

The children went about trying all the attractions, and we waited for the big one that was called the "thunderbolt" to start operating at 2pm. It started on the dot, and the people that rushed to Q for it was a mega long queue. The children were slow and joined the Q at the tail-end. That made them wait for about an hour before they got on the ride. After that, it was enough and I asked them to change and be on our way.

While the children were playing, I was figuring out where to head next. From my GPS, Cameron was rather near (about 170+ km) away. Yew had told me that he was heading there this Xmas. I tried calling him, but he had apparently turned off his phone. My only worry was about accomodation. Anyway, taking the chance, we shot for it.

Going mountain climbing

Lots of such mountain features here (Ipoh)

Going via the long but easy route

Simpang Pulai

caught in this !@#$ jam! (1500metres above sea level)

Brr..so cold!

Food time!

Steam boat! Perfect for hungry tourist

Food from heaven

We just missed staying here!

Brinchang nite market

From the GPS, it projected that we would arrived at 7.30pm. Just nice for dinner. I travelled up the mountain via the Simpang Pulai road that was supposedly a better drive. But when we neared Brinchang, we got caught in a terrible "checkpoint" like jam. From my GPS, I was about only 2.5 km from Tanah Rata after covering all the distances. But this 2.5km took me 1 hour to arrive in Brinchang. Everyone by this time was famished and looking for food as first priority. Unlucky us was to realize that the last room in the motel next to the restuarant was just snapped up moments ago.

After dinner, we hunted around for accomodation. But it was impossible and every establishment was entirely fully booked from the very cheap ones to the expensive ones. We finally found a room but the charge was RM350, way too high for a one night stay. I finally gave up around 12am and decided to head down the mountain to look for accomodation elsewhere. By this time, I was tired from a whole day of driving, and it was a gruelsome task to navigate the thousands of snakey turns to go down the Cameron-Tapah route. I finally arrived at the foot around 1.30am and was thinking to just sleep in the car. But it was hot and uncomfortable.

Good nite!

Grand Kampar Hotel (Sounded ex)

Grand Entrance

View from the Hotel room

Breakfast

We were here for Xmas

Consulting my GPS, there was a hotel nearby in Tapah. I drove there but it was closed and didn't look decent anyway. Tapah at this time was a dead town. Next on my GPS was a place that sounded expensive at Kampar with the name of Grand Kampar Hotel, about 20km away. I took the chance, and drove there. To my surprise, it turn out quite alright and wasn't even expensive. Room rate was RM146, very reasonable for such a standard. Building was new, and the rooms were clean and nice. Even had a bath tub and a fridge. I took a room and soon we were resting our tired feets in a very comfortable place. By that time, it was already 3.30am before I drifted into dream land.

Tapah. We were here in Dec 04

Rest stop on the way to Genting Highlands

Shopping at the rest stop

We had a good night rest and woke up for a complimentary breakfast at the lobby. Food was so so but acceptable. Thank goodness for finding this place, otherwise we all would have been very uncomfortable by now. We took a nice shower and set off from it around 11am. My next destination was to head for Berjaya Hills, particulary the Colmar Tropicale.

Bukit Tinggi road

Destination in sight

D was grumbling about going to Genting as she missed it very much as the last time we were there, she was too short to take most of the rides. We were inded very near and actually past by the cable car station. But the weather wasn't good (drizzling a little) and I wanted to try out bukit Tinggi (Berjaya Hills). From my GPS, we came to a fork from that point where we were just about another 10 Km away. But I made a costly mistake and turned into a wrong exit. One thing about driving in KL; all the roads were too darn close and a wrong turn would mean a very long loop around. The road lead out to the expressway, and I could only U-turn around 10 Km away and had to pay toll of RM5 twice! That wasted our time and money but I eventually got back on the road up to Tinggi.

We arrived at the Colmar Tropicale at around 3pm. We did lunch there which was terribly expensive. Our chicken dinner costed us RM76. The place itself was rather small. Just a half hour, and you would have covered everything. It was quite a nice place, but really nothing to do. There were other places of interest like the rabbit farm and Japanese Garden. But as it was raining, I decided to give it a miss and drive down before it got dark.

Carpark underneath the Castle behind

Nice "Europe" feel fountain

The scene was not too bad

In front of the draw bridge

Quite authentic French feel to this

I needed this after the long drive!

RM76 chicken dinner

So boring here that feeding swans was a highlight

Back to Sg Besi Toll via heavy KL traffic

We left the place around 4pm and headed for Besi toll making our way back. But the route from the GPS leading the toll was badly congested one and not a very pleasant drive. From Besi toll, I wanted to reach some where nearer JB for a rest before making the rest of the journey. I plotted for Batu Pahat, to have dinner at the BP Mall again. We arrived at about 9pm, and was lucky to catch the Money Changer at the Mall to change more money for our dinner, which by this time was running out.

From there, after a short shopping we headed back for Singapore via Tuas 2nd Link. The traffic was clear all the way, and we arrived home at about 1am concluding our marathon 1370 km driving trip.

Gunung Lambak Water Park, Mini-World and Batu Pahat Mall

2008-12-07T22:53:00.000-08:00

This long weekend creeped up without my knowing. With nothing planned, I decided to run up JB to visit yet another Water Park, continuing my Water Park exploration series. Most of the others that I had yet to go were quite far. But this one looked quite doable, Gunung Lambak Water Park at 100+ km away.

Gunung Lambak at the back. (500m high)

Quite empty at the start

Come play with me

Ticket is photocopied, with the same serial number

It was in the area around Kluang/Batu Pahat. Reaching there, it was indeed very small and nothing quite interesting and quite poorly maintained. But seeing that we had travelled some 100+km to reach here, we paid the entrance ticket and let D play with the water there. I was also surprised to see some Singaporean cars there.

There was only one main pool. Water didn't look that clean either. When we arrived, there were only 2 other children in it. But more children came later. At RM5 for adult and RM3 for children, it was a wonder that people were willing to pay for this.

Mini-World

How Leaning tower of Pisa got it's tilt

Let's do the twist

Now I have been to Eiffel tower

So boring that these chaps were sleeping

Better than HDB

The little mermaid statue looked..transexual

There is a brick making factory nearby

Fire!

We left shortly and I drove aimlessly towards the NSH. From my GPS, there was this attraction called "Mini World". Well, sounded interesting enough. I drove there and we were soon at the place. It wasn't much of a fun place, but it had it's hay days during 2005 from its past picture. During my visit, the place was mostly deserted with less than 10 visitors.

Carpark barely finished

Pacific hypermart, kind of like Giant

Sale!

Choice of 2 coffee place

We had ice cream for lunch

Some stores were not yet filled

Along the way, a huge Shopping mall loomed up on our left. I had passed by this before on the way to Batu Pahat, but had gone straight to "the store" instead. Now seemed a good time to explore this and I made a turn straight into the carpark.

The mall was very huge alright. So big that it was only 70% filled. There were still signs of constuction, and unfinished section. But at the lower levels, the mall was quite completed and decent. We settled to try out this Rengit coffee place, and it turned out that the coffee there was indeed nice.

Small fishing village

Kelongs? No, it moved later on

The Picanto that went everywhere

From there, I drove to the east coast and came upon a small fishing village. From a distance, I thought we saw 2 kelongs. But later, it turned out that they were moving. Therefore, not kelongs but some kind of barge.

Yikes. The car was wrecked

The lady's friends came

The driver was the girl in black (clutching her head)

We drove out and made our way down south, we came upon a turn where I saw out of the corner of my eyes a wrecked car in the ditch. And to my horrors, there was a lady in black moving outside the car. It struck me that she just had an accident. I stopped hastily and reversed my way back. Coming out of the car, I asked if she was alright. Her head was bleeding somewhat, but other than that, she looked quite in one piece rather miraculously. She had a phone with her and was making some calls. She told me in chinese that it was ok. She turned down my offer to bring her to hospital. Apparently, someone was coming. 5 minutes later, another car came by and it was her 2 guy friends. Seeing that help had arrived and she didn't need my help, we went back to the car and drove on. She was one lucky lady to have survived such a crash. D was visibily shaken and made sure that she put on her seat belt. :)

From there, the way down to JB was a gruelling one as the traffic was slow, often crawling down by some slow moving vehicle. Perhaps in future, I should avoid this road.

Air Force Museum

2008-11-08T23:32:00.000-08:00

Air Force Museum

An ususual place right smack in the middle of the country. This used to be the old Singapore Paya Lebar Airport, but was taken over by the military after it's move to Changi. I have never heard of this Air Force Museum and only found it by some aimless driving around the area. At first I had accidentally driven into military ground seeing some sentry posts around. But it was not occupied and no one was stopping me. I hit a dead end at the end of the road but on the u-turn back, I saw the sign saying that it was open on Sunday. I turned it and saw that it was a public area, and that there were some visitors (mostly ang mohs) walking around.

Which better? My car or the aeroplane

We came in this

Where to get my luggage?

I am going to build this for my science project

Got shopping here

It looked interesting enough for me to come down from the car to check the place out. True enough, it was an Air Force museum with some exhibits of some disused planes and helicopters. There was even an exhibit of a Missile launcher, not an everyday sight.

Go up must take aeroplane

Two zombies from outer space

So cool, like computer game

This used to be POSB bank book

Low tech office in the early days

Hmm, let's see which of these buttons will launch the missile

F16 cockpit

On the second floor, there was an air-conditioned area with more exhibition style things to see and read, and buttons to press. Not too bad for a smallish museum. It mostly traced how the RAF (known at that time) progressed with time and became what it is today. Our air defence is no play play matter.

1983 Cable car incident

Close up of the rescue heli

Of interest was also the account on how the RAF help to rescue the people during the 1983 cable car incident in which a barge carrying a high oi rig structure hit the top of the cables of the cable car ride. Some 7 people died during that event, but some were rescued heroically by the air force.

Marina Barrage

2008-11-08T23:13:00.000-08:00

This place just opened last week, but I was away on a Kelong Trip and didn't have the chance to see it till now. The drive there, was quite straight forward, but the carpark was horribly jammed. Probably due to people like me, always kaypo about new attractions in limited place to go Singapore.

Already lots of people fishing here

The walkway on the Dam

Like a great deck for fishing

It's so hot here

The reservoir itself was nothing much to look at. Being new and just opened, there are still signs of construction equipment around. Most of the trees are saplings and not fully grown yet. Alot of people already are gathering around here to fish.

View from the top

We were here

You are out!

Let the games begin!

There was the much hyped figure 9 park, that one could walk to the top of the Barrage structure for a "hill" top view.

Children water playground

It was a sunny day

Swing Singapore

There is a children water park, whereby the kids (big and small) can go wild and wet. Children would find this part of the park most fun.

Cameras all around. Better not hanky panky here

The most interesting thing to me however was that it made accessible a part of Singapore that was quite out of bounds. Opposite the main entrance of the Barrage, was none other than the infamous "Gay beach". From the pathway on top of the Dam, it led right to the beach on the other side. However, there was no way to drive in. My curiosity was very much aroused, when I saw peeps cycling there, coming in from the dirt road from the golf course.

Reaching the other end that was blocked by a flimsy red/white plastic tape, I did a quite look around for any security and lifted it over my head and made my way to the beach. D was complaining that I didn't follow rules, and was quite hestitant to follow me. But the walk there was rewarding and I saw a very prime stretch of breakwater overlooking very promising stretch of water.

Read about my adventures at Gay Beach here