It was on the spur of the moment that we decided to just pack our bags and head for a weekend north, even though we'd just returned from our holiday there barely two weeks ago.
So on Friday the 13th night, we plonked all 5 kids in the car, strapped them down and off we went again across the Causeway to Malaysia.
Reached the condo in Tanjong Kling late at night - around 11pm, but decided to have a late supper anyway. The kids, who mostly slept on the way up, were now fresh and wide awake and ready for their roast chicken and mee goreng. Yummy stuff in a little makeshift shack structure just outside the condo facing the beach. Then it was back to the condo where the kids ran on all cylinders until 2am before conking off, way after KH and I did.
The next morning we headed for the old Bentona Hotel on the old road to Muar, on the outskirts of Malacca town where we indulged in delicious and cheap dimsum (okay, after converting prices from ringgit to SGD). We'd been coming here practically every visit to Malacca for the past 10 years. A visit to Malacca without dim sum at Bentona is practically unthinkable.
Recently they changed management. It used to be called Yum Yum Restaurant - and for good reason too! - but now its gone something like Ocean-something-or-other). The old red clothed tables were the same, but we noticed the variety of dimsum became a lot larger (good change!) and they also changed the toilet from bowl to squat!! (ugh - bad change!). Prices also went up a bit but I guess these days, prices are heading north everywhere you look and this should be no exception. As usual the old favourites, like the chee cheong fun and the lor mai kai, were good, so were the fried carrot cake, the tiny delicate pieces of steamed fishmeat with assorted toppings and so on. It cost our family of 7 a grand total of RM70 (SGD$29.60) - a similar meal like this at Red Star would easily have gone past SGD$70!
We packed some charsiew bao for our next excursion - the much planned-for, anticipated trip to Pulau Besar which always never seemed to materialise! But this time, we were determined. So armed with some food, a huge water bottle of water, our swim things, floats, we headed for the Anjung jetty, less than an hour away from the city.
The ferry ride cost about RM12 per adult and half price for kids I think and we even had to buy baby Trin a ticket! You would think that having a ticket entitled you to a seat, and the purpose of having tickets is to prevent any over-crowding on board right? Wrong. Gala Marines Sdn Bhd which ran the ferry service to Besar, packed us all in like sardines. We had seats, yes, but the boat was soon packed to the gills with passengers - many standing, sharing seats, perched outside etc. It was very clearly overloaded and both KH and I were worried, having heard stories about ferries which capsized thanks to overloading. It was not safe and at one point, I was making mental notes about where the life jackets were and being thankful that at least three of the kids could swim/tread water if anything happened.
Luckily though the 15min ride was uneventful albeit a bit bumpy and we reached P Besar without incident. From the jetty, it looked really promising - a slightly rocky shoreline on the left of the island with a nice rolling surf, treelined hills sloping upwards from the jetty, a pretty though empty beach on the right and waters which looked (I looked really hard though!) a teensy bit bluer-greener than the mainland.
We headed to the left of the jetty, not sure where to go but just hoping to find a decent beach. We ended up on a strip of sand which disappointingly looked a bit grimy. It was low tide - so much for swimming! - so the waves were breaking far into the horizon. You could see the flotsam of the usual rubbish - plastic bottles, bits of styrofoam, plastic wrappers etc. Made me shake my head - why can't people just take care of a lovely beach instead of leaving their trash everywhere??
The foreshore also looked muddy and rocky and I was worried about stonefish but KH and the kids didn't care. The kids in fact had run down to the murk and picked up a shell they were enthusing over. Poor hermit crab must have been bewildered to be plucked from his peaceful suntan and jostled over by large hands and loud children!
We set up the picnic mat under a tree in a shady spot. Then the kids slathered on sunscreen and headed out to the far horizon about 100m away while I sat there with Trin. It was not part of the plan to sit there and be part of the beach scene but Trin was very very grumpy after falling and scraping her knee so she was alternately crying, alternately complaining in her baby language. She didn't even want to play with the sand and so we were stuck.
By 2pm, the tide had come in and the younger kids could bob about in their tiny floats. Trin decided to be less of a grump and explore the sea/sand. We asked a shopkeeper nearby about other beaches and he pointed us over the hill, saying in excellent English: Go past the golf course, or cut through it, through a bit of jungle, down the slope and you'll see it. About 10min walk.
KH went off to explore that while we hung around making sandcastles, splashing in the shallows. He came back half an hour later and said briefly: Very small beach, but MUCH cleaner. Got to go through some jungle and certainly not a 10min walk. With kids, maybe more like 20min from here, so about 30min walk from the jetty. Got an angmoh couple there and no one else. The beach incline is also steeper - got to watch the kids more closely there.
He was clearly interested enough to go back, but not this visit. It was 3pm and time for us to make tracks. The ferry would leave at 3.30pm. It was 3.15 and we were 20min walk away from the jetty. KH picked up Trin and walked ahead. The eldest two dawdled behind - way behind. We had to stop and yell for them to hurry several times. Right at the end, huffing and puffing, I, yes yours truly, had to do something I had not done in years - RUN! So there I was huffing and pounding the cement of the jetty with heavy steps. The two older kids ran in behind me. We made it though. All hot, tired, sweaty and salty.
We drove back to the condo and hit the showers. Then it was out to the city for dinner with mum, dad, Paul, KY his girlfriend and another steamy humid walk with crowds at Jonker Street. While the rest went for drinks at their favourite Jonker haunt - the Geographer's Cafe, KH and I and the younger kids went back for an early night.
So that was our visit to Pulau Besar - not the cleanest nor most idyllic of beaches, in fact we did laugh about our beach in front of the condo being as good as the one on Besar if not better - but I think the island is worth exploring and I think we will go back. Perhaps next time we will check out the other beach that KH saw or head towards the right of the jetty where I saw some untouched looking beaches as the ferry pulled away.
Pulau Ketam and Seremban
So its the June hols and we need to make a quick trip up north. We've cancelled the Sibu jaunt because (a) its too expensive and (b) KH' s schedule is packed tight for the coming weeks for a big project he is working on.
Once again, we packed all the 5 kids, backpacks, chocs, tidbits, biscuits, cereal, cushions, towels, blankets, books into the car and off we went. Have to say that Immigration was a breeze - no queue at all and we got through it in less than 5 five minutes. Where was the jam for the Mas Selamat search? Non-existent! Malaysian Immigration was also a breeze and we sailed through quickly, no more tedious filling up of those pesky white immigration forms.
We left Singapore around 4pm and arrived in Malacca at 7.00pm. We had our usual favourite wan ton mee at the grimy hole-in-the-wall stall in Jalan Bendahara - Isaac rates it 9 out of 10 in both Singapore and Malaysia. Don't look too closely at the eeky condition the eatery is in and you'll enjoy the food a lot more.
We stayed a night in Malacca. The next day, we repacked our haversacks, loading it with clothes for 3 days and then left the condo in Tanjong Kling for KL.
En route, we stopped in Seremban. We've never been there, conveniently bypassing it to KL all the time. To satisfy our curiosity (and because we're running out of places to go in Malaysia!) we stopped in Seremban. It looked like any other Malaysian town - with streets of faded shophouses, the ubiquitious shopping mall in the heart of town and depressingly run-down grey faceless buildings. But beyond that, its got a lovely green lung at its heart. The Lake Gardens, sounds more impressive than it looks, is really just two strips of water more pondlike in scale than 'lake'. But it is on the fringe of some jungle, surrounded by parkland, lots of playgrounds, greenery and meandering lawns of big upscale houses.
We stopped to visit the old gothic-style Catholic Church of the Visitation. I liked the coolness of the interior and the high ceilings. The thick stone walls help to keep the place cool and hushed from street noise. Inside, an Indian woman was kneeling on a pew and her young son, obediently following suit.
Seremban didn't seem to have much to hold our attention so we took off on route 51 to Sri Menanti. This is the old capital of the state, the seat of power of the Minangkabau people who once ruled Negri Sembilan. The drive took us through the hills, past padi fields, rivers, country schools, vegetable patches, kampung houses with the trademark minangkabau horn roof.
The road was busy and we often had to tail the convoy of cars and big trucks. But once we turned off on the tiny country road, the road was free of traffic, long and winding and I said quite happily: "This is the sort of road I like which is great for driving!" And so it was - except for the occasional, okay, many - patches and lumps of cowdung on the road. KH had to do the cowdung slalom.
Sri Menanti is off the beaten track and few tourists come here. But here stands the old palace - fittingly called Istana Lama - and the interesting thing about it is, it was built without the use of a single nail!
The palace, which does not look like one of those huge imposing castles you may imagine, is really a 4-storey extended kampung house. Built on stilts, stairs extend upwards to the formal receiving area, the 'court' where the king presided over with his courtiers, a formal dining room complete with elegant table set-up (included candles on an elaborate candelabra!). There are also two other private rooms here with beds, dusty and musty. Up another flight of stairs and its the royal family's private quarters - rooms for the royal couple, their children and beds with fading yellow silk canopies that look like they have not been slept in for years. Quite eerie actually, the effect. Then up a very steep stairway to the treasury and a view of the countryside!
We were the only visitors to the place and the kids scampered about freely. Luckily there was nothing valuable or breakable that could be knocked over. Probably because we were the only ones there and because the place looked old and worn, smelling of mothballs, it had a very spooky feel to it. The old high wrought iron beds, with crumbling lace curtains, yellow silk pillows etc in darkened rooms looked particularly scary. I got the creepy feeling particularly strongly in the treasury tower. I dared Isaac $500 to spend the night alone in the treasury room or in any room in the palace. Needless to say he passed on it.
Once out of Seremban and Sri Menanti, we reached KL in quick time. Picked my sister Vivian up at Mid Valley and then headed to Mont Kiara where she very kindly lent us her apartment for our stay. That was after we traded insults in sisterly fashion about flea-infested guestrooms in her house and her ferocious dogs who could snap Trin's head off very casually. Nevertheless, she loves me and cheerfully gave us the keys to her apartment so we could get out of her hair while we were in KL.
Mont Kiara is THE expat enclave in KL. Its filled with exclusive gated communities, towering condominiums and international schools. Its like the Holland V of KL. Everywhere we went there were angmo faces or Korean/Japanese faces. Security was tight. There were security guards at every street corner, not only at the condominiums.
Vi's apartment was on the 15th floor and looked out over the Sungei Buloh-KL highway to the NS Highway. Far below on adjacent land was a patch of squatter housing - densely packed, dirt roads and zinc roofs. Only a canal separates the rich from the poor I realised. The contrast could not have been more obvious. In a split second, I visualised a Bastille moment.
The apartment was fully furnished (only lacking in toilet paper and Astro!!) in very hip retro style. There were 3 bedrooms but not enough beds, so the two elder kids bunked in the living room on the sofas while the rest of us took the master bedroom with the mattress protector making a comfy nest on the floor for Owain and Cait.
Dinner was at Sri Hartamas in the district next to Mont Kiara and after dinner we hit the movies! The Curve at Damansara is another upscale development, filled with upmarket shops, eateries and a spanking new Cineleisure where we caught Indy on the big screen. Driving to and from Damansara back to Mont Kiara was easy via the largely empty Penchala Link highway and its tunnels.
The next day, we headed off to Pulau Ketam. Pulau Ketam, or Crab Island, is a tiny island off the coast of the old port of Klang. From KL, we took the Federal Highway down and its just one straight road which sliced through Old Klang and then down again, ending at the water's edge in old Port Swettenham. Hard to believe that the place, now dull and quiet, was once a bustling port about 100 years ago. The jetty to Pulau Ketam, is just a stone's throw from the train station. So either way, getting here from KL is easy. Either drive on the Federal Highway or just take a commuter train down. We wanted to do the train option, but it would have been a hassle to take two cabs to Sentral and then take a train down. The waiting, calling for cab, etc would all add another 45min to what would be just an easy 30min drive down.
The boats leave every hour at the 40th minute. There was one waiting when we got there. Don't expect a lot. It is a long, very long, speedboat. Airconditioned with dirt-streaked portholes and chairs with holes and collapsing backs. Strictly cattle class. The boat was packed with day-trippers and residents of Ketam.
The boat ride passed through a calm channel between two islands, fronted by mangroves. We could see eagles swooping in the sky above at times. Finally Ketam came into view - first the fish farms in open water, then a horizon of stilt houses, painted in pink, blues and the occasional yellow. Wooden planks on stilts lead out from the houses over the water. The water was greenish and clean with schools of fish and the occasional long gar fish. The breeze was stiff with gun-grey skies filled with pregnant clouds.
From the jetty to the heart of town, there was not much to see, mainly brackish muddy ground with the odd mudskipper. It was not exactly a village of stilts as I imagined it to be. In my romantic visions, I had pictured a Venice of sorts. Not so at all.
We wandered into town, past a hotel, the police station, a tiny greenhouse garden, past seafood restaurants and sundry stalls, past a furiously vibrating foosball table manned by men and boys intensely focused on their game, past friendly Ketam islanders who reminded us of the dried sea stuff that was on sale. The lane opened up into a 'square' with a temple, a wayang stage and mock rock grottoes that had the guanyin statue standing within. Kinda like the Catholic Lourdes grotto we see in churches!
We wandered further in, houses flanking us on both sides. KH and the older kids ran ahead to see what was there and if it was worth our while to walk so far. While they were gone, the skies burst open and let loose a torrent of rain. Owain, Trin and I took shelter in someone's porch. Which happened to double as a storefront with a bench. They were selling (what else?) the dried seafood stuff like fish maw, dried cured cuttlefish, dried oysters, dried scallops etc.
Owain kept bugging me to buy him an 'umbrella' - one of those with no handles but a strap to go round the head. I refused. But because I was taking refuge in the porch area, I felt bad about not buying anything. In the end, I ended up buying a packet of fish maw, a packet of dried chilli cuttle fish and a drink!
We sat there and watched children from the next house play in the rain. No Xbox, no Gameboy, no computer, no fancy toys and what do kids do for fun? They improvise and play in the rain! They would run out with a container, fill it up with water roaring down from the rain gutters, then fling them at each other with shouts of laughter. Every once in a while, an older girl would come to the open door and yell in Mandarin: Stop playing in the rain right now! But of course, who listens to the bossy older sister?
Owain and I watched, fascinated. No doubt the thought that ran through his mind must have been and envious: sigh, mom would NEVER let me do this... lucky them...
I, on the other hand, was sitting there thinking lofty thoughts about how innocent kids are, how much fun they have, how our kids no longer play like this and how come their mom didn't come out of the house to freak out about wet clothes and catching their death of cold!
Eventually, of course their mother comes out and chews them all out, hands them a towel and a dry set of clothes, scolding a little. Then Owain turns to me and we had this little exchange.
Owain: "They have five children too mom."
Me: "Maybe not all of them are her children. Some could be cousins or neighbours?"
Owain: "The mummy looks old to have so many children."
Me: "I also have five children. You mean I look old?"
Owain: "No... You look young mummy!" (and he says this very earnestly and seriously)
Me: "Why do you say so?"
Owain: "Your skin. Its so... (he wrinkles his face struggling to find the word) ...straight!"
I think he meant smooth, but thats okay. I hugged and kissed him anyway and said thank you.
Soon after the rain stopped and the second half of the tribe ran back to us. We headed back down to the 'main street', pausing enroute to watch a Hokkien opera in full swing.
We ended up having a seafood lunch at a restaurant recommended by an islander whose porch KH and the kids took shelter in. We had chilli crabs (cooked dry with curry leaves and no tomato-based gravy - quite unlike the Singapore version), steamed clams with ginger, chili padi and garlic (yummy!), sotong with sweet sambal and mantis prawns and a plate of horfun. The bill came up to RM96 which we thought was a bit steep. They must have 'ketok' us a bit since it was obvious we were tourists. Still, the meal was satisfying and it was unusual but nice to have seafood in the middle of the day.
After the meal, the kids were engrossed in the nearby patch of brackish, swampy mud and enthusiastically spotted 3 sea snakes (one about 50cm long!), a mudskipper and a fat orange crab.
We had to run for the ferry back to the mainland which is a bit of a pity because I would have liked to walk around the island a bit more. Maybe next time.
The rest of our trip passed uneventfully. We spent the day at the Times Square Theme Park, then went back to Malacca where we indulged in our favourite pastimes - eating, shopping, swimming in the pool. And before you know it, we're home...
Once again, we packed all the 5 kids, backpacks, chocs, tidbits, biscuits, cereal, cushions, towels, blankets, books into the car and off we went. Have to say that Immigration was a breeze - no queue at all and we got through it in less than 5 five minutes. Where was the jam for the Mas Selamat search? Non-existent! Malaysian Immigration was also a breeze and we sailed through quickly, no more tedious filling up of those pesky white immigration forms.
We left Singapore around 4pm and arrived in Malacca at 7.00pm. We had our usual favourite wan ton mee at the grimy hole-in-the-wall stall in Jalan Bendahara - Isaac rates it 9 out of 10 in both Singapore and Malaysia. Don't look too closely at the eeky condition the eatery is in and you'll enjoy the food a lot more.
We stayed a night in Malacca. The next day, we repacked our haversacks, loading it with clothes for 3 days and then left the condo in Tanjong Kling for KL.
En route, we stopped in Seremban. We've never been there, conveniently bypassing it to KL all the time. To satisfy our curiosity (and because we're running out of places to go in Malaysia!) we stopped in Seremban. It looked like any other Malaysian town - with streets of faded shophouses, the ubiquitious shopping mall in the heart of town and depressingly run-down grey faceless buildings. But beyond that, its got a lovely green lung at its heart. The Lake Gardens, sounds more impressive than it looks, is really just two strips of water more pondlike in scale than 'lake'. But it is on the fringe of some jungle, surrounded by parkland, lots of playgrounds, greenery and meandering lawns of big upscale houses.
We stopped to visit the old gothic-style Catholic Church of the Visitation. I liked the coolness of the interior and the high ceilings. The thick stone walls help to keep the place cool and hushed from street noise. Inside, an Indian woman was kneeling on a pew and her young son, obediently following suit.
Seremban didn't seem to have much to hold our attention so we took off on route 51 to Sri Menanti. This is the old capital of the state, the seat of power of the Minangkabau people who once ruled Negri Sembilan. The drive took us through the hills, past padi fields, rivers, country schools, vegetable patches, kampung houses with the trademark minangkabau horn roof.
The road was busy and we often had to tail the convoy of cars and big trucks. But once we turned off on the tiny country road, the road was free of traffic, long and winding and I said quite happily: "This is the sort of road I like which is great for driving!" And so it was - except for the occasional, okay, many - patches and lumps of cowdung on the road. KH had to do the cowdung slalom.
Sri Menanti is off the beaten track and few tourists come here. But here stands the old palace - fittingly called Istana Lama - and the interesting thing about it is, it was built without the use of a single nail!
The palace, which does not look like one of those huge imposing castles you may imagine, is really a 4-storey extended kampung house. Built on stilts, stairs extend upwards to the formal receiving area, the 'court' where the king presided over with his courtiers, a formal dining room complete with elegant table set-up (included candles on an elaborate candelabra!). There are also two other private rooms here with beds, dusty and musty. Up another flight of stairs and its the royal family's private quarters - rooms for the royal couple, their children and beds with fading yellow silk canopies that look like they have not been slept in for years. Quite eerie actually, the effect. Then up a very steep stairway to the treasury and a view of the countryside!
We were the only visitors to the place and the kids scampered about freely. Luckily there was nothing valuable or breakable that could be knocked over. Probably because we were the only ones there and because the place looked old and worn, smelling of mothballs, it had a very spooky feel to it. The old high wrought iron beds, with crumbling lace curtains, yellow silk pillows etc in darkened rooms looked particularly scary. I got the creepy feeling particularly strongly in the treasury tower. I dared Isaac $500 to spend the night alone in the treasury room or in any room in the palace. Needless to say he passed on it.
Once out of Seremban and Sri Menanti, we reached KL in quick time. Picked my sister Vivian up at Mid Valley and then headed to Mont Kiara where she very kindly lent us her apartment for our stay. That was after we traded insults in sisterly fashion about flea-infested guestrooms in her house and her ferocious dogs who could snap Trin's head off very casually. Nevertheless, she loves me and cheerfully gave us the keys to her apartment so we could get out of her hair while we were in KL.
Mont Kiara is THE expat enclave in KL. Its filled with exclusive gated communities, towering condominiums and international schools. Its like the Holland V of KL. Everywhere we went there were angmo faces or Korean/Japanese faces. Security was tight. There were security guards at every street corner, not only at the condominiums.
Vi's apartment was on the 15th floor and looked out over the Sungei Buloh-KL highway to the NS Highway. Far below on adjacent land was a patch of squatter housing - densely packed, dirt roads and zinc roofs. Only a canal separates the rich from the poor I realised. The contrast could not have been more obvious. In a split second, I visualised a Bastille moment.
The apartment was fully furnished (only lacking in toilet paper and Astro!!) in very hip retro style. There were 3 bedrooms but not enough beds, so the two elder kids bunked in the living room on the sofas while the rest of us took the master bedroom with the mattress protector making a comfy nest on the floor for Owain and Cait.
Dinner was at Sri Hartamas in the district next to Mont Kiara and after dinner we hit the movies! The Curve at Damansara is another upscale development, filled with upmarket shops, eateries and a spanking new Cineleisure where we caught Indy on the big screen. Driving to and from Damansara back to Mont Kiara was easy via the largely empty Penchala Link highway and its tunnels.
The next day, we headed off to Pulau Ketam. Pulau Ketam, or Crab Island, is a tiny island off the coast of the old port of Klang. From KL, we took the Federal Highway down and its just one straight road which sliced through Old Klang and then down again, ending at the water's edge in old Port Swettenham. Hard to believe that the place, now dull and quiet, was once a bustling port about 100 years ago. The jetty to Pulau Ketam, is just a stone's throw from the train station. So either way, getting here from KL is easy. Either drive on the Federal Highway or just take a commuter train down. We wanted to do the train option, but it would have been a hassle to take two cabs to Sentral and then take a train down. The waiting, calling for cab, etc would all add another 45min to what would be just an easy 30min drive down.
The boats leave every hour at the 40th minute. There was one waiting when we got there. Don't expect a lot. It is a long, very long, speedboat. Airconditioned with dirt-streaked portholes and chairs with holes and collapsing backs. Strictly cattle class. The boat was packed with day-trippers and residents of Ketam.
The boat ride passed through a calm channel between two islands, fronted by mangroves. We could see eagles swooping in the sky above at times. Finally Ketam came into view - first the fish farms in open water, then a horizon of stilt houses, painted in pink, blues and the occasional yellow. Wooden planks on stilts lead out from the houses over the water. The water was greenish and clean with schools of fish and the occasional long gar fish. The breeze was stiff with gun-grey skies filled with pregnant clouds.
From the jetty to the heart of town, there was not much to see, mainly brackish muddy ground with the odd mudskipper. It was not exactly a village of stilts as I imagined it to be. In my romantic visions, I had pictured a Venice of sorts. Not so at all.
We wandered into town, past a hotel, the police station, a tiny greenhouse garden, past seafood restaurants and sundry stalls, past a furiously vibrating foosball table manned by men and boys intensely focused on their game, past friendly Ketam islanders who reminded us of the dried sea stuff that was on sale. The lane opened up into a 'square' with a temple, a wayang stage and mock rock grottoes that had the guanyin statue standing within. Kinda like the Catholic Lourdes grotto we see in churches!
We wandered further in, houses flanking us on both sides. KH and the older kids ran ahead to see what was there and if it was worth our while to walk so far. While they were gone, the skies burst open and let loose a torrent of rain. Owain, Trin and I took shelter in someone's porch. Which happened to double as a storefront with a bench. They were selling (what else?) the dried seafood stuff like fish maw, dried cured cuttlefish, dried oysters, dried scallops etc.
Owain kept bugging me to buy him an 'umbrella' - one of those with no handles but a strap to go round the head. I refused. But because I was taking refuge in the porch area, I felt bad about not buying anything. In the end, I ended up buying a packet of fish maw, a packet of dried chilli cuttle fish and a drink!
We sat there and watched children from the next house play in the rain. No Xbox, no Gameboy, no computer, no fancy toys and what do kids do for fun? They improvise and play in the rain! They would run out with a container, fill it up with water roaring down from the rain gutters, then fling them at each other with shouts of laughter. Every once in a while, an older girl would come to the open door and yell in Mandarin: Stop playing in the rain right now! But of course, who listens to the bossy older sister?
Owain and I watched, fascinated. No doubt the thought that ran through his mind must have been and envious: sigh, mom would NEVER let me do this... lucky them...
I, on the other hand, was sitting there thinking lofty thoughts about how innocent kids are, how much fun they have, how our kids no longer play like this and how come their mom didn't come out of the house to freak out about wet clothes and catching their death of cold!
Eventually, of course their mother comes out and chews them all out, hands them a towel and a dry set of clothes, scolding a little. Then Owain turns to me and we had this little exchange.
Owain: "They have five children too mom."
Me: "Maybe not all of them are her children. Some could be cousins or neighbours?"
Owain: "The mummy looks old to have so many children."
Me: "I also have five children. You mean I look old?"
Owain: "No... You look young mummy!" (and he says this very earnestly and seriously)
Me: "Why do you say so?"
Owain: "Your skin. Its so... (he wrinkles his face struggling to find the word) ...straight!"
I think he meant smooth, but thats okay. I hugged and kissed him anyway and said thank you.
Soon after the rain stopped and the second half of the tribe ran back to us. We headed back down to the 'main street', pausing enroute to watch a Hokkien opera in full swing.
We ended up having a seafood lunch at a restaurant recommended by an islander whose porch KH and the kids took shelter in. We had chilli crabs (cooked dry with curry leaves and no tomato-based gravy - quite unlike the Singapore version), steamed clams with ginger, chili padi and garlic (yummy!), sotong with sweet sambal and mantis prawns and a plate of horfun. The bill came up to RM96 which we thought was a bit steep. They must have 'ketok' us a bit since it was obvious we were tourists. Still, the meal was satisfying and it was unusual but nice to have seafood in the middle of the day.
After the meal, the kids were engrossed in the nearby patch of brackish, swampy mud and enthusiastically spotted 3 sea snakes (one about 50cm long!), a mudskipper and a fat orange crab.
We had to run for the ferry back to the mainland which is a bit of a pity because I would have liked to walk around the island a bit more. Maybe next time.
The rest of our trip passed uneventfully. We spent the day at the Times Square Theme Park, then went back to Malacca where we indulged in our favourite pastimes - eating, shopping, swimming in the pool. And before you know it, we're home...
Quick getaway but new stuff to see
Okay, we're heading up north again for a quick getaway.
We originally wanted to spend a couple of days in Sibu Island (but realised this was quite expensive for our large family. The quote for 3D2N, all meals, transport etc included was RM2209!) and then later move on to Kuantan, toying with the idea of a stay at the Hyatt there (we were there in 98 and loved it but have since read that the hotel is not well-maintained and not worth the price) before heading in to KL and so on. But thanks to KH's work, we can't do all that now and will have to settle for an abbreviated version.
So next week we are heading up to KL. En route, we plan to stop at Seremban to check out the Minangkabau architecture and to see the old palaces of the Minangkabau sultanate. From KL, we plan to take a train down to the old Port Klang, then take a ferry to Pulau Ketam (aka crab island). We'll check out some crustaceans cooked in chilli (yum!) and some shellfish, wander around the island a bit before heading back to KL.
Indy Jones and Narnia are on in the cinemas in KL, so we plan to catch these there - so much cheaper at half price!
After that, back to Malacca, explore Pulau Besar which we said we would do but have not gotten down to, and then just hang around by the condo pool, the beach etc, checking out our favourite food and dvds before heading home satisfied.
Now all I've got to do is to find the right hotel for us in KL. Still in mourning for MiCasa which is going thru extensive reno and hardpressed to find anything else of equal value.
We originally wanted to spend a couple of days in Sibu Island (but realised this was quite expensive for our large family. The quote for 3D2N, all meals, transport etc included was RM2209!) and then later move on to Kuantan, toying with the idea of a stay at the Hyatt there (we were there in 98 and loved it but have since read that the hotel is not well-maintained and not worth the price) before heading in to KL and so on. But thanks to KH's work, we can't do all that now and will have to settle for an abbreviated version.
So next week we are heading up to KL. En route, we plan to stop at Seremban to check out the Minangkabau architecture and to see the old palaces of the Minangkabau sultanate. From KL, we plan to take a train down to the old Port Klang, then take a ferry to Pulau Ketam (aka crab island). We'll check out some crustaceans cooked in chilli (yum!) and some shellfish, wander around the island a bit before heading back to KL.
Indy Jones and Narnia are on in the cinemas in KL, so we plan to catch these there - so much cheaper at half price!
After that, back to Malacca, explore Pulau Besar which we said we would do but have not gotten down to, and then just hang around by the condo pool, the beach etc, checking out our favourite food and dvds before heading home satisfied.
Now all I've got to do is to find the right hotel for us in KL. Still in mourning for MiCasa which is going thru extensive reno and hardpressed to find anything else of equal value.
Out for now
Geez, looks like KH refuses to go on the (Mini) Epic Rail Journey.
Somewhat miffed and with some defiance, I said I would go myself!
Actually, come to think of it, why not? My only concern would be the children. Should I bring them all if I were going alone? Or just bring 1 or 2?
Someone asked me why I would even consider going by train since BKK is just a two-hour cheap budget flight away? I don't know. It occured to me that the world is increasingly connected - 6 hours to Beijing, 8 hours to Sydney, 7 hours to Tokyo, 7 hours to Delhi... we can be anywhere in a matter of hours.
But why be in a hurry?
The journey there is really half the fun. Slowing the process means real travel - seeing the landscape unfold, seeing how people live and work along the way, interacting with fellow travelers and with lots of time for silent reflection and thinking. My roomie KJ has inspired me with his travelers tales of travelling by train, the old fashioned way, up to Bangkok. He waxed lyrical with his reminisces of white-washed Thai temples gleaming in the evening sun, endless paid fields, hawkers who thrust their wares through train windows, and a bad case of food poisoning that left him prostrate with yellow-robed monks praying over him!
So while I can't afford the E&O express, I think I can afford to take the slow scenic train up to Bangkok! And I am tempted enough to do it all by myself too!
Somewhat miffed and with some defiance, I said I would go myself!
Actually, come to think of it, why not? My only concern would be the children. Should I bring them all if I were going alone? Or just bring 1 or 2?
Someone asked me why I would even consider going by train since BKK is just a two-hour cheap budget flight away? I don't know. It occured to me that the world is increasingly connected - 6 hours to Beijing, 8 hours to Sydney, 7 hours to Tokyo, 7 hours to Delhi... we can be anywhere in a matter of hours.
But why be in a hurry?
The journey there is really half the fun. Slowing the process means real travel - seeing the landscape unfold, seeing how people live and work along the way, interacting with fellow travelers and with lots of time for silent reflection and thinking. My roomie KJ has inspired me with his travelers tales of travelling by train, the old fashioned way, up to Bangkok. He waxed lyrical with his reminisces of white-washed Thai temples gleaming in the evening sun, endless paid fields, hawkers who thrust their wares through train windows, and a bad case of food poisoning that left him prostrate with yellow-robed monks praying over him!
So while I can't afford the E&O express, I think I can afford to take the slow scenic train up to Bangkok! And I am tempted enough to do it all by myself too!
The (Mini) Epic Rail Journey 1
Okay, so this is is not cast in stone.
But its an idea that I am very very intrigued with, very excited about and have started working on. And so far, what I've found looks very very promising and very do-able.
I am thinking of taking the family on a long rail journey from Singapore up to Bangkok and maybe Chiangmai. Along the way, we will cover KL, Penang, Hua Hin and Bangkok and maybe Chiangmai. Likely we'll fly back from Bangkok or Chiangmai on a budget airline. Tentative plans indicate that this will be a 17Day trip - wow! And should cost in the region of $4000 - includes everything except pocket money.
Tentative dates: Dec 5 to Dec 21.
Oh and why is this called the (Mini) Epic Rail Journey 1? Because I am so intrigued by all the possibilities there are! The idea of travelling overland from Asia to Europe via trains has always fascinated me. Some day I'll do it. So you can be sure there will be more epic journeys by train ahead in my lifetime. But first, all epic journeys have to begin somewhere right? Starting with this one from Singapore to Bangkok - a 'mini' one by the standards of many savvier travelers who have traversed the continents of the world by train.
Will post more when I develop this plan further.
But its an idea that I am very very intrigued with, very excited about and have started working on. And so far, what I've found looks very very promising and very do-able.
I am thinking of taking the family on a long rail journey from Singapore up to Bangkok and maybe Chiangmai. Along the way, we will cover KL, Penang, Hua Hin and Bangkok and maybe Chiangmai. Likely we'll fly back from Bangkok or Chiangmai on a budget airline. Tentative plans indicate that this will be a 17Day trip - wow! And should cost in the region of $4000 - includes everything except pocket money.
Tentative dates: Dec 5 to Dec 21.
Oh and why is this called the (Mini) Epic Rail Journey 1? Because I am so intrigued by all the possibilities there are! The idea of travelling overland from Asia to Europe via trains has always fascinated me. Some day I'll do it. So you can be sure there will be more epic journeys by train ahead in my lifetime. But first, all epic journeys have to begin somewhere right? Starting with this one from Singapore to Bangkok - a 'mini' one by the standards of many savvier travelers who have traversed the continents of the world by train.
Will post more when I develop this plan further.
Fraser's Hill and KL - Dec 2007
Fresh from Japan and hence, kinda broke, we decided to make an abbreviated trip up north this time. We usually go about two to three times a year to Malaysia - its nearest and cheapest a place for all of us to visit on a regular basis. Plus the fact that Mama's got a condo in Malacca does help to save us some of the hotel money.
But because we'd been going up so often, the ennui factor is setting in for us. Malacca and KL are gradually losing their shine because we don't quite know what else *new* there is to do there. Apart from the eating and shopping, that is.
So this trip we decided to just go to Ipoh (our new favourite haunt) and then check out Fraser's Hill (about two hrs away from KL by car) and of course, one last stay at our beloved MiCasa Hotel which would be closing for good thanks to a change in hotel management and some rebuilding plans.
First stop: KL. The weather was sucky when we left Singapore that afternoon. It rained buckets with a real thunderstorm flashing and clanging in the skies. I was just glad the house was renovated and there were no more leaks. Weather like that really made me just want to stay home and enjoy my now leak-proof house.
But the car was already packed to the brim with the usual assortment of gadgets (four different mobile phones and MP3 players plus a variety of CDs in case we get sick of the 400 tracks in the MP3 players), games (a chess set and travel Ludo), snacks (very unhealthy ones loaded with enough sugar to fuel my kids and get their engines going all 5hours of the way to KL!), pillows and cushions (half the living room's cushions now ended up on the second row of the car), blankets and comforters (you'd think they were going to sleep in the car except that these spoiled kids would definitely baulk at any suggestion of spending the night in the car - nothing but nice hotel rooms with cable tv for them!). When you add in luggage (we used backpacks from our Japan trip), and packed the kids into their seats and childseats, boosters etc, there would hardly be any space left to move! I'm just glad to be sitting in front where I have some decent legroom. heh.
So off we went, windshield wipers wiping furiously, in the midst of a drenchingly bad downpour. We made good time, no jams at the 2nd Link. KH drove all the way for 2hours until the rest stop at Ayer Keroh outside Malacca. We stopped for dinner at the KFC. Its quite a nice rest-stop - relatively clean toilets, a smallish mall selling souvenirs and several foodstalls and restaurants. The rain was intermittently a drizzle and a drench but it never ceased for a minute.
We reached Aunty Vivian's house in the outskirt of KL around 8.30pm. The dogs went wild at the gate. While my kids are generally calm and loving of animals, they were initially a bit nervous with Aunty Vi's bunch of noisy snarly dogs. It took a while for the human cousins and the doggie cousins to get to know each other all over again but by the end of the evening, all was generally peaceful! Vi and I headed out for drinks and a heart-to-heart sister-yak while the kids and men and dogs stayed home (hmm, there is some word association thing going on there...).
We were out bright and early the next morning. Vi and Paul had to go to work in the office and we had the second half of the journey to complete - to Ipoh! Brekkie was wanton mee KL-style swimming in black sauce, at a hawker centre at the foot of the hill below Vi's house. No chilli added to the wanton mee - just green cut chilli on the side. For us, used to the Singapore style, it took some getting used to. I remember the first time we ate this at the same place, I thought it rather tasteless and bland. But this time, it tasted loads better. Guess my tastebuds just grew used to it.
Bellies full, we headed to Ipoh. Weather started nice but ended drizzly again as we neared Ipoh. Have to say the limestone coverd cliffs and caves overlooking the NS Highway looked extra majestic and mysterious with the rain and the mist. We initially planned to stop at the river and the hot spring near the turn-off to Cameron Highlands. But with the weather so poor, we changed our minds.
We checked into our favourite Ipoh hotel - the Ritz Garden - a smallish business hotel but with immaculate rooms that are very good value for money. For some obscure reason, hotels in Ipoh (not exactly an international destination) were charging ridiculously high rates for rooms that were either seriously dated, in poor condition and generally just not worth it. We were miserable our first trip to Ipoh thanks to the lousy accomodation values. But thankfully one trip ago, we found this place and we decided this is the best for us - decent accomodation, right in the heart of the city and with good prices. This time, instead of taking two rooms, we took the Family Deluxe at RM230 - came with a king bed and a queen bed - comfy enough for all of us.
From there, the rest of the afternoon was spent at Tambun, at the Sunway Lagoon water theme park. Being the school hols, it was more crowded that the last time we were there but still quite manageable compared to the KL version. Since Trin is now old enough to join in the fun, I decided to make one of my rare appearances in the pool. Good friends of mine know how rarely I put on a swimsuit and head in. Even my kids were slack-jawed when they realised that mom was joining them in the pool this time.
I didn't go for the rides or the water slides, but I really liked the hot springs. Er okay, not the most pristine of conditions - best to close one eye against the sandy feel of the pool bottom, the strands of leaf, grass and other assorted debris floating past. Nonetheless it was pleasantly warm - not to the point of the rotemburo in Kangetsu Ryokan, but a nice memory of it. Lunch was a yummy mee goreng fried on the spot by a skinny Indian man in a splattered apron. The cooking looked sloppy and rather messy, and you really would not want to look too hard at the cooking area, but somehow it came out smelling fantastic and tasting just the right amount of spicy, sweet and salty. Very yum. Funny how swimming and water games always makes us ravenous - the mee goreng was devoured in quick time, spicy though it was.
The kids had a good time in the wave pool, the kids' pool and of course the hot springs. I think I spent about 2hours max out there before taking Trin with me, nursing her and snoozing under a shelter while the rest played on. The weather was dark grey, cloudy and drizzly. And yet, despite that, I still managed to get sunburnt - the only one in the family to do so! I ended up with lobster pink shoulders that the kids evilly loved to poke in the days ahead. I don't know how I always manage to do this. KH loves to bring up the old story of how we went kayaking in the sea off Changi and Ubin for 2hours and I ended up with 3rd deg burns while he was just nicely brownish-pink.
So I wasn't a very happy camper that evening. When it came to washing up, even worse. I have this aversion to bathing in public bathrooms - something to do with grotty bathroom floors, strands of other people's hair floating past and sometimes, squabs of wet tissue paper etc. Ugh. I think the bathroom of Sunway is already better than most others by Malaysian standards, but even then I just could not get over the ick factor. So I just rinsed and changed Trin and myself instead of bathing there. One reason why I hate going swimming.
I was grouchy until we hit the hotel, bathed and changed and went out for dinner in the old part of Ipoh town, braving the incessant rain because we were going to have my favourite food in Ipoh - Ipoh hor fun!! Despite the rain, the place was packed with people. The flat, thin white slippery noodles are coated with chicken stock and oil and they just slide right down the throat with one slurp - ooh heavenly! With a poached chicken, stir-fried crunchy bean sprouts, and accompanied by a tawny brown iced longan tea, it was a simple but so deliciously satisfying meal. And one that I can only have once a year. Just writing this makes me feel so hungry for it. Sigh.
Next day we checked out after breakfast and drove to Fraser's Hill.
All the way there, I was nervous. The weather was not really lifting and we'd been travelling thus far under constant rain, cloudy skies. I had heard that the road was old and very narrow in places. With roads slick with rain, I was a bit apprehensive about the drive up. More importantly, I was worried about throwing up. I have this thing about motion sickness and I do throw up very easily on windy roads - threw up once on the road coming down from Cameron Highlands, threw up three times on the windy road to Hana in Maui, Hawaii, turned green on the Amalfi coast. Even going up windy public carparks set me off. And I know that once I get sick like this, I really need lots of time just lying horizontally, sleeping it off etc - by which time it would be time to go downhill again!!
I armed myself with barf bags (the children cheerfully reminded me: Mum, here's your NTUC plastic bag in case you puke!) and anti-nausea meds, but these did not always work. So I was just bracing myself for the snaky drive up. Not looking forward to it.
We turned off from the NS Highway towards KL at the Tanjung Malim exit. From there it was trunk roads into KKB (Kuala Kubu Bahru), the last major town before the road climbed.
I was pleasantly surprised to note that the first approach was smooth and straight - it was part of a new road that was built thanks to the Sungei Selangor Dam project. The dam was built to alleviate flooding in the valley and to provide a source of hydroelectric energy/water needs for the area. To do that, the river had to be diverted a bit and a large valley flooded. The project meant relocating the orang asli village in the valley to higher ground. I don't know enough about anthropology or orang asli to comment if this was the right thing to do - to uproot a community from the familiar, impacting their lifestyles and habits along the way to build a dam but I imagine this is a constant struggle in many other countries, the most significant of our times being the impact of the Three Gorges Dam in China. Here in Malaysia, albeit on a much much smaller scale is a similar situation.
We stopped at the dam. It was a lovely site ringed with forested hills and with 'islands', once hills of the land now flooded, floating in the middle. What caught our fascination was the curve of the overflow - a jelly mould of water rushing over and down. It gave me a wobbly feeling bordering on a bit of vertigo to look at that and imagine the rush of water. We took the time to wander about the visitor's centre taking some pictures before I very reluctantly got back into the car, knowing that from this point on, it would be windy and uphill the rest of the way.
We passed the new orang asli village - spanking new, designed nicely to resemble a posh eco-lodge, but I didn't think it had the spirit and character of the orang asli original village - that would have been lost. I remember thinking as I saw it: I wouldn't mind living in one of these rather sophisticated tropical-modern designs, but that's me - a city girl attuned to city life. And if that is so, then how must the orang asli feel? Even though they did choose the design of the houses etc, there was no denying that they were still uprooted. Okay, not getting into this debate here.
We passed over an old bridge, a rushing river beneath, waterfalls and yes, the road started winding up. As we wended higher and higher, the air got noticeably cooler, the vegetation changed a little and we saw lots more giant bamboo. KH tried to drive as slowly as possible but I did end up feeling queasy. Not to the point of throwing up, but vertigic and giddy. About two-thirds of the way up, we passed a Hindu shrine and this marked the spot where Sir Henry Gurney, the British Commissioner to Malaya was killed, ambushed by Communist guerillas in the Emergency back in the 50s. I stopped to look for a plaque that marked the place but could not find it.
Apparently it was just meant to be the usual Communist terrorist ambush - they did not bargain on nabbing the Commissioner himself. Henry Gurney and his wife were heading up to Fraser's Hill when they were ambushed. The car was peppered with gunfire. Gurney, according to anecdotes, got out and walked calmly away from the car, as if to draw fire away from the car and his wife who was still crouched on the floor of the car. It was only later that the Communists discovered they had killed Gurney and needless to say, it was a huge triumph for them and marked a low point in the Emergency. Read The War of the Running Dogs: How Malaya Defeated the Communist Guerrillas, 1948-60 by Noel Barber - a very excellent book that I've read over and over again until dog-earred.
After that point, we reached The Gap - which was nothing more than a quaint old black and white English-styled building. As in the old days, it still provided tea and meals for travellers making their way up to Fraser's Hill.
From The Gap it was another 9km of snaking road uphill. And this is where it got challenging. The road was a one-way road, largely flanked by overgrown bushes and a precipice on one side. It was misty - such that we could barely see what was 10m ahead of the car. Phone connections were continually disrupted since KH's office was also trying to get him at that time. We inched our way up but it was so winding that even Gillian complained that she was feeling ill. Miraculously I did not puke. About 20min to half an hour after we left The Gap, we pulled into the carpark of our hotel.
We booked a night at Frasers Pine Resort. The development is built into the hillside and there is no lift to the apartments so we had a lot of stair-climbing to do. Note also that there is no shelter from the carpark to the apartment, so the stairs were slick with rain and debris, the handrails were rusty and broken in areas due to wear and tear. The apartment had three bedrooms although we booked only a two-bedroom one. There was a damp, musty smell in the place. The furniture was very dated and worn, broken in places and the bed mattress was lumpy. Everything did not look well-maintained in the least and it had a somewhat eerie air about it. The only good thing going for it was the huge terrace outside the master bedroom and the living room. From there we could see far into the horizon of hilltops stretching bluish-grey, as the sea of clouds made islands of them.
It took us a while to recover and settle down. The rain was still intermittentlydrizzly. Later in the afternoon, we set out to explore Fraser's Hill. It was a hill station built on seven hills. We passed a paddock which advertised horseriding and archery, a small golf course, which used to be the old tin mine. Right at the end of the road was the town 'centre', a small area whose landmark is an old ivy-covered clock tower, now used as a roundabout for cars. The road leading down on the left leads all the way down to the Gap - this used to be the old road. The road we came up on is the 'new' road built recently - in the past, when there was only one road up or down, and it being a single-lane carriage, there were fixed times for cars to go up and cars to go down. But with the new road, this schedule was abolished.
We stopped at the town centre, had lunch. Everywhere was quiet. There were few tourists and some shops were closed. We liked the many quaint old buildings, the Dispensary, the old police station, the post office and so on. A drive round the area took us past many rambling old bungalows. We even saw a familiar Singapore 'celebrity' - a TCS 8 actor, who looked mildly self-conscious to be recognised by our car-load of kids who had their heads out the window looking at him. But apart from driving around looking at houses, unless you're keen on trekking and birdwatching, there's really not much to be done at Frasers Hill.
We dawdled at a rather damp and flooded playground for a while, drove past a small lake and wanted to get on a paddle boat, but alas it was closed. All in all, it was a sleepy quiet place and we didn't quite know what to do. The good thing about Frasers is that at least the air was still cool - unlike Genting or Cameron Highlands. With all the development going on at Camerons, it is no longer a cool hill station but rather muggy and hot these days.
We hung around the apartment until it was dinner time. Ended up with steamboat in a hotel down the road. We were the only group there in the dining room aside from one other family - again adding to the rather desolate air that Frasers Hill had. Steamboat was okay but it was very pricey - about RM180 for a simple spread, largely noodles since the kids were such noodle-fans.
Frasers Hill had generally, a lonely, spooky air about her. Maybe it was the mist, or the many old houses standing in the hills. Or maybe it was the closeness of the jungle - one didn't get so much a sense of Frasers Hill cutting into the jungle as it was the other way around - the jungle encroaching on a small tired township.
Next morning, we left after breakfast. The air was white with cloud and mist as we slowly, gingerly made our way down. Credit goes to KH who went so slowly that you could get out and walk beside the car and still not be outrun. I didn't throw up despite the many twists and turns. Going down was more pleasant that going up. We rolled the windows down to catch the morning air, drawing in deep lungfuls of it. From time to time we heard the piercing calls of an animal, probably a primate somewhere in the trees. At one point, it sounded incredibly close but try as we did, we could not catch sight of it. The sun had finally come out and the sight of it hitting the trees was lovely.
It took us about an hour to make our way all the way down to KKB again and another hour and a half stuck in trunk road traffic before we re-joined the NS Highway. From there, it was an easy 40min drive into the heart of KL city where we easily found our way to the MiCasa hotel.
The next two days were spent watching a movie (our favourite pastime in KL since it was much cheaper to do this here than in Singapore), checking out the new mall in Mid Valley, the Gardens (too posh and expensive for me!) and wandering around chinatown.
Well now that I finally got my curiosity about Frasers Hill satisfied, I doubt I will go back. I did not enjoy the hairpin bends that led all the way to the top, and since I am not very keen on birdwatching or trekking, I don't think I'll be back. Still, I did like the rather sad air of mystery, desolation and forgotten-ness that the resort had.
Oh well, more places in Malaysia to uncover, now that I can tick Frasers Hill off my list.
Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/chongbrood/KLAndFraserSHill2007
But because we'd been going up so often, the ennui factor is setting in for us. Malacca and KL are gradually losing their shine because we don't quite know what else *new* there is to do there. Apart from the eating and shopping, that is.
So this trip we decided to just go to Ipoh (our new favourite haunt) and then check out Fraser's Hill (about two hrs away from KL by car) and of course, one last stay at our beloved MiCasa Hotel which would be closing for good thanks to a change in hotel management and some rebuilding plans.
First stop: KL. The weather was sucky when we left Singapore that afternoon. It rained buckets with a real thunderstorm flashing and clanging in the skies. I was just glad the house was renovated and there were no more leaks. Weather like that really made me just want to stay home and enjoy my now leak-proof house.
But the car was already packed to the brim with the usual assortment of gadgets (four different mobile phones and MP3 players plus a variety of CDs in case we get sick of the 400 tracks in the MP3 players), games (a chess set and travel Ludo), snacks (very unhealthy ones loaded with enough sugar to fuel my kids and get their engines going all 5hours of the way to KL!), pillows and cushions (half the living room's cushions now ended up on the second row of the car), blankets and comforters (you'd think they were going to sleep in the car except that these spoiled kids would definitely baulk at any suggestion of spending the night in the car - nothing but nice hotel rooms with cable tv for them!). When you add in luggage (we used backpacks from our Japan trip), and packed the kids into their seats and childseats, boosters etc, there would hardly be any space left to move! I'm just glad to be sitting in front where I have some decent legroom. heh.
So off we went, windshield wipers wiping furiously, in the midst of a drenchingly bad downpour. We made good time, no jams at the 2nd Link. KH drove all the way for 2hours until the rest stop at Ayer Keroh outside Malacca. We stopped for dinner at the KFC. Its quite a nice rest-stop - relatively clean toilets, a smallish mall selling souvenirs and several foodstalls and restaurants. The rain was intermittently a drizzle and a drench but it never ceased for a minute.
We reached Aunty Vivian's house in the outskirt of KL around 8.30pm. The dogs went wild at the gate. While my kids are generally calm and loving of animals, they were initially a bit nervous with Aunty Vi's bunch of noisy snarly dogs. It took a while for the human cousins and the doggie cousins to get to know each other all over again but by the end of the evening, all was generally peaceful! Vi and I headed out for drinks and a heart-to-heart sister-yak while the kids and men and dogs stayed home (hmm, there is some word association thing going on there...).
We were out bright and early the next morning. Vi and Paul had to go to work in the office and we had the second half of the journey to complete - to Ipoh! Brekkie was wanton mee KL-style swimming in black sauce, at a hawker centre at the foot of the hill below Vi's house. No chilli added to the wanton mee - just green cut chilli on the side. For us, used to the Singapore style, it took some getting used to. I remember the first time we ate this at the same place, I thought it rather tasteless and bland. But this time, it tasted loads better. Guess my tastebuds just grew used to it.
Bellies full, we headed to Ipoh. Weather started nice but ended drizzly again as we neared Ipoh. Have to say the limestone coverd cliffs and caves overlooking the NS Highway looked extra majestic and mysterious with the rain and the mist. We initially planned to stop at the river and the hot spring near the turn-off to Cameron Highlands. But with the weather so poor, we changed our minds.
We checked into our favourite Ipoh hotel - the Ritz Garden - a smallish business hotel but with immaculate rooms that are very good value for money. For some obscure reason, hotels in Ipoh (not exactly an international destination) were charging ridiculously high rates for rooms that were either seriously dated, in poor condition and generally just not worth it. We were miserable our first trip to Ipoh thanks to the lousy accomodation values. But thankfully one trip ago, we found this place and we decided this is the best for us - decent accomodation, right in the heart of the city and with good prices. This time, instead of taking two rooms, we took the Family Deluxe at RM230 - came with a king bed and a queen bed - comfy enough for all of us.
From there, the rest of the afternoon was spent at Tambun, at the Sunway Lagoon water theme park. Being the school hols, it was more crowded that the last time we were there but still quite manageable compared to the KL version. Since Trin is now old enough to join in the fun, I decided to make one of my rare appearances in the pool. Good friends of mine know how rarely I put on a swimsuit and head in. Even my kids were slack-jawed when they realised that mom was joining them in the pool this time.
I didn't go for the rides or the water slides, but I really liked the hot springs. Er okay, not the most pristine of conditions - best to close one eye against the sandy feel of the pool bottom, the strands of leaf, grass and other assorted debris floating past. Nonetheless it was pleasantly warm - not to the point of the rotemburo in Kangetsu Ryokan, but a nice memory of it. Lunch was a yummy mee goreng fried on the spot by a skinny Indian man in a splattered apron. The cooking looked sloppy and rather messy, and you really would not want to look too hard at the cooking area, but somehow it came out smelling fantastic and tasting just the right amount of spicy, sweet and salty. Very yum. Funny how swimming and water games always makes us ravenous - the mee goreng was devoured in quick time, spicy though it was.
The kids had a good time in the wave pool, the kids' pool and of course the hot springs. I think I spent about 2hours max out there before taking Trin with me, nursing her and snoozing under a shelter while the rest played on. The weather was dark grey, cloudy and drizzly. And yet, despite that, I still managed to get sunburnt - the only one in the family to do so! I ended up with lobster pink shoulders that the kids evilly loved to poke in the days ahead. I don't know how I always manage to do this. KH loves to bring up the old story of how we went kayaking in the sea off Changi and Ubin for 2hours and I ended up with 3rd deg burns while he was just nicely brownish-pink.
So I wasn't a very happy camper that evening. When it came to washing up, even worse. I have this aversion to bathing in public bathrooms - something to do with grotty bathroom floors, strands of other people's hair floating past and sometimes, squabs of wet tissue paper etc. Ugh. I think the bathroom of Sunway is already better than most others by Malaysian standards, but even then I just could not get over the ick factor. So I just rinsed and changed Trin and myself instead of bathing there. One reason why I hate going swimming.
I was grouchy until we hit the hotel, bathed and changed and went out for dinner in the old part of Ipoh town, braving the incessant rain because we were going to have my favourite food in Ipoh - Ipoh hor fun!! Despite the rain, the place was packed with people. The flat, thin white slippery noodles are coated with chicken stock and oil and they just slide right down the throat with one slurp - ooh heavenly! With a poached chicken, stir-fried crunchy bean sprouts, and accompanied by a tawny brown iced longan tea, it was a simple but so deliciously satisfying meal. And one that I can only have once a year. Just writing this makes me feel so hungry for it. Sigh.
Next day we checked out after breakfast and drove to Fraser's Hill.
All the way there, I was nervous. The weather was not really lifting and we'd been travelling thus far under constant rain, cloudy skies. I had heard that the road was old and very narrow in places. With roads slick with rain, I was a bit apprehensive about the drive up. More importantly, I was worried about throwing up. I have this thing about motion sickness and I do throw up very easily on windy roads - threw up once on the road coming down from Cameron Highlands, threw up three times on the windy road to Hana in Maui, Hawaii, turned green on the Amalfi coast. Even going up windy public carparks set me off. And I know that once I get sick like this, I really need lots of time just lying horizontally, sleeping it off etc - by which time it would be time to go downhill again!!
I armed myself with barf bags (the children cheerfully reminded me: Mum, here's your NTUC plastic bag in case you puke!) and anti-nausea meds, but these did not always work. So I was just bracing myself for the snaky drive up. Not looking forward to it.
We turned off from the NS Highway towards KL at the Tanjung Malim exit. From there it was trunk roads into KKB (Kuala Kubu Bahru), the last major town before the road climbed.
I was pleasantly surprised to note that the first approach was smooth and straight - it was part of a new road that was built thanks to the Sungei Selangor Dam project. The dam was built to alleviate flooding in the valley and to provide a source of hydroelectric energy/water needs for the area. To do that, the river had to be diverted a bit and a large valley flooded. The project meant relocating the orang asli village in the valley to higher ground. I don't know enough about anthropology or orang asli to comment if this was the right thing to do - to uproot a community from the familiar, impacting their lifestyles and habits along the way to build a dam but I imagine this is a constant struggle in many other countries, the most significant of our times being the impact of the Three Gorges Dam in China. Here in Malaysia, albeit on a much much smaller scale is a similar situation.
We stopped at the dam. It was a lovely site ringed with forested hills and with 'islands', once hills of the land now flooded, floating in the middle. What caught our fascination was the curve of the overflow - a jelly mould of water rushing over and down. It gave me a wobbly feeling bordering on a bit of vertigo to look at that and imagine the rush of water. We took the time to wander about the visitor's centre taking some pictures before I very reluctantly got back into the car, knowing that from this point on, it would be windy and uphill the rest of the way.
We passed the new orang asli village - spanking new, designed nicely to resemble a posh eco-lodge, but I didn't think it had the spirit and character of the orang asli original village - that would have been lost. I remember thinking as I saw it: I wouldn't mind living in one of these rather sophisticated tropical-modern designs, but that's me - a city girl attuned to city life. And if that is so, then how must the orang asli feel? Even though they did choose the design of the houses etc, there was no denying that they were still uprooted. Okay, not getting into this debate here.
We passed over an old bridge, a rushing river beneath, waterfalls and yes, the road started winding up. As we wended higher and higher, the air got noticeably cooler, the vegetation changed a little and we saw lots more giant bamboo. KH tried to drive as slowly as possible but I did end up feeling queasy. Not to the point of throwing up, but vertigic and giddy. About two-thirds of the way up, we passed a Hindu shrine and this marked the spot where Sir Henry Gurney, the British Commissioner to Malaya was killed, ambushed by Communist guerillas in the Emergency back in the 50s. I stopped to look for a plaque that marked the place but could not find it.
Apparently it was just meant to be the usual Communist terrorist ambush - they did not bargain on nabbing the Commissioner himself. Henry Gurney and his wife were heading up to Fraser's Hill when they were ambushed. The car was peppered with gunfire. Gurney, according to anecdotes, got out and walked calmly away from the car, as if to draw fire away from the car and his wife who was still crouched on the floor of the car. It was only later that the Communists discovered they had killed Gurney and needless to say, it was a huge triumph for them and marked a low point in the Emergency. Read The War of the Running Dogs: How Malaya Defeated the Communist Guerrillas, 1948-60 by Noel Barber - a very excellent book that I've read over and over again until dog-earred.
After that point, we reached The Gap - which was nothing more than a quaint old black and white English-styled building. As in the old days, it still provided tea and meals for travellers making their way up to Fraser's Hill.
From The Gap it was another 9km of snaking road uphill. And this is where it got challenging. The road was a one-way road, largely flanked by overgrown bushes and a precipice on one side. It was misty - such that we could barely see what was 10m ahead of the car. Phone connections were continually disrupted since KH's office was also trying to get him at that time. We inched our way up but it was so winding that even Gillian complained that she was feeling ill. Miraculously I did not puke. About 20min to half an hour after we left The Gap, we pulled into the carpark of our hotel.
We booked a night at Frasers Pine Resort. The development is built into the hillside and there is no lift to the apartments so we had a lot of stair-climbing to do. Note also that there is no shelter from the carpark to the apartment, so the stairs were slick with rain and debris, the handrails were rusty and broken in areas due to wear and tear. The apartment had three bedrooms although we booked only a two-bedroom one. There was a damp, musty smell in the place. The furniture was very dated and worn, broken in places and the bed mattress was lumpy. Everything did not look well-maintained in the least and it had a somewhat eerie air about it. The only good thing going for it was the huge terrace outside the master bedroom and the living room. From there we could see far into the horizon of hilltops stretching bluish-grey, as the sea of clouds made islands of them.
It took us a while to recover and settle down. The rain was still intermittentlydrizzly. Later in the afternoon, we set out to explore Fraser's Hill. It was a hill station built on seven hills. We passed a paddock which advertised horseriding and archery, a small golf course, which used to be the old tin mine. Right at the end of the road was the town 'centre', a small area whose landmark is an old ivy-covered clock tower, now used as a roundabout for cars. The road leading down on the left leads all the way down to the Gap - this used to be the old road. The road we came up on is the 'new' road built recently - in the past, when there was only one road up or down, and it being a single-lane carriage, there were fixed times for cars to go up and cars to go down. But with the new road, this schedule was abolished.
We stopped at the town centre, had lunch. Everywhere was quiet. There were few tourists and some shops were closed. We liked the many quaint old buildings, the Dispensary, the old police station, the post office and so on. A drive round the area took us past many rambling old bungalows. We even saw a familiar Singapore 'celebrity' - a TCS 8 actor, who looked mildly self-conscious to be recognised by our car-load of kids who had their heads out the window looking at him. But apart from driving around looking at houses, unless you're keen on trekking and birdwatching, there's really not much to be done at Frasers Hill.
We dawdled at a rather damp and flooded playground for a while, drove past a small lake and wanted to get on a paddle boat, but alas it was closed. All in all, it was a sleepy quiet place and we didn't quite know what to do. The good thing about Frasers is that at least the air was still cool - unlike Genting or Cameron Highlands. With all the development going on at Camerons, it is no longer a cool hill station but rather muggy and hot these days.
We hung around the apartment until it was dinner time. Ended up with steamboat in a hotel down the road. We were the only group there in the dining room aside from one other family - again adding to the rather desolate air that Frasers Hill had. Steamboat was okay but it was very pricey - about RM180 for a simple spread, largely noodles since the kids were such noodle-fans.
Frasers Hill had generally, a lonely, spooky air about her. Maybe it was the mist, or the many old houses standing in the hills. Or maybe it was the closeness of the jungle - one didn't get so much a sense of Frasers Hill cutting into the jungle as it was the other way around - the jungle encroaching on a small tired township.
Next morning, we left after breakfast. The air was white with cloud and mist as we slowly, gingerly made our way down. Credit goes to KH who went so slowly that you could get out and walk beside the car and still not be outrun. I didn't throw up despite the many twists and turns. Going down was more pleasant that going up. We rolled the windows down to catch the morning air, drawing in deep lungfuls of it. From time to time we heard the piercing calls of an animal, probably a primate somewhere in the trees. At one point, it sounded incredibly close but try as we did, we could not catch sight of it. The sun had finally come out and the sight of it hitting the trees was lovely.
It took us about an hour to make our way all the way down to KKB again and another hour and a half stuck in trunk road traffic before we re-joined the NS Highway. From there, it was an easy 40min drive into the heart of KL city where we easily found our way to the MiCasa hotel.
The next two days were spent watching a movie (our favourite pastime in KL since it was much cheaper to do this here than in Singapore), checking out the new mall in Mid Valley, the Gardens (too posh and expensive for me!) and wandering around chinatown.
Well now that I finally got my curiosity about Frasers Hill satisfied, I doubt I will go back. I did not enjoy the hairpin bends that led all the way to the top, and since I am not very keen on birdwatching or trekking, I don't think I'll be back. Still, I did like the rather sad air of mystery, desolation and forgotten-ness that the resort had.
Oh well, more places in Malaysia to uncover, now that I can tick Frasers Hill off my list.
Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/chongbrood/KLAndFraserSHill2007
Journeys Past
I'm toying with the idea of archiving my old trips - all the way back 20 years + from my first solo trip sans parents, first time on a plane - to stay with my aunt in Melbourne, all the way to the trips in Europe, to Bali, our road trips in Malaysia - you'd see how I grew with travel and how travel grew with me when the size of my family grew - from solo to couple to couple with toddler, then two children, three, four and now five.
I think I'll do it in reverse. One post for each trip.
So last major family trip was I think in Malaysia, so hmm, let me do that first.
I think I'll do it in reverse. One post for each trip.
So last major family trip was I think in Malaysia, so hmm, let me do that first.
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