Freakin Hot Weather!

The weather is so hot even the cats are finding the right position to cool down.

KL, Ipoh & Cameron Highlands 28 April to 4 May 2016

A friend wanted to clear leave and suggested a trip to various parts of Malaysia. 
So off we go.

First stop Kuala Lumpur (KL).
Booked a S$20 bus ride from Golden Mile complex from Starmart company. The bus dropped us off at Berjaya Times Square in KL City. The bus was suprisingly spacious and comfortable for S$20 bucks.

Spent two days in KL, was pretty boring actually, managed to watch Captain America Civil War at Mid Valley to pass time. Food was the usual stalls near the hotel at Petaling Street. The chee cheong fan was pretty disappointing. I realised most of the stalls at Chee Cheong Gai was pretty below par standard. As we didn't have a car we had no choice but to eat near our hotel. We did make use of Uber rides everywhere we go though.

We still managed some good food though.




From KL, we made our way to Ipoh. 
We had to book a ticket from :

Terminal Bersepadu Selatan at Bandar Tasik Selatan (TBS-BTS)

As this was the labour day long weekend, the crowd was ridiculous. We managed to get tickets after some "amazing race" moments. The earliest was at 2:30pm so we had no choice but to take it, we had reached earlier at around 11:30am.

Sure enough, the journey to Ipoh took longer than usual.

The usual was 3 hours, we took 4.5 hours.

We took an Uber ride from the Sri Maju station to our hotel.

We reached Ipoh at night and set off for dinner immediately!

We had the traditional bean sprout chicken (牙菜鸡). The bean sprouts were good but the chicken rice we had in KL was better. After dinner we walked around looking for Heong Piah. We found the locally recommended one at Yee Hup shop. Pretty good tasting I must say.

We only stayed a night at Ipoh.

Early next morning, we left for Cameron Highlands.

As we couldn't get the first bus up, we had to take the 11:30am bus.

The bus terminal was at Amanjaya, Ipoh.

As mentioned before, it was the Labour day long weekend, little did we know how long it will take us to reach Cameron Highlands.

The moment we reached the foothills of Cameron Highlands, the jam started. It was an exhausting ride up as the air conditioning was not cold enough. Plus I was seating on a dirty seat, not much maintenance on these workhorse buses.

It took us 5 over hours to reach Brinchang town, man, it was tiring.

I felt relieve the moment I stepped off the bus. Luckily, we reached at around 5pm plus and it was cooling. We checked in to our hotel, the only one I managed to book before setting off from Singapore. Upon check in, we were given a free dinner steamboat coupon, this was the first time I have ever heard of a dinner inclusive stay in a hotel. We were tired and hungry after the long ride up so we hit the steamboat immediately after dropping our bags.

Did I say the weather was cooling? 

After steamboat, we went to the night bazaar(pasar Malam). Bought some strawberries, oranges, jam, fruits and stuff. The night bazaar only takes place on Fridays and Saturdays and Public Holidays.

The Next 2 days we explored around the Highlands on foot and taxi. No Uber here.

We went to Sungei Palas BOH plantation, strawberry farms, flower farms, Lavender Garden, I even managed to pick some wild orchids from the roadside.

The weather here was great for me, cooling, fresh air and full of nature.

The Chinese food here was great. Lots of restaurants to choose from. The shops close quite late for such a remote place, around 9-10pm. The only thing I did not like was, on a whole, Cameron Highlands is getting more and more built up with Condos and malls. 3 years ago when I was last here, there was no shopping mall, now there is one, the number of apartments have increase two folds as well. I just hope the local authorities will control the over commercialising of such a rare place. It's not everyday you get to find a place in Malaysia where the mean temperature is below 24 degrees in the day, outdoors. 

Koh Lipe & Hatyai Thailand 6-12 March 2016

It's been a whole year since I've updated this blog. Why does time past so fast when you are older?

Anyway, updating all my trips so far this year.
First was Hatyai & Koh Lipe, Thailand.

Took the Sri Maju bus from Singapore at Golden Mile complex, cost was S$45. Bus left at 7:30pm. It was a 13 hour journey. This was my third time going by bus to Hatyai. I did not managed to sleep much even though the bus was very comfortable. It's weird, on normal days in Singapore when I take the public buses, I always doze off and miss my stops but on a luxury coach with reclining seats and close to north pole air conditioning, I Just Can't Sleep!! Geez...

Reached Hatyai around 9:30am the next day. Weather was super hot. Hatyai is well known for it's hot weather. Check in to my usual cheapo retro hotel at S$24 per night.

Did the usual shopping eating and foot massages. Went with a muslim friend this time round and he was grinning ear to ear as almost every food place was halal. Before the trip even started, he was already planning another trip with his family, hahaha!!

Koh Lipe was a 2 hour mini Van ride to the jetty and another 2 hour boat ride to the island.
The ride was quite taxing. Upon reaching the island we did not dock immediately on the island. Instead we docked on a floating platform about a hundred meters away from the shore. We had to queue to pay for National Nature reserve fees and a taxi boat ride to the island. We were not notified of this prior to our trip by the agency. Later on, upon reaching the island, we scouted for a hotel for a nights stay. We managed to get a pretty nicely decorated interior hotel. From the hotel staff, we found out that the nature reserve fees and taxi boat ride only started this year in 2016!! Crap!!

This island was very commercial, lots of Europeans & Americans, lots of hipster cafes, dive centers, basically, Crowded.It's a shame though because the waters are crystal clear!!! The waters are really really clear. The snorkelling was great. I didn't have much time though as we had to depart at around 1:30pm back to the mainland. The boat ride back was on a speed boat and it took only an hour.

We stayed at Hatyai for the remaining few days and another round of eating, shopping and foot massages. Here are the rest of the photos.

Getting Lazy

Man, time really flies. My last post was more than a year ago. I guess laziness and lack of passion has gotten to me on publishing this blog.

I've been going to Johor very frequently these few months. Spending an off day there is much more economical as the ringgit seems to plunge further down every day.
I've been travelling to Bukit Indah, Permas Jaya and JB town  for the food, fishing tackle and cheap foot reflexology.

The duck egg cha kway tiao at one of the Bukit Indah coffee shop was heavenly, unlike the souless variety your get at Singapore food courts. It was full of flavour and texture.

Great satay directly opposite the Bukit Indah bus stop. The Fried bee hoon with Tandori is excellent too. Definitely worth repeating the trip there again.

Hopefully, I will discover more good food as I venture further away from JB town.

Fraser Hill, Genting Highland & Cameron Highlands 7th-9th Feb 2014, Part 3.

The last part of this trip starts with Breakfast!!

 

 

 

The kaya toast was fantastic man, crispy on the outside soft on the inside, mmmmmmm....

There's just something about the morning air and having breakfast at an old coffee shop in some small sleepy town that always make the trip worth it.

 

I even chanced upon an old cinema.

 

I can imagine it in its heyday, in a time when a trip to the cinema was an event in itself. The design of the grill at the ticket booth was amazing, it harks back to the 1940's & 50's.

That old world charm always attract my attention, I guess I'm a sucker for nostalgia.

 

Next stop, Cameron Highlands!!!  Woohoo!!!

 

The weather was good and the traffic was smooth.

I took over the driving for about an hour as my friend was tired. Although I hold a driver's license, I don't own a car. So, I was very cautious when I took over. It was quite easy driving on the north south highway though. Plus the traffic was not bad at all.

 

My friend took over the driving again as we ascended Cameron highlands. It started to get crowded as we approach the top and as it was a weekend too, certain bottle necks started jamming as cars jostle for space.

 

We stopped along the way top take pictures and buy fruits.

 

 

 

Needless to mention, the weather was great, nothing like cool, clean air and the natural forest.

We stopped at the bee farm and I bought a bottle of honey. Then my friend told me to drive again as he was feeling tired.
I made my way down the meandering roads from the bee farm safely to the main road. I then headed to where my ex-neighbour's farm is, to buy some corn.
As we reached the farm, I was pointed to a slot in between two cars by my friend and I put the car straight in, unfortunately the angle was wrong and the back of the car was sticking out. I tried to reverse but stepped on the gas too much and banged into the back of a car and scratched the side of the rear!! My friend quickly got down and drove the car away to park elsewhere!! LOL!
Lesson learnt,  don't drive when you are not confident!

After buying some stuff from my ex-neighbor, we headed for the Boh tea plantation.
Unfortunately, we went to the wrong one due to some bad directing from Locals! Yes, locals!
When we finally reached the right one, it was packed with tourists!!
I queued up to buy tea and cakes and we had a nice tea break at the tea house.

After enjoying the tea and fresh air, we left the highlands around 4-5pm.
We drove back to my friend's in-laws house for the night.

The next morning, we headed back towards Johor as it was a long drive and we stopped and shopped there for a while and had a foot massage before heading back home to Singapore.

Mission accomplished.