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.
 

Fraser Hill, Genting Highland & Cameron Highlands 7th-9th Feb 2014, Part 2.

We headed for Genting Highlands next while we had some day light left.

The road up to Genting was much more smoother compared to Fraser Hill. The roads were much wider and well paved. The road bends were less pronounced and there were two lanes going up. The temperature was not as cool as I thought it would be at this time of the year though.

 

I have not been to Genting since my secondary school days, so the change I see was tremendous. The Genting I had remember was a very boring place with no shopping malls and was quite run down. So too my surprise, it was similar to a culture shock when I saw the changes.

The malls inside was jam packed with people because of the Chinese New Year season. Every restaurant was filled and every retail store was full of people buying stuff.

The place really felt Alive!!

What a contrast to the 80's when I was there. Back then there was only one amusement park and a Casino and not much eating places.

Now, every hotel has an attached mall and amusement park or entertainment games center.

Every hotel has their own casino as well.

As I was wearing bermudas, I was not allowed into the casino. So me and Hakim went to walk around the place and explore a bit.

We walked outdoors to get the fresh cool air and to take some pictures. 



The whole place was inter-connected by a maze of escalators and walkways, quite confusing actually. The un-clear signage's made it worse. We ended up at a few dead ends and went in circles before we managed to return to where we were suppose to meet up.

fter meeting up with our friend as he had went into the casino, we headed for dinner....

...at KFC!! LoL!!

 

We wasted no time after dinner and was quite tired as we had travelled a whole day. So we headed to our rest spot for the night which was my friend's mother in-law house.

 

As this was still during the first week of the Chinese New Year, it so happens that tonight was the Hokkien people's prayer offerings for the Sky deity.

I had never spent the Chinese New Year in Malaysia before and this was the first time I am staying in a Kampong community of Hokkien Chinese and celebrating the new year.



I only have one description for the whole nights stay.....LOUD!!!!

When it was close to 10:30pm, all hell broke lose. Fire crackers was going off left, right and center and up!!

 

Joss papers was burning everywhere and the air was filled with smoke and fire crackers.

It smelled like last years 400PSI haze!!!!

 

We were trying to sleep as we had to wake up early next day. It was mission impossible.

Family after family, let go of their fire works none stop until about 2am plus. My phone memory actually got depleted from taking videos of the fire works!

When the last fireworks went off, we were finally able to hit the sheets.

 

The morning aftermath along the streets were overwhelming, the scent of smoke was still in the morning air and the roads were littered with shreds from the fire works and crackers.

The roofs of cars were not spared either.

 

We washed up and prepared for the new day's journey.

Next Itinerary, Breakfast!! 

 

Fraser Hill, Genting Highlands & Cameron Highlands 7th - 9th Feb 2014 Part 1

I made yet another Malaysian road trip with two other friends over the weekend. It was a three day trip and our targets were the three main highlands of West Malaysia.
They were Fraser Hill, Genting Highlands & Cameron Highlands.

We crossed the border at around 9:30am and set our GPS towards Fraser hill, our first stop.
We reached the foot of Fraser Hill at around 4:30pm due to various stops for lunch and refueling the car.

The journey from the foot hill to the peak was wrought with traffic jams and treacherous narrow roads. I have never been to Fraser hill and this was my first time there.

First impressions upon entering the town was the peacefulness and extremely fresh air.

We passed a few folks with binoculars and SLRs with long lenses. As Fraser hill is a well known place to be for bird watchers it's not surprising to see people walking with their heads up, looking into the trees.

 

The town was littered with British Tudor styled houses and you might be mistaken that you have entered a British country side town.
The weather was fantastic too, I estimate it at around 22-23 degrees Celsius.

 

 

We sat down at a café and had some tea and snacks for about 40mins. After that we have to make our way down before it gets dark, as it's not safe to travel at night along the narrow roads down. We did not stay for the night as there was nothing to do there at night and we were not there to bird watch.

 

We descended the hill and headed towards Genting Highlands.

  

Fish Hunting Johor, Malaysia 27th July 2013

It's been some time since I went exploring the jungles of Malaysia, so me and a friend decided to drive in to collect some fishes and plants, of course, the real reason is to go pig out in Johor...heh heh...

I decided the route and we headed to the east side after a hearty breakfast at the usual nasi lemak joint.
The weather was not looking good and started raining, storm clouds were looming ahead at the causeway area. Then to our surprise, as we drove further upwards, it started to clear and we could see the sun!! Woohoo!!

We were travelling on the road where I know there was a roadside restaurant selling "Jungle Bak Kut Teh" basically it means "jungle Pork Bone Soup". We had been passed this place many times and we always say we want to stop by one of these days to try it out but we always never do. So finally, both of us decide to go try it.
As we just came from breakfast, we only ordered the Bak kut Teh and fried dough sticks. The style of the soup was herbal, none of that cheap pepper soup crap you get in Singapore. I have not had herbal Bak Kut Teh for quite some time now so was looking forward to tasting it.
It was Good! no wonder they have such a crowd in the middle of no where inside a palm oil plantation. There is a drawback however, it's pricy! we paid RM$27.00 for one claypot bowl of Bak Kut Teh, two Chinese tea ice, two bowls of rice and fried dough sticks.

After filling up our stomachs for the second time, we now head for the area where the fish is. The weather up to this point was fantastic, as it rain the night prior, the air had a clean, cool feel.

We followed the road around the forest reserve and stopped by any pool or drain we think holds fish. The water was very clear in the drains, that means its flowing out from the forest streams. Clear running water also indicates that only certain species of fish will be available. Definitely won't find any blackwater species here.
First dips with the net revealed that Rasbora Einthovenii  was abundant here. They seem to be available in all states of Malaysia. The size of the Einthovenii here were quite huge, their colouration was also more vibrant, maybe due to the minerals present here. I notice some type of Barbs in the water too and tried to scoop some up. I don't know if they are Puntius Everetti of Dunckeri? I kept some of them to give to my neighbourhood aquarium shop. There were many Betta Pugnax as well, they had great big yellow eyes and was quite large in size as well. I caught a weird looking loach as well.

The water in the streams was cool and clear and felt good, if it was deeper, I'd take a swim in it!

We went on to collect more fish and explore more on the terrain. We came across a wider stream but the water was murky due to rain the previous night, lots of foliage around and we looked around trying to find fish or plants. I was plucking some sort of grass like plant and was looking around and then I discovered some tiny Cryptocoryne growing on the stream bed. They were really small, looked like very young plants and I have no idea which species they are. So, I plucked some to bring home to grow.

It was in the late afternoon by now, so we decided to call it a day. We headed for the seafood dinner joint as usual. Halfway, we passed Ulu tiram town and a roadside bazaar for the Ramadan month, lots of food there!! Pig out time again!! Hahaha!!!!

 By the time we reach the seafood area, it was already packed with people and we had to wait beside tables that were finishing to fend off other hungry customers! We ordered fish, crab, vege...

After dinner, we went for massage as the causeway was jammed. The foot massage lady talked a lot and I was dozing off...zzzzz.
We went to fill up on gas, then car wash and headed home. Happy day.