Cuti Cuti Malaysia 5: Dec 26 2006, Fourth Day, Tuesday, Alor Setar, Kulim

We woke up with no specific plan and thus took our own sweet time having breakfast at the hotel. While having a good time with my family I opened up the road map that I had with me and started to trace the possible route that I could take going south. Of course our objective for that day was Kulim but getting there could be interesting depending on how adventurous we want to be.

I decided to go to Kuala Kedah to check put the place and then go south using the Yan Kechil and Yan route with the intention on passing Lembah Bujang to really see if there were a lot of orang bujang there :). From there I was to take the Federal Route 1 South towards Sg Petani and enter the Plus highway at Sg Petani Utara interchange. Well that was the plan.

We checked out after breakfast and loaded the Ranger that by now the back of the Ranger already assumed an impression of a baggage area for Hajj pilgrim. ‘But that’s what the Ranger for’ said my dear wife when I started to tease her. Indeed, another reason why we loved the Ranger, which my son at one time named Badang, as or main transportation. Since Along was not traveling with us the task of loading the Ranger was honorably given to Baqir. Done with the loading I started to drive around Alor Setar to visit Yayasan Al Bukhary. Along the way there my children indicated a Canggih shop, if you still do not know it Canggih is the now famous brand name for school apparels, but I drove to fast to stop. Yayasan Bukhary was actually along the same road but about two kilometers ahead.

Yayasan Al Bukhary was really news to my children as they did not have a clue as to what it is and who Al Bukhary is. After I explained to them they understood but my explanation was not about the person but the aspiration and the kind of achievements of that person. It is a symbol of success and how you can spend your money to the benefit of others. The place was also beautiful to me. We did not stay long there though and left going around the same route again as my children insisted of going to the Canggih’s shop that we had missed. So another set of school cloths for them and a few more stacks for the already packed Ranger.

We drove out of Alor Star as we planned speeding towards Kuala Kedah. The sun was really shinning and heating, I guess to the envy of people in the south, the surrounding by now. We were a bit disappointed when we got to Kuala Kedah as it seemed during the day it was nothing. If not for the ferry landing it would have been another nondescript coastal town. I drove the short stretch to satisfy my curiosity and stop at the ferry terminal to pee. A thought of doing crazy thing like hoping into a ferry to Langkawi there and then did cross my mind for while. Only to be dissuaded by the fact that I would not have found a place for a night. I knew my wife was glad to see me walked back to the Ranger to assume our journey instead of going to the ticket counter :)

It was our first time on the Yan route even I did not know what to expect I knew that we would be travel passing long stretch paddy fields. It was a beautiful sight for me and I really missed it when I reminisced running within the glowing paddy fields that were ready for harvesting when I was 7 or 8 years old. I asked Baqir to take as many photos of the fields but he failed me. When you were driving along a small route or small state road you most of the time will pass through several small villages and at certain interval there will be small commercial area on each side of the road that became a meeting point for the village folks. Normally this place would consist of one sundry shop and stalls selling drinks and local kueh. If in Johor, Muar and Batu Pahat, such a place could be found at every interval of each ‘parit’ intersection. It was one ‘tali air’ after another that we passed in this case. It was a beautiful experience to me and now I regretted not stopping at any of them. We got to Yan, which is a small town, eventually and I got confused when I came to a junction with no conclusive sign board. In the end I took the one that indicated the direction to the Highway. By the time I got there an overflow of acid in my stomach that culminated into a gastronomical attack consumed me. I knew I had to stop somewhere fast for lunch. Of course I thought I was on the Lembah Bujang route and would not be expecting any town when I was surprised to read that I was approaching Guar Chempedak town. I knew then I had taken a turn too soon. Nevertheless as it turned out Guar Chempedak was a good place to stop for lunch. Strategically I happened to stop near a Taman Selera where one stall was selling all kinds of ‘lauk-lauk’. So eat all we can session started immediately. Of course at the end of it there was this one bowl of unfinished laksa with no ‘kuah’.

Famished and satisfied we left Guar Chempedak around 1400 to enter route 1 South towards Sg Petani. We did not get to Sg Petani town though as I entered the plus highway at Sg Petani Utara interchange.

It was around 1515 that we entered Kulim and straight to my sis’s place. It was not long when we decided to checked out Queensway Penang. Since a lot would want to follow we went in my sis’s Avanza. Another round of shopping occurred at Queensway and this really was in a big way as we bought two pillows, a bolster, towels and few other things. For sure the Ranger would be a packed truck after that.

On the way back I announced we were going to Sg Sedim the next day and a yell of whoppi filled the air.

Cuti Cuti Malaysia 5: Dec 25, 06, 3rd Day, Monday, Penang, Alor Setar

I woke up early, as usual, and spent sitting alone in the dark after I’ve said my Suboh. Looking out I regretted not having my jogging shoe with me. At least with it I could have walked the entire stretch of Gurney Drive

I actually left the day’s plan opened for Tariq and Intan if they would want to explore Penang still, there were still a lot to cover, but they decided to hit the road home with the idea of stopping at a waterfall somewhere. I had no issue with that as we could hit for Alor Setar immediately ourselves. But we had to have breakfast first and I took them to the Khaleel Nasi Kandar on the Gurney Drive's waterfront. We took our own sweet time eating and then took the ferry out to the mainland.

We were in Alor Setar in no time. Now it was three years in a row we were in Alor Setar at the end of the year already and I could not see myself doing the same next year. We had no plan of staying for the night there but as we walked around shopping for school clothes and the like, yes we did this three years in a row as well, I felt very tired. My children’s friends would not be surprise to hear this kind of conversation about their school attire anymore. ‘Hei! what did you do during the holidays?’ ‘Ah, we went up North again and I bought this shirt and shoe in Alor Setar; and this pant, as always, in Bagan Serai.’

I was really tired, I guessed the food that I took beginning to have an effect of my system, and I just concluded we need to stay a night. Seri Malaysia had connecting rooms and we settled for that. The Seri Malaysia was next to the Stadium. We checked in and I rested my tired body for a while before we went out again.

I have not discovered Alor Setar enough to make the night a bit more interesting for us. We ended up at the same shopping strip and eventually had our dinner at the Char Kue Teow stall opposite the Maybank. It was a simple dinner for everyone as we did not want o eat any elaborate. We were just enjoying the moment and the togetherness. After dinner we just drove around town to check out if there were anything worth stopping for. It was the tower again and I had the pleasure of witnessing ugly Malaysian there. My main purpose there was to take a shot or two of the tower at night using my new Nikon. Whereas my family to sample another rojak buah and to answer the call of the nature. On the way back from my photography session to my car I came across two couples, my guess around early 20’s, were animatedly talking at the edge of the park but what pissed me off was when I saw ‘kulit kauci’ scattered around them on the ground and bench. Come on!!!! They were surely big enough to have an inkling of civic conscience. I mean the place is a tourist attraction and it was a tourist season and ‘tong sampah’ were available there. Didn’t they have even an inch of brain!!!!! . I was really that pissed and writing about it now makes me even more pissed off. With that I just quickly gathered my family and left the place with me complaining aloud to my family.

Cuti Cuti Malaysia 3: To The North Again, Melaka-Kulim-Alor Setar-Penang-Ipoh-Tapah Road, Dec 22 – 30, 2005

Dec 25, 2005 (Sunday), Kulim - Alor Star

It was Christmas but as expected we were oblivious of the day due to the mess that we had to clean up. Well, we with me not really involved accept when my service was needed to send certain cooking utensils back to their owners. The errand brought me to the same place where I had sent several things last night. It was another wedding preparation. On the way home I thought I wanted to have breakfast first so I stop at the same place I stopped the night before and when I was about to cross the road I saw there was a Pasar Minggu just further on at Penanti and decided to checked it out as I love to do visit this kind of happening in small towns or localities. I love it because I could expect different things that we used to in normal big towns. I started from one end and toured the whole bits. Not much of interesting things but the normal stuff nevertheless I like the environment. I grabbed few murtabak as quick breakfast and headed for Kulim.

I decided after breakfast to move on to the next destination but did not leave until after lunch as I hate to leave while they were still busy sorting the mess. I thought of keeping our next destination to myself but my mum asked so I announced that we were going to Alor Setar. Well generally that was the plan but if you know me by know you know what I meant. Mentioning Alor Setar didn’t mean that we were going to end up there. So we drove up the highway and found that it was a decent ride with less traffic and no rain. Trying to test the engine after recent major ‘cleaning’ I floored the pedal hard and reached Alor Setar around 1630. We cruised towards downtown and stopped at in front of the Holiday Villa to enquire and found out it was not worth spending that much for a night at a place that we have stayed before. So we drove around to look for a better deal as I remembered about Crystal Lodge or something. After a few turns we decided to stay very close to the Pasar Rabu area and the most logical place would be Grand Continental. I negotiated a good rate and checked in straight away. Once we have all our luggage we walked out towards Pasar Rabu to do our shopping. Apart from buying the souvenirs and stuff like that as usual this end of the year holiday was also the time for my children to buy their school items and they ended up picking what they need along the journey. That evening at Alor Setar they picked up their shoes and school bags. We finished our tour of that area around dusk and walked back towards the hotel. We stop at one of the stalls to have an early ‘dinner’ and while eating decided to drive around and go to another Mall. We definitely were significant contributors to the crowd in Alor Setar that night. Pacific Mall was full of people shopping for school, work or just shopping for no reason.

We ended having a late supper at the stall around the Alor Star Telecommunication Tower and made plan to come back again the next day to have lunch at the top.