Cuti Cuti Malaysia 5: Dec 27 2006, Fifth Day, Wednesday, Kulim, Sg Sedim

We have been there once years ago and I was very sure the place has changed. With Ain as our guide we left around 1000 and it took us about 45 minutes of driving to get there. Indeed the place had changed and I did not remember at all the place that we had been the last time. My objective of going there, apart from the cool waterfall, was to walk the tree top canopy walk that they had just installed quite recently. That exactly was the first thing we did when we got there.

The Tree Top Walk was not like the one you have in either FRIM Forest Park or Gunong Tahan Park, it was a pleasant a yard wide tree top walkway made of steel mesh. Due to the mesh you could see through to the bottom that proved to be a great challenge to my wife. She managed more or less just 50 metres of the walkway. Kak Cik also chickened out at the start. Ain, Nabila, Muiz (my nieces and nephew), Mar and Kakak, marched confidently and to enjoy the walk. The highest point of the walk was 26050 mm above the tree level. We walked slowly with Mar, as always, asking a lot of questions. The kids really enjoyed it as that was our first experience. I could at least could imagine how birds would be flying as high as that. How monkeys would be swinging across trees as you were walking. You are really walking on top of and among the trees. It was just wonderful feeling inhaling the air that is full of oxygen with the sun creeping through the leaves. Soon everyone forgot about the fact that we were a few hundreds feet above the ground. At certain part of the walk all of us were quiet either enjoying the scenery or speechless because of the height. Whatever it is we all seemed to understand the meaning of being there and no words were necessary to describe it. Well, once in a while Mar would look down pointing and ask, ‘Apa tu Abah?’ and at one instance was a big monitor lizard crawling lazily on the ground. It must be really big as it seemed already big from our position. The fall from the top of the tree was breathtaking as you seeing within the thick jungle water flowing as it creeping down engaging the nature along. Moving over multiple dimension of rock formation with ease. I understood more then why water is a powerful force. Sam missed it and could only enjoy the photos that I have taken.

Eventually we had enough of the Tree Top Walk and proceeded to the other main agenda, which was ‘berendam’ session at the Sg Sedim. Like duck to water everyone peeled off their cloth into our respective swimming attire and jump into the cold water. Whenever we were hungry we got out of the water and stuff ourselves to bring a bit of heat into our body and hence ready for the water again. In fact we repeated the process until we were really pleased. (read very cold and ‘kecut’- LOL) with our achievement.

During our ‘berendam’ session we were interrupted by a nice surprise by a group of, I presumed, college students were white water rafting down Sg Sedim.

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 5: Dec 24, 06, 2nd Day, Sunday, Penang

I tried but we could not leave the hotel early enough. After having breakfast along the way we reached the foot of the Bukit Bendera around 1000 and only managed to get the 1200 tickets going up. This meant a two-hour wait and dented my whole plan of Penang adventure. Not my lost though as my family and I have probably nothing else to miss in Penang. Certainly a lost to others.

We did not just sit idly waiting at the foot. We made ourselves useful by exploring the stalls for t-shirts. In general the t-shirts at the foot are slightly expensive compared to those you can get at the top of the Bukit Bendera. Ironic isn’t it? Normally it is the other way round. While browsing for t-shirts at one of the stalls I saw one hat that I like and asked the gentleman stall owner the price and I was told RM 18, it was tagged at RM 38. I could not believe it and decided for something that slashed by half could actually only cost around RM8-10. I bargained hard to get a better price and the owner would not willing to go down further and I left it like that. Towards the end of our waiting period I happened to be walking passed his stall and asked her daughter, I presumed, and was told the price was RM38. I smiled and left the place. I guess the price would go down and up according to who is asking and at what time of the day one ask.
We were up at the top of Bukit Bendera around 1230 and since it was pleasantly cool we walked under the sun enjoying the sceneries and place. The last time we were up there, there wasn’t much to explore and enjoy and now they have built an eating place, stalls that sell, most of them, t-shirts, street vendors, mosque, temple as well as places to stay. Since it was school holidays they have organized activities and while we were they the second snake king of Malaysia was performing. I was up there just to enjoy myself and take photographs. In fact when my family was busied at the t-shirt stalls I took Mar to one of the eateries to busy myself with laksa and ABC. The taste was not what I expected. It was good which normally not the case for places like that.

Since we did not have enough daylight time to explore Penang Island anymore I let everyone stayed longer and decided to take the 1415 car down.

Once back at the foot of the Bukit Bendera the first agenda was to find a place to eat and I have Nasi Kandar in mind. With that there were only two possibilities for me. In the end after much deliberation and to cut the story short at around 1500 I was devouring nasi kandar at The Lineclear. I didn’t hear any comments from the others but I take it they were fine with the delicacies. But, what do I know I was busy digging in.

As I intended I took them walking along Penang Road towards Chowrasta Market where we stopped to window shop and buy some asam-asam. As we started walking we stopped at one normal looking shop that sell various shirts, t-shirts and other stuff. I saw the hat that I asked before at Bukit Bendera and straight away I asked the price. RM18 I was told and I started to bargain as I knew it was the right starting price. Actually Baqir did the rest for me he simply said we will take if she could give us RM15 for it. Somewhat reluctantly the sales girl relented and I have another hat for my collections. I am sure she still made a profit. The heat was a little bit unbearable, even for locals, which prompted us to abandon our desire to walk straight to Komtar. We backtracked to our cars and drove out towards no where. Seriously, I did not know where I was heading until we had to circumnavigate Komtar again when I saw the Madrasah that I meant to stop to say our prayers. Expecting miracle there was not even one parking space for us and just before we were about to go around Komtar again I saw the parking sign at Parangin Mall and jammed the accelerator up the circular pathway to the 7th floor.

For malls as big as Komtar and Parangin the management could only afford a measly square peg on the ground floor parking area for a surau. It was really pathetic. Not only it was small the condition was so uncomfortable for worshipers. I just could not understand why!!!!!!!

As usual we ended up buying few things there and we left the Mall just after Maghrib. Since we can Jama our prayers I decided to take everyone to sample the Telok Tempoyak’s ikan bakar. Confidently I took the Bayan Lepas highway and proceeded towards the Airport as I knew I need to pass the area to get there. To cut the story short I made a wrong turn and we ended up going around up to Batu Maung luckily most of the holiday makers in the Ranger were fast asleep. Longer route would suit them fine :). Anyway, still trying to smart it out I just followed my instinct and to my surprise we ended up going back towards downtown via the coastal road where the hitech industry area was. As I was driving I recognized the area as the place where we used to stop to have dinner recently. I decided to just stop there for dinner. At least they could have a view of Jerejak Island at night :).

We drove back to the hotel realizing that it was Christmas eve. As expected the town centre was jam packed with people partying and waiting. Luckily we were from KL and traffic jam’s veteran. No sweat for us. However, the number of people out on the street with a good reason to party the night away was amazing. Be it Hari Raya, Christmas, Chinese New Year, Deepavali, Merdeka Day they are all the same to these people.

We were back safely in our rooms around 2330.

Cuti Cuti Malaysia 5: Dec 23, 06, First Day, Saturday, Kuala Kangsar, Penang

We departed at 0642 from BSP and hit the Elite Expressway immediately. I expected to get to Tapah R&R around 0900 but due to the early start we got there at 0820. Our intention was to have breakfast as well as rendezvous point for us there. The place was packed with holiday makers when we got there. We decided to just buy something and had a breakfast picnic at the gazebo near the parking lot. While at the Tapah R&R also marked the beginning of the official used of my new Nikon D80.

The air-condition to the Ranger was still problematic that I had to try something that seemed to be working. I pressed on hard as usual but then as I was climbing the hill after Jelapang Tol I realized that Intan, Tariq and others in the other car would not be able to explore more without me if I press on towards Penang. Since we were a bit early I decided to detour to Kuala Kangsar.
As I was driving into Kuala Kangsar I saw the sign that says Asean House Crafts intuitively I followed the sign and had us at 1030. As the name implies the place was a place that has Asean handicrafts collection. So our shopping spree began as I ended up buying a table lamp and few other things. Baqir slept through all this experience on the comfortable couch inside the display area. Our second stop was our favorite labu sayong and vase factory just after the new bridge towards Sayong. We spent quite a bit of time there exploring and learning on the arts of clay. Few more RM changed hands for few pots and vases.

Inevitably someone asked for Laksa and for a change we decided to try one of the stalls with ikan bakar in front of the Perak river. We made the right choice as one look in front of me were delicacies that easily came out from my list of top ten local recipes. Wit hardly rice I piled up my plate with ulam-ulam, ikan and others to form an acceptable small hill. It was lunch time indeed and I buried myself without any care to my dietary constraint. If my doctor were to chance on me then he would probably yell our, ‘you fool!!!!!!’ and I would just give my best smile J. Well, it was not that bad really I took ikan bakar and a lot of ulam and vege. Kuala Kangsar never cease to amaze me really.

Our third stop in Kuala Kangsar was just a normal small town shop in the middle of a busy street on the way out towards Fajar. The main attraction was the cheap Thai made Toto (bed comforter). Trust me it is cheaper in Kuala Kangsar even if you were to drive up to Bukit Kayu Hitam. Of course I did not just satisfy myself with just one Toto. I threw in one carpet as well and the back of the Ranger began to make me look like I was one of the Thai’s traders themselves. Thinking that we were done with Kuala Kangsar we drove out toward the highway and sped towards Penang.

I was planning to avoid the traffic congestion on the Penang bridge as well as the traffics into Georgetown when I exited at Juru but I blundered a turn and ended up on the same highway that led us to the bridge. Angry at myself aloud I startled everyone in the Ranger. It was almost 1500 already and we slowly cruised into town. We were at the lobby of the Northam Tower just around 1515. After we have checked in Intan asked, ‘ What’s the plan for today?’ I said, ‘we are hitting the pool and then go out at 1800 to do Penang.’

The Northam Tower suite is a modern hotel suite that adopted an open concept. The bathroom and shower were just encase with clear glass, in our case there was nto even glass separating the bed and the Jacuzzi inside the bathroom. To those who are not familiar with this setup, especially if you have to share the room, could be a daunting experience. But what could we do as pricey and open as it is it was the only option that we had. Hey, the view was nice!
To do Penang to me for that evening was Padang Kota to walk around and have Pasemboq and later to Batu Ferringhi to check out the night life and the tourist night markets. It was a Saturday with Dec 25 two days away night crowds that we had to brave through while browsing at Batu Ferringhi. We enjoyed ourselves walking and window shopping until some of our walking equipments could not carry us further. My damages were limited to few DVDs. Hey! eleven is a few to me, ok. We in the end drove out slowly, I could not drive any faster anyway due to the heavy traffics, to make two stops along the way. The first was to meet My Good Friend the ATM machine and second Subaidah 24 Hours Nasi Kandar joint. I thought just for a cup of coffee, but full dinner course for Baqir and others. We made it to the hotel around 2300 and specifically mentioned to everyone to have a nice early sleep for tomorrow. I intended to leave early tomorrow for one day adventure in Penang.