WATASHI NO INAKA

Serene Taiping Lake Garden

Picture from previous fei chai trip - taken by Sekinchan Boy

Inaka means hometown in Japanese. Having signed up for Japanese class (for beginners) two weeks ago, I guess it is good to put them into practice?

I was in Taiping last weekend for my late grandma’s third death anniversary. Even though she had passed on for only two years, the Chinese considered it as three. We were to “invite” her soul back to our home in Port Weld, so that we don’t have to go to the Siamese temple in Aulong for every festivity to make an offering to her. Wah.. talking about the dead giving convenience to the living. Heh!

Of course, there would be a big makan on the day itself. Unfortunately, I could not take pictures as my camera decided to call it quit after Ann’s marriage registration. Thank God this happened AFTER Ann’s marriage registration where I was assigned the photographer or else, I would be as good as dead.

I took my dear Canon Ixus II to the camera shop and they said, my old faithful camera (less than 2 years with almost 10k shots to date) had served me well. I overused it till the LCD is overheated.. and now burnt. Got such thing one meh? So, I would be loafing without my camera for two weeks – max.. I am keeping my fingers crossed. Please forgive me if the pics are a bit “lau yeah” as I had to be very gentle with Mr Ixus here.

Taiping is famous for its hiau peah or heong peng made of sugar, Jerry sugar (whatever that is), wheat flour, salt and oils. This time round, my colleagues made me ta pao for them. So all in all, I spent about RM100 on heong peng alone! There are a few brands which are quite nice but I believe the most authentic ones would be the Seahorse Brand – Eng Huat Food and also the Taiping Lake Garden Brand - Sin Heng Guan. I think I had the Seahorse Brand my entire life till someone told me Sin Guan Eng’s is better… I still don’t really know how to differentiate both – but my boss prefers Eng Huat’s. To me, anything from Taiping is good.

Other than the famed heong peng, there is also lou poh peng and kaya kok which can be bought at this nice little white wooden house in Aulong. At first we could not locate the little nice white wooden house as it had turned into a cemented bungalow over the years! Must be very good business. The kaya kok is priced at 70 sen, 20 sen more than last year! (Probably to pay for the renovation cost!)

Taiping is famous for its beautiful lake and its inhabitants. I was lucky enough to have caught this pic of three monkeys with its offsprings. They are so adorable. I wish I had higher optical zoom for this picture.They were caught helping themselves with left over Deeparaya murukkus given by public.

It is relaxing and totally stress-free while going out in Taiping. No jam, the food is cheap, groceries come cheap also, everyone is friendly, etc. All roads are quite simple to follow, almost every turn is connected. There is actually nothing to complain about being in Taiping, apart from having no cinema (that is what pirated CDs are for! Ha ha!) Ah.. I guess I know where I am going to spend the rest of my retirement days.