GLUTTONY ESCAPADE

Hi people! I am back!

There are only two words to describe my recent trip to Kulai-Johor Bahru-Singapore-Tanjung Sepat: PURE BLISS (Obvious meaning: Sheer Gluttony!)

This time round, I went with my very close friends I met while in TAR College. Ms Gan, Ms Pok and Ms Tan. We used to make fun of Ms Gan and Ms Tan as their Chinese (Mandarin) names sound like, Gonna Win (Wei Ying) and Gonna Lose (Huey Ju). A fellow housemate always call them – the Win and Lose duo.

It has been 10 years since I first knew them. In order to celebrate our 10th anniversary, we decided to head down to the South to see our dear Kim, who is expecting her first child anytime now.

In fact, we were in an emotional roller coaster of worry and ecstatic that we might even go there to help her to welcome her son to the world.

Day 1 (Christmas’ eve)

As usual, Ms Gan, the procrastinator, decided to service her car only on the day that we were supposed to depart from KL to Kulai, Johor where Kim stays. And as usual, she got the incessant nag from me. Being the youngest in the group, it is actually quite daunting to be the one who decide everything for the group. Maybe, they always let me have my whims and fancy since I am the youngest.

We headed down to Sg Pelek, Sepang to pick up Ms Pok and were treated to a scrumptious dinner at a local restaurant: the famous loh mee, fried salad, fried tong fan, steamed fish in teow chew style, hot plate ocien and lala soup. Sg. Pelek, being a stone throw away from Tanjung Sepat, a sleepy fishing village, also benefited from the fresh catch of the sea. The loh mee is simply heavenly, so does the special ocien on hot sizzling plate. Ms Pok told us that, the real deal ocien comes in miniscule size and unlike the huge ones that we had in KL.

We reached Kulai rather late and were nevertheless welcomed warmly by Kim.

Day 2 (Christmas)

We planned to go to Singapore by catching the earliest train from Kulai. However, due to the train accident happened someplace in Terengganu yesterday, the first train was somehow stranded. So, we took the one at 10.37 am instead.

Traveling by train to Singapore was quite a breeze, looking at the jammed causeway due to the Christmas holidays. It was just that, I was quite surprised that the Malaysian immigration just jumped onto the train just before Woodlands (Singapore Immigration) to manually check our passports. I wondered how on earth that Malaysia might even know that we went out of the country by just flipping our passports without scanning, stamping or whatsoever.

The thing was not the same with Singapore immigration in Woodlands. We were required to get down from the train and let our baggage to be scanned and our passports checked and stamped. They even have dogs to check the coaches. The immigration officers in Singapore are courteous and professional. I spotted a few cute immigration officers on duty as well. They are in their fit form and young, unlike the ones from Malaysia who huffed and puffed just by climbing into the coach to check our passports.

The other thing is, KTM didn’t even bother to clean up the railway – that we could see heaps and heaps of rubbish all the way to Singapore!! The rubbish is so unsightly and they wonder how mosquitoes and other epidemic could possibly spread.

Other than meeting other old friends from college, the trip to Singapore was to shop and check out the roads along Orchard Road. And SHOPPED we did! We went to Queensway for cheap branded sport shoes(where I got my Nike at less than RM200!) and Chinatown. I ended up buying a book: the Rape of Nanking, miniature terracotta army statues at a steal, some hair clips for friends and my sister, some shawl, memory card and battery for my new Ixus50.

Orchard Road was a magnificent sight to behold. There were swarms of people and you were mesmerized by the crowd and blended with the merry making among Singaporeans and non Singaporeans alike.

We had our meals in Chinatown of the famous frog leg porridge. The good thing is, the frog legs porridge here comes with other porridges (chicken, pork, fish, pey tan, etc) as well so that those people who don’t really fancy weird Chinese food, could also dine together.

The first picture is the red wine chicken soup – a famous Foo Chow’s dish. Ms Pok told us that, making the red wine requires not only professionalism, but also, there were some superstition to be adhered to. The maker of the red wine cannot be pregnant (if she is a woman) and if there is a funeral in the house, they are not allowed to make the red wine for a certain period of time. If red wine is made during the two taboos (a pregnant lady and a funeral), the red wine would turn bad.

We really thanked Han Seong and his lovely wife for their hospitality while we were in Singapore. And not to forget Yew Sing too. :-)

Day 3 (Boxing Day)

We went back to Kulai to spend the rest of the day with Kim. As we have nothing in plan and also, there is not much to see in Kulai (about 30 km from Johor Bahru where Danga Bay is), we just tagged along Kim to her routine medical check up.

Before that, we went to have lunch at the famous San Low Mee Hoon (direct translation: 3rd storey mee hoon). When I was first told about it, I thought we had to climb up 3 storey to the restaurant to eat the mee hoon and expressed my worry that Kim couldn’t possibly climb 3 flights of stairs just to have mee hoon!

Kim laughed at me and said, it’s the name of the shop and it doesn’t mean that we have to climb stairs to have it.

After the splendid lunch of mee hoon, kam heong fish fillet and fried tofu, we went with Kim for her routine medical check up. It is quite cute to see radiant pregnant ladies in the clinic with hordes of kids and also bored looking husbands in Pelangi.

I am glad that Kim is alright and she didn’t suffer much while being heavily pregnant. You can see pure bliss in her sparkling eyes. It would make anyone want to have a baby that instant. And I wanna have triplets!!

After the check up, Kim said she was not very satisfied with the food in San Low and we went for another meal for tea time in Skudai. It was pork intestines with kueh teow or duck rice. I am not a fan of innards, so I leave most of it to the rest to devour. The intestines looked rather tempting though. I had a few bites just to satisfy my glutton lust.

Tired, after so much food and also too much walking in Singapore the day before, we head home and I slept like a pig on the floor in the living room and only to be awaken during dinner time.

The food during dinner time was even more obscene. We sort of relive our old days while back in TAR College, where each of us would buy some food from the pasar malam and shared among our housemates. This time, we had yau char kuay, fried raddish, boot jai kou, nasi lemak, sweet corn, keropok, soya bean drink, taufoo fa and other fried stuffs which I couldn’t identify. The ladies said, they were full already just by looking at it.

We ended the relaxing day with chatting and watching some tv.

Day 4 (Self Declared Holiday)

We bid Kim farewell and went on our way to KL. Before that, we decided to make a pit stop at Tanjung Sepat for a second round of solid seafood.

I had been to Tanjung Sepat middle of this year. Nevertheless this second trip was also peppered with little nice surprises. I was glad that we timed the second visit without knowing that we would get to see the fishermen coming back from the sea to sell their catch of the day. As usual, we went to Shing Moh kopitiam for a cup of aromatic coffee and crispy toast bread. Then, we headed down to Lover’s Bridge to have late lunch and dinner.

Before hitting home, we decided to drop by Kg. Chuchoh - Kg. Orang Asli somewhere in between Tanjung Sepat and Sepang to buy some snacks made of potatoes, bananas and other produce at low prices.

Sometimes, I love traveling without a specific plan. It was simply relaxing. The best part is, catching up old times with old friends at our own pace.

We didn’t want to go back to work tomorrow, if we may.. sigh. Good things had come to an end for this trip – but it marks a beginning of a renewed friendship bond and our warm affection towards each other strengthened.

We hope to do this again – soon.