朽木百哉のブォグ

Another weekend is over and once again I had the opportunity to bring dearie beyond Singapore borders for food and entertainment.  The local places are simply uninteresting.

I decided to give a roadside Chendol stall a try as it was pretty hot in the earlier part of the trip.  Not the best and pretty costly.

Lunch was done at Koo Chuan coffeeshop where we had Penang prawn noodles.  Food was served fast and we overheard the stall owner replenishing their soup during our dining.  The drive up was pretty smooth.  Despite a passing downpour, we were well-sheltered in the big Aeon mall, which was our next stop.

Moving on, it's almost dinner time when we left the mall and went back to KSL City for some in-between meal fillers and more shopping.   By dinner, we were all ready to head to the famous 旺仔淥淥 along with the famous abalone noodles.  As these fried stuffs were rather filling, we couldn't go for the 2nd round and it's time to get back.

A worthy day trip and break well-spent with dearie from all the book-mugging sessions that went day-to-day!

We woke up around 4 - slightly behind schedule and by the time we left Kevin's home, it was about 5am; my ride was parked a little further away and finding the way out was a little challenging as I had to wriggle and wind through the unfamiliar layout of the estate; anyhow, I was a little perspiry by the time I met up with everyone.

Aster is going back to her hometown too; as both herself and Iris are locals.

6am+ Woodlands checkpoint hit at and it took me a while to link up with the rest as I took a slight detour; the direct route was the NS Highway which dips left upon clearance of Malaysian Immigration - anyhow we managed to link up at the Macdonalds which was about 30 mins drive from where I last communicated with them in Johor Bahru.

The first stopover was about an hour or so of drive up and we took the opportunity to reload on rations, clear our "excess oil" and discuss on the next order of move.  Not a bit of the lack of rest is hitting me as I continue to keep myself well-hydrated.

By the time we hit Ipoh, it was already way past lunch time and we all continued to live on the packed food we got from the few stopovers; sun had picked up tremendously.

3pm+ At Penang Bridge, time had passed so much quickly and I could see a major traffic slowdown apart from the slowdown along the highway due to bottlenecked roads and rainy areas.  This place was a little more challenging to drive, but the motorist here are not as rash like those in Singapore.  It took us almost an hour to reach Aster's place before we made our way to Iris' place.

Once touchdown, her mum brought us out for food - the first stopover was at a coffeeshop which sold various types of noodles such as the fried kuay teow, pig innards beehoon, rojak and more types of noodles.  Still feeling fresh at this point of time.

8pm+ More food; I call this the 2nd stuffing session.

When we were done and ready to rest, it was already past midnight and that was when I finally lay rest for the day.  Iris was still astonished that I am strong and going up to this point in time - considering I had only 3 hours of sleep the night before.  Since I'm putting up at Iris' place, I shared the room (Iris') with Kevin and she slept with her mum.

It is the final day of work and I have to pack all things up nice and neat so that I will not fall into a rude shock when I return 8 days later.

All's well so I can get back home, wrap up with final packing and see dearie for one time before I hit the road.  This will be my very first and longest distance travelled by road on a self-pilot basis and that will mean a personal achievement when I complete the journey up.

As much as I look forward very much to this road trip, a certain anxiety can be felt within. It gets easier when the evening approached and soon, I was already at Kevin's place to bunk over for the night before getting up earlier for the long jouney ahead.

It's the final day of our fishing trip and we took the last boat at noon back to mainland.  Lunch was done at the nearby KFC and we decided to take a journey up to this wholesale shop, but halfway through the route, we made a u-turn back home as the location wasn't affirmative and we had to take into consideration the buffer of traffic jams on a Sunday back to Singapore.

True enough, there was considerable jam and we all reached Singapore at dinner time.  I took most of the catches as Kevin and Rickson didn't want anything, and Yide already has a month's supply of fish at home to eat.

I had been up the whole night and greeted Rickson while they all woke up to fish in the early hours, shortly after sunrise.  Managed to get my sunrise shot and one small fish catch before I rested for the morning.

Woke up for lunch just in time; and then continued the rest of the fishing activities.  I got 1 todak with "entanglement shot" and it was the biggest catch of the day I had.  Kevin got one later too.

Right into the night - Night Fishing.  Fried bee hoon were served as supper and I managed to catch another todak at night - the excitement woke up a fellow fisher who was napping on the hammock as I carried my catch to our spot.

Just another day more to go; and this fishing trip is certainly getting exciting!

Finally we got to set out for this trip as a complete group - with Rickson, Yide and Kevin - the Super Gangsters!

First pickup point, 5:30am at Yide's place, followed by Rickson, then finally Kevin before we move up to Malaysia.  Kevin slept only at 3am thus he was stuggling to wake up.

We quickly got our breakfast from the first stopover point in Johor Bahru, a Macdonalds.  I had to step up on the accelerator that my breakfast was soaked in coffee; so all I managed to eat was the hash brown while the rest had to be dunked into the nature as it was beyond "humane" consumption.

The road up was about 1:30; car was parked at the jetty's parking facilities and a boat ride there was about 30mins.  Lunch, dinner and supper were provided.

I stayed up to fish after a short nap, while the rest of the guys slept during the night.

Finally arrived after a 7-hour flight which I almost fell asleep soon after takeoff.

The weather here is much cooler - far more than what I had expected but still tolerable.
Nearest station to where I lived is Museum station which still bears the flavour of the earlier century's architecture but nothing falling apart. It's actually about 6mins' walk from the station which I had arrived only at 4pm local time after seeking help from a pretty receptionist at a Chinese restaurant in the CBD area. It took me awhile to find myself my hostel which happened that the road was unmarked on the map I got from the airport.

This CBD area is quiet like a ghost town as it was Sunday when I arrived.

For the rest of the places, shops had already closed when I discovered them, but without the crowd, it allowed me to appreciate the architecture and get some clean shots.

Down Pitt Road, rows of Korean and Indian restaurants lined the street and it was like a little Korea as many Koreans tend to hang around that area.

Even when shops are closed, one can still see buskers and beggars at street junctions trying to get the attention of kind souls.

Further down George Street (a pretty long road), I hit Chinatown and the places that business were still on were the eateries, which locals and many Asians could be found. This was one part of Sydney City where one can see much more life in, apart from the bars and pubs scattered all over but nothing too far a walk.

Today's furthest distance was Chinatown.

I have to switch my bag tomorrow so that I won't be bogged down with weight unbalancedly should I need to get some supplies for daily living.

Sent via Cyrus' BlackBerry

This trip has been good. Met the main body of Rimba who lives in a field house right off the city area of Terengganu.

The entire journey from Kuala Lumpur was a whopping 7 hours before we are all settled down. Dinner was sumptous at Reuben's landlord's place where they had invited the Rimba group to join in.

Learnt that Reuben has been here for a couple of years and live fully on sponsorship in their research. This is something unusual which not many Singaporean guys will venture into doing. Considering the type of lifestyle one would have to live with, not many will be keen to take the plunge.

We had a walk around town, that was filled with the festive mood after dinner with the younger group.  Street shows, decorations and fireworks could be seen around the heart of Chinatown which was within less than 10 minutes' walk from where we will be putting up.

Finally settled down in a room, courtesy of the landlord, for the night at 110hrs.

Sent via my BlackBerry

Set off at 9am after an Indian delicacy breakfast near Casa Kiara II.  Night rest had been good after putting up at Jackie's abode, where I could see the street lights of Genting from afar.

It was a drizzling while we set off.

Passing through several villages, we finally reached Kuala Terengganu.   This was the only developed town amongst the spread of villages that were scattered throughout the state, where we had also passed through before hitting this place.

Reuben brought us to the fieldhouse where he resides while working, the nearby resort / park, which was about 10mins' drive from his fieldhouse.  In his fieldhouse, all sorts of equipment could be seen; mountain trekking stuffs, camera traps, GPSes and things that are used for one to get by the primitive living of the place.

I had stayed awake throughout the trip except for a few occasions where I had snoozed off from the fatigue of the long road trip but we finally made it to settle down.