Day 2 in Langkawi on 6 Feb 2010 (Fishing for Threadfin, GLK Seafood Restaurant)

The main purpose of this Langkawi trip was to go fishing with a fishing kaki, Z, who is a Malay Malaysian running a tour agency on the island. Z offered me a great rate of RM1000 for two eight hour boat trips which is about SGD 50 more than what I pay for an offshore trip here on a cost-sharing basis with other anglers. Sometimes, I amaze myself with how far I am prepared to go for fishing - like waking up on a holiday at 6am. Z was punctual picking me up from the hotel at 8am and off we went to where his 4 boats were docked at Tanjong Rhu.

I didn't want to risk losing my own fishing gear and the hassle of watching over the same so I asked Z to provide all the gear, lures and bait. Thankfully all his reels were spinning reels - I really need far more practice using the baitcasting reels :(. We started off fishing near the nearby islands using lures. The picture below is of the shallower waters near one of the islands (Langkawi is made up of 99 islands). The beauty of the different colors of water, green in this case, never fail to astound me.

Here is another picture which I took to share the beauty of the sea. If you look carefully at the picture (which of course has not been edited in anyway), you can see the two distinct different colors - the deep darker blue and the lighter blue-green hue of the sea closer to shore. On the Pekan fishing trip, I saw three different colors meld into each other- brown, light blue and dark blue and that was what made me determined to get a waterproof camera.

And below, is another picture which I took when we were further out on the open sea. As I said, one of the reasons why I love offshore fishing trips is because of sights like this that one could never otherwise see except in pictures.

Our target for today was threadfin so we did light jigging. I had a couple of pulls on my jig but nothing. Z also had 4 strikes but nothing. It was only about 3.45pm (before that, all that we caught was one medium coral trout on handline using squid as bait) that the deckie who was also jigging caught the first threadfin! That's the picture of him and his first threadfin. In the next half an hour, he caught two more threadfins about the same size. Z and I continued pumping and jigging madly away but alas, we did not catch any threadfins at all :( Most disappointed.

About 6pm when it was clear that we weren't going to get any threadfins (the deckie didn't catch any more threadfins after the third), we turned back to the mangrove area. The sea was getting really choppy besides. We switched from casting to jigging. Z managed to get a small barracuda on lure about 7+pm.

Here's a close-up picture of the barra caught on a rapala lure - frankly, I'm scared of barras - I've heard that the large ones can take a man's arm off and from the picture below, I don't think that story is a myth - unlike other fishes (say, peacock bass), the sharp teeth of the barra are located at the front of its mouth (as opposed to the back of the mouth behind the lips).

One of Z's "bros" (they call each other bro and sis here) suggested that we take one of the threadfins caught by the deckie to Wonderland Restaurant. However, when we got there about 9pm, the place was packed. As in, all the tables were taken. Appears to be wildly popular even amongst the caucasians. As I was tired and stinky (try standing under the broiling hot sun luring (cast the lure as far as possible (or rather, to the desired position) and then retrieve and then repeat like a million times), I didn't want to wait for a table so we decided to try the restaurant just next door.

The boss is a large "fattish" chappy who speaks English, Malay and Chinese. He is also very sociable, circulating from table to table and interacting with his customers. He was agreeable to cleaning and cooking the large threadfin for us too (weight was 2.4kg) so we decided to have dinner. The threadfin was so large (there were 3 of us) that he suggested cooking it in two different styles. This is the first half of the fish steamed the way I like it best - in sourish soup. The Slog Reviews: 10/10. Come on, freshly caught fish from the sea! How can that rate lesser than a ten? And the restaurant's efforts - ahhhh, what can I say about the bitingly sourish hot soup that lends its own flavour to the fish (which was cooked so well it didn't have any fishy taste) ?A Must try if you go to the restaurant...although, you'd better bring ur own freshly caught fish as the restaurant does not have any live fishes in tanks waiting to be cooked.

As for the other half of the fish, this was also steamed but in black sauce. Equally delicious. The picture below shows the thickness of the flesh of the threadfin. The Slog Reviews: 8/10. Heh, it goes without saying the fish was fresh (we caught it!), the sauce was fine, nothing wrong. But I guess my tastebuds were spoilt by the way the other half of the fish was cooked so I didn't really like this dish as much (this dish can be a bit too salty too).

The cost of cleaning, cutting and cooking the fish was RM 20. We also ordered crabs. The restaurant has live mantis prawns, live crabs and some other smaller live prawns. The cost of the three crabs below was about RM 70. The owner was so sure 3 of us wouldn't be able to finish so much food but hey, we did! Every single morsel too.

The Slog Reviews: 8/10. The crab was fresh of course, freshly slaughtered but it was cooked so well that its flesh (see pic below) was firm quivering white and sweet despite the dish being a "crab fried in egg yolk dish" I would usually recommend against having fresh seafood fried but I'll tell you that this restaurant did such a fabulous job of cooking the crab in egg yolk that the meat in the crab tasted so good as if it had been steamed. And the egg yolk batter fried with the egg added a tasty melt in your mouth crust on top of the tender white meat. Definitely a must-eat!
The total cost of the meal below (together with about 6 cups of lime juice/lychee juice) was just RM119 (SGD 40-50). A satisfying end indeed to a "fishless" day.

KEK Keng Eng Kee Seafood

We had our department's yearly Chinese New Year lunch at Keng Eng Kee Seafood. The address of the place is Blk 124 Jalan Bukit Merah Lane 1, #01-136 S(150124).If you want to make reservations, the telephone number is 6272 1038 / 97487054. The restaurant is open from 11.30am to 2pm for lunch and 5pm to 10.45pm for dinner. There are parking lots around and in front of the restaurant but it is a night mare trying to get parking at all during lunch!

We started off the lunch with Yu Sheng for Lo Hei purposes. The server (PRC lady) prepared the dish before us by adding in the various ingredients for us and uttering the appropriate Chinese phrases. And then the 6 of us "Lo Hei-ed" with great gusto, wishing for everything to get bigger/higher/better, from the stock market to advancements in career. That's the point of the dish - using a pair of chopsticks to toss the ingredients and lift each "chopstickful"of ingredients as high as possible. For the wishes to come true, one should always eat some of the yu sheng after it has been tossed. The Slog Reviews: 8/10. I'm not a Yu Sheng fan but this dish didn't taste too bad with the fresh sliced fish platter mixed in.

We had to ask the server to clean the table for us before she started serving the rest of the dishes (she was quite ready to put the plates down on the table shrewn with ingredients!). One of my colleagues did the ordering so I can't give any information at all on the prices and items on the menu. The first dish that came was sambal kangkong which was passable, being fresh and not cooked too soggy. The next dish was the beancurd. The Slog Reviews: 8.5/10. I really liked this dish which was full of butter mushrooms, sliced Chiense mushrooms, deep fried beancurd, pork slices and vegetable in a light gravy. The dish came topped with a layer of egg white which made the dish just the right amount of gooey to have with rice.

We also had pork ribs/pork chop. The Slog Reviews: 6.5/10. I wouldn't recommend this dish at all. The meat while soft enough didn't taste very nice and it seemed like the awfully thick and too-sweet sauce was used in excess to mask the tastelessness of the meat. The meat certaintly didn't taste as if it had been marinated long enough in the sauce for the sauce to permeate the meat, resulting in one having the separate taste of the meat and sauce in one's mouth at the same time. Not good.

On the other hand, the cereal prawns were excellent. The Slog Reviews: 9/10. The prawns were extremely fresh and cooked so well that the meat was firm yet sweet and wasn't stuck to the shell. The cereal was very tasty of course, even on its own eaten with rice. I can't give this dish a 10/10 because cooked this style, the prawns are meant to be eaten with the shells on but it was not possible for our meal given how hard the shells of the prawns were.

We ended the meal with black pepper crabs. The Slog Reviews: 9/10. The black pepper sauce was just the right fiery spicy and I thought the crabs were rather fresh. The meat didn't stick to the shells. The only thing I disliked about this dish was that all the eggs had fallen out of the top shell and was mixed in with the black pepper sauce making it almost impossible to fin

The total cost of the meal was about SGD 150 for 6 of us inclusive of drinks (my boss gave us a treat). While this place is a far cry from Long Beach, No SignBoard etc, it still does pretty decent seafood for really reasonable prices. And, the service isn't too bad - you just have to speak up loudly to be heard and the dishes do not take a long time to come either.

Freshwater Pond Fishing in Shenzhen on 25 Oct 09

One Sunday in October 09, while in Shenzhen for work on a trip that spanned the weekend, I went fishing with 1 of my colleagues and our local partners there. This is the second time that we have fished together at the same spot which is next to a popular frog-themed resort park (they have statues of frogs everywhere) about an hour's drive from our regular hotelon Hua Qiang Bei Lu. I am afraid I can't give directions there (one should use the highway that much I know) but here's a picture which I hope will prove useful if you wish to go to the Waterlands Resort (Hai Shang Tian Yuan) in Shenzhen. I haven't been in the resort and haven't a clue what goes on in there (I spend all the time at the fishing pond) but it's quite popular amongst tourists and locals.

This is how the fishing freshwater pond looks like (as of October 09 at least). As you can see, it is relatively primitive and undeveloped and one can fish from any spot along the banks or from the wooden structure house overlooking the pond. Although it is far more challenging to land a fish from the wooden house which stands on stilts, you are likely to catch more fish fishing from that house than from the edge of the pond based on my observations. The wooden house used to house the fishing operator (they were there in April 09 when I went there for the first time) but they have since moved out and the house is deserted. One is therefore advised to bring one's own rods, reels, hooks and bait. The fish here are fed on bread mix and take small hooks.

In April 09, we didn't require any license whatsoever to fish but in Oct 09, we were required to get fishing permits before we could fish. The picture below is of 1 of my local partner's daughter with the permit around her neck. The fishing permits are easily obtained (well, at least our local partners got them for us without any problems) from a white house with a blue roof located near the ponds (not the wooden house as per the picture below) and I think there is a very nominal cost for each permit. The fish that she is holding appears to be a baby tilapia and one should be warned that there are many of these critters in the pond which eat one's bait meant for bigger fishes. Therefore, one should check one's bait frequently and rebaiting more than 4 times every half hour is to be expected.

This is a picture of me and the first fish I caught, a small red-bellied pacu. I understand from my local partners that these fishes were recently introduced to the pond (they certainly weren't there in April 09) and one should be careful of their very sharp teeth. In fact, I lost almost 5 small hooks to pacus. One is therefore advised to use wired leader. I had been fishing from 10am to 12.30pm without a bite from the wooden house (the picture below shows the platform of the wooden house overlooking the pond) when my colleague at the other end of the platform yelled he had a bite. I ran over to him with my line trailing in the water when I felt a jerk and pull. I struck and after some furious splashing (pacus are great fighters especially on light line), I landed my first red-bellied pacu. Oh, I should mention that we were all pole-fishing in Shenzhen ie fishing without a reel - the line is tied to the end of an extendable pole, pretty much like prawn fishing. There were only a couple of other people at the pond using spinning reels but most other folks in China do pole fishing. Luring apparently remains unpopular in Shenzhen. Pole fishing can be far more challenging than fishing with a reel (the marvels of technology) and yes, it takes a certain technique to strike and land a fish with just a pole and a line that one cannot retrieve (as with a reel) to bring a fish in. A picture of my rented pole behind me.

This fishing trip I caught about 4 red-bellied carps and 3 grass carps. 1 of the grass carps was the largest fish caught amongst all the fishes we caught. The picture below is of that large carp next to a men's size 11 sandal to give you an idea of its size. The memory of catching this carp is one of the best memories I have. :) Just a word of caution though, the last fishing trip I saw a man's pole break into half due to the sheer weight of the carp on the other end - these carps can grow to quite a nice size. That is one of the pitfalls of using a rented pole to fish (as opposed to fishing with expensive rods and reels).

Our party fished from 10am to about 6pm when the sun went down. I caught 7 fishes in all out of the 21. The fishes were kept alive in a net which we left in the pond under careful supervision. Better to be safe than sorry. The picture below is of our fishing party and our haul (you can see my large reddish grass carp at the top hehe).

Our local partners took us to a seafood restaurant about 5 mins away from the fishing ponds which is built on stilts over water. The restaurant owner was more than happy to cook the fishes we caught (probably because our local partners ordered moutai which is about 50% alcohol and the most expensive type of alcohol in China). We decided to have the largest carp that I caught (it's at the top of the pic) and two pacus (bottom left of the pic). The pacus make terrible table food with all its bones and little meat. The carp while fleshy had a muddy taste. Of course, as it was hairy crab season, we had hairy crabs too and I had two of 'em because my colleague let me have his. Hairy crabs are amongst the more expensive food, even in China. I would have taken more pics of the food (and the hairy crabs opened with their eggy insides) but for formal dinners, if you know what I mean, it is almost impossible to take pictures of food without atttracting stares or even worse, glares from the bosses :)

Kuching on 3th and 4th Jan 2008

Per my earlier post on being in Sibu for the countdown to 2009, I was in Kuching on the 3rd and 4th of January 2008 because there isn't a direct flight from Singapore to Sibu. The only other way to get to Sibu would be to take an airasia flight from Senai Airport and that can be very troublesome because one has to clear both Singapore and Malaysia immigrations by foot first before taking a taxi/bus in JB to Senai airport.

Kuching means Cat in the Malay language and the city seems to have taken great pride in its association with cats. I came across across this large statue of a white cat with its paw raised in a welcoming gesture. Apparently, it is the famous kucing (spelt without the "h" in the Malay language but when it comes to pronounciation, "c" is pronounced as "ch" still like in the Eng lang), the Kuching South City Council Cat Statue.

And also, this collection of cat statues right smack in the city center. The latter appears to be one of the more popular photo-spots for tourists visiting Kuching and I had to wait for my turn to take a picture with the cats.

As we had done absolutely no research on what one could do at Kuching, we spent most of the day wandering around the streets. We also went to the Sarawak Museum below and looked at the various exhibits. The entrance fee, if I remember rightly, is minimal and the exhibits, mildly interesting. There are of course sections in the museum tracing the history of the various towns in Sarawak like Mri and Bintulu (both of which I intend to visit) and documenting the original inhabitants of Borneo Island, the Ibans. There is even a minature longhouse (the type of dwelling that Ibans have) in the museum.

We also went to Kuching's Chinatown. The picture below shows the entrance to the main street. Talk about congestion but our own Chinatown is hardly any different with cars parked along both sides of the road.

Kuching Waterfront is apparently the main focal point of the city center with many little stalls selling touristy and local stuff. Most of the better hotels like Hilton, Holiday Inn etc are situated at the Waterfront area. For a fee, one can purchase a ferry ticket to cruise the Sarawak river. I've heard from a friend that the river has many river-prawns but I didn't see anyone prawn fishing at all - the riverfront was rather deserted in fact.

Ah, and these are some of the local delights that were for sale at the stores along the waterfront. Multi-colored kuey lapis with samples available (in the pink containers) for potential customers. These were really cheap (I think less than RM 15 but I can't remember after all this time) and I bought one back home. No recollection of eating it though - maybe my mother finished it all...

For dinner, we went to the Cat's Eye Place (Bukit Mata Seafood Center), at least, that's the English translation of the Chinese name of the place which you can see in the picture below (the words in blue). 25 is the stall we ate at. Cat's Eye Place is known in Kuching for seafood and indeed rightly so as one is spoilt for choices in terms of the stalls and the variety of seafood neatly arrayed at each stall.

The difference between this place and Sedco Square in KK is that almost all the seafood at Sedco Square is live and kept in the tanks. I don't remember having the choice of live prawns at all (which I would have taken for sure) so I ended up choosing the plate of red prawns (similar to what I had in KK) and 2 of the freshwater prawns with blue claws (these sell for RM10 per 100gm in KK!)

Here is a picture of the reddish prawns fried in the restaurant's special style. The Slog Reviews: 9/10 - the shells were crunchy, buttery and slightly oily which contrasted sharply with the soft sweet flesh within.

I had two of the freshwater prawns steamed with garlic. Each prawn was split length-wise in half with loads of garlic and other garnishing on top. The Slog reviews: 9/10. That's the way to be cooking 'em freshwater prawns instead of how my mum cooked it fried in sambal!

I also had two female crabs steamed with loads of roe (see the reddish-orange bits in the shell). The Slog Reviews: 10/10. Dastardly fresh and cooked in such a way that the sweet flavour of the crab was retained in the meat which filled in the shell nicely. Definitely returning for more!

And guess how much the bill was for the whole feast? Only RM 89 (EGD 36)....unbelievable isn't it? 2 female live crabs, 2 freshwater prawns, about 5 reddish big prawns, 1 plate of Kangkong (RM 6 = SGD 2.40) and 1 other veg dish similarly priced. I'm glad I have a ticket to Kuching already for March 2010!

The next morning before going to the airport, we went to have Kuching's kolo mee at some really crowded coffeeshop near our hotel. It was a nightmare waiting for the food to come because there were so many people ordering and waiting around. The Slog Reviews: 7/10. As you can see, the meat was very thinly sliced and fresh. The noodles were light and springy but overall, I can't bring myself to rave over this bowl of noodles which is particular to Kuching. It's just noodles and some meat to me, if you know what I mean.

I also shared a bowl of Sawarak Laksa with my companion. Again, I would stress that the gravy is far different from Singapore's laksa gravy. This is far less richer in terms of coconut and is thinner. It can't be described as sour (unless you add the lime) but in no way is it sweet either. The Slog Reviews: 7/10. Always worth trying local food when in a foreign place but I'll just say that I wouldn't go back for more.

Before we went to the airport, we went to Kuching Civic Center located at Jalan Taman Budaya. Admission was free. We took the lift to the top of the tower where the viewing platform allows one a 360degrees aerial view of the city of Kuching. Do note that the viewing platform is only available for public access during the daytime. We saw a restaurant there but it wasn't opened. Anyway, here's a pic of the lovely city of Kuching taken from the viewing platform.

Day 3 in Kota Kinabalu on 2 Jan 2010 (Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park and Treasure Hunter (2009) Movie)

We decided to visit the Tunku Abdul Ahman Marine Park before another round of fishing the next day. I'm glad we did and found it a pity my family missed it last month. We had breakfast at the same coffeeshop as yesterday morning and I had the Sarawak Laksa this time. The Slog Reviews: 7/10. The soup isn't spicy or rich like Singapore Laksa but of a rather thin sourish strain. The prawns were fresh but tasteless and over-cooked. The wanton remained as good as ever though so I had a bowl of that on top of the laksa.

After checking around at various tour operators (including those operating out of Tune Hotel (which charged RM 100 for 2 islands tour and pick up and return from your hotel) and Cititel Express KK (which charged RM 140 for the same (extra RM 20 on weekends))), we concluded that it was best to go the Jesselton Point Ferry Terminal and buy the tickets/packages from the tour operators there. This is a picture of the ferry terminal which I took - parking for motorbikes the whole day is free of charge so we left ours at the entrance.

Inside the terminal, there were many ferry operators lined in one straight row and one can purchase ferry tickets to and fro Labuan from 1 of the operators here too. Like many other tourists, we were drawn to the tour operator nearest the entrance. Here is a picture of the three-island package (the park is made up of 5 islands) that we took for RM 67 each which included a life jacket and a snorkelling mask for each person. After purchasing the tickets, one has to line up at the counter next to the operator's counter to pay for taxes/some govt fees.

Here is a picture of the speedboats used to ferry tourists to the islands. It is apparently compulsory to be provided with a life jacket before boarding and it can be rather confusing if one doesn't speak Malay because there are hoardes of tourists and everyone has a different package (1 island, 2 islands (and the diff combis of islands) or 3 islands).

For those who want more information on the marine park, I thought this picture below might be helpful.

There are signs on the islands which says "No menancing" ie No Fishing. The sign below showing the various species of fish that one may chance across can be found at the jetties for the islands. It came in useful indeed when I was trying to identify the fishes that I came across while snorkelling on the first and third island we visited.

This is a picture of me at Pulau Mamutik, the first island which we visited. I have never edited any of the pictures I've posted (other than cropping the edges) because I don't know how and have no time to. So, you can be sure that this picture below is exactly how beautiful the waters of the marine park are.

We went to Pulua Manukan next - before leaving the boat on Pulau Manutik, the boatman informed us what time we had to be at the jetty (11am) and he was very punctual indeed. Pulua Manukan is the most popular of the three islands and the most commercialised too. There is a resort/hotel on the island but it isn't the 5star kind ( gaya resort and bunga raya resort are the high ends one). Just a note here too - there are plenty of fishes like these below around the jetty stilts (hoardes of them actually) which are visible due to the clarity of the water. If you are minded to feed them, you should bring bread from the hotel or purchase bread crumbs stuffed in a 200ml waterbottle at the jetties for RM3.

It was blazing hot from 11.30 to 1.30pm, the time we were on Pulau Manukan and I had absolutely no wish to do swim or snorkel in the sea without any sort of shade. So, I took some pictures instead - you can see the coastline of KK city center from Pulua Manukan.

Food on the island was also ridiculously priced (and more so if you elect to have the buffet lunch at RM 70/pax) so we had bread which we bought in the morning. Oh yes, and one more thing, bring your own towels from the hotel. There aren't any for loan on the islands. I found open-air fresh water showering facilities on Pulau Manutik and Pulau Sapi (the last island we visited) near the toilets to wash off the saltwater after snorkelling. Be warned though for Pulau Sapi, the toilets stink to high heaven and one should avoid a visit there if one can. The picture below is of someone reading a book on the beach at Pulau Sapi (various tourists were doing that) and is my favourite picture of the islands.

Spotted the sign below on Pulua Sapi which seems to be a really appropriate summation of our visit to the lovely marine park. The Slog Reviews: 9/10. Crystal clear unpollluted waters, beautiful scenary and a great place to go snorkelling - there are indeed many fishes in the reefs and corals near the shore.

The next picture is self-explanatory - that's me and the third (yes, 3rd) durian which I had after we had gotten back from the islands and showered in the hotel.

Because of our feasting on the durians (we overate cos we were starving after all that exercise - yes, snorkelling can be tiring), again we were too stuffed for dinner and so we headed for 1Borneo again. It isn't the only shopping center in KK (there is Centerpoint, Warisan Sq, Wisma Merdeka) but it certainly is the most modern and is the largest too. Along the way there, we passed by this mosque (KK is a muslim country overall) and I took a picture of it as it reminded me of the "floating" mosque I saw in Terengganu in April 2009 (haven't written about that).

Plenty of time to kill at 1Borneo so we decided to catch a movie at the cinema there. We caught the 7.05pm screening of the Chinese movie, Treasure Hunter. The cost of each person's ticket was only RM 9 (SGD 3.70 - where on earth can you watch a movie for that price in SG?!). The Slog Reviews: 0/10 - The movie was a waste of time and money (even SGD 3.60 haha) although the cinema was nice and new (see pic below I took of the entrance). The seats are a tad smaller than those plush seats we have at the Cineleisure though but there is sufficient leg room. Anyway, about the movie, it sucked sooooo absolutely bad and made absolutely nooooo sense that I can't even bring myself to waste 1 more minute reviewing it except to say that life is too short to be wasted on anything like that. Even my companion who is Chinese-movies biased went away saying that this movie had nothing to it.

We went for dinner at Hua Hing Seafood restaurant at Sedco Square again about 9.30pm. The lady boss was inside and we requested specifically for her help. As I wanted to try another type of seafood, I settled on having these two live prawns which cost RM18 (SGD 7.20) each. If you think that's expensive, I'll tell you that at Sai Kung, Hong Kong, I paid SGD 20 for 1 of these prawns. The lady boss reassured me that Sabah is the place to be have these critters for a decent price.

Here is a picture of one of them steamed and peeled (you have to peel the prawns yourself). The Slog Reviews: 8/10. Big, fat, fleshy and fresh. Could have been sweeter though.

What made my night though were the crabs. I ordered exactly the same crab dish as I had the night before (see my previous entry) but this time, the crabs had even more roe...here is a lcose up pic of the eggs which I relished each morsel of. The Slog Reviews: 9.5/10. Ahh..crab heaven!

We also ordered another dish which was served to us way after the rest of the dishes because I couldn't resist the promotion (RM 22 for 1kg) for these live prawns. They are supposed to be from the sea as opposed to being reared in a farm. The lady boss will explain the differences as she is showing you the prawns. The Slog Reviews: 4/10. The prawns were salty and tasteless. Not worth having.

The cost of the entire meal below and drinks (about 3 glasses of lime juice at RM4.50 each) including the prawns above was RM 130 (SGD 52).