Day 1 in Langkawi on 5 Feb 2010 ( Car Rental, Bayview Hotel, Night Market and Orkid Ria Seafood Restaurant)

The flight from Singapore to Langkawi by Tiger Airways took one hour and twenty minutes. We reached Langkawi International Airport at 4.25pm on Friday. The airport terminal is a two storey building and one is required to walk across the tarmac from the plane to the building. Thankfully, it wasn't raining but it sure was blazing hot. This is the huge signboard that greeted us when we got down from the plane. Langkawi is a tourist island (there is only one factory on the island, a cement factory) where the population is 90% Malay and almost all the locals are involved somehow in the tourism trade.

Clearing customs was a breeze with about 6 counters opened. While waiting for the bags to be loaded on the conveyor belts, one can drop by the many car rental companies booths located a stone's throw away. Be warned that although the companies are different entities, the staff of the companies are on very good terms with each other so pitting one co against another co isn't a good idea. I was offered the rental of a honda city at RM330 for three days (5pm Fri to 5pm Mon) which 1 of the co claimed was at a 50% discount. However, I thought that it was still beyond my budget of RM100 a day so I looked around some more and after haggling for half an hour and being offered a variety of cars (rejected all the proton cars esp the waja because that isn't fuel efficient), I settled for an automatic Mitsubishi Colt at RM270 for three days. Below is a picture of the car. Driving it took some getting used to because it was the gear was located next to the wiper stick (my hand kept dropping to the empty space in front hah) and the hand brake was next to the brake pedal. The interior of the car is rather cramped though I must say (the backs of the front seats almost touched the back seats).

I had wanted to rent a GPS to go long with the car initially but the car rental staff were quick to assure me that the roads in Langkawi are very easy to navigate and there are sign boards along the road for all the touristy places. And true enough, it was very easy to drive around Langkawi to get to the attractions marked out on the tourist maps. The roads are all one lane (in each direction) and I saw police road blocks every single day I was out. Maybe it is because Langkawi is one of the two duty-free places in Msia (the other is Labuan) so liquor and cigars are dirt cheap or maybe the crime rate is so low that there isn't much else for the police to do.

I'd booked a room at Bayview Langkawi for less than SGD80 a night. The hotel is located at the far end of Kuah Town but with a rental car, the hotel location isn't a problem. In any case, the hotel is next to Plaza Langkawi which is a rather dismal shopping mall with nothing very much. There are many shop houses selling hawker food, silk clothes and local products around the hotel. The Slog Reviews: 8.5/10. Alright, this hotel isn't luxurious but it is decent enough. Clean, spacious, with a mini fridge, safe, coffee-making facilities, a bathtub and a TV (not LCD or Plasma) with some cable chanels like cinemax. Truely value for money, especially since the price of the room included a pretty nice buffet breakfast. The picture below is a pic of the breakfast area.
The reason why I would recommend this hotel is because of the excellent customer service provided by the staff. When my flight was cancelled, I called the hotel to ask for a change in dates and they not only agreed to let me change dates without any cost but even called me from Malaysia to confirm the change. The counter-staff are polite and speak English so checking in and out went very smoothly. The picture below is of a normal standard room on the 9th floor.

I had a choice between booking a sea-facing room and a hill-facing room which is slightly cheaper. Figuring that I wouldn't be in the room very much if at all, I'd picked the hill-facing room. The picture below is the view from my room (the windows cannot be opened but the rooms do not smell stale.)

After leaving our bags in our respective rooms, we took the Colt for a spin to catch the sunset at the beach along the way to Tanjong Rhu as suggested by the car rental staff. This is a picture of the stretch of public beach which we stopped at.

This beach is a sea-shell collector's heaven. There are many types of pretty and almost perfectly formed shells littered along the entire stretch of beach. Despite my resolve not to collect stuff that I don't need, I ended up picking quite a few sea-shells to take home.

A picture below of the sunset from the beach. We couldn't really see the sun go down because of one of the islands but I still enjoyed the beauty of the skies changing color. There were a few families playing on the beaches and little kids swimming in the sea. A peaceful place indeed.

The next stop was the night market which was 5 mins away on the other side of the roundabout. The night markets in Langkawi are held at different locations on the different days of the week. We had intended to go to the one at Kuah Town on Saturday but since we were around the area, we went to this night market instead. Parking was a bit of a hassle because of the number of cars parked along the side of the roads so we parked a fair bit away and walked back. The night market on Friday consist of stalls lining two sides of a lane/road per the picture below (I took this picture from the "entrance" to the night market.)

As you can see from the picture below, most of the stalls at the night market sell food. All types of food. I took this picture because I'd never seen such huge woks/cooking pots before. If not for the fact that we were going for seafood later, I would have tried out the noodles for they looked so delicious.
This is the first time I'd ever seen ketam goreng. Ketam means crab in Malay and Goreng means fried. It didn't look very tempting though despite the color and I didn't dare to try it besides because one never knows how fresh/stale the food is if it has been deep-fried.

The only thing that I ended up buying and eating from the night market was the pulut durian. Unfortunately it wasn't the durian season in Langkawi so I didn't manage to get any of my beloved fruit despite walking through the entire market. This was the closest to satisfying my urges. Pulut durian consist of a single fleshy durian seed on top of sticky rice and warm coconut milk poured over the mixture. Yes, a rich warm calorie-concoction but it was good! Maybe it's because I like durians anyway but durians, coconut milk and sticky rice...that combo is something I'll like to replicate in Singapore again on my own.

After the night market, we went to the renowned Orkid Ria along Pantai Cenang for our dinner. Parking again was an issue as most of the lots were taken up even as late as 8.30pm. The restaurant was crowded and we had to take a queue number. This restaurant is ranked number 11 by tripadvisor.

While waiting for a table, we had to stand around the entrance of the restaurant. Some of the restaurant's selection of seafood are laid out there (to attract tourists). The tiger prawns are almost as huge as the lobsters and this is the first time I've seen lobsters priced at the same price as tiger prawns too!

Because of the Pulut Durian I'd stuffed myself with and because the lobsters and tiger prawns were dead (and therefore not as fresh as caught live from the tanks), we decided to have fried soft shell crab, beancurd, sambal kangkong and butter prawns. While the drinks were served relatively quickly, we had to wait a good 40 mins before the food came. It wouldn't have been so bad if the food was good, but it was not and they gave me prawns in egg instead of butter prawns. The Slog Reviews: -1/10. This must have been one of the worst meals I'd ever eaten overseas. The person who reviewed this place as a tourist trap is absolutely right on. The softshell crabs were flour-like lumps that were so hard and tasteless that it didn't feel like I was eating softshell crabs and I left 7/8 of the dish untouched. It was that bad and an absolute waste of money. The kangkong was below mediocre leaving no taste at all in one's mouth, the beancurd was a soggy mess and the prawns did not taste fresh at all. In fact, the flesh of the prawns were so far from firm that they were just mushy tastless meat in the shells. What an absolutely waste of time and money! I'll bet that the people who have reviewed Orchid Ria and thought that it was a great place to go to must have never eaten before at Hua Hing Restaurant at Sedco Square in Kota Kinabalu! I do not agree that Orchid Ria at Pantai Cenang in Langkawi is the best seafood restaurant in Langkawi and think it nothing more than a tourist trap.

Durian Road Trip to Segamat on 28 June 2009

Durian season in Johor is usually in June and July. Last year, during one of the few weekends I was back in Singapore from the China project, we decided to go on a "road trip" to Segamat which is known to be famous for its durians. As with most Malaysian towns, a structure representing what the town is known for is usually erected prominently near the town center/en route to the town. Segamat is obviously no exception to the rule.

To get to Segamat, one has to drive through Muar and then Tangkak. If one choses to take the North South Highway, one can choose to exit at the Tangkak exit then drive upwards to Segamat. The journey from Singapore to Segamat is about 3+hours assuming there is no jam at the customs. During the durian season, there are plenty of stalls along the road-side where one can pull up and park by the road side to eat and/or buy durians from the durian-sellers. This was the first stall that we stopped at.

Durians, during the durian season, are sold as cheaply as RM2 for one small durian. I didn't try any of those because I figured if I had driven 3 whole hours to get there, it would be more worth my while to have the better quality ones. This is one of the durians we had sold at RM6/kg.

Yeah, that's me holding on to one of nature's great blessings - a thick and creamy durian seed. By the way, one durian seed is estimated to be about 120 calories. Go me, your garden variety food guzzling Singaporean. :D

When entering the town of Segamat, we came across this large impressive-looking temple and decided to stop for some photos.

While I love fishing, I don't like rearing/keeping fishes at all (unless to use as bait for fishing). However, this temple houses an impressive collection of expensive koi fishes. This picture doesn't even begin to capture the number of kois swimming in the temple's ponds. One should definitely stop by this temple if one likes kois. There were white, black, orange and gold kois, some of which had grown to quite an impressive size.

We had dinner at this restaurant Liong Hong located at Segamat. This restaurant is popular among the locals and as was the previous time I was there, the restaurant got pretty crowded about 7+pm. It opens about 6pm in the night.

This is what we had for dinner - the restaurant's signature fried toufu, the omelette, kangkong and a patin fish. Now, everyone knows that most freshwater fishes don't taste very good (taste quite muddy etc) which is why they are sold so cheaply in supermarkets and restaurants (think tilapia etc). However, this restaurant does a superb and in my opinion, unparalleled job of cooking the patin fish which tastes not only fresh and fishy (no muddy taste) but the meat is also so tender, white and just slides off the bones and skin of the fish. And the sauce, the sauce it comes in, that's the kind of sauce one could pour over one's rice and eat it plain. That good, it was. You can't go this restaurant and not ask for a steamed patin as one of your dishes. The Slog reviews: 9/10.

The next day on the way back from Segamat, we decided to go to the little town of Sakil and this is where, I found durian heaven at a family-run stall by the side of the road in front of a fruit-shop. Home-grown XO durians for RM10/kg. When I took one bite of the whitish creamy soft meat which dripped off the seed (not in the too-ripe way) and flowed into my mouth, I swear that I was in ecstasy and life didn't seem all too bad afterall. Hah, yes, one may laugh at my description but then one probably has never felt like one has tasted elixir on earth. And this humble XO durian is my elixir. If I go missing-in-action every single weekend of June, you can be sure that I will be at Sakil gorging myself silly with these durians. It's worth the 6 hours drive up and down, worth the customs jams, worth the weight-gain (erm, kind of).

The durians were so good that I even brought some of them back home in a container. Look, look at the folds of the thin skin, the softness and "creaminess" of the flesh on the seeds. The flesh isn't the firm thick creamy but the oozing milky creamy which floods one's mouth with a slightly pleasant bitter alcohol taste. Typing this makes me want to have a durian right now, but I can't. These durians are only available once a year during June-July unfortunately!
We had a late lunch at our favourite restaurant in Muar. The Slog Reviews: 9/10. Looking at this picture makes me salivate. No, I am not joking. This restaurant is famous for its assam fish head curry and Muar Otah. I'll let the picture below speak for itself. The kangkong is fresh and cooked to just the right texture - not too soggy and not too raw, the otah melts in one's mouth (I am already checking my calendar for a date to drive to Muar) and the last dish of fish eggs which is not shown in the picture is awesome as well. The name of this restaurant is Shee Yan.

Restoran / restaurant Kim Rock at Bukit Indah, JB

We had dinner today at Restaurant Kim Rock which is located near Jusco Aeon Bukit Indah, Johor Bahru. The last time I ate here was about half a year ago (which should tell you something). The reason for choosing this restaurant is because it has air-conditioning and two TVs in the air-conditioned area with Singapore channels. My mother unfortunately, is quite addicted to the Taiwanese drama serial "Love" which has been going on a darn long time every weekend at 7pm and is not willing to miss a single episode of the series. Therefore, when we drive in to JB for dinner, this is the only place which will meet all her needs and my sister's craving for some decent cheap seafood.

Dinner (as was lunch at tea garden which I will write about another time) consisted of 6 dishes: Sambal kangkong (you can see a bit of it at the bottom right pic), claypot seafood (bottom right) at RM30, 1 crab cooked in black pepper (top right) at RM 25, 1 crab cooked in herbs (bottom left) at RM 25, shrimp omelette at RM 10 and the restaurant's speciality, the marinated pork ribs (top left) at RM 22. The cost of all of the dishes, 2 plates of rice and 5 cans of soft drinks was RM 135.

The Slog Reviews: 6.5/10. The standard of cooking definitely has fallen since half a year back. The kangkong was not hot (rather bland in fact) despite our request to make it spicy, the crabs while fresh (we handpicked them from the tank) were not succulent or sweet and the pork ribs were too hard and chewy for our liking. The sauce it was marinated in was neither too sweet or sour, resulting in most of the dish left untouched. The only dishes really worth their price were the shrimp omelette and the claypot seafood which had plenty of mushrooms (that isn't a seafood hmmm), sea cucumber, fish maw and shrimps. The gravy was thick and marginally tasty. As for the service, the food was served quickly, and the staff were very friendly and polite.

Of course, no trip to JB is complete without durians. We polished off two durians in Malaysia and bought back another 3 for RM12/kg. Total cost of the five D24 durians: RM90. The Slog Reviews: 8/10. Good creamy durians but nothing, and I mean, nothing compares to the durians which I had at Sakil last year. I think I shall write about that durian road trip next.

No more prawn fishing at Jalan Harimau

In my earlier entry on where to go prawn fishing, one of the places I'd found on the net and listed there was No. 10479, Jalan Harimau , Taman Century, 80250 JB. Well, I've taken it off the list now because after work today, I drove all the way up to Johor Bahru, queued a good 30mins at the customs, missed eating at a nice Jap restaurant all to check out the place and....nada. No such prawn fishing place. Maybe there was a long time ago, but there certainly isn't any now. I even asked the hawkers and dvd sellers at Pusat Makanan Centre Point (Medan Selera Food Center on my GPS). What a colossal waste of time.

So I had dinner instead at the hawker center. This hawker center is located behind Grand Paragon Hotel in JB and has a wide variety of food choices from claypot chicken rice to zi cha to satay. Despite that, and despite havinga pirated dvd stall right in the middle of the center, I wouldn't say that this is a must-visit, must-eat-at place. I ordered the sambal bbq fish and kangkong from the stall next to the stall named yummy wanton. The cost was RM23 (SGD 10) for both items. The Slog Reviews: 8/10 for the bbq fish which was fresh and tasty. The sambal chilli on the top of the fish was also delightfully fresh and spicy enough. However, the kangkong was a disappointment as it was pretty much tasteless and too oily. As for the satay which we ordered from the Malay satay stall (there is a Chinese satay stall), the ketupat was too soft and crummy and there wasn't much meat on the satay sticks. Although it only cost RM 6 (SGD 2.40) which is an unbeatable price, I wouldn't advise you spending calories on that.

And of course, no trip to Malaysia is ever complete without durians! The regular durian seller at Jalan Cantik 8 (he is only there in the night, sells out of a van and is parked in a dark spot) was out of XO durians by the time we got there so we settled for Super durians instead. The cost was RM12/kg (SGD 5/kg) for the two durians I bought back (see pic below) and I ate an entire 1kg durian there by myself. :)

Day 4 in Kota Kinabalu on 3 Jan 2010 (Mangrove fishing and Little Italy Restaurant)

I'd decided to do a bit of luring (using lures ie fake baits) from 1pm to 5pm at the Papar area. The cost was about RM 200 for 4 hours on a simple boat with minimal shelter up and down the river (not Papar river).

Despite changing lures a couple of times and even resorting to the boatman's famous dead-fish bait to target Mangrove Jacks and estuary cods, it was a zero fighter trip - not even a bite or tug at the lures or baits. So it was just 4 hours of crusing up and down the river in the hot sun (ugh) which had quite a no of other people fishing in it too (maybe the river has been been overfished). Still, we got to see where the river meets the ocean - look at that picture below! That's one of the reasons why I feel that any fishing trip I go to (fishless or otherwise) is never a waste because of the beauty of nature that one is privileged to behold on such trips.

After fishing, we got back to the hotel about 5pm and set off to have some durians as usual. These are the last two durians that I polished off on this KK trip.

For dinner, we decided not to have seafood for a change and to go to the much advertised Little Italy Restaurant located at Hotel Capitol (near Gaya Street). This is a picture of the restaurant which I took on the first day. The restaurant was really crowded and one has to queue for a table. We waited about 10 mins before being ushered to a table and given the menus. The staff there are really friendly and speak good English. The restaurant was patronised by a mix of locals and foreigners (caucasians) and everyone seemed to be having a good time.

I ordered the Arrabbiatissima which is described on the menu as the hottest of the new spicy hot pasta (tomato base with hot chillis). This is how it looked when served. The Slog Reviews: 5/10. Yes, it was hot and spicy but surely, a dish should come with some ingredients, even a light sprinkling of minced meat? Well, this dish had no ingredients which meant it was just a carbo-dish with some veg (tomato and chili) and I did not finish most of it.

We also shared a Hawaiian thin-crust pizza. The Slog Reviews: 9/10. The pizza was fabulous - the crust was delicately thin and done just right (no burnt edges, no parts doughy) and the plentiful ingredients were spread out evenly with just the correct amount of cheese melted in to the mix. A must-try at the restaurant, I would say! Eating this left me craving for more pizza when I got back to Singapore.

My companion also ordered this dish to share - I thought it was squid/calamari (sotong) at first but I turned out to be wrong. I am not sure of the name of this dish but it is a mix of the most delightful ingredients comprising largely of cheese and cream. There were 6 pieces and I had only one because it was so sinfully rich. The Slog Reviews: 9/10. Cheese-lovers will enjoy this creamy concoction. "Yummilicious"!

After dinner, I was much too stuffed to move but my companion and his friends wanted to have coffee and supper and talk about old times so we adjourned to a corner coffeeshop at Gaya Street where my companion had reunited with a noodle-seller from Sibu in the morning. The store sells mostly specialities from Sibu.

I am not sure what the name of this dish is but it is particular to Sibu (the name is written on a yellow plague on the wall behind the store - the dishes are obstructing the view). The Slog Reviews: 7/10. A thick warm soupy combination much like Singapore's mee hoon kway but without the egg.

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).