Bishan Prawn Fishing at Sin Ming Avenue

I had some sort of a course on Friday afternoon at bishan area which ended early about 5pm so I decided to check out the popular prawn fishing place at Sin Ming Ave. The prawn fishing place is next to the golf academy and parking at the open-air carpark is free. There are two ponds of similar size - the picture below is of one of the ponds whcih I took from where I was sitting.

As usual, I did not pay to go prawn fishing right away but asked for permission to sit and observe the catch-rate, bite-rate, crowd, facilities, rods etc. The counter was manned by a youngish Chinese-speaking lady who was friendly enough and the rods for rent were decent enough. There are a couple of vending machines for drinks on the premises and the connecting hawker centre sells beer and food like satay and chicken wings (someone walks around taking orders) to the pp prawn fishing. Unlike Ebi Culture which catered for the English-speaking crowd, this place is for the Chinese-speaking crowd. What would have been a nice peaceful silence is filled instead with loud Chinese songs (love ones esp) and bustling ah sohs, aunties, ah peks and uncles all speaking at the top of their voices in dialect and Chinese. There are also resident cats and dogs on the premises which is rather clean. The catch rate and bite rate were pretty decent. About 2 bites every 15 mins or so and the prawns ranged from decent-sized to rather large specimens. I was very tempted to rent a rod and go prawning myself :D

The Slog Reviews: 8/10. A good enough place to go prawning if there is one. Can't compare with my beloved ebi culture of course which played English music, had a younger crowd, and was quiet enough (not so many pp) but beats punggol prawn fishing hands down.

Update in March 2010: Click here to read about my experience prawn fishing at Bishan Prawn Fishing.

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 :)

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. :)

Prawn Fishing at Pasir Ris Park

The first few times I tried out prawn fishing was with my sister after work when she was bumming a ride back from me. Being familiar with Pasir Ris Park where I used to fish with 1 of my ex-boyfriend many years ago (to the extent that he had a single digit amt left in his bank account because each hr cost S$20 and we were but poor students), we decided on a pure whim to check out the fishing ponds. However, while walking around the fishing pond, we stumbled across the prawn fishing ponds located at the side of the large fishing pond. It was relatively deserted on a weekday night.

The first few times we went there (before I got to know of Ebi Culture), our catch-rate was extremely poor - like just 1 or 2 prawns after one whole hour. Other people there were fishing prawns up like pros and there we were standing and waiting. That's the thing about prawning and fishing - the utter sense of helplessness one gets although one is doing everything similar to the person next to you and yet catching squat. However, I find it a useful reminder that we cannot control everything in life. As a line in 1 of my favourite movies (a Korean movie I caught on a flight to Manila for work) goes "We do what we can and leave it to God to do the rest".

Anyhow, this is the very first prawn which I caught prawning. My sister had almost given up after 45mins of not catching any prawns at all and passed the rod to me to hold for the last 15mins of the hour. I saw the float go down, held my breath, struck, and pulled this fella out.

The picture below is the result of our catch in one hour at the prawn fishing farm at Pasir Ris Park. I'll be honest and 'fess up that only 2 of the prawns in the bucket were caught by us. The others were given to us by the operators of the prawning place there. The Slog Reviews: 8/10, using Ebi Culture as a yardstick again, the bite-rates, catch-rates and services provided at this prawning place far exceed those provided at Punggol prawning. 1 old man had almost half a net full of prawns after 3 hours and the crowd there is pretty friendly and sparse (which I like). The operators are also helpful and friendly. They helped us with the baits when at that stage, I was afraid of sawing or tearing up earth worms (my sis still refuses to touch them) and also with unhooking the prawns. And yes, as I had mentioned, they gave us some prawns to take back after seeing our dismal catches. The rods there too, unlike those for rent at Punggol Prawning, are of better quality. If you are new to prawn fishing, this is a good place to spend your S$30. :)

Punggol Prawn Fishing and Geylang Prawn Noodles

After work yesterday, I decided to go check out Punggol Prawn Fishing at Punggol Marina Club. However, I took a slight detour along the way and drove to the end of the road instead which lead me to Punggol Jetty. There were a couple of old men and a group of young boys fishing at the jetty. Peered into their buckets and saw that they had caught really small fishes. One of the old men told me that these were caught using cast-nets. There were also some people shore fishing from the beach but as the weather had taken a turn for the worst, they started to pack up before the thunderstorm. According to the old men, this place doesn't have much fish (like all the licensed areas in Singapore) but I'm glad to have found a lovely place to practice casting with my Shimano Calais reel.

I parked my car along the road leading to the country club (at least the parking is free) and walked in, in the thunderstorm. Although there were a couple of signs pointing to the prawn fishing area (the signs were in the lobby and out of the pier), I could not find the place the first time - maybe it was because of the rain, wind and lack of light. Anyway, the prawn fishing place is located near Pier 1. There are 2 means of access - one through the carpark and the other through the boardwalk along the water edge. As usual, I did not pay to start prawning immediately but sat around watching the bite-rates and the folks prawning. This is a picture of the prawning place at Punggol Marina which consists of three small ponds laid back to back (each pond is the same size).

The Slog Reviews:1/10. Using Ebi Culture (please click here)as a yardstick, punggol prawning, despite its impressive website fails miserably to impress in terms of facilities, prawn size, bite-rates, catch-rates, crowd, service of the staff and rods provided. The ponds are awfully small as you can see from the picture, the prawns caught were NOTHING like that caught from Ebi Culture (see my previous post) but were really small-sized (smaller than one's hand generally) and after sitting there for a good half an hour just watching, most people there failed to catch many prawns (at best, 2 prawns per half hour per rod for one lucky person). The guy in my picture bending over was so desperate to catch prawns that he squatted down and dragged his line up and down but in the end, caught zilch. The man in blue caught only 1 prawn in half an hour and the lady in black who was smoking with a little child nearby, caught nothing. The counter appeared to be manned by a couple in their 30s-40s and a foreign worker. Unlike Ebi Culture, they displayed no interest in engaging their customers personally or even tempting visitors like me sitting there to shell out some $ to prawn. Not outside food and drink allowed on the premises which I can understand but the selection of drinks and food there is very limited. And the rods for rent were cheap thin things - nothing like the sort provided by Ebi Culture. I messaged my prawning kaki about the place and he replied that he had heard how lousy punggol prawning place was too. I'm not wasting S$30 at that place.

Anyway, on the way home, I stopped by Geylang Prawn Noodle at 325 Upper Paya Lebar Road for dinner. It took me quite a while to find the place although I have been to the place several times. It is located along How Son Rd behind a bus stop and parking in front of the row of shops (albeit limited lots) is free. I ordered the 2 in 1 prawn kway teoh soup (2 in 1 means prawns and pcs of meat) which cost SGD 5. The Slog Reviews: 8/10. A bit pricy for the amount one gets but the stocky yet not stalty taste of the soup and freshness of the prawns make up for that. There are also origami type paper on the table which one can and should use to put the prawn shells as opposed to leaving it on the table.

Where to go prawn fishing / prawning

After my last post, I searched the net for places to go prawning or prawn fishing. These are all I could find as of today. I've heard good things said about (1) and (8) but then these are popular places and one must contend with the crowd and competing rods.

In Singapore

(1) Bishan Prawn Fishing Address: 603, Sin Ming Avenue. My review of the place from observing can be found here while my review of the place from prawn fishing can be found here.

(2) Jurong Hill Prawn Fishing Address: 241, Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim(near Jurong Bird Park and located at The Village). My review can be found here and here.

(3) Pasir Ris Town Park Prawn Fishing Address: Pasir Ris Town Park. My review can be found here

(4) Pasir Ris Farmway Prawn Fishing Address: No. 70 Pasir Ris Farmway 3

(5) Punggol Prawn Fishing Address: 600 Punggol Seventeenth Avenue, off Punggol Road (at Marina Country Club). My review can be found here

(6) Yishun Prawn Fishing Address: 81 Lorong Chen Charu (Yishun) (at Bottle Tree Park)

(7) Geylang Prawn Fishing Address: 100 Guillemard road #01-13 (399718)

(8) Geylang Tua Tow Hei Pte Ltd Address: No. 192 , Geylang Road,Ying Lie Building

(9) Marina South Prawn (and Fishing) Pond Address: Marina South near the Superbowl

(10) Westlake Prawn Fishing Address: No 9 , Japanese Garden Road , Singapore 619228

(11) Prawn Fishing at East Coast Costa Sands Address: 1110 East Coast Parkway #01-01 Singapore 449880

(12) Prawn Fishing at East Coast Parkway Address: 1020 East Coast Parkway,Singapore 449878

(13) Prawn Fishing at Sungei Tengah Address: Farmart Centre 67 Sungei Tengah Rd, Singapore 699008

(14) D'Kranji Farm Address: 10, Neo Tiew Lane 2, Singapore 718813

(15) Ebi Culture. 21 Arozoo Avenue. Sadly, it has closed down. My review can be found here.

In Johor Bahru (JB)

(1) Fu4 Lin2 Yuan2 Diao Xia Zhong Xin (福林园钓虾中心) Address: 16 Jalan Pinang 23 Taman Daya 81100 JB

(2) Damai Fishing Village (大马钓虾中心). Address: No 50, Jalan Kassim Noor, Kampung Sungai Danga, Taman Perling 81200 JB

Prawn Fishing at Ebi Culture

Blogging about the freshwater prawns in the previous entry reminded me of how long it has been since I went prawn fishing or to use the incorrect but popular term, "prawning". The last time was 5th December 2009 one day before my regular haunt closed shop due to land issues with the authorities. This is the only picture I have of Ebi Culture - that's my sis's bf in the background and my sis's rod at the side.

I got to know of Ebi Culture when I was buying some deep diver lures at a tackle shop in Beach Rd during lunch time back in Aug 09. 1 of the investors in Ebi Culture was there too and he gave me his namecard. As I was busy flying between Shenzhen and Singapore for the China project, I didn't have time to check out the place till somewhere in early November. I hadn't intended to go prawn fishing that day but only to say hi to the owner since I'd told him I would drop by. Anyhow, I met my regular "prawning" kaki there the first visit (he let me practice some prawn fishing using the package he had) and I grew to love hanging out at Ebi Culture after work at least once a week. There was free parking, the 5 prawning ponds were large enough so one had one's own space to fish, and the staff were really decent friendly chaps. The prawns were also super duper large in size and Ebi Culture introduced yabbies in one of the ponds for a period. Here's a pic of me with one of the yabbies which I caught.


My sister loves prawn fishing too (in fact, it was because of her that I started prawn fishing!) so I introduced her to Ebi Culture. They had this great 1 for 1 ladies' night promo every Tues so I got her hooked to the place. And eventually, she brought her bf along. Alas, the place closed down before the 4 of us could have the prawns BBQ we had planned. Anyhow, here is a picture of one haul in 3 hours in our kitchen sink after one of the trips. My fingers are itchy already - time to find a new place to go prawn fishing!

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 2 in Kota Kinabalu on 1 Jan 2010 (Freshwater Fishing Competition in Sabah)

Despite sleeping past midnight, we got up at 6am the next morning for the freshwater fishing competition I had signed up for. Cititel Express's breakfast (buffet) cost RM12 but we decided to explore the hotel's surroundings for grub instead. We came across this coffeeshop on the left side of the hotel (the side where the bak kut teh coffeeshop is).

The stall owner was from Sarawak. I decided to have the Wantun Mee (yes, spelt this way) for breakfast. The Slog Reviews: 8/10. For such a cheap dish (RM 6), the noodles are springy with just the right amount of seasoning (wasn't thirsty after eating) and the wantun's skin were thin and smooth. The meat inside was fresh too and the soup was delightfully warm and sweet.

We reached the freshwater pond at Parpar after an hour's drive out of KK city center. My tag was 38 which meant that I had to stand at the spot marked with the number 38. The cost of entering this yearly competition was RM100.

The competition was supposed to start at 8am. The prizes were a chainsaw (1st place), grass-cutters (2nd and 3rd place) and a bicycle even (5th place). The winner would be the one with the largest fish caught so this was a competition purely on luck....or so I thought. Anyway, that's me in my usual fishing attire standing at the marker.

If you note the time-stamp on the picture above and the next picture below, there is a time-difference of 3 hours odd. I'd been fishing from 9am to 12.10pm without a single bite at all. I started off with bottom fishing but after one and a half hours and not catching anything, I decided to change to float fishing instead. Bait remained the same - chicken guts. For another one and a half hour, despite some frantic activity around the float each time when I cast after re-baiting, no fish actually took the bait. And THEN, at 12.15 or so, the float went down and stayed down. After 3 hours of no bite, I figured it would probably pop back up but when it didn't and I testedthe line slightly, I realised that I had a fish eating the bait. I jerked to set the hook but stupid me, I had too much slack line out. Mistake No 1. And I thought I had set the hook well because the fish started to run and the line peeled off the reel. Normally, I wouldn't bring a fish in so quickly to the bank (as in the case of Sawai Lake in Phuket where I had just fished in late Nov) but this was a competition and there were like 40 over lines in that pond and I was terrified of losing my fish and crossing lines so I brought the fish in to the side without letting it tire. Mistake No 2. The picture below is the only picture I have of how close the fish was brought to shore and ALMOST netted. The person next to me was about to net the fish but when the fish saw the net, it spooked (of course) and went for a second run...I was fighting to bring it back again without letting it tangle lines when.....SNAP, the line went slack...I lost the fish. Everyone said sayang, sayang, which meant, what a damn pity, because it was the largest fish, if not at least the second largest fish (1st or at least 2nd prize).

I have to confess that when I lost the fish, I wanted to weep. The whole crowd at the pond had been clapping, cheering and watching me fight it. And everyone saw how close I had come to winning. I don't blame the guy for failing to net the fish, I've been fishing enough to know that fishes spook and run when they see the net, I only blame myself for the mistakes I made above. This competition is going to be one that haunts me a long long long time....Anyway, right after the fish got away, there was this awful silence at the pond while everyone watched me to see what I would do. Well, I turned away (feeling really sick and in disbelief) and watched my fingers go through the motions of picking through chicken guts and re-baiting. The competition was supposed to end at 12.30am so there wasn't much time left but some datuk (a minister or some sorts) came and made grand speeches and they extended the competition time to 1pm. I figured that I might as well just do my best - after not having a single fish for 3 hours, I lose the biggest one, and well, if I didn't try I would end up with zero, so what's the harm in trying...I casted out again and waited...10 mins later, the float went down, and mother, did I strike damn hard to set the hook this time. Everyone stopped talking and watched me bring in this fish....which put up absolutely no fight cos it was just a tilapia...I gave it to some other dude who helped me unhook it. The fish I lost was a patin and I was in no mood to keep the cheapest kinda fish.

I reached the hotel by 2pm, tired, heart-sore and feeling really lousy. Nothing anyone says or does can ease that awful feeling of having lost a competition, I guess. I tried to console myself that it was an experience and lesson for me despite not winning but my emotions would not be soothed with self-talk. So I went for the only thing that could give me comfort...Yes, durians. This is the first durian I had this KK trip, a 3kg bitter-sweet durian. Despite the appearance, the meat was good. By the way, the durian stall is underneath the overhead bridge at the Segamat area next to KK Plaza and is open from 5pm (not sure, if it's daily but it should be)

The durian seller had some kampong durians which were quickly snapped up. My companion managed to get 1 (RM 12 each) though which we fell upon, attracted to the unique red color of the fruit...And to our utter dismay, the meat was absolutely horrible. And I mean, horrible. The Slog Reviews: -1/10. Talk about an extremely tasteless bland sticky mash. Ugh. I took one bite and spat it out. We gave the rest to a Korean couple next to us.

We were too stuffed from the durians to go for dinner so my companion suggested going to 1Borneo. I'd been there before the last trip but I didn't remember the way there cos we had used the shuttle bus so we got rather lost on our bike. Luckily, my companion could speak Malay v well so he managed to get us there from KK City Center. 1Borneo is located near UMS, as any local there will tell you. This is a picture I took en route there.

Christmas decorations were still up at 1Borneo as you can see from the picture below. We walked around the shops without buying anything...the closest they have to anything branded would be Mont Blanc...and left about 8pm.

It was raining that night so thankfully we managed to reach Sedco Square before the rain started up again. We decided to try a different restaurant and after deliberating between Hua Hing Seafood restaurant below and Sri Mutiara, we decided on Hua Hing Seafood. The lady boss (do ask for the lao ban niang), a youngish attractive lady provided superb excellent service when it came to picking the seafood.

The Slog Reviews: 9/10. If you go Sedco Square, I strongly recommend you eat at Hua Hing Restaurant and ask for the female young lady boss to assist you in choosing the seafood. Not only is she friendly, able to speak English (and Chinese), but also honest (she weighs the seafood in front of you). She makes great recommendation and doesn't hard-sell any of the more expensive seafood to you. As per the picture below, I had a crayfish (mini-lobster) unlike any other sea creature I've seen before, a plate of two female crabs with roe (the lady boss picked them upon my request for crabs with eggs), a plate of veg and hotplate beancurd AND all that for only RM 114. Unbelievably cheap!!! That's only SGD 40+ for fresh live seafood...unbeatable price, service, taste and value.

The lady picked this little fella out for me from the tank - it stood out from the rest of its bros because of its color - the rest were black and white spotted. Cost was RM 10/100gm and this fellow cost RM 53 (SGD 21). This is the last pic of it alive on the weighing scale.

And yes, this is a picture of the little guy above split in half and cooked in the restaurant's recommended style of buttery cream-like sauce. The sauce was slightly oily but combined with the firm whitish sweet meat of the crayfish;....can you say heaven...

This is a close-up picture of the meat removed from the shell. Sigh, what wouldn't I give to be able to go back to KK right now and have more of this?

And finally, these 2 small female crabs steamed in egg white and some wine sauce. The cost was only RM 36 (less than SGD 20) for the 2 crabs which were cooked to perfection. The egg roe (the orange bits) were very tasty and I have to confess, I polished off this entire dish on my own without a pause, glad secretly that my companion did not enjoy crabs - yes, it was that good.

Fishing in Pekan

Malaysia has thirteen states. It is my intention to visit all 13 of them at least once. The ones in bold are those which I have yet to visit.
1) Perlis
2) Kedah (Feb 2010 - Airasia to Langkawi)
3) Penang
4) Perak
5) Kelantan
6) Pahang (Jan 2010 - self-drive to Pekan)
7) Terengganu (Aug 2009 - Airasia to Kuala Terengganu)
8) Selangor (many times)
9) Negeri Sembilan (Aug 2009 - self-drive to Port Dickson)
10) Malacca (Nov 2009 - self-drive to Melaka Town)
11) Sabah (Nov & Dec 2009 - Airasia to Kota Kinabalu)
12) Sarawak (Dec 2008 - MAS to Kuching, Sawarak)
13) Johor (many times - JB, Pontian, Muar, Segamat, Tangkat, Mersing, Rompin)

On Friday evening, I drove 5 straight hours to Pekan (driving time from SG to Pekan is 4-5hours), located in the state of Pahang for a light jigging trip. I used the coastal road straight through Mersing and Rompin and I think this is the furthest that I have driven my car (unless Port Dickson in the state of Negri Sembilan was further) in Malaysia. Many stretches of the road were dark, unlit and visibility was very limited unless with the high beam switched on. However, one cannot drive with high beam switched on all the time as it is blinding for drivers of cars coming from the opposite direction. Along the way, at the Mersing stretch, I was driving along concentrating on my side of the road and the edge (in case of stray animals wandering out on the road) when a car came around the bend at a very high speed and BANG, the next thing I saw was something white and black flying past my windscreen. The car did not stop after the collision and sped off in the night. The cow standing in the middle of its path died upon impact. I was shaken by the accident and reduced my speed driving to Pekan after that.

Reached Pekan about 1am and after a very simple shower at the boatman's 2 storey house, fell asleep until 6am the next morning. Had a simple and unremarkable breakfast of wanton mee (fried wantan) at the only coffeeshop opened at that hour and went straight to the jetty. After some engine trouble, we headed out to sea.

This offshore fishing trip was worth remembering because (a) I got sea-sick for the first time. I didn't throw up, thankfully but the sour bitter bile kept rising up at the back of my throat (b) I lost a sailfish which took my SGD 18.90 Pintail Lure. All because I never expected to get a fish THAT size and had used the usual small snap swivel I use for luring for groupers... I was letting the lure sink, feeling the line run out when I felt Tug Tug and I struck hard - the others on the boat saw the sailfish jump twice sideways awkwardly and then I felt the line go slack and knew it was gone. After I reeled in the line, I saw that only the swivel was left and part of the leader was abraded where it had contact with the sailfish. Damn. I used another pin-tail and I had a few bites on it by some sharp-toothed critter but that critter didn't take in the whole lure.

At the end of the fishing trip, I was the only one who was "fishless" the whole trip. That really sucked, in addition to losing the relatively expensive lure and the total of 12 hours on the road just to get to and fro Pekan. There was a newbie on board and he caught two fishes (the most number by any angler) and the largest one amongst all the fishes caught. Where's my fishing luck?!!!

Oh well, there are lessons to be learnt every fishing trip. This trip, I learnt (a) that I CAN drive up to Pekan. :) (b) to use a freaking split ring instead of a snap swivel when using the freaking pintail lure (c) to jig (variation of speed, imagine the jig's movement in the waters) and to strike hard 2 or times (ahhhh, that cost me a fishing competition in Sabah). And I also got to see the beauty of the sea - the brown, the green, the blue, the almost black blue of the waters blending into each other. If my camera was water-proof (yes, I definitely am going to upgrade my camera), I would have taken pictures of the incredibly beautiful waters and rainbow that we saw.

On the way back, we stopped for dinner at Restoran Lei Huat in Mersing which was next to a fairly large and well-stocked tackle shop which we visited. The restaurant is open until 11pm on a Fri night and is opposite the Shell petrol station near the roundabout We had their speciality pork ribs (so-so), sambal kangkong and prawns cooked in their special-sauce (some chilli mix). The Slog Reviews: 6.5/10. The cost of RM 38 for the 3 dishes, drinks and rice is rather reasonable. There were quite a number of local customers so the food mustn't have been too bad and it wasn't. However, it was just that - edible.