Monday, March 2, 2009

Kota Tinggi 2009

Just came back from Kota Tinggi having experienced the 2 major attractions namely Fireflies Cruise and Kota tinggi Waterfall. Besides that, Shao cheng had been a very good tour guide for bringing us around the places and introducing us to many delicious food, making us gain weights by at least a few kilos at the end of the trip. Not to forget his marvellous family members that made our trip a fulfilling one for driving us around! Thanks, you all.

Kota Tinggi Waterfall

Fireflies Cruise

Foods that made us Fat!

Day 1

To my extreme "pai-seh-ness", I need to say a big sorry to Shao Cheng and Sherman because I was late! Me and Sc were supposed to meet JE at 10:30am but I only woke up at that time when he called me! Totally uncalled for. I clearly remembered myself asking my mum the day before to give me a morning call but she forgets. I was in a crazy hurry (but still drank my coffee) and reached the MRT station at 11:30am.

Since I was late, our schedules were all pushed back by 45 mins. Meet up with Sherman, who was zombified, while waiting patiently for us me at Tenah merah. We took bus number 2 to Changi jetty and took a bum-boat ride to Pengerang.

Something about the bum-boat ride...

-You have to wait for 12 people to occupy the bum-boat before you can leave the changi jetty.
-The fee of ride is SGD 9.00
-The "bum-boat" rock like hell
-The ride is a 45mins one and extremely humid and hot one with water splashing about.

In anyway, we ate nasi lemak on the bum-boat and nothing else to do except looking at others who were sitting directly across you.

Reach Pengerang and we were greeted by a imp-like taxi driver who was obviously waiting for customers with his fellow mates. As if the bum-boat ride was not torturous enough, we were put to test in the taxi with 6 small banana flies that kept flying around us. However, the taxi driver was kind enough to tell us many things and he even had a name card!



Look like taxis in Singapore but I am really surprised at the amount of Kilometres they had to go and it seems like it will never run out of fuel. Anyway, the taxi fare was RM40.00 for 3 persons because they charged us by pax and they have no meters. If only we are able to find the 4th person then we are able to divide the costs... Taxi journey: half an hour or so.

Reached a place which I don't know where is it but I heard Sc saying "fei chui Restaurant" which sells cheap and delicious seafood. The taxi driver, which was very experienced, knows all the place around Pengerang and even know when they are opened or closed!

However, we went to explore around the place before we eat.



Huts by the sea



They catch the fishes from the sea and sort them according to types and sizes.



A bridge by the huts that leads to a beautiful view.



Children jumped into the sea at the end of the bridge and this was their favourite past time I guess.



Somewhere at tioman



The well that the movie, "The Ring" uses...

Bought some big size "Lau po bing" for RM2.00 each and some other food stuffs. Then we anyhow went to a restaurant because it suddenly rain. Although it was an "anyhow-go-into" restaurant, it still serves good food at reasonable price!



The restaurant name. By the way, they call it restoran in malay and that's why people in singapore said "Restaurant" as Res-tor-rian.



We ordered Kong(3) kong(4). Sc said that this dish can be only eaten during seasonal period. That means, it's rare! Taste like clam meat.



The way to eat it is to use a toothpick to poke at the meat in the inner of the shell. Then you try to drag out partially of the meat. Then you pull out the whole thing as demostrated by Sherman in the pic above.



Sambal Kang Kong. Whenever we order a vegetable species, it must be Sambal Kang Kong!



Gong Bao Tian Ji. Frog legs!



Lobsters! Not those very big one you saw on television ads where it is bigger than the small girl. It only cost RM 40.00 for this dish!



Not advised to eat the whole thing but to avoid troublesome, I gobbled the whole thing up while breaking a few teeth.

The bill came up to RM90.90 (divided by 3 persons) and further divide by 2 to convert to SGD which is about $15 per person!!! Oh my Tian~ Free photo taking with the lobsters included!







*Note to self: Use the same lobster for the entire photo taking session. When we put it back to the tank, it no longer fidget... (*Laugh hysterically*)

After the sumptous meal, we wanted to take a bus back to Sc's hometown but the bus only come at 5:30pm. (No choice, we want to save money, so never take taxi)

We went to walk around and found this.



Many small holes.



The small hole contained small crabs that moves around very fast. It camouflage itself well by having the same colour as the soil. We even mistaken the flies as the crabs as they shares the same size.

Nostalgia





Sc say lazy people use this machines because they don't need to boil the water and can drink directly from this machine. Look like japanese vending machine.



Yours sincerely, the olden days ESSO station



Accompanied by the old meter.



No smoking sign.

After looking at all the nostalgic things, we decided to act cute by eating ice cream while waiting for the bus. We saw the taxi driver that drove us earlier on. However, another taxi driver came along and gave us a deal that made us forget our bus waiting. He said that he will drive us to Sc's hometown for RM20.00.

As usual, Sc will chat with the taxi driver hoping for more discounts. Through the chatting, the taxi driver soon realised that Sc was the son of his friend and it seems like the taxi driver know almost everything about Sc's family members which Sc didn't even know!

He offered to let us stop and take pictures which we gladly accepted.



Somewhere at Bali after the Tsunami~



Somewhere at Bintan~



Sherman went to change his contact lense so he is not in the picture. (see? I remembered the slightest detail)



Sherman say his eyes was red so he better not open his eyes after returning from the toilet.

We quickly wrapped up with the photo-taking because we were afraid that the taxi driver might run away without us. We went back and the taxi driver was astounished by our speedy return. We kept it a secret about our fast actions until this day. *snigger*

After that, we continued with the taxi journey to Sc's house. It was raining heavily by the time we reached there. His house was terrace and that is equalivent to Singapore's HDB flat. It's so good to live in Kota Tinggi because of this condition but the travelling really makes me sick.

After putting down our luggages bags, we went to their pasar malam and it differs from Singapore's pasar malam mainly because they also sell meats, vegetables and spices.



We went to this clothes stall in the pasar malam and they sell Adidas and Nike T-shirt at a relatively cheap price. When asked if they were real, the sales girl said in a cheery tone like as if she didn't bluff, and said pointing to the clothes that they were indeed genuine. She said honestly that the others were all fakes but the ones we tried on were real and from Indonesia.

After some thoughts, we didn't buy it because it only had one colour; it only had one size; it only had one piece; and it might be fake ultimately.



We bought many food from the pasar malam and they were paid by Sc first, mainly because he was scare we were unfamiliar with the ringgits. Although he didn't say but I secretly know he care for us :)

*I call this phenomenon: on the house

We anyhow find a place to sit down and eat our stuffs bought from the pasar malam but we have to kay kay buy a few things from the shop so that we can eat outside food. However, we ordered more things from the shop than the pasar malam!



Well-cooked Cockles. Not those kind of bloody ones.



Stringray with Maggi mee sauce. Really, it taste like the Maggi's Tom yam sauce!



Bandung! Nice

The below 2 are bought from Pasar malam.



Don't know call what. It has coconut flakes and a crunchy sugary stuff in the middle. Not nice.



Pancakes with chocolate. The other food that we bought were Beancurd and "Zhu Chang Fen". Their "Zhu Chang Fen" is special because you can mix "Yong Tau foo" stuff with the sweet gravy. (I am feeling so hungry while typing this entry!)

After that, we went back to Sc's house and took a bath before to went to bed. Sc's younger brother is very cute and he is not shy towards strangers. The usual one will go hiding when there is visitors but not Li Zhi, Sc's bro name (Sounds like Lychee in chinese)

Day 2

Li Zhi and Sherman came into the room (Sherman was sleeping in another room downstairs) and woke me up. From the half opened door, I could see Sc's mum walked past and gave me a smile. I must have looked horrendous after my morning woke to deserve that smile.

We took a quick shower and Sc's mum kindly drove us to a Mee rubus stall for our breakfast.



Nothing much about the mee rubus except I tried to order Kopi in malay. It goes "Satu Kopi" but the stall holder replied in what sounds like Afghanistan language to me. To my horror, she was just asking if I want it cold or hot. Totally unexpected and this end my first malay ordering test.

With a full stomach, we went to the bus stop to wait for a bus to go Shopping. At there, we saw a very old building. According to Sc, it was a place for the swallows to build their nest using their own saliva. The nest of the swallow is to be made into Bird's nest, an expensive product used in chinese cooking for over 400 years(Wiki). The building produced a recorded swallow's sound to attract them in.



Shop for a while and went to eat a bowl of mee hoon kuey and didn't managed to finish it because I don't like big chunks of flour. Just eat the tender chicken and the leafy vege and call it a day.

Took Taxi to Holiday plaza and the uncle charged us RM6.00 for a short journey. According to Sc, who was very kiasu also, it was a ripped off. Despite last minute bargaining like saying we are students and such, the uncle remained firm and refused to give discounts.



Holiday plaza remind me of Queensway shopping centre. We also change some money at the money changer. The rate was 2.36 :0

Shop around and it's main attraction is the pirated CDs. Their CDs shop is unique because there is usually a slid door in the shop. Inside it, they are packing the shipped CDs into plastic bags which are sold in at a very cheap price. (Like RM5.00) I heard there is even Porn CDs.

Then later we took a bus to Jusco. It was like Vivo City. There are many shops like Levis, Giodano, QuikSilver, Roxy, Harris, Topshop etc. However, things sold there are around the same price as Singapore. We went to eat Chendol and have a mini chat there. We also bought Sushi as we had a sudden crave for it.







After that, we took bus to the firefly's venue. I got a cut near my elbow while rushing to board the bus.

When we reached there, we were quite early and we were told to wait for some tours from Singapore and Taiwan as they will be watching too. Saw a dead rat that got it's head squashed like don't know what. Shao cheng almost stepped on it to add on the misery.



Hi I am headless rat, Nice to meet you!

When the tour buses finally came, we are to wear bright orange life jacket and get ready for the fireflies cruise.





Somewhere at Chiang Mai





Night view of Singapore River

And so, the boat will bring us to the inner of the lake where it is very dark. All the things looks so peaceful and soon we reached the spot of fireflies. At first, some of the firefly will fly past but don't expect that many because humans kept destroying the natural habitiat and such.

Camera can't capture the image of a firefly. So basically, you should stop wasting your time to press the shutters and spend the time wisely to observe the natural beauty of the fireflies that decorates the trees into a christmas tree.



However, I still managed to capture the image of firefly. Tee hehe. <-- as if After that, it was supper time again! Sc suddenly became energetic when it comes to food and he bring us to a market that he used to eat during his school days. We begin our ordering spree.

dough sticks with infinite mayonaise, fried fish meat, sausages and prawn cakes. I know it's fattening but heck care about this night lah~



Satays



Chay kuey tiao with lots of cockles! This one is extremely tasty. Not too watery.



In fact, the chay kuey tiao got a thumbs up from Channel U food tasting programme. (Look at his shirt colour, representation from Channel U hor!)



Steam Dumplings.



Er hem. Wastage here done by Sherman and Sc. Tsk

After the fattening supper, we need to do some exercise. We went to the nearby fun fair and play Bumper car.




However, this Bumper car is not to be messed with. It's bumping power and collisions are F***ing hard. I suffered from bone fractured, internal bleeding and broken legs because I was stepping too hard on accelerator.



Played Bingo game and guess we aren't lucky enough. The guy next to Sc kept winning while we are not even closing to winning!



Didn't play most of the games there because it was raining irregularly. The muddy grounds were yucky and the rain made us very sticky after perspiring.



A miserable Mashi Maro was our only prize of the day.



Singapore Flyer~

After that KFC! and Sc's dad drove us back.

Day 3

Again, was woken up by Li zhi and Sherman. Quickly snatched the bathroom upon waking up while Sherman was not concentrating. HAHA! Breakfast was prepared for us and Sc's mum drove us to the Kota tinggi waterfall after breakfast. Li Zhi was not allowed to go as it was very dangerous. He was very sad because the usual talkative him, was quiet for the whole journey.



Man made attractions at the foot of the Water fall.





Then we climb up to the peak of the waterfall





Tada! A "post card" wannabe shot!



We played in the water.



Trying to get near the waterfall to experience the pressurize water free massaging!



The rock is super slippery and I fall a dozen times.



Shiok!

I hope time can stop and I cannot bare to leave the cooling water once I get into it. I hope my house have one waterfall so that whenever my back aches after a tiring Dota session, I can grab a towel and go to the Waterfall for the back massaging treatment. In my dreams~

After that, we got changed and Sc's dad drove us back. I guess we had been very troublesome to them since our arrival because Sc's parents took turn to drive us back and fro. Really, travelling takes up most of time in this Kota Tinggi trip.

Took a bath and packed up our stuffs. Then, lunch was Nasi lemak at Sc's house and we took farewell photos with Li Zhi.







Sc, you don't need to say farewell to your own bro -_-.

With everything all set to go, we said goodbye to the Heng family for the lodging. Sc's dad drove us to the bus station and we took a 1hr 45mins bus to City Square at JB.

At there, we saw two unfortunate experiences of a group of Malays and chinese fighting. There were also a group of Malays ganging up on one chinese, robbing him of his valuables. The security guards were ineffiencient like taking a stroll in the park when the incident happened. Suddenly lost the mood of shopping and hope to return to Singapore as soon as possible.

Before we leave JB, we dine at Kenny Rogers Roasters



We bid goodbye to Sc, which had been very kind to send us off at JB. (He had to go back to Kota Tinggi through the horrifying 1hr 45mins bus ride again!) Me and sherman were left on our own for the first time and we were so scare because of the previous incident at City Square. We will only find peace when we reached Singapore.

When we reached the Custom, we are not sure whether we are still at JB or singapore. We just follow the crowds and take SBS bus 170 or 160 to Woodlands check point. I asked my sis to drive me home and sherman to the nearest MRT station.

Both of us were very tired but was glad that we were safe and sound for the whole journey. I experienced a lot in this journey and I will never forget this amazing trip with you guys!



P/S: Italics means anyhow say.

by Anonymous at 2:14 PM |