Adventure page

Inez' visit, February 2018

My friend Inez visited us in August 2007, here is a report. That was more than 10 years ago . This time it was again a short visit, it would have been nice to visit the East Coast, but it was monsoon time there, and she had never been in Penang, so we decided to go there and visit some interesting places on our way.

We fetched her from the airport and after a cup of coffee drove home. To immerse her immediately in the tropical atmosphere, we went for dinner to the crowded SS2 food court, and had some local specialties there.

During her stay it was Thaipusam, a big celebration in Penang, and to avoid the crowd and the traffic jam we started a 4D3N trip the next morning after she arrived.

Arrival at KLIA

Dinner in the SS2 food court

Chee Cheong Fun and Popiah

Next morning, discussing our trip

Breakfast with Thosai

Our first destination was the Kek Lok Tong temple in Ipoh. Two features make this temple interesting, it is a limestone cave with beautiful limestone formations, and when you walk through the temple you enter a nice secluded garden.

A laughing Buddha

Spectacular limestone formations

Walking through the temple

Entering the garden

Peaceful

We had lunch in Lou Wong, one of the popular Ipoh restaurants, serving chicken with taugeh and kway teow soup.

After lunch we continued to Suka Suka, a retreat on the banks of the Chenderoh reservoir, between Kuala Kangsar and Lenggong. I had been the guest of Aziz and Asiah here several times and I was sure Inez would like it. I was right...:-)

Lunch at Lou Wong

Arrival at Suka Suka

Our chalet

Nice garden

Bird Nest Fern

Aziz has bought several old Malay houses, taken them apart and rebuilt them on his land. One of them we had booked. We spent a lazy afternoon, walking around in the garden and enjoying the view of the lake.

Meanwhile Asiah was busy in the kitchen, preparing our dinner. It is always a surprise which delicacies are on the menu and she is happy to explain. The same holds for the breakfast the next morning. Reluctantly we had to leave for Penang.

Lake Chenderoh

Romantic sunset

The restaurant

Asiah explaining what she has prepared for us.

Delicious Malay food

Dinner with the family

Breakfast the next morning

Enjoying the tranquil atmosphere

I could stay here long time

Approaching Penang island

Our trips are usually a mixture of nature, culture and food, and this trip was no exception...:-) After crossing the 2nd Penang bridge, we headed first for an Assam Laksa shop. Aric is collecting information about Assam Laksa shops, have a look at his website

We had booked the Straits Heritage at Soo Hong Lane, a luxury boutique homestay in the heart of the World Heritage Site of Georgetown. Not cheap, but worth the money, the whole house for ourselves.

After a short rest we walked around the historical town center, starting with Pitt street, also nicknamed Harmony street, because a Mosque, a Hindu temple and a Chinese tempple are located near each other along this street .

Assam Laksa lunch

Our homestay in Georgetown

With a shared bedroom :-)

Kapitan Keling Mosque

Sri Maha Mariamman Temple

Kuan Yin Temple

Penang has become famous for its mural art. It started with Ernest Zacharevic, in my opinion still the best. See my report Penang Street Art, written in 2014. There is now mural art everywhere, not always special.

Boy on motorcycle (Zacharevic)

Little Children on bicycle (Zacharevic)

Reaching up (Zacharevic)

Burning (Cloakwork)

Artist unknown

Late afternoon, we went up to the Kek Lok Si temple, the main Chinese temple of Penang, but it was closed , so we had to be content with a view from the hill top. For our dinner we went to a huge foodcourt, the Super Tanker foodcourt. Finally back to our homestay, enjoying the Peranakan atmosphere.

Blessing the Buddha(?)

View from Kek Lok Si temple

Super Tanker food court

Our dinner

Enjoying our homestay

The next morning we wanted to have breakfast at the Kuih Nyonya Moh Teng Pheow shop, which opens only at 10:30. Worth to wait for their delicious food.

Therefore we first visited the Khoo Kongsi, the most elaborate Chinese clanhouse in Penang.

Khoo Kongsi

Decorated pillars

Detail

Ceiling

Entrance guards

Our breakfast

After our breakfast we walked around a bit more , then went back to our homestay, returned the key to the friendly Indonesian housekeeper and drove to the Snake Temple. Not so many snakes this time, but still interesting.

Penang heritage town

Five-foot way

Nice temple

Our friendly housekeeper

Snake temple

Snake inside the temple

For our lunch we crossed the bridge back to the mainland and went to the Floating Seafood Paradise in Bukit Tambun. In this restaurant you walk along the various tanks and select what you like to eat. Cannot be more fresh...:-) We had oysters, mantis praws, pomfret and horseshoe crab.

It was the first time I had horseshoe crab, you only eat the eggs, prepared in a salad

Our lunch

Nice surroundings

Oysters

Mantis prawns, alive and dead ..:-)

Horseshoe Crab

Delicious lunch

We continued to Kuala Kurau, a nice fishing village. Aric and I had been here already, two years ago, we liked the place and had booked accommodation in the homestay of Khoon, who still recognised us.

We spent a relaxed afternoon, Aric did some droning , and for our dinner we took it easy, walked to the night market, bought some snack food there, and had our dinner in the homestay

Our homestay in Kuala Kurau

River view

Aric starting his drone

Drone view of our homestay

Evening view

Pasar Malam food

The next morning, after breakfast, we drove to the Hua Seng Keng temple, in the midst of palm oil plantations. This Chinese temple is interesting because of its depections of hell, showing the various punishments you will get for the sins you have committed. A small-scale version of the famous Haw Par villa in Singapore.

Hua Seng Keng temple

Holy(?) water

View from "Heaven"

Surrounded by oil palms

Heaven

Entering Hell

Waiting for the Judgment

Heaven or Hell

In the cooking pot

Sawn in two

Trampled by a horse

Thrown on spikes

Khoon, our host in Kuala Kurau, had suggested that we could visit a charcoal kiln, on our way back home . But first we had lunch in Kuala Gula.

The charcoal kiln was a nice experience, not at all touristy, like the ones in Kuala Sepetang, we could just walk around, one kiln was working, a second one was being prepared.

Crab meehoon in Kuala Gula

River view

Charcoal kiln

Using mangrove wood

Ready to start the process

Inside a kiln

It was a rewarding 4D3N trip, full of variety. And we still had several more days.

The next morning I took Inez to IKEA, my regular breakfast place, where we met some of my friends. From there we took the hypermodern MRT metro to the historical town center, where we walked around, had lunch with some snack food, visited the Central market and had coffee there.
For more info about the various heritage buildings, see my report KL Heritage

We ended this day with a dinner at home, spaghetti with courgette and smoked salmon.

Breakfast in IKEA

In the MRT

The Clocktower

Masjid Jamek

Victoria fountain

Sultan Abdul Samad Building

Central Market

Inside Central Market

Having coffee

And dinner at home

Spaghetti with courgette and salmon

The next day we decided to take it easy, wake up late, relax at home, and only in the afternoon become active. I had told Inez about Bukit Kiara, where I walk regularly and she was interested to see this beautiful place with her own eyes.

We had an enjoyable walk, visited a few of my favourite places, came back home and decided to order Japanese food from a delivery service. We deserved a lazy day...:-)!

Bukit Kiara

The Shrine

Paying respect to the deities

Beautiful tree

Checking my geocache

Dinner by delivery service!

Of course Inez' visit would not be complete without a waterfall trip. We decided to go to Chiling, the most popular waterfall of Selangor, where you have to cross a river multiple times to reach the waterfall. It was a Sunday, there might be many visitors.

On our way, we stopped in Rasa for breakfast. When we arrived at the trailhead to Chiling we were shocked by the huge number of parked cars and vans. On the spot we decided it would not be fun to go with the crowd, so we continued to Fraser's hill, to visit another waterfall there.

It was for me an opportunity to have a look at the present status of the Gap Resthouse, from where the winding road up Fraser's Hill starts. I have been staying in this colonial mansion several times, it was managed by two Hainanese brothers, good cooks. When their lease expired it was not renewed, they left and the Resthouse was closed. Shameful.

Breakfast in Rasa

Unnamed waterfall

The Gap Resthouse

Used to be a great place

Now in shambles

Fraser's Hill

The Jeriau waterfall is not a spectacular waterfall, but the trail is easy with many flowers. We had lunch in the village and drove down the other side of the hill, to Bentong.

That was a bit of a mistake, as we got caught in a huge traffic jam. We accepted that we would be back home late, stopped in Bentong for durian and even visited the Chamang waterfall, very powerful this time.

Entrance of Jeriau fall

Beauty of nature

The Jeriau fall

Playful visitors

Durian!

Chamang Fall

We had a late dinner, with steamboat and a beer.

The last day we went to the coast, to Kuala Selangor and Sekinchan. The Redang beach in Sekingchan is popular because of its wishing tree and the treehouses. You take a coin, tied to a red ribbon , swing it and throw it into the tree, while doing a wish and hoping that the ribbon will be caught by the tree branches. The tree houses are mainly built from flotsam, nice places to relax. After a lunch with lala omelette, we visited the Nine Emperor Gods temple, surrounded by padi fields.

Next we visited Bukit Melawati in Kuala Selangor with its white lighthouse. You can buy stringbeans to feed the attractive Silvery Langurs. One of them jumped on my shoulder!

After a seafood dinner, we ended the day with a firefly boat trip. Huge numbers of fireflies are blinking together, not possible to take pictures, but quite a sight.