On August 24, 2012 (Friday), I drove to Kuala Pilah with my wife Soh Ai, friends Anthony Kon, Yong Yew Khoon and his wife Kan Pian in my Toyota Avanza. The purpose of this trip was just to while away the time of holiday to a place where my wife and I have never been to, and to savour the famous fresh-water or soft-shelled turtle soup (水鱼汤) as suggested by Anthony, after our recent trip to Titi and Broga 4 days ago.
Kuala Pilah is a town and district in Negeri Sembilan and it is an old valley town with many of the pre-war Chinese shop houses still fronting the main streets surrounded by traditional style Malay village houses built on stilts nestled amongst extensive rice fields.
We left Bandar Sg Long at 8.30am and used the SILK highway not far from our residential area. The first stop was Seri Menanti which is the royal capital of the state of Negeri Sembilan. We passed by and saw the current residence of the Yamtuan Besar (the local equivalent of the Sultan) or the Istana Besar.
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| Entrance to Royal Museum of Seri Menanti, Kuala Pilah |
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| A pose with Yong YK |
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| Mr & Mrs Yong YK |
At 9.40am, we stopped by the Royal Museum only to make use of the toilets and take some photos. There were just two other passenger cars of visitors parked there besides us at that time. As we hadn’t taken our breakfast yet, we didn’t spend too much visiting this museum.
At 10.10am, we reached the town and parked the car at the Bus Station and Taxi Stand area, before walking to a Hainanese coffee shop for breakfast. This shop house is a really deep from the front and has 2 staircases. It must have heritage value.
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| The Hainanese coffee shop we patronized |
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| Hainanese coffee shop's delicacies |
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| Pic (left): Yong YK, Kan Pian and Soh Ai |
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| Hainanese mee |
We took Hainanese kopi-o, steamed bread and a plate of Hainanese mee, knowing that after this we were going for the fresh water turtle soup. Anthony played the host.
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| Anthony leaving his high school classmate's shop |
As we walked towards the hexagonal shaped market place, Anthony managed to pay a visit to his former high school classmate who runs a hardware shop nearby. He commented that his classmate looked so old now that he initially mistook him as the father of his classmate.
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| duck feet wrap |
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| Fresh-water turtle soup |
There are a number of food outlets and the most famous is of course the fresh-water turtle soup which is a delicacy there. We ordered one bowl of soup each (RM 7) and also tasted 'Ngap Kiok Pau” (or duck feet wrap - 鸭脚包, RM 1.20 each). The herbal fresh-water turtle soup was okay but the duck feet wrap was plain. Anthony paid for the soup and I the duck feet wrap.
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| Gula ori |
We also bought ‘gula ori’ (brown sugar) for 5 pieces at RM 10 from a young Malay hawker as we left the market place at about 11.25am.
I found out the Kuala Pilah people are really friendly. A Chinese passer-by guided us where we wanted to go (to a public toilet inside the market) and another told us about there being nothing much to see in this town except the famous fresh-water turtle soup.
We left Kuala Pilah at about 11.45am and drove to the nearby town Bahau. But we didn’t stop there at all as we didn’t know where to go. We just passed by the town and returned towards Kuala Pilah, after we decided to have lunch in Semenyih instead of Bahau.
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| Lunch at Restoran 52, Semenyih |
We reached Semenyih at about 2.00pm and had our lunch at Restoran 52 near Semenyih town. We took 4 dishes comprising lightly deep fried tilapia, Hakka braised fried pork, homemade tofu, and vege (RM 62 paid by Yong YK).
We returned home at 3.30pm. I felt that this trip was not as enjoyable as the one we had to Titi and Broga, but it was good enough to get to know some places in the country.