DAY 1: Friday, June 10, 2022
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| Rantau Panjang |
9.00 am Soh Ai, Wai Yu and I left home for breakfast at Bandar Mahkota Cheras (BMC). We bought some Swiss Roll cakes and Hokkaido Cake (total RM65.90) from Butter & Olive Pastry House, BMC as gifts to a few relatives we were visiting soon.
10.45 am We arrived at Soh Ai’s 5th uncle Say Eng and auntie Doris’s house at Bandar Utama, PJ to pick up Ah Ma (my mother-in-law). She had been in PJ for almost 2 weeks and visited her brother in JB earlier. She had quite a bit of luggage to take home and I was very amused when Doris remarked that she was like “balik Tong San”.
11.05 am We visited Ji-an and her 1 month plus old baby 2 streets away. The baby Aria is very cute.
11.20 am We proceeded to north with Wai Yu doing the driving.
12.30 pm We stopped at Hentian Tg. Malim to go to the washroom.
3.25 pm We patronized Restoran Light House Seafood (海灯沙煲海鲜粥) at Jln. Titi Kertang, Matang, Taiping for a late lunch / early dinner. The seafood porridge (沙煲海鲜粥) was nice (RM45). We also had lala clam (RM18), fried fish (RM12) and vege (RM15). All-in price including rice and drink was RM95.
4.00 pm After meal, I took the wheel to go to Rantau Panjang, Selama, Perak.
5.45 pm We reached Rantau Panjang.
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| At coffee shop at Bandar Mahkota Cheras |
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| Uncle Say Eng's house at Damansara Utama |
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| Ah Ma and her great-grand-daughter |
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| Hentian Tg. Malim |
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| Matang, Taiping |
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| Signature seafood porridge (RM45) |
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| Rantau Panjang's house |
DAY 2: Saturday, June 11, 2022
3.00 pm We visited Kedai Serbaneka Jimat at Selama Perak and bought a varieties of goods such as canned drinks, umbrella. Tibtrap fly-paper etc (RM30.50).
As we were about to leave, it started raining heavily which lasted for the rest of the day and evening!
During the rainy night, I managed to finish reading the 91-page long book “Strangers On A Pier” written by Tash Aw, son of my senior friend Mr. Aw Eng Sun who gifted me the book earlier. I found certain interesting points after reading and promptly posed my questions to Mr. Aw via WhatsApp.
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| Kedai Serbaneka Jimat, Selama, Perak |
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| Heavy rain |
DAY 3: Sunday, June 12, 2022
9.15 am Soh Ai, Wai Yu and I went to Selama town for noodle breakfast. I had dumpling earlier at Ah Ma’s house and just took coffee there.
After breakfast, we went to the bus station / market to enquire about about bus trip to Taiping.
As Wai Yu would be using the car to visit his friends in Penang from this day onwards (initially planned to return to KL on Friday, June 17), Soh Ai and I would not have any vehicle to use and we planned to take a bus or train from Taiping to KL on Tuesday, June 14.
It seemed there is still bus service to ply between Selama and Taiping, but we were not really sure. I thought worse comes to worst, we could take a taxi (though not very sure if available).
11.30 am Wai Yu drove off earlier to Bukit Mertajam (BM) to visit his Duagu (my brother-in-law Sze Hean)’s family. Ah Ma followed us to BM using Soh Ai’s cousin sister Kok Wei’s Viva car.
12.50 pm We reached Residensi Tropika, BM and visited Sze Hean’s family.
1.30 pm Sze Hean took us all (9 pax) to Restoran Chao Zhou (Teochew Food) (美香味 (南美园) 冷气鱼翅酒家) at Lorong Tembikai 1, Kawasan Perniagaan Sungai Rambai, BM for a sumptuous lunch. We went in 2 cars with one driven by 18-year old Xinyi who got her driving licence not very long ago.
2.30 pm After lunch, Sze Hean and Yen Li took me to BM Train Station to check the ETS’ schedule. Hean suggested that it was more convenient to take a train back to KL instead of express bus. He offered to fetch Soh Ai and I from Rantau Panjang to his house in BM on Tuesday or Wednesday night so that we could take the train on Thursday (a delayed date of return was contemplated).
From the train station, Sxe Hean took me to buy the famous Rojak Orang Hitam (黑白人啰吔) near BM central market. I bought a packet of the rojak (RM5) and 2 cups of rojak sauce (RM6 each).
5.30 pm Ah Ma, Soh Ai and I left BM while Wai Yu put up a night there.
5.50 pm We stopped by Kulim to have our wantan mee (as recommended by Ah Ma) dinner at Restoran Lum Khee (林记祖传自制云吞面 ). The noodle was really tasty and cheap. 2 plates of wantan mee + 1 bowl of wantan (RM16.00), 2 glasses of herbal tea (RM1.60 each) and take-away mee and wantan (RM8.00) cost me only RM27.20. I alos bought 2 pcs. vege pau (菜包 RM1.60 each) and 2 pc. meat pau (RM2.40 each). The take-way wantan mee and 1 pc of vege pau and meat pau were supposed to given to Soh Ai’s uncle (二叔) who lives next door in Rantau Panjang. I also pumped full-tank petrol (RM20.94) to the car we borrowed from Ah Wei.
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| Breakfast with dumpling and coffee |
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| Selama town |
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| Coffee shop at Selama Perak |
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| Wai Yu posing with Ah Ma now and then (pic below) |
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| Residency Tropika, Bukit Mertajam |
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| Teochew food restaurant at Bkt Mertajam |
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| Bkt Mertajam train station |
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| ETS train schedule from BM to KL Sentral |
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| Famous rojak at BM |
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| Back to Sze Hean's residence |
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| Kulim town |
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| Patronizing old established wantan mee restaurant |
DAY 4: Monday, June 13, 2022
9.00 am I took the pau bought from BM yesterday and 1 pc. dumpling for breakfast while Soh Ai went to Aaron Coffee House for hers. I found the pau only so-so and not really that tasty.
Later, I walked with Soh Ai to the nearby Post Office near the main road where she settled the utility bills for Ah Ma.
5.25 pm We borrowed Ah Wei’s car to go to Selama town where I bought a tablet cutter (RM25.00) at Watson’s and a box of Pyeputtyfilla (RM6.50), an alarm clock (RM6.50) and 8 no. Eveready AA batteries (RM11.50) from Mr. D.I.Y. Upon returning, I patched up the plaster-cracks of the down-stair bed room of Ah Ma’s house.
In the evening after simple dinner cooked by Ah Ma, Soh Ai and I strolled along the kampung baru area where I took a few satisfactory selfie and sunset photos.
It was decided that we would extend our stay in Rantau Panjang till Thursday, June 16 and wait for Wai Yu to pick us up to return home together instead of we taking ETS train from BM.
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| Pasar Pagi every Monday morning at Rantau Panjang |
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| My breakfast |
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| Post Office at Rantau Panjang |
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| Jalan Besar, Rantau Panjang |
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| Old market place of Rantau Panjang |
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| Archway of Rantau Panjang |
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| Beautiful sunset |
DAY 5: Tuesday, June 14, 2022
8.30 am We borrowed Ah Wei’s car to go down to Selama town for breakfast. As the quantity of the wantan mee I took was quite small, I bought another 2 small packets of nasi lemak (RM1 each) at Selama and 1 pc. of Apam Balik (RM3) from Rantau Panjang for consumption later.
A bad news of Soh Ai’s uncle Ooi (二姨丈) of PJ passed away this morning came in. In order to attend the wake, we decided to return home the next day and informed Wai Yu to come and fetch us then.
Soh Ai’s uncle (二叔) bought for us 9 pc. of durian kampung for RM50.00 to bring back to KL. They were really cheap (but it was discovered later not that good).
After dinner, we strolled along the neighbourhood and I snapped 2 photos of the SRJK (China) Chi Sheng no. 2 where Soh Ai studied from Standard 1 to 5 (i.e. 1971 to 1976).
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| A vcry old coffee shop at Selama town |
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| Wall painting at a side lane. The Blue Ribbon Bus has ceased operation for a long time and becomes historical. |
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| Jalan Menteri the main road from Selama to Rantau Panjang |
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| The only supermarket in Selama town |
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| Jalan Besar, Rantua Panjang. The betel nuts are being dried by Soh Ai's uncle. |
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| Apam balik stall across the road of Ah Ma's house |
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| My nasi lemak and apam balik |
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| Durian kampung all for RM50 only |
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| Ah Ma cooking egged meat soup with rice wine |
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| Soh Ai's primary school at Rantau Panjang |
DAY 6: Wednesday, June 15, 2022
9.00 am Soh Ai and I went to the nearby Aaron Coffee House (威威咖啡屋) for Jave mee breakfast.
10.30 am Wai Yu returned to Rantau Panjang.
11.30 am We bid Ah Ma farewell and left Rantau Panjang. I drove to Ipoh for lunch at Cafe Wonderland, Jalan Sultan Nazrin Shah, Ipoh.
2.10 am Arrived at Cafe Wonderland (寻梦花园) which was formerly a residence of a 1950s old tycoon tin miner. We separately ordered nasi lemak with curry chicken (for me, RM19), Ipoh chicken soup noodle and prawn soup noodle (RM17 each), Hong Kong egg dart (RM3), salted egg yolk puff (RM4), 2 cups of white coffee (RM10) and 1 soys milk (RM70. Total cost plus 10% service charge and 6% service tax amounted to RM89.30.
Wai Yu took the wheel after lunch and we stopped at one Hentian for a break along N-S highway.
7.20 pm Finally returned home sweet home.
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| Aaron Coffee House run by Soh Ai's primary classmate Ah Boon and family |
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| My Java mee breakfast |
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| The Viva car I had borrowed twice for going to Selama town |
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| Wai Yu chatting with Ah Ma before departure |
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| Cafe Wonderland in Ipoh |
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| On the way home along N-S highway |
