JUST TO SHARE (Lau Tai Onn): 2018 CNY’s 6D5N Trip to Rantau Panjang, Selama, Perak

Reunion dinner on the 2nd day of CNY in Rantau Panjang, Selama, Perak

In conjunction with the Chinese New Year (CNY) 2018, my entire family members (plus a new member, i.e. Taiwanese daughter-in-law Jia-Mei) returned to my wife Soh Ai’s hometown in Rantau Panjang, Selama, Perak for 6D5N from Wednesday, 14/02/2018 till Monday, 19/02/2018. My eldest son Bryan returned by bus on the night of 13/02/2018 reaching Bukit Mertajam to be picked up by Soh Ai’s brother Sze Hean, and my second son Wai Jen took ETS train on the night of 16/02/2018 to be picked up by me at Taiping KTM station.

On Wednesday, 14/02/2018, Soh Ai, Wai Yu, Jia-Mei, Wai Kei and I left Bdr. Sg. Long at 9.00am for our journey to north. Soh Ai and I had taken our breakfast earlier at a coffee shop in our garden and bought take-away breakfast for the children.

The traffic condition of North-South Highway was very smooth-flowing. It was a pleasant surprise that there were very few cars on the highway 2 days before CNY.

We wanted to have our lunch at Restoran Jin Chen near Tapah toll gate but it was already closed for business to usher in CNY. We proceeded further to stop over at Kawasan Rehat RTC Perak (near Gopeng) for lunch and bought some fruits at 11.45am. Wai Yu took the wheel from me and drove from there all the way to our destination at Rantau Panjang.

As I was concentrated in playing with my handphone as a passenger after passing by Kamunting and not keeping an eye on the route for Wai Yu, we went past the T-junction leading to Selama and went to Batu Kurau instead, causing a delay of ½ hour in reaching Rantau Panjang at 2.55pm.

We went for dinner at Selama town together with Soh Ai’s youngest brother Sze Teong and his wife Kitty Wan at 7.00pm. My mother-in-law (hereinafter referred to as Ah Ma) didn’t join us. The cost of 5 dishes (酱蒸金凤鱼 RM 33, 红烧猪脚RM 25, 招牌豆腐 RM 16, 四大天王 RM 18, 沙律苏东 RM 23) and 1 soup (咸菜豆腐汤 RM 10) plus rice (RM 8) and tea (RM 4) came up to a reasonable price of RM 137.

Stopping over at RTC Perak near Gopeng, Perak

Food court of RTC Perak

Traffic condition was very smooth

Wai Yu took over the wheels from RTC Perak to Rantau Panjang

Dinner at Selama, Perak

Pic from left: Bryan, Kitty, Sze Teong, Wai Kei, the blogger, Soh Ai, Jia-Mei, Wai Yu

Dishes costing RM 137 only

Rantau Panjang at dusk

In the morning of Thursday, 15/02/2018 which was the CNY eve, Soh Ai and her youngest brother Sze Teong and I went to Selama town for breakfast. We visited the nearby market to buy some food stuff for Ah Ma.

The lunch prepared by Ah Ma was very delicious, in particular of her speciality dishes of spiced duck (卤鸭) and meatloaf or lorbak (肉卷). Soh Ai’s eldest sister Sock Kim together with her hubby Chooi KH and youngest daughter Ji-An also came for a short while before going back to Chooi’s hometown in Menglembu, Ipoh, and had lunch here. Soh Ai’s brother Sze Hean brought her family from Bukit Mertajam in the afternoon but did not stay overnight. Bryan drove my car with his brothers and Jia-Mei and followed Hean to go back to Bukit Mertajam (BM) after dinner and spent the night and the following morning there.

Ah Ma with Jia-Mei in the kitchen

Wai Kei relaxing

Praying session on the 1st day of CNY

Lunch prepared by Ah Ma

Lunch on CNY eve

LeYi with youngest brother Jia-Wei

Dinner time

LeYi playing with her handphone camera

Selfie stick for photos

Bryan playing with Jia-Wei

Jia-mei having a photo taken with me after receiving my CNY ang-pow

Wefie taken by Jia-mei

On Friday the 1^st day of CNY, 16/02/2018, Bryan and brothers came back to Rantau Panjang in the afternoon. A simple dinner comprising omelet and canned satin fish was prepared by Sze Teong.

At 10.00pm, Soh Ai and I left Rantau Panjang to drive to Taiping KTM station. It took us about 1 hour to reach Taiping. The ETS train arrived punctually at 11.26pm as scheduled and we picked up Wai Jen to return to Rantau Panjang at about 12.45am midnight.

Sze Teong cooking for our dinner

Jia-Mei and LeYi watching TV

Dinner prepared by Sze Teong and Kitty Wan

KTM Station in Taiping

Waiting to pick up Wai Jen travelling with ETS from KL Sentral

ETS train arriving punctually as scheduled at 11.26pm

Passengers coming out from train

The 2nd day of CNY on Saturday, 17/02/2018 saw a grander reunion when we had a sumptuous steamboat dinner for more relatives, after Sock Kim and family returned from Menglembu and Ji-An’s boyfriend Ruben came from Penang.

Going for breakfast at Selama, Perak town

Preparing the ingredients for laksa

LeYi posing as a model

LeYi's favourite cotton candy

Children playing card games

Jia-Wei and his cotton candy

Preparation of steamboat dinner

Wai Jen playing with his cousins

Wai Kei and Jia-Wei

Ah Ma with LeYi

A view of the steamboat dinner about to start

A pose with Soh Ai during the steamboat dinner (photo snapped by Sze Teong)

Pic from left: Ji-An, Ruben, Bryan, Ah Ma (standing), Jia-Wei and Sze Hean

Ah Ma talking to grand-daughter Jin-Ni from Australia vide WhatsApp video call

Pic from left: Jia-mei, LeYi, Chooi KH, Wai Jen, the blogger, Soh Ai, Bryan, Sze Teong (standing), Ah Ma, Ji-An, Ruben, Sock Kim and Wai Yu

Ah Ma with her four children (seated left: Sze Hean, standing from left: Soh Ai, Sze Teong, Sock Kim)

Ah Ma with grandson Wai Yu and granddaughter-in-law Jia-Mei

The route from Rantau Panjang to Taiping

Soh Ai and I woke up at 5.15am on Sunday, 18/02/2018 and we fetched Wai Jen to Taiping to catch his ETS train to KL departing at 7.05am. Wai Yu and Jia-Mei also followed us.

After seeing Wai Jen off, we went to “Tycoon Villa” at Desa Aulong Utama, Taiping to pay a visit to Soh Ai’s cousin brother Kok Yeaw and his wife Kitty Ewe.

We went for noodle breakfast together with Kok Yeaw and his wife Kitty Ewe in the nearby coffee shop at about 8.00am. After that, Kok Yeaw took us to go for sight-seeing of Taiping Lake and the surrounding scenic spots such as the Raintree Walk, Bukit Larut and etc. We left Taiping at about 10.45am and returned to Rantau Panjang at about 12.00pm noon.

As we were told that there would be a lion dance at Sze Hean’s new house at 3.30pm, we left Rantau Panjang at 2.00pm for BM. Ah Ma also followed us. As I was quite tired after waking up early in the morning and driving to and fro Taiping earlier, Bryan took the wheel for the journey to BM.

We reached Hean’s house of “Residensi Tropika” at BM at about 3.15pm. But the lion dance was not in sight as scheduled (it eventually came at about 6.30pm). We waited till 4.30pm and decided to leave.

We wanted to have something to eat at Kulim town but found all Chinese restaurants or coffee shops still closed. We finally returned to Selama town to have our dinner at Country Restaurant (家乡饭店). The restaurant we patronized earlier (where the food price was said to be cheaper) was closed. The cost of 5 dishes and 1 soup came up to be RM174.

Inside Taiping KTM station

Wai Jen posed with Wai Yu and Jia-Mei before departure

Departure platform

Train arriving

Outside Taiping KTM Station at 7.10am

Visiting Kok Yeaw at his house in Tycoon Villa, Taiping

Kok Yeaw's bungalow house

Breakfast at Desa Aulong Utama, Taiping

Pic from left: Kok Yeaw, Kitty Ewe, Soh Ai, Wai Yu and Jia-mei

Taman Tasik Taiping

Surrounding area of Taiping Lake

Maxwell Hill entrance

A view of the cramped passengers in Kok Yeaw's car

Lotus lake with dried out leaves

A very scenic Raintree Walk

A pose with Kok Yeaw (pic right), Kitty Ewe and Soh Ai

Visiting Sze Hean's new house in Residensi Tropika, Bkt. Mertajam

Jia-Wei dressed fully in red

Dinner at Selama, Perak

Dishes costing a total of RM 174

Red fish cooked in Teochew style steaming

Mamee pork

In front of Ah Ma's house in the evening of Sunday, 18/02/2018

Soh Ai, Wai Yu, and Jia-Mei and I returned to KL in the morning of Monday, 19/02/2018 while Bryan and Wai Kei would take ETS train from Butterworth in the evening of the same day. Soh Ai and I went to Selama town to have our noodle breakfast at 8.00am and bought take-away noodles for Ah Ma and the children. We left Rantau Panjang at 10.30am after bidding farewell to Ah Ma.

The traffic condition was very heavy as we hit the highway from Taiping. We took a break for coffee at Hentian Sebelah Bukit Gantang at 12.10pm. Wai Yu took the wheel from there and we were caught in a very bad jam on the highway before and after Ipoh, very slow moving and standstill many times. It was understood that there was an accident in the Menora Tunnel near Jelapang in the late morning involving the collision of two cars in the northbound tunnel and causing a back-up of traffic for 5 km and a jam that lasted almost 2 hours.

The slow-moving traffic was worsened by the heavy rain that started to fall at about 3.00pm. All R&R rest stations could be seen packed with long queue of vehicles. We drove out of the highway at about 5.00pm and had our dinner (fried rice and fried noodles) at Restoran Jin Chen near Taipah toll amidst heavy rain. By the time we finished our dinner, the rain stopped and I took the wheel from Wai Yu.

On the way back home, it was the first time that I used the LATAR (Lebuhraya Assamjawa Taman Rimba) or Kuala Lumpur-Kuala Selangor Expressway, following a suggestion by Sze Teong to bypass KL town, by turning towards Selayang after passing Rawang. It led us to Ampang and Jalan Cheras, after paying 2 additional closed toll fares.

We finally reached home at 9.05pm, after spending a total of 10.5 hours for a distance of 332 km! That concluded our 6D5N trip to my wife's hometown in conjunction with the CNY of 2018.