Same Old Place, Different Experience

Just came back from a short vacation few days ago. The place that I went to is called Kukup, an suburban area in Johore. The place that we stay overnight is located in a fishing village, which all the houses were built on top of the muddy mangrove soil. Most of the houses are modified to accommodate tourists either from local or oversea.

My parents and me woke up at 5.00am to prepare for the tour and we reached Kukup at about 5.00pm. It should not take that long to reached there of course but we did some touring on the way to Kukup. One of them is the goat farm in Malacca and it was claimed to be the largest farm in Malaysia. The owner of the farm showed us around the place. He introduced the types of goats that were bred in the farm and methods that were used to milk the goats. Also, we were lucky to witness the a female goat gave birth to cute two baby cubs.

The goats there are fond of people :)

The mating space

My mum with the cubs

The worker showed us the economical method of milking goats

It's feeding time for the cubs

A heavy pregnant goat is about to give birth

This is the second time that I visited Kukup. However, this time is different. Firstly, we went there during the A(H1N1) pandemic. Secondly, the rented house that we stayed in faced electricity outage. The first time I went there I did not faced this kind of problem. The electricity outage caused not only discomfort to us, but it also caused water shortage as it was the water was supplied by a water pump powered by electricity. And lastly, we boarded a giant, luxurious casino ship.

Since there is no electricity, we had to had our barbecue 'supper' in a hot-packed crowded area. But thankfully, they have a back up generator to power the fluorescent light bulb for us. If not, we have to eat in the dark.

The electricity only return just after we are about to finish our meal =.='

And according to the staff, a naughty monkey messed up the transformer and caused a minor explosion.

The second day was a more exciting and tiring day. We all woke up early in the morning (actually is dawn) to catch the ferry that will fetch us to the casino ship. When we reached the casino ship, I was amazed by the amount of people are gambling. But, I was more stunned by the interior design of the ship and I cannot compare with other ships as this was my first experience in such a big ship. Since it was a casino ship, it emphasized on gambling. For people who not interested in gambling like my parents and me, we can just enjoy the scenery of the sea. But, bad weather prevented us to enjoy it. Another thing that was worth commenting on is the quality and quantity of food that was available there for us. Although not every dish taste excellently, it still tastier than the food that we ate everyday. They served two meals for us, lunch and tea-time. During lunch, we all loved the vegetable cooked by them. It not only delicious, but it carried the natural sweetness which we can't tasted it in Malaysia. Also, their fried fish chip was absolutely tasty, the best I had ate during my lifetime. During the tea-time, they served various types of dim sum and cakes. Some of it were new to me. Also, their bread was tantalising when spread with peanut butter and kaya. There are so many variety of dessert until we can't taste everything, partly due to the free-for-all lunch that we eaten couple of hours ago :P

A 10 storey high ship...
...with golden staircase

Before the weather changed, the scenery is beautiful

The spoiler =.="

We left the ship at about 4.00pm and had our dinner at Senai at 7.00pm. However, I was very full, therefore, I just ate some dishes. I think I ate too many nice food at the ship because everything that I ate then is tasteless.

After finished our dinner, we were on our long way back home.

During this trip, I envy the life of the Kukup people. Their life is so peaceful and easy, not like the city people, always rushing and stressed from work. However, not everyone is like that there, but most of them are like that. But, I cannot possibly conclude that they really life in an easy life as I had seen because I only experience it for 2 days only. For a city boy like me, I must prepare for the future that lies ahead, aim high and achieve the goals set upon on me. And this starts with the upcoming academic year :)

A Reminiscence Trip :)

Three years ago, I went to Pulau Pangkor together with my secondary school classmates. Recently, I went there again with my parents. Even though three years has passed, the Pulau Pangkor of today remain the same as of three years ago. All the tourist attractions are the same with the exception of some renovations. During this trip, I recalled some of the last wonderful memories that I shared with my old secondary school classmates. I still remember most of us rented bicycles for a day to travel around the island. I can still remember some of us played volleyball on the beach whereas others went to scuba-diving. The most memorable of all is I broke my toe nail during the trip (Ouch!). All those memories, to me, are priceless.

During the trip, I thought I had the chance to dive in the sea, enjoy the sight of corals. However, heavy rain, thunderstorm, and high sea current prevent us to go. All we did there is buy stuff such as satay ikan, anchovy, and other sea food. But, it is still a nice trip because it brought back all those wonderful memories.

One-Day Trip To Malacca :)

Two days ago, I went to Malacca with 3 friends. We left at around 9.30am and reached at Wen Shan's house at about 11.30am. After Marcus Chee joined us, we begin our one-day trip. Firstly, we went to the renowmed Jonker Street to taste the Chicken Rice Ball, which was dipped into chicken oil (according to Wen Shan). The rice ball was served together with chicken. The proper way to eat it is to moisture the rice ball first with the chili sauce cum black soy sauce. Then, dip the chicken with some chili sauce and eat with the rice ball together.

The chicken is tasty. The only thing that I can complaint about is the quantity of the serving would not satisfy 5 people :P

After that, we wanted to try some nyonya cendol. But, the store is overcrowded with customers. Thus, we went to the Eye On Malaysia by WALKING under the scorching sun. Well, our tour guides told us that the journey will only took about 15 minutes. In reality, it took us about 20 minutes to reach there. By the time we reached the destination, our clothes were drenched with perspiration. But it was worth it as we can walked along the historical Malacca River and saw some wonderful scenery. I was amazed by the height of the Ferris wheel, which soared to giddy heights of 60 metres from ground. According to http://www.eyeonmalaysia.com.my, the Eye On Malaysia is the world's largest portable Ferris wheel. From the top of the Ferris, we could see most of the Malacca Town from one side and the Straits of Malacca from the other side.

One for the album :)

Malacca River

Wen Shan, the Hercules???

After all the walking under the sun, we ate a bowl of refreshing durian cendol at Tan Kim Hock complex. It manage to quenched our thirst instantaneously :) After that, we bought some local delicacies of Malacca.

The quenching solution

I did not know that Malacca has pork satay, not until my Malaccan friends told us. Being born in Kajang, I have eaten various types of satay but not pork satay. It was the first time that I ate pork satay.


After we filled our stomachs with satays, cucumbers, and ketupats, we took a scroll to the beach. That might be our last time to enjoy the beauty of the natural beach as the local authority started to reclaim the beach.



Before we went back to Kajang, we ate dinner at Newton's Food Corner. We ate 4 meals during the trip, and I never ate so many meals in a single day. But I can't believe that I could still manage to drink soup and eat some fruits when I reached home :P

Anyway, I wished to express gratitude towards Wen Shan and Marcus Chee as our tour guide. Without them, our journey won't be as fun and enjoyable as it would be. Thanks guys!!!

Also, I wished to thanked the grandson of the Tan Kim Hock for giving us so many local delicacies.