Driving On : Jeli and Kota Bharu

Posted on May 15, 2022 by jipp

This post is a sequel to my previous post on my last road trip in the Malaysian Peninsula before I moved to KK back in October last year. I started off from KL and made a stop at Kuala Lipis before continuing on to Gua Musang where I had stayed overnight.

I wish I could explore more of Gua Musang, which is known for its beautiful limestone hills, and even asked the receptionist if there was any chance that I could do a little bit of hiking to any of those hills, but she did not seem so sure if hiking to those hills was already permittable by the ever-changing movement control orders. Considering that I needed to reach Jeli by noon, I had to spare the plan for another time – if ever. So off to Jeli I went.

After doing what my job had required me to do in Jeli, I took a little bit of time to explore what there was to explore around town. It was my first time in that particular corner of the country so just as it is when I come to any place for the first time, the excitement was quite there.

Jeli was quite a small town, and it was always considered to be one of the remotest districts in the state of Kelantan and even Malaysia, which is not quite the case to me considering its easy access from other parts of the state and beyond. It seems to be fast-developing too, and it must be since it is here where the state’s only public university is located.

By then it was past lunch time so I went to have lunch at a food court in the centre of town, which was an easy choice since there weren’t many (open) restaurants around anyway. The tables seemed to be left to clean up by themselves, which might be a thing of normalcy because nobody seemed to bother so I didn’t bother to complain too. I didn’t want to spoil the atmosphere with my big city attitude.

It even took so long for the food to arrive so I had to keep reminding myself over and over again that I was in some sleepy and slow-paced town where everything tends to be going in a slow motion. Luckily, the food was not that bad so I wouldn’t say the long wait was as futile as I had almost expected it to be. Urghh.

So seeing that there was nothing much to explore in the town of Jeli, not when most of the shops were still closed due to the movement control orders, I set out and wheeled off towards the East, or rather towards Kota Bharu where I’d be spending my night in.

The journey took longer than I had expected. Leaving my fate to the Google Map to lead the way for me, passing through villages and farms along the way and I absolutely had no idea where I was going until I reached Rantau Panjang, the gateway to the neighbouring country Thailand!

For a moment I wished I did bring my passport with me, but then again, the current movement control orders would not permit me to go anywhere beyond the borders anyway so it had to be spared for another time – if ever. By the time I reached near the entrance to the international border gate, it was raining like crazy. Slowly and cautiously, I continued on towards what I believed was Kota Bharu. The whole area was so unfamiliar to me so I couldn’t even pin my location on the Google Map.

I reached Kota Bharu at around 6pm, and parked my car in front of the massive LHDN building complex from where I could see the decorative gate of Al-Quran Rehal Park and the entrance to the Istana Jahar beyond it. I Googled around, looking for a place to stay for the night. I had been to Kota Bharu a few times and I’d usually stay around the royal palace area from where I could just walk to the famous Siti Khadijah Market and all the other places of interest around it. Since most of the places were still closed, I did not see the need to stay around there this time so a little bit of distance away from it would not really harm. In the end, I chose a budget hotel called W Hotel Cemerlang.

Letting the Google Map to lead the way for me, it led me to some quite area with a single row of shoplots surrounded by houses and (seemingly) privately-owned properties. Priced at RM45 per night, it really was value for money and I liked the room quite instantly. It was quite tiny, but it had just about everything that I needed – a study table and a chair and the most important of all is the access.

Just across the alley as seen from the window was what appeared to be the abandoned portion of a building. It reminded me of the places in movies where teenagers would go practicing and challenging among themselves to dance. The other portion seemed to be still occupied and since I’m the type who’d rather have the window curtains left wide-opened, every now and then I’d expect people to look down to me from their windows so I had to keep reminding myself to stay dressed at all time. Heh.

Now the dinner. Since it was quite late to drive around, and the weather wasn’t really at its best, I ordered dinner over FoodPanda (Grab food didn’t seem to be operational in Kota Bharu, or may be I didn’t try hard enough). Browsing around, I decided to order something quite unique to the city of Kota Bharu itself – Eel soup. I remember how I had to drive all over Kota Bharu with my then colleagues before we found eel soup which was quite worthy of the effort in the end because it was so tasty.

I never had any eel soup ever since so I just thought it was time to have a go at it again. Ordering Nasi Goreng Kampung to come with it, a combination that had cost me some RM24, I was expecting better. Already spoiled by the long wait, they seemed to have put too much salt in both the meals so I had to stop eating half-way through it when my intestines started to give a kick of protest. Kelantan is certainly known for the mecca of Malay food so this came as quite a disappointment to me. Or perhaps, eel soul is not really a Malay food after all.

I was tied to an online meeting the next morning, but not before I went down to the only restaurant that I could find around without driving off. The restaurant had a bizzare list of foods on the menu – or at least for a restaurant that is located in the state capital city of Kelantan where local delicacies are heavily influenced by those in Thailand. Realizing that I didn’t have much of a choice, I went for Kolo Mee, which I know is more of a Sarawakian food than a Kelatanese. There was nothing to be wowed about, but I was glad that the coffee was at least a brewed one instead of a sachet.  And it wasn’t bad at all.

After signing off from my online meeting, I packed up and drove around, trying to look for a restaurant that at least serves some authentic Kelantanse food. I actually had Nasi Kerabu in mind, but somehow I couldn’t find any. And it did not help that most restaurants or even food hawkers were still closed so Kota Bharu really wasn’t its usual self. In ended up parking my car and exporing Dataran Cheng Ho where I could see a number of Chinese restaurants were opened and even allowed dining-in. I tapau-ed fried Kuey Teow and asked the restaurant to fill up my Ford Coffee Mug with coffee which I later had for brunch back in the car.

Then it was time to wheel off South-bound, to a place that I had always wanted to go to for so long – Lake Kenyir!

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An Inter-state Solo Road Trip to the North East

Posted on May 13, 2022 by jipp

So, my job had required me to drive all the way to the North East – or to the state of Kelantan to be exact – which would be my very last road trip out of KL before I moved back to Sabah. Instead of taking the easy way out by taking a flight, I decided to go by road which would take me across four different states, excluding Kuala Lumpur which is considered a state in itself and where I was residing at that time of course. The plan was to go to Kelantan via the newly-opened Central Spine Road and to return to KL via the East Coast Expressway. The road trip would cover around 1000km in a span of 3 days with 2 overnight stays.  At least that was the initial plan, and plans do change. Heh.

So after packing up, I exited the famed Klang Valley via Gombak toll plaza which took me straight into the green lungs of the Malaysian Peninsula. I stayed on Karak Expressway, through the famous Karak tunnel, until I reached the exit ramp to Bentong of Pahang. I had always wanted to go for a weekend escapade to Bentong, especially after reading about its old restaurants on some Air Asia in-flight magazine. Some of these restaurants are said to be so old and have been in operation for over 100 years so if they were wines, they’d be the vintages.

Somehow, my busy life back in the city hadn’t really permitted me to get around to it so the plan had never materialized. Now that I was in Bentong, it wasn’t really the best time to explore for the fact that most of the restaurants were still either fully-closed of half-open due to the ongoing movement control order. Then I had a very long way to go, so I had to spare Bentong probably for another time.

I did take some time to do a lil bit of detour – to a well-known waterfall known as Chamang. The road was quite a zig-zag, with some major repairing work going on, and of course at the end of the road I was welcomed by a fully-maned gate. I knew it was still closed, but I just wanted to try my luck a bit so now that I was there, I called out to whoever there was at the gate house that could probably grant me with some sympathetic access.

A face-masked Malay guy came out to me, telling me that the instruction was for the waterfall to remain closed, until he was instructed otherwise by the management. Trying to negotiate my way in, I told him how I had always wanted to see the waterfall, that I may no longer be able to do it any time after because I was due to be posted back to Sabah soon. He didn’t budge, and I had to give him the respect he deserved, for standing his grounds no matter how hard I tried to persuade him into letting me in.

So I continued North, past a small town called Raub which is known as the district of Musang King, the super-deli but expensive durians. To tell the truth, it wasn’t my first time driving through Raub. I remember driving across the little town about 10 years ago, also while I was heading towards Kelantan on another outstation trip. It was the old Oriental-looking rows of shop lots that captivated my attention when I first came upon them. They looked like a piece of the George Town in Penang – so oriental and yet so colonial. Again, the long way ahead didn’t really permit me to stay around so I had to continue North, this time to another small town called Kuala Lipis.

Now, Kuala Lipis had caught me quite by surprise. I had never been to this little town so I didn’t really know what to expect. After making a few wrong turns, even to the depths of some housing area with narrow roads at one point, I finally made it to the centre of town and instantly liked it!

Kuala Lipis really looked like a vacation town. Located on a hilly patch surrounded by greenery, I was fascinated to see the presence of beautiful and historical-looking buildings. Of course, standing out among the lot is the beautiful Lipis District Council office building which is strategically located on top of a hill that overlooks the little town of Kuala Lipis. A little bit of Google search had brought me to the finding that Kuala Lipis was apparently made the state capital town of Pahang by the British before it was handed over to Kuantan some time in 1953. That explains the existence of an array of colonial buildings that really fascinated me.

Embracing the excitement that I found myself in, I parked my car in front of probably the only KFC outlet in town and took a little walk around town. The central townscape is dominated by a large field called Dataran Lipis. I could imagine how on any given day the locals would make their way down to the field in hordes for an evening stroll but of course it was not any given day. The whole country was experiencing one of the worst pandemic crisis ever so restrictions were in place to forbid the locals from gathering around.

It was beginning to drizzle a bit so I returned to my car to get the umbrella before making my way to a food hawker which was almost impossible not to take any notice of. It was quite a spread of food choices and I was having quite a difficult time to decide which to buy for dinner. But of course that was before I knew there was Patin tempoyak soup among the spread. Patin soup may not be that special, but this one is cooked with durian, so it has that pungent smell and sweetness and sourness of durian in it.

I’m not really a big fan of durians but Patin tempoyak soup which consists of Patin fish cooked with usually fermented durian somehow hits the right taste buds for me. In fact it is one of my favourite Malaysian delicacies. And since durian is a seasoned fruit, the availability of this Patin tempoyak soup is very seasoned too. It was a clear choice. I had to go for it.

I really wanted to stay longer in Kuala Lipis but I knew I had to keep moving or I’d spend the rest of the day’s trip driving in the dark. The target was to reach the newly-built Central Spine expressway before nightfall. Somebody reached out to me through twitter, asking me to try to reach the Central Spine before sunset. I did try, but I was a bit late. I did get a little bit of glimpse of the beautiful sunset over the far horizon before reaching the highway – and I knew it would have been a fantastic sunset view to be enjoyed while cruising along the highway. It was certainly a wasted opportunity.

After what appeared to be an unending drive on Central Spine and beyond, along which I’d find myself driving all alone across the darkness, I finally arrived in Gua Musang thankfully still in one piece. I checked into a hotel that raked in quiet a good rating on Agoda.com. The room was quite spacious and I had a good watch over the car that I parked just outside of the hotel.

After unpacking myself, it was time to enjoy my Patin tempoyak soup. Understandably, it had turned cold in the air-conditioned car but the taste was still very much there. It did not have to be hot to be super-deliciously tasty and I enjoyed every bit of it. And of course, with a refilled stomach and after spending almost the whole day on the road, I fell instantly into a deep sleep the moment I laid myself on the soft and super-comfy matress. It would be another long day the next day.

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Good Bye Kemensah

Posted on April 9, 2022 by jipp

Everybody who knows me personally must have known by now that I have moved from KL to KK (and I have announced it on Twitter so I assume some of those who know are strangers – who may don’t give a damn about where I am in this wide wide world anyway).

It was supposed to be an easy decision, but it was seriously not. I loved my life back in KL, and I loved the job and all. I stayed in probably one of the most beautiful areas in the whole of Klang Valley and it really is one with a super-great neighborhood. It is an area of neigborhood that I can just go hiking straight away from the house and surrounding myself with greenery and nature in no time at all.

But then it was the house and all the memories that I have had and created while I was there that matter most to me even now. It is a semi-detached house, with the guest room, the kitchen and a spare room at the ground floor while the upper floor contains the master bed room and two smaller rooms that share a toilet. Quite naturally, I stayed at the master bed room that had its own toilet and bathroom, complete with a bath tub, which I only used like a few times all thoughout the 10 years of my stay at the house.

The master bedroom also had its own veranda from where I could see the gate. The front yard is dominated by the existence of two bamboo clusters that obstruct what would have been a whole stretch of wooden fencing and the asphalted road beyond it. I didn’t especially favor the existence of the bamboo clusters especially when they continously smeared up the ground with dry leaves, but they were the landlord’s favorite landscape element so any negotiation of getting rid of them was totally out the question.

The backyard was my favorite spot of the whole compound. I spent quite a significant portion of my times there especially on weekends when I’d pile up the dry leaves and set them on fire while waiting for any of the neighbors to complain. Nobody ever complained, except at one time when one of the neighbors let out an exaggerated cough which I took as a sign of protest. He/she never showed up though.

In the backyard were two rambutan trees, one of mango and another of jack-fruit. And there were the banana trees – those that I never had any chance of having a taste of because they’d either end up in the bellies of monkeys who were frequent visitors or they got stolen by the neighbors, which I did not mind at all anyway.  

I had put up a hammock at one of the rambutan trees, so I’d spend my time lying idly on it while reading a book or just browsing through my handphone until it was too dark to stay outside.

The backyard is separated from a mosque compound by a solid 8-feet concrete wall. The mosque was also very much part of my daily life when I was there staying in the neighborhood. I was supposed to have gotten used to the Azan, but somehow towards the end of my stay there it just go too loud I had to close the backdoor so that they would not really sting into my eardrums.

Of all the spots in the house, it was of course the living room that I spent most of my time at. It was supposed to be a dining room, but I had used it to be my work station when I’d spend hours after hours after hours hunching over my laptop while watching Netflix (Astro in the first few years). I spent even more of my time at the table when I was doing my Master in Research and later when I was forced to stay at home due to the damn pandemic.

The house itself is already full of memories – but it was my times with those who had visited me all throughout the 10 years of my stay at the house that make up most of them. Almost all of my siblings had come and stayed at the house when they came to KL for a family trip or something. My mom was a regular guest. She’s spend a couple of weeks or so before she got bored and demanded to be sent home of course. Most of the flower plants at the house were her kind doing and they all survived till the very end of my stay.  

Every now and then a friend would come to visit me from Sabah, and I’d offer them a stay at one of the unoccupied rooms. Then of course those drinking and BBQ sessions with friends – there are far too many of them I even lost count. We’d drink and chat and laugh until we are too drunk or sleepy to stay up. The aftermaths, the messy mornings, where I’d have to clean up, happily of course because I had such a fun night with friends.

The other half of the bangalow is occupied by a middle-aged Malay couple – Kamaruddin and his wife Che Tom. They were so kind to me and we’d have a chat every now and then when we happened to see each other on the front yard. I really think I was quite of a loud neighbor, but never did they ever complain of anything, not even once. Being neighbors for 10 years, a strong bond had certainly developed between us. They were there when I boarded the taxi that took me to the airport, and I could see tears welling up in their eyes. Me myself was choking with emotion. There is no way of telling if we would ever see each other again.

The next house (separated from the house by a fence) used to be occupied by an aging Chinese lady, who stayed there with her maid. We did not start off well, and she’d come and complain to me about my overgrowing plants and all. But as more and more conversation ensued, we started to grow soft with each other.

One of the best things about the neighborhood is the easy access to beautiful jogging tracks. I wouldn’t really say they are jogging tracks but more of the roads themselves. They’d take you across the beautiful and quite neigborhood, going uphill to the foot of Bukit Tabur – the scenic greenary of quartz hill that dominates the nature landscape of Taman Melawati where the neigborhood is located in.

I’d usually push my way all the way up, til I reached the spot where further access to the road is restricted by a locked gate. Whatever it was further up the road had remained a mistery to me even until now. I made it a habit to touch the gate before making my way back down, usually on a brisk walk instead of running downhill. Somehow I had this little thought of how running downhill wouldn’t really contribute much to the development of one’s stamina. Heh.  

I mean, there are just tons of things that I want to write about my times back in the beautiful valley of Kemensah but of course I’ll spare them for another post.

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