Morib Beach and Tanjung Sepat (Part 1)

This is an outdated post dating back to 31st December 2010.

We spent our New Year Eve by going somewhere quite far away, more of a joyride trip. Initially, Papa wanted to explore some alternative route that connects Puchong to Dengkil, Paya Indah and Sepang areas, but eventually the road leads us towards Banting. That was how we ended up going to Morib Beach and then later to Tanjung Sepat for lunch.

It was low tide that time, so Papa went down to the muddy beach to explore while Juan Or and Mommy merely stroll at the concrete-laden part of the beach.

 

Morib Beach has changed face a lot since the last time Mommy went there as a kid. The beach now has a lot more facilities for both children and adults now.

There are tile-laden walkways now.

There's also an educational section for visitors - the gastropode arena that has giant-sized seashells and  brief descriptions of more specific subgroups of gastropodes.

There is also a large playground for children and as usual, Juan Or would surely ask to play there!

And then Juan Or saw a big moth on the slide. He wanted to hit it but dared not, so he asked Mommy to hit it for him, but Mommy also dared not (E-yeer!) and instead asked him to hit it himself. So in the end, Juan Or did not hit it at all! ^-^

Then Juan Or went on to play with other things like the chains, ........

....'mountain'-climbing, ......

...and the rocking horse (but in this case, rocking elephant!).

Then there's also this structure that seems to resemble some kind of super-mini stadium whereby you see concrete slabs in curvy rows and gadually going downhill. So Juan Or used it for his play (or exercise?) instead.

Well, we didn't spend a very long time at Morib Beach because the sun was already very hot. So bye, bye Morib! And off we go to Tanjung Sepat! (Hint: stay tuned for Part 2!)

Trip to Cherating: Day 2 - Morning Sunrise, Beach and Stuff Crabs

On the second day, Mommy woke up early, at around 6.30 am and managed to capture the morning sunrise at the beach. Beautiful sight! Wish Mommy can wake up everyday to the sound of waves beating the beach and the beautiful silhoutte of trees at the beach.

By 7.00 am, we went for breakfast at the hotel's restaurant and after that we headed for the hotel's swimming pool. Mommy had purposely bought a float for Juan Or from Mr. DIY's shop for this purpose. Juan Or was very eager when he saw the swimming pool. But as soon as he realized that Mommy wanted to take off his diapers and change into his briefs, he started crying in protest, holding on to this his pants tightly! So in the end, Mommy gave up coaxing him to try the swimming pool, instead Mommy changed into swimming suit and took a brief dip.

After that, we headed to the beach. Once at the beach, Mommy attempted to remove Juan Or's slippers. And this boy seemed to be a 'clean freak'. Since one side of his slippers was already removed, he didn't know where or how to put his bare foot when Mommy tried removing the other side! ^_^ But finally he realized he was supposed to go barefeet on the sand. You can see his reaction that it gave him a funny feeling to walk barefeet on the sand, but eventually he got the hang of it.

We took some photos too at the beach just for memory's sake.

Here are some beach photos captured by Papa on his handphone (which is more capable than Mommy's handphone to get better quality photos!):

Then by 9.00 am, Mommy went for two more meetings, i.e., the Annual Programme Review meetings for Food Science and Nutrition and thereafter for Biotechnology degree programmes, this time merely as normal participant. While Mommy was away for meetings, Papa took Juan Or for a rounding at the Kemaman area, to which Papa bought back some satar (fish paste dumplings of their local Malays).

After lunch at the hotel, another meeting went on and then followed by team building activities. Luckily only two games were arranged for the team building activities, so by 4-plus pm, it ended. So Mommy quickly rushed back to the room so that Papa can take us out for rounding around the Kemaman town and to look for stuff crab.

Indeed we found the restaurants for stuff crabs at Kemaman. However, the more famous one (can't remember the name of the restaurant) was closed, so we settled for second best at Restoran Stuff Crab Kemaman.

Stuff crab is supposed to be the specialty dish of Kemaman and Cukai area, so we were eager to give it a try. The dish finally came and mmmmm.......it was very tasty - very pure, i.e., lots of crab meat in the stuffing, but it was quite expensive - RM7 for one stuff crab. Papa ordered four, so the whole dish was RM28.

After that we headed back to Cherating and on the way, Mommy asked Papa to stop at the same keropok lekor stall again to buy some lekors to eat, some seafood snacks and a packet of not-yet-fried lekors. The not-yet-fried lekors were selling for RM5 for 10 long strips (of the lekor). Mommy only bought one packet to try because Mommy wasn't too sure whether it will still remain good when we transported it back to Klang Valley without any refrigertion the next day.

Turned out, the not-yet-fried lekors still tasted good after three days since the last day of the trip (of course it stayed in the refrigerator after we got back home). Hmmmm......now Mommy regrets not buying more!

This is how it looked like before it's fried.....

.....and after deep-frying.

Here's the lekors eaten with the chilli dipping provided.

Now back to the trip again. We got back to the hotel, had a barbecue dinner (which did not taste nice at all!) at the hotel and then went back to our room., though not at the same time because Papa took Juan Or back first while Mommy continued eating. There was a meeting going on at 8.00 pm on the laboratory's strategic management, but thankfully Mommy was not required to be involved, so it was yippy time for Mommy to get to rest and relax in the hotel room! Same thing, Mommy tried reading newspaper, but because of the hotel room's dim lighting, Mommy felt very sleepy and went off to sleep by 9.30 pm. Same goes for Juan Or - he slept early too (in fact he already fell asleep when Mommy got back to the room) without needing any coaxing, and that's probably because of the room's dim lighting. So aren't hotel vacations good for both Juan Or and Mommy? Juan Or is able to go to sleep early and easily, and Mommy gets to have plenty of sleep and rest - something so rare for Mommy if in own home! ^_^

That sums up our second day at Cherating. Stay tuned for the third day.

Trip to Outskirt Parts of Klang (Part 1)

This is actually an outdated post. This trip was on the 7th March 2010. After making waterfall trips, this time Papa and Mommy decided to bring Juan Or to the beach - Pantai Remis. Mommy's fond memories of Pantai Remis was that Mommy dug for green-shelled clams which were found in abundance during low tide, but that was when Mommy was 14 years old! By now, the beach is already exhausted from such sea creatures. From Sri Petaling, Papa used the Federal Highway to reach Klang and then to Kapar via Jalan Kapar. Pantai Remis is situated somewhere along the Jalan Kapar that connects Kapar to Kuala Selangor.

By the time we reached Pantai Remis, the sky looked dark and cloudy. No rain yet, thankfully, but it was very windy. There was also a Malay man flying a kite at the beach. What actually happened was when our cark stopped at the beach, Juan Or woke up from sleep. The moment he opened his eyes, he saw the kite and immediately exclaimed "KITE!" This was his first time seeing a real kite. Before this, the kite that Juan Or knew was merely from book illustrations. Immediately after that, Juan Or forgot about his sleepiness and was eager to walk at the beach.

Some snapshots of us at Pantai Remis:

See the kite up in the sky? That's the real kite that Juan Or saw for the first time in his life.



Juan Or even went near the Malay man (seated with his partner) to tell him "Kite! Kite!"







A close-up of Juan Or and Mommy at the beach.







Juan Or walking along the beach with Papa.








Watching the waves hit the shore.

Some scenary photos of the beach as well:

The right side of the beach.....

....and the left side.

All three of us managed to enjoy the sea wind minus the hot sun for about 10-15 minutes before it started to drizzle. Then we quickly hopped into the car and made our way to Kuala Selangor. So stay tuned for Part 2.

Juan Or on the 8th Day of Chinese New Year 2010

This day will be the last of our house visitation days during the CNY season. It was a Sunday and Mommy had intended to visit Mommy's side of aunts (Ah Yees) in Pandamaran. One of Mommy's aunts opens a tyre shop, so rarely could go on holiday. Thus she and her family will go for overseas vacation during Chinese New Year. This year, she and her family would only be back in Malaysia from Day 7 onwards.

Also, just in case Juan Or cries when we go visiting to people's house, Papa and Mommy decided to drop by at North Port first for sight-seeing before going for lunch in Telok Gong and finally off to the aunts' houses (both aunts stay next door to each other).

Here are some snapshots taken at North Port:

"Hello, everyone! We are now stopping by at North Port to catch some sea breeze."





Here's a model life-sized ship to decorate the place. In the past, the municipal council used to allow people to climb the stairs and into the ship, but now they have put up a barrier. Too much vandalism, perhaps?

Here's father and son posing together with the distant port structures in the background.

A perspective of the seaside. Note the rocky seaside and anglers doing their business.




Now both father and son are in the perspective!

Papa was helping Juan Or to go up the short flight of stairs.

Juan Or was caught red-handed plucking the leaves of the hedges. He probably didn't realize Mommy snapping a photo of him in action. ^ ^

Got pricked by the twigs, eh?

"GOTCHA!"

"Bye-bye, North Port! We are heading to the car now."

When it was time to enter Mommy's Ah Yee's houses, Juan Or was hesitant and almost fretful at first, but once in the house, Juan Or looked like he has adjusted himself already - no more crying or fretting! So look's like Juan Or has truly 'grown up' already. No more like those days when he would cry non-stop when brought to people's house. However, Mommy was too occupied with chatting with the Ah Yees while watching over Juan Or so much so Mommy forgot to snap some photos there.

Joyride Trip to Carey Island

Today Papa and Mommy took Juan Or for a joyride trip to Carey Island. However, this is not our first trip there, it's just that Mommy decided to blog about it this time. From Sri Petaling, Papa took the Puchong way into Puchong Perdana, went through a short distance of village road that led into KESAS, then went for Jalan Kebun and Jalan Bukit Kemuning, then ended in some village road again that led to Jenjarom and finally ended up in Carey Island. We like to use this long-winded way for few reasons - there are more things to see during the car ride, avoid paying toll, and the long distance gives Juan Or the opportunity to doze off in the car for at least 1 hour so that by the time we reach the destination, Juan Or should be awake (and not fret and cry due to lack of sleep!) by then.

Carey Island is a private island owned by a plantation company. So all the along the roads in Carey Island, there are rows and rows of palm oil trees. However, the main road in Carey Island is one straight road all the way to the end of the island that ends in a beach. When we reached the beach, Juan Or was still sleeping.

(What a position to sleep in!)

("Eeighhh.....what's with Juan Or's legs!? Why one leg big and one leg small!? Oohhh....the big leg is actually Mommy's left leg. Juan Or's left leg is actually hidden.")

(This is the beach and sea that Papa and Mommy wanted Juan Or to see.)

(A snapshot of Papa and Juan Or at the Carey Island beach.)

(Papa and Juan Or at the road leading to the beach. See the palm oil trees in the background? Next to Papa was a Malay family with their sea catch. )




(Malay men tending to their fishing net. See the polystyrene boxes near to the tent? Mommy saw many flower crabs in it!)

(Some fish fries trapped in the fishing net.)

(This Malay aunty allowed Mommy to catch a picture of her taking the crab out of the net.)

After that, we went to a Chinese seafood restaurant to have our lunch. The restaurant was Sri Langat Seafood Restaurant which is just next to the Langat River. Actually we have been faithfully going to this restaurant every time we go to Carey Island.

(Here is Juan Or waiting patiently for the food.)

(Today is also the first time Juan Or wears his new pair of shoes. Mommy noticed that when Juan Or was wearing the shoes and sitting at the high chair, he tends not to move around so much within the chair.....which is a good thing!)

This time, the restaurant's service was slow (it was not like that last time!). The Chinese tea only came after the first dish was served. By the way, the first dish was sauna prawns. Previously when we ate sauna prawns from this restaurant, the prawns were live prawns, However, this time, the prawns were already dead when the waiter ditched the prawns into the sauna bowl followed by the quick pouring of Chinese wine. So Papa asked the head waitress why dead prawns were served this time to which the reply was the live prawns had not yet arrived. Other dishes ordered were kangkung belacan, deep fried mantis prawns coated with salted egg and sliced garoupa cooked with spring onion and garlic. All in all, the total bill was RM50 to which the sauna prawns were RM16.

(Holy smoke! Sauna prawns!)

(The prawns after being cooked by the sauna stones' heat.)

(The kangkung belacan dish. After that, Mommy didn't take any photos of the subsequent dishes because Mommy's hands were already dirty from peeling the suana pranws!)