Seafood lunch at Tanjung Sepat...

After our little adventure (or misadventures) at Jenjarom and then Bukit Cheeding, we were actually without a plan and so we drove towards Banting. My friend remembered having lunch at Tg Sepat by the sea and so we went straight that direction (which was actually not that near...)

By the hour or so through the trunk road after exiting the highway, we passed by Banting and the coastal road and finally reached this quaint little fishing village which obviously had a lot of cosmetic job done for the tourist dollar...

 They took the cue from the Drunken Master but I totally don't get it. What's the point here?

 and some villagers' knick-knacks put on display. They seem to amuse many local tourists though. People were lining up to take photos... still don't get it.

 At the end of the queer dsiplays was a shop selling all kinds of junk food imaginable and this one captured my imagination because it came from my childhood - caramelised candies on a stick...

 We chose an empty restaurant because it looked comfortable against the extremely hot sun by the sea...

 The beach, or whatever one can call the rather dumpsite of the village...

 snacks before meal (the owner sells this)

 The venus clams were cooked with rice wine but was a tad too bland for me. I could only taste the clams' taste of the sea which was actually way too fishy for me (but fresh)...

 The deep fried squid was quite good though...

 and some simple stir-fried baby kailan...

 A traditional Ho Chien for the road (omelette of oysters). They were quite generous with the oysters so it helped.

 the facade of the restaurant...

 Galore of dried seafood...

and a copy of some mural in Penang methinks...

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Went back a week ago to try other dishes and surprises of surprises, the row of restaurants are being threatened with eviction notice to make way for some stalls...how unfortunate!!!

 The stir fried razor clams were very fresh and succulent. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end...

The mistake on the signboard says it all - ocen literally means "oyster omelette" in Hokkien dialect, their signature dish

The other pix of Bukit Cheeding...

The tea plants were planted under shades of the oil palm plantation, which makes sense because of the heat in the lowland...

Adventures to Bukit Cheeding on a hazy day

I've always wondered where is Bukit Cheeding situated because of the labelling on BOH Tea's packaging (looks like that would lead to the next adventure, to find Bukit Chantik...). I remembered having googled it some years back and there were suppose to have some visitor center there but a recent check didn't turn up quite the same - in fact there isn't any info on their site on the subject of the place. Curious, and with a day's break last Wednesday, I went there with a friend using GPS in his car (Garmin). What an adventure it turned out to be as we were directed to the back of the estate with no link road at Jenjarom and later another maze of toll gates and link road, finally found Bukit Cheeding (by entering SK Bukit Cheeding!). The plantation was a few kilometers before the school and is discreetly tucked away inside an oil palm estate next to Sime Darby's. No price for guessing - it was just a dirt road leading into the estate through 2 guard houses but beside some worker's quarters, there weren't anything to see. The tea plants were planted under the shades of old oil palm trees and weren't as healthy looking like those at Sungei Palas. Nevertheless, the place still exudes an old colonial planter charm the moment one drive into the estate...

 The buildings reminded me of my childhood days playing around old government buildings in Raub, and my school used to have windows and corridors like these (the old hospital too...).

The tea plants were still young and do not have the robust looking shades like those in Sungei Palas. The tea labelled as "Bukit Cheeding"is a very distinctive dark tea.

This is what the fuss was about - an English breakfast tea grown in the lowlands of Malaysia.

The Ant Lion

This alien-looking dragonfly is in fact unrelated to the dragonflies but belongs to the family of Antlions of the Owlfly family of the Order Neuroptera. At a glance, they look like dragonflies but have two long lobed antennae and when they are at rest, their wings are folded differently. Their larvae are predacious and are hiden at the bottom of a sand pit with gaping jaws waiting for their next meal to pass (probably the inspiration for many science fictions)...

 

This rather small one was attracted to my porch light and landed on the wall...

Up Gunung Brinchang on a hazy day

The haze came back after a day or two's break and we decided to go up to the hills to "escape", if there were any escaping possible with the current problems besiegeing the country...

As we were early, the traffic hasn't arrived just yet (before 9 am at Brinchang) but up on the summit of Gunung Brinchang, there were hardly a place to park our car as there were truckloads and truckloads of tourists, locals and foreigners, in successions up the hill. I can only smell diesel smoke instead of the fresh air. So much for the air thingy. It was also quite chilly and misty so no chance of verifying if the haze reached the summits of Gunung Brinchang (at over 2000M)...the road remain tracherous as ever and the tourist truck drivers remain (actually worst than before) rude and gangster-like as ever. They seem to think they own the road since they make a living from it (so third world mentality). Glad it would probably be my last time going up there unless we can get a huge 4-wheel drive like everyone else...

 A skipper, Hasora mus pahanga (endemic to the hills on the Main Range) guarding its sentry point at over 2000M above sea level...

 A fire-cracker plant flower

 tiny red rhododendrons...

 at the corridors of the Sungei Pakas Boh Tea shop...

 the haze is there despite the warm sun...

a tiny white butterfly also localized to the hills: Udara akasa

Jewel from the highland wasteland: the Purple Saphire

a tiny skipper, also a highland species: Aeromachus jhora