Pangkor Island trip

This weekend I went for a company trip/team building session at Pangkor Island Beach Resort. This trip involves the non-teaching staff of the school from both primary and secondary campus. We left early on Friday morning. I had to wake up just before 5 to catch the 6:00 am bus. We got to the Lumut jetty in Perak around 10:00 am and had breakfast before taking a ferry to Pangkor island. Now I've been to Manjung and Lumut in Perak many times visiting my in laws but we've never been to Pangkor island. So when my company offers to take us there, all expense paid I didn't miss this chance.



We took a special chartered ferry which ferries passenger straight to the Pangkor Island Beach Resort private jetty in a 30 minutes ride. Pangkor Island Beach Resort is situated on the north part of the island facing the straits of Malacca.



It's a 4 stars hotel which offers various types of room, amenities for meetings and banquets and about a dozen recreational activities. They've got the entire Teluk Belanga bay for their guests so the beach is very clean and well taken care of.



The were about 100 of us participants and all of us get to stay in a twin-sharing room. My room costs about RM350++ per night and has a beautiful view of the beach.



After lunch (which was delicious) we get straight to our first activity which was treasure hunt cum team building activity. We were divided into several groups and sent out to look for clues around the resort. It was a tiring yet fun activity and my team (purple) won first place thanks to our great team effort.



In the evening we had a lovely dinner by the beach eating an array of marvellous seafood barbecue. Next was the much awaited lucky draw session with an interval of some performances from the staff.



For the lucky draw, everybody got at least a 50 ringgit Jusco voucher will the really lucky ones go home with an LCD TV, Samsung Note 3 and an iPad among others. As you might have guessed, I just won the lousy Jusco voucher. Never been really lucky with lucky draws so I'd half expected not to win anything special that night.



On the second day, some of us went out to Pangkor town some 7 kilometers away for a bit of shopping and perhaps sight-seeing. Pangkor town is a small and idyllic town on the east side of the island. Beside the jetty, there's several souvenir shop, kopitiams and local shops selling products from the sea. I didn't miss this chance to buy the local's famous blue-eyed anchovies. The anchovies cost just RM13 a packet but the round trip to town with the island taxi costs me 40 fricking ringgit. I call that daylight robbery.



Before we leave, I get the chance to do some canoeing. It's my first time trying out canoeing and it was surprisingly easy. My friend and I paddled about a mile into the open sea before turning back. We didn't even get the boat overturned or anything.



Apart from canoeing, there's other water sports to do like catamaran sailing, snorkelling and fishing. There's also play golf on the small golf course, play tennis, do archery and cycle around the place all for a price of course. The canoeing and cycling that we did was included in the package, naturally.



We checked out at 12:00 pm and took the same ferry to Lumut. We had lunch and did some last minute shopping in Lumut town. At around 2:00 pm our bus departed to KL. I must say I had a good time in Pangkor, especially staying and eating at the 4 stars resort for free part.



I hated the bus ride though, there was music blaring above my head for 4 straight hours. If I can afford it I'd rather drive myself there then experience that bus trip again. Other than that, I look forward for such trips by my company again in the future. Thank you very much for the organizer.

Why I hate land transportation

Yesterday I took a train home to Tanah Merah. I would have driven the car but then I need to service it first and then we would be back again in KL the day after so we've decided to take public transport instead.

I think it was close to a decade ago since I last took public transportation for a long distance journey. Something happened that make me loath to take another if I can help it. Our train ride costs RM30 each for adults and half price for children. We'd prefer the bunk beds but the bottom ones are always fully booked and we can't imagine ourselves sleeping in the confined top bunk. Plus the kids still have to pay even if we shared beds.

The train was punctual on departure and we boarded the train without any incidents. You are advised to dress warmly because it can get really cold inside the train, I mean like Siberia-cold, seriously. The 3rd class seats are slightly more cramped than the 2nd class seat where there's also a TV set in each coach although there's no guarantee that they are working. There's also individual rooms with double decker bunkers but that won't come cheap.

Now the toilet is relatively clean when you first board the train. However they will get extremely dirty with an unbearable stench towards the end of the ride. It's so bad, I'd rather hold myself for the final 2 hours of our journey than venture into the toilet. While the train comes on time for departure, arrival is another story. I don't know why but we arrived nearly 2 hours late at our destination.

And one more thing, be careful when putting your bags and stuff on the top compartment. I put my laptop bag there and 11 hours later my beautiful laptop is covered with inch-thick soot thanks to the diesel exhaust fume. Had to scrub it with alcohol cleaner to get rid of the dirt.

For the return trip, we choose to ride the bus since they are generally faster although the ticket price is cutthroat at 50 bucks. We're supposed to depart at 10:15 AM but the bus chooses to arrive fashionably late. So we had to enjoy breathing the fresh carbon monoxide gas at the bus station for that duration. When the bus did came, the driver offers no explanation nor did he apologize for his incompetence. And don't tell me it's because of traffic cause there's no such thing in Tanah Merah.

Most express buses, they have a designated resting place midway through the journey. These drivers had a deal with the restaurant owner where they get to eat for free and also supplied with a packet of cigarettes every time as a reward for bringing in the customers. The passengers cum customers will have no choice but to eat at the place if they're hungry and pay up for the usually expensive but sucky food and pray they don't get diarrhea.

It's not so much for the bad food and pricey food, it's the toilet that really pisses me off. All Transnasional bus to and from Kelantan must stop at this one eatery in Merapoh which has, without a doubt the most stinking toilets in the whole universe. I mean, its like they never cleaned the place ever.

Words cannot describe how disgusting I felt visiting this toilet. And still they had the audacity to charge everyone for visiting the pig sty in disguise. Seriously, putting this boy in charge of collection is a crime against humanity.

Given a choice, many people would rather not take the bus or similar land public transportation. Seats on trains are rather limited and booking or buying one online or at the counter can be a pain in one's behind. Buses on the other hand is quite expensive and notoriously prone to crashes compared to other modes of transportation. The thing is, some people don't have the luxury of personal transport so they have no choice but to ride the buses and trains and suffer all the inconveniences. Rather than wait helplessly for these public transportation to improve, many would rather pay a monthly installment for a car, get caught in crazy traffic jam than choose the former.

Cameron Highlands

Last weekend I brought my family for a short trip to Cameron Highlands in Pahang. Cameron Highlands with its cool climate and beautiful rolling hills dotted with lush green tea plantations is a major tourist attraction for locals and foreigners alike.
There are 3 different ways to get to Cameron Highlands. The most popular one is through Tapah (exit 132 PLUS highway) using route 59 to Ringlet and then Tanah Rata. Another one is further north via the Simpang Pulai exit and visitors from the east coast can use the Gua Musang - Cameron Highlands road.
Coming south from Kuala Lumpur, I chose the quick and convenient Tapah route which took about 2 and a half hours drive. The road quickly goes uphill from Tapah along the small and narrow road hugging the hill slopes. Minor landslides is a normal occurrence round these hills but that doesn't seem to stop the vehicles including these lorries from speeding down these roads endangering people's life.
Along the way you will find the Lata Iskandar waterfall followed by Ringlet before arriving to Tanah Rata. Tanah Rata is located before Brinchang and it is a relatively smaller town too. However I find Tanah Rata to be a lot cleaner, better organized with more pleasant environment than the former. You can find dozens of shops and restaurants in the vicinity including a few banks and even a Starbucks outlet.
Brinchang is a little further north about 9 kilometers away from Tanah Rata. Maybe because of the permanent day & night market, Brinchang to me looked a lot cluttered and not very clean with rubbish strewn all over the place. That said, you can find a lot more shops, hotels and accommodation here compared to other places in Cameron Highlands.
There are many different types of accommodation available in Cameron Highlands, catering to different budgets and preferences. You can choose from Guesthouses, chalets, hotel rooms, apartments, bungalows and even an English cottage. We opted to rent an apartment within MARDI's Agrotechnology Park near Tanah Rata during our last trip.
Situated 5,000 feet above sea level, Cameron Highlands certainly is quite chilly especially during the evening. Temperature can drop down to 18°C at night. The same cannot be said during the day though because the temperature can go up to a steamy 28°C in the afternoon, thanks to global warming and deforestation of the surrounding area.
The three storey apartment comes with 3 rooms equipped with queen sized beds each, 2 bathrooms with hot water, living room with settees, Astro, a dining table and a kitchen area. There's no cooking stove here but there's no stopping you from being creative and bring along an induction cooker or two. The apartment is limited to 3 units only though and you'll need to book and pay for the deposit a few weeks in advance. Rental is only RM200 per night and you can call MARDI Agrotechnology Park at 05 4911255 for reservation or more info.
One advantage of staying at MARDI's apartment is you can just stroll along to the Agrotechnology park next door - free of charge (regular visitors is only charged RM1.50 anyway).
The agrotechnology park is a major agricultural research center for temperate fruits, vegetables and also tea, surrounded by beautiful flowery gardens some of which are also up for sale.
In the evening we visited Tanah Rata town for dinner. There's several mamak and western restaurants to choose from and there's Starbucks. In the end we stopped by Tanah Rata food court right in the middle of town and had dinner at Emida's Restaurant which served a reasonably good local food with competitive (read: acceptable) rates.
Next we went for a short drive to Brinchang town to do a little shopping at their famous night market. They have everything you'd expect to find in Cameron Highlands from souvenirs, fruits, vegetables, honey, strawberries and even more strawberry related souvenirs.
A visit to Cameron Highlands will not be complete without visiting any one of its famous tea plantation. For me I always wanted to visit Boh's tea plantation in Sungai Palas near Brinchang so that's where we headed on the second day.
The road to Sungai Palas tea plantation is really small and winding which can barely accommodate 2 vehicles passing at once.
At the center of the Boh Sungai Palas tea plantation you will find the Boh Tea Centre. Here you can learn about the history of Boh tea and tea plantation.
The walk up to the Tea Centre is only 200 meters and you can choose between the regular tarred road or using the planter's bush walk. The breath-taking scenery alone is enough to make your trip there truly worth your while.
You can also take a tour of the tea factory and learn more about tea processing.
Afterwards you can hang out the Tea' Ria for a cup of freshly brewed Boh tea best enjoyed with some scones, cheese cake or apple pie.
At 712 square kilometers, Cameron Highlands is quite a large area and you certainly won't be able to visit all the places of interest in a single weekend. So far I can say I had a really pleasant experience visiting Cameron Highlands for the first time. Shall I come back in the future? A definite yes!

'Boh' Sungei Palas Tea Centre

One place you should not miss visiting while in Cameron Highlands is one of their renown tea plantations. Boh's Sungei Palas tea plantation is one of the more famous tea plantation in Cameron Highland, the other being Bharat tea plantation.
The Boh tea plantation is famous for its tea center. You can find the entrance to the plantation just after the big Equatorial Hotel on the left side heading north to Kampung Raja. The signboard is placed perpendicular to the road and quite easy to miss especially when you're driving fast. I missed this little signboard and end up 15 kilometers away near Kampung Raja before finally stopping to ask for direction.
From the entrance, the tea center is about 2 kilometers in and you'll have to negotiate a very narrow and winding road barely enough for two vehicles to pass at once. Honking if you're horny around the bends is advisable to warn incoming traffic.
Here you can already see the beautiful scenery of of the tea plantation.
The car park is huge and parking is plentiful (and free of charge).
There's also plenty of restrooms for your convenience.
The tea centre is situated way up the plantation and you can choose to either walk up the tea planter's trail...
Or the regular tarred road way. I'm not really sure whether you can drive your car all the way up but I did see a lot of cars up there, many without stickers so I guess you can after all but parking space up there is rather limited though.
The old and rusty Kedai Teh Boh shop is now replaced by this shiny new and modern Tea Ria shop where you can enjoy several different types of tea served hot or cold with cakes and scones.

This place is quite popular with the visitors so finding an empty table is rather difficult at times.
Having scones with butter and strawberry jam here with my family is one of those things I must do before I die thing.
Although the food here like so many other touristy place is quite pricey, the view from up here is simply priceless.

At the Boh Tea Centre, you can learn everything about Boh and their history in Malaysia.
Stop by the Tea Shop to buy some tea and souvenirs for your loved ones. Except for the teas, the stuff here are not exactly cheap.

And while you're there, why not take a moment to visit their tea factory and learn how tea is processed.
Someday, your friends will use this to make fun of you my son.
Here you can see Adam trying his hand at tea-picking.
I can say he has got potential.
If you're really interested I can always send you here to work during the holidays you know.
This is what tea leaves look like from up close.
The road to the tea centre is also the same road you need to take to get to the top of Gunung Brinchang and a little strawberry farm nearby which we would have visited if only we had more time.

Narrow road and expensive food aside, the Boh Sungei Palas tea centre is a must visit for the breathtaking scenery alone. Remember though that this place is closed on Monday.
Of course we would love to come here again some time in the future.