Touch n Go

Touch n Go supposed to be quick method to pay tolls, but sometime it takes 30 minutes in the queue before one can make payment, how stupid is that? That's what happened today at around 8.00am to drive across Penang Bridge. Two queues formed for the 2 T&G lanes on the right-most side approaching the toll plaza. The queues moved real slow then much later there was the reason: one of the T&G lanes was closed. They were installing new equipment it seemed. But nobody's working on it at the time, looks like there was no urgency on their part to finish the work this morning. In my opinion work like this should be carried out non-stop throughout the night and be completed as soon as possible. How to get this onto their heads?

School Holidays 2

23 August 2005

Drove along the East-West Highway today on route to Kota Bahru. Stopped by the Banding Resort for lunch and found out that the restaurant is closed! How can they do that when it is now the school holidays and more people would stop by than usual? Apparently the restaurant's staff is busy catering for a group of big bikers on a Merdeka run celebrating the coming Independent Day. I turned to the stalls at the bottom of the hill where the car park was and there was nothing worth mentioning. So off to Jeli. To go to Jeli town one need to go off the highway. The 'Restoran Terapung' serves 'sup tulang' and that was about the best ‘sup tulang’ I have ever had. Recommended, but one should not be too fussy about what the place looks like.

In the 80's and 90's, the main feature of this E-W highway was the slope stabilising works along the highway in many places. All the works have been done or looks like it and there was no lane closure anywhere, so as far road stability things have improved. But something have deteriorated - the road surface. Cracks have appeared on the road surface in many stretches and the road resurfacing works have not caught up. More investment is needed here before the condition gets worse. All in all it has been a pleasant ride, not many traffic, and the scenery was pleasing too - green trees all around.

The last time we were here in KB we had dinner in this restaurant called 'Restoran Sham'. Tried to find where this restaurant was but couldn't find it and we ended up at 'Restoran Sri Pekeliling' on the road to Pengkalan Chepa. The restaurant caught our attention because of its bright lights. The menu is the usual Thai food fare and also western food menu. The food was good, we had our stomachs full and satisfied. The coconut jelly was really good and tasty you won't be satisfied with just one. The Kelantan slang is joy to hear, more joyful if you can speak them. Mangga is pauh, ringgit is rial over here, and tuak is non-alcoholic; not difficult and one can really adapt quickly.

We are staying at he Perdana Hotel. This 180-room hotel has aged a bit, the fittings looked old and worn, the room I stayed in a bit small and there was no satellite channel on TV. Over the years a few big hotels have been constructed around Kota Bahru. I've heard only of The Renaissance, but there are at least 2 more big hotels: The Riverside and The New Pacific. We have just been to the KB mall. Seemed this shopping complex has just been opened recently. Some shop lots are not open and a few were being renovated before they open for business.

24 August 2005.

We have this one full day in KB and our plan is to do just 2 things: shop and eat. First stop is the bazaar near the main market, we were looking for some batik shirts and clothes. While doing our bargaining, we received a call from a friend living here saying they're coming to fetch and take us around town. That's an offer we could not refuse and rushed back to our hotel to meet them. Its almost 12 noon so we were taken to a restaurant called New Horizon Garden, not a name one can recall easily I must say. It's a new place apparently, just opened for business slightly more than a year ago. Very nice decor, bright and the food good. Parking space is rather limited though.

After a cup of hot chocolate in the friend's house we were taken to Nordin's Batik, a well-known factory outlet nearby. The collection of batik shirt and linen here is really beautiful and there was a wide array of designs to choose from. A few pieces costs us about RM1,000 and our plastic friend did come in handy! The workshop is behind the showroom should anyone like to look at how batik is made. Surprisingly there was also a 13-room inn located on the basement of the showroom. We had a peek into one of the rooms, it was a big air-conditioned room with 3 single beds and a queen-size bed in it. The rent? RM100.00 a night. Good value indeed.

Dinner was at 'Four Seasons Restaurant', a halal chinese restaurant. Nice clean place but the helpings were not so generous. This restaurant was very well patronised and at about 9pm, there was hardly any empty table. On the wall was a plaque of TV3's Jalan-jalan Cari Makan, pictures of VIPs including a group photo of state leaders with the Menteri Besar. That's supposed to erase any doubt among Muslim patrons regarding the halal status of the food served here.

25 August 2005.

Checked out of the hotel at 9.00am and off to Cameron Highlands we went. Kota Bharu-Machang-Gua Musang-Cameron Highlands, Just follow the signboards. Arrived at our hotel at Tanah Rata at about 3pm. Stopped for lunch at Gua Musang R&R, and we did went round Gua Musang town to see what it is like. Didn’t try hard to find anything extraordinary and didn’t find any – just tto satisfy our own desire that ‘we have been here’. The drive up the road to CH from Gua Musang was a breeze. Good road and no traffic, well almost none! Very lonely drive but the road was good and the sun bright so who's complaining? But what is glaring though was that in the early part of the journey the hills on the right side of the road have been cut 'botak' ready for some kind of plantation, further up the road there were a lot of signs and activities related to timber logging. Seems like apart from making the journey up to CH an uneventful one, this road have made opening up of forests that much easier.

Evening on Cameron Highlands was really cool. It's like the air-conditioning on at full blast or maybe late spring in temperate climates. My guess the temperature was not more than 20 degrees. Teh tarik outdoor in this weather is a must experience up here.

School Holidays

School's off for 10 days. When school take a break, parents and children alike are in joyous mood, and everybody else can feel the change around them. There's less traffic on the road in the morning and afternoon so driving to and from work during this period would be a breeze. Where would people go for the holidays? I'd imagine that the holiday destinations would be full of parents and their families. Ignoring the fuel hike one can see cars and MPVs full of people going up and down the highways to holiday spot somewhere, some going balik kampung - that is a cheaper way to get away. And of course on can see convoys of vehicles going to a wedding. They can be seen by the road after the toll plaza waiting to regroup with the others in the entourage. Weddings and kenduri - that is one thing that is always happening during the school holidays. School holidays = mating season. Yesterday I had two invitations to wedding kenduri around Alor Star and there was this one with traditional music group playing using traditional instruments, good to hear live traditional music for a change. The groom’s house is rather big (huge) and sits elegantly beside a river and facing padi field.

Drying lake?

Front-page news in The Star today showing low water levels in dams around the country. I happened to be at the Pedu Lake yesterday where the Mutiara Pedu Lake Resort is. I have been to this place many times over the years and this is the lowest water level here that I have seen. I remember when we stayed overnight here, we could cast a fishing line from our chalet balcony. Water in this lake is meant to be used for irrigation purposes mainly and I hope the people concerned have their calculations correct regarding how much water is left in the lake for the next padi planting season etc. Now that the water is low one can see dead tree tops previously submerged and it does look sad to see a lake like that. Not many visitors at the resort, apart from our group there was only a Caucasian family. We had traditional Malay set lunch, the food was ok and the service good. Good place for a quiet retreat if you don't mind the 'eerie' view surrounding the resort.

Faulty Relay

A faulty relay in the car today results in the car having difficulty starting when hot. No problem starting in the morning, but stop for a while for refueling say, then to start again I would need to crank the starter several times. According to my trusty mechanic, it's the main relay & it’s located below the steering wheel, above the pedals (now I know). Replaced that with a new one and the engine now starts without problem, hot or cold and parted with RM120.00. The car is already 11 years old now and I have come to expect maintenance problems to crept up every now and then. Some maintenance done in recent times: clutch pump, brake pistons and pads, drive shaft(left), belts and 4 new tyres. Time to shop for a new car? Been considering that for some months now, but looking at prices of new cars, and the price of my 11 year-old car that they are willing to take, I'd say just hold on for the time being, let me do some maths first, and with the fuel prices rising, the maths become even more difficult now. They say should drive a car until it is dead.

Blacked Out

Woke up and realised that we had no power, the road is dark and so are the neighbours', so the whole taman is out out of electricity. A torchlight and a candle, that's what we have to keep us going this morning. Luckily we had our shirts and dresses pressed the day before. Not difficult like being out of water for instance, unless if you live in a high-rise apartment then that would really be a bad start to the day.

EPL

The new EPL season has started. I'm watching the closing stages of the match between Arsenal and Newcastle. Arsenal just scored a goal through a penalty by their new captain Thiery Henry in the 80th minute. No wonder football isn't so popular in the US, they want to see a goal scored every time a team attacks. There's not going to be anymore goals in this match by the look of it, so.... Wow I was wrong, Van Persie just scored another one in the closing minutes. That makes it 2-0. Quite a few new faces in the Arsenal team this season & we’ll get to know them better as the season progresses, and they changed colours too, no more red but rather maroon - so now thousands of those loyal fans will have to fork out more money for their own jerseys in the new colours.

Hazy days

12 August 2005.

Haze?What haze? Over here in Alor Star situation is normal, visibility is good. Terrible condition over there in Selangor & the Klang Valley in the news today. API more than 500 in places and the government have declared a state of emergency in some places. A relative in KL confirmed that her school is closed until the weekend. It seemed that the haze is the worst over the years - it can only mean that 'we' have not learnt our lessons. Once the haze is over, we go back to our old ways, and again the forest fires in Sumatra are blamed, same thing as in previous years. Those people does burns to earn a living, how can we blame them? What alternatives are there? Here in the north, two kinds of large open burning that has been going on albeit seasonaly, are the burning of rice stalks after harvesting season and the burning of sugar cane plants prior to their harvesting. Try and solve these too in our own backyard.

13 August 2005.

The haze has arrived. API is reported to be more than 100 at 5pm, that's unhealthy though nowhere near emergency level of 500. The sun hardly made it through the haze and as you stand under the sun, you don't get any shadows. It's a calamity if this goes on for any length of time, lets hope people concerned would be sane enough to get to root of the problem, whatever it is, wherever it came from.

14 August 2005.

Lots of news regarding this haze in the newspapers and the most embarrasing one must be that Malaysian Companies operating in Indonesia may be guilty of doing open burning in Sumatra and Riau. In Alor Star the haze is clearing and is much better today.

Beris Dam

Kedah gets another big lake, the 5th one in the state, as a result of the completion of the Beris Dam, near Sik, an hour and 15 minutes drive from Alor Star. More water required for irrigation, domestic and industry use hence more water need to be stored. 500 families was moved to make way for this lake of about 1,000 hectares. A new housing area complete with all facilities was put up so the people affected did not lose out, even the graves were dug up and relocated near the new settlement. So there is a lot of water being kept but for who? I'm told that so far the State of Penang has requested that some water be released to the river to be used in that state. Looks like the early beneficiary of the water stored are the people of Penang. No problems here, since Kedah has its water demands adequately met by the present systems. But demand is growing and in the future Penang might not have the water she require so easily (or for free). Water wars might arrive sooner or later hopefully the authorities would realised this and be careful about how water resources is protected.

Gurney Drive, Penang

The tide is high at 2.30pm today, water came up to the rocks so the sand on the beach is not visible. The water is cloudy with some debris floating about. A few people sitting around here doing nothing, just resting perhaps and some with their gf/bf. Gurney Drive is not busy at all though traffic is moving constantly. On these rocks the only sound you hear are waves hitting the rocks and the traffic noise in the background. Warm in the shadows of the big trees, the wind gentle and the sea in front of you, oh this is perfect for easing the mind of whatever. My guess is that the view from up the tower of Gurney Hotel behind me would be excellent - very brief visit here today, otherwise I would have stayed here overnight. Wow a splash on my trouser legs, is the water rising still? Time to go, came via the bridge this morning so I should try the ferry on the return journey. I can see a cruise ship berthing at the pier from here so the jetty couldn't be very far.

'Janji' at Taman Budaya, Alor Star.

Night out at the theatre tonight. Not often you can do that in Alor Star. The play is called 'Janji'. The place is cosy and comfortable with a rather smallish stage, however the play itself is rather unmemorable, too slow moving at times and the dialogue predictable and soft. Lost Prince meets princess kind of story and they got married in the end. I must say I didn't do justice to the effort that the people involved put in but I did not really enjoyed it, perhaps I was expecting too much or that I am not the theatrical type. If I have to give credit, it is to all the performers who perform flawlessly, no embarrassing moments at all. They made use of all the space on stage and more, some scenes have the performers running up and down the aisles, one big guy even walked across a row of seats, right in front of me, going after his lover! I was a sort of invited to see the show so got a free pass. Would I recommend anyone to see the play? Well only if you got a free pass, otherwise go spend your money elsewhere. Sorry.

KCK at Kopitiam.

If you ask for a 'KCK' at this particular kopitiam here in Alor Star you would get a set of two half-boiled eggs on toasts. 'KCK' stands for Ketua Cawangan Khas. Apparently one KCK turns up at this kopitiam sometime in the last millineum and demonstrated how he liked his half-boiled eggs and toast made. That's how the story goes as told by the proprietor, fact or fiction, the signature dish is a favourite among regulars. BTW this kopitiam used to be a school building of the Convent Primary School. The school has been moved to a new site on the other side of town so sitting down here at this kopitian means sitting in what used to be a classroom. This place is very well patronised for breakfasts 7 days a week and certainly a good place to be to see what locals folks look like. Oh, there's another kopitiam at Kompleks Alor Star a few minutes away by car and the place is equally good. You can get your KCK overthere too, the proprietor is kind of related.

Sg.Muda at Bukit Selambau.

Rain early in the morning as one goes out to join the rest of the working population to go to work really dampens your day and not a good start to any day. It's cold, got a little a bit wet as we get into the car, and the traffic jam, even here in Alor Star.

The biggest, longest and most important water source for Kedah and Penang is the Sg.Muda. But the state of the river at this point is very disheartening, pain to the eyes, pain to the heart also. Sakit hati memandangnya. It's not pollution - no floating rubbish like many rivers in urban areas in the Peninsular - it's the unnatural state of the river as a result of uncontrollable mining of sand from the river bed. The river bed has been mined too deep such that it threatens the stability of a bridge and the river banks are steep in many places much like the Grand Canyon and unstable. The water is brown, keroh, not much water flowing. And sand is still being mined in many places all along the river. It is a sad view and certainly not something we can be proud of or one of those things we can show to tourists. We failed as a nation if we can't take care of our own assets.

To Cameron Highlands Via Simpang Pulai.

1st August 2005, Simpang Pulai to Cameron Highlands.

Today I experienced for the first time the new road up going to Cameron Highlands from Simpang Pulai. Traditionally to go up to CH one need to go to Tapah and then go up the winding old road for about 60km before reaching CH. From Simpang Pulai the distance is longer at about 80km. But the road here is much better, not less winding but wider and one could drive faster. I was at Simpang Pulai at 8.20pm and arrived at The Heritage Hotel at Tanah Rata at 9.45pm. The night drive is rather scary at times due to some rather tight corners and pitch black darkness on the left and right side of the road. I imagine the views during the day would be nothing less than spectacular. On at least two places there were major slope stabilisation works going on but there were no work on the road itself - the road surface were good all the way. At the back of my mind I dread to think what would happen should I had a puncture or breakdown, there were not that many traffic at that time of the night. Are there wild animals? Bandits? Hantu? I probably won't drive alone again at night on this road. I was lucky the weather was good & I could move up as fast as I could safely. It was a big relieve to arrive at Kg.Raja. It was another 26km before I reached Tanah Rata. Up here you don't need the air condition on, it is nice and cool!

The town centre at Tanah Rata look a bit messy, there were construction works going on to improve the road between Brinchang and Tanah Rata and building under construction in Tanah Rata itself. One particular building is being build too close to the main road. The building columns are right at the edge of the road pavement! Hardly any space for a drain between the building and the road - rules are being broken here as far as planning is concerned!

2nd August 2005, Heritage Hotel, Tanah Rata.

Dinner is steam-boat. The fun having a meal like this is everyone doing sort of 'cooking' before eating. All kinds of food are boiled in hot soup in a deep pan in a the middle of the table. Once cooked, you pick up whatever suits your taste. The meal lasts an hour and a half, rather quick for we had work to do. The food was healthy - nothing is fried and lots of vegetables - but most of all we enjoyed ourselves and had real good conversations. Finished work at 11.30pm and then off to town centre for tek tarik till 1.00am.

3rd August, 2005. Cameron Highlands to Simpang Pulai.

Cameron Highlands during midweek is jam-free, smooth flowing traffic, parking space not a problem. A row of stalls supposed to be selling fruits, vegetables, souvenirs etc. remain closed in Brinchang. I'd imagine all shops would be opened during weekends. But at other spots there are enough shops and stalls open business for whatever visitors want to take home.

From Tanah Rata one need to go to Brinchang, then on to Kg.Raja. From there the road meets the Simpang Pulai - Gua Musang road. This is where the fun really stars, if you enjoy driving that is. From this junction to Simpang Pulai is about 55 kilometre of twisting winding road. You don't want to be passenger when you are travelling on this road. I was alone so the drive was really an interesting one, at times testing my driving skills tackling those corners. It was a pleasure to swerve the car left and right down the hills but I don't think my usual passengers would have approved, they would puke in no time.