Bentong Outing

Bentong is just fringing on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.  If memory does not fail me, its about an hour's ride away from the big smoke.  When I was growing up, Bentong is a one horse town, and if you had to go there for your school holidays, it would be fate worst than death!!!

50 years on... it seems there are tourist buses arriving at the crack of dawn creating chaos and the town is buzzing with a hype of activities especially over the weekend on market day!  It is indeed very happening the day we were there and all along the streets you would be lucky to either find a park or the streets are lined with vendors selling home grown organic veggies from their own backyard, pick your own chooks still alive in cages and slaughtered in front of your eyes.  How much fresher can you get? All kinds of food cooking aromas filled the air and all you needed was a good nose to follow the smell leading to the food stalls.  Obviously, produce are cheaper and if not fresher than what you can get in the big stores downtown.  Bentong is famous for its fresh ginger.  As you can see from the pix, the root ginger is so huge and its root clutters are formed spreading out in the shape of a "fan" unlike those sold in little broken bits and pieces normally found here in the Oz shops!!

DC is still very much a "Bentong boy" at heart.  Now in his 60s, although he officially resides in Singapore, but of late, he has been toing and froing to Bentong so often, they recently acquired a fully renovated smaller home in Bentong as his weekend getaway/hideout!!! 



Taufoo Pok

DC loves cooking in his spare time, so he comes back to Bentong to stock up on his taufoo pok, soya sauce, fresh hand made egg noodles and obviously the ginger amongst other things.  He also has a circle of close friends, so now semi retired, DC and wife, SF spends a lot of time in Bentong just chilling with friends and doing some of his "big "smelly" cooking" as he calls it in his wet kitchen which is fitted out with commercial like equipment found in the restaurants!  Besides marketing and shopping, there is also lots of local eating to be done.  DC knows every nook and cranny and where to find them not to mention durains that are out of season, DC has connections, so we gave our taste buds a great work out tasting some "country" cooking at its best.  Authentic home cooking by Bentong locales with no fancy frills but hearty, tasty, good portions and cheap!!!  We had to try as many varieties as we could so we made a pig of ourselves from curry noodles, to congee, roti chanai, abc ice kachang etc etc saving the best for last which is durains. 

Oh, I forgot to mention SL and HS drove up to Bentong in the morning to rendezvous with us and they had fun too as all we did was eat and shop.  After lunch, SF took us into the village where most of the locals reside, and houses are still very "original" and one could not help but notice that the way they lived was in a close and warmly knitted community so different from the modern neighbourhood homes found in Ozland.





Even this cup of local coffee brings back memories from my childhood days.  Rarely do you see coffee served in crockery like this in the big smoke and it is made so strong that after having a couple, you will definitely be buzzing for the rest of the day!

Durains, durains, durains ... my all time favourite fruit - the King of Fruits.  The hybrid, Musang King was supposedly out of season, but DC froze some for me and managed to get a few other varieties for me to satisfy my craving.  It was sooooooo good and gooey and selfish me wished I did not have to share it with the rest of the ladies!!!!



Typical village home

King of Fruits - Durain

It was only a flying visit through Bentong and hopefully when I am next back in KL, I will be lucky enough to follow DC and SF up to Bentong again.  Looks like this little gem is worth keeping in mind if one is looking for a day trip out of KL for something different to do. 

KM for Easter Break 2016

Normally, I am not overly excited about Easter (if I am not travelling) and this year I was staying home, but this Easter was a bit different for me as KM decided to come down from Sydney to spend the Easter break with us - two timing between her ex colleague and us, but we got luckier as we had KM every night in bed here with us!!!

KM and I get along pretty well regardless of our age difference.  I could even pass off as her "mother" as her mother is my schoolmate from kinder days!

We both love our food, but Easter is a busy time, so when KM confirmed her flights, we did a quick ring around but it was unfortunate and impossible for us to get a table anywhere in the more prestigious top winery restaurants down by the Peninsula.  Wait, but I had a plan of attack and did not know if it was going to work, but we rocked up at Monalto early before the normal peak lunch hour, and to our surprise we managed to score a table at Monalto which was supposedly fully booked out too.  It worked a treat, but I must admit it is not the best table in the house, tucked away at the back but I guess you could turn it into a positive as we had the "private" area all to ourselves!!!  I have eaten at Monalto many times over the years, but I must say they have lifted their game this time round, as the food was pretty good although I cannot say that their standard is now at a level similar to that of Ten Minutes By Tractor but close enough!!!



We spent a bit of time wandering the grounds, and I took KM and Becky down to the bottom and around to the back where some of their produce are planted, and KM was so thrilled to see Kiwi fruits hanging from the plant.  Neither of them has seen it dangling on a plant before apart from the fruit itself being sold in the supermarket, so it was indeed an "educational" tour!!! (They thought it was from a tree, but its actually a creeper plant!)




Quality Control



We knew we could not get into the Hot Springs, but nonetheless we rocked up in hopes of cancellations or no show, but was told the same to our faces, so now satisfied but disappointed, we dragged our feet out and we just drove around and landed up at the Swayns in Rye for a coffee and a chat.  Time just flew by us and now its time to head home as the girls had dinner plans that evening.

It was a short but sweet visit by KM, and it was all about eating and chit chatting and seeing her again.  My girlies!!! Hopefully KM will come back again soon and we can do it all over again and more next time round!!!

Good Friends/Good Food - KL March 2016

Over the past consecutive 5 years have seen me going back to KL more frequently because I fell in love with Sipadan.  I normally make Mensra my KL hub (courtesy of MY & HS) stopping over quickly to catch up with special people, before heading off to Mabul/Sipadan.

Time sure flies when you are having fun.  Just look at my Minzes, they are all married now except for Sandra, so each year when I visit, one might be preggers, or I will get to see a new addition to the family, and or be blown away by how quickly the other children have grown up!

These children are super cute and adorable and they belong to my long time friend HS.  Although I am not a granny yet by Becky, I am really lucky to be "popoSim" to HS's grandchildren. 

HS always makes time for me when I am in town, and my Minzes will spoil me with eating here and there and they are all just one big cool family.  HS bakes very well too, so my tummy is always filled with nothing but the best and all kinds of my favourite cakes.  The latest craze is HS's Florentines..... super delish and a very morerish healthy snack.

If you have not caught on yet by now, HS has 5 lovely daughters and they are my Minzes!!!

Whenever we get together, its always over food and I guess good friends and good food does go hand in hand together.  Super proud of my Minzes too as their event planning business has taken off like a rocket, and no matter how busy they are, they still make time to fit me in whenever possible.  This family is just amazing and I love hanging around them and even if we are doing nothing, just chilling with them I have the best time.  This is the sort of family environment I lack in my real life as I have 2 other siblings, but we all live in different countries and even if we did, we don't jell close to anything like HS's family!!!

Another old favourite is the Chia family or aka "94".  At the sheer mention of the santan jelly just in passing conversation, and before you know it, the next day I get to eat it!!!

Lately DC and SFun have also been spoiling me as DC cooks all the traditional Cantonese favourites (including spare parts) and I must brag that his Babi Utan Rendang is one of the best I have ever tried.  He also has good durain connections, so this time round I was still able to have 2 rounds of durains although they were supposedly out of season.

Going back to KL for me is all about catching up with good friends and eat some of my favourite local foods and fruits.  I don't have much business there anymore, but I do have good friends and one aunty from my mother's side.  As far as I am concerned, good friends are hard to come by, some times even better than family.  Like they say, you cant chose your family, but you can chose your friends... so choose wisely!

I guess I was born under a wandering star, and no matter where I go, it has always been shining bright for me.  Now I am even more thankful as I have a new island family addition based in Semporna/Mabul - thanks to Uncle Chang's Diving and Backpackers Resort.

This last trip in March, I missed MY and the boys as they have moved to Edinburgh to plant new roots.  I am so happy to report that they are all settled down comfortably and getting into a new English or shall I say Scottish way of life/routine.
 

Kuala Lumpur to me is all about good food and good friends,  there is always someone somewhere in KL that I can "sibuk" with and a couple more that I would like to mention and they are AK and JY -- old friends that I have plenty of time for, so I make sure when I am in town, we meet up and you have guessed it, over food!!!

  

Bangkok Stint February 2016

Whenever I think of pampering myself big time, Bangkok always comes to mind!!!  I love the food, I love the day spas/massages, its not too far to fly and I know I am in a foreign land - the "Land of Smiles"

From the authentic and even exotic street foods to the fine dining restaurants to roof top bars etc, Bangkok has it all, not to mention the retail shopping side and night life entertainment galore.  I guess with our Aussie dollar, it stretches even further in Thailand, so you could easily say I would be able to rave it up and live like royalty and spoil myself silly for a whole week without breaking the bank!!!

So, Bangkok here I come ready or not and all I did was eat and massage and wander around and it repeated itself the next 7 days.  I usually start the day off by a roof top swim, build up an appetite for a buffet breakfast before venturing out and a typical day would be a 2 hour massage and then walk around and get lunch along the way.  Then more walkies to digest lunch and its more massaging and by now, its time to head back to the hotel and freshen up for dinner and normally end the day with another 2 more hours of massage and am happy to call it a day!

Most of my Bangkok trips have been around the Sukhumvit area but this trip I decided to go back to Khaosan.  PR took me there a couple of years ago and I  liked it as there is a certain buzz about it.  The tourists in Khaosan are just normal people wanting to have a good time and not have to splash a bundle on 5stars accommodation.  There is a good mix of foreigners in Khaosan be it people on a budget or backpackers, but I can tell you, they sure know how to party hard compared to the starchy prim and proper ones in the Sukhumvit area. 

I just wanted to explore Khaosan more on my own.  I remembered vividly what we did and so I took the ferry to Chinatown.  It makes a good change from the taxi or tut tuts and there is no traffic jam and its dirt cheap!!! 

Chinatown

Its very happening there and after a wander, on my way back after all the walking in the humid weather I will stop for another 2  hours of massage to cool down in the air-conditioning and revitalise my poor feet!!!  By the time I am done, I will go head  to the hotel and have a little rest and shower and then I am out on the hunt for dinner.

This particular nite, I just had to get to this special Pad Thai store that everyone is raving about on the internet called Thipsamai, and after asking around I took a taxi there and am glad to report that it was worth the journey and it tasted very good.  A must try if you ever go to Bangkok and coming from me, it cannot be a bad recommendation!!!  The queue was long, the store workers know their game, and the speed they cooked up the pad thai was incredible and it was like as if it was a machine churning out the pad thai wrapped in a thin egg omelette.... yummz!  I paid extra for 8 prawns which was nearly double the price of a normal plate that only comes with 2 prawns, but it was still cheap even after the exchange rate conversion.

One of those days, I also joined a "tut tut tour" that was to take me to 8 different tourist spots including a jewellery gallery.  I thought it was rather cheap for so many places, so I just hopped on and went with the flow.  I have been to most of them before, but thought its something different to do to break up my day.  When he left me at the Grand Palace, he never came to get me to drop me off at MBK.  Of course by now, I knew something suss was happening as other tut tut drivers were calling out to me left and right and wants my business.  I guess they knew I was taken for a ride!!!  Well, I did not pay my tut tut man yet as our tour was not officially over.  According to the other tut tut drivers, apparently when we went to the jewellery gallery, he already got his coupons for  the day and it was to fill up his vehicle and that in itself was worth much more than what he was going to charge me for the so called tour.  Lesson learnt - beware of tut tut touts offering cheap city tours!!!  On the other hand, if you have plenty of time to kill and nothing else to do, I guess it was "an experience" and I did get to see a few places, but just make sure if you do happen to come across this kind of offer, that the tut tut driver goes to the jewellery gallery on the last stop!!! 

This trip, I ate so so so many of the baby pineapples.  They are so delicious and thirst quenching especially in the Bangkok heat!!!  I guess I will never be able to find them back in Melbourne.  Another reason why I like Bangkok is the variety of tropical fruits that can be found there and now that I have discovered these baby pineapple bombs, I have a reason to go back again for more!!

Some of the local street food - cheap, delicious and different for sure!!!

Bangkok is always a boomerang holiday destination for me and if you like a sample taste of Asia, this would be a good place to start your adventures!!!

Club 60 Birthday Celebrations - March 2016

This bunch of us "Red Skirt" girls made a pact that we will all get together and celebrate when we all turn 60!!

The Red Skirt Ladies all going on 60 in 2016

So 2016 is finally upon us - this is the happening year for all of us.  As I blog this event, 4 of us are already in Club 60.  Elaine kicked it off in Feb, and Helen in March.  Last week, I joined the Club and as I type this, Susan is celebrating in celeb style right now in KL.

We all went to the same high school aka "red skirt" school.  A handful of us have known each other as far back as kinder!!!  With modern technology and through social media, we have been connecting over the past few years but more frequently and actively nowadays.  Whenever I am back in KL, Hazel will volunteer to get some of the ladies together and we have a chinwag and catch up over food food food!!!  One of our ladies, SChing (in blue top)  is also owner/chef at Fatty Crab, so this venue is often one of our catchup spots.  SChing is indeed a very busy lady with not much spare time and her restaurant is not only making a killing, but it is packed out most days with long queues waiting to get a table to enjoy her famous crabs.  (I experienced this many a times - had to wait outside on the road!!!) but  all her hard work is getting recognised as her family business was featured in one of the local "Forbes" magazine recently.

Helen also resides in Melbourne, and SFun has always been two timing between Singapore and KL after their return from SEA postings, so it was lucky the 3 of us managed to be available on the 10th March 2016.

Like everything else in Malaysia, its all about connections.  Lucky for us, CHar's son own an Italian Restaurant in Bangsar, the

Palazzo Viva and she organised the elaborate dinner for us.

Crispy Skin Smoked Stlantic Cod Fish with fruits salad and mushroom ragout

Starting off with 3 entrees, the lst one being Japanese Scallop Wiener Schnitzel with marinated root vegetable, ebiko and garlic aioli.  Main was a choice of two, and I chose the Grilled Australia Prime Strip Lion with baby Romain, corn and truffle French fries.  I was delightfully surprised it was so good as I have a high benchmark when it comes to Italian food being spoilt by all the fancy restaurants we have in Melbourne.

Dessert was Oreo Espuma Cholate, Gelate Ice Cream and Berries what an excellent way to finish off the meal.

It was not just the food, but the company and the friendship which has spanned over 40 years with most of us and somehow, we just managed to pick up where we left off and just chatted and chatted away.  Our Geography teacher, Mrs Thomazios was also in town as she now lives in California, so we invited her along and everyone was just so happy to be present.  Distance does not hinder the friendship we have and if anything, it makes it stronger especially now in our 60s.... some of us are seeking to reconnect!!!

My forever friends

Hazel, SFun, Me and Helen

Some of the luckier ladies have reached grandma status.  I guess for the rest of us, we can only live in hope that we will join Granny Club soon too.  For a handful of us, their children are not married yet but all of them are professionals in their own respective fields.  Overall, I reckon this bunch of ladies are all very fortunate in our own ways and regardless of what we have, what we do, where we are, where we go, what we own, but we have one thing in common and that is we know that we have a long and lasting friendship that never ends!!!  Fingers and toes and everything else crossed.

Let's celebrate our 60th milestone

and here's wishing everyone good health and see if we can all go the extra mile to our 70's and beyond!!!

3 Black Swans - SL's Tassie Rendezvous April 2016

Soo Lee - Description:  A KL friend that would like to experience Tassieland in a RV and would like to see changing autumn colours and enjoy gourmet gastronomical experiences along the way!!!

Tick tick tick tick ticked!!!  Almost all items on her wish-list was covered except for Bruny Island.  They ran out of time towards the end and steam may I add, as MB has been doing a lot of RV and 4WD driving even prior to SL arriving in Hobart as I was there 12 days earlier and SL stayed back another week on her own without me!!!  Kudos to MB for his efforts for waking up early each day and get us on the road to cover as much as we possibly could in the short time frame.  Waste no time, we raced to the Signal Station after we picked SL up from the airport and she dug into her first gourmet aussie meal.  Dinner on her first night we had "Lo Sang" as the highlight welcome dish, but this time we were tossing for her future to be filled with success and good health.  Mains was alaBoofers Hapuka and we finished off with an apricot cheesecake.  BTW - SL also quit her job prior to coming over to Tassieland.  Guess it must be catchy or is it, birds of a feather flock together?!?

We started the RV tour on the "Rivers Run" route covering places like Tarwlyn Park, Salmon Ponds and finally after winding up and down narrow dirt roads, it took us into Mt Field for our Fagus hunt.  Luckily for us, Fagus were easily spotted and at some locations it was like a jungle of gold.  It's all about timing as Fagus is the only Tasmanian deciduous plant in the whole wide world and can only be found around Mt Field or Cradle Mountain and we managed to catch it at its best as it changes from green, to yellow, orange gold, and then even to red!!!  First mission accomplished!!!

Fagus

Next morning, we woke up to a yummilicious breakfast at Raspberry Christmas Hills.  We popped into places like Ashgrove's Cheese and in hindsight should have bought a couple more cartons of their full cream milk!!!  So delicious it reminded me of my days in the UK when milk was delivered to the front door in a glass bottle and milk never tasted soooooo good!!! SL likes the quaint small towns so we spent some time around Sheffield famous for its murals, Evandale for the Georgian village and Franklin House and that night we slept under the stars and to the sounds of the waves pounding by the RV in Stanley by The Nut.  We even managed to spot a few fairy penguins calling out to us to come find them in the dark in the midst of watching MKR finals!!!

Us happy at Cradle Mountain

Spot SL in the harvester!

After Cradle Mountain, we headed towards Stanley but somewhere near Wynyard or Table Cape, we had the ride of our lives  today inside a working potato truck zig zagging across the fields harvesting spuds.  I was riding with Craig the driver and SL was in the harvester.  I missed out on it last year, but no way was I going past it this time round.  We scored a big bag of the yummiest Innovators (fresh, powdery and just the perfect textured potato) an experience not many tourists can claim they joined this tour!  The ride itself was priceless.  My price was the lost of my left fitflop, but it was well worth the ride.  I would gladly lose the right side for another bag of Innovators!!!

So much happening throughout the day and by nightfall, we just about have enough energy after dinner to squeeze in a game of frustration and nibble off the cheeseboard before we hit the sack!!!

SL in her RV sleeping quarters

Enjoying a sunrise alaSim chia pudding

No better place to catch a sun rise and today we woke up to the sky painting us beautiful pictures witnessed only by the 2 of us and another keen photographer or as MB would call us "crazy people" at Cosy Corner in St Helens, Bay of Fires.
Whilst MB was still in lalaland, SL and I had the best time mucking around the boulders, playing with starfishes, a pretty anemone and we ate our chia pudding on the beach waiting patiently for Mr Sun.  The simple pleasures of life are not only free and not forgetting the freshest air for two jobless people!!!  Yesssss we are doing it tough - sitting around a camp fire tucking into St Helens Pacific oysters, nibbling on cheese and sipping red wine!!  Another day in paradise!!!  Are we forgetting MB, he is also jobless but I guess he falls into the retired category!!!

 

Before I broke off from this leg of the "3 Black Swans" trip, we proceeded to Launceston, Freycinet Coast and SL managed to hike half way up to Wineglass Bay lookout.  We lost a rear left mud flap at Honeymoon Bay and stopped by Bicheno for the must do scallop pie and built our fire at Mayfield.  There is so much more to blog on this particular trip and not every event might be in chronical sequence, but we packed in each day best we could and it would take forever and perhaps one day I will blog episode "2" in full detail. 

I am sure SL had an amazing time as she had the best tour guide/chef/host all rolled into one in MB.  Remember him, MB is that "stranger" that I went RVing with to the OZ outback for 3 months.  

Since then, we are still RVing it together, but now there are new "members" and word is spreading amongst my circle of friends that RVing is great fun to do long roadtrips, so I would advise anyone interested to try RVing with MB to take a number and book MB well in advance.  Simply hop aboard the RV wagon for some fun fun fun on the road!!! 

   

RV RIDING RULES

**  No Extra Charge

• **  Split Expenses

**  Must beat MB at Frustration

• **  Bring Your Fun, Free and Adventurous Spirit
• 
  
• **  Enjoy To The Max

Happy Campers in Tassieland - February 2016

Do I ever do anything by the books?  Randomly, I booked a trip to Hobart and then I decided I will chuck in my real estate job even before telling my boss of my resignation and my bags were packed and I was ready to rock & roll!!!

This also meant I was to usher in the "Year of the Monkey" in the wilderness of Tasmania which is right up my alley/tree!!  If you have not guessed it by now, I was born in the year of the monkey and I am a Fire Monkey and a very mischievous one too!!  I have all the traits of a monkey... and more!?!

Checked with the family and although the "Reunion Dinner" is the most important day of the year and Becky reminded me of this, but GK said we are not "traditional" so we had an early RD prior to my departure.

Long story cut short, my boss who resides in Hobart actually picked me up at the airport and he somehow persuaded me to return to my job once I am done with Tassie.  Isn't this great, my job is to be kept open and I can walk back into it when I am done with my holiday in Tassie.

  

It was a funtastic time as Elaine and her siblings (7 pax) came over and we joined them wherever we could as they were over here for a camping/hiking holiday for 2 weeks.  We were glamping it in the RV and they had to pitch their tents.  Between MB and I, we catered some of their meals.  All they had was one small pot that would have taken forever to cook up a decent meal for 7 pax whilst in the wilderness and especially after hiking and walking for an average of 6 hours per day, I guess it was gonna be canned food!?!

One of the first meals I prepared for them was the CNY Rainbow Salad aka Lo Sang - and we all gathered and tossed for prosperity, good health, etc etc in the wilderness of Cockle Creek - the southern most tip of Tasmania.  Never in a 100 years would they have thought they will get this treat on the road!!!

Abalone tossed in garlic and ginger oil on bed of veggies

Fresh caught wild abalone

Sing and the boys collected palm sized abalone (ahumm) from the wild and we had abalone slightly pan seared in garlic and ginger oil quickly and served on top of a bed of mixed salad - sooooo yummo!!!  It was juicy, it was tender and Sing cooked it to perfection.  Who says we are were doing it rough and tough in the wild!!!

Let the pixs do all the talking ....

Sing and his one and only camping pot!!!

Total of 9 pax including me the photographer!

As if I would miss out on an opportunity to pretend that I have been camping.  I guess this is as close as I will ever get to go on a real camping trip as none of my immediate friends/family are into camping. 

It was an awesome trip and I am still hoping one fine day I can still go on a real camping trip and do it as rough and tough as Elaine and gang!!!

Oh - I guess I forgot to mention it - did I go back to my job???... silly me, NO ... after Tassie I took off to Bangkok!!!