This will be the last of the series of posts that talks about my graduation trip around the northern penisular states of Perak, Kedah and Perlis. We reached Kedah in the last post and now we are ready to go for more before we head back home…
First thing first: breakfast. Songbird brought by the old folks to the kopitiam.
Ate their version of 干捞面. Still prefer Kuchingite Kolo Mee over everything else.
Our first point of visit, the elusive UUM situated exactly in the middle of nowhere but connected with a 4 lane motorway. That’s the 25 years anniversary signboard at the roundabout outside the main gate.
What they have for internal road? A four lane tree-lined road complete with a proper road divider.
They have paddocks to keep deers.
A 9 hole golf course.
A monument symbolizing their foundation in front of a beautifully manicured esplanade.
If you squint hard enough, that’s their Chancellory Building over there.
And they have arch for their main entrance. Sigh. All because they have ample amount space to do anything they want. At the expense of being located in the middle of nowhere.
Another short drive and we entered Perlis, the northernmost and the smallest state in Malaysia!
Went past yet another public university: UniMaP Universiti Malaysia Perlis.
Their main campus is still in construction though but by the look of it, it’s going to look pretty neat!
Driving along a backwater road to Padang Besar, the scenery along the road becomes more and more surreal…
The gently rolling flat land with small bushy like plantation, stretched beyond horizon…
We are actually driving past the vast sugarcane plantation in Chuping.
Chuping Sugar Processing Plant. It looks almost sinister from a far, occupying at the far end of the sugar cane plantation and spewing off dark clouds…
Look at that endless plain of sugarcane. (I think the harvested it recently so that’s why the sugarcane plant is still short)
Stretching beyond horizon. Oh, oh additional fact. Besides being the largest sugarcane plantation in Malaysia, Chuping is also where the hottest temperature ever recorded was. 40.5 celsius. Burning!
Feels almost being in American Midwest. It’s quite beyond me on how Robert Kuok (Currently the richest man in Malaysia) acquire this much of land (1/8 of whole Perlis and straddling along Thailand Malaysia border!) for his fledging sugar plantation company. Now his company (and indirectly Perlis even though being the smalllest state in Malaysia) controlled over 80% of sugar production in Malaysia, creating a virtual monopoly.
Reaching Padang Besar…Thailand-Malaysia border is just a few metres away!
Thai word – a subtle reminder that we are at the border.
Padang Besar Bazaar.
Different flavours of dodol. Lawrence bought 2 kgs of it.
Typical touristy trinkets and such.
There’s this one corner that sells potted plants!
Most of it are orchids.
More orchids.
ChiaMin and YenPheng, checking out woodwork.
Thailand motorcycle license plate, another reminder that we are at Thailand border.
Padang Besar is where we are now.
Checking out all the touristy trinkets at a stall.
Rows and rows of shops selling t-shirts and such.
Inside the atrium.
Wall of shoes.
Pulut mangga which is basically glutinous rice cooked in coconut milk and accompanied by slices of mango. XinMi and SheiHan ordered it but they say it’s a lil too rich for their liking. So I ate it instead lol.
Nasi goreng padprik, one of the most prevalent type of fried rice over Northern region with its origin of course from Thailand. One thing that I observed from the interact between Kok and the shopkeepers here is that almost all of them are sufficiently bilingual in Thai and Malay. Whether it is because of the need rising from dealing with customer from two sides of the border or it is natural for a border community even when you are a Malay, it is still very impressive to observe that.
Colorful bottles of soft drinks on table. But I ordered coconut drink anyway. The weather was burning!
And of course coming to this kind of place, the purchase of souvenirs is unavoidable. So I bought this whole bunch of keychain. RM10 for 10 keychains! Now, who should it give it to…
ChiaMin and MingWei started exchanging keychain as soons as we entered the car!
ChiaMin’s keychain. Mine’s pretty much the same design complete with the word Padang Besar on it but except that the wood is in the shape of heart.
Since we still have plenty of time, where should we go next?
After much deliberation over lunch, here’s our next destination: Gua Kelam (lit. dimmed/dark cave), a limestone cave and former tin mine.
Which has natural streams and facilities for people to bathe in.
Syair Gua Kelam.
Looking up the lime stone cliff.
Let’s go in!
Entering the cave.
For the convenience of the visitor, there’s a wooden platform/pathway suspended along the caves wall to walk on. With the sounds of the stream flowing under the wooden pathway, the air inside the cave was cool…
Limestone formation, stalagtite.
Venturing deeper into the cave.
Unique texture on limestone wall as a result of water flowing for hundreds of years.
More unique texture and formation.
This has to be the most spectacular formation in Gua Kelam. As if the rock itself is flowing down…
lol Shenanigans.
Ms. Chan doing her usual act again.
Photo session.
Me faking climbing up the cliff.
There’s this staircase that leads up along the side of a cliff to another cave…
The staircase itself is suspended along the side of the cliff as well. This was taken from the top of the staircase.
There’s a cave here but there’s no lighting at all. It’s a no go for us. Only after we ask the counter at the entrance that this is a mining cave and only a qualified guide can bring us in. Phew, luckily we didn’t continue the journey into the cave on our own.
Overlooking more limestone mountains and top of the trees.
Rested at the bottom of the cave with people throwing pebbles across the surface of water. Pretty much done with Gua Kelam here and ready to head back home.
Went passed an ostrich farm while on our back to Changlun.
More of Chuping sugarcane plantation.
Went passed more limestone mountains.
Sleepy people.
Kok’s home. Brush up, clean up, pack up and we are ready to hit the road home to Pearl Island.
But stop by at Jitra first for dinner. Going along the irrigation canal.
Our place for dinner: Rung Reang Thai and Seafood Restaurant, one of the more famous haunt for food in Jitra and Northern region.
A huge bowl of Seafood Tomyam.
Otak-otak.
Claypot beancurd.
Satay.
Stir fried vege.
Spicy steamed fish. The plate they use is also in the shape of fish.
Deep fried squid.
After we bid AhHan and her BF farewell, it’s time to hit the pedal to the metal and fly back to Penang.
Crossing the Penang Bridge that we are all too familiar with and all of us reached back to our respective home safe and sound.
What’s left for memento for this graduation trip? Tickets of the places we visited namely Alor Setar Tower, Gua Kelam, Maxwell Hill and Taiping Zoo.
From Taiping, two bags of Hiong Pia and a packet of White Coffee (bought at a bargained price courtesy of Mr. Chuah!) for my family back in Kuching as well as goat milk soap from Padang Besar. Bought it on a whim because it’s value of curiosity.
Lots of key chain to be given away and to myself. The shell keychains is from Taiping Zoo, the rest are from Padang Besar.
Last but not least of course, all the good memories that we spent together that will last forever in our soul, a reminder of all the friendship that we build up for the past 3 years in university. Cheers, love you all and GODSPEED in a future endeavour. Surely, we will meet each other again and spent time time together like we used to be…
Just to recap the series of blogposts chronicling our graduation trip, here’s day one, day two and day three! Hope you all enjoyed the series of blogpost and expect more post coming soon!
Epilogue: Phew! Done with the series of blogpost. It’s very hard to blog without a stable internet connection, which is why I am hanging around AB Cafe and Istimewa way to often these days. Oh, oh need to go back to serious stuff…such as finalizing my MA’s application!
No comments:
Post a Comment