Cuti-cuti "Half" Peninsular Malaysia - Day 2 - Nasi Ulam Kampung Kraftangan

After our Batik Workshop, we went back to Pasir Belanda to shower and change before we continue our exploration.

Our first stop of the day: Nasi Ulam Kampung Kraftangan (to be very honest, we were aiming for the food, visiting the Craft Museum was just something you do just because you were already there)

Nasi Ulam Kampung Kraftangan

This restaurant serves varieties of food. It is self-service so you could take your own sweet time to explore the food counter while having headache deciding what to take base on your stomach capacity. Dad, who grew up with his nyonya grandmother, was especially thrilled to find the variety of ulam that he could choose from. I was surprise that the sambal, sauces (they even have durian sauce!!), chillies, kuah are all free flow!!

The senior citizens and I, somehow, at some point of our youth, were trained in eating with bare hand. With such simple yet delicious food, we decided to eat with bare hand, just like to locals. I have to say it was really fun in a traditional restaurant like this. Believe it or not, eating with bare hand actually made the food taste better :)

The Ulam

Deep fried ikan keli

Traditional style fried chicken

Hmm.... I don't remember the name of this dish

This is a restaurant that you should never miss if you were to visit Kota Bharu. It serves good and extremely cheap food! With the dishes listed above, a cup of milo ice and 6 cups of teh tarik, lunch for seven of us cost less than RM40!

How to go? Just set your GPS to Kampung Kraftangan :)

of course, we had a brief visit at the Craft Museum too

Cuti-cuti "Half" Peninsular Malaysia - Day 2 - Batik Workshop

After a great breakfast at the White House, we went back to Pasir Belanda.

3 of us enrolled in a batik workshop but the senior citizens wanted to follow. They imagined that they could shop for some nice batik while we learn batik drawing. So, 7 of us followed Pasir Belanda staff, together with an Australian family, walked cross the kampung to the Batik Workshop.

The senior citizens grew up in an environment like this so they were very excited almost about everything. Mama said "take the photo of that beautiful kampung house!" and Wei Wei said "Hey! I grew up in Malaysia too!" haha!

When we finally arrived (actually just about 10 minutes walk), we were shocked!!The batik workshop is just a small hut at the back of a kampung house! All the senior citizens found some excuses and "cabut". They went back to Pasir Belanda to swim, to read, to relax, to have "math class" while we stayed to learn some basic skill of batik drawing.

THIS!! Is the batik workshop

It's literary a sweat shop!! Everyone of us was sweating while drawing. However, it was an unique experience. While we were busy learning, this dilapidated hut was full with visitors. Hen came with her chicks, the cat and kittens wandering around. The two Australian kids had great fun chasing the animals.

The drawing tools

Our masterpiece :)

We were given a white cloth that has been divided into 4 sections. Wei Wei, Sonia and I were responsible for one section each while the instructor drew on the remaining one. Since we came unprepared, we were having headache at the beginning as none of us know what to draw. We had to brainstorm for ideas.

Finally I settled for something cartoonish and easy (mushrooms) while Wei Wei drew some colourful vibrant sunflowers with butterfly. Sonia was the best student. She diligently drew an underwater dolphin accompanied by angel fishes, jelly fishes and corals.

Handling the hot wax was a bit tricky as if you don't hold the tool steadily at the correct angle you will get a line with uneven width or even sometimes a big spot instead of a line. The colouring part was fun. We learnt how to shade and tone.

Once completed, the students had to leave their works with the teacher so that their drawings could go through the other chemical processes before the masterpieces were delivered to Pasir Belanda. (Unfortunately, we were out after the batik class. We reached Pasir Belanda after 10pm so we decided to get back our masterpieces the next morning. When we went to the office to get our drawings the next morningg, the staff went to check with her boss and Harry came to me with a bad news. He didn't know that there were 4 students enrolled in the batik workshop the day before. So when the batik instructor sent the batik, he didn't open to check. He gave the bag to the Australian family when they were leaving. He promised us to try to contact the Australian family after their Taman Negara trip and try to get them to send the batik to my home address when they reach Kuala Lumpur. I'm not sure if he managed to find them, and I'm not sure if they managed to send us the batik. I just hope that we could receive the package before Sonia goes back to US. )

So, What Happened?

We are all born scientists. So what happened?

When toddlers learn by testing hypotheses and analyzing evidence, why not all the supposedly-scientifically-trained-engineers do the same?

Should we blame our education system for promoting robotic learning and total suppression of curiosity? Should we blame the parents for focusing only on exams results and little else? Or should we blame ourselves for letting others mold us into someone we are not?

Cuti-cuti "Half" Peninsular Malaysia - Day 2 - Kedai Kopi White House

My dad used to work in Kota Bharu more than 3 decades ago, when I was 4 or 5. I remembered my first flight experience is to visit my dad in Kota Bharu with my mum and my grandma. I don't really remember much of Kota Bharu, except some weird Malay-grammar-hokkien, the flood, my first ever Malay friend who played masak-masak with me every afternoon communicating in an unknown common language, the metal bed at the second (or third) floor of the shop where I secretly throw in a lot of grape seeds hoping that one day I have a vine bed (the idea still sounds cool to me to date though it never happened), the banana leaf Indian Restaurant (that none of us could recall the name and failed to find the restaurant during this trip), and, THE Kedai Kopi White House. Some how, the half boiled eggs stayed vividly in my memory.

Wei Wei taking picture of the signboard of The White House

My dad missed the nasi dagang, and both my parents confirmed that this shop serves one of the best coffee in Malaysia. So, planning a breakfast at The Kedai Kopi White House is inevitable.

We were lucky to find a table when we arrived. This White House is almost always full house. We ordered 7 sets of half-boiled-eggs, kaya toasts and coffee. While waiting, we grabbed almost every single types of nasi that the shop sells. All of these nasi were good! Unfortunately, the nasi dagang was no longer the nasi dagang that my dad remembered, he missed the one cooked with "red rice". I have no memory of that and I still think the one we had was very good :)

When we almost done with our nasi, the half boiled eggs were served. To appreciate how good the half boiled eggs were, first, you must understand that these were cook simply by adding boiled water into the traditional iron mug (of course, with eggs inside la~). They must have really spent effort in doing their DOE and perfect their RSM. I bet they have their own high standard in selecting their raw material too. The results: marvelous!

The half boiled egg and the aromatic coffee make a perfect breakfast combination! Oh, and that toast!! The bread is toasted with charcoal (that explained why you have to wait and wait and wait), crispy outside, fluffy inside. And, the kaya is the kill. I am never fancy of kaya but I have to admit that their homemade kaya is good. Not too sweet, not too lemak, not too thick, just nice for me.

Cuti-cuti "Half" Peninsular Malaysia - Day 1

31st May 2013 (Driving route: Bukit Mertajam --> Pulau Banting (brief stop) -> Kota Bharu)

Tasik Temenggor

Wei Wei flew back on 30th May 2013 evening so that she can joined this road trip. We planned to start as early as 6:30am, but with a huge group, we ended up departed around 7:30am. We drove 2 cars, the senior citizens in one car, while the younger ones (including me, haha!) were in another.
It was a nice drive, and Banjaran Titiwangsa is as pretty as I could remember. The brief stop at Pulau Banting was very refreshing too.

The traffic was quite smooth, except from time to time you have to crawl behind the lorries / buses. The traffic getting worse when we were approaching Kota Bharu. Too many traffic lights to slow down everything.

Khao Jam (Nasi Kerabu) from U-Lang Corner

By the time we reached Kota Bharu is already almost 1pm. We went to a few shortlisted restaurants but most of them were closed! (Friday!! Kelantan!! What was I thinking!?) We finally found "U-Lang Corner" that's still open but the only thing left was the final set of Khao Jam.
We gave up! We 'da bao' the final set (for tea break at hotel later, and the nasi kerabu from was so good that my mum and aunts were planning to revisit for next day lunch), and we went to McD to settle our first meal in Kota Bharu in the Friday afternoon (lesson learn!)
After lunch, we drove to Pasir Belanda Resort. I had the location set at Waze in both my iPad and iPhone so I was very confident. However, after passing through the Malay graveyards and kampung houses, in the middle of the kampung road, the iPhone screen went 100% grey, and on the Waze's map, that's nothing else but a blue dot at the middle of nowhere. We were panic. Wei Wei started to search for Pasir Belanda on her Google Map and it pointed us to Kota Bharu city center which is a few kilometers away. I decided to trust Waze and continue to drive to the blue dot direction even though there's no more map available on Waze. Apparently Waze is correct. Pasir Belanda Resort is so deep in the kampung that you won't see it on the GPS map! You can imagine how glad we were when we finally found this lovely place.

Pasir Belanda

After check in, we had a good rest. We use my yoga map to set up a nice spot at the middle of the garden for free wifi and book reading spot while our mums and aunts catch up on all the gossips for the past 3 years. :)

For dinner, we went for this famous Thai food restaurant "Chengmai" at Wakaf Baru. First of all, the roads are very confusing. How do you read a map where all the roads from every directions of a roundabout are named "Jalan Wakaf Baharu"? So we had to asked for the directions a few times even with the help of Waze. The trick is: look for Kampung Kulim.

Secondly, again, this restaurant is deep inside a kampung. While we were quite stressed out trying to find the way, I guess the senior citizens were getting worried following us too. So you can guess how relieved we were when we saw this lovely sign of "Chengmai Thai Food Restaurant". 

After we parked our car, my aunt said to me "this better be good". Well, it is beyond good! The food is great!!We ordered a plate of pandan chicken, a set of pork knuckle, a tomyam kung, a plate of siam steam la-la, a plate of belacan kangkung (ok, this one is very disappointing), and our favorite: steam prawns with bamboo shoots and coconut milk. This particular dish is sourly and 'lemak' at the same time, and has a very unique after taste that ensure you want for more. In fact we actually had repeated order. The price is quite reasonable too. 7 of us with the food stated above, 1 bottle of sugar cane juice (1.5l) and 1 bottle of soya bean (1.5l) cost less than RM200.

If you were to visit Kota Bharu, this Thai restaurant at Tumpat is highly recommended. 

5D4N "Half" Peninsular Malaysia Self Drive Route

I love family trip, I love road trip, I love Malaysia (especially the beautiful East Coast), I love good food. You can easily tell how much I love this wonderful trip.

31st May 2013 
Driving route: Bukit Mertajam -- Pulau Banting (brief stop) -- Kota Bharu
Activities: Good food, relax, "math class"
Accommodation: Pasir Belanda Resort (RM220 for 3-pax superior room)

Millage of our trip

1st June 2013 
Driving route: Wat Mai Suwankhiri (Dragon Boat Temple) -- Wat Pikulthong (Standing Buddha) -- Wat Matchimmaram (Sitting Buddha) -- Pantai Tujuh -- Wat Photovihan (Reclining buddha)
Activities: Good food, batik workshop (RM30 per pax), kampung kraftangan, temples, night market
Accommodation: Pasir Belanda Resort

2nd June 2013 
Driving route: Kota Bharu -- Bachok -- Kuala Terengganu -- Sungai Lembing
Activities: Drive along the beautiful coastline
Accommodation: Lembing Riverview Resort

3rd June 2013
Driving route: Sungai Lembing -- KL
Activities: Sunrise at Bukit Panorama, Sungai Lembing Town tour, KLCC
Accommodation: My uncle's show-house-like-villa

4th June 2013
Driving route: KL -- Ipoh -- Bukit Mertajam
Activities: Shopping at One-Utama, Dinner at Ipoh  老黄芽菜鸡

Other itineraries:

2009 - China: 10 Days Guilin and Surrounding

2009 - Taiwan: 10 Days Taipei and East Taiwan

2010 - China: 12 Days SiChuan (Chengdu and YaDing Nature Reserve)

2011 - Indonesia: 4D3N Yogyakarta

2011 - Malaysia: 3D2N Pahang

2011 - Europe: Northern Spain + Southern France + Andorra

2011 - China: 8 Days JiangNan (HangZhou + SuZhou + NanJing + Shanghai)

2012 - Indonesia: 4D3N Lake Toba

2012 - Thailand: 3D2N Koh Lipe

2012 - Malaysia: 4D3N Kuala Lumpur

2012 - USA: 15 Days West USA (California + Arizona + Nevada)

2013 - Vietnam: 7D6N Hanoi and Surrounding 

2013 - Malaysia: 5D4N "Half" Peninsular

2013 - Malaysia: 2D1N Bentong

2013 - Thailand: 5D4N Bangkok + Ayutthaya + Lopburi

2014 - Australia: 7D7N Sydney + Melbourne + Adelaide

2014 - Australia: 5D4N Great Ocean Road

2014 - Malaysia: 2D1N Melaka

2015 - Malaysia: 3D2N Kelantan

2015 - Australia: 6D6N Greater Perth

2015 - Australia: 3D2N Margaret River Region

2015 - China: 24 hours in Macau

2015 - South Africa: 16D16N Southern part of South Africa

2016 - Malaysia: 3 Days Kelantan Food Hunt

2016 - New Zealand: 13D13N Sydney + New Zealand both Islands

2016 - Australia: 2 Days Layover in Sydney

2016 - China: 5D4N XiAn

2016 - Thailand: 4D3N Bangkok

2016 - Malaysia: 3D2N West Coast Malaysia

2017 - Germany: Upper Middle Rhine Valley One Day Tour (Stay tune)

2017 - Thailand: 4D4N Bangkok for First Timer

2017 - Europe: 9D8N Salzburg、Hallstatt、Prague、Dresden

2018 - Thailand: 4D3N Bangkok Food Hunting

2018 - Germany: Heidelberg One Day Tour

2018 - Japan: 11D10N Sakura trip

2018 - United Kingdom: 8D8N London and Surroundings

2018 - Germany: Brühl & Köln One Day Tour

2018 - France: Strasbourg One Day Tour

2018 - Germany: Wiesbaden One Day Tour

2018 - Japan: 2D1N in Kyoto

2019 - China: A Weekend in Hong Kong

2019 - Germany: Lorsch, Worms, Stromberg One Day Tour

2019 - Germany: Hannover 2D1N

2019 - China: 11 Days High Speed Train From HangZhou to GuangZhou 

2019 - Thailand: Bangkok 4D3N

2019 - Sri Lanka: 12 Days Heritage, Hill Country, Wildlife and Beaches

2019 - Sri Lanka - 4D3N The Cultural Triangle

2019 - Germany: Day Tour to Wertheim, Wurzburg, Dexheim 

2019 - Germany: Towns Arround Mainz: Koblenz & Johannisberg

2019 - Germany: A Short Version of Romantic Road - 2D1N

北越逍遥游（八）：Hanoi Cooking Center

I always wanted to attend a cooking class when I travel oversea. I always think it must be cool to learn one or two signature dishes of the area, and I always believe that through cooking classes you can really learn to appreciate their culinary culture. However, this never happened. We were always too busy having fun or too busy doing nothing. There was once when Wei Wei and I went to Guilin, we have planned and almost enrolled to a cooking class and then suddenly the weather turned sunny. We decided that it's a crime to stay indoor in such wonderful weather so again we didn't attend the cooking class.

During our recent Hanoi trip, BB and I have a free day at Hanoi, and we had run out of ideas what to do at Hanoi besides drinking coffee after coffee. So, we decided to give the Hanoi Cooking Center a try. We enrolled in the Ha Noi and the Northern Highlands cooking class that cost us USD55 per person.

Hanoi Cooking Center

We reached the center around 9am. We were serveda cup of local herbal tea at the restaurant while waiting for our guide and the other customers. The ambiance was nice and I enjoyed taking photos of the surrounding. After everyone gets ready, the guide led us through the ally and headed across the street for wet market.

The guide is very knowledgeable and did a very good job in explaining. She even show us how to select the best fish sauce or spring-role skin etc. We were shown where to get the fresh-from-farm vegetable and fruits, freshly catch seafood, etc. We also saw some exotic food i.e. worms, frogs, snails etc.

 

Ingredient selection explanation session

See the tongue?

Old lady showing us how to wrap the Pinang

Something special, not-in-the-menu raw material for our cooking class

After the wet market tour, we went back to the classroom. It's a kitchen with a few working bench. 2 of us share a bench, share the utensils and a set of raw material. After the chef showed the steps, everyone of us has to go back to our working bench to prepare the food.

The Chef in action

It is interesting to learn to cook the Vietnamese food. You can actually see a lot of Chinese and Thai influence but at the same time their sauces (fish sauces especially) gave the unique signature that you couldn't miss.

The nicely flavoured dish (but the worms are too creamy for my taste)

After the class, we went to the restaurant upstair for lunch. (One can normally eat their lunch at the lovely courtyard but it was raining so we all opt for the indoor restaurant)

I love the idea that you eat what you cook. Bee Bee and I were pleased with the results and we were quite proud of ourselves :)

The wine/beer/juices/soft drinks are free flow so we had great time enjoying the food we prepared and chit chat in the nice environment.

Banana flower salad

Caramel pork

Seafood spring roll

and the happy cook

北越逍遥游（七）：Viethouse

虽然Finnegans Hotel服务真的很好，可是我们想要找一家比较新颖舒适的酒店，所以在河内的第一天，我们在街头lepak时就很认真地在物色酒店了。

我们在Hang Gai Street附近看上这家小酒店，店面小小的，装饰得非常温馨。

走进小酒店探个究竟，里头布置得非常简易而温暖，而且漫溢着咖啡香。有个客人坐在客厅里看书、喝咖啡，很写意的感觉。

老板是位文雅的德国美女。并不过度热情，却也不如想象中的德国人冷漠。她对于自己的酒店有着绝对的骄傲，热切地带我们去参观两个不同级别的客房。由于是河内典型高窄店，这小酒店每层楼之有一间客房，小资的奢华呢！屋客房都漆上全白，都有着落地窗，都给人一种洁白明亮的舒适感。

我们向她询问几天后是否还有空房，并和她讨价还价，最后她给了我们不错的优惠。问她需不需要先给订金时，她必是读懂了我们写在脸上的满意，于是信心满满地说不必了，“你们必定会回来”，她笑着说。

我们从下龙湾回来，终于入住Viethouse。我们饿了，check in时体贴的老板给我们冲了两杯香浓cappucino配上几支香浓巧克力饼条。填了肚子才领行李回房间。我们入住顶楼，楼梯窗前可以俯视还剑湖。

隔天早上，我特地起得早，想要在露台看日出，看朝阳轻轻洒在老屋子的屋顶上。不过，我们在河内的那几天都是烟霾笼罩，日出看不成，但晨曦里的老街特别有味道。我想象自己有时间坐在这凉风习习的露台上素描，那该多美妙。

Photoshop成素描的老街清晨照片

梳洗后，我们到底楼客厅吃了老板特地为我们准备的丰富早餐。老板太看得起我们，弄了一桌的食物，可怜我们最终还是辜负了她。至少还剩下一半的食物没吃完呢。

吃完早餐就乘的士到机场，启程回家啦～

临别和老板合照留念

小酒店躲在幽静的小巷，但只要几步路就可以到达热闹的老街中心。地点可谓一流。
由于是一家新开不久的小酒家，房间舒适新颖，服务贴心。
价钱严格来说也不贵，一晚五十美金，这丰富早餐一人也只不过七美元（在河内算便宜咯～）

如果你想要到河内游玩，这家Viethouse我是大力推荐的哦！

Michael J. Fox

 Accidentally saw this on Youtube and I love it!! Can't wait for this show!

Micheal J. Fox is an important part of my childhood. Family Ties is practically one of my English teachers in my earlier life, where I have "weekly evening classes" for years; Back to the Future is one of my all time favorites, where I have the trilogy in VHS, VCD, DVD, and Blu-ray.

I'm thrilled to see him return with a new sitcom!