Serenity and peace are what most of us
sought for as we continue our arduous life walk each day and yet, sometimes,
these two values are so real and near to us if we take the time to plan for a
short trip,actually. I will always be grateful
to my sister, Lee Lee for taking the time to take us to a trip to
Taiping during the last holidays. It was at this time that I realized how good
it is to have family and places to go to relax the body, mind and soul.
Technically, only GOD gives us that comfort but He certainly will put the right
people in our path to strengthen us and to show us the beauty of his Creation.
I must admit too that my sister, Lee
Lee was as drained out as I am but she is such a strong character and a good
hearted woman. I love her for her talent in cooking ( she inherited much of it
from mom! ) while making us all feel at home when we are down in Penang for a
break. This time, she planned a trip for us to go to Taiping and Larut/Matang.
It was truly a great outing and one that we enjoyed very much.
That early morning, Soon Ling, SYuen,
Felicia, Molly, Lee Lee and myself took our travel down to Taiping. It was a
bright and sunny morning. The fellowship was awesome and there was much
laughter around. Our first destination – Taiping Museum. As I have been to
Taiping Museum before, it wasn’t a real surprise for me but it was always a
welcome site for me. Afterall, I am a sucker for museums, actually. We posed
for pictures and had a lot of fun in the museum. We also got to see the
renovated top floor for the Orang Asli artifacts which was interesting indeed.
With slight stomach rumblings and an
ever ready storage, Taiping Food Court was our second destination. Upon arrival
at the food court, I immediately sought out the big leaf char kueh teow ( fried flat noodles ) but the uncle was nowhere to
be found. Instead I was told of a certain stall number that sold the best
Taiping char kueh teow and I readily tried. I must admit that it was different
than what I used to taste but it is alright, really. Then it was coffee and ban cheng kor or apam balik Taiping style. Now, this one was differently good as the
combo of peanuts, sugar and jagung (maize) made it all a succulent treat. Drown
down with a cup of kopi peng ( iced
coffee ), it was pure heaven! Luckily, the pig stomach soup stall was closed or
else we would have gobbled that up too. Yeah, yeah, must have sounded barbaric
to foreigners who are not accustomed to our way of eating but they are far
better than fried chicken and hamburgers,ok?
Armed and filled with food and drinks,
we were off to Taiping Lake Gardens…. What serenity and peace. The scenery by
the lake was awesome and inspiring. I guess, I could sit here all day and do
absolutely nothing but paint a picture of it. It was so…….calm, peaceful and
quiet. The occasional water break on the surface of the calm waters by the
fishes are the only disturbances you can find. Other than that, it was so
peaceful. We took lots of photographs there and it was just so heartwarming to
see everyone having a good time- laughing and resting, I guess. Reminding me of
Saturday afternoon Hindustani movie love scenes! After all the fantasy and
posing were done, we snapped back to reality and we were off to our next
destination.
We are off to charcoal factory in
Kuala Sepetang. Now, this was an interesting place as far as I was concerned as
mangrove trees are cut and used as charcoal. It was interesting to see the huge
kilns used in charcoal making process. I was told that it took several hours
and days for the production of good charcoal. Yeah, I managed to see how a
worker sealed the entrance of the kiln after filling it up with sawn mangrove
wood. Never knew there was such a market for charcoal!
We, Malaysians, are one
helluva unique people lar! If we can sell charcoal to foreign tourists, we are
really champion one lar! We then moved on to Kuala Sepetang village to get some
dried ikan bilis ( anchovies ) and
some fish stuff while I wandered off and got us some prawn crackers and some
drinks to counter our rather heaty day! That day, we declined the offer to take
a boat ride to feed the eagles as we were really on a short trip and it was
blistering hot that day. Maybe, we shall feed the eagle some other days. From
here , we travelled back to Taiping to get the green mee koo buns from Plaza Perbandaran Taiping!
Haiyooh, it was just some colored
plain buns which seemed to be the talk of the town. In fact, many would
recommend that this mee koo bun be eaten with crab curry and all types of gravy
like dishes and it taste heavenly wor…… So, we jammed pack our car with mee koo
buns and it was hilarious as we try fitting the buns in the car. I wouldn’t
know if the buns stayed as buns or became head rest and pillows for the
passengers…..hahahahahhahahahahahaaaaaa……..Honestly, the mee koo buns tasted
really good when I tasted one the following morning for my breakfast.
Now, we are off to our next
destination – Trong Leisure Farm & Resort. I guess, we were told that it
would be fun being here but silently, I was thinking to myself, “ how much can
you do at a duck farm, right ? “ Well, for starters, it was obvious that the
lake with pedal wheel boats were an immediate attraction. Secondly, I love to
eat ducks! And, this is the place for good duck dishes. Indeed, before we go
onto our duck farm exploration, we had an early dinner of pipa duck and one more special duck dish
together with some vegetables and tofu. Wow! It was a nice meal and I really
enjoyed that very much.
After the meal, we travelled by a bulldozer and
attached cabin seat transporter and taken into the duck farm area. Well, the
ladies chased the ducks, played with the ducks and fed the ducks. It was a wonderful
experience plus you need to stand the smell of what’s coming out from the
duck’s end. The white colored ducks were everywhere while the brown colored
ducks were located at the right side of the farm. There are two huge fish ponds
available in the farm and so far they are not opened to the public. I was told
that the ducks were mainly readied/prepared for the export and local market
while foie gras were also prepared here for export too. Interesting indeed. I
imagined myself having a plate of duck liver parfait or duck liver pate or even
foie gras with garlic laced bruschetta and some greens! Mamma mia! That would
have been heavenly, huh?
Well, we cut short our duck feeding
and headed to the lake to do our boat ride. Yeah, somehow, the yellow duck boat
seemed so alluringly penchant to be rode on. It was fun riding it but with an
old man like me, it was like huffing and puffing plus pure MZ11 ( the legs lar ) power. The
best part - no one in the boat fell off the boat nor did the boat turned
turtle! That’s the good part. Everyone seemed happy enough and had a full day
indeed.
On the way back, it was the quietest
ride ever with occasional musical nasal notes being hit at the lower and higher
end of the pitch. All in all, it was a great day of travel and I know that it
was really fun. I really cherished the times spent not forgetting our “shopping
spree” too. It was so much fun and a good time of fellowship with Felicia and
Molly ( Felicia’s mom – truly an awesome and fun lady!)
That evening as Joa Wee unraveled the
packed pipa duck, he asked “ So, was it a good day?”. I just smiled and
replied, “ It was an awesome day, son. Awesome day!” There was no other words
best described the day, actually.
