Kuantan-bound!

My new office, also an NGO, organised a meeting in Kuantan. (Notice I’m using British English I have to practice since all communications, documents, etc here are in British English). It’s a small, quaint city in the State of Pahang, around 8 hours drive from Penang. I was really excited since apart from Penang, KL was the only place I’ve visited.

So off we went on a Toyota RV. Good thing Uncle Ravi (husband of our boss) was driving. He had cool cd’s – he even had reggae music!

Below you will find some thoughts during the whole 4 days of my adventure.

Day 1
1. Food trip
Our road trip was literally a food trip! We had rambutan for baon. We stopped at every place we can eat, or have Te or tea (my favorite is Te Ice – like iced tea, without lemon, but with sweet milk, really lovely! I’m addicted to it actually).

2. Mata cuching
A new discovery! It looks like small chico, but tastes like lychees! So good! Sarap! Bagus! Mata Cuching’s literal English translation is “cat’s eye”, since the seed inside the fruit resembles that of a cat’s eye.

3. Temple in the limestone cave
Along the way, we passed by a mining town. It’s so sad since the town is already dying because they could not mine any minerals anymore. What they are mining now are the limestone in the mountains. You can see mountains literally chopped in half! Talk about harvesting the mountains. There was this one mountain with a Moslem temple etched in a limestone cave. It was really beautiful. Too bad I didn’t have a camera with me.

4. Chicken biscuit
The Chinese Malaysian lady from the office was raving about how delicious the Chicken Biscuit was. So, we had to make yet another pit stop just to buy the infamous chicken biscuit. The taste was quite interesting – sweet, salty, and a little oily. I found out that they actually used chicken broth in making the biscuit.

5. Moon cake
I could not recall how my love for moon cake began. Maybe it was because of Bliss, a Chinese classmate from college. Me and some of my classmates used to stay at her place for a couple of days – no, weeks – to finish some school requirements, and I think she used to serve moon cakes. It was really delicious! Especially, those with sunflower seeds and red eggs inside. So, in one of our pit stops (the chicken biscuit stop), I just had to buy a mooncake. It was quite expensive – Rm 5 for one small piece (around P75). But I was quite happy since it was pretty good and it had red eggs inside. Too bad there were no sunflower seeds.

Day 2
1. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Unlike the first day of adventure, the second day was work, starting from 9:00 am! I was assigned as the documentor, and I did not want to miss any important discussions, so I was typing furiously the whole time. In the afternoon, I was experiencing pain in my finger joints. I got alarmed. I might have developed Carpal Tunnel Syndrome! I have to have this checked when I get back to Manila. (Yes! I’m going to Manila for a couple of days on August, yehey!!!)

2. Turtles
We went to a turtle sanctuary, and we got to see the really humongous turtles. We also saw the small baby turtles that are scheduled to be released that night. Too bad we couldn’t see the cute things being released to the water.

3. Steam boat
In the evening, we went to a Steam Boat resto (Malaysians call it Steam Bot). The concept is like an eat-all-you-can buffet. You will be seated in a round table, with all the ingredients laid out. There is a big bowl in the middle, with fire underneath. It’s actually like a hotpot, but this you will cook anyway you want. You can just dump all the ingredients in the bowl (with 2 kinds of soup – Tom Yam and clear soup) and let it simmer. The ingredients are varied – chicken, pork, fish, crab stick, quail eggs, chicken eggs, veggies, squid balls, fish ball, fish stick, crab balls, tofu. The list could go on and on. To make the story short, I got soooo full, that I had to unbutton my pants, and take deep breaths. Or else, I was really beginning to feel dizzy, and I was actually worried that I might faint. I was praying to all the saints not to let me faint because that would be too embarrassing – a Filipina woman fainted because of overeating. Kadiri!

4. Tiger beer
So… that was how beer would taste like after 20 days of being alcohol free. The last drop of beer that touched my alcoholic tongue was on June 2. After 20 days, I indulged myself and had Tiger beer. It’s not as good as SMB, but hey, beer is a beer is a beer, right?

Day 3
1. Batik Painting
Today wasn’t very exciting, except for our Batik Painting sessions. The resort where we stayed (Duta Villa) was offering batik painting. You just have to pay Rm 15 (roughly P220), then they’ll give you a canvass with a batik wax pattern and some colors. You get to color the canvass, let it dry, and take your artwork back home. I just couldn’t let this opportunity pass, so I enrolled, with Gibo (another pinoy) and Melvin (a Chilean bondying, aka. “the Chilean Lodel”). I got the pattern with the tiny turtles. We had so much fun! Coloring the canvass while drinking Tiger beer.



Day 4
1. Batik store
The session finished early so we had time for jalan-jalan (going around). We went to this batik store which had really beautiful batik items. Can’t afford to buy the pieces as the price is around Rm150 (P2,200). Too expensive for me. So I just pictures, and bought some things for Summer, mommy and Mayette, and of course, for the dyosas.

2. Bollywood movie
Before lunch, I had time to relax and watch the local channels. A bollywood movie was on. The format of these movies are amazing, much like the B-movie films back in the 80s – with lots of singing and group dancing.

3. Orang Asli
On our road trip back to Penang, we wanted to pass by the Elephant Sanctuary in Pahang. Unfortunately, the place was already tutup (closed). But a pleasant surprise is that the sanctuary is near a small kampong (village) of the Orang Asli (indigenous people). They look like the Mangyans of Mindoro – short and dark, with curly hair. They live in small houses which resembles a bahay-kubo, but with taller stilts.


4. Durian fever
The people in the van were getting quite uneasy after the filling meal of tom-yam based dishes in the very expensive (yet mediocre) Thai restaurant. So they decided to stop for durian. We parked the van and huddled in the small durian stall. They sell the durian for Rm3.30 per piece (roughly P50). I just had 1 small piece, that’s enough for me for the week. Will try to increase dosage next time. I had a grand time watching my officemates gobble the durian like they were manna from heaven.

5. Genting Highlands
On the way back, we passed by Genting Highlands. The night air was so cold, reminded me of Baguio. As the van passed by the posh subdivisions in the area, I noticed something up in the mountain on my right side. A group of brightly lit buildings were on top of the mountain. The lights were made brighter because the clouds were creating a mist amidst the building, reflecting and refracting the lights. It was a magnificent sight!!! I learned that there is a casino on top of the mountains. Below the buildings, the whole mountain is dotted by lights, which looked like stars which landed on the mountain. Talk about Las Vegas in the sky!



25 June 2006
Sunday
4:37pm
Penang