Night ride into Hatyai & Tambun Seafood, 6 Aug 2013

Learning from past experience i.e last year during Hari Raya Haji, where we were caught in a horrific traffic crawl, we decided to leave before Hari Raya Aidil Fitri or Eid Mubarrak to some. Last year, our return trip from Krabi to Subang was a nightmare! Fretting the same, we left 1 and a half day earlier and planned to leave a day earlier prior to the famous after-festive holiday crawl.

We congregated at NKVE Damansara Shell Petrol Station at 3pm. 5 Bikers - Alex, Rocker57 & myself, Ryan & partner Shirley and Sam. We had to wait for our new biker acquaintance Francis who was caught in a jam in downtown KL, so we decided to meet up at Sg Buloh R&R. Francis arrived promptly at 3.30pm. After a short formality of introduction, we were ready to vroooom vroooom. Next stop Tapah R&R to refuel and rest.
 
It rained just before reaching Ipoh toll. We had to take shelter under a bridge to don our raincoats and rested over 20mins until it was alright to ride again. Safety is of utmost importance when riding. So, on top of the heavy load we already have (i.e safety gears, jackets, gloves and all), we have to add on a few hundred grams of raincoat. Getting up the bike was a struggle as the raincoat made it more difficult and rigid.

We arrived at Juru toll, refueled and decided to eat at a nearby restaurant which Ryan & I had eaten before. Separately, of course! 

Ate here a couple of times, one of my former company's dealer recommended me this place, Tambun Seafood. It's easy to locate. After the Juru toll, turn left into Auto City. At the T junction traffic light, take the left turn and go straight. The restaurant is located on the left about 500meters after the second left turn. You can't miss it, the double roadside signage is so glaring!!!

(L) : Francis, Shirley, Ryan, Sam & Rocker57 & my AlpineStar jacket :)

It was close to 8pm when we arrived. We ordered some simple food as we were famished and wanted to reach the Bukit Kayu Hitam border  & customs before it closes at 11pm Malaysian time. Here's what we ate :

This so called FU YONG TAN, or Seremban Omelet was a let down. 

This dish that looks something like the Africa Chicken (famous in Macau) is actually Guinness Stout Chicken. It was really good but a tad too sweet for me, otherwise, good!

Signature house Tofu

We rode on to Changlon. Spent over an hour at Nudee Enterprise as it was crowded and service was slow. What are we doing here? To get our immigration card, bike insurance and Alex and Francis needed to get their RM changed into Baht. A good one-stop centre. They serve food during the day time too.

We made it to the border just in time...15 mins before closing time. By the time we reached our hotel Chuchada Place, it was 1.15am Malaysian time. Almost 10 hours on the road took its toll and we gladly checked into our room to call it a night as we have a long ride to Koh Samui tomorrow.

Chudchada Place; 54 Soi3 Thungsao 1 Road. Tel : (66) 074-420444 (family owned)


This hotel is a decent place to stay. Click on Nudee Enterprise for the link to view rooms. Well, after a tiring day, I need my ZZZzzz....so check out my next blog on our journey to Koh Samui.

Until then......

Games we played in the 60's -70's

Recently, I joined the Seremban FB group. Thanks to their endless streams of pictures on things we used to play, I am able to write this. I did pen two articles previously when I initially started blogging. 

The rubberband games 

Tin cans 

In retrospect, it will pale miserably to the one I am about to write because back then I had no pictures to show, hence difficult for readers to imagine. Here we go :

Firstly, this is what we locals call Gasing while the westerners call it a top. There is an art in tying the string, hence before one can play, one must learn the art of tying. Not too tight nor too lose. then, there is the art of twisting one's wrist & positioning of the fingers to ensure you get a good firm grip for a good spin. 

Next, is to strategise how to 'kick' your opponents out of the ring where most of the gasings are. By the way, at the start of the game, a gasing has to be sacrificed as 'pawn'. The one that successfully 'kicks out' the pawn wins the game. I love this game but always loose to the boys. Apart from that, we also try spinning the gasing in our palm, on the table, and anything that we can think of. At times, the spin is so hard and accurate, it can even crack the wooden gasing. Alas, when that happens...game over for the poor chap unless he has another gasing.

This is 5 stones or batu lima in bahasa Malaysia. Where I come from (my kampong life), we played with 7 stones. Rules of the game is simple. 'splash' or spread all 5 stones. Pick one up as your 'cue stone'. Toss the cue stone into the air, while the cue stone is in the air, you must quickly pick up the stones on the ground. Then you will have to 'save' the falling cue stone from reaching the ground. Once you have collected all the stones, you need to 'weigh' the stones. In short, collecting points. Place all the stones at the back of your palm, toss them in the air and try to catch as many as you can in your palm. That is your so called points. The one to reach the pre-set agreed points is the winner. The prize? Nothing...just pure fun, good challenge and most important, sealing the friendship. Language was never a barrier, everyone knows the game. Such fun times I had. This game is mostly played by girls but there are boys who also play them.

This is one of my favourite games. Simply place the roll of paper bullets into the slot, shut the lever and Viola..."piak piak piak"...you can be trigger happy. FYI, inside each roll of bullet, there is a small dot (see picture below).

The gun also has a lock mechanic...awesome, right?

Notice the small dots? That, when comes into contact with the metal (with force) a 'piak piak' sound is heard. The burnt paper bullet emits a smell. Boy, I sure love that smell. Even as I write this, I can literally smell the burnt paper.

I can play with this for hours. It was so much fun. Laughter ricocheting in the playground as we play cops and robbers or simply just scare the heck out of someone...and the smelll....awww....

 How can I forget this!!! Fighting spiders!!! We would go into the woods to catch and collect spiders. Place them in a matchbox and then find suitable opponents to fight with.

Yes, I admit (girl-guide honour) I am a tomboy. I will join the boys in Pedas to catch my spider to fight theirs.

We often spend hours finding for the alpha spider. Ewwww....gross! (the female readers are saying)...well, ladies, they are harmless and so gentle when you place them on your palm to play...serious! (psst...by the way, I ain't no girl-guide - just so you know)

This was the tin can game I wrote about earlier. A tad different from my description I wrote previously. For this one...we stack them as shown in picture. Then, we draw a line some distance away. Everyone goes behind the line to try to topple the pyramid. The one with the highest score i.e. most cans toppled is the winner. 

Alternatively, we place the pyramid of cans in a circle, then try to topple it from outside the huge circle. The loser will then have to catch the players and place them in the 'safe house' i.e inside the circle. Prior to that, a pre-set perimeter would be established, else anyone can run straight home to avoid being caught!

Fighting fish, anyone? This is more of a guy's game but sometimes the lasses do participate...I won't say who but there are. Serious, no kidding!

Ladies, 
do you remember this? Such fun time isn't it? Dressing up your paper dolls with endless selection of clothes.

The more artistic friends of mine will draw & color their own designs and we used to trade the clothes if we happen to have the same doll.

 

This set is incomplete. Sometimes, we have hats, shoes, handbags and even accessories for our dolls.

Simple yet so engaging for the girls. We can play for hours exchanging clothes, hairstyle, etc. 

Pick up sticks, remember this? 

For instructions : refer to 
pressmantoy

That is the modern version. Those days we didn't have colored sticks so basically, just make sure when you collect your stick, do not move or touch the rest of the sticks or your turn will be forfeited. For a whackier version, check out this :

U-tube

Well, you get the drift.

Next...

This was my all time favourite board game apart from Monopoly...the aeroplane (British English) game. Well, I don't know how you call them but that was what my buddies and I called them back then :)

Objective is to roll a '6' on a dice so that your "player" can exit the big square to start the journey. Eg : if I were to choose the yellow color (which incidentally was my favourite color for this game in particular) - After rolling a '6', I will have to 'park' the player at the white space just outside the yellow square indicating I have 'passport' to exit. A six on the dice means one can go again, similar to getting a joker in cards game. Then, I will move my player accordingly to the number rolled. Count the number and stop. Passing the dice to the next person. 

You would be deemed as safely "home" once your player has reached the tip of the big arrow in the middle of the boardgame. (the color of your choice earlier on). Simply means, one has to make a full circle to reach the objective. Once each player is 'home', you can either turn the player upside down in the yellow square or take it out and place it elsewhere or leave it at 'home' i.e. where the arrow ends and stack them up. The player that has all four players "sent" home is the winner.

Another favourite outdoor game I like is what we call Champion. Why named it Champion? Good question but I don't have the answer. Perhaps, its because we often shout "CHAMPION" once we cross the finishing line???NO??? Or well...

Broken into two teams, the catchers and the runners. Mostly played on badminton courts. Why? Lines already drawn!! Duh! Hehehe...but occasionally, we do play on sandy grounds and mark the lines. Catchers will toe the lines to ensure none of the runners get to cross the line. The runners will have to outsmart their opponents to run to the finishing line without being touched or caught. 

Once a runner is touched or caught, the runner is deemed as 'dead' and needs to be rescued. The runner that successful runs to the finishing line gets to save a life. Those that safely crosses the finishing line will have to do it all over again to save each and every member of the team to win the game. Note - one reason why obese kids are often last to be selected in the group because more often then not, they get caught easily. No offense but that was what went through the kids mind back then. So, the leader will often choose fast runners or smart alecks that can outsmart their opponents.  

Apart from the above, we also play with lastik! Picture below.

 
Marbles, anyone? And also plastic soldiers, horses, red indians, etc.

There are more to this but I'm out of time to share it. Care to share some of the games you used to play when you were younger? Feel free to drop your feedbacks in the comments made specially for you.

Until the next blog....Stay happy, life is short. Live life full!

By the way, thank you to all the Serembanites for the pictures you uploaded. Also, credits to the photograpers who took these pictures. You have brought back sweet memories from my carefree days way back then....Aaahhhhh!!!!

Ciao!!!

Causeway Bay, San Terri & good company ~ 29 June 2013

What do you get when you have good food and fabulous company? a BLAST!!! That was exactly what happened on 29 June 2013. A group of foodie buddies of mine gathered at Desa Sri Hartamas to devour & gobble great tasting food and desserts. First stop>>>>>

Address :
Causeway Bay Spicy Crab
26, 26-1 Jalan 30/70A
Desa Sri Hartamas
50480 KUALA LUMPUR
Tel : +603 6205 2280

Entrance signage - facing Souled out

Being the ever punctual self, I had to wait over half an hour before my foodie buddies started arriving from Puchong, Cheras & Seremban.  Reason for being late? Couldn't locate the restaurant. I don't blame them. I too had to ask for directions the very first time I was there. For Klang Valley folks, look for Souled Out Restaurant in your GPS. Causeway Bay is directly opposite the front entrance (note - not the side entrance,ya)

It's our bi-monthly 'makan-makan' session. Food was pre-ordered 3 days before hand. So, it was only to eat, eat and eat when everyone turns up.

Being a quiet Saturday, we were about the only patrons around apart from two other small groups of 2 and 4 people. Naturally, our loud bombastic laughter caused severe quakes in the restaurant. In any case, we ALWAYS create 'quakes' everywhere we go. Live life full, enjoy and celebrate life. When we have to laugh, we laugh whole heartedly, when we have to eat, we eat lavishly and leave the worrying of weight and cholesterol at the door. We picked them up when we have done justice to our food :)) 

Signature dish - Spicy Garlic Crab!! The "tons" of fried garlic is unique. It doesn't leave a bitter after taste nor does it make one burp nor does it emit a pungent smell thereafter. With many garlic lovers, the garlic was quickly snapped up. The garlic is crunchy, slightly salted & flavorful. The crab was meaty, spicy and finger licking good.

 We also ordered Yong Chow fried rice which was aromatic and tasty. Stir fried beef was really good. The beef literally melts in your mouth. Well marinated. 

The Patin steam fish was superb!!! Fresh fish, steamed to perfection with a tad of soy sauce and lightly oiled. At RM98, it was worth every morsel! Must order this, though pricey but it was REALLY good.
 

What is this strange looking orangey thing? Well, another good dish - deep fried squid in salted egg yolk. The egg yolk is crunchy, sweet & salty while the squid was light & crunchy. The last few times I was there, it tasted better but short of a couple of points, this was still delectable.

Pictured here, the 7 foodies. Me - obviously the shortest amongst the lot. 2 more joined us for tea time immediately after our lunch. We drove across to San Terri in Plaza Damas for dessert and coffee. Here's our list of cakes!! Apart from the dry and overnight green tea red bean cake, the rest were really good, particularly their classic cheese cake.

Good cakes, aromatic and body-fulled illy coffee mixed with foodie buddies with loud laughter ricocheting in Plaza Damas, Sri Hartamas. What an awesome way to spend Saturday.....Aaaaahhhh...life is good!

Here is a tip when you have balance $ from the cash-pot. Share to buy lottery! You guessed it! We WON......nothing! Zilch! Nought! All kaput! Incidentally, that was the receipt number of the bill from Causeway Bay. Bah! Gamblers! Uh-huh...we just did it for the fun of it, really.

Can you spot who were the additional 2 'gate-crashers'? Hey, no scrolling up to counter check, test your memory....come on, give it a try.

To my makan gang - I LOVE all of you. I relish the times we have spent together on several occasions and I look forward to more of these sessions. Priceless. I can see myself smiling and laughing thinking of all the jokes and funny anecdotes shared. I also missed the company of those that couldn't make it on that day. No worries, see you in Port Dickson for our next makan session. Muaks and hug-hug.

EAT, LOVE, LAUGH and LIVE LIFE.