Experience Culture Trip to Kuala Selangor & Sabak Bernam (pt.4)

Heyyyy!
This is the last post for the trip.
Going to cover what we did before we went back to Kuala Lumpur here, so this would be a short post.

Since Pantai Remis is just nearby the resort, my buddies and I decided to rent some bicycles riding around the area as well as looking for breakfast.

I don't know how to ride bicycle, so we rented a tandem bicycle which can be ridden by two people, the one who know how to ride bicycle sit in front and another behind.

We found a small warung near the beach, therefore we stopped and have a simple Malay breakfast - nasi lemak with chicken, eggs, etc. and normal beverages i.e. teh, milo, kopi, etc.
I am familiar with self-service system, but this was the first time I encounter such situation where we eat first, then the owner/worker only come and count the money.
I wonder how if there's people cheat on the food they took since everything has been eaten... Of course we were not cheating!

We didn't spend much time on Pantai Remis because there were not much activities there since it's still early morning, and we planned to swim in the resort's swimming pool.

Had a crazy fun time with classmates and juniors playing in the swimming pool!

1, 2, JUMP! I was the most coward one because I didn't jump
when everyone did so... Credits to junior, Flo (if I'm not
mistaken).

We checked out at noon and ready to go for the last fresh seafood lunch before we end the trip!

It is an awesome restaurant with panoramic river view and delicious seafood. I heard that this restaurant is famous for its fresh and delicious seafood dishes.

It looked spacious because that time was still noon and not
crowded yet.

Enjoying the riverside view while eating was so relaxing.

To be honest, the dishes here were much better than the
one we ate before the fireflies watching. I had never eat such
nice and fresh crabs before!

Right after we had our lunch, we enjoyed Cendol Bakar before we went back to Kuala Lumpur.

It is one of the famous cuisine brand in Kuala Selangor, but don't expect the cendol to bakar (burned) because the creator named it Cendol Bakar for his name Mr. Bakar.
Other than that, they roast the gula Melaka (palm sugar) which is one of the ingredients of the cendol. So it is considered burned cendol...?
What the most awesome is, they have drive-thru service!
Imagine a kampung styled house selling cendol works like McDonalds where people can buy food without parking and getting out from their car...Wow.

By the way, the cendol was nice and savory with the rich ingredients inside.
I ordered cendol durian for myself, and the durian taste was so rich with coconut milk, nata de coco (yea my favorite), corns, nuts and other fillings (i.e. selasih).

Another dish I ordered is Lempeng Pisang, a kind of banana pancake with shredded coconut filling.
It is tasty for me but not for the rest (my classmates)... I don't know why.

The one in front is cendol durian, whereas the one behind is
Lempeng Pisang.

Sad thing happened during the dessert time.
I had stomach pain while eating the cendol, which I think is due to eating too full during the seafood lunch, and I had been facing constipation problems for few days and something is going to "boom out"...
I thought I would be fine after a while, therefore I didn't go to the toilet there, but I was so regret during the return journey.
Well...had an uncomfortable experience on the way back to Kuala Lumpur.

To be honest, I was so glad that I visited Kuala Selangor and Sabak Bernam for my last class trip as it is a totally different experience with previous trips.
I am a Malaysian, yet there is still plenty of local culture, cuisine and community lifestyle to be understand and explored.
From arts like batik painting to casual activities like fish catching and preparing seafood meal, I have gain a lot of skills, knowledge and joy.
Thanks to our lecturers,  Ms. Baizura, Ms. Raja Haliza and Ms. Seri Intan for planning and leading us during the trip, as well as my classmates and cute juniors for helping and having fun together.

Credits to Leo.

Back to continue mountains of assignments. Stay tuned for my next post soon!

Experience Culture Trip to Kuala Selangor & Sabak Bernam (pt.3)

How does city people understand about local light industry? Like how the traditional local snacks (for example, keropok) we usually buy from shops and markets are made? What is the process of painting colorful batik we usually see from clothes and fabrics? These are what I (a KL city girl) experienced and found out on the third day of the trip.

We went to a local snacks production house in the morning. Unfortunately the factory part was closed that day, so we only able to witness the making of light snacks in a traditional and old kitchen.
I'm glad that I was able to see almost the whole process of making local snacks, Rempeyek.

From the process of mixing various ingredients to frying the batter, I found that it's not an easy work to produce these snacks unless one keep practicing and repeating the production process because a lot of techniques are involved. People who makes these snacks has to understand how much portions of the ingredients to be added, remember the techniques of mixing the ingredients and frying, etc.

Witnessing how the preparation works.

Here's mixture of Rempeyek ingredients. Quite a lot of
ingredients inside such as eggs, garlic, rice flour, ikan bilis,
prawns and peanuts.

After a long wait, frying process was carried out. The oil took
long time to be heated up.

Rempeyek which was almost done.

Since I am a nata de coco lover, I was so looking forward to the visit to nata de coco factory after that. I thought nata de coco is a kind of jelly made of a special jelly powder or whatsoever... During the talk, I only know that it is produced by coconut water fermentation with bacterial cultures. And the original taste is sour, not sweet at all. And it takes seven to forty days to form a such thin layer of nata de coco. And not only food, it can be used for other purposes i.e. medical usage, processed as facial mask, etc.

I know too little things about my favorite food...

We got chance to visit the factory too after the introduction
talk, but we couldn't access the production area and the
packaging area was not operating that time. This is one part
of the production area.

After that, we spend whole afternoon at Sungai Haji Dorani Homestay, a very "kampung" style tourist place.

We were served with some light meals - curry puffs, tapioca cakes and syrup drinks before we start any activities there. Their light snacks are very tasty, seriously, especially the tapioca cake! Usually I don't like to eat tapioca or any food made of tapioca but this is really nice and acceptable for me!

The first activity we did there is batik painting. I tried to paint batik before during my Pendidikan Seni class in secondary school so it is not a fresh activity to me, yet I found it interesting because it's easy to master the techniques and paint it like a pro.

We were grouped to share the paint.

After batik session, it's finally lunch time! I found that I feel hungry easily during the trip idk why...
The dishes were very traditional-Malay style - ulams, salted fish, omelette, syrups, etc., plus we sit in a long row on carpets, I feel warm and delighted for this lunch experience.

After energy intake, we were going to spend the energy on catching fish.

My reaction: "W-what? We're going to catch fish? Seriously?"

And we were told that we will be dirty and wet. I never catch fish before, I only eat, and I couldn't imagine how it would be at all... My feeling was complicated - I was looking forward to try new thing but I afraid of it at the same time.

We stopped in front of a small pond with mud, and the organizer told us that we are going to catch fish IN THE MUD.
I was like......







The mud is so slippery and soft that I almost scream out when I stepped into the mud. It feels like you are stepping on sh*ts... I had to move slowly and carefully as I didn't want to fall down and make myself muddy... but it's quite hard to do so.

I was so afraid to step inside the pond because the mud was so soft as if I was stepping on slippery fish and I feel so geli and creepy...urghhh! I admit that I am very coward...
But at the end, I manage to overcome the fear and got my feet inside the mud, because I kept thinking that I can do it too if there's people who can do so.

I'm still feeling amazing and proud that I did it! And I had even caught a fish! Achievement unlocked!

Steps to catch a fish...?

Check point: Pasar Pasir Penambang
Shopping for fresh and cheap seafood experience gained.

It was interesting to see Ms Raja, our tutor to negotiate with hawker so that we get cheap price for BBQ ingredients to be used at night (as shown in video below).

After shopping for BBQ ingredients, we finally went to check in our second accommodation - The Kabin at Pantai Remis, Kuala Selangor, a boutique hotel using industrial recycled-shipping containers as its significant concept for the whole design. The metallic facade is so outstanding that I could recognize it from far.

The use of raw materials i.e. stones, wire mesh, steel, etc.
made the resort unique.

It's real container... I was deeply impressed! Concrete
columns support the upper container, its rough finishes made
the overall feel more industrial.

Although the container we lived is small, the interior is fully equipped - air-conditioned, small living area besides of sleeping area with built-in storage, heat-insulated partitions instead of metal wall and two bathrooms with hot water supply. How nice if I could build and own such house!

The walkway is a bit narrow though. But the interior
environment is comfortable, in terms of furniture, thermal,
lighting, etc.

What I observed from the resort design are the compact living ideas, mixture of cozy and industrial ambiance, metal structures with concrete supports on some parts and interesting layouts where they named the containers with states of different countries. Mine is Rotterdam, a city in Netherlands.

Seriously, I think we should spend two nights here instead of staying in the previous resort. I have not enough time and effort to explore the whole resort!

Since I am foodaholic, I was so looking forward to the BBQ night!
Volunteered as preparation team member because I would be lazy to clean after eating and I think I would eat until the end or the time when cleaning team start doing their task.

Prawns and squids cleaning skills gained.

We did it fast as there were many people in the preparation group and I think we all were super hungry already.

We have awesome cookers in the group, making the seafood mouth-watering and appetizing!

FOODSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!

Worked hard, played hard, ate hard.

Post of my day 4 trip here!

Experience Culture Trip to Kuala Selangor & Sabak Bernam (pt.2)

Hello again! Thanks for staying tuned for my update!
This posts will touch about the second day of the trip mentioned.

Had a refreshing morning outside the hotel - fishing village scene which I have never seen before.
The atmosphere is so calming and soothing. The shadow of the boats and houses reflected on the river formed an artistic scenery. And yea, time to feed my camera indeed.

The relaxing environment there.

Another destination of the morning is Pantai B.N.O.
Finally I have chance to interact with local people. A few Malay residents were digging the sand at the beach, looking for clams and small seafood to be sold or cooked. Kids were helping too, and some were playing around.
They are friendly and willing to talk with us, as well as letting us to take photos and record videos.

View of the beach.

Kids were looking for clams at the beach.
Nearly forgot to mention that there's mangrove forest along the
beach. Mangrove trees are significance of Selangor state
because there are a few stories about the naming of Selangor
came from these trees.

Fishing villages are just within walking distance from the beach, thus we decided to explore the villages since it's a rare chance to witness the fisheries life.
However the weather is hot and it was a tough walking journey for me...

We had spent too much time on exploring the beach, so we missed the moment the fishermen unload their catchings from the ships for further processing.
We could only able to walk around and interview people there, mostly about how to process the seafood before they sell it at the market.

Aunties there were cutting shell of the shrimps which were
caught 2-3 days ago. They mentioned that shells, legs and heads
of the shrimps have to be cut before trading to restaurants or
selling at the market.

This is a machine which separates clams and other substances
such as rubbish, shells, etc. We missed the moment they use
this machine to filter the catchings too...

The bridge/ dock which looks unstable.

Walking back to the beach at noon was torturing, some more it was windless that time.

Without hesitation, my classmate and I ordered Ais Kacang on Zaiton Mee Udang, a food stall located at seaside.
The icy and sweet dessert is really refreshing!

Since Zaiton Mee Udang is famous for its prawn noodles and other seafood, for my group assignment sake (food trail video), we decided to stay there for our lunch instead of following the big group of others to free open-house meal organized by district PKR.
And we made a correct decision because THE FOODS ARE REALLY NICE!

Ice Kacang and Laici Kang. It was super
enjoyable having these icy desserts under
hot weather!

Mee Special Udang, signature dish of Zaiton Mee Udang.

Had an educational tour on after the satisfying meal - visit to Sabak Bernam District Museum.
It's a small museum, yet it's quite informative with impressive scaled-model, ship-shaped display area and displays of various tools i.e. paddy harvesting tools, netting for fishery, etc.
Sad thing is, the Warisan Budaya (a traditional Malay house which display more traditional items) was closed that day and we could only take photos of its facade.

After that is a rest and we enjoyed Nasi Ambeng and other Malay cuisine, a popular yet unique dish at Restoran Lela Best.
It is a Javanese food and was brought to Sabak Bernam during past time, becoming a significant cuisine of Sabak Bernam.
The ingredients and contents of the dish is kinda special - rice, noodles, mee-hoon, sambal, spiced grated coconut, chicken meat and boiled egg. Noodles and mee-hon are considered as side dish, although they are usually eaten as main dishes. The portion looks big and enough for sharing with 2-3 people.

Chilling environment there.

Another Malay food we tried there - tapai pulut, glutinous rice
wrapped in banana leaves with heavy vinegar or alcoholic
or sweet sour taste. Kinda weird taste for me but not bad.

Food trip was still continued after that. We went to souvenir and snack shop. Variety of traditional snacks i.e. Rempeyek, coconut cookies, sweet potato chips, fried banana chips, etc. were sold there, and they prepared some snacks there for visitors to taste so that we would buy if we like it.

Had a crazy and fun moment with my classmates during rest time in hotel before dinner.
We gathered in a room and played "watermelon game". Losers of each rounds will be drawn a black dot on face and cannot be removed until the night. A lot of fun there because our face had increased so many "molds" LOL!

Our conversation with Ms. Aida.

Before we proceeded to one of the biggest activities of this trip (which is fireflies watching), we had a superb seafood dinner at restaurant nearby. And yea, for your information, the "molds" were still there of course.
How could we miss the proper seafood meal during Kuala Selangor trip? Especially CRABS! PRAWNS! (although I didn't eat prawn because I have allergy to it...but I am okay with other seafood)

Our seafood dinner! Crab is a must-have dish here!
"Behind the scene" at video below...

I had no idea how the fireflies look like, so I was so looking forward to the fireflies watching session.
The guy who drove the boat kept talking jokes while explaining about the fireflies (in Chinese, therefore non-Chinese participants had no idea what he was talking about...).

After awhile, I saw some tiny white sparks in the mangrove forest. It was so dreamy as if I am looking at a night sky with sparkling stars! The bling was so tiny that it is impossible to film or capture with camera. It looked somehow like this:

...yes, it's really really really tiny like this and cannot be
captured with any camera. (Googled image)

First night was ostracod, and the second night was the fireflies. I felt so delighted for having chance to explore these wonderful scenes.
Although I have no energy left for design project tutorial session with Ms. Raja at night...... Yea we had tutorial session with our lecturer even during class trip! This is YOLO final semester students life /dead

Continue reading my third day trip experience here! 

Experience Culture Trip to Kuala Selangor & Sabak Bernam (pt.1)

Heyyy, I'm back to update my recent trip.
As mentioned on the title, I have visited Kuala Selangor and Sabak Bernam with my Minor-4 classmates and juniors in this early August.
It was my last uni trip with my classmates and lecturers, therefore I supposed to be very looking forward to it but I was not in travel mood due to heavy load of assignments...
Final-semester students life, haiz...

By the way, another reason I was not that excited to the trip is, local trip is not as interesting as traveling abroad like what we did on previous semesters, where we have went to Singapore and Europe countries. After traveling abroad for two semesters last year, local trip seems too normal and unattractive.
Well, good thing is we can have a relax "kampung" style trip and the cost is seriously very much lower.

01.08.2015 Sunny day
Departure was at 9.00am. It took us about two hours to reach the destination although Kuala Lumpur is just neighbor of Selangor state.

Found an interesting spiral walkway at R&R station.
It looks like a magic circle LOL

 

On the way to destination.

The first stop is a rice factory in Sekinchan.
Sekinchan is a town located in Sabak Bernam famous with its paddy plantation and fisheries. Therefore the rice factory is a must-visit place for every tourists.

The factory is located in the very-large paddy field, so we got chance to see the paddy fields along the way to the factory. Sad thing is, we have just missed the harvest season of paddies, what left on the field are mostly grasses (I think) and soils. The long journey to the factory was boring as the paddy field was too wide that we saw the almost same scenery along the way.

 

The scene of harvested paddy field.

The spacious metallic factory interior.
Everything looks so grey and raw though.

Entered the gallery before we started
shopping for souvenirs or any other
activities there.

The factory consists of gallery part, commercial area like souvenir shop and cafe (didn't manage to went inside the cafe but the ambiance looks nice from outside), and production part (where visitors cannot enter and can only look from far).

The short tour in gallery is very informative and the operator spoke so fluently in English. And I have finally understand how the rice is harvested and processed because this question has bothered me for very long time (since childhood), like what kind of machines used to plant the paddy into the soil, how to remove or peel the skins of these tiny rice, etc.

The operator was explaining about the production of the rice.
I think almost everyone were busying taking photos instead
of listening, including me...

Displays of traditional and modern tools for paddy plantation.
It's like a mini museum - the ambiance is so warm and
I felt so comfortable.

The most impressive part is their product shop. The space was small but various products were sold there.
However I think only half of the products are made of rice. What I like is their flavored lollipop chocolate with rice crackers, but the price is kinda expensive for me (RM6 each if I'm not mistaken). They sell coffee, ice cream, snacks and seafood products too, with various choices of taste, flavors, etc.
At the end I only bought fu chuk (bean curb skins) as souvenir for my family.

Was tempted to try their ice cream, but I didn't think I can finish it because I felt so cold there and didn't feel like eating cold food. Some more I wanted to record a video of the food only...LOL (for your information, there is an assignment that we have to film a video of food trail during the trip).

Luckily I was able to shoot it because my classmates bought it.

Besides the factory, we explored the surrounding there. There are two shops outside the factory selling seafood and rice products, fruits, souvenirs, etc. The one located beside the factory was selling a unique kind of bazhang (or Zongzi, rice dumpling) called "sambal meat bazhang". Usually bazhang has fillings of mung beans, mushrooms, salted duck egg yolk, chestnuts and meats, which are traditional Chinese ingredients, thus sambal meat bazhang is a fresh name to me. I bought one and tried it when we checked-in hotel later, and I was so regret that I only buy one...
Ahh... I feel hunger now looking at the photo...

The bazhang size is medium / not small, cost RM3.50 each,
therefore quite worth to try.

In order to study local retail interior design, we visited Ah-Ma's House (阿嫲的家, a.k.a. grandmother's house), a rustic traditional-Chinese local food and snacks shop in the paddy plantation area too.

The signage of the shop is in traditional Chinese house
nameplate design.

There are two tour car located beside the shop. Don't really
know they're for collection or in used for certain time...

A stall located at the entrance displayed various
sweets, snacks and toys which were popular
during childhood days. It looked outstanding
with the eye-catching and colorful items and
wood kiosk.

Various traditional items i.e. cooking tools, equipments,
antiques, etc.were displayed there. They provoked my childhood
memories and I felt so nostalgia looking at these items.

They made kuih kapit outside the shop. This reminded me of
my childhood time, where people often make kuih kapit
outside the house and the village was surrounded with smells
of the roasted batter.

I love the ambiance of the shop. I felt warm, welcoming and cozy inside. The use of natural materials i.e. timber-strips wall, cement floor and concrete-blocks wall, as well as antique-look timber furniture and displays, filling the whole space with very rich old-Chinese feels.

Next place, Nan Tian Temple, which is located in the paddy field area too. It is pronounced as Nan-Tien / Nan-Ten instead of Nan-Tian, however only Chinese know how to read it correctly LOL
Basically we spent our time here mainly for taking photos for our assignments...

The gorgeous Nan Tian Temple facade.

The view would be awesome if the paddy was not harvested
yet.

Another impressive place visited that day - Farm Ville Cafe and Homestay. Unlike the rustic and homey kampung style in most of the houses in Sekinchan, its mood is industrial and bold - the use of metal containers painted in sharp and eye-catching colors, symmetrical and geometrical arrangement and furnishing, etc. We could only able to explore the cafe and reception area, which is kinda small... The accommodation part is much more nicer and attractive with grid glass-and-cement land, adorable painted metal containers and other unique decorative items.

This design concept is quite creative and innovative because old items i.e. metal containers can be reused to build a sustainable architecture, therefore it is eco-friendly. The cost would be lower because of easier construction compared to normal houses.

Facade of the "building".

Restricted area where public cannot enter unless they book
and stay here.

Resting/ cafe area with large glass-panels opening.

5.00pm, check-in time @ Sekin Hotel and Resorts.
Our accommodation place is surrounded with smells of the river or sea... I don't know how to describe it, but it is kinda unpleasant to city people like me. By the way, I got used to the smells after some time.

Sekin Hotel and Resorts is just located nearby the beach, so we walked to the sightseeing tower (which is about five to seven floor height) and enjoying fresh breeze, wonderful scenery and selfies a lot.

Pantai Redang is just within walking distance from the tower. We have to walk through a small path, which is silent and many motors pass-by. It looked somehow unsafe but luckily we walked in big group.

So...yeah, pantai Redang, a lively beach even at evening and night. The sun was about to set when we reached the beach and yet the beach was still crowded. I didn't take many photos here due to camera's low battery.

The beautiful almost-sunset scene. Look at the reflection!

Tree house at Pantai Redang.

Swings beside the tree house. It would be
very enjoyable sitting here and looking at
the sea scenery.

The beach has even heavier smells of sea...something like burned salted fish smells. It was not that unpleasant for me, but it made me feel hungry LOL.

The weather was not really perfect (quite cloudy that time) so we were unable to watch the sunset scene. For the food trail video sake, we decided to have our dinner at the hawker stalls along the beach. Owned by local Chinese, they sell various seafood i.e. fried clams, grilled scallops, fried squids, etc., which looked sooooooooooooooooooo tasty and mouth-watering. Maybe I was just too hungry that time...

It was fun having dinner at seaside with classmates and juniors with chilling sea breeze and a lot of flies. The food was nice, especially the scallops, I have totally fallen in love with the appetizing and tender taste of it!

While eating, the stall owner informed that we can watch the "blue tear" (ostracod) at the beach!
And everyone was like...

Little did I know what is blue tear; I heard that it's a blue-color bioluminescence (or production and emission of light by tiny living organism) which can only be seen at night, and it appears with sea waves.
I couldn't see anything when I just approached the seaside because my eyes still haven't get used to the darkness, so I was quite blurred when everyone was shouting and screaming.
A minute after that, I saw some blue neon lights appeared along the wave... Ermahgawd it's amazing!
Although the environment was kinda dim, the tiny light looked fantastic and dreamy. Such an exciting experience to watch the scene!
By the way, I googled about the ostracod and I found from this website that they can only live less than 100 seconds after stroke by the sea wave. I'm having a complicated feelings toward the ostracod now... sad but impressive, idk.

By the way, here's end of my first update of the trip.
Day 2 post here!

Spoiler: more foods coming soon...