Pengerang, Sg Rengit, Batu Layar, or Riding, Roti and Sunburn.

Time to catch up on some old tasks namely writing about trips done some time ago. This one was a bicycle ride much like the one Mei, Wei Yen, Jeff and I did in July, but this time it was 4 guys and the ride was to Batu Layar, about double the distance of the previous ride.

Johann had of course cycled halfway around the world and was now my business partner. Joe is an old friend who had introduced me to Johann when I was planning Celebrate Malaysia! and who had also once cycled around Malaysia in his teenage years then accompanied Johann from Cambodia down to Singapore when Johann did that leg. Brian is a friend of both and was also their housemate until recently.

The idea was to cycle to Batu Layar, stay one night then make the trip back the next day. It’s about 50 70km both ways and is doable as a day trip except for one thing - the bumboats that ferry you and your bikes from Changi to Pengerang don’t operate at night so you have until evening to get to the ferry terminal and it thus becomes less enjoyable an experience. Unless all you want to do is to ride of course. But we had other ideas…

We were at Changi Ferry Terminal bright and early and got on one of the first few bumboats out. The sun was still low on the horizon and cast a beautiful warm glow on the sea around us. It didn’t last that long though and by the time we rounded Pulau Tekong was beginning to sizzle us just that little bit. We saw again the land reclamation works going on around Tekong and the amount of effort going into increasing Singapore’s land mass is still astonishing.

The morning sun looking quite pretty.

Johann looking much less so. Even in the morning light.

Land reclamation going on around Pulau Tekong.

We got to Pengerang, disembarked, set up the bikes outside the ferry terminal then got on and rode off on our guys’ riding weekend! We’d ridden 40 metres, 35 of which were in the carpark, and had just cleared the gateposts of the ferry terminal when we looked right, spied a gerai selling Roti and Kopi, shouted almost in unison ‘Roti!’ and screeched to a halt, jumped off our bikes and sat right down to a breakfast of Roti Chanai (we’re in Malaysia now, so it’s no longer called ‘Prata’) and Kopi or Teh-O for me.

This turned out to be our ‘other ideas’ and was repeated another 4 times during the 40km ride to Batu Layar. I’m not complaining, mind. In fact I rather think this is the way rides should go. Hey, I’ve always said enjoy the journey, right? What better way to do this than to breathe in fresh air, drink in Teh O and munch on good Roti Chanai? Or Ais Kacang as it turned out…

We sat around chatting, and marvelling at a little cat that hung around the stall and which impersonated a monkey by doing the most astonishing acts of acrobatics climbing up the mangosteen trunk pillar like its simian counterpart in its pursuit of bird prey. Finally we figured we really needed to be getting on, got back on our bikes and set off once again. It was a beautiful day turning a little hot but still great cycling weather.

Yes we did stop again not too long after for lunch and Ais Kacang… Now I just noticed I’ve spelt it this way here but have previously spelt it Ice Kacang. Same same… In all I think we stopped 4 or 5 times though only once for a rest. OK I guess having stopped for breakfast, tea, lunch and dessert we probably weren’t much in need of a rest halt for errr resting…

The place we stayed at was quite empty and we got a double-storey chalet with one squat toilet-equipped bathroom with cold water - no shower, just a tap with a bucket. The whole place was in a state of some neglect and if your needs are modest would do the job of providing shelter and a place to clean up. A walk along the short beach revealed that if you were expecting any more than that you’d probably be a trifle disappointed. The beach was filthy and I saw discarded drink and food containers and even disposable nappies. Not a place you’d walk barefoot about.

The place did have a small restaurant which served, if I remember correctly, a grand total of two types of fried noodles. So I had that for afternoon tea, then again at night for dinner. The guys fished out a pack of Monopoly Deal or something and I joined in for one game then proceeded to play the role of anti-social bastard by choosing to write instead. It was a great cathartic weekend as far as writing was concerned as there were many things going through my mind at that time, but which were seemingly locked in by writer’s block. A friend’s suggestion to use a journal unpicked the lock and in the space of an evening I filled 15 pages of my little notebook with thoughts and scribblings.

Later that night a bunch of young people moved in next door and one joined in for a game of cards. I’ve found most Malaysians are approachable and friendly and so it proved again. We stayed up a bit then decided to share the place Johann with Brian upstairs and Joe and me in the downstairs bedroom. Joe’s snoring is legendary but I was bothered by it at all. What did wake me up was the sound of rustling.

I stayed in bed but kept my eyes trained on the little bit of hall I could see through the open bedroom door. The windows were all shut though and I could hardly see anything in the near-total darkness. There was a bit more rustling and a light thump which I eventually worked out wasn’t human in origin so I clicked on my bike lamp which I’d kept by the bed. The sounds stopped for a moment then were followed by a light scratchy scurrying noise.

Rats. I got up, looked around the hall where we’d parked our bikes for the night and kept our stuff and that was when I discovered a roll of Oreos on the floor. A rat - with a sweet-tooth apparently - had tried to drag this unopened packet away but the packet had proven to be too unwieldy and my light had scared it away whilst in the midst of its exertions. I placed the packet back on the chair and went back to bed.

Only to be awakened a few minutes later by the same darned rat trying the same darned thing again. This time he didn’t return which meant that in the morning we did have Oreos for breakfast…

The steel wall which is part of the reclamation works.

On the way back we passed a number of other chalets and places to stay at that looked quite a bit more presentable than the one we had just shared the night with rats with. Maybe next time… We had Roti at Sg Rengit and when we finally reached the ferry terminal again I realised we also had sunburn. Well, I did anyhow. I’ll never learn…

We haven’t been to Batu Layar again though have talked about it a few times. Johann is expecting kid #2 soon so I’m not sure when we’ll get to go again. One things for certain: I will suggest a different place to stay the next time.

View Pengerang & Batu Layar in a larger map

Melaka Dec 2011 Pt 3

Looking at the Moon

This was the night of the lunar eclipse and Mei and I had a grand view of it from our room balcony that night. The pics are not so good at all but I was glad for a relatively clear sky, giving us a nice starry-night view we can’t get anymore in Singapore.

We can't see so many stars in Singapore anymore due to light pollution. Here you can clearly see Orion's Belt - the 3 stars across. And errr that's the moon in the upper left.

Just that wee bit left of the moon.

A longer exposure brought up the reddish glow of the moon with only that tiny sliver left in full sunlight.

Nothing beats Roti in the morning... except perhaps Roti with friends.

The next morning I had an early start meeting up with two old friends, Singam and Amaran. I think I last met Amaran when I cycled through Melaka in 2007 so it was a very welcome meet up for breakfast at the Saravana near the hospital Amaran is a gynae at. It was great catching up although for just a short while. Amaran was on call and was actually inducing a patient when we met up. I made a comment about smelling of roti chanai and dhalchar in the delivery room and he said he’d rather it be the other way around. Uhm his opinion anyway…

I had a small breakfast - fortunately, for the Lams went on a gastronomic rampage today. We met in town, had some dish which vaguely resembled Bak Kut Teh with Yam Rice but it wasn’t very satisfying. Even my Teh O was a little dull.

A 70-year old list

Mei’s Dad had last been in Melaka as a teenager during the war. He accompanied a relative’s truck up from Singapore. They owned a tea business and the young man had ridden up on the goods truck then spent a short while around Melaka. It may have been a short trip but he took notes and wanted to take his wife back to explore one day. Alas they never did, but he kept his notes and came to Meleka with a small piece of paper bearing the names of various landmarks he’d noted down.

One of those was Jalan Bunga Raya which was just around the corner from where we were and as we wandered off in that direction I asked him what was significant about the road. He said ‘Char Siew’ so not knowing what to expect, we strolled along what seemed to be an old but relatively nondescript street. Despite the fact that many things in this part of town have been there years, the pace of change in Melaka has picked up quite a bit and I didn’t figure we’d have much chance finding this ‘char siew’ place.

But we did. In an alleyway between two rows of shops was a little food street. A curved metal roof between the two corner shops transformed the lane into a sheltered oasis with 3 pork shops and a fourth stall which had tables and chairs laid out before it. The 3 pork stalls sold a mix of roast and barbecued pork, dried sausages and even dried sliced meat. I noticed some duck meat in one too. The meat all look extremely yummy and but only one stall had a few stools in front of it for patrons to eat. Then we discovered that we could buy what we wanted and sit in the coffeeshop next door to eat it, provided we bought some drinks as well. So Jeff bought us RM10 worth of Siew Yoke (roast pork) and we nipped over to the coffeeshop next door… which we discovered had yet another pork stall!

Looks OK and tasted so-so. It certainly whet our apettite for more though!

Jeff hadn’t bought any Char Siew (barbecued pork), but with my prompting bought some from the stall in the coffeeshop and more roast pork. The Char Siew had some fat which made it very delicious indeed and both batches of Siew Yoke were still warm and tasty too. I’m glad my father in law kept notes and now I have two places to go in Melaka for good, but probably unhealthy, food.

Yes, I think there's a duck mixed in with all that pork.

Now you know where to go, eh?

We’d had our fill and decided to wander around Jonker Street again whereupon we were promptly tempted by another round of Chendol. We succumbed of course.

Shredding (at least that's what I think it's called) coconut. Or is it 'Shaving'?

The trip back was easy and despite a detour to Lima Kedai to pick some stuff up from my brother’s place, and subsequently turning up at immigration just about when we expected the crowds to arrive, the traffic was smooth and quick at both sides of the second link and we were home in Singapore in good time. A very nice weekend trip indeed.

Melaka Dec 2011 Pt 2

We wandered around Heeren and Jonker Streets for awhile and managed to sneak in some Chendol at one of the shops. The more popular one next door had too long a queue so we opted for seats and the risk of an inferior dessert but as it turned out it wasn’t bad at all. And the interior of this typical deep Peranakan shop was cool and interesting. Most have one airwell and inner courtyard and a fresh water well too but this one was so deep there were two airwells.

It was a warm day and the Chendol and the short rest was very welcome. We walked around a bit more after then made our way back to the hotel (which Mei and I had passed but still not checked into yet!) and had a clean up and rest before heading back into town for dinner. A quick word about the hotel - they call themselves a boutique hotel but are really a mid-sized one with a not so successful mix of old and new. The hotel is well maintained and very pleasant indeed though we could tell it was designed very much for SIngaporeans - the lifts had ‘1’ marked for the ground floor instead of the more typical ‘G’. It was a comfortable, generally friendly place whose only drawback (besides the suspect interior design) is the location. Not far as the crow flies, but cars in Melaka do not go in straight lines for long and the short (by distance) trip out to the hotel took quite a few minutes by road.

In Melaka the one-way streets are a mess to navigate but it turned out there was an easy way back into town via the coastal flyover so we were back in the old part of town much quicker than it had taken us in the opposite direction. On one of the little streets, we came across a row of eateries including the famous Nancy’s Restaurant which had a long queue. We opted to try our luck instead at a place called Eleven which was part-bistro and part Eurasian Restaurant. To be honest I wasn’t expecting much but as it turned out we had a lovely meal. There’s an Eurasian restaurant in Singapore, Casa Bom Vento, right near my office which we’ve tried and bitterly disappointed with. So we could be forgiven our scepticism… and were grateful to be proven so wrong.

Here are some shots of what we did before, during and after dinner.

Sitting down to Chendol...

Going through the menu at Eleven.

After dinner we took in the sights and sounds of Jonker Walk.

Selling things the old fashioned way.