Saturday, February 21, 2004

Early on Saturday, just after seven in the morning we left home heading for the R & R at Sungei Buloh on the Highway north.... It is going to be our rendezvous, to meet those other gang members for this trip to the tourist destination in the northern state of Perak....The morning was cool and the sky was clear, so it would be great day to drive on the Highway and then by the country roads to Lumut, our destination today..... We would stay a night at a holiday resort at Teluk Batik and then would cross over by boat to visit the Pangkor Island, an Island resort that is a must for those that want a different kind of holiday, away from the hassle of the city life. To my surprise, the traffic was light and we arrived early at the R & R, I park my car and got a place to rest and wait for the others to arrive, and soon I saw Alex and his wife arrived, we join him and eventually saw the others began to drive in one by one.... It was nice to meet the old gang again, most of them were driving the classic Volvo 122, some of which are almost forty years old...... It is vintage now and not many are seen on the roads today..... The R & R soon was filled with more cars which I found later that it belong to another group that are going north a well, the are from the Oil giant of Malaysia, the Petronas... The organisation is organizing their yearly family gathering at the Bukit Merah Resort in Perak... Met a couple with the kids, all exited with the trip, chat a while with them and off We went to meet the rest of our group..... After a briefing, we convoy along to the north, with a brief stop and eventually arrived at the Simpang Pulai toll plaza, where we made connection with the country road that would lead us to the town of Lumut..... I had not been on this part of the road for quite sometime, I think it has been almost twenty years or so, I was surprise to see that all those areas along the roads have been developed with residential buildings as well as industrial building of all kinds.... It is indeed pleasing to see the progress of the rural part of the country so far.... I guess that is why we are now having full employment....the success story of a developing country, making it good in peace time.... The weather was on our side and the journey was rather pleasant all the way to Lumut.... We arrived at Lumut just around two in the afternoon and it really great to see that this once quiet fishing village is now a thriving town, that host the base of the Malaysian Royal Navy .... the town itself is rather big and full of tourist.... We park our cars and head for the nearest restaurant. And since we were all hungry, we decided to have lunch at the first restaurant and it happen to be a Nasi Kandar Restaurant [Nasi Kandar-special curry rice with various spicy dishes, a specialty of the Indian Moslem].... Everyone seem to enjoyed their food... I supposed they must be really hungry or they really love this kind of food.... As for me I am truly hungry and enjoy this food more because of the hunger rather then the quality of the food itself....Anyway satisfied and happy that we all have arrived at our destination in time....we head to our resort at Telok Batik, a ten minutes drive form the town of Lumut.... It is a sprawling complex,a sort of a condo like hotel....New and have great swimming pool and coffee house..... The beach is just a walking distance away, buffer by a sort of a trading square, where the local traders set up stalls to sell tourist goods, as well as foods and refreshments.... The square itself is beautifully plan and from the look of it, it is new or a just completed project...... We check in to our domain which happen to be on the fifth floor and took a brief and a well need rest........I dose off for an hour or so and wake up to find that it is already five in the evening......

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