Living without your other half for three week in a month is stressful. Living with your mom after you taste independent is stressful. Living with a three year old with a mind of his own is stressful. Try to combine all three and you have another level of stress.
Trying to plan a holiday with the brawn is hard when most of his unplanned work trips occurs during holiday, anniversaries and birthday. Last week, he got back and just packed everything for our trip. We start the journey to his sister's house in Puchong, arriving late at night and doze off.
We started the day with protein based breakfast for me and carbs for them. Discussing the trip was fruitless, as many are fully booked. We went to buy a new swimming suit for me, as we planned to go to Tadom Hill. Ate our lunch at Warung Bunian, it was delicious kampung style dishes. We ate spicy coconut gravy crab (ketam masak lemak cili padi), spicy prawns (sambal udang), chicken in soy sauce (ayam kicap) and veggies.
Our eyes are filled with anticipation of twinkling blue lake, hiking in forest and campfire. Instead, an old mining rundown turns to a weird shade of blue, surrounded by palm oil trees less than 3 minutes from highway greeted us. It probably best for team building, but not for us.
In our haste to find the next stop, we start moving towards Perak. We painted new picture of night safari, ecopark and great food. We estimate the drive will be 2 hours, so we did not turn back to get our clothes and itinerary. How wrong we are.
We end up driving for 6 hours, or the equivalent of roasting a turkey for thanksgiving. We bought cheap clothes at Mydin (Malaysia's Walmart) and book the hotel through agoda. Since we were disappointed with Tadom Hill, we book a hotel with humongous pool.
We went to Taiping's night safari and Keyaan was excited to board the train and seeing the animals. He keep on shouting 'Look! (Insert animal name)'. After the 30 minutes ride, we went for dinner at Medan Selera Bomba which was famous with yong taufu. I bought yong taufu and satay while they dine with noodles, which taste horrible so they luck out. The yong taufu is delicious although different style from Johor's.
We start the next day with swimming(or learning to swim for me) for most of the morning, checked out and went to search for the famous Doli's Kue Tiaw. We read online about the chicken rice is nicer, so we opt for chicken rice(only chicken for me) and one special Kue Tiaw to taste. We were pleasantly surprised that the Kue Tiaw is delicious, pack with flavor. For dessert, we tried Bismillah Cendol, which were dispirited as ours are seasoned with hair and fly. Yackss.
Kellie's castle was our next destination, and the beautiful ruins broke my heart. A gorgeous architecture with lights spilling from the high window. William built the castle for his wife but died of pneumonia during the construction. His ghost still haunts the castle.
We end our visit dining at Warung Cikgu's ayam cincang. The sambal was pungent, I could only eat dipped end of the chicken into it. The chicken was delicious and I love how they serve the coconut drink in a small pail.
We went back to Kota Tinggi after the dinner. We were reminded of our younger days, which to travel without any plans, any destination set. We would love to have more short getaways, immersing on culture and feasting on food. Where would you go for short getaway?
