< 24 Hours in Taiping

After I thought about it, yeah we stayed less than 24 hours in Taiping, but I love this place!

For so many times Hon told me he likes this place, small town, breathtaking sceneries, fresh air, he even thinks about staying here after retirement!

He has been telling me over and over about taking me to visit Taiping and stay at his favorite place - Sentosa Villa, and we finally did... ... ...

... ... ...the first one.

The resort was fully booked, and it had been so since the first time we discussed about coming here, about a month ago! So popular I'm not sure when do I have the chance to stay here.

Culture shock - I didn't know Taiping is Hokkien major! Feel kinda warm when I'm able to converse Hokkien with locals :)



Stay:

So, we opt for Flemington Hotel, the one and only hotel that is facing the signature Taiping Lake.

Actually there's another old hotel by the lake called Lake View Hotel that has been turned into a KTV pub and lounge.

Outside our room's big window we see....

THIS!

I must say, the minute Hon drove into the entrance of Taiping Lake, I was impressed and mesmerized! 

The hundred-year-old rain trees, the lake view, Bukit Larut backdrop... took my breath away! Cincai take pictures also turn out very nice!

If only I can wake up every morning to this view, awwwww~~~

Too bad our stay was too short, or else I would definitely go for a jog around the lake and take a hike up Bukit Larut!

One very unusual thing happened in our room though. After we checked in and got into the room, the previous guest must have smoking in the room as the room was filled with the smell of smelly yucky smoked cigarette. We called the receptionist about it and they sent a house keeper to our room, and all she did was opened the window (the upper part of the window was sealed tight, the lower part can be opened) and sprayed freshener on the carpet. The window was remained open all day long. At night, after Hon woke up from his nap and wanted to go out for a meal, he picked his shirt off the floor, suddenly he shriek in terror while waving his shirt uncontrollably, and a HUGE BLACK BUG alike thingy freaking FLEW around the room with some indescribable weird sound!! OMFG I'm so scared of bugs, moreover some freaking UNKNOWN FLYING BIG BUG!!! We assumed it flew in through the open window. It flew and flew and finally dropped on the study table and the sound stopped. We were so freaking scared yet very curious of the bug (YEP the fatty fatzie was as scared as I was too, luckily I had his big fatty body as my shield so he had to stand in front to protect me despite he was scared like hell), we leaned forward very slowly and carefully to not provoke the bug to fly again. I swear I have never seen such a bug before, it was long and slimy, as long as my Xperia S but slimy like a dildo slim torchlight, black in color, and it looks like a combination of grasshopper-cicada-cockroach-cricket. When it stayed still it didn't make a sound, but the sound came when it flew, so we assume the sound was from the vibration of the wings. Hon put himself together, grabbed the towel, threw on top of it and caught it! Bravo my sweety bravery hero! He quickly wrapped it with the towel and threw everything under the toilet sink. The bug still moved and made sounds when we pressed the towel inward EWWWW!! I tried Google every possible keywords combination I could think of, and no luck. Sorry no pictures because I was scared like hell where got heart to grab phone and take pictures!??! Summore the phone was right beside the freaking bug ARGH!!! We both get goosebumps whenever the bug jumps into our conversation T_T


Eat:

1) Larut Matang hawker centre

Mainly Kuey Teow Goreng and chicken rice stalls, limited variety.

Kuey Teow goreng - common but cheap, RM3 big plate!

Char kuey teow with fish balls - Taiping's specialty and MUST TRY! Really nice!

Bought some kuih too because the kuih-selling uncle very hard sell his kuih, so must buy!

Kuih lapis + glutinous rice at the bottom layer

Pandan something something jelly kuih - special and unique little delicacies

2) Pokok Assam

The only (seem so) hawker center opened in the area that day, we hopped off the car and had our lunch here. Jackpot!

Mee rebus + kopi beng

Wa-tan-hor

I said 'Jackpot' because, we kinda like hitting the jackpot lah. Despite this hawker center was the only one opened on the day (it was half closed also ar! The front part was opened but the other half part closed!), turns out, this Pokok Assam Mee Rebus is very famous one!! It is listed in the Taiping's famous food list. See the color also looks very delicious right? I ordered a Wa-tan-hor and it was pretty good too! Not only that, even the drinks also very nice! The kopi beng very kaw, and Hon watched how they made Milo beng, and he wanted one takeaway too!

3) Aulong Heo Piah Biscuit, Kampung Bharu, Lorong 29, Aulong

This shop is like the must-visit place in Taiping.

House style shop

'Ear cracker' is what I called it

The famous Heo Piah!

This blog tells a detailed tale about this shop and the biscuit. Hon bought one packet for me when he detoured to Taiping on the way up North, and I love it there and then! Unlike the conventional Heo Piah sold in Ipoh, this Heo Piah is very, I mean VERY crunchy, and the caramelized liquid on the inside is not too sweet nor thick (some were way too sweet to my liking with chunky filling, me no like).  

I talked to an aunty who is a family friend of my aunty, who, to my surprise, is from Taiping. She said the Aulong one beh jiak a (cannot eat) and the better Heo Piah is at Pokok Assam! OK fine I will look for it on my next visit (which would eventually happen as Hon really likes this place)

Outside Taiping:

1) Segari Turtle Sanctuary

On our way down South using the Federal road No. 5, we stopped by the Segari Turtle Sanctuary.

It was quite creepy when we turned into the smaller road from the main road, the route is surrounded by forest and few bunch of creepy looking white color building seems like a bio-hazard industrial factories thingy with a signboard says DPDC Farm and autogate entrance, which we guessed the abbreviation as Duck Plantation Dan Chicken LOL. (After I asked my best friend, Google, I was told DPDC is Dindings Poultry Development Centre, which our guess is correct hahaha). It seemed like forever to drive on that road, and when the view was cleared, we were greeted by the beach and the entrance of the sanctuary.

The sanctuary is by the beach, literally!!

The previous two turtle sanctuaries that I've been to in Terengganu and Pahang are by the beach, but it's inaccessible to public. This one, it is literally by the beach!

However, the sanctuary is under construction, so only the ponds are available for viewing but there's no tourist information counter or museum display. The scale is small, there are three main ponds area, one with deeper depth pond and few adult sea turtles, one with larger scale of pond but much shallower with extra large sea turtle, and another ponds with baby turtles.

The turtles in the first pond mentioned above are very active and tend to be interactive with the visitors. We stretched our hand down the pond and tap on the wall, the turtles came to us, and one turtle even tried to sniffed my hand! They did some splashing too!

The godlike large size turtles 

(wonder why they are put in such a shallow pond, it's about the depth until my knee)

The beach!

After we came out from the sanctuary, we continued our journey down South to Manjung. En route, we passed by a small roadside stall selling Durian, Hon suddenly screamed in joy and excitement that he smelled the nice scent of Durian (but I didn't smell anything), immediately made a U-turn 100m ahead and came back to the stall! Note that he drove at least at 60-70 km/h nah!! This proves Proton's cars' window seal talak bagus sangat LOL! The stall was very simple indeed. The aunty drove an old model Mercedes, brought along a fold table and put some Durians on the table, put some on the floor. We asked the aunty to open two to let us try (and we paid for it), and bought almost 2/3 of her remaining Durian worth of RM40, about 3-4kg. She quickly packed up and rushed home because she had a singing competition that night!

When we arrived Manjung, we wanted to try the look-like-very-famous coconut jelly, but the shop was tightly shut when we arrived, didn't even have a signboard and whatnot, so we left disappointingly. Later the day, Google told me that the shop is shifted to another area lah~~~

That's all!