It was Inah’s turn for the dinner treat a couple of nights ago. It was a toss between two places - either Bangkok House or this place. Four out of five chose to come here so here we are again at this place that shall not be named

Mee Raja with Roast Chicken

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Meatball Carbonara

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Roti Hawaii

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Mixed Premium Grill

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And the only new dish we tried that night - Chicken and Mushroom Blue Cheese Baked Pasta

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It was Josh’s first time there that night

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The rest of the party of five - Shahril Aley & Inah

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And Abg Bear who at the end of the meal, was still craving for Bangkok House food

There’s not really much to do out at Bagan Lalang. One of the few activities we read about on the internet was to go boating along Sungai Pelek Kecil. The place we were staying at had absolutely no information on where we could hire a boat for this despite the jetty being merely 50 metres away from the chalet. Good thing we asked around at some of the other chalets and obtained the contact number for the person who organizes these boat rides.

We were really fortunate that day since there was a group of hard core anglers who were on their way to the only Kelong here at Bagan Lalang, so we got a free ride out to the Kelong and got to see what people get up to over there. So what’s a Kelong?

That’s what a Kelong is

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For RM35 per person, you too can spend the night on this wooden structure on stilts, located in the middle of the sea away from civilisation until the time the boat comes to pick you up the following day.

Even though neither of us are into fishing, it seemed quite interesting to spend the night out here just for the fun of it. Any takers willing to join us?

This was the huge shrimp they used as bait - it was bigger than my palm so I wonder how huge were the fishes they were planning to catch that night?

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After spending some time on the Kelong checking out the building and the surrounding view, we left the four anglers on the structure to continue with our boat trip upriver.

The Kelong was beautifully silhouetted against the early evening sun

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One of the few jetties at Bagan Lalang - this one at the northern end near Sg Pelek Kecil

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By the time we started our boat ride up Sg Pelek Kecil, fishing boats were making their journey going the opposite direction headed to the deeper waters bordering Indonesia.

As we entered the mouth of the river and made our way along the slowly flowing waters, we were suddenly surrounded by nothing else but mangrove trees. For the next 20 minutes there’s no evidence of any man made structures anywhere.

The water level was much higher recently after a downpour as can be seen from the marking on the leaves

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A low angle shot taken from just above the water level as the boat was making it’s way up the river - I was praying that I wouldn’t accidentally drop the camera while getting this shot

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Behind the scene shot of Abg BM shooting the National Geographic documentary now showing over at his blog

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The end of the trip upriver is marked by this concrete bridge, the first sign of civilisation you encounter on the boat ride

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And just after the bridge, what’s left of the mangrove trees were only dead stumps lying on the river bank

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If you’re lucky you’d get to view some of the fauna in the area. And if you’re really lucky, our guide said that you might even come face to face with crocodiles
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By the time we returned to the jetty, it was nearly sunset and the views became even more spectacular

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The perfect shot to end the perfect boating experience

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The usual boat rental is RM50 for a short trip up the river and RM100 for the longer trip we took all the way to the concrete bridge but try your skills at haggling and you may get a discount

Anyone interested to go boating along this river can get in touch with Nazri at 0193438150

We just got back from a short but much needed break in Bagan Lalang. The laid back atmosphere at this secluded beach was exactly what was needed to recharge my worn out batteries.

The last time I was at this beach in Sepang was over six years ago. At that time I was here for dinner with some friends at one of the many seafood restaurants near the beach. Since it was already dark, I didn’t really get to see what else was there apart from the restaurants.

This time, Yazeed and me had the whole day to explore the area.

The beach kampung life can be witnessed in all its glory here. Just before sunset yesterday we got to see all these boats heading out to sea and returning later in the night with fresh produce from the surrounding waters.

But all these won’t be around anymore in a few years time.

The mammoth Sepang Gold Coast project is already starting to take shape at the beach with the floating Palm Resort.

Soon construction of the other components of the mega project will begin. And when that happens then the constructions will most probably swallow a lot of the surrounding kampung life and replace it with spanking new theme parks, shopping arcades, boutique hotels and fine dining restaurants.

Stopping by at the project’s sales office, where I took these waterlily shots, one cannot help but be impressed at the scale of the entire development planned for the beach. Maybe it’s not all bad, after all thousands of jobs would be created for the locals of Bagan Lalang once the place gets formally renamed as Sepang Gold Coast.

But I’m really glad we got a chance to experience Bagan Lalang’s natural surroundings before it is transformed into the ultra modern tourist magnet it was planned to be in the next few years.

One of the highlights of the day was seeing how the local children got to spent their late afternoons, something you won’t get to see anymore in a few years time.

I’ll be posting several other entries on Bagan Lalang’s attractions over the next few days. Also check out Beruang Madu’s blog for more pics and activities

The ongoing price war between MAS and Air Asia has now just spread across international borders with Air Asia launching free seats to international destinations.

Air Asia must have launched this in retaliation to their rival’s announcement recently that after MAS’s highly successful, recently launched domestic low fares, they will soon extend the “Everyday Low Fares” to destinations in all ASEAN countries.

With the battle getting more intense between these two feuding giants, the ones that end up as victors are of course travelers. We’ve just confirmed a booking for a short trip to Manila together with Chen and K-rol early next year, all of us paying only RM220 per person for a return trip to Manila.

Out of curiosity I checked the Malaysia Airlines site to see what are the rates for the exact same dates that we’ll be travelling.

The flight was already sold out on MAS on these dates, but if there were seats available we’d need to fork out RM4095 per person for this same trip!!! Does it really cost that much to fly economy to Manila? Of course this is before MAS launches their own zero fare seats to ASEAN destinations. Chieng Mai will now have to wait till that happens.

Checked the incoming links to the blog today to find this pleasant surprise

Yippeeee… this blog ended up at number two on the list which is based on the Technorati ranking system. But it won’t be long before I’ll get shoved to number 3 spot once this doctor’s brand new blog gets listed on the Malaysian Medical Doctor Blogroll.

Fans of local musicals would be happy to learn that this month will see several interesting productions being staged at various locations in KL.

Randai Kasih Menanti is a Minangkabau classic given a modern touch and it is currently on at Istana Budaya from the 9th to the 18th May 2008. Would love go to see this one but I only found out about it today and unfortunately the schedule’s already a bit packed till the weekend

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Semerah Padi will be staged at Dewan Philharmonik Petronas on the 13th & 14th May 2008. If you haven’t got the tickets already, chances are they’d be sold out since the Petronas Performing Arts Group’s rare performances are highly popular and usually sold out far ahead in advance. We already got the tickets to this one weeks ago

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Last but not least, the highly acclaimed P.Ramlee the Musical will be running again at Istana Budaya from the 28th May to the 15th June 2008. So those that missed the first run of this highly entertaining musical, go get your tickets. But do note that the lead role will be played by a Musly Ramlee instead of Sean Ghazi this time around.

About 14 hours to go before the end of my last day on call hopefully for the rest of the month. The past few weeks have been really tiring being on call every third day & taking on the responsibility and workload of two people each time on call. Next week the department will finally be back to full force once half of the department’s workforce who have been away for study leave and exams finally return to work.

What I’m really looking forward to starting tomorrow are the few days of annual leave I’ll be taking. Can’t wait to be able to wake up at noon everyday, do nothing, not have to think about work at all for two whole weeks, not having to worry about finding parking in the morning and last but not least, not having to spend sleepless nights on the cold stiff bed in the on call room praying that the phone won’t ring again and I won’t need to run to the OT or the ICU again for at least a few hours. But all that’s just for the next two weeks. After that it’s back to work again. Then it will be my turn to start worrying and preparing all out for exams. Less than 6 months to go and then it’ll be my turn. Arghhh I’m starting to feel the pressure already…