Hari Raya

Ramadan has just come to an end and we have been seeing Kuantan decorations change from the many Malaysian and Pahang flags for Merdeka to the many green and yellow lanterns symbolising Hari Raya. The kids have come home from school with painted pelintas which are basically oil candles used to decorate the home and add light to the festivities. For the actual close of Hari Raya the nation gets on the road and heads home to their families kampungs. This is similar to the craze of Chinese New Year or TET yet somehow very different as most Malays have cars so the train and bus stations aren't jam packed although the government puts pleas out there for people to use public transport. It's almost like Easter Thursday traffic, bumper to bumper with radio reports advising people not to leave home due to complete stand stills in some areas.

Some things I didn't know before this Ramadan.

1. Muslims break fast with dates. It's a quick sugar fix to give them energy to be able to digest the big meal they are about to eat.
2. More chickens are sold during the month of Ramadan than any other month in Malaysia.
3. The green and yellow lanterns represent the food ketupat which are basically rice dumplings wrapped in banana leaves to preserve them. They are eaten with dipping sauces.

Sungai Lembing

Sungai Lembing is a tin mining town 42 km northwest of Kuantan. Lembing is Malay for spear, and "sungai" means river. Per local legend, the local ruler saw a vision of a spear in the nearby river and thus named his town after this vision. As for industry Sungai Lembing was a major producer of underground tin until the 1970s. The town dates back to the 1880s and has some cute little kampungs which are predominantly islamic or Chinese.

The pit mines were closed in 1986 due to high operational costs and low yields, but during their heyday they were said to be among the "largest and deepest in the world". The total tunnel length is 322 km, with a depth of between 610 m and 700 m. The town of Sg Lembing is in decline although it was once the richest town in Pahang, known as El Dorado of the East. What we saw were lots of wooden shoplots not open and some overgrown homes.

About 15km on the Kuantan side of Sg Lembing is Gua Charas which is a temple cave.

Still exploring and finding new things

Trev's been away for a few weeks now and you know how it can be.
You're living an idyllic life, beach, greenery, parks, birds -
absolutely everything that Hanoi wasn't and you get a bit complacent.
Well the kids are feral had a cold which has made everyone panic
except us about good ol' H1N1. I say "let's go to the beach" and I
get screamed NO by one or both of them. Or I say let's go to the park
and one wants to go to one place and the other a different place.
Remember they are 2 years old so any compromise is normally proceeded
by a lot of screaming and tantruming. Today I yelled back and loaded
them into the car for an adventure. We didn't get far as I was
curious what the local public beach would be like on a glorious Sunday
arvo. Would there be a dick pulling incident here like Ha Tien?

We headed down to Telok Chempedek which is just over the other side of
the hill from our place. If you've seen the photos there is a tennis
court, then a hill of trees behind the tennis court which is the
botanical gardens and on the other side of the hill is Chempedek
beach. The beach was busy but not crowded. The sand was hot damn hot
and the water was calm and crystal clear. There is a boardwalk which
leads into some shade from Casuarina trees so we took that as all 6 of
our feet were burning and lugging the two kids was only slowing me
down and burning my feet more. This boardwalk takes you over large
boulders which seems to be the theme of beaches around here and after
another little corner to an amazing secluded beach. Needless to say
we spent a few hours kicking the ball and making castles before
heading back to the main beach for coconut drinks and some nasi ayam
(a rice and chicken dish). Now to even kind of achieve that kind of
bliss in Hanoi would have entailed a flight to Danang - so am I
thrilled to be here? YESSSS


Next time I go I'll take some pics but for now here is where it is

View Larger Map
We live in the orange buildings at the very bottom and the big long stretch is Telok Chempedek then there's almost no beach which is the boardwalk and then the secluded nice beach. Will find out the name of it but did read something about it being a site where the Japanese invaded Kuantan during WWII.

KL to see Mitch

Michelle and Warren came to KL for a holiday with their family and it had been ages since we caught up so I packed the kids in the car and went across for the weekend. It was great to feel a little more confident in the car and KL was fine. Glad we live over here but a visit every now and then will be OK. We stayed in Ampang walkable to the Petronas Towers and that is where the kids spent most of their time. In a gigantic grass park with what seemed like hundreds of tunnel slides, swings, ladders, see saws. They went nuts.

Cherating Beach

The rocket car is turning out to be fantastic. We are able to quickly load the kids and take off. This weekend we went north to Cherating, stopping at all the beaches along the way. The road is good with decent beach scenery most of the way. Cherating itself is more spread out than Kuantan and less built up. The tourist strip has you really feel you are in an Asian beach town with food stalls and restaurants, loads of cheap hotels with cutesy names and vendors selling swimming tubes and t-shirts.

We got out at a beach a little south of the main tourist to check out the sand quality and be thrilled it wasn't as steep as our private beach. The kids loved it, Tom stepped foot on the sand and started trying to take his "clothes on" (2 year old mistake for off and on) and I wasn't sure how much attention we would create so I let him down to his nappy (I was not looking forward to a repeat of the dick pulling incidents in Vietnam) but lucky to say we had the beach to ourselves. The kids ran freely playing with washed up coconuts, wood and yelling us little crabs popped into and out of holes along the beach.

From 2009 July Malaysia Pekan, Cherating and Kuantan

At the main tourist part I couldn't resist taking a photo of a group of girls laughing and giggling eating their icecreams.

From 2009 July Malaysia Pekan, Cherating and Kuantan

Taxi's in Kuantan

We have needed a cab once or twice since being in Kuantan and like beer these seem to be elusive when REALLY needed. The other night we were out and managed to get a flat tyre on the new rocket car. It then turned out we had been given a wheel brace for normal nuts and the car had "special" don't steal my tyre nuts so we were well and truly stuck. At the servo we managed to limp to the night orderly was very helpful and when I asked him if wheel stealing was common in Kuantan he replied

"It used to be ..... now they just take the whole car"

This was happening around 11pm and there was not a cab in sight. I walked a short distance to a restaurant which was filled and asked them to call a cab. Well there are no 1 3 numbers or taxi companies to call, you need to know a cabby. This is where it got slightly irritating. I was told a good dozen times to call a taxi and when I asked for a number I was given the look of derr don't you know one. Now it seems living in a town with few drinkers you don't have a need for cabbies late at night. They all shut down around 10pm.

One of the waiters of the restaurant ran us home in his little car which hiccupped and stalled its way up the Tembeling hill and when we got to the security guard we asked if he new a taxi number. We were given Mr Haran's name and number with a big cheesy thumbs up. This would be needed the next morning.

Meeting Mr Haran the next morning was great. A friendly chap who called a few ties to reconfirm times and places. The kids loved him and his red and yellow cab. First stop was school where the kids got out and when leaving school we got caught at an ugly intersection in Kuantan morning rush (its hardly busy though). Mr Haran creeped out a little and then realised he couldn't get through so needed to reverse a bit. This he did fine, no one behind us. The problem was he was too busy teaching Trev some Bahasa and telling us he was available any time of the day until 11pm except Friday's where he was busy at the mosque to notice he had left the car in reverse. The traffic had cleared and when he put his foot down he just about shat himself as the car lurched backwards.

Pekan

We have a car, no visitors and no hangover. Hooray!!!

This morning we took a trip to Pekan which is about 50km south of Kuantan. Firstly its great to have a car to be able to explore places in comfort. The motorbike in Hanoi was great and we could get out for some day trips without the kids but it was nice to just load up and go.

It only took a little under an hour to get there and we passed over the Kuantan river, loads of road side hawker food (didn't see a beer sign though) and the scenery was pleasant enough. We arrived in Pekan which I think used to be the captial of Pahang state and were greeted with large signed arches over the street, a mosque or two and some big open public spaces with grass.

We passed a busy market and got out to wander much to Trev's distress initially and it turned out to be really great. There was the regular fruit and vege part with an abundance of the national fruit durian for sale and odour. I was surprised to see the butchery section all together with fish, chicken, pig and cow all in a row; for some reason I thought it would be separated on opposite sides of the market for religious reasons as it is in supermarkets in Kuantan (there is a special room for the pig and booze products and they are sealed and paid for then and there). Instead they just had different sellers with their goods under different tents. Also in the market were some clothing stands and then we got to the good bit, the food for purchase to be eaten. Different foods and drinks everywhere a carnival type atmosphere and no one really gave us any notice which was great. A few hello's but no pulling or prodding the kids or shouting out to get the whole town to see the foreigner.

Is this not the biggest wok you have ever seen?

From

Bad Bad Monkeys

Our new apartment looks out over a reserve and botanical gardens with heaps of nice greenery and flowers and I love having breaky on the balcony with my pot of tea to start the day. However some afternoons and only some a herd of monkeys - not sure if that is technically correct but they come in a flock of bad arses venture down cross the tennis courts and head to the balconies of the apartments in search of food. Yesterday I was having an afternoon nap (I am retired you know and had been up to almost 3 am the previous night) and left the windows and sliding glass doors open to catch a nice breeze.

About 3pm I am woken by what sounds like the kids clambering up on to the table to the fruit bowl, having a party by tipping their toy box out on the floor so I shout to "Cut it out". Only problem it was NOT the kids. There were savage monkeys in our living room. On the dining table, microwave, playing with the kids toys and when I shouted to get out they hissed me. Petrified is a word that springs to mind.

They did move on taking loaves of bread, oranges and apples. Thankfully they left the lego behind and I must say they weren't too keen on the bag they ripped open containing some dirty kids school clothes.

JEC Kindy

Tom and Claire have started kindy. They go 5 mornings a week now and are in a class of 8. Their kindy has some similarities to their old kindy, namely it’s a bright yellow building. Different from Morningstar there is a great outdoor GRASSY area, yes that is not a misprint it is green grass which you are allowed to play on. They have been for 2 mornings now and are screaming less with each day.

Today they even came home for an afternoon sleep which was terribly kind of them seeing yesterday after a very late night with the Canadian’s they opted out of their sleep in order to follow us to the beach for an afternoon of fun. Bomber had Tom crawling under large rocks into special houses called caves and Claire asking for cakes made from sand. Disappointingly as I am not 2m tall my hands are slightly smaller than the big fella’s which only led to disappointment when my cakes were smaller than his.

Happy Canadia Day

Mark RW a colleague of Jo’s at Hanoi International School and a mate to us both is currently travelling Malaysia with Jean-Mark a friend from home so as they passed by our little part of Malaysia they just happened to drop by. As it turned out they arrived on Canada Day and to quote RW’s text

“We’ll be lookn to crush some beers hope ur up for hangn out with drunk canadians on arguably the greatest day of the year”

We certainly did crush some beers with Jo piking it at 240am and the lads calling it a night somewhere around 5ish.

Happy Canadia Day Fellas! It’s not everyday you celebrate Canada day with some top Canadians in Malaysia

Bombski Arrives

For a few years now we have meant to catch up with Bomber and Erika and for various reasons we have not managed it. Last summer we were planning a trup to Italy which fell through and this summer we were planning another trip on our way to Spain but with residency visa falling through and a complete change of plans including this great move to Malaysia Bomber came to us. It was great to see the long man for a few days and talk crap about footy, navy days and footy whilst drinking way too many beers and exploring our new beaches. Thanks for coming Bombski and see you next time.

Car Shopping

We have bought a car. Hooray!! It’s a silver sedan and it does everything we need it to do.

Arrival in Kuantan

Our new home is great. Trev has done very very well for himself finding us a little pearler like this. We arrived on Friday afternoon and unfortunately had to pass the central mosque which was untimely as traffic reigned supreme but once we got to Tembeling everything ran smoothly. Cecillia our new landlord was waiting for us and had everything sorted for us and even had lined up a night at the Kuantan Club so we could meet other expats but unfortunately our clothing range was not up to dress standard so we had to take a rain check until after our removal arrived. We sussed out the swimming pool and the kids had some fun on a water slide and then we opted to take it easy and just eat in the hotel restaurant for the night as all of us were feeling overwhelmed by our new surroundings.

From 2009 June Kuantan Our New Home

The Big Move to Malaysia

We have arrived in KL finally after some extended packing and farewelling from Hanoi. Sumo and Ally came for a visit to Vietnam for our last 3 weeks and not sure if it was their influence of holiday ‘lax’ time or our ability to procrastinate, but either way we went to Hoi An for a 5 day beach holiday less than a week before we moved to a beach!

The first thing which hit me in KL was how quiet and clean everything here is. Granted I have seen only the airport, a hire car, a swanky hotel and 1 Utama shopping centre but having said this everything is calm, there are queues and it is bright and white. The second thing which kind of freaked me out was how fast we were travelling. We were doing 110km/hr on the freeway and being overtaken. Trev was driving telling me he was doing the speed limit and I was sitting in the back with the kids not even noticing the cars and trucks racing past just having that fair ride experience of far out this is fast. The Honda Wave did a regular speed of about 30km/hr with no traffic around in Hanoi! (Oxymoron that last statement as Hanoi rarely had no traffic around) This reverse culture shock is not as bad as Trev and my return from Qingtian to Melbourne where we chose to walk everywhere.

I did not think we had been roughing it in Vietnam at all and our home was very comfy. Little Claire however is suffering from her first culture shock. Examples of this include her seeing a nice plush rug in the foyer of the hotel and saying “I sleep on that bed” and squeals of delight when seeing her booster car seat for the first time with a 5 point harness “click clack”, a far cry from her metal seat on the front of the motor bike with instructions to put her hands on the dash and don’t move. Tom on the other hand is taking it all in his stride as so far this trip has meant lots of rides on various forms of transport.

This afternoon we make the trip across to Kuantan, which is set to be home for the next few months and fingers crossed longer if we enjoy.

TET Preparations

It seems in the lead up to TET this year the Hanoi government has decided that all the foot paths need some refurbishment. Now anyone who has ever tried to walk on a foot path here knows that foot paths could be renamed motorcycle parking, so as a foreigner here I was surprised they would bother, and then even more surprised that they aren't doing it in sections but doing it everywhere. Simon and I had to take a bus ride some 40 mins out of town this week for work and it is happening EVERYWHERE. We asked the Vietnamese people with us what it was all about and there are restrictions in place on doing any road work at the moment because the traffic into cities at TET times builds up and it would be toooooooo chaotic. Again this is an oxymoron as the traffic is chaotic all the time. Admittedly it does get worse though at TET time.

Lane 209 Doi Can is getting a refurb at the moment too. For the past 6 weeks we have had to battle the daily sewerage run as they reinstall or upgrade our drains. Today was the first day in the last 10 that I could get my motorbike out and the kids were going stir crazy, so they enjoyed the wind in their hair. We had a good ride and saw lots of really interesting things leading into TET. I didn't notice it until Claire pointed out the orange trees. At TET most houses have the equivalent of a Christmas tree, but it is either a blossom or a cumquat tree and all along Lac Long Quan were hundreds of potted trees for sale. And all along Lac Long Quan were hundreds of motorbikes delivering these trees to peoples homes. So with Tom shouting bus, bike or car from the backpack, and Claire sitting upfront shouting flower and orange tree we had a lovely morning ride.

Happy New Year

Wecome 2009! We are really eager and looking forward to our busy year ahead. We celebrated the New Year with Graham and Dorklag In Koh Samui. We were in Samui for Neil and Kelly's wedding on the 3rd and there was a good crew from around the globe to see in the New Year.