Short note: I just noticed this is my 601st post woott!!While the Muslims were celebrating Raya last Sunday, my family and I had our very own celebration as well.
I joined my family for a seafood dinner at Matang, a small village situated about 15 kilometers from Taiping town, famous for its seafood. The way there is pretty simple; no turnings are required and you just have to go straight for about 10 kilometers from the crossroad in Simpang and you would come to a signboard which shows Matang on the left. Another 5 minute-drive and you should see several seafood restaurants. One of them is this restaurant on your left - Restoran Ghee Seng. There is a Chinese temple just next to the restaurant, just in case you are unsure of the right restaurant.
A friend of mine first introduced me to this restaurant a couple of years ago, and my uncle's friend told him the same thing too. So, I guess this should be one of the well-known restaurants in that area. The price and quality of the food are satisfactory and I would recommend anyone who pays a visit to Matang to have a taste of the local seafood here.
Just to avoid the huge crowd, it is better to go before seven in the evening. We were among the first to be there and in just a matter of few minutes, the restaurant was already full-house. Another advantage to be early birds is that you would not have to wait long for the food to be served. We got our first dish in less than ten minutes and the rest followed continuously.
The lady just done cooking our spicy chilly crab.
Fish and other seafood being prepared for cooking.
Customers can choose the seafood on their own if they wish to do so.
Randy should love this a lot, he himself being a great crapper haha!
Like I have just mentioned, no more empty tables available by half past seven.My uncle and aunt did all the ordering and in all, there were seven dishes. Something like seven-course dinner-
lah haha! Alright, time for food pictures. Just for your information, I am not very sure of the dishes names, so I just guessed their names only haha.
Spicy chilly crab (actually not spicy at all, but I just wanna make the name sound nicer wtf)
Squid in black soy sauce with dried chillies, onion and spring onions.
Some kind of green vegetable Yao mak in sesame oil.
Big prawns fried with some sauce (I suspect it is oyster sauce).
Salted cabbage (kiam chai) soup with tomatoes and Japanese tofu.
Fried small fish with soy sauce and bird-eye chillies (cili padi) as sauce.
Steamed fish with ginger and some weird smelling vegetable (ien sui) as garnish.I think I sucks in giving random names to the dishes haha. Finally, a group picture of us.
We come from a rojak family haha.
The aftermath lol.After our dinner, half of us decided to drop by Kuala Sepetang, a fishing village surrounded by mangrove forest along the Straits of Malacca. It is just a small little town about 5 kilometers from Matang but the atmosphere is certainly a new thing to people who are used to living in big cities and town.
People here live their life on their own slow pace; you can see the youngsters cycling around the town, while their parents repair their fishing nets inside the house, and the old folks sitting at coffee shops and having chats with their peers. Seeing the people here spending their past time doing these simple stuff makes you wonder, they can still survive without Facebook. So, instead of poking each other and feeding your pets at Facebook, better go get some
gasing and play it behind your backyard haha.
One of the main roads in Kuala Sepetang.
The station is no longer there, only the board that shows the spot where the station used to be.
Credits to KTM Berhad for putting down this piece of information for tourists.Hidden between the old wooden houses in this town is a piece of our country's history, going back more than a century ago. Try recalling the tin-mining chapter in History and you should be familiar with the name Port Weld, the old name for Kuala Sepetang. This is where the birth of the country's railway system when the first track in Tanah Melayu that links between Port Weld (Kuala Sepetang) and Taiping were launched by Sir Hugh Low, formerly Perak Resident at that time.
The track served as a connection between quarry area in Larut to the nearest harbour, Port Weld. The track construction however make the Taiping Railway Station along Jalan Stesen as the first station ever in this country. Now I realise I have been passing through a historical place since I was young almost every day; just like how Michelle have walked pass A'Famosa Fort every day when she goes to school. I wonder if that makes us a historical couple haha.
Okay, lame joke haha.
Please ignore Mom's silly pose haha. But she is sporting enough to do such stuff lol.From what I was told by my Mom, students during the olden days get to attend Jawi lessons. My Mom attended that class for some time and she can actually read simple Jawi characters. How true is that, I also dunno-
lah; but that is what she claimed haha. She sensed that we doubted her, so she walked to the board and tried to prove to us her ability lol.
There were some Jawi on that board, so she began showing off her skills.
If you noticed, she took a short break at the end because she had forgotten how to read the last syllable haha. So, she simply came out with some random pronunciation and somehow, the word "Port Weld" came out automatically lol. She purposely pronunced it as fast as she could 'coz she wasn't sure of the correct pronunciation and to cover that up haha.
We later walked through the fisherman's houses and come to the jetty that connects to another part of the fishing village. There is a boat service for people who wish to go across the river, but we didn't take the boat across the river. Instead, we only took a few shots at the jetty. Doing that got us weird stares from the locals haha.
Bicycles, the main mode of transportation for the locals, parked along the small lane to the jetty.
The guy makes endless trips between the river for the locals who wanna cross the river.
Ladies of all generations posing at the jetty.
Me being the only guy there, but still wanna pose haha!I will make another entry on what is interesting on the other side of the fishing village in my trip with
Ah Fu recently on another entry. He felt that this place is even better than Clam Jetty in Pengkalan Weld, Penang because it is more lively and bigger. I guess that is because the one in Penang has been listed as one of the World Heritage Site by UNESCO and there has been too many tourists who flock the area, hence making it too commercialised and the real feeling of a fishing village is no longer there.
Anyway, while waiting for that interesting entry, here is something no less interesting to make up for that.
Add size and get free iPhone. Not a bad deal at all.If you think you need the service, faster go call Dr. Lucky haha.