Tuesday, June 28, 2016

ELEPHANTS ARE LOYAL FRIENDS

25/6/2016
A short weeknd trip to Lumut/Sitiawan

It was a clear sunny day and as the bus cruised along the winding road, it was time to catch up on my reading and this is an interesting book, which I managed to finish by the end of the trip. 
Our stopover  at Teluk Intan
What a cute little hair saloon... 

Malaysia popular "Leaning Tower" 

you can read about the history here...
Now you can pay to go up the tower... 

one for the family... 
Soon, our bus arrived at the destination...

the Lumut waterfront, nearby is the Jetty Terminal.



colonial style building... leading up to the lobby/reception area where we were welcomed by the hotel owner cum guide, Mr. David. 

the spacious airy dining room where we had our lunch, which is very simple buffet before checking into our rooms. 

the swimming pool does look inviting but none of the ladies brought along swimming gear except my brother KK who did some solo laps later that evening. 

the long verandah leading to individual chalets/rooms.. quiet and peaceful surroundings. 

The rooms were simple and basic and no free coffee/tea and toiletries were not available. However the room and toilet were clean though and I did managed to get a goodnight rest.  

After our lunch, Mr. David showed us around the place. First to handmade mee sua factory...

the mee sua ready for the "pulling" and drying... and from these short strands....

Uncle demonstrated the pulling of the mee-sua into long thin strands (yes in the hot sun). 
Truly a "Hot" job that no young generation could want to do now, as Uncle lament.  So to show our support for this home industry, we all bought packets of the mee-sua... only RM10.00 for a packet of  20 each. 

Passing through the old street of Sitiawan... 

to the historical site  where Sitiawan was started..
Sitiawan was  formerly known as Kampung Sungai Gajah Mati, the place where 2 large elephants were drowned. Both elephants were overloaded with tin ore and one of them got stuck in the mud in the low tide. The other elephant refused to leave his friend, even though efforts were made to save them. As the high tide came both the elephants were drowned. Hence the villagers gave the name "setia kawan" (loyal friend) and soon it shortened to be known as Sitiawan.   

you can get fresh fish supply here when the trawlers return in the evening.. 

The Dindings River 



derelict official building by the riverside..

We went back to the hotel for our tea-time and rest.

 
only banana cake and sardine sandwiches with hot coffee and tea..

After enjoying our tea-time, we went to our rooms for our shower and siesta before our dinner.

Dinner was recommended by Mr. David's sister to a restaurant for some of the popular Foo-Chow dishes :

Appetiting sourish Fish maw soup 

orh chien aka fried oyster omelette..

Mixed vegetables 

Honey fried chicken.   

Day 2 : 26/6/2016
Breakfast was at 7.30 am. and since we (my sister and myself) were up early and we decided to go to the waterfront to catch the sunrise....  

Tourism to Pangkor Island (the jetty terminal is located here) and the building of the Royal Malaysian Naval Base had brought some rapid development to Lumut.  


big playground but all quiet now...


a navy ship docked by the waterfront..

Not that awesome but still the sunrise slowly brighten the day....  




It was so quiet and peaceful that even the cats came out to play....

There is a strong Foochow influence in Sitiawan.  The early immigrants came from Fujian province in China in 9/9/1903 (double 9 is an auspicious day for the Foochows).  They were recruited by the British to grow padi in this area. They were given land to live and to grow rice around the river area which is now known as Kampong Koh.   However the soil were found to be not suitable for rice-growing and soon these settlers were soon lured by the prosperous  Kinta Valley  for tin-mining, leaving some of their heritage behind in Sitiawan.....

Visiting the handmade Foochow buns ... flatbread with pork and spring onions filings 

baked in this hot charcoal oven....

Foochow "Kong Pian". 
You really need to pre-order in advance as they do not have stock to sell on the spot.  

Lunch was at a different restaurant and of course, the famous Red Wine Chicken mee-sua. 

Crispy Fried Yam roll.... yes the filling is mashed yam 

fresh succulent sweet sour prawns 

Stir-fry tapioca leaves.  The fried mantou are crispy and slightly sweet - perfect with the braised pig trotters (not in photo) 

Foo Chow fish balls soup 

After lunch, shopping at Lumut Port Town for salted fish and various dried seafood.
We checked out of the hotel after lunch and arrived back in KL after a heavy dinner at Ijok for Beggar's Chicken.   A Big Thank You to the organiser for the enjoyable trip. God bless.  










3 comments:

  1. Hi Elaine, thanks for sharing the wonderful tour. I love the Sitiawan mee suah,very nice. We used to tumpang friends when there is opportunity.

    Those Foo chow dishes look very delicious too especially the biscuit. :))

    Have a nice week ahead,regards.
    Amelia

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  2. Thanks Amelia,
    The biscuits were a bit hard after a day...guess its not my taste.!

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  3. I used to visit Lumut very often some 15 years ago as we had to handle the advertising for the Damai Laut Resort. Your post brought back lots of sentimental memories of the hard work we had.

    TQ! I like the story of the 2 elephants in Sitiawan which I didn't know about. In Thailand, they also have many real life stories of elephants who have good feelings and memories.

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