My Exotic Experience at the Orang Asli (Malaysian Aboriginal) Village in Pahang, Malaysia

Having experience living in a city (Kuala Lumpur) for around seven years, I began to take for granted the things we have in the city. In the city, we often have everything at our convenience such as easy access to shops and malls, public transport and household equipments that make our lives a lot easier. I never understood what the church pastor told us about going to places where such facilities are hard to be found to come back feeling more grateful of what we have. I have to admit that I was afraid at first to visit the Orang Asli (Malaysian Aboriginal) village in Pahang, but after my first visit there, I discovered that I actually enjoy experiencing the different lifestyle there. 

The lifestyle at the Orang Asli village is very different from the lifestyle in the city. The people there have no washing machine, fancy kitchen gadgets or restaurants. They live a very simple life. 

Most of the Orang Asli people earn their income through farming and rubber tapping. They work hard and wake up very early in the morning to make a living but only receive a meagre salary for that. Though they earn very little money, I found that they were still happy. This is very unlike the city folks who always complain about their salaries and often chase after more money. 

During the church excursion, we managed to bring food, clothes and household equipments for the Orang Asli people. While distributing the donated goods, I could notice their happy faces while receiving things that would otherwise be thrown away by the city people. 

Our church excursion team was blessed to be invited for an Orang Asli wedding banquet while we were there. It was a chance of a lifetime. The wedding feast was held at one of the village bamboo houses. The banquet spread was very exotic and unfamiliar to us. However, being an adventurous person, I did not have any problem eating the food served at the wedding. But what was really mind boggling was stomaching down an Aboriginal delicacy prepared specially for weddings - monkey meat and brain. Though surrounded by fear, everyone from the church excursion team ate some of the monkey meat and brain to show appreciation to the wedding host on what he/she has prepared for us. My favourite of all the food served at the wedding was the turmeric flavoured sticky rice (glutinous rice). 

Overall, my trip to the Orang Asli village was very enriching. I highly encourage others to visit the Orang Asli village if given the chance to do so at least once in their lifetime. 

The police checking point before entering the Orang Asli (Malaysian Aboriginal) village

A herd of cows grazing at the grass at the Orang Asli (Malaysian Aboriginal) village

The wedding venue at the Orang Asli (Malaysian Aboriginal) village

The food we ate during the wedding banquet. It was a feast indeed.

The Orang Asli (Malaysian Aboriginal) village.

In memory of my beloved food inspirer, Kiko

Part of my early adventures in cooking consists of making some oops! cooking disasters in the kitchen. 

There were times when I had to spend several hours to cooking something only to discover that I have missed a cooking step which turned my whole dish into a disaster. At other times, I would cook my beans forgetting to wash them before I put them into the pot. 

Cooking was indeed a fun childhood activity for me. It was a family ritual to gather with my grandma, sister and auntie (deceased) to cook up a storm during the school holidays. My grandma, the chief cook, would have a list of food (mostly desserts) that she wanted us to make throughout the holidays and most often, it was an every day affair (how unhealthy! Nyeh nyeh nyeh) 

Oh yea, coming back to my cooking adventure, when I was really young - about 11 years old, we had a golden cocker spaniel by the name of Kiko. When we got him, little did he know about his huge appetite. We bought him from dog breeder in a city about 4 hours drive from our hometown. While we were driving home, he clinged on tightly to my mom and sister. He was fast asleep the whole way until we got a little hungry. There was a leftover chicken pot pie that we had packed from a take-away outlet we went to for lunch. When I took it out of its packet, Kiko immediately woke up and before you know it, he was sniffing the pie. We found that real amusing as we thought he was fast asleep all the while. 

That was just the beginning. As Kiko grew up, we discovered that he used different body movements to signify his opinions on the tastes of different food items. If he felt the food was really delicious, he would be jumping up and down. If he felt the food was quite delicious, he will just stand up. If he felt the food was okay but can be improved, he will sit down and look at you. And the most funny thing is if he felt the food was totally inedible or tastes disgusting, he will go and hide. His face will spell it all - “Don’t look at me. I don’t want to eat it.” 

Besides his ‘food reviews’, Kiko was also my ‘cake alarm’. Whenever I went to bake a cake, I will tell him, “Kiko, let me know when the cake is done.” Then I will go and have a snooze while turning on the oven alarm according to the recipe instructions. During many occasions, Kiko barked frantically even before the oven alarm rang. When I went to check on the cake I was baking, the cake was just cooked perfectly. If I had left it much longer and followed the recipe instructions, my cake would have been over cooked. Thanks to Kiko, my cake always came out on time! 

Kiko’s favourite past time besides eating is sleeping. He sleeps really early at night. But if my sister and I decide to bake right until 3 am in the morning, he will surprisingly be awake until that time! 

It was really fun seeing Kiko eat the food that we cooked. When he ate the food I cooked, he ate with a real appreciative and hungry look on his face. This motivated me to cook even more and move up my cooking skills to try and cook new food to satisfy my forever hungry 'brother'. 

I am really thankful to Kiko as he has been my greatest food inspirer, besides my family. He has passed away a few years ago at the age of 14. I will always remember him and continue to talk about him to my friends and family members for years to come. 

Look at his photo...isn't he so cute? I miss him very much...

Kiko looking at mom

Get Up & Close to Nature at Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

Nothing beats the cool and fresh air of Cameron Highlands. Coming from a hot and tropical climate town called Petaling Jaya, a suburb of Malaysia's bustling Kuala Lumpur city, Cameron Highlands serves as a perfect getaway for me as the highlands provides the 'perfect' weather and opportunity for me to escape from metropolitan city life by getting me close to nature.

During my trip to Cameron Highlands, I managed to visit the Boh Tea plantation, Cactus Valley and strawberry farm. Of course, there are a lot more places to visit in this panoramic highlands besides the places that I visited. Visitors can also choose to go to the rose garden and vegetable plantation areas as well. Of all the places I visited during my trip, I found the Boh Tea plantation the best. Though me and my hubby had to go through a very narrow and windy road to get to the plantation, the trip was really worthwhile as we got to see the scenic tea plantation and get a glimpse of what it is like to live at the tea plantation. I was really amused with the little cottages built for the workers of the tea plantation. They look very similar to one another. There is also a special school that is built nearby the plantation to cater to the needs of the plantation worker's children which I found most ideal.

The little cottages built for the tea plantation workers

The Cactus Valley

 

The Strawberry Farm

Famous eats in Cameron Highlands are products with made from strawberries, fresh strawberries, steamboat, scones, vegetables and mushrooms. I would like to highlight that the vegetables sold here are really fresh. You should especially buy the mushrooms and corn here. They're much tastier that the ones sold elsewhere!

Strawberry products we bought

Delicious and unique strawberry naan

The strawberry waffle we ate at the strawberry farm

The delicious scones and strawberry tart we ate at the Boh's Tea Plantation

I stayed at Rainbow Hotel during my time in Cameron Highlands because they were having a good promotion at that time. It costs only RM80 a night for a double bedroom. The room was very cosy and nicely decorated. Most importantly, the crowd of people staying there were 'descent' (ie. mostly families).

Rainbow Hotel, the hotel we stayed in

I did most of my shopping (i.e vegetable and food shopping) at the 'pasar malam' situated at Brinchang. There is also a morning market at Brinchang and many other parts of Cameron Highlands, so don't worry if you are not able to catch the 'pasar malam' at Brinchang. The things sold in the 'pasar malam' and morning market are similar.

If you want to savour western cuisines, take a trip to Tanah Rata because there many western cafes there. For steamboat, Brinchang is the place to go.

Steamboat

Cameron Highlands has always been one of my favourite holiday destinations since I was very young. I hope that my article had shed some light on what the beautiful highland has to offer.

Sandy Beaches at Port Dickson, Malaysia

It is absolutely amazing how many travel enthusiast can swarm around favourite tourist hotspots  just to enjoy a small space of sand that they can call their own ‘private spot” in well-known beaches.

As for a person working in a metropolitan city, the last thing I want is to compete for my own sand space during a holiday that’s meant to get me away from the hustle and bustle of city life. All I want is  the peace and quiet that only a less crowded AKA less popular beach can offer.

Port Dickson is one of the oldest beaches in Malaysia which is situated alongside the Western Coast of Malaysia. The beach is 32 km from Seremban and 90 km from Kuala Lumpur. Port Dickson is located at the border of the Negeri Sembilan and Selangor state but is held under the state of Negeri Sembilan. The main attractions at Port Dickson are its beaches, seafood and water sports. Port Dickson beach was once coined as one of the most famous beaches in Malaysia,  offering an ideal hotspot for beach and water activities to tourists from Malaysia and around the world. However, over the years, other Malaysian beaches overtook the popularity of the Port Dickson beach due to heavier travel publicity on those beaches.

I visited the Port Dickson beach last year and enjoyed the serenity of the beach very much. Although I must admit that if I had visited the beach years back when it was much more popular, I would not have enjoyed myself at the beach so much because the beach would have lacked in ‘private space’.

My visit to Port Dickson was just a brief one day trip. Hence, I managed to enjoy sight-seeing with my then-boyfriend (now husband) at the sandy Port Dickson beach. We ‘wanted’ to savour some delicious seafood there but somehow our plan backfired.

During dinner time, we waddled happily to one of the seafood restaurants nearby the beach front. Unfortunately, the restaurant that we went to had really poor service. There were just too many patrons and too little staff to attend to the patrons of the restaurant.  As a result, nobody attended to us and I didn’t even get to order my food! After at least 1 hour of impatient waiting, with very hungry stomachs and a grumpy mood, my then-boyfriend (now husband) and I decided to abandone the restaurant and head to a food court nearby. At the food court, we finally managed to satisfy our hunger with a plate of  ’nasi lemak’ each. The ‘nasi lemak’ was very aromatic and delicious.

If you do not like to sun bathe (such as myself!) and would just like to enjoy the sea view and/or sunrise/sunset, just make your way to the beach during the respective times and don’t ever ever get out there at 12 noon! If you attemp to do so, make sure you put lots of sun block on your body and face. When you head to the beach, some of the stuff that you might consider bringing along are  a travel mat, an umbrella and a good book to read.

During my time at the Port Dickson beach, I managed to observe that the favourite activities there were mainly playing with kites and having family picnics. I also saw a group of foreign tourists who were camping there. They were halfway singing songs and strumming the guitar when I was at the beach enjoying the sunset.

There’s a ‘pasar malam’ AKA night market held nearby the beach front. Souvenirs sold there are stuff made from sea shells and T-shirts with the Port Dickson name on it (that’s a classic). I bought a t-shirt for my sister at the night market . My boyfriend, however, decided to get me a sea shells ornament (stationary holder) from the Port Dickson supermarket.

Word of Caution: You can bargain your price at the pasar malam. But don’t bargain at the supermarket. They will give you a ticking off!

Port Dickson Beach - you pretty much have the whole beach to yourself!

I hope that you’ve enjoyed reading my article on Port Dickson.