Durians 'The King of All Fruits'

Petaling Jaya -  This is Durian season and I simply love durians. Unfortunately as many Malaysians lamented that China bought and shipped most of the premium grade 'Musang King' or 'Mao Shan Wang' durian as unbelievable prices. In fact, this durian store does not have a single Musang King durian to be sell to us.

Store front

Durian buffet for RM30 but this durian is the lowest grade called 'Kampong durian'. We had 3 durians starting from 'Red Prawn'

Red Prawn

Other names: Hong Xia, Ang Hay
Colour: Orangey-red
Taste notes: Sticky with a sweet aftertaste.
From: Pahang, Johor
To me it tasted like Mao Shan Wang, very creamy and sweet but the seed is much bigger.

Lipas Lipan Durian

This is a new breed of durian that cost RM10 more than Red Prawn durian but does not taste as good.       Lipas Lipan means cockroach centipede....strange name for a Durian.

XO durian

Colour: Pale yellow
Taste notes: Bitter and extremely soft, fleshy meat with an almost alcoholic taste.
From: Johor, Genting, Cameron Highlands

Yummy...

Hai Peng Seafood restaurant @ Old Klang Road

Old Klang Road - This is an old regular seafood place for the locals. The restaurant walls are decked with photos of people - supposedly should be 'famous'.

Address: Lot KS-5 Taman Evergreen, 4th Miles,, Jalan Klang Lama, 58200 Kuala Lumpur

Tau Pok Bakar

Toasted and crispy Tau Pok (A variety of fried beancurd which is flattish and square with a brown, wrinkled skin and soft, spongy interior) stuffed with bean sprouts and thinly sliced cucumbers and topped with Balachan (fermented shrimp paste) and grounded peanuts.   Yummy and delicious - peranakan also has a similar dish famous in the Katong district.

Hokkien Mee

Kai Lan

Kai lan is the Chinese name for a vegetable that is also known as Chinese broccoli or Chinese kale. It is a leaf vegetable featuring thick, flat, glossy blue-green leaves with thick stems with flower heads, similar to but much smaller than broccoli.

Drunken Prawns

The soup has a strong taste of Chinese cooking wine, the prawns are fresh and it tasted really good.

Steam Mud Crabs

Marmite Mud Crab

Marmite is made from yeast extract, a by-product of beer brewing. Some parts of this crab dish was not fresh; maybe the crabs were already half dead....

Plaza Premium Lounge @ Cambodia Airport

Phnom Penh - The traffic to the airport was horrendous as it took about 50 minutes to reach.  The authorities block off 4 lanes due to the construction of an overhead expressway and so there are choke points with only one lane to pass.

Passing through immigration was a breeze as there are few people at the airport.  SilkAir uses Plaza Premium lounge and it was huge with many cubicles and wide spread of food and drinks.   

Khemer salad

Dinner river cruise

Phnom Penh - After the seminar, a dinner river cruise was organised for all attendees.  

The dinner cruise boat

George and me

George, Air and me

George, Robin and Jerry..cheers

Sokha Phnom Penh Hotel

Phnom Penh -  The seminar was to be held at Sokha Phnom Penh Hotel so I booked it there as not to waste time travelling to and fro venues.   This 5-star jewel is tucked way away from the bustling city across the river.   There are few guests because of the long distance to many attractions and dining venues but the hotel looks and feels awesome.   It is a very big hotel.

Grand entrance

View of the pool from my room

This hotel has a huge swimming pool.   When I walked pass it and cross the small road I will reach the jetty that will bring me across the river to Nagaworld and Royal Palace.   The ferry leaves every hour and it's free for Hotel guests.

Ferry service

Large Hotel Lobby

with the huge dome in the centre of the Lobby.

The swimming pool on ground level

My room is very nice, air-con is fresh and well circulated but my only qualms is the Hotel is stingy on their water bottles.  They are half the normal size and only 2 in my room.

Toilet Bidet remote control

My first experience with a remote control bidet, there is rear and front for ladies.   Also intensity and positioning with dryer.

Good morning Cameron Highland !!

Cameron Highland - The surrounding of Copthorne Cameron Highland Hotel is very scenic at temperature of 18degrees.  Cool, sunny and today, we are going home to Singapore.   Taken from the window of my hotel room.

Tanah Rata town

Cameron Highland - In the afternoon, we boarded the Hotel shuttle to Tanah Rata town about 15 minutes from the Hotel.    It was pouring cats and dogs but still we had to cross the road to reach the shops.   Tanah Rata is a very small town of 2 rows of shop houses along the main road.

We went to a quaint cafe recommended by Donny - called 'The Lord's Cafe' supposedly run by Christian folks as they have all Christian and bible stuff around the cafe.  Even the menu states 'The Lord's Menu'.

This cafe is famous for their scones.

Original Scone

Strawberry scone

Apple Pie with ice cream

My Mango Lassi

Lassi is a blend of yogurt, water, spices and sometimes fruit - in this case Mango.   I liked it very much.

Pax and his mango juice

We took the public bus for only RM2 each to Brinchang town...

bus tickets

Boh Tea Planation @ Sungei Palas

Cameron Highlands - We had to trekked 3.5km up the winding road to the Boh Planation @ Sungei Palas.

Boh Tea planation

1km to the Tea planation

1km walk seems endless up the winding road....

rows of Tea shrubs

Vast landscape of Boh Tea plantation

Then is started to drizzle and we better make haste back down the mountain...my wife has the brilliant idea to hail a school bus and they picked us up.  Within 10 minutes we are down the mountain which would have taken us about 1.5hrs...

Back at the hotel, we played pool...2 v 2

My 3 sons playing pool

I love playing pool with my sons....now asking me to buy a pool table

Up the Mountains of Cameron Highlands

Cameron Highlands - The coach from Singapore arrived in front of Copthorne Cameron Highlands in the morning.  After checking-in, we had a full day in front of us.   Copthorne Cameron Highlands Hotel has a huge thermometer in front of the entrance.

Tallest thermometer in Malaysia

At Copthorne, it is the highest point in Cameron Highlands @ 5,300 feet above sea level.   There are so many strawberries farms which you can pick your own strawberries but it is expense RM60 per kg.

EQ Strawberry Farm

rows and rows of strawberries

me at Cactus Valley

Along the way there are so many flowers growing beautifully due to the cold weather.

strange flowers

These are strange flowers which the shop owner made into...

creative pattern made from flowers above

And also strange fruits....

Cameron Apple

Buah Cinta

Buah Cinta also called Tamarillo which origins from South America.    Cut the fruit into halves and scoop up the flesh to eat.   It tasted like passion fruit cross with tomato with an acquired taste.

Jambu Jeruk

I also bought this packaged fruit for RM10, thinking that it's another exotic Cameron fruit but it's actually Guava pickled with sugar.

Bee Farm

Bee Hives

Bee Hives every where