Al-Rawsha to Andalus

I have been so lucky lately, bumping into long lost friends since the year started.. in fact, I had a small reunion with Luffy and Rozie on 1st Jan. 

So the four of us, including Al thought we should take it to the next level and invite the rest of the gang, and whomever we could get our handphones on for a bigger reunion.  At first we thought of the Ampang Lookout Point, but since most of us were never been there and the place being far off KL, Rozie suggested Al-Rawsha. I've never eaten there, but I heard the lamb was ferosh! But I'm sure, most of us would be too busy talking and making fun of each other to bother with the food!

Gathering started at around 5pm and Zasmani, Mastura, Faiz, his wife Mumtaz and daughter Batrisya were already there.  The place was not packed, but we expect so later in the evening since it was Saturday night..

Rozie, me and Saodah

Later, the rest turned up.  Almost everybody we called made it to the reunion - Md Noor, his wife Saodah and his 4 boys, Rozie, Luffy and hubby (sayang!), Koma, Fazli and girlfriend Nat, Zulfiquer with his wife Jannah and 2 kids.  Some of us have not seen each other for almost 16 years!!  We really had a good time reminiscing and keeping up with each others' news..

The food- too bad I was too excited berborak with them that I had no opportunity to sample the food, only managed to snap a few photos.. but later Zachwan said he saw that nasi baryani served on a dulang topped off with sekor unta!! maybe cos his small size, what he saw was actually a half portion of a lamb.. hee hee..  The baryani however did taste good, abit dry and lack of aroma.. maybe i'm being too cerewet cos I had a nicer one at Tarbush..  but I do WANT TO EAT a proper baryani meal at Rawsha pretty soon..

Mints - The mint tea was served non-stop, warm and exotic but I couldn't help feeling like somebody must've put a pinch of toothpaste in my tea.. errmmm... mints and i really dont get along well, cept for mouthfreshners and oh yes!! I do in fact, can make an exception.. thick mint sauce to compliment Tandoori Chicken at d'Tandoor! cicah dengan pappadom pon best!

This fish Koma ordered was actually quite good, it was Sea Bass with light marinade, eaten with some youghurty sauce and squeezed lemon.  I would have never thought that seafood dish prepared middle eastern way would taste nice, but it actually was.. fresh, aromatic but not overwhelmingly aromatic.

I think the waiters pun dah tak sabar nak tengok kitaorang balik cos we were there from 5pm - almost 10pm!  So lepas sesi bergambor and cuit mencuit lagi.. ada yang nak balik, and ada pulak yang nak continue lagi! Si Luffy la and Fazli, nak sambung borak kat Andalus pulak. Kesian jugak tengok my boys da penat, earlier tengahari tadi da pi rumah Auntie Kina for Farish's birthday, now nak stretch ke Andalus pulak.. but them being sporting boys, bagi approval kat kami nak minum sikit kat few blocks away..

from left; Zulfiquer, Fazli, Mastura, Luffy, Nat, me, Zachwan, Zafran, Zafree and Rozie.

from left; Md Noor's sons, Zulfiquer, Md Noor, zafran, Koma, Al, Zachwan, Fazli and Faiz.

Luffy, me, Zachwan and Rozie :)) forever maintaining our cute figures :P

si Man Giant dengan seluar harimaunya.. camna la nak ada awek, tengok seluar pon da takut..! 

It's quieter and the decos were much better than Rawsha. But I don't think the food was the main reason why people would come here.. most of the guests I noticed, would watch the big screen, smoke shisha or just sits there trying to look cool.. We on the other hand, needn't bother cos we were cool and comfortable to be with each other's company..

PortVillage, Port Klang

Dah 2 hari ni dok makan2 sana sini, pi Pavilion lepas tu makan lagi kat Starhill... but still hati x puas. Come Monday, my 38th birthday (aduh!..tuanya!) nak celebrate jugak, tapi x mau masak kat rumah and potong kek.. or cupcakes like I did last year.. selepas sesi melompat2 kesukaan, called up my sis and Sha to join us makan ketam at Port Klang.. this time ingat nak pi Bagan, pusing2 tengok tempat tu..errr.. tak jadi lah! Dulu da pi makan kat Muara tu tapi x berapa suka sangat, kecuali kalau satu hari nanti da teringin sangat nak makan nasi lemak dia, boleh di consider kan semula :) tapi singgah jugak lah ingat nak beli nasi lemak bungkus.. x de pon! Tak apa lah, adik kata dia bole makan meehoon kicap..

So apalagi! PortVillage lar!!! Tapi kesian pulak tengok Sha, muka dia macam tension jer sebab tempat tu apparently mengembalikan banyak kenangan silam.. sorry Sha, next time kita pi tempat lain, ok!  But I like this place, especially when we had to walk on the wooden bridge to the restaurant across the mangrove.. reminded me of the time when mom and dad used to take us to Carey Island..

We didn't really have to take a lot of time decide what to order cos the menu was quite straightforward and some of them were fully recommended by the owner.  We were there for the mudcrabs!!! and of course, the Hokkien Mee Hoon too :P~

A spread fit for a lucky birthday girl! This place offers one of the best Buttered Prawns and Hokkien Mee Hoon! Others were not that great, the Sizzling Egg Tofu and  Dried Chili Squids.. so-so!  Eventhough it was Monday, there were quite a number of people having dinner, including malays.. locals kot, sebab I dont think malays from outside Klang would want to eat here.. they much prefer the masakan stail melayu/siam at Muara.  Anyway, the weather was gorgeous, breezy and cool.. plus the beautiful sunset.  But we were too engrossed with our food to pay much attention to the sunset..

The Steamed Sea Bass was very tasty, but we ordered too much food and unless there were 10 of us instead of 8, we might've finished everything on the table..

YUMM!!!  The Chili Mudcrabs :))))  Honestly, it tasted more like sweet n sourish.. but no matter, it still tasted yummy...  best the BEST of the BEST is still the ones we used to have, long time ago, at PortView Restaurant at PortKlang Jetty...

After dinner, or was in between..? Here comes the gifts opening session.. plenty of cute stuffs from my sis and her friends.. thanks!  We went home feeling happy, full, happy again, and couldn't get the image of the steamy sweet n sour mudcarbs from our minds... *happy sigh*

Rak Thai

This is one of our favorite restaurants during those boring weekends or everytime I had to give my stamp dealers a visit once or twice a month.. the Rak Thai at lower ground floor, Amcorp Mall Petaling Jaya.  Before we got hooked on this restaurant, we usually go to Uncle Chili's a few doors away, but that was before I found out about its mouthwatering Mango Salad..!

Orange Juice, Mango Juice and Umpera Juice! (Kedondong!)

Zafree and his Ginger Chicken with White Rice.

The very lah deliciously Mango Salad!  Ever since our trip to Temenggor-T'gganu-Kuantan last year, I got hooked on the sweet, sour, crispy and savory Mango Salad I had at Kuantan.  That was still THE best, but after sampling a few around here, the ones prepared at Rak Thai is the next best thing.. so fresh and topped with delicious fried squids :P~

Zachwan and his Thai Curry Chicken.. Al would eat the veges.. as always..

Tender Thai Curry Beef with 2 types of rice.. rasa macam masak lemak daging taruh daun kari..

Kalumpang Resort & Training Centre

I have been doing a bit of net research on this resort for about 3-4 months before finally decided to make any bookings.. i was apprehensive because 1) i have never spent overnight by the river and 2) i had no idea where Kalumpang was :P  I stumbled upon this resort's photo from a blogger 'Beruangmadu' and found the photos were quite intriguing, and so I googled and googled some more.. very typical of me, I would google endlessly till the photos and directions stuck to my brain like chewed chewing gum on the hasty cemented ground.. well, while I am still unable to drive, I figured I could at least be a good co-driver, a walking GPS as I would preferred to be called nowdays.. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the resort's office was just 3-4 doors away from our favourite restaurant, Restoran Hassan, at section 13, Shah Alam... all this while, it was just there, a scream's away! 

But no matter how hard I yelled, it didn't help me much in getting the exact chalet I wanted to stay, that place is literally fully booked for 4 months! I was considered so very lucky to get a chalet at all, especially on CNY holidays, and some words of advice, don't bother going there on Sundays cos it's jammed packed and you might find yourself in quite a parking situation.. So off we go, on Saturday morning, taking the North-East Expressway exiting at Tanjung Malim, when we could've taken an easier route of going through Rawang-KKB old road..

Zafree and Zachwan upon arrival around noon, there were groups of teambuilding participants and registration was quick and we were sent straight to our chalet before the actual check-in time of 4pm!  Plenty of distractions in a form of feathered kind, this one in the photo greeted us and the kids had so much fun trying to teach it a few simple words.. with no success of course!

So first things first! After checking in our 

chalet which was just 40 steps away from the river, almost immediately we set up our mini BBQs while the kids jumped in the water under the hot afternoon sun.. not many people yet, and I think from this side of the river, our picnic spot had the best view and cleanest grounds.. under the shady bamboo trees and right in front of the Tempua 1/2 units.  By the way, we stayed at the Merbah 1, much to my annoyance.. we had to climb quite a flight of stairs, but we had the nice overview of the hills and river down below..

They spent many hours swimming, sampai next day masing2 demam!  The water was cool but not freezing, just the right temperature :)  The best thing about the river was the deep pools (between 3- 5 feet deep) with so clear clear water!  Ada ikan jugak.. and the resort itself was meticulously maintained with beautiful landscapes and well spread huts.  There's a main bridge right in the centre of the resort and we had fun around the resort, watching the cute ducks,  exploring the mini streams zigzagging across the resort and wished we stayed there a couple more nights :)

The long stretch of clear river offers plenty of picnic and lepak spots from both sides, so every families or groups have their own private picnic grounds. The glistening river rocks under the hot sun were inviting and so many small pools and steady rapids to have fun with.  No leeches here, hardly any damp grass or semi-composed dead leaves along the riverbanks, the place was spanking clean and shady on both sides :) I think we have finally found our little piece of jungle paradise, only 2 hours drive from Shah Alam..

Semi deep pools with fishies swimming about.. tengas kot..

The area and small hut under the lights on the left side was the picnic spot we had earlier.. on the right are the Tempua units.  See how clean the place is and its wonderful to have short walks around the resort in the evening.  There is also a nice Surau nearby with endless flow of river water for taking wudhu' and during our stay, there were a few family groups having evening BBQs.  I couldn't really sleep well cos I was not used to the thundering sounds of the rapids (I had to go to the loo a few times that night and kept on waking up in the middle of the night thinking there were thunder storms!) and also some noise (karaoke and group yellings) from the cafeteria across the river..

We weren't quite prepared with dinner and didn't quite know where to get one since it was the first trip for us.. we tried sitting at the cafe right in front of the resort, after 5 minutes we were totally ignored.. x nak bisnes ke??? tapi x leh nak marah sebab diri sendiri yang tak reti, but it doesn't hurt also to put a simple sign that says 'makan malam tidak disediakan'...

Nasib baik, Al noticed a sign 'Kolam Pancheng & Restoran Permata Bonda' just before the resort, a short walk of about 400m we saw a very large fish pond and some colorful lights, indicating that there was hope, after all, for us to get a decent dinner that night.. yay!  So OK.. that night was the first time also in my life that I had to choose a live fish for dinner, spooked me up a bit, but as soon as the Talapia was served on our table, the guilt disappeared almost in an instant! 

Very good food, cheaper than around Shah Alam, but as you would expect from a restaurant right in a middle of nowhere, the service wasn't that speedy. But hey! it's a place to unwind and relax, and we didn't mind waiting cos there were nothing else to do for the rest of the night anyway.. the night was starry, our stomach were full and we were crazy tired from the swimming and screaming...

More photos, click here.