According to the Google map, the journey from Subang to Betong is about 400km and will take about 5 ½ hours. However, with light traffic and the good road condition, the actual driving time was only about 4 ½ hours. Starting off at 6:30AM with an hour lunch break at Bidor, we still arrived at the Thai border checkpoint before noon.Betong is a small sleepy town just across the border from Pengkalan Hulu. Compared to Phuket and Hat Yai, Betong seems to be crawling along at snail pace. Although there were bus loads of tourist at the hotels, the usual touristy haunts are somewhat lacking. There is no central food court to savour all the unique Thai delicacies. No night market to sell the colorful trinkets and t-shirts that are seen everywhere in Thailand. Hunting for a place to eat lunch on a rainy afternoon turned out to be a wearisome task. Most eating stalls and restaurants are either sold out or closed by 1pm. There is a restaurant recommended by a blogger that we wanted to try but it was either closed, sold out or packed to brim for the 2 days we were in town. For first timers in Betong, hunting for food you want to try is an adventure by itself. As border town, Betong too has its seedier side. There are many small bars and karaoke joints. Old uncles walking hand in hand with young “working girls” in town and hanging around the hotel lobby is a common sight. For people who have never been there, the Piyamit tunnel would probably be rated the No. 1 attraction of Betong. Well, the saying goes that a picture is worth a thousand words. Hopefully the photos below will do justice to that.
Asked ML to blog about the Mulu trip but she has been dragging her feet and came up with all kind of excuses.
It was ages ago since our last family vacation and to have 17 members of the family on board was indeed a rare and memorable occasion. As almost everyone were there a field report will be redundant so just a few personal observations and comments on the trip.1. The happiest person on the trip was Ah Mah. She was very pleased that so many of us could take the time off our busy schedule to go a trip together. She loved the Royal Mulu Resort, the idyllic hotel and the clean fresh air in the middle of the forest. The most poignant moment was when she broke into a song after a long 9km trek along the jungle trial to Lang and Deer cave. A physical endurance feat that any 80+ year old lady would be proud of and putting some much younger people to shame.
2. Angela, ML and I had been talking about going to the Mulu Caves for years. The trip requires tedious planning, booking and getting the right connecting flights. The distance and logistic involved kind of put us off. Also with just the three of us visiting the caves wouldn’t be half the fun. Going with the whole big family offers a totally different perspective and get us going for a more comprehensive itinerary.
3. A family trip besides being fun offers opportunities for family bonding. We should seriously consider making this family trip thing an annual event. If we intend to go overseas, it requires early planning and coordination and the cost involved could be considerably lower and more affordable for everyone. It is never too early the start planning. So can we have the suggestions coming?4. Finally, a big thank you to Angela for all the hard work, meticulous planning and coordination to ensure that the trip went without a hitch. Judging from the feedbacks, this trip was both successful and enjoyable.The only mishap in the whole trip was the lost I.C. Fortunately, someone found it and the friendly and helpful local policeman called to tell us the good news. By the way the l.C. was found at the Mulu Park HQ’s bus stop. And no, unfortunately the I.C. numbers did not come out in the Sports Toto or Empat Ekor.We have seen the slide shows and pictures, so I will only post a few selected photos and a short clip of the bats in flight at dusk (taken with a small digital camera and the quality is not that great).
Last weekend a delegation of 10 from KL went down to Kluang to attend cousin Max’s (Ah Mah’s Eldest Brother’s 2nd wife adopted son) Wedding Lunch. Besides attending the function, it was also an opportunity to be introduced and meet up with some relatives that we are hardly acquainted with. Some photographs are produced below for posterity.People generally go to the big city to shop but to us Kluang has become an attractive shopping haven. 24 hours in Kluang wasn’t quite sufficient to shop, eat and do other things, so we had to extend our stay by another night. The prices of things there seem so cheap compared to KL. A pair of prescription glasses goes for RM95. We ended up buying a total of 7 pairs of glasses, 8 pairs of shoes, 3 dozen rolls of toilet papers, pails, plates, cups, sweet potatoes, T-shirts, nail polish and a few hundred other items. Looks like we might have to make another trip there soon.simon
Congratulations to Leong Seng and Shin Yi for their little bundle of Joy – Quay Jie Ying.
