PART 1 – the Plan

“Bring your own towels, but everything else will be provided, including a microwave, stove, kettle and fridge….mosquito coils & nets

………..It is slightly better than camping”

“WHAT??? SLIGHTLY BETTER THAN CAMPING?? We are paying RM450 (£90) for something that is only slightly better than camping?”

Suffice to say they did not have the best PR person in town, to describle a magnificent glass structure in the middle of the rainforest as ‘slightly better than camping’. I mean, what was she thinking?? RM450 per night is not cheap, and to describe it as just slightly better than camping is outrageous.

We wanted to go on a holiday. Somewhere different, somewhere new….kinda like the road trips to Gilroy that we used to go on. Due to ‘someone’ not being able to go away during weekends nor take more than a couple of days off work, somewhere near was our port of call. So Ms Chong came up with the brilliant idea of ‘going camping’ – her style of course, not mine.

The initial plan was to set off at 9.30am….me & Elvin were dubious about the traffic, and asked for a later start. So Drey changed it to 11am instead, setting off from her place. At 10.15am on the phone:

drey: Eh, can you get mineral water, like 6 large bottles?
me: SIX?? Is that not alot? Are you sure we can finish it?
drey: Err…I drink a lot of water
me: ( Calculating what is 5 liters times six) Uh…ok then. Ooo, gotta run, Elvin’s here.
drey: WHAT?! So early? (it takes about 30 mins to get to her house) I’m not ready,I’ve not showered! Why so early!?
(mind that we were going to set off at 9.30am!)
me: Ok, ok, I’ll go get the water then head over to yours, u faster k.

What she meant was 6 bottles of the 1.5 l bottles, not the large cooking-oil containers of 5.5 liters. I ended up buying the 1.5 liters anyway, as I thought it was just crazy talk that we were each going to glug down more than 5 liters of water in the 20 hours that we were there. Arriving at her house around 11, Ms Drey was still showering….can’t blame her, she and cw were up till 1.30am chopping garlic and prepping all the food that we made her buy for our dinner that night. We eventually left her place at about 12, only to head immediately to a restaurant near her place for nasi lemak. I think we must have set out on the road at around 1pm, about 3.5 hours after our initial planned departure!

Part 2 – The Journey

With drey & cw in one car and me,bacon & elvin following in another, we made it to the Rawang toll exit in record time. Leaving the toll though, was a different story altogether.We were stuck in a traffic jam in Rawang (of all places, a small town about 30km north of KL) for 30 minutes, Staring into space, we eventually got out of there…and headed out of the town centre. No idea where we were heading, as drey & cw were navigating with their GARMIN.

We were soon in what ‘feels’ like the jungle…but in fact I think it’s the orang asli (aborgines) village heading towards Sekeping Serendah (translated as A Piece of Serendah). Best moment in the journey for me was when cw braked abruptly…trailing in the car behind, we thought he was mad, but it was actually a free-range chicken crossing the road . And no, when we asked it why is it crossing the road, it did not answer.

After another wrong turn (I think we landed in what looks like a gated village) we made it at last….greeted by leaves clawing on the mud wall that forms part of the ‘car park’

Part 3 – The place

We were directed to our ‘shed’ by the caretaker that met us at the gates, which about 20 steps into the jungle, across a stream, and up a flight of stairs. Our first instinct were, “WHERE ARE THE ROOM KEYS?” Of course there were none. Ohshit, that’s where we’re staying, that wide open thingy! Everything about that glass ‘shed’ was wide open, windows, doors…considering that the 3/4 of the walls were essentially glass windows, that was ALOT of open air. I was slightly disturbed by it….how can someone build something that is so…open??Just goes to show how jaded these city dwellers were. Tsk tsk….you could really spot us from a mile away by the smell of fear emating from our pores.

I love, LOVE verandahs and balconies, and this place has one of the best ever. Suspended above the forest floor, it gives you a view underneath of the foilage and a clear and undisturbed view of the rainforest. Undisturbed by any other nearby structures, this was really breathtaking….renewing my love for verandahs. I swear my next house is going to have a verandah – or I’ll make one myself! I love the idea of inside/outside space and room all mixing into one.

The open living/kitchen was not bad as well. Extremely well equiped, it even came with a huge comb of bananas and sachets of coffees & teas. A full set of cutleries including mugs and plates, the only thing it sorely needed were pans and bowls. Working microwave, fridge, outdoor sink(it was attached on the outside of the windows) and kettle too.The sofas were made out of what looks like chicken wires…and the table out of a piece of rusted metal with wheels underneath. Whoever that said this was ‘slightly better than camping’ have obviously never been here or been camping. This was an architectural gem. Well, other than the smell of mosquito coils (which reminded me & cw of our grandmothers’ home), this place was straight out of the pages of Beautiful Homes and the like.

Elvin: Where are the rooms?
Drey: Err…we are IN the room
Elvin: Huh, only this one?
Drey: Yah, we’re sleeping together…all in one room

Like the downstairs, the bedroom comprises of 3/4 glass windows. Unlike the windows in the UK, you can actually open each and every pane of glass, letting in the smell of the rainforest mingled in with some creepy crawlies. It sleeps a maximum of 6 pax, two double beds and two mattresses which you can lay on the floor. The beds comes complete with mosquito netting to keep the creepy crawlies out…but we’d soon find out it was more for fashion than function; at 7am the next morning, bacon woke me up as there was a WASP buzzing around INSIDE, yes, INSIDE my mosquito net!!!

We sat in the living room for about 5 minutes, looking at each other. The only sentence uttered was, “So, what do we do now?” So much for enjoying each other’s company! We set off for a nearby waterfall, but before leaving we made sure to bring all our valuables. So cameras, wallets…they all went with us…the idea of leaving valuables in a wide open structure is beyond our comprehension. Even car keys went…the city campers were paranoid to say the least!

At last!!

next up: The pool, dinner and more of the same..

On my annual trips home, by the last day of my stay my friends are so sick of me that nobody makes the effort to see me *bawwwl*. Probably a good thing, most of the time I would only start packing on the last day. However, this year proved to be different…I left the house at 9.30am for breakfast with an old friend – and was joined by another at around 11.30. Left bacon at home to pack as he couldn’t get up for the 9.30am morning call. Before you accuse me of animal cruelty, I did pick him up for lunch around 1 with franks and his better half.

This was the second time that I met Serene, and they introduced us to good ol’ home cooking Cantonese style. True to Franks’ style, he knows someone who knows someone…heh. However, the chef of this restaurant happens to be his friend’s mom, and franks kinda grew up eating at her kitchen and telling her that she should have a restaurant. And she did! And so here we are!

The clean interior of the restaurant.

I have known Franks for more than 10 years now – but the one thing I refuse to do is to go to his house. The one time I offered to drive him home (alone, at 4am) it took me 30 minutes before I could find my way out from the urban jungle that he lived in. Apparently Serene manages to return to his house after being there only once. Its probably one of his criterias for choosing girl friends .

Anyway, back to the food. I let Franks loose on the menu seeing that he grew up with it, and he did not dissapoint.

First up was the special yong tau foo. Yong Tau Foo is a Hakka dish that is pervalent in Malaysia,, usually this is fish paste stuffed in tofu, chillies, aubergine, bitter groud ect. This is then steamed and then served in a soup. Hakka is a chinese dialect/clan that is not area-specific unlike most chinese dialect. One of the numerous dialects spoken by the chinese people in malaysia.

Anyway, back to this special Yong Tau Foo. Unlike the usual fish paste stuffing, she had used mui choy (preserved chinese vegetable) mixed in with minced pork. This is then stuffed into a paper-thin casing of fried tofu pok, basically air-puffed dried tofu. Served soaked in savoury meat and salted vegetable stock, this dissipates all that I know about yong tau foo. Gone are the rubbery fish paste and flavourless tofu/vegetable – this small package is an explosion in many different levels in my mouth, assulting my tastebuds in ways that it does not know exist. OHMIGOD.

Second up was the sour-spicy vegetable. The Hokkiens call it kiam chye boay, or salted vegetable ends. My mother and her mother made it out of bits and ends of leftovers (i.e. roast pork and soy sauce chicken ect), throwing in flavourful preserved mustard lettuce, tamarind pulp and slice with a handful of dried chillies.They did not use leftovers here (doh) but it was equally filled with the zing and taste. A very pleasant change from the safety of the yong tau foo.

Then the pig arrived. I honestly have no idea what this is called, but it looks like a very dry version of char xiu. It was coated with seasoning, and seemingly deep fried, giving it a very crispy outer coating, whilst the inside remain moist and soft as you can probably see from the above. Biting into it gives you a satisfying crunch, and the meat just melts in your mouth to compensate for the crunch. Mmm Mm good, slightly like KFC. Heh.

The pig continues giving, this time going to the ribs. Well marinated and grilled to a perfection, the sweet-savoury sauce that topped this plateful makes it excellent with a side portion of rice. Just plain white steamed rice to soak the juices up. The perfect grilling gives this dish a crunchy top layer as well, before introducing you to the moist flavourful yummy flesh around the ribs.

The required vegetable dish of the day was kailan stirfried with garlic. Plain, as it’s meant to be, this provided a respite from the endless array of pork that we had been scoffing down.

Love it!

I decided to order dessert as well, just needed something sweet to cap it all up. Seeing that we’re in a ‘traditional’ cantonese restaurant, I ordered soybean with white fungus. I know it sounds disgusting, but it was absolutely delicious..as I love soybean and white fungus.Again, not overly sweet, allowing the delicious flavour of soybean milk to shine thorugh.

And being the boss she is, the chef even sent us a plate of fresh fruits – emphasising that the mangoes were delicious.

I don’t actually have any idea how much the bill was, as Serene just literally picked it up and paid on her way to the toilet. Thank you! Bacon is feeling very strange as my friends keep picking up the tab. I can honestly say that none of his friends had ever ever picked up the tab for us before, unless it was their round at the bar. So this was all very strange for him.

I love this place, if I were ever to move back to KL, this will definately be one of my haunts. Clean, delicious, reasonable ( I think average price per dish was around RM15), bright (excellent lights for pix!) and easy parking on weekends. For those of you familiar with Subang Jaya, it is just behind the old Gazebo. If you were to head towards Subang Parade from SS15′s KFC outlet, turn right just before the old Gazebo, it will be on your right at the end of the road.

Gao Ren Guan (Branch)
43, Jalan SS15/4E,
Subang Jaya
Tel: 03- 5621 0966
email: info@gaorenguan.com

Gao Ren Guan (Main)
07-01,09-01 Jalan Kenari 18B,
Bandar Puchong Jaya
Tel: 03- 8076 8766

By now you would’ve guessed that I’m back in the UK – a VERY sunny one, to my ultimate suprise. No more nasi lemak for lunch, dinner and breakfast (and sometimes supper and afternoon tea)…but I will always have the pictures to remind me! My bags are unpacked (made bacon do it whilst I was sleeping), but its still all on tables and floors – lots to do. Only thing we did was to change the sheets, the house is still chronically in need of a good vac.

For those of you that are fairly new to my blog and are wondering what a nasi lemak is, it is basically rice cooked in coconut milk, with a spicy salsa-like sambal ikan bilis and a variety of other side dishes, from boiled egg to fried chicken and mutton curry. Usually served on a banana leaf wrap to impart an additional fragant flavour, this is a meal filled with complex and contrasting flavours and textures. See above for the most simple version .Malaysia’s national food, if ever there was one.

In the midst of uploading pictures with a frenzy (1.7 GB!) so more will come – if I can stop falling asleep at 8pm!! I do tweet a few times a day (well, try to) so do follow me.

For some reason I’ve left both my card reader and usb connector at home, and therefore have no pictures to share. The past week have seen us head towards Malacca, Singapore and somewhere deep in the rainforest jungle. It has also seen me and bacon come out with hives – apparently there was some sort of chemical that was used on the grass at the Sepang F1 circuit that had droves of people coming out in allergic reaction! Not to mention that the race was not even completed and it was pissing down cats and dogs!

Seriously, I will never go near F1 again. We didn’t even know who won or that the race have been cancelled, I had to ring my brother at home to find out. The big screen tv in front of me was severely screwed by the rain – you would think that they would test it out beforehand? I didn’t even stay for the Jamiroquoi concert – probably a good thing, as the carparks were not lighted! Even leaving when we did, we got redirected to roads that I had never seen before and had to head back to Cyberjaya and search for the building I’ve worked in before to be able to find my way back home. And Cyberjaya’s changed so much – it is now about 10 times the size of when I started working there!

Next week will see us heading either the direction of the pulaus (islands) or up the mountains. At the moment the monsoon season seem to not be over yet, and the rain is still pounding down on a near-daily basis. Was supposed to head towards the pulaus last week – not too sure if the weather is actually going to be any better this coming week.

There is no wifi at home, but I would twitt whenever I can, so I suggest that you follow me on twitter! I am getting the hang of twitting, mini-blogs without the hassles!

Will try to update asap when I get the pixs in – life is not the same without pictures!!