Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Perling getaway

In the afternoon of 9 August 2008 (Saturday), I received a “mass sms” from my youngest brother informing my other brother and me that mom would be returning from Muar to Johor Bahru in the evening of 10 August 2008 (Sunday) and requesting either one of us to fetch mom from Perling, Johor Bahru as he was not free.

I perked up. I have always enjoyed the little getaways to Perling (where my aunt lives). There is a coffeeshop near my aunt’s home called “Queen Park” selling some of the nicest food in Johor Bahru.

As my other brother was not free on 10 August 2008 (the poor boy had to work!), the “ahmad” role fell on Da and me.

I was apprehensive. It had been some time since Da and I had driven to Perling so I was not entirely sure of the route as there is a new highway built near my aunt’s place and some of the traffic may be diverted. Da is even less familiar with the route and usually relies on me to give directions.

Gosh! This reminds me of the phrase “blind leading the blind”! My relatives used to tease me that I only know 1 route – “straight, straight”! They are very amused when I tell them that the route from the ECP (in Singapore) to my grandma’s place (in Muar) is “straight all the way, with only 1 left turn at Air Hitam (when you exit the North-South Highway) and 1 right turn at Batu Pahat (at the junction where the mosque is located)”. I am not kidding! It is easier to drive to grandma’s place in Muar (from Singapore) than from my place (in the East part of Singapore) to my brother’s place (in the West part of Singapore).

Trust my youngest brother to come to my rescue! He has fetched mom home from Perling so many times that I think he would be able to drive to Perling from Singapore with his eyes closed! Da and I met my youngest brother and his girlfriend for lunch on 10 August 2008 at one of our usual haunts – the food court located at the basement level of Katong Shopping Centre (note: for the uninitiated, you have to try the chicken rice and the western food at this food court. I even know of colleagues who patronise this food court frequently.). At the end of the lunch, my dear brother handed me a home-made map that he had drawn of the route from the Tuas checkpoint all the way to the “Queen Park” coffeeshop in Perling! I have included a photograph of the map in the slideshow in this post.

After lunch, Da and I went to church. Amongst the songs that were sung during the Praise & Worship segment, there was 1 song that I could not get out of my head and I continued to sing it till today. It was only yesterday that I realised that the name of the song is “Jesus You’re my Lord” and this song is a new composition. I have added this song to my “Praise & Worship” playlist.

After church, Da and I made our way to Perling with the aid of my youngest brother’s map. Along the way, I could not resist taking photographs of the scenery, all the way from the Shell petrol station near Tang Dynasty in Singapore to the “Queen Park” coffeeshop. You can see the photographs in the slideshow. Do not be misled by some of the signboards that you see in the slideshow – some of the signboards are actually located in Malaysia (even though the signboard referred to “Tuas”, “Woodlands” and “Jurong”)!

Due to the ¾ tank rule, Da and I stopped at the Shell petrol station near the Tang Dynasty in Singapore to top up our petrol tank to full before we approached the Tuas customs checkpoint.

After we cleared the Malaysian customs, it was smooth-sailing all the way to Perling. As we have a “Touch and Go” card, it was easy for us to pay the toll along the Malaysian highway as we only needed to tap the card against the card reader instead of queuing up to pay the toll in cash.

We had a wonderful dinner with mom and my aunt. My aunt and I each ordered the maggi mee goreng (hers with chilli and mine without), mom had char kway teow (comment: I think mom probably conveniently forgot that char kway teow is high cholesterol food!) and Da ordered the duck noodles. As the portion of the duck noodles was quite small, Da also ordered the century egg porridge (cooked Hokkien style and not Cantonese style) as well. I have included photographs of the maggi mee goreng and the century egg porridge in my slideshow.

What was interesting about the maggi mee goreng that we ate was that the ingredients included bite-sized pieces of roti prata! In Malaysia, roti prata is known as roti canai whereas roti prata with egg is known as roti telur.

The highlight of the dinner was when we ordered the crispy pancake to end our meal. The crispy pancake was simply delicious! They were sold at 3 big pieces for RM2.50. According to the big poster on the wall of the coffeeshop, there is even a Singapore franchise. You can find something similar sold at Jolly Bean stalls in Singapore but the size of the crispy pancake sold here is a fraction of the size of the crispy pancake that we tried at the coffeeshop.

After dinner, we adjourned to my aunt’s place as mom’s purchases from her week-long stay in Muar were at my aunt’s home. My aunt lives in a single-storey intermediate terrace house whose ceiling is so high that you can build a 2nd storey within the house! However, she is happy to leave her house as it is and enjoy the coolness of the house (due to the high ceiling).

Mom passed to me a plastic bag containing 3 glass bottles wrapped securely in newspaper. According to her, these are the black sauce (2 bottles) that I requested her to look out for in Muar. Mom managed to locate the light sauce of the same brand as well, so she bought 1 bottle for me. hmm... “kong bak pau”, “kong bak pau”, “kong bak pau”... hint! hint!

All too soon, it was time to drive back to Singapore. What marred a lovely evening was the jam at the Singapore Tuas customs. We took more than 3 hours to clear the jam. During the jam, a car hit our car from behind. However, as the queue was moving (albeit at a slow pace), it was impossible for us to stop our car and get out to check the damage to the car. Da had a look at the back of the car when we arrived in Singapore. Praise the Lord that there was no damage! The Lord Jesus Christ has indeed protected our car.

And now... for the visual treat of our little getaway...... enjoy!

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