Over the weekend on the 23-24th October, less than a week since coming home from Melbourne.. I found myself hitting the road once again. My Boys’ Brigade Company (which is the volunteered part of it, rather than the one I paid for at Headquarters level) will be having a Year End “Camp” a few days before Christmas. This year the committee, made out of the Company’s Staff Sergeants (that is from 18-late 20 years old) decided to have a tour of Perak.
I was engaged by them to go for a rekkie (or a reconnaissance) as they need to check out the venues they’ve booked and confirm other arrangements. I just saw it as a opportunity to have some fun.. so I agreed to it.
We set off pretty early in the morning, meeting at 8am at Mr Lawrence Tay’s residence, having a mamak breakfast before setting off along the North-South Highway enroute to Ipoh. Our first stop was Ipoh Wesley Methodist Church where the Company will spend it’s first night sleeping in classrooms under sleeping bags. We talked to the church administrators as well as it’s Pastor, who is the Chaplain of the 1st Ipoh (and 6th Ipoh) Company.
After inspecting the Ipoh Wesley we meet up with one of our designated camp speakers, Pastor Timothy, who was formerly the Pastor of Canning Gardens Methodist Church and now Pastors an independent church. Quite a jovial guy. Can’t exactly agree with his points of leaving the Methodist church and his measure of success.. but hey, the world is round! =D Still, a very nice guy.. brought us around town for lunch and coffee.
Left: Ultra thin kaya toast. Right: Hoe Kit’s expression says it all (well, it does look agonising but he’s actually enjoying it)
We tried this kaya toast at what is said to be the original Old Town White Coffee (which is opposite to the first franchised outlet, just opposite on the other side of the road) which was no ordinary kaya toast. It was probably just half a centimeter thick.. or half the thickness of your ordinary kaya toast. Surprisingly, that helped bring out the flavour. I believe the bread and kaya are homemade.
The Famous Ipoh White Coffee served from it’s original shop in Ipoh
After coffee, we headed back to Ipoh Wesley (we hopped onto Pastor Timothy’s car for lunch) and to my delight we saw some BB Boys around! It wasn’t a full parade.. these were mostly Form 1-3 Boys who were helping out in 1st Ipoh’s Junior Section. Interestingly, no Officers were around – perhaps a norm for 1st Ipoh’s Juniors in line with their tradition. I thought it was a good way to train leaders (but it has it’s risk too). When we approached these Boys, we converged each other like magnet. This is something I love about BB.. we might be from different Companies with not a clue who each other are personally.. but as long as there’s the BB Anchor (logo).. we are family no matter where we came from. It’s too bad we’ve not formally having a session together during the Year End Camp. I think both our Companies will hit off well.
After we said our goodbyes, it was back on the road. We were guided our by Timothy heading towards Gua Tempurung where the Boys will be for 3 hours during the camp. It does look to be quite interesting! It offers an unforgettable caving experience.. and the place does look to be quite clean and well organised. I’m definitely signing up for this. Anyway, it was a short stop were we merely enquired details and made bookings. Shortly after we were back on the road again heading towards Sitiawan.
We passed through Ayer Tawar.. a town 10 kilometers from Sitiawan which was also the home of the 3rd Manjung Company. We stopped by at Ayer Tawar Chinese Methodist Church hoping to catch them midway in parade. To our despair, apparently they have their meet in the mornings. This was the same for 1st Manjung and 2nd Manjung who were not meeting when we tried visiting them. Oh well. Better luck next time I guess.
We move on to Sitiawan Wesley to make inspections and to confirm bookings there as we will be putting up the 2nd night of camp there. After another short stop, we made our way to another famous Perakian delicacy – Gong Pian. Only good when served hot.. and rock hard and simply uneatable when cold, it is made from onions and pork lard from a mega hot furnace. Apparently you can only find this in Foo Chow towns (of which Sitiawan qualifies). Damn sedap!
Left: Meastros making heong peng. Right: The insides of gong pian (was stationary when picture was taken btw)
Gong Peng
After grabbing our biscuits and eating away in the car, we move on to Lumut to park the car before grabbing a ferry for Pangkor Island. We were picked by by Mr Tan who is the owner of Seagull Resort, the place the Company will be putting up for two nights. All in all, we got a pretty good deal.
Pangkor’s actually one beautiful place.. in terms of it’s potential. Unfortunately, it’s been totally neglected, run down and just a sorry sight to look at. There were some developments, but it is basically building on natural treasures. How dumb. What I found amusing is that this is the Perak Chief Ministers (something like the Premier) constituency.. and yet he is just screwing it. I thought the Menteri Besar’s place usually gets all the goodies. I guess it doesn’t matter when you’re far away in Ipoh living in a house worthy of millionaires while the people rot away.
Anyway, our rekkie was a success and we managed to make crucial arrangements before our coming camp. I hope the Boys will be blessed by it.
Left: Posing shots in the ferry. Right: Pangkor jetty.
Left: Hornbills. Yes, they exist in Peninsula Malaysia too. Right: Walking down the “beachfront” (which some idiot decided to erect buildings on)
Pangkor has alot of natural treasures to offer. In the right hands, I’m sure this place can be the very attractive stop it once was
Left: Nice beach? Wait till you get here! Right: Cheers!
Left: Ikan Todak’s (or Garfish) in the water. Right: Our stop in Teluk Intan where we had Mee Rebus + Rojak
On our way home as we were approaching Teluk Intan I was pulled over by the police. I was making trying to overtake a slow moving lorry and executed the move when it was still a dotted line. Half way through the line turned solid and the next thing I knew, after I was done overtaking there were two police waving me down with a red flag. *Grunt*
I believe I was innocent and prepared my case in my mind. But guess what, as I talked with the police.. he told me that the solid line isn’t the reason I was pulled over. Apparently, I cannot even overtake when it is a dotted line! From that point, the smell of bullshit was so great.. it made my blood boil. Honestly, I cannot remember the rational.. it just did not compute in my mind. He did say it was a no-overtaking zone.. but hey.. if that’s true it wouldn’t have been a dotted in to start with! He then said “I’ve been teaching traffic rules for 16 years and I know you can’t overtake under the dotted line”. I rebutted by saying “Well, I’ve driven in three other countries, all under the British road system, and they all say you CAN.” I guess he really didn’t have a case on me. He did let me off without a summon. But even that part was dodgy.. only my details were taken down on this rugged notebook. He wasn’t even the traffic polis.. he was in navy blue uniform. It is possible that he and his colleague were just fishing for bribes. But not me. Geez, our police. What a damn shame.
Anyway, we got to Teluk Intan and bought some souvenirs.. Heong Peng (or “Smells good biscuit”). Managed to call Mr Lim Chong Ho, Captain of 1st Teluk Intan BB for tea where he treated us to mee rebus and mee rojak. Awesome guy.
Finally we were on the way home to KL amidst the huge storm. What I was glad to see in this trip was that the younger Officers are stepping up and learning to take up greater responsibility. Hope this is the start of greater things to come. So yep – Jiehan, Hoe Kit and Wai Kien. I’m keeping an eye on you!
OCFers OCFing for 15 minutes after an event as usual
