Taiping

16 - 17 Jan 2010 - Kuala Sepetang, Port Weld, Taiping, Maxwell Hill

Left sungai buloh toll at around 9am, arrive in Matang for seafood porridge.

The restaurant in front of the temple...

Grandfather clocks....

Lala and tofu

Seafood Porridge ... look at the prawns

Makan ... total about 11 of us... all girls....

Fish ball porridge

Mr Law joins us for lunch...... by the time he reach here food all finish already..
Left is Joey, Chia's colleague Taiping local, helping to book the accommodation show us around...

On the way to charcoal factory

In Mr Law's car...

Charcoal factory

Low tide....

Charcoal man Mr Chuah carrying a beautiful piece of charcoal....
Charcoal... used for many things.... charcoal pills, fuel, cooking, absorb gas, absorb unpleasant odor...

Coarcoal is made from mangrove timber ... it is very heavy because it is filled with water.... to turn this into charcoal, it goes through a process to remove water from the wood.... mangrove trees are very strong, used in construction for piling/foundation...because if it is immersed in water it won't rot...

Kiln... made of bricks and clay ....

Mr Chuah gives a tour of the factory ...
The Japanese love our charcoal... this factory established since the Japanese occupied malaya and started it, now the chinese learn and took over...
Japanese still buy the charcoal from them, to boil green tea...

Have a look inside the Kiln

Mr Chuah explains what the worker is doing... this guy can lift the mangrove trunk and arrange it side by side inside the kiln.

Cover the entrance with clay and build the fire, up to 85 degrees
and over a few days/weeks, the moisture will be removed from the tree trunks

Try smelling the smoke that comes out....

Workers packing the charcoal for export...

Buling the kiln...

Charcoal

Next, walking around the mangrove swamp...

Alot of people come here for wedding photoshoot

Small crabs

This is suppose to be the largest mangrove forest in Malaysia

Mangrove roots

Famous pau seller.....

Big pau.....

The prawns used for curry mee

Stop for makan

Ice kacang... and nice red bean drink......

Group photo at Port Weld ... the first railway in Malaysia or something

Stop at another restaurant to eat...

Small small seafood things that we never try before

Eat this.... Adeline pluck them out for me to finish... bandaraya

The chacoal factory at high tide, when all the activity starts...

Drive to Taiping

Lots of old houses here.... government quarters etc...
Back in the old days Taiping used to be the Administrative capital of Perak, before they moved to Ipoh....

Driving around Taiping Lake gardens... famous trees...
Suppose to go for a walk but raining...

Flemington hotel

Raining.. raining

Go to a house that Joey booked for us....

Beds... aircon... clean toilets....got 2 toilets and 4 rooms...

Dinner time, and we go to a hawker stall....

lots of varieties and crowded with people.

Charkwey teow, popiah, otak otak.... etc...

Visit the wild boars.. near an indian temple... touch it and you will get good luck and strike lottery.... Wild boar eating nasi lemak

Bunch of little pigs...

Makan again at CRC (Chinese Recreation Club) and have a few rounds of beer
Mr Law always comes here to play tennis...

Some fish slices and tofu

Fried brinjal ... like french fries....

Yellow pau with coconut inside.. and try the nasi lemak

Shop in front of KFC... crowded at night

Remember to come here to eat chee chong fun next time

Early morning, check out...

Go early about 8 to collect jeep tickets......

Joey takes us to Restaurant Kakak for breakfast

Breakfast.. some siew yok and hor fun at Kakak shop

After breakfast, city tour, jalan jalan

Min Yee buys magnum... hope for good luck after touching the pig

Clock tower

District & Land Office built in 1890's ...

Mr Law "By the way that is not court house but the first district & land office in Malaysia, probably. You go there to do land matters. Lighted blue at night it looks beautiful. The court house now is a new building behind this colonial architecture."

Buy food from the market to tapau up maxwell hill