Off The Beaten Track...Matang, Kuala Kurau

After the zoo, it was back to the hotel for some rest. It's nice to be able to bathe and rest a while. Not so tiring. A bath makes all the difference sometimes... Then it was off to cari makan. We drove round a bit, but ended up at Larut Matang Hawker Centre. This kuih stall has been there for as long as I can remember and their kuihs are still very nice. We had chicken rice and our gal had her usual dried wantan mee. Both of us had our rice from different stalls. Other Half's was better than mine. The wantan mee was nice... I'm beginning to think wantan mee in Taiping is nice generally.

Then we went back to the Lake Garden area to try find Mr. & Mrs. Tan Yee Ho's place. Mrs. Tan was our MYF Counsellor, while Mr. Tan was my Econs teacher in F6; he's pastoring a church in Taiping now. It's been 4-5 years since I last saw them. We managed to find the house without much problem... with the GPS' help. It's good to see them again.

We did not take the highway home. Instead we headed towards Matang. We thought of going to the mangrove forest reserve... but patah balik 3 km from the destination, after the unpaved road got even more uneven and bumpy. We'd probably have continued if we were in a 4WD. Anyway, it was just as well, cos we found out later that the place were were heading was right in the middle of the mangrove swamp.

We took the road up north and headed towards Kuala Kurau... Made a U turn for the bridge and these rather big prawns were being dried under the bridge.

This is the view of the 1.25 km bridge from below... from the looks of it, a half completed bridge. It's a beautiful place, idyllic fishing village. Apparently the bridge was supposed to be built at the cost of RM53 million but I read in another article the cost was RM80 million. Am curious how come it looks 'half' completed. It seems like it was planned with a 4-lane carriageway in mind. But now it only has 2. Ah! Well, this is my country, where costs keep escalating, but quality and quantity usually heading the opposite way.

In the middle of the river you see all this kelongs and houses that jut into the river. I could hear banterings from the houses which 'hung' over the river... We'll be coming back to this place again. The Kuala Gula Bird Sanctuary, one of the biggest bird sanctuaries in Asia is somewhere nearby... am already making plans. 8) It's nice to wander off the highway a bit and have our sense of wonderment ignited a little.... so here's to jalan-jalan Malaysia, my memang beautiful country... LOL!