#52 - Kuala Gula Trip

05.06.2010

On 5th June 2010, a total of 4 cars departed from McD Auto City to head to Kuala Gula, Perak. All 14 adults and 4 children were looking forward to this trip as it had been planned for quite some time and was actually postponed earlier. What I like about this trip was that it was sort of a Family Day outing. Some brought whole family, some brought mom, aunt, niece n nephew (that’s me), some brought friends, some brought boyfriend along.

We are colleagues and some friends we knew from badminton. See? Badminton can widen our social circle too. Live long badminton! *crazy* It was the first time we colleagues officially go out together and I had always envied those talking about team building etc. Well, this is not exactly a team building but I like it just like that!

The journey was about 1 hour and I must say I like the scenery there. The clouds seemed pretty and the lighting was just nice. We gotta pass Kuala Kurau before reaching Kuala Gula and both were small towns. I missed those feelings where everyone knows each other and are close knitted. Doors are widely opened to welcome visitors unlike those in cities where doors are closed, for fear of safety. Pathetic isn’t it, our urban life?

I came for the fireflies but since we can only view them at night, we decided to slot in few more activities for the day. We planned for a visit to the charcoal factory, belacan factory, a temple, boat ride to mangrove swamp, seafood dinner and finally, the fireflies session!

We forego charcoal factory since we were behind schedule and went to 华圣宫 straight away. I was excited to see what does the 十八晨地狱 looks like. The Chinese believe that in the afterlife, we will be subjected to certain stage of punishment in the Hell before reincarnation, depending on our karma.

There are 18 stages, with the greater number indicating harsher punishment and greater sin. There are 7 types of reincarnation, namely human, deities, animals, hungry ghost etc. I must say I am impressed with the concept of the temple since it was the first time I saw this kind of temple. There was even statues of the 12 zodiac signs, from Rat to Pig. Oink Oink! Some pictures were taken there and everyone was busy taking photos with their own zodiac sign (actually only a few of us).

What was a bit heart-wrenching was that it was not maintained properly and the location was a bit secluded thus not many people will know about it if it wasn’t through word of mouth. Then, we met the person in charge for our boat ride. We paid RM300 for the trip. Might be slightly expensive but in the end, we got pleasant surprise indeed and I think the RM300 is worth it.

We ‘embarked’ on our journey to the mangrove swamp from the bird sanctuary and it was a decent boat but the weather was slightly hot at 5pm. We saw mudskippers while waiting for the boat to arrive. They looked cute when they were hopping but I am sure they looked ugly from close-ups. Opps, not to judge a creature by its look, I suppose?

In the boat, I noticed that my niece was very quiet and she looked apprehensive. First time taking boat, I reckoned. It was funny looking at her expression where the feeling of insecurity was clearly shown.  I had a mixed feeling whether to laugh or to pity her. I had both as after she got the hang of it, she was a nuisance in the boat! We managed to see some eagles, sth which looked like a pelican, a few white birds and some monkeys. That’s it. Slightly disappointed but I like the breeze and the relaxing way it soothed my mind.

If only the weather was kinder to us. The sun was shining mercilessly upon us. We also went to see the soft-shell crab and were told that their legs were cut off in order to have the soft-shell. Ouch, sounds cruel and one of us vowed not to eat soft-shell crab anymore but in the end, we had it in our seafood dinner! But I did feel bad about it. I think that will be the first and the last time I am gonna eat soft-shelled crab.

Then the uncles from the boat brought us to the belacan factory. Told ya it was a surprise, we thought the RM300 was only for the boat ride. Turned out they became our tour guides for the day as well! And they were really enthusiastic to show us around Kuala Gula. So, in the factory, we didn’t get to see them producing belacan but were given detailed account of how it was being made. We were given rojak sample and some of us bought back the rojak paste and the belacan (a.k.a shrimp paste).

My nephew said: “Smelly!” and I quickly ushered him to my mom who was waiting outside for fear that it might hurt the owner’s feeling. It was funny though. Basically, they mix prawns with salt and grind them before drying them and storing them. This process is repeated for 4 times before they can finally sell it. Overall, it takes about 4-5 months to produce a batch of belacan due to the fermentation. It can be stored for more than a year and I wondered how long can a belacan last actually. According to the boss, it won’t spoil. The longer you store it,  the more fragrant it is.

Next stop was the mangrove plantation project. We were brought to see the mangrove trees from close-up. One of us asked: What is the reproduction method of mangrove? Is it from the seed? Good question, I was sure it wasn’t from the seed but I thought it was from the root or stem. The uncle told us there will be some long propagation from the tree and when it drops into the swamp, it will grow. Oh right. I nearly forgot about this. We learnt it in school back then. Something called viviparous or something.

The uncle was right indeed. Then the same friend asked, how do they cut down the mangroves, be it for charcoal, for construction use etc? Good question again, and who says I am the only one who likes to ask so many questions? There seemed to be a 问题少男 in our group now… That one, we didn’t ask the uncle and I don’t know the answer. But my guess will be that they will just have to walk into the swamp and cut them down… search here if you want to know more about the mangroves. http://www.nhmi.org/mangroves/rep.htm

Finally it was dinner time and the dinner we had was OK. It was the time when we all got to sit down together in 2 tables and chatted with each other. During the earlier trips, we weren’t quite mingling around with each other since we were busy sightseeing. Food was OK but some friends were disappointed as they were expecting ‘balitong’ and all those seafood which we don’t usually get to eat at home. We had a soup, fried sotong, fried soft-shelled crab, steamed fish, kailan and asam prawn. Typical home dish I suppose.

As usual, it wasn’t too enjoyable at dinner with kids around as I had to take care of my niece and since my mom wasn’t feeling well after boat ride, I took the liberty to feed my niece. She really can’t sit still and I ended up tending to her needs all the time. When I was finally done with my dinner and decided to bring my niece out to distract her from disturbing others, my colleague’s son said: “Now I know how hard it is to be a mom”. Haha, nice one kid!

Finally the moment I had been waiting for: fireflies! It was just a short distance away from the restaurant and I was like: “Huh, reached already? Where are the fireflies?” A bit too loud I guess. It was quite disappointing when you were actually expecting to see tonnes of them. But I recovered fast when we discovered that we could see more from under the tree itself. Indeed we can see more from under the tree.

Just then, my nephew blurted out: “Batteries”. We were all laughing away! He thought it was LED lights and when I asked him: “Do you what are these?” His answer: “Stars!” Sweet…. that’s the plus side of having kids around. Always giving you surprise when you least expect them.

Our final stop was to see the mantis prawn. Uncle rode his bicycle and showed us the way. We were expecting big aquariums or a mantis prawn farm or something. Again, it was a letdown when he brought us to his friend’s place where we only saw them from a small aquarium. We can easily see them from any seafood restaurant, nothing special. But I do appreciate his warmth and effort to try to entertain us.

Thanks uncle! And the same uncle gave us the ‘duit pisang’ which was the Japanese money back when they invaded Tanah Melayu in 1942. He still kept them and each of us got at least two. He said it was our souvenir. This is what I like about small places. The people are always sincere, kind, less calculative and very warm:)

Some of us didn’t think highly of the trip but I enjoy the trip!

(Charcoal factory / temple / boat ride / belacan factory / dried shrimp factory / firefly)