Mini Escapism : Sungai Petani, Kedah

My dad dropped the bomb several weeks ago in our big-family group Whatsapp saying that he's getting married o.O We didn't thought we would receive the news this way but because I'm so much mature than my 25 year old self, I accepted the way the story goes. All I can say is I'm glad he found someone that can take a good care of him. 

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On Saturday :

We planned to go to Sungai Petani together along with two of my siblings. The rough plan was to go as earliest as possible on Saturday, have lunch, go to the river and enjoy a nice sunset before reaching the pre-booked homestay in Laguna Merbuk. 400km took around 5 hours car ride including lunch stop at the famous Restoran Hussain Nasi Kandar *by Aja's recommendation.

We stopped at the Vista Point to take some nice picture of Ipoh from afar :

Click to view the panoramic photo :

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For lunch, we had to queue up to select our dishes - and knowing that I don't really like nasi berkuah, I just chose nasi separuh, sayur kobes + puyuh goreng. It wasn't at all like nasi kandar supposed to be without the kuah. Our lunch was around RM54 for the 4 of us - * a bit too expensive for nasi berlauk. 

This is the map to the famous nasi kandar in Kedah :

We were the earliest to arrive at the homestay, so we had to wait for the others. By then, it suddenly rained so hard we had to cancel all outing plans and go to the nearest mall instead. We were avoiding the hectic homestay so we stayed at the mall for awhile; window shopping, bought new books, played basketball at the arcade *which I won!, bought little trinkets and stuffs.  

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On Sunday :

Note : My sister is annoyed with my protruding high-cheekbones since I can even remember. She complained about the scarf making my face look rounded - even though I don't really have any problems with it because my face is naturally oval. I don't mind the cheekbones and I don't feel the need to hide my chubby cheek for that matter. 

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After the akad nikah at the bride's brother's house and reception at the club's building we went to Kompleks Jeti Sungai Merbok not quite far from our homestay house. *We were still avoiding the hectic house because there were so many people - I can't explain our whole introversion sibling-pack :D

The place looked a bit deserted *probably people don't really hang-out here during the afternoon, except for a giant lizard :

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Next to the jetty was a deserted modern-looking building that we weren't sure was what until I googled it - Gallery Bakau Jeti Semeling. It was located right next to the wild paya bakau territory, we even saw a swimming snake in the lake! All the gallery, office, shop in that area were closed - I think they are still under construction. So we just explored the opened 1km long walkway on the river. 

+ Plus after I checked on Wiki - I found out that Bakau is called Mangrove in English :D I've never known that.

That's the only places that we managed to visit in the short 2 days mini escapism, partly because it rained every day and partly because we had to spend time with 'the families'. 

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We stopped by to minum2 petang before heading back. Aja ordered some dimsum that tasted just decent and a bit too expensive for a ready-made stuffs. This and the water cost us : RM20. Also a short stop at R&R Tapah to buy some fruits and pau for dinner.

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Only the 3 of us siblings went for the wedding, my youngest sister couldn't make it :

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Summary :

• We travelled around 800 km on car in that 2 days.
• We spent : RM 98.80 on tolls, RM 82 on gas, RM 75 on foods. The place to stay was sponsored by my dad, plus he gave us some money to spend on tolls and gas too afterwards - so we just spent our own money on foods.