Mini Escapism : SK - Alor Setar - Sg Petani - SK

Short weekend !

We've been waiting for our short weekend escapism since I received the invite to my former best friend in school 2 months ago. It was supposed to be a group trip with my sisters and Tasy (and her partner) but they had other plans that weekend - so Af and I continued with our original plan. 

We booked the hotel in Alor Setar a week before the weekend using Agoda, paying extra to collect AirAsia points :D We opted for a hotel instead of Airbnb because I really wanted a special treat this time. I wanted the fancy bathroom and clean towel and comfy pillows and breakfast buffet and all those in package. I couldn't find decent Airbnb in Kedah so I didn't mind paying extra for a hotel instead of budget motel (it is not even that much of a difference in term of the price). 

We woke up quite early that Saturday morning, by 630 am we were already in the car. Af drove the whole way, while I slept on and off (because I'm a terrible partner and the worst morning person if I didn't get enough sleep). We arrived at Alor Setar around 1230 pm, a bit too early for the wedding. I changed to my red kurung at the public toilet near Alor Setar toll station and because I was famished, we headed straight to the wedding :D

I greeted her parents and her brother as awkward as I can. 

I asked Af why I was there (because she came to my wedding and she used to be my best friend and we wanted a reason for an escapism) - I agreed. 

The wedding was nice, I didn't see any familiar faces at all (none of friends from school). After one whole hour, I reached out to the newlyweds, wished her congratulation and she was a bit busy, so I bid her goodbye. That was it :F 

Come to think of it. 

We were really-really-really close for 5 years in school and now we are hardly friends. I wish I can explain to her about my introversion and my lack of connection was due to me trying to find myself in those silence that I needed so much. But not many of my friends understand, and I didn't understand it as well during those time, so I lost almost all of my friends in the process. But hey, the one who stayed matters.

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Restoran Ikan Bakar Anjung :

Anyway, after we checked in and rested for a few hours, we headed to the nearest beach spot in Alor Setar. We used random Google Map search because there was no nice beach spot recommended by anyone. There's hardly any beautiful beaches in North region - we explored so many, most beaches were very-very depressingly dirty. Remember : Lumut - Tanjung Sepat - Pantai Morib ? These places were very dirty, the pollution is bad, guys.

We headed to a restaurant near the beach hoping for a nice sunset view, but we only found a dirty beach, again T^T I was a bit disappointed, so I only took several pictures and went straight to order foods. Bonus point : The food was nice, we ordered several seafood dishes that costed RM 40 (nasi putih, tomyam campur, sotong goreng tepung, lala masak lemak).

The map :

The storm came soon after so we headed back. We didn't go anywhere at night because I like to stay indoor when the night comes (I have no idea why). It is one of my paranoia I guess.

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Menara Alor Setar :

Day 2 - For RM 9, you can reach the observation deck at Menara Alor Setar (88m) and get the 360 view of the city. You can see Gunung Keriang from afar as well, awkwardly separated from other mountains like a sore thumb. It reminds me of me when I stand among others in events.

There's nothing else you can do on the deck other than take photos, maybe you can eat ice cream, because they do sell ice cream and random snacks. That's about all :F There isn't many things to do on the deck, they should have done some interesting stuffs (like what they have in Japanese tower buildings).

Google Map :

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Restoran Ikan Bawal, Sungai Petani :

For lunch, we headed to a random restaurant in Sungai Petani. This is a restaurant specialized in Kari Ikan Bawal sets. We wanted to make random stops along the way when we headed back home, so we found the place via Google. The food was decent, for RM 8.50, I got a plate of ulam and sambal, ikan bawal, nasi putih and a small bowl of curry. 

It was a really sunny afternoon, very hot and uncomfortable, I got my usual headache soon after. 

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We headed to Pantai Redang Sekinchan after our lunch, we were so far from everything (4 hours+ from Sungai Petani) after almost 2 hours drive from Alor Setar. It was so weird, everything was extra farther that our previous trips. Not sure whether because we used alternative roads or because we just picked the wrong way to get there. Halfway through, we were in the palm plantation area and the rain started to fall heavily. The super bad one, almost no cars around us and it was hard to even see the road. I suggested that we head home instead of going to Pantai Redang (I don't feel good about the trip), so Af agreed. That itself took around 3 hours more to reach home ! It was just a bad trip + bad weather =.=

When we got home, surprise, surprise, our room and kitchen were flooded by the rain + wind from the previous thunderstorm that afternoon. The wind was so strong, it opened all of our windows and rain fell inside. I was so frustrated and demotivated, seeing most of my postcards and cards were destroyed, the bed was 1/3 wet, the floor was wet T^T and I was super exhausted from the long travel. But Af was there, things wan't so bad if he's there with me. 

He said that maybe it's time for me to make new postcards, more artworks to sell, now my local e-shop is available and it's okay if things like this happen from time to time. It is just a reminder :F

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That's the end of our short escapism to Kedah :F

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.

Mini Escapism : Kedah - Perak - Selangor

Kedah - Perak - Selangor - Part 1 :

It's a long holiday !  

2 months back I received a wedding card from my colleague, Sha. AF and I always find reasons to explore new places and go on a mini escapism, so we decided to go to her wedding in Kedah. Of all the places and all the wedding that I missed in my life, suddenly I chose to go :D

We started our journey early morning on last Saturday around 6.30 am thinking that we might be able to avoid the traffic, considering it's a festive season. We were wrong. Waze's time estimation was around 4-5 hours, but we arrived after 9 hours on the road. The traffic was really-really bad. There were 4 accidents along the way, by the time we arrived at the wedding, it was almost over. We greeted her father and he said that Sha already left for her outing photo-shooting. So we went to eat and left shortly afterwards :o

The wedding took place in the paddy field area near Mount Keriang, so we took the opportunity to visit the place after the wedding. We just simply visited the recreational park to see the place thinking that we might go on a hike the next morning because I was starting to feel my 'usual' throbbing pain in my head. That 'famous' head-ache that I still don't know the cause yet. So we headed to our hotel around 20 minutes away and checked in.

I slept in for almost 12 hours.   

The headache disappeared and we decided to head to Perak after breakfast instead. We were ready for our road-trip and planned to make several stops before arriving at our next destination : Ipoh. So it was a really short stay in Kedah. I wish we have more time to take nice sunset photos alongside of the paddy field but it wasn't in the season.

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To enjoy nice scenery and explore new little kampungs during our journey from Alor Setar to KL, we used old roads instead of the highway. It took a bit longer but I'm glad we did. 

My favorites are : 

• We took almost 360' circle around Mount Jerai in Yan because I wanted to stop by near the beach right at the mountain.
• The first time I saw ikan belacak (mudskipper) in pantai Murni in Yan. I've never saw one ever in my life until that time we stopped in Yan. 
• 10 years anniversary for Hot fm brought us all the famous songs in those 10 years, it's a perfect playlist for the road-trip
• The paddy fields along side of the road from Yan to Butterworth
• The hills and mountains on our way to Ipoh were magnifique ! I can't even write enough about the magnificent view we got along the road. There weren't even pictures big enough to show how beautiful they were. Lucky northern people, perhaps they don't even notice what they are missing.
• Chatty AF - when we visited all his childhood places while he was growing up.
• Mount Rapat + Mount Lang
• Sunset in Lumut

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Our path on the 1st day :

Highway - KL to Alor Setar > Gunung Keriang

Our path on the 2nd day :

Alor Setar > Gurun > Yan > Tikam Batu > Butterworth > Bandar Ipoh > Gunung Lang > Padang Polo. 

Our path on the 3rd day :

Bandar Ipoh > Gunung Rapat > Lumut 

Our path on the 4th day :

Lumut > Sg Besar > Sekinchan > Tg. Karang > KL > Home

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Summary :

• We travelled around 1070 km on car in 4 days 3 nights.
• 3 different 2-stars hotel booked on Agoda ranging RM 70 - RM 95 per night
• We spent around RM 250 - RM 300 per person for foods, accommodation, gas and tolls. 
• Total : RM 270 (accommodation) , RM 100 (tolls) , RM 130 (gas-return)

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Sunsets :
We missed the first sunset because we were both exhausted from the 9 hours ride. We had a nice sunset at Padang Polo, Ipoh on the second day. That was the field where Af used to train for parkour during his younger years :D We got a great sunset view at the beach in Lumut on the third day. 

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Note :

If you are an escapee like us, waiting for chances to explore on weekends or public holidays or any random time because of  your commitment to work/family/school, be a part of us. We put up a car sticker; 'Eskapi' on our car's window. Promised we use the car for a great cause of exploring new places, road-trips, new destination :) It's never too near to find new places to explore.

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