Melaka - Eco-tourism for Raj...

"Life is a series of arrivals and departures..."

Raj Tamang was the tour guide who took care of us in Nepal during our trip early last year. Recently, in November when a group from the office organized an expedition to the Sagamartha Base Camp, Raj and his people were also chosen to lead the ‘snow-walkers’.

When the group came back from the expedition, they put up an exhibition at the café to share their experience and show off beautiful scenic photos of their adventure. Raj flew over to KL for 2 weeks to settle insurance claims and also to meet potential clients. He met up several times with the ‘snow-walkers’ and on Thaipusam, my group get together to have lunch with him at Restaurant Halia in Sime Darby Convention Centre.

Friday night we picked Raj from his budget hotel in Batu Caves and had Tom Yam dinner at Pha Pha Restaurant while discussing business opportunities with potential partners. We spent the night at our Bidara house and Raj ended up sleeping on the floor in the study. As the kids were busy with other programs, the three of us planned to drive around the country-side during the weekend, for a little sight seeing tour of our country.

(BNM beach resort)

Saturday morning, we started our journey to Melaka around 9 a.m. Stopped at Sungai Buluh R&R for nasi lemak breakfast. After Seremban, we drove along the coastal road and stopped at a few beaches along the way including our newly renovated PD resort complex.

(Souvenir shopping at Jonker's Street)

We reached Melaka just in time for lunch at one of the famous asam pedas restaurant at Bandar Hilir. We showed Raj around historic Melaka town and made him walked along Jonkers Street in the hot sun. Later we drove to Umbai Jetty and chartered a boat to Pulau Besar.

(A very long grave)

We visited the long makam and trekked along the beach until we sweat buckets. When it rained heavily, we took shelter at a warong and ordered iced-drinks. The rain stopped just in time for the boat to take us back to main land.

We brought Raj to my emak’s house and introduced him around. We had ikan bakar dinner at one of the warong at Anjung Batu with all of the family. We drove back to KL after dinner and Raj spent the night at our Putramas Apartment.

(At the water front)

Sunday we decided to bring Raj for a day-trip to Pulau Banding in Belum National Park crossing the states of Perak, Pahang and Kelantan. We had roti canai for breakfast before we started our drive north via the North-South hi-way. We stopped at Tapah R&R for some fruits and exited at Simpang Pulai to ascend the road to Cameron Highland.

We had western lunch at Equatorial Hotel and bought strawberries and jam along the way. We crossed the Titiwangsa Range from Cameron Highland to Gua Musang and took the lumber road to Jeli through Dabong. Half-way, we detoured to check-out the waterfall at the base of Gunung Stong.

(Lunch at the Equatorial Hotel)

We reached Jeli at dusk, filled up full tank and entered the East-West hi-way. We could not see the sun-set as it was raining cats and dogs all the way. We planned to have dinner at Banding resort but were disappointed to discover that the resort was under renovation and will only be opened in March. We continued our journey to Grik and stopped at one of the restaurant to have dinner. From Grik we passed through Kuala Kangsar and exited into the hi-way. The journey back to KL was uneventful. Hubby and Raj talked about nothing in particular - from music to politics. In the back seat, I made myself comfortable and dozed on and off. We reached our apartment nearly 2 a.m.

That night we slept like a log. Tired but happy…