2017 Trip to Malaysia (Day 1: Kulai - Mantin - KL).........Part 2

Continue from the earlier post.....

We had our lunch, and went on to my mother's old school. There was not much change (according to her)  in the physical building structure; the only obvious difference from 40, 50 years ago (wow!) was probably the use of CCTV and computers and some minor renovations. We took some nice photos for mother, while my children ran off having fun in the field and deserted corridors (it was holidays).

2017 Trip to Malaysia (Day 1: Kulai - Mantin - KL).........Part 1

Today is the first day mid-year school holidays. We woke up at 4.30am (yes, A.M.) just so we could beat the long queue that is bound to form at the Tuas Link to Malaysia. We are going to spend a few days in KL and Cameron Highlands. Cameron Highlands used to be my yearly family trip... well, when my sisters and I were much younger then, still schooling, to be exact. There were 3 of us then, back in Malaysia, as our youngest sister was not "conceived" until we shifted to Singapore some decades ago.  

Now, for the first time, I am bringing my 2 curious pre-teens to Cameron Highlands, just so I could tell them stories about my younger days' trips, the adventures of forest hiking and the mountains of tea plantations.


Breakfast stop at Kulai

Traffic was smooth at the customs, so our efforts to rise early did not go to waste:) As we did not had any food before leaving, we decided to drop by Kulai to have some nice local breakfast. I am not unfamiliar with Kulai. It is one of the bigger towns in southern part of Johor State in Malaysia. In fact, Kulai was where my paternal grandparents lived. When I was little, we would take long, tiring 7 hour trip from Kuala Lumpur to Kulai to visit them during Chinese New Year and school holidays.

Carrot Cake

Bought a lot of carrots, thinking of making some carrot juice. However, changed my mind and made this carrot cake instead.



Thanks to my sister Elizabeth who shared her recipe with me. I reduced the sugar from the cake and modified the cream cheese icing slightly.

Ingredients A:

100g sugar 

3 eggs

150g corn oil 

Ingredients B:

164g plain flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 ½ tsp cinnamon powder

1 ¼ tsp baking powder

Ingredients C:

200g grated carrots 

55g chopped walnuts (I crushed it with a cup)

A jog in the garden........... and fond memories

Recently my girl requested to go "practice" jogging for her school annual cross country event. So we spent a few weekend evenings jogging together.

It is always a great jog at Jurong lake, home to the Chinese Garden and Japanese Garden.Usually we start our jog in the mid-evening when it is not too hot and there is always nice things to see along the way.

As usual we like to take photos of this and that for memories' sake.







The Pagoda brings back memories of my younger days. When I was little, I lived in Malaysia. Once, my family came to holiday in Singapore, and we visited the Chinese Garden. I remember the same spots where my mom, my sister and I posed for photos, more than 30 years ago. The Pagoda was one of these spots.

These following 4 pairs of photos are those taken many years ago (in 1982, to be exact) and taken recently. The place looks very much the same as decades ago although the trees are definitely bigger, and older now:)

Simple noodle

"Mami... we are super hungry! Please please can we have some noodle?"

I can't say "No", can I?

So here we go, simple chicken flavoured Nissin noodle with fish balls and garnishing.