a great day at johor!

i was quite pissed off in the morning because my mother sort of lied saying that we will get back by afternoon. and it got more irritating when we were stuck in the sbs bus along the way to the m'sia checkpoint.

but the feeling got off very soon as our uncle picked us off for lunch.

so we arrived at this small (but luckily air-conditioned) shop that sells snacks confectionery etc. but i heard that their soon kuey is nice so all of us got quite a number of each flavour to try. oh they are quite nice. the skin is thin enough...though the filling is not as much as compared to those sold in sg...

next we went to a kelong! quite anxious along the long trip to some deserted kind of wooden jetty.

so we reached there...walked on the wooden planks (not a row of nicely placed ones but sparsely spread with spaces between each other) of the jetty...climbed down a few steep steps to the floating platform and onto a small boat.

frankly speaking it was my first time to such a place so i got nervous at the start. but after i began to adapt to the floating platform and seeing my big sized uncle getting more nervous of not balancing himself and fall, i began to ease.

so we spent quite a while and effort to get ourselves onto the boat and set off to the kelong. very short trip of only a few minutes.

we boarded up the kelong (after a short while of alighting everybody up) and...quite nice is what i can say about my first impression. no matter what it was my first time so many things look interesting at that moment- the scenery, what those guys (my uncle's friends) do at there etc...

they are actually growing mussels (of a few kinds) for sale. they are also selling some baby mussels (which actually don't come with the shell). unfortunately they just started out this business and the first batch of mussels were only down in the sea two months ago (upon asking i was informed that mussels are ready for harvesting only after six to eight months).

scenery wise it was so so...at my back it's m'sia so in front of me it's sembawang and its shipyards... -.-
and it was quite hot even with some sea breeze at the middle of the afternoon.

so an indian guy was getting ready to fish with young mussel flesh as bait...two chinese guys doing some maintenance...my uncle and my mother soaking their legs in the sea water while i paced around looking at the scenery and somewhere which is cooler.

after we went ashore we went to a shopping mall (in which we bought some food and i got a t-shirt) and then dinner.

a small looking stall opposite a shop house at the corner. seems normal (with some flies) but my uncle recommended it for their satay, nasi lemak and rendang chicken. so we had a try of all of it and...oh man. the rice is full of fragrance...the rendang chicken is not spicy yet tasty with its hard to forget rendang sauce...and the satay. we got ourselves chicken and mutton (too bad i can't get myself beef when i am with my mother) satay as side dish. i dare to say that's the best i have eaten in my life...especially the mutton sticks. let's just compare...you know those typical sg mutton sticks? small sized, hard and dry ones? as compared to bigger meat fillings, very fresh (the charcoal was just done when we reached), juicy and soft. it's not burnt badly despite the habit of malay vendors grilling with strong charcoal flames; only with some soot here and there so i can say because of that the mutton's tenderness and juiciness is wickedly retained. paired with a plate of satay sauce...heavenly.

i ordered a cup of some tea (which i have no idea what it's called in english) by the suggestion of my uncle. it has literally three layers of ingredients when served- the top layer being the tea, at the middle condensed milk and lastly some thick brown sugar solution at the bottom. oh that's nice too. it's just like...iced milk tea with more fragrance brought by the brown sugar. but it doesn't get you thirsty after that. drools.

well at least today was not badly spent.

things to get:

-digital watch for ns
-shaver
-any other ns related/recommended items
-cool sony mp3 player! (optional though)