Fine Monday morning to have friends from Japan coming to visit. It was more priviledge to show these folks around town.
When my friend, Namiki, told me that his friends were coming from Japan to Malaysia, I have this intention to be a hospitable host. Maybe being "geh poh" is a hobby of mine.
We started off on this fine day to have yam cha with dim sum. Started with a nutritious and chinese-style breakfast would be a head-start for the day's busy schedule. Unfortunately, one friend, Watanabe-san, was feeling ill due to the day before's late night excessive drinking. Poor man! I hope he did recover after a full tiring trip to the north of Selangor.
For foreigners, I would normally bring them to the pewter factory. The interesting part is it is a uniqueness of Malaysia, secondly at least more interesting hands-on activity to be tried out, like hammering, polishing and so forth. We participated in a workshop, known as "The School of Hard Knocks" (Please call +603-41456350 in advance to book a place. RM 50 per pax; opens everyday). After all the "hard knocking" for an hour, we could bring our prized amateur-work-of-art home. The trip to the museum and factory served to be an eye-opener and of course lots of fun.
Lunch was at Petronas Club's western restaurant (Dulang Suite), located on the 42nd floor of Petronas Twin Tower 2. The club is open to MEMBERS ONLY. So, we were fortunate to dine there. Overlooking the KL skyline, I realised KL has expanded more than I have in mind. Too bad it was lunch, or else, the scenery would have been beautiful if it were to be in the evening. During our brief course there, Dr. Rais (some government official) and his associates walked in and dined there too. I felt so priviledged! All of a sudden, I realised that how a man in an ivory tower feels like to be on the top, overlooking the ant-like humans and cute miniature cars below. So reachable...
The whole evening, I drove up north to Sekinchan to visit a 4-acre Longan Farm, which En. Sharif and his family operates. The brown-skin-white-flesh fruit captured the attention of my dear friends, with its sweetness and its petiteness like a golf-ball-but-only-a-size-smaller. Chinese calls this fruit as the "Dragon Eye". Delicious indeed! What most surprising to know that these Japanese love the King of Fruit - Durian!
Padi fields that surround this Longan farm had its crops harvested, leaving only the stems at their original place. It would have been beautiful to see these crops to sway with the wind.
Coming to Kuala Selangor, one cannot forego seafood at its fame Pasir Parembang fishing village. Seafood galore dominated the dinner palate of my guests. Two kilos of crabs, prawns, asparagus, tofu, steam bread (mantou), and sweet coconut to savour with.
After a fulfilling dinner, we proceeded to catch a glimpse of the well-known fireflies in Kuala Selangor. This time round, we went to Bukit Belimbing (motorised boat) instead of Kampung Kuantan (manually rowed boat) which I used to frequent. To my astonishment, this place has a better view of the fireflies, not to mention its species, compared to its human-manned-boat counterpart. With new moon in place, and shinning stars glittering in a dark dark night, the dim light emited from the back of the fireflies on the
Parembang trees looks facinating indeed. These tiny creatures could be seen dancing gracefully around the trees to woo its female partners. Watanabe-san even commented that it's a good place for a romatic rendezvous for couple! Breathtaking beautiful!
Darkness creeped in, and it was time to bid farewell to our short journey around town. Though a tired night, I did enjoyed myself very much. I hope Namiki and his friends felt the same.