Belut Pulang Ke Lumpur I: Baby Boy

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Swiped from williamnyk.

Ever since I left Kuantan to pursue my tertiary education in Kuala Lumpur, I never once revisited the East Coast. So kacang lupakan kulit, right? Hehe. So, when SK asked a favour of me to follow her back to Kuantan to pick her granny up, I readily accepted. We left KL at about 1:00pm as SK had a physiotherapy appointment in the morning. Zoomed onto MRR2 only to be greeted by a massive crawl from Pandan Indan right up to the Genting Sempah exit. Really infuriating. Wasted one hour there. :S. Had my lunch behind the wheel. While I cursed the traffic, SK would stuff char siew bao into my mouth. Basically, it was smooth sailing from Karak onwards. Potty stop was at Temerloh and we bought a packet of sub-standard steamed peanuts. On and off it rained, making the drive not so pleasant. Arrived at Bukit Setongkol, Kuantan in under four hours. Great timing as it was SK's nephew's full moon celebration (got to eat some angku). The kid was really cute and did not look his age. Quick to smile too! Glad to see that the mother was much better after battling for her life in the ICU for the past 3 weeks due to an acute lung infection. From there on, SK's brother brought us to her uncle's place in Indera Mahkota where her grandma was staying after her knee replacement surgery. Her grandma was so happy to see us. After stuffing all of her luggage into the car, we headed for dinner at Mexica Garden Seafood Restaurant. A halal Chinese restaurant with lots of political affiliations.

Heard that the place is the 'in' thing at the moment. When we walked in at 6:00pm, most of the tables had been reserved. We took the last available table and ordered. Veered towards the expensive that night with steamed sun hok, double boiled superior soup, stir-fried kampung chicken and vegetables. Dessert was jellified mixture coconut water and coconut milk. The bill was on the high side no thanks to the fish, but at least it was worth every penny. Then we headed to SK's brother's house in Galing to spend the night. Just 260k for a corner lot with a huge built-up area and high ceilings. Only in Kuantan I guess. Did some unpacking and later headed out for supper at 9:00pm. Truth be told, dinner had hardly moved down the alimentary tract, but Restoran Kim Kee's famous Golden Dragon Noodle was waiting for me! Still as good as I remembered, but not as dry as I expected. Confused? It's actually hokkien mee, but with an unbeatable wok hei and taste. Ordered grilled fish too. Hehe.



Next, we visited my old housing area to see the new developments there. One thing I noticed about Kuantan-ites is their fervour for over-the-top CNY decorations. Each house had at least two giant lanterns, two strings of red firecrackers and a whole bunch of mini lanterns. And most people spend money for electrical wiring and also put up lampu lip-lap. All sorts of tacky designs made it to the porch. Goodness. Next stop was Teluk Chempedak. Two giant fast food joints now dominate the beach, both with drivethrough counters. The wind was very strong that night, and the high waves crashed against the reclaimed beach. Felt like an alien there as we were the only Chinese! Walked a stretch of the beach with the wet sand between out toes. With nothing much to do there, we went back home, showered and slept. It rained the whole night with howling winds rattling the windows. Zzz...