Day Trip to JB with friends.

Yesterday, 5 of us spent the whole day in JB. I drove my bone shaker and Wilson was the overall in-charge of the group. He set the itinerary and also took command of the fiduciary aspect. I was apprehensive when Wilson added another guy aka as The Butcher to our original 4 men group cuz my bone shaker is already due to be scraped having served me faithfully for more than nine and half years. I was surprised that it could still fly with 5 heavy weights on board!

We set off from Pasir Ris at about 12 noon and shoot straight to JB via the super efficient TPE, SLE and BKE highways to the Woodlands border within 30 mins. It was a breeze passing thru the customs and immigration checkpoints. By 1pm, we were already hunting for a table at the famous Soon Fah Bah Ku Teh in Taman Sentosa. It was so crowded and jam packed with the lunch time crowd.

In such situation, teamwork came into play. I told the others I would go place orders since I was familiar with the place. Some of them in my group were first timers. Another guy aka Ray started “chopping” a table whereby the customers about to finish their food but sill dilly dally warming their seats. The others also started to search for an ideal location so that we could shift our table later on. True enough, we shifted from a small table from the outside to a bigger one inside the air-con room. Therein, arose the problem when the lead waiter got mixed up with our tables even though I did inform him that we shifted table. He did not take note due to the fantastic crowd as they could not cope with waves of in-coming crowd. Mind you it was a weekday and not the usual mad weekends where customers need to queue to be waited.

Since the staff could not cope with the relentless crowd, we had to get our own chilies, light sauce and garlics. I self-helped to tons of garlics standing by for the hot steaming claypot of pork stewed soup aka as Ba Ku Teh. We ordered 2 big claypots, 3 pieces of fresh “ang go li” fish cooked in sambal ah sam chilies, salted sweet vegetable, fritters, sesame oil ginger tender chicken etc. The 2 big claypots of Ba Ku Teh were also topped up with tons of extras like intentines, livers, dried tow kee, baby bao bei etc. Imagine throw in tons of garlics and you would have the best sumptuous Ba Ku Teh! Soup was refilled more than twice to satisfy our palate. Since it was an extremely hot day, we were having some “sauna” with dipping sweats to boot even though we were seated in the powerful air-con room. I then ordered a round of super cold jelly water with lots of ice cubes to cool off.

Final bill for the lunch feast came to RM120 ($46.60). It’s less than $10 per person!

The next stop was at Giant – Pelanggi which is another neighborhood next to Taman Sentosa. There were so much CNY goodies and other things to ogle inside Giant and the surrounding shops in the shopping complex. I topped up my U-Mobile with RM10 and also bought an Otter Defender case for my ipad mini at RM65 ($25). It’s selling for at least $69 to $79 here.

You just need RM18 to register for an U-Mobile line. I usually top up RM10 whenever I visit JB. Life span is 6 months. Can also be used here if you hook it to StarHub. I use U-Mobile when I’m in Malaysia cuz I could call anywhere including Sg and also surf the net on my mobile with unlimited data albeit slower speed. I could also WhatsApp seamlessly which is very important cuz I could keep my frens and family members updated with messages and tons of pictures especially when I was having my gourmet feasts sent via WhatsApp! When I uploaded those pictures on my FB via U-Mobile, there was bound to have responses especially from Van, Taxi James and Rob! I suggest that those frequent visitors should get an U-Mobile line. It’s cheap and convenient. No worry about incurring un-intentional international auto roaming charges!

Wilson suggested hoping over to Zone – Duty Free sector in JB by the Stulang Beach just opposite our own Senoko. I could see clearly the 3 red pillars on the opposite side. It’s so near and the sea so calm. No wonder the limping MS could just swim over easily. Just a narrow channel of water between us and them with a huge world of differences between us even though we share so much in common. Let’s hope that the prediction made by our great wise man that in 50 yrs’ time, we shall be one. It’s already half-way there since that prediction was made in 1990. Only Time will tell.

We quickly settled into one of the numerous pubs inside the Zone. It was extremely hot and we needed to take cover fast in a cool nice water hole. We headed to Sunset Paradise where young pretty waitresses were busily serving customers. So many patrons inside the darkened pub where one can of Guinness Stout costs only RM10 with live TV and soft soothing music in the background. What a splendid place to relax and unwind. The ambience was simply captivating. We promise ourselves that we should visit again with either Taxi Alan or Caveman as pilots cuz they would never touch a drop of alcohol. I did not drink cuz I was driving. It was frustrating watching them drowning cans of Guinness Stout. Anyway, I was later compensated immensely for my sacrifices.

Having spent more than 2 hours in the pub, it’s dinner time. Next stop for dinner at Teck Sing which is a short drive away. We had to maneuver our way there due to evening peak hour. When we arrived there, the place was comfortably occupied. Not as bad as in the afternoon when we had our lunch at another restaurant nearby.

As usual, since I was a regular there I ordered the food. When the waiter came with the menu, I told him not necessary. I listed all the dishes accordingly – Fish Head curry, Deep Fried Pig trotters Thai style, Sharks’ Fins, Herbal Paper Kumpung Chicken, Home Made Otah on hot plate, Petai fried with chilies not available so I ordered Sweet Potato leaves, 2 bottles of Guinness Stout with lime juice for myself and The Butcher. He had had enough of beer already.

Whilst I was busy taking note of the dishes and uploading pictures to my FB using U- Mobile to keep my friends back home updated, they attacked the food like vultures cuz those I ordered are the signature dishes of Teck Sing Restaurant. At the end of the sumptuous feast, we agreed that Wilson is the best eater followed by Ray, Bernie and me. The first to puncture was The Butcher. He just could not keep up with our pace even though he attacked the food first!

I’ve uploaded some pictures taken at Teck Sing restaurant. You will definitely be tempted by those dishes. The details are also provided. Feel free to sample yourselves. I’ve brought many friends there. So far, all agreed that the food there is delicious and prices reasonable. For all those dishes plus 2 bottles of Guinness Stout, it came to about RM183 ($70).

After our sumptuous dinner at Teck Sing, it’s alread passed 8pm. Time to head for home. But wait, I needed to top up petrol for my bone shaker. I did not bother to go for a car wash since it’s about to be scraped. Before I could pay for the RM90 of V-Power, Bernie already settled it for me with Wilson putting the pump back!

I did not pay a single cent for the entire trip except that I bought the E-Day License at $20 for my OPC car. The others paid everything. They came out with RM100 ($40) each for all the food and also beer in the pub. When we arrived at Woodlands checkpoint, it’s exactly 9pm. By 9.30pm, all of them dispersed at car park of Blk 444 Pasir Ris Dr 6. What a memorable day. I decided to capture that priceless moment spent in JB with my good friends here. Hopefully they would read them whenever they feel nostalgic about the JB trip.