Dear1 Dear2

Dear1 and Dear2 took a train to Malaysia once, firstly to experience backpacking, and secondly to experience the trills of taking a train. Dear2 has never board a train before, and we wanted to take a train from the Tanjung Pagar Train Station before it really is being condoned off. (Remembering that there were previous talks of boarding Malaysia-bound trains from the Causeway only…)

The ticket-buying procedure wasn’t exactly smooth. We couldn’t find much online information regarding train schedules nor ticket availability, and since paying by credit cards apparently wasn’t as easy as inputing a card number, so the only way was to go to the station 1 day before our desired departure date to purchase the tickets. We wanted to leave by the Friday train for the weekend getaway, hence imagine our disappointment if all the tickets were sold out during our Thursday visit to the station. Luckily for us, despite being a packed train, we still manage to get upper berths tickets. Better than nothing.

With only a simple backpack on our backs, off we went rumbling to Kuala Lumpur on the night train. The upper berths indeed weren’t as comfortable as lower berths beds. Due to a larger radius, the upper berths tend to experience more (and violent) swaying. I was amazed by my own ability to fall asleep in the ’sway here sway there’ all the way to KL.

We arrived at KL in the wee hours of the morning. The other passengers had kins to whisk them off into their homes, and the 2 lone travellers were left standing in the mega combo KL Train Station. Apparently this new station hosts the interchange of a few rail companies so that the foreigner who arrives in KL can transfer via the internal rail networks to where he wanna visit in KL. We took a direct train to our first place of interest, the KLCC. It was supposedly a wise decision to visit KLCC so early in the morning, cos apparently there were an allocated number of visitiors that the tower admits each day. Various online sources told us that visitors even have to queue for hours before finally gaining admission, so of course the first thing to do in KL will be to visit KLCC first thing in the morning first!

During the 3D2N trip, we stayed in an inn pretty close to the Bus Terminal, within Chinatown itself. This was to faciltiate ease of getting bus tickets for our return trip. You know what, we really did purchase the return tickets then and there. Kudos to Dear1 for shoving around in the complex Terminal in order to secure our trip home. And of course, staying in Chinatown itself gave us more sense of confidence alone in the foreign land.

Dear2 shan’t elaborate much on the KL trip. Overall, it was definitely enjoyable. We basically planned the trip ourselves, did the research on the mode of transport to and fro, of all the inns within the vicinity where we feel is safer, of the places of interest that we wanna visit, of the shopping centres which we wanna visit as well, and of course of some tips and information which became useful during the trip itself. A few things that we learnt, one was really to stay close to each other when you are in a foreign land, irregardless that it is the capital city. Dear1’s daddy was robbed of some petty cash exactly in the same bus terminal when he was alone.

Another interesting thing will be, when you enter Malaysia via train, you have better keep your train ticket with you until you reach Singapore safely in your home. The Malaysian customs seem to NOT stamp your passport at all when you enter the country via train. So the best and only proof that you did enter the country legally (remember, there wasn’t any proof anywhere, not even on your passport, to show that you did enter via customs) will be your train ticket stub. Recently, our Immigration was notified of such dangers for Singaporeans going to Malaysia via train, but the best advice that they can offer is, “alert the customs officer to stamp your passport if they did not do so.” Somebody please try and let me know if it works. Thanks.

Tata.

- Dear2

After posting the bak kwa index, Dear1 and Dear2 both decides to buy some bak kwa before the price goes up further. And we chose the cheapest stall at the moment which is Bee Cheng Hiang. It cost $21 for 600g of the minced meat type bak kwa. Smells nice.

Actually, the real reason we bought the bak kwa is to give it as a gift to each other’s parents. Giving bak kwa around Chinese New Year time is a sure way to score some points with the opposite parents yo! So I suggest all girlfriends and boyfriends out there to take the initiative and go buy some bak kwa. Alternatively, u can buy the bak kwa for your own parents but claim that it’s from the boyfriend/girlfriend. Help ur other half score points mah.

I know some families like to cut each piece of bak kwa into a hundred smaller pieces for consumption. I dun like it! I prefer to enjoy the bak kwa in its original state, the entire pseudo square piece of roasted pork/chicken that u see Zoe Tay and Fann Wong eating one tv. Slurp! Only that way can one truly enjoy the tastiness of bak kwa, and the shiok feeling of gobbling up the whole slice. Slurp slurp… Gee… Makes me feel hungry already. But then, some girls dun have a big appetite so maybe is unable finish a slice, that’s why mummies like to cut it all up. Well, I suggest that if the whole slice is too big to eat, u can just tear it into half and still eat the half slice. I think the satisfying part about eat bak kwa is the action of tearing a mouth size of meat bit by bit. Bite with ur teeth and pull with ur fingers, tear the juicy bak kwa. Slurp slurp slurp. Popping a tiny piece of neatly cut bak kwa into the mouth and chewing it just doesn’t work. Haha…

But then of course, if u r expecting guests, or u r trying to fit the bak kwa into ur eight-treasure-tray, then no choice lor, just have to cut lor. Otherwise, every guest eat 1 whole slice, u will run out of bak kwa in no time. However, if u r feeling particularly generous, I suggest serving whole slices of bak kwa to ur guests in a seperate serving plate, dun use the eight-treasure-tray, that will certainly leave an impression with ur guests.

Now, I’ve heard people queue up to 2 hours to get the Lim Chee Guan bak kwa. Personally, I’ve never tried it before, and I wonder if it’s worth the time and money. I would like to taste it some time, but definitely not now. As u can see from the bak kwa index, Lim Chee Guan has, by far, raise their prices the most. Seriously, I will not buy from sellers who mark up their prices just for the occasion to cash in, I think it reflects badly on their business. So I’ll go only buy bak kwa from Lim Chee Guan when there’s no queue and prices are back to normal.

Chinese New Year is coming. Keep healthy everyone. Eat light and simple for this week, then be prepared to face all the Chinese New Year goodies next weekend.

-Dear1