Hot, Hot Paddy Land

Driving to Perlis is such a breeze!

The initial plan was to visit Jitra, Kedah. My cousin brother is craving for some Thai food he had back in 2006 and was adamant in finding the place. So, since his sister is studying in Perlis, he asked her to find out about this place. We drove half way past Juru towards Kedah when my cousin sister called and told us to drive up to Kangar instead where she lives. She said there is nothing much in Jitra, apart from a Siamese temple, so she told us to visit Kangar.

After about 3 hours from Taiping, we reached Changlun, and turned right into Kangar, we saw her University. Unimap, a rather new university. The town was rather deserted on 1st May 2012.

We drove around town and stopped to wait for her. She took us to her friend’s family owned restaurant, famous for paos, Kedai Khuan Bee. The paos were served piping hot! They only make paos twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Closed on Wednesdays.

If you want to order more, you have to book them in advance. They would reserve some paos for walk-in customers as it’s really silly not able to serve paos when you are operating a pao shop, right? (like that famous pao shop in Tanjung Sepat *roll eyes*). Haha! Please try the kaya paos. Instead of using chicken eggs, they used duck eggs. It taste rather special! The drinks served here are super kao and good, especially the kopi ais! Also, it seems, they also serve economy fried meehoon and noodles, as well as karipaps with pork in it! Too bad it was a busy day, so we didn’t get to sample the porky karipaps.

Random photos taken at the Tua Pek Kong temple

We visited a few spots after the late lunch, Gua Kelam where the waterfalls are and the Tua Pek Kong temple. We also passed by many sights of really vast and green paddy fields. It was quite a sight to behold!

We felt embarrassed because we weren’t prepared to visit her friend’s family so we went to the house empty handed! Mensiasuikan! And the grandmother specially bought us Kaki Bukit’s specialty – kaya kok and other assorted biscuits.

Local delights

We then visited Padang Besar. It is something like a big wet market, selling things from clothes to brooches, shoes to bags, pots and pants and food items. We went a bit crazy buying instant noodles as they were rather cheap. I managed to buy some unusual flavor (read: PORK!) and couldn’t wait to try them!

Watching sunset while waiting for food

The restaurant that my cousin wanted to dine in, is Rong Reang restaurant, situated in Jitra, Kedah. So after a short visit to the friend’s family’s house, we drove about an hour to Jitra for dinner. It was a good thing that, eventhough it was Labour Day, there were still some tables left. The Thai food served was good, but the ambience was quite off-putting. There were many “water mosquitoes” (not sure what they are called, they look like giant ants with wings!) dropping into our dishes that, the restaurant had no choice but to switch off all the lights. ! So, we had to eat in the dark.. hence no photos of food. Haha! I guess the mosquitoes came from the paddy field – as the restaurant is surrounded by paddy fields.

The day ended with a drama. Apparently, another friend was supposed to join us for dinner was ultimately late. We already finished dinner but we waited for him because we need to get a lap top from him before leaving Jitra. When he reached, we went to meet him at the car park only to find his car front, right tyre in the ditch. Haha! He didn’t see that, there’s a hole in front of the parking area and the steel covering the hole has given way. So, after spending almost 30 minutes figuring out how to get his tyre out without pulling the bumper off – which he almost did, we hit home.

Photos taken using mobile phone, uploaded via instagram.

Tags: cuti-cuti malaysia, jitra, kedah, perlis