Journey to the south

There is a War Museum south of Port Dickson town. We went there on a Tuesday, and unfortunately it was closed (it's closed on Mondays and Tuesdays). But we could still enter the compound. There were a few uniformed soldiers there and they allowed us to take photos before leaving.

Even further south, there is the Wan Loong Temple.

the two archways are one fish, and one dragon (see the top of the arches)

there is a pond (on the right) and a Guan Yin statue

another archway in front of the temple itself

In the temple, there were some newspaper articles about a huge tortoise that had lucky draw numbers on its shell. This was the biggest tortoise we saw there... maybe it is this one?

There are lots of other tortoises as well

When we turned around from the pond to walk back to the temple, this big tortoise had pulled its head into its shell.

In the garden in the back, there are some statues of characters from the Journey to the West.

And that is all for the Port Dickson trip! It took some time, but I'm glad it's all written now! :P

Decorating the town of Lukut

In Lukut, we happened to see a pair of brightly decorated temples by the roadside. We turned in to take a look...

on the left

on the right

The three following photos are of the temple on the left:

I took another photo as we were driving away, so that we could see both temples together.

While just driving around, we happened to pass Lukut's Alive 3D Museum as well.

And there's a cat cafe on its right! See the huge purple cat doorway?

a cowboy-themed recreation centre at the end of the same block

and a homestay mural nearby
I like the 3D effect!

That's all I have for Lukut... next up for the Port Dickson trip will be the drive to the south.

Lukut Fort and Museum

So it's been some time since I wrote about Port Dickson. It's been left in the queue as I have had other things to do...

Anyway, we went to the Lukut Fort and Museum.

Sad to say, there wasn't that much to see there. Admission was free though.

There are steps going up to the actual fort (we went up there later...see below)

But first let's take a look at the things on display.

a cannon

a dragon boat

a fishing boat

The above was what we saw when we walked from where we parked our car, to the museum building. The museum was actually very small, like an old-fashioned wooden building with just a room downstairs and two rooms upstairs.

There were a pair of mini-cannons in front of the museum

We were asked to sign a guestbook before entering the museum (and write down the number of people visiting).

keris

See the old pieces of currency? I believe we learned about the crocodile in school. :P

Newer currency

caklempong (which I'm sure I've heard of before but I don't know from where)

After that, we walked up the stairs that you saw in the first photo...

And were greeted by a vast field.

There was this viewing tower (I guess we could call it that...), so we climbed it.

And from the top, this is what we saw:

a hut

a well (I think)

vast greenery

After that we left... and saw some other buildings along the way back to the hotel, but that's for the next post!

The cockroach war strategy

The latest strategy to handle cockroaches:

1. Slap a pail over the cockroach (bottom down).
There is a little space under the pail, so the cockroach will be trapped there and cannot get out.

2. Spray insecticide around the bottom edges of the pail.
Air can still go through the tiny crack at the bottom of the pail, so the insecticide will get in to the cockroach.

3. Leave for a reasonable amount of time.
In other words, leave the pesky bug to die!

4. After a reasonable amount of time, go and check on the prisoner.
Prepare the insecticide and a slipper just in case the enemy is not dead yet.

5. Lift pail.
If cockroach is not dead yet, either smack with slipper, or slap pail down again and spray! And go back to step 3.

6. Dispose of corpse.
Without touching it with your hands, of course. Broom and dustpan should do the trick.

What do you think?

 

Edit (in 2023): Strategy has been improved since then; see this post.

Dogs crossing the road

On the way to work this morning, I saw two dogs trying to cross the road in the industrial zone (a not-very-busy road). The first stepped forward, and stopped as my car came near. The second stepped forward, stopped when my car came near, kept its head turned to the oncoming cars, and crossed the road after I passed.

Now this is what every dog (and cat) in Penang needs to learn! :P

Then there would be no more roadkill... :( 

A western meal at the Cruises

With a friend, we went to the Cruises Steakhouse for dinner. Food was not bad, but rather pricey. We had a discount of RM30 from Groupon, or else it would have been exorbitant!

We ordered a dish of escargots (read: snails), the main reason we went there. The cutlery came first, with the special "tools" for escargots.

Pincers to hold the escargot and mini-forks to pull out the meat

Lovely presentation, but would have been better if all the shells were the same size :P
RM17.90 for this small plate!

One escargot revealed

This was garlic cheese escargots, and the taste was quite good, but unfortunately the escargots were rather soft and mushy instead of being chewy (like seafood) like the ones I had in France (read about one of them here). Not amazing.

Smoky chicken

A view from the other side, which makes the plate look fuller, but unfortunately doesn't give a good view of the chicken.

Cheesy garlic chicken
The boneless chicken was cut into two pieces and piled on top of a scoop of mashed potato.

The chicken dishes were quite good too, though not drop-dead amazing or anything like that. Normal good, I guess. Very nice presentation, but we could have done without, if the price had been lower :P A point in their favour, though: the mashed potato and fries were good, and the salad not bad either.

With drinks at RM6.50 each, the total bill came up to just over RM90, after adding 10% service charge and 6% government tax. Imagine if we didn't have that RM30 discount...