Day 1 – Arriving at Kluang

The driver arrived at my place 8am sharp and we went about picking the rest from 5 separate destinations with almost military precision.  It’s nice to travel with punctual people. 🙂

By 9am, we were at the causeway.  It can get slightly busy to be crossing the borders at this hour to Malaysia.  But I figured that it’s a good balance between waking up too early and avoiding the busiest hours.

As our ride was a Malaysian registered commercial coach, we had to alight from the vehicle, go through the customs and board the vehicle again.  Using a private vehicle would allow us to cross the customs without getting off the vehicle.  However, a private vehicle need to use the private vehicle lanes versus the dedicated bus lane.  The private vehicle lanes are usually more busy and can come to a near standstill when returning on Sundays.  So there are pros and cons on the use of different type of vehicles.

Another consideration was the use of the causeway versus the second link.  The second link is slightly further with higher fees but is usually not as crowded as the causeway.  I did checked with the driver when making the arrangement and he told me he would be using the causeway.  I respected his choice and did not question further.

After clearing the customs, we stopped by Queen Park Restoran for breakfast.

Most of us had the Laksa Yong Tau Foo.

And a side dish of egg tarts.

And some herbal You Tiao.

Know why the compact discs are hanging above the food?  Apparently, the houseflies are scared of their own reflections.

Zen Xin Organic Farm is located along Jalan Batu Pahat towards the direction of Kluang town.

I had made pre-arrangements with Zen Xin for a farm tour package.

The knowledgeable guide brought us around and explained a lot of things. Unfortunately, I have forgotten most of them.  Admittedly, I wasn’t paying a lot of attention.

Guess what we are making?

Curry puffs!  From the shapes, it’s probably obvious they were self-made. 😛

After a steamboat lunch at Zen Xin and some organic food shopping, we continued our way to Kluang town and checked in at Rail Hotel.

I like this shower head.

After a short rest, the driver brought us to Kluang Mall before he called it a day.  We arranged to meet the driver the next afternoon when he would be driving us to Kukup.

We first went to the cinemas to check if there are any shows worth watching.  James recommended Hantu Gangster, a locally produced movie.  It’s produced by Namewee of Nasi Lemak 2.0 fame.

We had some time before the movie and went for some chai.

I enjoyed the movie thoroughly.  From the movie poster, you might get the impression that it’s a low brow horror-comedy.  But it is a deeper movie than that.  There are many references to the deeper political and social issues in Malaysia.

We took a walk from Kluang Mall through the Pasar Malams (night markets) where we had dinner at a roadside restoran.  We then took 2 cabs back to Rail Hotel and turned in early for a morning hike the next day.

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