boon's log 0704.05
Thai food in the clouds
Met up with my college friends for dinner 2 nights ago. One of the guys proposed to have Thai food, but declined to tell us where is this secretive dinner venue. So we followed him along the Balik Pulau road from the Bayan Lepas Airport. As some may know, along the Balik Pulau stretch, there are a lot of fruit farms, especially Durians. A lot of the locals visit these durian farms during the durian season.

Anyway, as we were travelling along the winding road, and as the anticipation builds up, someone in the car behind thought she'd ask a funny question, "You don't think he is going to bring us up to those Maxis antennas on the hills, is he???? Haa haa haa..."

Then, we turned off at one of the side roads that you will most probably never turn into, and then that was the end of civilisation!



No tar roads. Durian trees left and right. No lights. Darkness all around. These roads, I mean, the roads were the main reason why they invented the 4WD. We passed a monitor lizard along the way (nearly hit it) and then we literraly run over a snake (snakes are very common in durian plantations). This was getting to be either like a Night Safari Ride or a Jurassic Park ride.

"Hey! Where is the helpless little goat?"

Anyway, then, unexpectedly, there were chicken sheds on boths sides of the road. But they were emptied. This was when everyone's internal siren started to ring! Bee Boo Bee Boo...

Get it? Bird Flu, Chicken Farm? Get it?

Then we came to the Maxis antenna tower! Yeah, the one that we were joking about 20-30 minutes ago! Goodness! Dang! We were that high...?

Minutes later, we were faced with (what we think is) the biggest Cock in the world. Well, it was a fake one, of course, made out of cement or something. Then, the restaurant came into view.



Apparently, the tycoon who owned this hill, has a durian plantation and also a chicken farm. One day, he had this vision of converting that hill, he thought "If they can build something so beautiful in Genting, I, too, can do it."

There is an open-air platform where it is like a normal restaurant layout. Apart from that, there are private chalet-type layout which can fit around 10-15 people. We sat ourselves in P4 (one of the smaller chalets). The food was not bad. Nothing really spectacular, but the view was worth the climb. On one side, you can see Teluk Kumbar and on the other, I think is the Air Itam area...



By the way, the green curry is nice...

If you are planning to go up there, try to go before 7PM. The sunset is an additional bonus during your time up there. PLUS, the Maxis cellphone reception up there is really good! (duh!) It's like the person you are talking to on the phone is just sitting right next to you!

Price? Reasonable. A well fed group of 4 dudes and 2 dudettes cost only RM130. Not bad at all.

The trip down was almost as eventful as the way up, except that we were no longer wondering where or when the road is going to end... But it was truly and adventurous ride... :) We were so happy to be on "sea-level" again and back to civilization... :)

Thanks, Chu!

boon out...