There ' s a t-t-t-iger at the Sungai Perak R & R Northbound

A stuffed toy tiger to be exact.

In a cage. Facing the jungle fringe.

What is this ? A marketing gimmick or voodoo ? 

PLUS NSE exit 2801 - almost like Sydney !

 

 

Well, last night was a historic moment in which tens of thousands of people in the Northern Region, poured towards the newly opened Sultan Abdul Halim Muadzam Shah Bridge or the Second Penang Bridge / JK2PP .

While the entire fanfare was focused on the bridge itself, I seriously think that PLUS authorities have come up with a real gem, which I foresee is going to be hugely popular with the locals as it looks just like Sydney Harbour's bridge from afar !

 

 

Jeruk maman and fist sized prawns - Gurun R&R Northbound (U)

How many times I have passed here, yet only today, I venture in. Wanna kick myself cos most of the dishes are quite good.

Since it's rather early, and there's a lull in the holiday crowd, the staff , though rather busy, can afford a breather to entertain my queries.

Flash flood at Gunung Semanggol R&R

At first, I thought there had been an accident

A police car passes by, while this man is striking a gangnam style pose.

No he didn't, he was just directing traffic.

Water pooling ?

PLUS personnel standing around for some reason or another.
Probably to prevent insistent drivers from bulldozing in.

Looks like the entrance to the r & r is blocked

Confirmed

How to get in ?

Bad luck if you desperately needed to use the toilet...

Hmmm.... wonder where the flood is coming from

With the school holidays round the corner and the rain showing no signs of letting up , hope PLUS solves this problem ASAP.

Stay foodless near Taiping NSE or else ...

I'm not sure if you remember this tragic, real life incident. A family had sent their daughter to the airport in KL, as she was going to study overseas. Their car stalled somewhere along the NSE northbound outside Ipoh.
They stayed put inside their car and were hit by an oncoming vehicle. The whole family perished.

Present day.
It was after midnight. As we were approaching the first entrance to Taiping, our car suddenly made a funny sound and to our utmost horror, gave up speed . Quick thinking hubby was able to avert any untoward accident. He safely steered it towards the side of the highway .
Bearing that tragic incident about the family above, in mind , I ordered everyone out .
As we stood outside waiting for help to arrive, we noticed across the road, another driver had just abandoned his car and was running into a palm oil estate. Not sure if he was a criminal who was pursued by cops or if he had been spooked, but he left his car door open and never returned the whole time we were standing there.
From where we were standing, the kids could hear a sort of light hiss every now and then. I didn't hear a thing neither did hubs. They were creeped out by that.
Help soon arrived in the form of the PLUS peronda who helped tow our vehicle to the toll plaza. Other than being a little shaken up, we soon found out that the timing belt had snapped. Caused considerable damage which luckily we were able to cover ( talk about great timing) with something I had just won .

Anyway, a few months after that , I read a letter to the editor in a local newspaper. The Indian lady related, that in the same area where our timing belt had unfortunately snapped, her small son suddenly became possessed and started talking in another being's voice.

What she related next,gave me the creeps.
She said that both she and her husband had driven into Taiping, in search of a temple to help rid their son of whatever was inside him.
The priest adviced her that the area she had just travelled was 'dirty' and the incident happened because she had carried some food containing meat in her car and 'those beings' had been attracted to it .
If you wanted to avoid trouble and you had no choice but to pass the area after 7pm , the rule was to ensure that you transport no cooked food in your car, he said to her.

Shit. So that's it. On the day our belt snapped, we had packed some food (yong tau foo) back from KL. Damn. That explains a lot of things.

From then onwards, we have never EVER tapaued any food back . Unless it was before 7pm. But I'm not one to take chances.
So no more foo chook, no more beef noodles,no peah,no mee, no porridge, no nothing.
Everything we want to eat, we consume on the spot either in Ipoh or in KL. No tapauing allowed. No tumpaing to buy things like bak kua either. Forget it.
My car stays meatless and foodless as far as possible, whenever we travel up north from KL .

Petai Tree on the NSE

This is a petai flower. It looks like a weird furry ball on the end of a long reed . The yellow tinge you see at the end, consists of tiny flowers filled with pollen .

When the surrounding fluff falls off , it will look something like a queer bulb

This is what it looks like up in the tree

Eventually, those bulbs will grow and form these hanging clusters of pods

The most amazing thing is, I spotted this tree at a PLUS reststop on the NSE.

If you're keen, keep a look out after the Sungai Dua toll plaza for this small rest stop. It lies just before a water logged marsh that flanks both sides of the highway