Durterte and The Taxi Driver

Posted on October 21, 2017 by jipp

So I was in Manila recently, playing a tour guide to a bunch of my family members who were there for a very short vacation. Unlike in my previous trips to Manila which were dominated by the use of jeepneys, I used quite a number of taxis this time. One of the best things about taxi drivers in Manila is their ability to speak quite fluent English. It’s always easy to communicate with them at length. So I grabbed the opportunity to ask one or two of the taxi drivers about what they thought of their new president.

“I actually like him. He really works. He does his job” said a taxi driver as we moved slowly along with the slow traffic towards the airport where my family members were waiting to be picked up. So I asked him about all the killings that he’s been accused of doing to curb the serious drug problems among the Filipino communities especially in Manila.

“Yes, drug is a very serious problem in Manila. Very very serious” he said. “So you think it is justified for him to do all the killings to curb these drug problems?” I asked. He appeared to be hesitant at first, but said “No. He should not do it. He cannot just go kill people. He should not misuse his power to kill defenseless people. He is not God”

“You mean these people deserve a fair trial?” I asked, just to dig out more. “Yes, they deserve to be given a fair trial. If it is confirmed that a person is involved with drug only then he should be sent to jail”

“and not to be shot?” I heard myself ask. The documentary on the overcrowded prisons in Manila that I watched on TV suddenly came to mind. “No, nobody should be killed. That’s against the Catholic teachings. Even God forgives. They should be given a chance to repent and be sorry of what they did” he said as if disgusted by my question.

“But then Duterte is not a Catholic” he continued. I didn’t bother to ask what he (Duterte) was. For me it’s not really about religion.

“Thank you for telling me your thoughts on Duterte. I had the impression that most Filipino people agreed of what he is doing” I thanked him as we neared the arrival hall.

“Not really. We are happy that he is doing his job but not the killings” he replied before we offered good bye to each other. The driver of the taxi that I took later seemed to share the sentiment.

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My Complete Guide on Doing a Road Trip in New Zealand

Posted on October 11, 2017 by jipp

Why a Road Trip?

I’m not going to argue much about this. For me there are always pros and cons to everything and this is no exception. The best thing about going on a road trip (where you rent a car) is the chance to plan your own routes. When you are in charge of the wheel, you can always stop whenever you want to, probably to take pictures or buy food. Then you can always make a detour just in case there’s a last-minute change of plan. Besides, the facilities are there so why not utilize them to make the best of your trip? There are times in other countries when I wish I was in charge of the wheel but I couldn’t because the facility is not there or it is simply not allowed by the law. Then a road trip also allows you to travel at your own pace so you know it when you need to rush or simply taking all the time in the world.

Choose your Season – Autumn, Winter, Spring or Summer?

This is certainly one of the most important decisions to make when you travel to New Zealand for a road trip. Based on most travel reviews that I read, doing a road trip during winter is not recommended because most of the roads might be covered in snow so they are not easy to ride on. To tell the truth, I would have preferred going there during Spring when it is much greener but then our main intention of going to New Zealand was to do the Milford Track and the best time to do it is during summer. Besides, the longer days during summer would allow us to cover more distances in a day.

Decide your Travel Period

Well, it actually depends on how much of New Zealand that you want to see and experience. The longer you are there the more places that you can go to but of course the more money you would have to let go.

We were there for about 2 weeks, just enough time to drive from Auckland on the North Island all the way to Te Anau on the South Island where we trekked the Milford Track for 4 days and drove back to Christchurch from where we took a domestic flight back to Auckland. I would say we had quite an ample time to cover places that we wanted to go, even deciding to do a little bit of detour to Wanaka when somebody recommended it to me on fb at the very last minute.

Buy your Tickets

Well, of course, when you have decided when to go you can proceed to buying your flight tickets. Of course for some people budget is the priority so they’ll buy the cheapest tickets that they can get (regardless of when). I personally don’t encourage this because seriously, you don’t want to go there when all the beauty is buried under the snow unless snow is your thing.

Of course in our case the deciding factor is the hike at Milford Track where the date (or at least the period during which trekking is encouraged or allowed) had already been fixed. We allowed for our time to reach Auckland and drove all the way to Te Anau (the nearest town to Milford Track) with a few overnight stops along the way – then to drive back to Christchurch where we would catch a domestic flight back to Auckland. We decided to take a domestic flight back to Auckland to shorten our travel period. Besides we did not want to drive back on the same route that we already took or the trip would become boring.

Choose your Routes

The route that you are going to take has to be in tandem with your travel period. Longer days during summer (and probably spring) allow you to cover more distances when the sun is up. Of course you don’t want to drive in the dark and miss most of the beauty. I would say we covered an average of 380km each day and yet we had enough time to stop several times along the way.

I would like to emphasize that it’s very important that you check the latest updates on the routes that you are planning to take in New Zealand. This country is prone to earthquakes and other natural disasters so they might be a closure of road here and there. They usually suggest an alternative route on the website. Seriously, you don’t what to book your accommodation at a town only to find out that you can’t reach that town without making a very long detour. The road connecting Picton and Christchurch on the east coast was still not passable when we were there so we had to use the alternative road via Murchison as suggested in the NZ official tourism website.

Before deciding the route, you may want to list down the places that you want to go. It is also advisable to make a priority list. One of the things that inspired me to go to New Zealand was the movie trilogy LOTR (and later the Hobbit) so I wanted to see as many of the filming locations as possible. But then I had come to find out that most of these filming locations are in private lands which are off-limit to visitors. Some of them can be reached by tour but then you may want to consider the worthiness since most of them are not that cheap. I decided that if there was one filming location of LOTR that I must go to, it had to be the Hobbiton. The rest – well, depends. We would decide as we went.

If doing the inter-island ferry ride is part of your itinerary then you have to make sure that you arrive at Wellington (or Picton if you are from the other side) in time for your crossover. There are a few companies offering crossover services. You may want to check out the schedule of departure and arrival to suit with your itinerary. We took the morning ride because we wanted to reach Picton on the other side of the channel early at noon so that we’ve got ample time to drive all the way to Murchison before nightfall.

Choose your Vehicle

Well, every time you think of doing a road trip across New Zealand, a motorhome would come to mind. But I gotta tell you that motorhomes are very very expensive (but of course this is subjective. I’m putting through the perspective of a budget traveler that I am). It’s not quite worth it if you are traveling in a very small group, say 2 or 3 people. To me it is only worth it if you are traveling in a large group, probably 5 and above which is why it is usually the top choice among families. It saves quite a bit on accommodation but then you still need to pay for the space that you occupy at most of the campsites. The fees can be more expensive than the money you spend on a room at a budget hotel. Some of them are free – usually with very limited facilities though – and you can check the availability and fees on the New Zealand tourism site.

If you are in a small group, I think it’s better to rent a car and stay at hotels that are usually available in most major towns along the way. It’s still cheaper compared to renting a motorhome.

Choose your Type of Accommodation

If you choose a motorhome or a caravan than you only need to find designated areas for motorhomes (campsites as they are called). You cannot just park your car overnight or you might end up having to pay a hefty fine. Good news is, the campsites are scattered all along the roads all over New Zealand. On the other hand, if you choose to use a car like we did then you may want to book for accommodation depending on availability and budget. Mind to tell you though that budget hotels in New Zealand are very limited and they run out pretty fast. It’s always advisable to book well in advance. Some of the days we did not book for accommodation so we ended up paying extra for an expensive room because all of the budget hotels were full.

Renting a Car and What to Consider 

When you google, you’ll find out that only a handful of well-established and recognizable companies offer rental vehicles in New Zealand while the rest are privately-run, usually by families or individuals. Usually the private-run companies offer cheaper rental rates but there is no way we can ever be assured of their services. Those well-established companies offer more convincing services and they have branches in major towns so they can reach you faster in case your car breaks down or something.

The vehicles for rent in New Zealand generally consist of cars, caravans and motorhomes. The cars usually do not have any bed while caravans have 2-3 beds. Some of these caravans are modified from cars, usually by putting in beds at the back and equipped with simple cooking utilities. Motorhomes on the other hand have beds, kitchens and just about everything for a self-sufficient road trip.

Usually in most cases, the older cars are cheaper while the newer are more expensive. But do not be fooled by the age of a car. I put my trust in how New Zealand is very strict when it comes to the conditions of cars that they allow moving on their roads (on the engine part, at least). When I first saw the car that we were going to drive for the next 2 weeks or so, I was quite worried. It looked quite old and I was already imagining all kind of shits that the car was going to put us through. But then, we encountered no problem at all. It all went very smoothly right from the beginning to the end. Apparently, I was fooled by the looks.

After much thought, I decided to rent a car from one of the more established companies in New Zealand. I chose Jucy Rentals which is actually an international company offering rental services in New Zealand, Australia and USA. Well, I know, it kind of scares you if you look at some of the reviews because not all of them are nice reviews but then you can never find a company with a 100% good record based on the reviews. Besides, different people have different expectations. What is not OK to some people may actually be OK to you and vise versa.

So considering the budget and the fact that we were going to travel light because we were going to stay at budget hotels/hostels along the way anyway, we decided to rent El-Chepo – the smallest car (and also the most popular) that they offer. The idea of traveling around New Zealand on a motorhome sounded so appealing but after taking into account the cost and everything we just decided that it was not worth it.

Jucy Rentals also offers the inter-islander ticket on their website so you can pay for the car and the ticket in one package. You gotta pay for a passenger fare and a car fare. Usually the car care fare depends on the size of the car. The bigger the car, the more expensive the car fare is. Usually you can buy the ticket first and confirm the date and time of your crossover with the rental company later. Mind to tell you that Jucy Rentals does not really respond to your email (they only responded once to me and never again after that) so you gotta reach them by phone (which is easy peasy to do anyway).

Another main factor as to why we took Jucy Rentals is the availability of their office in Christchurch where we could return our rental car without having to drive it back all the way to Auckland again.

Picking up and Dropping Off the Car

One of the best things about renting a vehicle from Jucy Rentals (or probably other well-established rental companies) is the fact that you can pick up the car in Auckland on the North Island and return it in Christchurch on the South Island or vise versa. Some extra fee may applies (said to be the charge to bring it back to Auckland, although I heard they’d offer travelers to bring back cars to Auckland or vise versa for free) but at least you don’t have to drive all the way back to Auckland to return it. When we returned the car at their garage near the Christchurch airport (after sending it for a quick wash at a gas station), they did a quick check and that was it. We were free to go (but of course they can always charge you through your credit card if they found any damage later as part of the agreement that they made you sign when you confirmed your booking).

Driving License Requirement

I’m not sure about other countries but they do accept Malaysian license when renting a car in New Zealand. If you and you travel buddy are taking turns to be in charge of the wheel, you gotta tell the management so that they’ll put it in the record too. If memory serves me right, an amount of fee applies for an extra driver.

Daily Car Insurance – to take or not to take?

Well, we never know what’s gonna happen so you can actually put down much of the worries by purchasing the car insurance. We took the full insurance or the ‘stress-free’ as they call it just for a little bit of assurance and peace of mind. Most of the insurance, full or not full, does not cover damages on tyres and roof (usually damaged when the car overturns) so you still need to be careful. Mind to tell you too that the car insurance is charged based on daily basis so it really depends on the daily rate and number of days that you are going to use the car for.

The GPS

Mind to tell you that the GPS is rented on a daily basis. You can always find your way on the google map on your phone but GPS will tell you about each town that you drive past and alert you of places of interest that happen to be in the vicinity as you drive. For me, when you are driving across so many small towns it is always good to know about each town especially on their historical side. GPS goes hand in hand with the fact that you are driving a car so you can always make a little bit of detour to a place that may interest you as mentioned in the GPS.

The Road Conditions

Generally, the roads in New Zealand are mostly OK. If you’ve been to Sabah you’ll see how the roads there are more of a zig-zag than those in New Zealand. You may encounter reckless drivers especially in big cities like Christchurch (the worst) and probably Auckland (I didn’t get to drive there). There was one time when I almost bumped into a car which was driven way beyond the white line at a traffic light. Good thing about roads in New Zealand is the in-existence of tolls (at least along the routes that we took, which was all over anyway).

Gas

The price of fuel differs from town to town. Prepare to spend an average of NZD50 (may be more for bigger cars) to travel some 400 KM a day. Usually each town has one gas station and you’ll find these towns all along the way so you should not run out of fuel.

The Food

Food is not really a problem when doing a road trip in New Zealand (unless of course you are a Muslim). Every now and then you’ll drive upon a little town with restaurants and cafes. In bigger towns you’ll find McDonald’s, KFC, Burger King and of course Subway and just like in any most developed country, food at this fast food restaurants is actually cheaper compared to those that they serve at standard restaurants. This is quite contrary to how it is in most developing countries such as Malaysia and Thailand where fast food is considered as expensive meals. A cheaper option for food would be to buy packaged food such as sandwiches and breads from the supermarkets.

Thanks to the existence of so many Asians in New Zealand, Asian food is quite readily available in many of the little towns that we drove across. Every now and they we’d come upon a small restaurant that offers take-away Chinese food. Amazingly most of them are usually operated by a lone cooker. He does everything – from cooking, packaging and even running the cash register. It was there that I realized how restaurants in Malaysia are so overstaffed.

To tell the truth, I spent quite a lot on food while I was in New Zealand. I wouldn’t really consider this trip a budget one so we’d usually go to the first restaurant that we came upon especially if it was one that served Asian food. Unfortunately, Asian food in New Zealand is not that cheap. All in all you need to spend at least NZD10 for a single proper meal and a few more dollars on drink. I actually spent just as much on coffee because seriously, the weather in New Zealand can be very dry and chilly even during summer so it really really hit me hard in terms of my need for caffeine. I’d usually go for Cappuccino and each cup of Cappuccino in New Zealand costs about NZD5 and we are talking about 3-4 cups per day so in the end I had to fork out some NZD20 on coffee like every fucking day! Urghh.

The Inter-island Crossover

Most of the established rental companies actually offer to include the inter-island crossover in their packages. It’s like you pay to them and they’ll help you buy the ticket. Of course if you are bringing the car to cross over like how we did, you’d have to pay for the passenger ticket and for the car transfer. Some people would prefer to drive the car to Wellington (if they are driving from the North) and get another car on the other side so that they can avoid paying for the car transfer which is actually quite expensive. The idea of having to clear the car off and bring all our stuff to the other side did not sound quite appealing to us so we decided to bring the same car to cross over. At least we could just leave our stuff inside the car without any care in the world.

When you have paid the ticket to your rental company – and you have confirmed with them the date and time of your cross-over (you can check the complete schedule on their website), they’ll email a confirmation slip to you. All you need to do is print out this slip and bring it to the ferry. Hand it over to the officer at the gate (while queuing up of course) and they’ll give you a proper ticket. You will remain in the car until you have your car safely parked in the ferry by following instructions by the personnel on duty.

This crossover takes about 3 hours so there’s no way that you’re just gonna stay in the car so you should join the others to go up to the passenger area in the top deck (there is a playground for kids at the lower deck). Besides the Cook Channel that separates the South and North Island of New Zealand offers some of the most beautiful sea views in the world so you should not miss it.

The passenger area is so huge and it consists of different partitions where cafes are available in some of them. There is even a live band performance to keep you entertained. You are allowed to go down to the open-air veranda to take in the view without the obstruction of the glass wall but it can get very very cold. Once the ship has arrived on the other side of the channel, you’ll be called to go back to your car and drive out. It’s very hassle free.

Stay Connected

We were lucky because nothing (bad) happened to us when we were there. But then I think it is advisable to stay connected because we never know what’s gonna happen along the way. New Zealand is quite a big country at least by land area and it only has some 4 million people of population so chances are, you’re not gonna bump into a single soul while driving across the countryside. All the goats and cows are not going to offer you any help in case your car breaks down or something – although they may offer you their irritating and curious looks.

My point being –  it’s quite advisable that you buy a local sim-card (unless you are rich enough to afford the exorbitant roaming charges) so that you can always call the rental car service provider just in case you ram into something in the middle of nowhere. Companies like Juice Rentals provide 24-hours assistance where they’d come to you when you get into any trouble with your vehicle. We didn’t get to have to use it so I can’t really tell much about how this thing works.

Just go for it!

Doing a road trip in New Zealand is actually pretty much easy. I’d laugh when I think how I was worried too much pending the trip. Their roads are actually quite easy to drive on compared to so many roads that I’ve been to in Asia, even in my home country Malaysia. Of course you just need to be a little bit careful but I think this applies whenever you are driving anywhere in the world.

It was not cheap – I gotta say – but for me it was something that I gotta do at least once in a life time.

So if somebody would ask if it was worth it I’d most definitely say yes. But if somebody asked if it really really was it, I may want to give it a deeper thought. But I’ll write more about this in some other post.

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Mount Tahan – Conquered and Dusted

Posted on October 8, 2017 by jipp

So I went to Mount Tahan last week, as part of my mission to tick at least something off my bucketlist before end of this year. I had always wanted to conquer the mountain, which is the highest mountain in Peninsular Malaysia but conquering it required more than a week back then – which was quite too long for me – and it also was not cheap. Thanks to the new trail (but I later learned that it was not that new) via Merapoh, it is now possible to conquer the mountain in a matter of a few days.

I was invited to join a group of strangers – which I had no problem with – and the fee was quite cheap at RM150 per person (nett). But then, at that price which was only for the guide and probably some other stuff such as the registration fee, insurance, first night accommodation, first day’s breakfast and lunch pack, I had to bring EVERYTHING on my own – tent, sleeping bag, clothes, food stuff, cookery, utensils etc. That was quite a new experience for me because in all my years of climbing mountains, I never had to bring everything on my own. I was both excited and nervous.

First night accommodation at Merapoh

So me and my friend Juvi – which was the only one that I knew in the group – started off from KL at about 10.30pm (most of us had to work that day) and arrived in Merapoh at almost 3 in the morning. We were led by the guide to a hostel where we promptly surrendered ourselves to a much-needed sleep.

The real adventure only began the next day. We registered at the National Park office in Sungai Relau and it was here where we had to declare every item that we were going to bring to the climb (they had a check list). In fact we had to unpack and lay out everything for the guide to check before repacking them back into our backpacks. They would be checked again when we returned from the climb (supposedly). I think this technique really works because I could hardly see any trash along the trail (there were some but still much better than most other mountain trails that I’ve been to).

After a little bit of addressing and briefing by a National Park rep and the guide himself, we were bundled onto a 4×4 Land Cruiser where we were headed to the starting point of the trail at Kuala Juram. It took about 40 minutes of safari-like ride across lush greenery and beautiful forest. It was more like the introductory part of the whole expedition.

So starting off from Kuala Juram at about 10.30am, it was quite an easy walk in the beginning of the trail. Everybody seemed to be marching off quiet at ease and I was beginning to question myself if I was fit enough to keep up with them. We had to cross a river several times and each of the crossings offered different experiences. There was one time when we had to use to the help of a rope and submerged ourselves up to the chest so this was one of those times when a dry bag really really came in handy.

The trail to the top of Mount Tahan really is so beautiful. We trekked past beautiful rapids and waterfalls and one of the waterfalls reminded me of the famous Giant Gate Falls at Milford Track in New Zealand. The water gushes out of a rock cleavage at the top and falls in between a natural rock gutter right to a pool at the bottom. I wish I had a little bit of time to take a dip and enjoy the beauty of the falls more but we were talking about covering some 20 KM to the camping site that day alone so it was quite not possible.

I think Mount Tahan itself is not that high compared to a few other mountains in Malaysia but getting to the foot of the mountain requires trekking across a few other mountains or hills. All the series of ups and downs can be quite challenging and tiring. Most people do it 4D3N but in all the craziness we decided to do it 3D2N so that we can all go back early and enjoy our weekend in KL.

But once you have reached the Mount Tahan itself, that’s when the real challenge begins. We were there during rainy season so the trail was very muddy and slippery. We had to depend on the existence of roots as footholds and whatever there was to hold to because it really was so easy to slip down and hurt ourselves along the way.

After pushing on for a solid 9 hours and covering some 20km, we decided to peg our tents at Belumut, a camping site about 10km to the peak. One of the things that you have to remember when you climb Mount Tahan is the fact that the facilities are very basic and limited. You wouldn’t find any toilet along the trail (except for one near the peak) so you have to be creative when faced with the need to answer the nature’s call. I mean, I did have to do it once and I wouldn’t even want to tell how I did it. LOL.

Trickling water source at Belumut camping site

Unless you have all the muscles to bring everything from your car, you have to depend on the natural sources of water at the mountain to keep surviving. They are quite aplenty but as you climb further and further up they’ll become more and more sparse. In fact some of the climbers in the group were too tired to go to the nearest source of water from the camping site so they had to go to sleep thirsty and were forced to do the summit attack the next day without water. They never reached the peak.

Some of the sources of water may not be how you expect them to be. Like the one at Belunut, I was expecting a stream that gushes out of the mountain rocks but what I saw was a thinning fleet of water that was so ready to dry out any time any moment. It took ages to even come up with a bottle of water and it certainly required a considerable amount of patience. Again I was reminded to be thankful of all the water that I always took for granted back at home.

At Belumut camping site

The camping site was quite crowded when we were there on the first night – which was a total contrast to the second night when we had it all to ourselves. The climbers were some of the most hilarious – and noisy – people that I had ever come upon. But then I was not surprised at all. I’ve met Malaysians in many parts of the world and they were always noisy – most of them. After having a quick dinner, we went to sleep and be ready for the summit attack the next morning.

Due to the gloomy weather and the fact that we had to trek some 10km to the summit, we did not intend to catch the sunrise from there (summit) because we did not see any chance of doing it. We did not intend to rush either. Learning from my experiences in the past when I had to struggle so much to the summit due to lack of energy,I had to make sure that we had a proper meal before we started off at about 4am when everybody else had left.

It was quite a challenge having to scramble off in the dark. The fact that the trail was very muddy did not help at all. I had wanted to avoid the mud in the beginning but then trying to avoid them seemed to expose me to more danger than not so I decided to just suck it up and walk right across without any care in the world. I actually enjoyed it after a while.

Thanks God we did not have to bring our fully-loaded bags like we did the day before so it felt much lighter and easier on the back. Still it was very challenging and of course all we had to do was to keep going. We managed to catch the sunrise when we entered the ‘bonsai’ area as they call it. This is an area of nearly 2000m in elevation where the trees are shorter and the view of the mountain top took on a dramatic change.

The views were simply breath-taking. The views of the mountain top were already a wow but the views FROM it were even more spectacular. I could see the layers of mountain ranges that roll out for as far as the eye could see. Some of them were hidden under the blanket of morning clouds that created such a spectacular backdrop.

At about 9.30 am, we arrived at the peak of Mount Tahan, which at 2187m, is the highest peak in all of West Malaysia. I’ve reached several other mountains with higher peak before but this one was tougher than most of them. But of course, it was all worth it in the end. We spent more than an hour at the summit as we did not intend to rush going down either. There was something so special about standing at the highest point of Peninsular Malaysia – the part of the country that I had been spending most of my life in for the past 20 years or so.

Going down was much more light and easy. It was a long weekend for Muharram so there were more climbers heading up to the peak that we came upon along the way down. I stopped to have a chat with some of them and it really was good to share stories with people of the same passion – which was to climb mountains.

We arrived back at the already deserted Belumut camping site at about 4pm. It was such a long night and the heavy rain than came pouring in the middle of the night did not help at all. My tent, which was never tested before, was not really up to my expectations. The rain could still manage to sip in no matter how hard I tried to keep it sealed. Thanks God the rain did not really last long so I managed to get some decent sleep before descending all the way back to the base camp at Kuala Juram the next morning. In fact I was fresh all throughout the descent. We arrived at Kuala Juram at about 4.30pm and were back at our car at Sungai Relau about an hour or so later.

One last look at the mountain. Can’t believe just the day before we were up there on top of it.

After having our last meal together at Merapoh town (which was more like a village actually) offered goodbye to each other and wheeled back off to KL and arrived home at around midnight. It was quite an experience having to bring just about every necessity to a climb and returned still in one piece.

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Pad Thai

Posted on August 19, 2017 by jipp

One of my biggest encounters in Chiang Mai recently was a dish called Pad Thai. I mean, I’ve been to Thailand several times and never in any of these visits had I come across this dish which is apparently a very popular dish in Thailand. I’ve had Tom Yam, Som tam which is my favorite and so many other delicious foods in Thailand but never Pad Thai. So when a friend of mine suggested that I should have a taste of Pad Thai in Chiang Mai, I was like – what? What the hell is that?

So I saved it for my last day in Chiang Mai when I stopped at a food stall that I had been walking past without paying even the slightest attention to it at all. In fact, I only took notice of it after this friend told me about Pad Thai which I found out (or rather noticed) was printed on its banner. Apparently it is the main dish that they serve. So I took a seat at the only table at the shop and ordered a pork Pad Thai.

My first visual impression of it was – it looks like our Kueh Teow goreng in Malaysia. I’m not sure about Pad Thai at other places but this one is fried with egg and is heavy with taugeh (bean sprouts). I had my first bite and I liked it instantly. There was some sweetness to the taste and some sourness probably because I squeezed a slice of lemon to it. I usually despise bean sprouts in my dish but somehow they go very well with the noodles on this one. I liked it so much that I actually finished it all off in almost no time.

I mean, what took me so long to discover Pad Thai? On my way back to KL, I was seated next to a beautiful young girl from Italy who told me that her favorite Thai food is – well – Pad Thai and that she likes it so much that she doesn’t mind eating it every day for at least a month.

Wow. I really thought I knew everything of Thailand at least on the food part. Pad Thai had proved me wrong and for a moment I felt so humbled by it.

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The Seven Fountains (Chiang Mai)

Posted on August 13, 2017 by jipp

Chiang Mai is certainly beautiful in its own ways. There are quite a number of places of interest in and around town and some of them – such as the elephant sanctuaries that I had to avoid going to because the idea of keeping elephants in the captivity was quite against my principles and belief. But out of all the places that I went to while I was in Chiang May, there was one place that I particularly liked.

I actually did not know about this place and it was not even in my itinerary until I posted my first picture in Chiang Mai on facebook and somebody suggested that I go to a place called The Seven Fountains.

The Seven Fountains turns out to be a retreat centre for Catholics, which makes this place quite unique since Thais are almost 95% Buddhist. Upon googling it up, I found out that it is quite near to the city centre, only a few hundred yards away from the main entrance to Chiang Mai University.

So I went there on the motorbike that I rented. The gate was open but what I first saw was a sign that says entry is not allowed without permission. Unfortunately nobody was at the guardhouse so there was nobody that I could seek permission from. But then it was a retreat centre and there was a church and several chapels in there so my idea of a place like The Seven Mountains is that it should be always be welcoming.

I was actually trying to catch up with the weekday mass at 6 pm so I asked a young guy who had just come in and the only person that I saw around. After a little bit of struggle with the language barrier, he pointed to a double storey building in the far back to where I hastily walked over.

I did manage to find a chapel in the building where I assumed the mass had already started for quite a while but the attendees could not be more than 5 people. It was totally different from what I had imagined. Barging in when the mass had already started suddenly didn’t ring well in my head so I decided to skip it. Instead, I took a walk around the compound which was more like a garden. A beautiful garden actually.

I felt immediately relaxed the moment I stepped onto the compound of The Seven Mountains. It was very silent that all I could hear was the sound of leaves flipping against the evening winds. Of course, being a retreat centre where a lot of religious activities take place, there was no doubt that there was something so spiritual about the whole place.

I came upon a pair of rabbits who appeared unperturbed by my presence. They got me with their cuteness (my goodness, the eyes!) at very first sight. It wasn’t long before they ran towards a peacock which didn’t seem to like their presence around her and began to spread its feathers.

Central to the whole compound is a church with one of the most beautiful front façades that I’ve ever seen on a church. The wood carvings are just incredibly beautiful. There is also a beautiful fountain with water cascading down from a big jar at the front yard.

Just at the back the church is my favorite feature of the whole compound. A walkway is flanked by beautiful rows of bamboo on both sides. At both ends of the walkway is a wooden gate with the word ‘peace’ emblazoned on the top. It reminds me of the famous bamboo forest in Japan.

The whole area is quite large with lush greenery dominating the landscape. Scattered here and there are beautiful wooden huts that are kept at a distance from each other, perfect for meditating activities or something.

Perhaps the most iconic landmark of the whole compound is the maze garden. I walked right into the maze and later found myself in the middle of it where a large piece of rock with peculiar shape had been erected.

Placed on top of it is a colorful oval stone for whatever significance that it bears. My attention was particularly caught by a long stone that was placed on the side which – if you don’t look closely – looks like it is hanging in the air or something. I really wish there was somebody that I could ask of what significance the whole thing carries.

So I must be there long enough because people were beginning to come out of the chapels. I was sitting at one of the benches when a man on a bicycle came up to me and spoke to me in Thai. Unfortunately, I could not understand a word he was saying until he took out a bundle of keys from his pocket and showed it to me.

Then I realized that he was talking about the permission which I failed to get before entering the premise. I tried to reason out to him that he was not at the guard house when I entered but he did not seem to get a shit of thing that I was trying to say either.

But then I was about to leave anyway but somehow I really wanted to question why is the need to seek permission to enter a place of worship that is dedicated to Christianity (unless I was there to cause trouble). Jesus that I know has always been welcoming. Heh.

But then, I am glad that I did go there. It really was a beautiful place to be – the air of spirituality, the calming atmosphere, the soothing ambiance – exactly the things that I really look for in a place of worship.

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