Wintering in Deepest Ganu

Cleaned up and then updated for footie
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This is going to be a long post.

After all, I haven't updated in a long while and it's only fair that I let you know wot I've been up to, innit?

I've been away actually. Work, with a bit of play.

It was a lot of fun but didn't leave me much time for blogging.

The scenery on the way to work was a welcome change though.

You can find paddy fields within 10km of KT town centre - this one is a bit further off, though.

The view from my hotel room wasn't too bad either.

The hotel was built smack in the middle of what used to be a fishing village (bottom of pic) near Ladang .

That's a breakwater being built that you see stretching across the sea - it's designed to protect the river-mouth which was being eroded steadily by the annual monsoon waves.

All part of a plan to encourage yachtsmen and other recreational sailors to make Ganu one of their regular stops.

KT really needs more hotel rooms if they want this to succeed.

The Monsoon Cup coupled with the school holidays played havoc with hotel bookings.

One of my project teams ended up at a homestay inn because the hotel was fully booked.

Fortunately we found them a good one near the beach. There was even a gorgeous local receptionist, lucky bastards.


I didn't spend too much time on the Monsoon Cup - I spent my free time walking the streets for photo ops such as these ...

I used to be an avid 35mm enthusiast but dropped it as a hobby some years back - so having this go with the digital tech made me feel like a boy again.

The pic is of the exterior decor on an old shophouse in Kampong China in KT.

I guess it's a pre-war building and I simply love the attention to detail that the owners gave to the colour work.

It's a bit over the top but somehow it's pleasing to the eye.

The closing of the Monsoon Cup was a grand one, I suppose.

I only saw it from my room window.














At that time I was also having fireworks of some sort at the workplace.

A burst water hose flooded a live control cabinet and had me making a 2.30am drive over 40km of continuous rural roadworks.



Social activities in deepest Ganu can be pretty outlandish.

On the night of Deepavali eve, I watched some of the guys set out their nets - not for fish but trapping migratory birds.

They caught more than a hundred birds and they all ended up in the cooking pot. They offered to bring me some but somehow I wasn't up for it, really.

I mean I eat birds, just not that sort. :P




With the coming of the long-anticipated rains, these activities were understandably curtailed and what's left mainly centred around food - cold weather invariably makes you hungry, innit?

The gastronomic highlight of my stay was not the customary nasi dagang but rather the Restoran Ikan Baung at Kuala Berang.



Here they serve the freshwater baung fish cooked in the old-fashioned pindang style at RM25 per kilo.

It has a distinct and subtle taste - those who thrive on a heavily flavoured or spiced diet would probably find it difficult to appreciate.

But I'm also told of people who are hooked on it taking flights to Ganu just to alleviate the cravings.



Also at the same price is the sebarau fish - simply served fried to preserve the finely textured flesh.

Top of the range would be the kelah. I'm told that the large scales of this fish are not only edible but deliciously crunchy as well.

Priced at RM80 per kg, I've yet the opportunity to try it out as it was unavailable on the occasions that I went there.

The range of ulam there is fairly unique.

The long jagged greens you see on the left is what the locals call gedebe lembu (literally rogue cattle).

It has a fresh clear taste with a pleasant mango-like tinge - very impressive.

The end of this Ganu stint came right after the floods in Pahang and Johor.

I made it out of there a couple of days after the East Coast Highway was reopened.

The rains made the landscape a bit surrealistic - always welcome amidst the tedium of the long drive.

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Click on the pics if size is your thing ... :P

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Record-Keeping here ...

Wengerboys ... 2
(Ade 48th, Bendtner 78th)

Lilywhite Scum ... 1
(Berbatov 66th)

Playing futsal after a 3-month layoff is both an exhilarating and painful exercise.

But it was worth it, even though I had to miss this match. After all, it's only Shebby's Scum, innit?

I got a shocker when son #3 showed an sms from his friend saying we lost 4-3. He got a smack on the head for his trouble (and for choosing the wrong sort of friends) when the truth emerged later.

By all accounts it was a drab first-half and exploded in the second with Ade tucking away a 3-man move that culminated with a cheeky backheel from Cesc that left Missus Robinson well and truly shafted.

Berbatov got their equaliser courtesy of an upward deflection off Toure's boot that flashed past a rooted Almunia's near post.

Then Niklas Bendtner the kekar Dane got on just in time for a Cesc corner. He made a glorious leap and thumped the ball in with his very first touch of the game.

And that was just minutes after Robbie the Ozzie twit saw Almunia do a Lehmann and swat away his penalty attempt.

In the end cream rose to the top as against scum.

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Brawling Cup Qs

Blackballs Bullies ... 2
(Santa Cruz 42nd, 60th)

Wengerboys the Sequel ... 3
(Diaby 6th, Dudu 29th, 104th)

Wenger's second XI played exhibition football for almost 45 minutes in which we scored 2 superb goals before Santa Cruz sneaked in a reply just at halftime.

They got stuck in us in the second half, got their equaliser and got Denilson out for a two-footed lunge.

One man down and then Nacer Barazite got took out in extra time, it looked like we'd miss the chance of making the Carling Cup Brawl an annual event.

Then much-maligned Alex Song, playing to his true potential, sent Dudu through for a glorious finish past Friedel.

And made Hughes cry in his cups.

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Wengerboys ... 1
(Gallas 45th)


The Blue Shite ... 0

Forty-four minutes of parking the Blue Shite bus in the middle of the pitch undone by one moment of error.

Petr Cech's misjudgement at the death of the first-half and Gallas' sneaked in to nod a simple winner.

This was after Eboue took out that oaf Terry - before getting himself karma-ed out by Joe Cole in the second half.

Then the Shite threw everything they had at us and we should have tucked in 3 more easily but for little errors and a rusty van Pussie.

Still, it's always satisfying when you win a game where kicking each other was just as important as scoring.

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