Monday 22 October 2012

#TSDayOut - Tanjung Sepat

It was my engagement with a government Tourism organisation in Malaysia to join this program. My first was with Tourism Pahang when I had the opportunity to attend the CC1M Sunday Bike ride with Hon Minister of Tourism at Raub and had an opportunity to feel an off-road 4WD adventure. I was with the group to cover the monthly activity organised in the town and supported by Ministry of Tourism. 
On 20th October, I was with Tourism Selangor for their signature monthly program #TSDAYOUT. The one day activity was a visit to Tanjung Sepat and it was my first visit to this coastal town about 88 km from Kuala Lumpur. One can reach Tanjung Sepat through Banting and head towards Route 5 towards Morib. This road leads south to Port Dickson. 

Bloggers joining the trip met at Bangsar Lucky Garden Pizza Hut. I was quite early and the first to arrive but since its early I went for breakfast and came back to see another blogger Hannah Pearson and then only other trickling in. Oh, before that, I knew about this program from their Facebook Fanpage and requested to join. 

Our first stop was the Arowana Food Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd. at the junction into Kampung Tumbuk Darat, Tanjung Sepat.
AROWANA
 Top: Part of the process in producing the crackers
Top: Crackers ready for the market and can be bought on a wgolesale basis.

Top: The cracker making process

This Food manufacturing produces tapioca chips with different flavors. We were was given a demonstration of the chip  processing from skinning the tapioca roots to machine slicing it. Then of course our tour to their "visitors centre" where visitors can buy souvenir items including their own tapioca chips or other product including arrays of fridge magnets. For the first time I saw so many different designs of fridge magnet. 

Location of this factory

 No. 2926, Jln Kampung Tanjong Sepat,
Kampung Tanjong Sepat Darat,
42800 Tanjong Sepat,
Selangor
Tel: 03-3197 3888

Next stop was the Gano Farm at Jalan Laut Biru. It was a small complex within the Gano homestay. We were given a brief education about Ganoderma of popularly known as Ling Zhi. 



GANO HOMESTAY
Top: The Gano Homestay
No. 100, Jln Laut Membiru,
Taman Pelangi,
42800 Tanjong Sepat,
Selangor 
Tel: 03-3197 5600 
Fax: 03-3197 5717 
Email: enquiry@ganofarm.com

We were given a taste of their popular gano drinks in different flavors and I tried all the different flavors.  I am still alive till now. 

However we missed the opportunity to enter and see four ourselves the mushroom breeding house (maybe for security reasons) but how the mushrooms were kept in the breeding house was displayed outside their "visitors centre" for us to see. 

Top: Lovers Bridge from the restaurant nearby

From there we made a stop at an iconic Tanjung Sepat Lovers Bridge. It is just a normal fisherman's elevated walkways above the sea to reach out to the deeper part of the coast where fishing vessels can berth or depart on their fishing trips.
LOVERS BRIDGE
TOP: Fishermen's trawler boats berthing at the end of Lover's Bridge

Even though it was just a normal fisherman's jetty but the story behind it, what makes it iconic. The story goes that, those days, on every fishing trip, the fishermen's wifes will accompany their husbands on the bridge to see them away for the trip and wait until they come back hence showing their love for the husbands. 

There are seafood restaurants along the coast next to the bridge and I saw even a karoake outlet for visitors to sing their vioce out at night.

I was and still am a coffee drinker (self confessed). I inherited this love for thick coffee from my late grandfather and my coffee is so thick that after sipping the coffee, a thin film of leftover will stick inside the cup. Hence making me lost immunity sleep due to drinking coffee. Of course we stop at a local coffee factory in Tanjung Sepat town. I am not sure whether it can be called a cottage industry or not. The family inherited factory which is at a residential house along Jalan 5 was started about 50 years ago and still producing fresh grounded coffee till today. Its the Joo Fa Trading, a Coffee Roasting factory. 

Not many has the opportunity to see how coffee is being processed. What more with the popular 3 in 1 coffee sachets nowadays. We were shown the fresh coffee beans and explained the process until the coffee can be prepared to be served on our dining table. Of course it ended up with most of us can get a small cup of coffee to savoir the taste.

Its lunch time and we move to Restoran Asam Batu Laut located at 5, Batu Laut, 42700 Banting, Selangor, Malaysia. It is along the way to Kuan Wellness Ecopark. Restoran Asam Batu Laut is a Seafood restaurant between Morib and Tanjung Sepat. 
Food was superb. We were served with this dish below. Errr......at photography time, the crabs has nor arrived. (Maybe it has to walk sideways hence being late .......ah, just joking)

  However I give this lunch a 10/10 because of this
that i\I missed so dearly

I dreamed of getting to eat this shelled seafood since I saw it at NSK hypermarket at Jalan Klang Lama. As far as I can remember the last time I get to eat this was in the 70s when I was still a school kid.


Kuan Wellness Ecopark
Map to Kuan Wellness Ecopark. Photo credit as watermarked

At Kuan Wellness Ecopark the group was again educated about bird nest or the Burung Walit farming. A short video clip was presented so that we learn about the bird nest cultivation just makes some of our mouth watering. We did not get bird nest sampling to taste but  just a preview of their product in the showcase. 

Kuan Wellness Ecopark has a mini zoo where they keep some exotic birds, fish and rabbits.

What else if not for a group photo as a remembrance. This photo taken from foodnframe.

After its 1st year annivesary only I knew about this signature activity by Tourism Selangor. Its a cheap way to promote Selangor and I think other states can emulate them. I am sure the bloggers are much more than happy to help promote local tourism around them and #TSDAYOUT is a win win situation for both parties. Blogger have their free rides while Selangor Tourism gets to promote local tourism. 

Thank you Selangor Tourism for selecting me through your Facebook Fanpage. I am not a Selangorian but I see this small contribution from me as part of a bigger picture - Tourism in Malaysia.

More PHOTOS HERE

2 comments:

The Wanderer said...

Thank you for joining us Zahari, it was a great pleasure to see your name in the list, a good surprise. Just a minor detail to amend on your post - it's Joo Fa Trading (coffee place). Thought I'd let you know so that your blog pops up on google when people look for it.

Hope to see you again!

Anonymous said...

Thank you The Wanderer for pointing the error and it has been amended. Thank you too for taking your time to read this blog.

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