Seafood heaven..

Manila clams steamed in garlic ginger chili and rice wine broth

The heaven that most Singaporeans want to go to… for me, gourmet heavens are here on earth. .. < I hope I dont have to choose between the heavens, or I will be really split up >

Still crazy after my futile clam hunt from last weekend, I went all out to get them… Manila clams (frozen, not fresh) from Tesco JB, GongGong, Fish roe, century eggs from Kips’ in Kota Tinggi.

Well, I want garanteed seafood for dinner alright! Will do the clam hunt another time.

The story for today. Out of bed at 0400, watched Dow close in on 7000.. (.. yeah..!..) Left home 0445, did some local errands, cleared JB customs 0600, had a excellent Dim Sum breakfast at the shop near Pelangi JB. Highly recommend, but cant remember the shop name.. Its really near Pelangi, walk down just abit and viola! They only open for breakfast.

local chili padis, small and dangerous

Arrive at Tesco, nap in T’rio for abit.. till Tesco open at 0800… Clams are not fresh, but I just bought them anyway… Left Tesco 1030. Arrived Kips’ 1100. More shopping, great stuff! I like Kips’. This is my 2nd visit to this clean, privately run supermarket. Was very happy in my 1st visit, to buy a whole 1kg snapper for just RM$14, 1/2kg large squid for RM$4, 1/2kg medium tiger prawns for RM$8. All that ingredients went into making a excellent Cevichi! The veg section was supergood and cheap too. I hand pick my chili padis from a big pile of locally grown chili’s. The prepacked thai chilis are available and they look fresh, but the local chili padi’s are just the best in flavour, tho they look not so uniformly bright red and not perfectly shaped.

Fish roe in garlic, ginger and chili

The shellfish man wasn’t openned during my 1st visit to Kips’ in Jan. So happy to finally discover what hes got! Very fresh and pretty good supply of rather exotic shellfish. Nope, he dont have the really expensive abalone, nor oysters, nor fat juicy geoducks. But huge size cockles, gong gongs, chuchuks, lahlahs, mussels were just what I wanted. I had wanted them all… seriously! Barely managed to keep myself to choosing only 2 items, gong gongs and some fish roe. Should have my camera with me.. at least I could have a picture of his stall! A shrine for all seafood worshippers.

Gong Gongs. A type of edible sea snail.

The highlight of my dinner … <…drum rolls…> … GongGongs. Why are these named GG? I wonder that myself.. .. ..

My previous attempts at cooking these shells were not so successful. 1 batch had alot of sand, 1 batch was kinda plain, 1 batch had most of the meat stuck inside the shell. This time, I rinsed, soaked for 15 mins, rinsed 3 more times, before cooking. Added more ginger, chili and garlic, a touch of dark soy sause, and viola! This batch was just perfect. Better than Jade Garden in Sg Rengit! Here’s a picture of a snail pried out and ready for the mouth.

Gong gong out of shell..

Now who’s ready to try one!? Well, nobody took up my offer to come visit me within 1hr of my picture posting on facebook. I guess most of my friends are not so adventurers in trying out new food huh..

Quail century eggs

Oh, btw, these were my appetizers, Quail century eggs and beer. It was an amazing discovery for me, that beer bought out better flavor to the rich taste of these eggs.

Hmm.. oh yes, we left Kips around 1200, had a good pork rib soup “aka bak kut teh” lunch in our favorite KT shop! Left KT1300 and arrive Sebana 1530. Did some errands and start cooking 1630. 🙂 Only 1hr to cook up all those stuff shown above. Doug cooked his own “spoon Taco beef” dinner. He’s not having any part of this… 🙂 <..all the better for me…>

In search of CLAMS!

I confess to being a seafood junkie, and my favorite in that are CLAMs! My happiest childhood days were spent clamming away on some remote island off Punggol. A 2 hour clam hunt along the beach of Coney Island will yield half a bucket.

Then, for some reason, life changed. My family didnt go clamming anymore, and I went on to school and did other stuff. I still love seafood and clams, but I would buy them cooked or “fresh” from the supermarket.

As I recall, my last successful clamming trip might be when I was 10. After all these years, I wonder if I still enjoy hunting for my own clams. So, when I did the cruising trip up to Phuket with Doug on S/V Calliste in 2005/6, I decided to hunt clams once again. This turn out to be rather embarrassing for me, as I got no clams to show, whereas the non-clammer Doug picked up 1(at beach near Telega Harbour, Langkawi) and found 3 large pin mussels(on a remote island beach in Phang Nga Bay, Phuket).

BTW, I am not yet given up on clamming. I am still on the lookout for clamming beaches wherever I go. Just this weekend, a great clam craving spell overcame me. I pulled Doug away from whatever his plans were and off we go on a clam hunt. We drove from Sebana, down the road to Sg Rengit, turn left to head towards the sandy beaches off the East Coast near Desaru. We are looking for sandy beach clams…

My cute little SUV at Rumunia Beach Resort.

We turned off the main road leading towards Desaru, when we near to the beach front community near Gombak. We were surprise to find a rather nice resort and vibrant activity going on there. This weekend, a bunch of SGreans were doing kayak school. Apparently their subject this week, was coming in on the surf.

Kayakers preparing to come in on the surf

It was fun to watch them go through with all their strokes and ride up and down on the surf. None of them got into any trouble coming in. Maybe the conditions were not  bad, only 1 metre surfs.

Riding the surf

Opps! Almost fell in that time..

looking for the right spot

Okay, enuf watching. Back to the topic of clamming. Since we were here at this nice little open resort, I thought we might just try clamming right here on this beach. Armed with 2 plastic spoons, I set out to find my clamming spot amongst the rocks. This place looks promising, with a bunch of dead clam shells washed up in a pile. Where you have dead clam shells, you must have live clams too. That was Dougs’ theory.

Clam hole #1

Here I am digging my 1st clam hole of 2009. Just 4″ down, we realized that this is not to be. The sand was to coarse under the 1st layer of finer sand. Not quite the right texture for clams.

Ok, moving on to the next beach up the coast. We past a Army camp, 1 kampong, 2 broken up bungalows. Normal things in MY that dont fit in the nice waterfront living scene. Finally drove off a unused, overgrown path that led to the beach about 3km from the Rumunia resort.

Clam hole #2, plastic spoons still intact

What a world of difference 3km makes. The sand on this beach was much finer. This is more promising that the last beach, with again, more dead shells and finer sand.

Doug and teamug on beach at Rumunia

Well, so whats’ the verdict? Found nothing but dead clam shells after 4 holes on this beach. Surprised that the disposable plastic spoons held up from all this digging too. Hey, ok, so Lang has no luck clamming yet again!

Well, at least Doug had a good time at the beach and documenting as I, once again embarass myself with futile clam hunt.

Return trip

This post is for putting out important information about riding the bumboats. For non regular users of this service, we should be aware of some basic principles of this business.

Bumboat contact info

1) Operating hours.  Even though it says 24hrs, it is really not! The bumboats run from 7am to 4pm. But at 345pm, there is no garantee of service. The bumboat captains may decided to leave terminal early, with the last load for the day. So call ahead to make a reservation, else they will do as they please. On weekends, the last ferry may leave between 4-5, but again, there is no garantee.

2) The ride is S$9 from SG – Pengerang, and RM$16 from Pengerang – SG. There is no terminal fees or immigration fees.

3) Cash transaction only. Visa doesnt work here. No receipts will be given.

4) It is easy to get to Changi Point ferry terminal by public transport. This is a cheap way of getting there. There is no public transport for getting out of Pengerang. If nobody is meeting you there, get ready to deal with Taxi Touts.

I might discover more tricks or things to know about using this ferry service later, which I will add at a later date. Here are pictures of inside the bumboat and from the roof.

Light load, only 5 pax. Last ferry out.

From the roof.

A bumboat trip

15 Feb. Today I am taking a bumboat ferry ride back to SG. “Bumboats” have been plying this SG – Pengerang route since my grandfathers’ days. I dont know much about the history, but those bumboats looks like they were handed down from that era, and the operators of this business now maintains it that way…

bumboat loading at Pengerang

So here I am today, making my way back to SG, after another great weekend at Sebana. Doug decided it was probably best for him to stay for the week, and since I am not allowed to drive myself back, this bumboat trip is the cheapest way home for me. This is also a 1st experience on how to do it.

On our way, leaving Pengerang BB terminal

When we got to the “ticket counter”, we werent sure what we should do. There were no instructions and no counter staff to help you. I guess the culture here is to follow the lead by someone who has done this before. Soon, other passengers came along and dropped their passports into a slot, and so I followed. Then, the bumboat captain comes along, collect the passports, make a passenger list, puts the passports on the desk, then the passengers go forward to grab their passports and walk after the captain. Clear immigration, hop onto the boats and viola, here we go. Only 30mins, from the captains arriving at the desk to departing again. They usually will wait for the bumboats to fill up to 12 persons, but today was a busy day for them..

Well, I am pretty sad, leaving Doug and ending my weekend getaway earlier than usual, but I move on. The ride was surprisingly stable, the interior was clean, things were put away. Cost of ride was RM$16, a bargain I think. Takes about 40 mins.

Red buoy and channel marker

For those of you who are non-seafarers, heres a little marinetime information for you. Did you ever wonder how captains drives boats around other boats? Which is the right of way? Unlike road traffic, there is no “lane markings” on the water. So how do we navigate?

Introducing to yer landlubbers, the  Red Buoy. Just like drivers obey traffic lights, captains use the various buoys for navigation aid.

Green buoy marking the entrance to Changi Point Ferry terminal

And heres the Green Buoy, and remember to keep the Red on your left and Green on your right when entering a port or a channel.

Bumboat captains are excellent at boat handling in tight quarters. Check out the picture on bumboat parking at Changi Village terminal. It is tight getting in and out!

So, my 1st ride on a cross border bumboat wasnt not bad at all. Will be doing it again going back to Sebana on Friday.

Thats us arriving at SG

Bumboats waiting for next load of passengers.

Eleanor’s CNY sail to Lebam river

On 28th Jan 2009, the 3rd day of the Chinese New Year, Eleanor left her berth very quietly at 6am. A little bit of ebb tide giving us a 0.5kn, while we motored for 1 hour till we got out into Johor river. We would love to sail out instead, but the wind God didnt get out of bed till the sun rose.

Our objective today was to go check out the JB bridge to Desaru. We thought it should have be completed by now! That would cut our driving time by 1hr each way, coming over from SG to Sebana. Anyway, it was a good reason to make this “long” 8hr trip. 

Our track - Sebana -> Lebam -> Sebana

It was a little past 700hrs when we got out into Johor river. We have raise full main and jib, wind was a mild 5knots initially, but soon it was a good 10 – 15 knots. We managed to make very good speed on just the wind alone, averaged 5kns up till the 900hrs mark. Its was refreshing for Eleanor to be out in the open again. To once again do long tacks, check our position against the GPS and watch for rocks and buoys. Eleanor was a happy girl today.

Uncompleted bridge and Tankers hanging out.

900hrs, the bridge is in sight. It looks like very much completed.. 930hrs, clearer sight of the bridge, shows that the gap right in the middle.  Looks like its a long way from finish. Disappointed. I, captain, decided to change course and explore the Lebam river. That turn out to be fun.

With our handy GPS, we dont have to be that prepared to make changes to our destination. On the flying tracking helps us mark our positions relative to navigation harzards like rocks, buoys and fishfarms.

Rocks of Tanjung Buai

Our track in yellow, shows how close we got to some rocks. Maybe only 3 meters to spare, a little scary, but we survive. Not a problem.

While sailing in Lebam, we were observed by kids and fishermans on their platforms or in their little skiffs. A pretty little sailboat with full on sails is not common in this river, I guess. There was alot of fishing and fish activity in here. Casting and drawing, and fish hopping. It was great fun to watch them at work. This was just a normal day of work for them, except for our intrusion.

Fish farm. Where little fishes grow into bigger fishes.

Fish farms and fishing platforms are quite a common sight in Malaysian rivers, especially near kampongs. Some of these farms have rooms for “homestay” visitors.

Fishing platforms

We wish to go further, but 1100hrs was the time that I set to turn around. I like to be back with enough energy to put away Eleanor nicely and still have dinner and a movie on the computer.  We had a great day out, so why not… This time, we are sailing downwind and against the incoming tide. 20kns of wind against tide, makes a really nasty chop and a little difficult to steer. We were lucky to only have a few gybes and no hits.

Birds hangout on fishing stakes

Rest of the trip was pretty much the same with no much to show. Eleanor, being reluctant in going back, was moving slowly… We had to urge her along with the motor. She has a spirit and mind of her own.

1430, the marina is in sight! 1435, a power boat is coming up behind us, looks familiar. Oh its the doctor and EastWind II. 1445, Eleanors sail taken down. 1500, Eleanor back in berth. 1530, Eleanor put away! It was that easy. And we go have a nice little nap down below Calliste… 🙂

8hrs and 24mins was our total sail time, 32.7nm total distance, 4kns average speed. A really good day out for all of us.

Aboard M/V Eastwind to KongKong

leaving sebana on EastWind II

I had wanted to write about Eleanor’s “Chinese New Year” trip to the bridge, but it seemed to be boring with no pictures to show. When sailing, my mind is totally on sailing and not at all in taking pictures, which is why there is so little to show… Well, when the doctor ask if we would like to join him on this trip to KongKong, I thought it was a great opportunity for me to grab the pictures!

So here we are, leaving Sebana onboard EastWind II on Valentine’s Day 2009. Our destination, a great seafood dinner restaurant in KongKong river. This is going to be a 2hr motoring journey down Santi river, up Johor river, dodging shallow waters and rocks along the way, then turning up into KongKong.

Restaurant view from Eastwind at anchor

This was a very pleasant day for a boat trip. Not too hot, not rainy, but unfortunately it was not a clear day. The air was thick with smog, hence the smoggy looking pictures. Also an unusual S wind was blowing in this NE monsoon season. Just our luck, the NE winds would have cleared the smog.

Party crowd onboard SZ5996

Now, I am still planning to write about Eleanor’s trip… at a later time.. so I am keeping some of the pictures today for then. But here are some pictures that should keep you entertained for now. Here is one nice picture of a sailboat out from Changi. SZ 5996, great to see ya sailing today. Contact me if you want more pictures of you sailing.

I counted 3 sailboats out there today. It always is nice for me to see sailors out there enjoying their boats. Raising sail is the ultimate best return a sailor can have for all the hard work in sailboat maintenance. Having friends onboard and having a great time together is double the reward. At least, that is how I feel about me and Eleanor.

Akama preparing to go ashoreBuddy boating.

Akama followed our wake to KongKong. Here’s a great picture of how its done. Using the crane arm, 1st lower the dinghy, then followed by the O/B. On a sailboat, we have the improvise with the mast, boom and fuss around with the ropes, winches and whatever! How nice to have a dedicated arm for lifting .

Now, this trip is about boating and food! What good is a destination with nothing to look forward to at the end? This Chili Crab was excellent. I was lucky to grab a picture of it before too much of it was gone. Very fresh and just the right taste!

The famous SouthEast Asia Chili Crab

We all had a great time today, thanks to our host Doctor Peter! EastWind II is one of the few very well kept boats in Asia. Its engine ran smooth, its equipment worked well… afterall, we did not run aground and we all manage to enjoy ourselves yakking. No unexpected diasters to take care of. Plus I manage to keep all this energy and do this blogging right after coming back…. To be honest, I started preparing the pictures on our 2hrs journey back. Again, thanks to the very comfortable cabin setup onboard EastWind. EastWind II at anchor

EastWind II at anchor

 

My recent projects

I had been on the computer since age 10, on the internet since 1995, did my 1st online shopping 2002. An impressive computer and internet history… I would think. But I had never thought that I would do any websites or sell anything online, till late last year. My sis got me interested in it with the interest that she was generating from her lousy(my honest opinion) blogsite. See it for yourself, www.swark.wordpress.com . I mean, she must really do a better website.  But she is really not a programming person.

So here I am, setting up my 1st websites. Since I am doing it, I might as well do 1 for Sticky Business too. 1st of all, I must thank the Singapore National library for having a great selection of HTML and web programming books. Diligently, I spent afew weekends working with the books and coding. In 2 weeks my sites were up on Geocities. Just a initial amatuerish kinda site, open for critique. Thanks to all the feedbacks, condemnations, advises, suggestions that I got from friends, colleagues and fellow webmasters, I believe my sites are much more attractive than when it 1st began

Update: Geocities is gone. Now we are on wordpress.

See what is now today, www.coolvinyldecals.wordpress.com and www.swark.wordpress.com . And remember, I would like your feedbacks.

Anyway, back to working on my sisters’ site. This job needed me to unearth my old Nikon 5700 and missing battery charger. Had to get a replacement charger, but the pictures turn out very well indeed. At the same time, I bought a new Nikon L16 with a $150 voucher from my old trusty Standard Chartered Bank CC. The L16 only cost me $50 including 4 rechargeables.

Crystal beaded dolphin, side view.

This L16 is great! I discover that newer cameras have built in on the fly photo editing features! Wow! Only $50 to me… 

Yorkshire Terrier. Picture taken with Nikon 5700

How is this compared to pictures with my old trusty 5700? This Yorkshire terrier is taken with the 5700 on a rather difficult setup due to lighting constraints in the house. The Dolphin had better light conditions outdoor, so its really different, but the clarity of the 5700 is really better. Er… what say u? 

Ok, now with the better pictures, does the site look better and more organized?

This project had been fun. Now its in the maintenance mode. Not many new features to add, just more content every now and then… Phew, moving on to something else soon.

Hope you guys enjoy my posting and websites. Thanks for reading… 🙂 And remember to feedback!

Eleanors’ crewlist… so far

Wish I had pictures of every crew to share here.. but unfortunately not…

Cliff of S/V Icicle

Last weekend, as we were preparing Eleanor for sailing, Cliff (of S/V Icicle) was at the right place and had time. It was an impromtu thing. We all had a great time, the wind was just right to give us abit of a thrill doing “tiltings” and close quarters in and out around boats and pontoons. Cliff was an excellent crew and port jibsheet man.

After putting Eleanor away and sometime during dinner, I was somehow inspired to make a list of Eleanor’s crew. I was never good at details and didnt bother with much pictures and recording. Wish I had done this from the beginning. Now, I have some catching up to do. 

Douglas of S/V Calliste

 

Introducing Eleanor’s most important and dedicated crew…<drum rolls>…. Douglas!

Many special thanks to Dah for helping out with maintenance and special little projects. Without you, Eleanor wont have many of those great upgrades and new looking cabin and “furniture”. 😉

Also many thanks for sailing with me and handling the sheets and shifting ballast when the conditions need it.

Eleanor likes to take people sailing, so that she could (over and over again) show me how well she handles. Many thanks to her many crews for sailing with us.

Al and Christine of S/V Aegis Nevis

Unfortunately, I dont have pictures for every crew on board to share with this post.. I will continue my search on my achives, hope to unearth a few… , certainly have one of Sparky, Pauline and Willy. .. Pretty sure about that.

Finally, list of crew on Eleanor so far:

– Douglas, my husband and most supportive crew!

– Monique, my non boating friend who is so ever enthusiatic about my boating hobby. I am surprise she takes her chances and sail with me, even on Sea Sparrow.

– Pauline, my outgoing and travel bug friend. She brings with her a spirit that never wants to go back! That’s not too good for day sailing, you hear! And partner Willy, and Sparky(my ex-dog). Oh I miss Sparky!

– Paul and Pauline on S/V Amadeus, friends from our days at Punggol

– Our new friends from Sebana, Al and Christine on S/V Aegis Nevis, Ben on S/V Elpidia, Cliff on S/V Icicle, Patti and Hoover on S/V Rani J, Liz on S/V Blue Tango, Ruth and Randal on MS/V Dora Mac, Dr Peter Tan on S/V EastWind

– Colleagues Jagan and partner TengTeng, Vanessa the 180″ tacker”!

Ok, thats all for now, but Eleanor’s crewlist is always increasing! And now I will be taking pictures.