Subscribe to my RSS Feeds

Motormouth From Ipoh

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

BETONG - Say Your Prayers (Part 5)

Visiting Thailand without stepping into a temple somehow sounds awkward, huh? A shrine may suffice. Or a full-fledged temple for that matter, swarming with the locals performing their prayers, especially on specific occasions. We, the tourists, the outsiders, on the other hand, flock to these holy grounds for one reason in particular; photography-sessions.


Glorified, towering baskets of gluttony ....

What better way to start the day than by completely overshadowing our previous day's ultra-cheap dimsum breakfast, by ordering like madmen, oblivious to stares and grunts. Of course, there were more of us on the second day, therefore a bit of gluttony is permissible. Other than 34 (!!) baskets of steamed dimsum, we ordered chee cheong fun (which was tasteless, and coarse, unlike Ipoh's better ones, RM1) and fish maw (a Betong specialty, cooked in thick gravy ala Lum Mee, with coagulated pork's blood and coriander, RM7).

This outlet's situated on a road branching east from clock tower, coming from Mongkollit tunnel's direction. Once again, click HERE for the map. The meal costed us RM48. Including chinese tea for 12.

Bird's eye view of the shrine ...

A short distance away from the GIANT mailbox on Sukkayang road, is a small temple by the road. Which meant, it's time to click away!!!

No idea what they're praying to here

Then we moved on to Wat Phuttathiwat (try repeating that in sequence, and you'll have yourself a potential tongue-twister of a title), which I've no recollection of the location. Yup, completely blank. Typical of my flawed memories. Won't somebody pass me some ginkgo? =P

Writing's too small to comprehend ... but basically some yada on the history of the temple


Stairway to heaven !!!

The highest shrine/point of the temple, after much panting, and climbing ...

The weather was cloudy on that afternoon. A blessing in disguise, as the inner wax-beings in us can't possibly stand the heat from all the climbing and photo-taking. However, it was drizzling slightly, and we had to take off our shoes before stepping onto the highest platform. Shucks ... should've worn my slippers instead.

No, not a Malay musical instrument, but you can beat on the gong-like apparatus for fun

A somewhat disturbing resemblance to a final resting place ??


Church-like motives on the windows?

The highest point of the temple, overlooking the whole area, and Betong town

Intricate details of the shrines ...

Giant Buddha statue

~~ LUNCH @ Curry House beside Blue Mosque ~~

Point away at your desires .... no, not the girls, you pervert !!

Next to the only mosque in town (Masjid Jamek), a baby blue one at that, is this curry shop at the corner of a row of shoplots. Parking's a breeze though we went 2 rounds searching for a closer lot (lazybums DON'T walk, remember? =P).

WOW. How else to describe the humongous trotter?

Array of authentic, home-style Thai dishes (photo thanks to YK)

Crispy fried chicken with special chilli sauce

Ordered by Giant Boy (who has Betong blood in his body), the dishes were more than enough for the 12 of us. Noteworthy dishes include fried egg omelette, fried chicken, dry curry pork, deep-fried pork's lard, and green curry chicken. Total damage? RM59 only. Fiery guts were doused with their local drinking water, Singha (yup, the beer brand).

And that, concludes the Betong saga. There is a Thai food restaurant that I wish to share, but that has to wait, as my Johor experience is slowly drifting away from my memory.

For previous instalments, do read these :

Part 1 - The introduction to Betong

Part 2 - The Dimsum Affair

Part 3 - The Largest Mailbox in Thailand

Part 4 - Piyamit Tunnel (Ex-Communists' Hideout) & Hot Spring

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Finally the grand finale of Betong after 5 sequel, leaving us in awe of the sights of exotic food and places. Betong is not your usual getaway, I mean how many people have been to Betong for their hols? Still great pics with your Nokia again and I love that chicken drumstick, looks so yummy good. Waiting for your JB trip to compare.....

Anonymous said...

Ah..I luv the pau(s)! Wasted u didn't have nice pics of their pau(s). Yummy. The curry was nice too!

Ciki said...

towers of gluttony and stairways to heaven... trotter from hell! lovit lovit lovit!

HairyBerry said...

sighs and sounds tastes all in one...no need go bkk d...hehe...

will be looking forward to see what johor has to offer! ;)

Mummy In Vain said...

wei..i like your template header. how do u do that? really 'gou shao'! ^.^

J2Kfm said...

jencooks : true, true. me myself have not heard of this humble town, (or sleazy town, depending on how you look at it) until I started working this job.

mboy : I do have picture of the tiny pau with sweet lotus fillings, but did not post them. you want? :)

cumi & ciki : hehe, yeah, I can imagine myself sinking my teeth into that giant of a trotter, but the others were not fans of the lowly organs ... :(

nic : aiyo, dun put too high hopes, Johor we did not eat out much as breakfast was provided, and we did not have transportation.

mummy in vain : once again, thanks to crizlai !!! guess criz, you should clarify your marvellous design?

Anonymous said...

Monster size trotter!

J2Kfm said...

jason : yup, couldn't have said that better! :)

Anonymous said...

Waiting for your next sequel on southern food (johor).....I bet could not compare to that "ter kar"-pork knuckle or that special egg dessert (I am still thinking of this unique dish).

J2Kfm said...

sure thing! JB I did not even go round much for food hunt. 3 days probably too short, huh? :)
but you'll never know, another trip may be in line!

Shell (貝殼) said...

nice shots^^
i going to thailand end of tis year..is my 1st makan trip~~haha

Precious Pea said...

That humongous trotter belongs to a pig or an elephant????