Lee Chin's Secret Garden: A Day Trip to Bentong, Pahang

Update on **17 July 2015**

Last week, Rosamond and me made a day trip to Bentong, Pahang. I got a few weeks break in my Phd journey and decided to back to my hometown, Saratok in Sarawak. It's difficult for me to survive in my university during the 1 week before Hari Raya.

All the cafeterias were closed down and school buses were stopped their operations too. I had no choices and went to KL for few days to stay with my 2nd sister, Rosamond while counting down the days I back to Sarawak.

In addition, Rosamond agreed to visit to Bentong, Pahang with me because of the short journey (1 hour distance) from KL. Furthermore, the short journey of Bentong was suitable for me that will leave in the next day early morning in order to prevent tiredness.

Without further ado, let's the picture did the talking.

We took the bus of Central Pahang to Bentong in Titiwangsa train station. Rosamond's house was quite near to the Titiwangsa train station.

The timetable of buses from KL to Bentong with bus fare RM 5.60 per adult while RM 4.20 per children. It really bring the convenience to passengers to Bentong because the schedule of the buses were so frequent.

We rode the same bus to Bentong and back to KL too

Quite a long long long time, Rosamond didn't appear in my blog. In case you had forgotten Rosamond, here's she.

Around 10am, we reached Bentong town. First of all, we intended to have Hooi Kee Wan Tan Mee as our brunch. Unfortunately, Wan Tan Mee of Hooi Kee were sold out once we arrived there after seeking the direction from the locals.

Without further hesitation, we went to other kopitiam which was not far from Hooi Kee but also sold out. A lot of kopitiams in Bentong town also closed down due to Hari Raya celebration.

Both of us forced to enter any kopitiam as long as it had foods. Finally we went Cheong Fatt kopitiam.

Had our brunch in Cheong Fatt Kopitiam, Bentong

Vintage decorations

Few old men were " yum cha" and chit chat their recent lives

Teh Kiam Si, one of the must try drinks in Bentong. It taste like Teh C, but not sweet all for me.

Yong tau fu soup. Never thought Kuang Si people in Bentong love Yong tau fu because I perceived it's one of the Hakka ( i.e one of the group of varieties of Chinese) food.

Dry noodles. I was not finished the noodles. It was tasteless and oily for me. Sarawak dry noodles and kolo mee is better than B.E.T.T.E.R than it.

She was so happy when searching the foods successfully in Bentong.

Mine was equally happy too

After that, we explored Bentong's market. All varieties of stalls were displayed different products.

Ginger powder and several canned foods

One of famous products in Bentong, ginger. I was not interested at all because it was useless for me. I did not cook recently.

Rosamond make a attempt to try it's Tou Fu drink but she told me it was tasteless.

Another famous product, peanuts according to Bentong blogs.

Musang king durian.

Old tailor shop

Vintage saloon

1974 & 1980 buildings

1975 buildings

Bentong town in Pahang looked similiar to my hometown, Saratok in Sarawak. The similarities were the small town that characterized with few row of shophouses. Most of the old folks were seen in here. Their biggest hobby might be "Yum Cha" with their old friends too. Their kids sure earned the living in the big cities because lack of job opportunities in Bentong.

Besides that, the foods stalls will shut down their operation once their foods were sold out. In such small town, breakfast seemed entitled for those early birds or the morning person. They're not interested in getting more revenues in increasing the selling volume of foods. Same things happen to Saratok too. The small income which was adequate to support the small town's living was big enough for small town people. They're lack of ambitious in buying the big mansion, luxurious cars and branded clothes.

One more thing, every shophouse in Bentong was very older, vintage looked compared to Saratok. It was so unique for the city folks. No wonder KL people loved to visit there on weekend. Seeing vintage looked shophouses traveled me back to older time, it made me appreciated and grateful the present time.

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Thank you Rosamond willing to "off study" (she was busy with her medical studies) for few days to be with me.

I learned to appreciate the time spent with Rosamond and cherished the single moment with Rosamond because I had the limited amount of times with her. I was not always be her side, same things went to her as well.

It was the greatest sad feeling in the world for me when I always saw Rosamond when we lived together in Saratok and finally can't saw her face, allowed to listen to her voice through watsapps or phone call.