We get up as early at 8 am of Malaysia time to have our breakfast. Well, for your information Betong time is later than Malaysia by one hour.
We slept till 8am of Malaysia time and the time only showing 7am at Thailand ! How lovely it is. We woke up this early because we want to rush for a famous dim sum restaurant at Betong.
The concept is just like Malaysia. You pick your dim sum and they will heat it up for you. So we order till jam-packed our table.
Frankly, the dim sum is so~so but the price is seriously dirt cheap ! 10 baht per dim sum. Equivalent to Rm 1 per dim sum. Where to find in Malaysia ? And we spotted another Wan Tan Mee in menu and so we ordered two.
This Wan tan mee is way better than the first Wan Tan Mee we ate during our first day. The noodle is also hand made but more superb.
We finish our breakfast before 8 am of Thailand time and kick start our packed schedule for that day. First place to visit is the Communist lair, which is very famous with its sophisticated tunnels. We drove up north toward Yala for around 20 minutes.
Ever heard before terrorist incident along southern Thailand ? If never, then I would like to let you know that we are driving through the danger spot. Betong is a safe town as they have barrier and road block watching the entrance of Betong from North. After you pass the barrier, then you are on your own.
When I was driving toward the north, majority of the folks living there are muslim. Which chill my spine a little. Since long time ago, there were conflict between Thai muslim and Thai Buddist. Though we are Malaysian's Chinese but it is quite hard to differentiate us as we Chinese are look all the same in their eyes. So I drive fast. After dragging my car up the steep hill, finally we arrived at the destination.
They called it Friendship village. It called such a way for reason. Unlike Malaysia, communist in our country terrorize the people by killing, raping and stealing. But here, the village people are so friendly to them and they are more than willing to support them with foods and medicine as a form of support toward their vision.
We need to pay 50 baht for entry. Well, it sound a lot but actually it only cost us Rm 5. But before we reach the tunnel, we need to do some jungle trekking. Climbing the never lasting stairs till we found the hole !
People like us who have height of >175cm would face difficulty walking inside. We have to hunch our back and walk in this tunnel. At first I thought the tunnel will be very hot and stench with odor. But I was wrong. It is cool and fresh inside. The architecture is good and you won't feel discomfort staying inside.
They slept on stone bed. But I can't manage to find their toilet. So I was wondering how are they going to do their business in the time of war when they have to hide in this tunnel for days.
There was an ex-communist giving a talk about history and telling them interesting facts and story. We heard a little bit and continue our exploration. They told us that they placed land mine around the jungle to prevent intruder last time and they assure us to don't worry about the bomb anymore because most of them had been destroyed. Well, even if there were some left, we don't need to worry as well because it is battery powered !!
Last time, for every 3 months they need to locate those mine and change the battery. And it is since 1978, so the battery is so dead by now. Hahaha.
Actually, Chinese from both Malaysia and Thailand are just differ in their language and culture, but in the sense of religion I think we are praying the same god. Just beside the tunnels, there were a small altar of 'Tua pek Gong'.
It is so reddish. Down the hill is all reddish because it get covered by fire cracker's leftover. Tourist can buy from them fire cracker and let it boom as a sign of auspicious and prosperity.
After that, we down the hill and headed to next destination, the hot spring.
Aside of my first time stepping on foreign land, this is also my first time visiting a hot spring.
Lucky for us, the water temperature is just comfortable enough to dip our feet inside without getting cooked ! Oh, we need to checked out before 12 pm to avoid penalty. So, we headed back to hotel and packed up. But the journey still continue.
We placed our luggage behind the car and stopped by the town to do shopping ! But before that, we hunt for our lunch first. At first, we have no idea what to eat and later we spotted a coffee shop packed with people. So we decided to try that one.
It sell 'everything of chicken'. In Kl, we used to eat 'pork noodle' which contains everything about pork. For this, it contain everything of chicken. At first we are afraid that we will have communication problem, but luckily one of the tea maker there knew Cantonese. So, we order their best selling.
Oh Man ! I must tell you ... this is very best ! First, the super thin kueteaw is so smooth. And its soup is so rich in spies. One sip of the soup and your mouth is all spies up. After adding their spicy sauces and chili powder. Woolah ! Another great cuisine only available from Thailand. It is so good.
There is one thing I love about Betong food. They don't use MSG in their foods ! even if they does, it must be in super small quantity because I don't get thirsty after their meal. Even for yesterday night firely dinner, I don't get thirsty at all after the dinner. In Malaysia, I used to crave for water after some heavy tomyam meal. It can be very suffer as your stomach is so full yet your body crave for more water.
Our stomach is happy because of good lunch and we go for shopping. We stroll along the market and shops again.
During noon, we saw a squad of military walking around the town with bomb detector and guns ! According to Junyen, the soldier will detect for possible bombing material around the town on daily basis. Well, this is a bit scared me off when everything around us can contain bombs ! Just like this two drain cover on floor which look like land mine to me.
Frankly speaking, it is safe. There were ample of soldier and police guarding our safety despite Betong is not a big town.
Unlike Malaysia, their soldier and police is fit for battle ! and there were cute police guard post on every junction of street.
Haha, it look like kiddo playground, but it is a police guard post. Speaking of 7-11. We love it so much !
And we had go in and out like 5-6 times in a day either for its goods or for its air-condition. It is really different from Malaysia. The price of the goods is cheaper than outside ! We bought our beer from here after surveying price around. It have so much unique stuffs like frozen herbal eggs, funny drinks and they even sell VCD there. I even get my throat coolant from here after every spicy meal.
Heard before world largest Post office box? It is right here at Betong. It is soooo tall !
It is already 4-5pm that time and we have done visiting the famous spot. Initially we planned for dinner first before head back, but it is too early. So, we stroll around for a while and whack some junk food along the way. We found another Thailand style roti canai seller. This time, it is more unique with variety of flavors !
But there was some communication at first because she can't speak in Malay neither Chinese. So, we utilize our body language by pointing and showing money etc. I tasted the chocolate and green color flavor. Oh, it is delicious and fatty !
Out of boredom, we decided to have our dinner early. Though we are not hungry yet (of course, after walloping so much junk food along the way). We simply stop by a hawker stall beside the street and have our dinner. This time, I ordered tomyam mee !
Errr, this is a shame to Thailand. Its tomyam is not up to Thailand standard at all. But I still clear it clean off. Did I mentioned before that we had ate a really great roti-ayam on Day 1 ? oh, it is so good and it beat the hell out of all Malaysia Mamak that I had tasted so far. So happened that it opened early !
Hence, we tapao 10 of those to bring back to Ipoh.
After that, we headed back to Ipoh. When passing the Immigration, I thought they will search my car upside down. Well, there are a lot of cheap stuffs in Thailand especially liquors and cigarette. People can earn big buck by selling it back to Malaysia. There was this lady officer questioning me. I just open my car's trunk and show her mountains of luggage. She looked at it and let me pass. Just like that.
All of us 'antam' . Yc wanna buy some XO and Martel but afraid of heavy taxing. I want to buy that air gun but afraid of the law. Argh !!! We should have just bought all those.
Anyway, we drive back to Ipoh by trunk road again. Heck, trunk is fun on daylight but deadly on night. It is so dark and your vision is just few meters away.
After almost 3hours+ of driving and we finally arrive at Ipoh safe and sound. Oh, Thanks to Yc again for another stay at his house.
Looking forward for next oversea trip !!! I love to see different culture and have its uniqueness captured with my 4k :-)
