A relaxing afternoon at Batu Arang

Peace be upon you all. Today let us make an excursion from the northern trip stories. I don't think I've ever said in this blogspot that I've spent a rather tiring 11 days up the East Coast with the wife and baby from Christmas till 4 days after the recent New Year's day. Mind you I drove a total of 2367 km and took 4743 pictures...

It was taxing physically, mentally and financialy apart from putting a strain on the car. So for the month of January we decided to practically stay around the house and workplace. No long trips during this period, just short ones within a radius of 100 km I think. So let me just let out some short stories on the way the period was spent so far...

Thursday afternoon Jan 6th 2011, after 2 days returning from the East Coast I took my trusty bike around the small town of Batu Arang and saw a little pasar malam, the periodical night market just starting then. Living at the residential area of Bandar Tasik Puteri just 3 km from this town and often stopping by for meal and drinks or just simply riding if not driving I was surprised to see this. Maybe I've never came at the right time but this is the first time since staying nearby for about 2 years and 2 months that I noticed a pasar malam there.

The pasar malam was held not far from the local mosque. Then I realised another thing I've failed to notice before. There's more than one old chimney at Batu Arang.

A close up of the same picture showing the chimneys. Refer to my first article on this town, The quaint small town of Batu Arang made 2 years ago and find out what the chimneys are all about. And to think it took this long before I realised there's actually 3 chimneys within the vicinity, one of it at an angle obscured by the trees.


It was refreshing to realise this. And it was a relaxing afternoon as I also spent some time just sitting idly besides the main field.




Again while I've been to Batu Arang many many times as it is close to my house, this is the first time I actually sat at the town's main field rather than just passing by. Maybe the tiring trip up the East Coast finally made me want to sit down here to smell the roses or rather the field grass? Hmm... :]




Oh... this picture was taken the following day at a stall at Bandar Tasik Puteri. I was just playing about with the zoom of my new camera, a state-of-the-art compact Olympus bought just before the East Coast trip. Ah... how I love my bike. I've had it since 1997 and had travelled all around the Peninsular with it many times. And how I love my new camera, the 4th digital one since I started to seriously take pictures out on trips end of 2006.

For more on Batu Arang read The lakes at Batu Arang and The lake I've just discovered near my house..... Look also at the article Visiting the Chimney at Tanjung Kubong. While it is not about the town of Batu Arang, is is about batu arang as the commodity (batu arang = coal) and also about chimneys...