Setia Eco-Park Weekend Breakaway - Exotic Seafood Experience

Alright, I just came back from my school's "Entrepreneurship Carnival"...
And I have to say, I am quite exhausted!

Anyway, I have to blog about the "Setia Eco-Park Weekend Breakaway - Exotic Seafood Experience at Sekinchan and Kuala Selangor" that I went for yesterday...
I'll blog about the Carnival in my next post, kay?

Okay, let's get started...
Oh, and uhhh, throughout the tour, I took some pictures using my handphone. My brother and father took some pictures too - Alvyn used my family's Fujifilm FinePix A340 Digital Camera, whereas my dad used his handphone.

Ummm, my family and I had to go to the Green Canopy Lifestyle Business Park at roughly around 8am for registration. There, we were told that the tour party would depart from Setia Eco-Park at 8.30am. We were also treated to a light breakfast while waiting...
Here are some photos...
At 8.30am, our tour party boarded a bus that was waiting just outside the Setia Eco-Park Clubhouse.
Apparently, each of us were already assigned to a seat on the bus by the tour organisers. Fortunately, my family got the seat numbers 17, 18, 21, and 22, which we were all adjacent to each other. My parents ( seats 17 and 18 ) sat in front, and Alvyn and I ( seats 21 and 22 ) sat behind them.

On the bus, there were also two television sets: One at the front of the bus, and one smaller one in the middle. They're both suspended from the roof of the bus, and are retractable to save space. Throughout the tour, in order to prevent the tour party from getting "bored" on the bus, the tour organisers would play episodes of Mr Bean using the televisions.
And it kinda worked, I guess... Personally, I don't find Mr Bean that hilarious - I tend to just smile at his silly antiques, and nothing more. But some of the members of the tour were laughing themselves crazy, which shows that the Mr Bean episodes were doing their part, at least...
Here's a picture of the interior of the bus. Sorry if it's a bit blurry. The bus was shaking around quite a lot, making it very difficult to snap a picture in it.
At the front of the bus is the TV that I was talking about, halfway showing a Mr Bean episode...
Our first stop is the "Dragon Rice Factory" in Sekinchan. Here, they produce "Dragon Rice" ( duh! ). A lady explained to the tour party about the process of harvesting the paddy, purifying, processing, yada, yada, yada...
Truth be told, the lady was actually speaking in Mandarin! And you guys should probably know by now that I do NOT speak any form of Chinese whatsoever. So, I just "pretended" to understand what the lady was talking about. Everytime, she looked at me, I simply nodded my head and smile!
Here are a few pictures we took during the visit to the Dragon Rice Factory...

After the lady finished her explanation about how Dragon Rice is made, she led us over to a counter at the front of the facility, where we could purchase the rice...
After that, we boarded the bus again. When everyone was on board, the bus started moving towards the main road, but at a very slow pace. This, I assume, was so that we could enjoy the view of the surrounding paddy fields...
Since the bus was driving quite slowly, it was the perfect opportunity to take some pictures of the paddy fields from "inside" the bus!
Here they are...
After we exited the paddy field area, we went for lunch at a local Sekinchan restaurant. It was called "Guan Seng Loong Restaurant", if I'm not mistaken...
Oh, and since this was an "Exotic Seafood Experience", obviously, they served all kinds of "exotic seafoods"...
They served a variety of dishes: Fried "Kam Heong" crab, claypot shark fish soup, butter prawns, "Kong Po" Mantis Prawns, Clay Pot Tauhu, Steamed fish, and fish maw.
Unfortunately, I didn't manage to take any photos while we were having lunch at the restaurant... Sorry...

Right, after our lunch at Guan Seng Loong Restaurant, the next destination on our tour was Pasir Penambang, which is located in Kuala Selangor.
According to our tour guide, Pasir Penambang is apparently famous for its seafood restaurants and seafood merchandise, such as fresh fish, prawns, cuttlefish, etc etc... So the tour organizers allowed us to go and buy stuff at Pasir Penambang.
Honestly, it reminds me of my hometown in Malacca for some reason...
Here are some pictures I took while my parents were busy purchasing stuff.

After our little "shopping spree" at Pasir Penambang, we boarded the bus again. Next stop, Bukit Melawati, the remains of the famous fort which was constructed in the 18th century.

The journey there was rather short. And along the way, somehow, my brother managed to sneakily take a picture of me! Unbelievable!

When we got there, the tour guide told us to wait in the bus for 10 minutes while he purchased the tickets for us. Once the tickets were bought, we boarded a tram that would take us to the top of Bukit Melawati.

[ smiles ] I clearly recall the tour guide warning us that the Silver Leaf Monkeys at Bukit Melawati are known to snatch all sorts of stuff, including spectacles! Really?! Well maybe it's true, I guess. But anyhow, I wasn't about to risk anything, so I carefully hid my handphone in my bag.

When we got to the top of Bukit Melawati, the first thing I saw were a whole lot of monkeys running around everywhere! And there were some people who were selling food such as long beans to tourists, specifically so that they could feed the monkeys...

I even witnessed a monkey pouncing onto a tourist's chest just to grab the long beans the tourist was holding! It was quite funny actually, especially the tourist's reaction! [ laughs ]

Anyway, we did the usual sightseeing around Bukit Melawati ( I even accidentally scratched my eyelid on some barbed wire! Ouch! ), and we took a lot of pictures along the way.

Here they are:

After we were done sightseeing at Bukit Melawati, the tour proceeded to the "Taman Ikan Air Tawar Kuala Selangor". And yes, as the name suggests, this facility exhibits various species of freshwater fish, among other things, of course...

We didn't stay there very long, and we couldn't take many pictures there because most of the fish showcased were kept in aquariums. A nuisance, really, since if we tried to take a picture of a fish in an aquarium, the picture would turn out having a reflection or glare on the aquarium's surface, making the picture look horrible... Oh well...

At least we managed to take a close-up picture of an iguana! [ smiles ] We took it after we had visited roughly all the freshwater fish exhibits in the facility...

Her are the two pictures we took during the visit to the Taman Ikan Air Tawar Kuala Selangor"...

After that, we boarded the good ol' bus again, and now, we were headed to "Yu He Swallow City".

It's a man-made habitat for Swallows, and also acts as a facility to collect and process bird's nests, which are highly valued for their health benefits...

Unfortunately, I didn't manage to take a picture of the Swallows in the facility, because it was too dark - Even my handphone's camera flash wasn't powerful enough to penetrate the darkness! Only my dad's phone was able to take a picture clear enough to see a bit of the Swallow's dark habitat... And even in that picture, it was still quite dark!

Right, basically, a lady showed us around the "Swallow City", explaining about how the facility functioned along the way.

First, she said that the Swallows would have to mate first, and only then would the Swallow couple build their nest. After a certain period, the bird's nest will be collected, processed, and finally sold to purchasers...

Here are some pictures we took during the visit to "Swallow City"...

After the visit to "Swallow City", it was almost 6pm. Therefore, for our final destination of the tour, we boarded the bus once more and headed to "New Beggar Delicious Restaurant", located in Ijok. Dinner will be served there...

This restaurant is apparently famous for it's uhhh, "Beggar" dishes ( Go and search on Google if you don't know what a "Beggar" dish is! ).

So yeah, at "New Beggar Delicious Restaurant", we were served the following dishes: Famous Beggar Chicken, Famous Beggar Duck, Famous Beggar Pork Leg, Famous Beggar Fried Rice, Famous Beggar Soup, Steamed "Bai Zao" Fish, Prawns, Crab, and a variety of fruits.

Honestly, I ate quite a lot during dinner! A bit too much for my stomach to handle, actually! But seriously, the food was very good, especially the giant prawns! [ salivates ]

Well, I didn't take the following pictures. My father did. I was too busy eating!

After dinner, we boarded the bus for the last time.

And before we knew it, we were on our way back to the Setia Eco-Park Clubhouse.

The journey took roughly around one hour, and by the time we got back, it was already 8.30pm.

When I got home, I put my bag down, headed to the living room, and collapsed onto the sofa...

And so concludes the "Setia Eco-Park Weekend Breakaway - Exotic Seafood Experience"!

Wow! Wasn't that fun?

[ smiles ]

Okay, then. There's no school tomorrow, so I think I'm going to blog about my school's "Entrepreneurship Carnival" tomorrow...

Don't judge me for being lazy! It's just that I'm tired of staring at the computer after typing this particularly long post, and I need to spend some time away from the computer!

Okay, standby for my next post tomorrow, alright?

May the Force be with you...