3D2N Sekinchan family trip

Imagine a Sekinchan family trip.

Golden padi fields stretching as far as our eyes can see, all ready for harvesting.

适耕庄 Sekinchan is such a piece of abundance. Infact, 适耕庄 (Chinese name) liteally means land-suitable-for-farming, 鱼米之乡.

Sekinchan is in Selangor, 1 hour North of KL. It is about 5 hours, 440km from Singapore (estimated driving speed of 120 to 140kmh).

 

You know you have arrived at Malaysia’s rice bowl when you spot endless fields of padi.

 

鱼米之乡
鱼米之乡

Our Sekinchan family trip was timed to see golden Padi fields, estimated around mid May/Jun and Nov.

We did say Harvesting right, seeing monster tractors in action were COOL!

Right photo below, the padi factory. You will also notice many high-rise buidings designed to nest swallows and their saliva (燕窝 bird nest)

Rice Factory GPS (3.520942, 101.128885)

There are tours to guide you about padi process, from planting to harvesting to packaging and buying of  by-products (photos at Google link)

(L) 南天宫 (GPS 3.523699, 101.142036 )

 

The other highlight for us at Sekinchan was our accommodation. We were staying in container boxes!

Farm Ville Cafe & Homestay (GPS 3.500811, 101.111003)

Pretty innovative and abstract right, there is a small pool too!

We had more details about containers in this post, but you can see photos at Google link. (Just take note that the boxes can be hot during the afternoon, full blast the aircon)

 

This is view from our window, Green and yellow!

 

Map of Sekinchan attractions.

Image credit http://sekinchan.org

If you like nature, old-town, and lots of seafood, try Sekinchan. There are enough activities for families to enjoy a laid back 3D2N.

Sekinchan family Trip
Sekinchan family Trip

This is the famous Beach at Pantai Redang (GPS 3.502855, 101.094474).

You can swim but do not expect white sandy beaches.At the canal entrance, you can spot fishing boats heading out to the sea.

We spotted many “tree-houses” along the coastline. This beach is popular for kites and fishing.

Next up, Dinner. There are many stalls next to the beach area. The stalls are a bit run down, do not expect food court hygiene hee hee 🙂

炸騙集团 caught our name! The shop name means “deep-fried syndicate” haha.

 

Our “seafood dinner” consists of fried squid, prawn (is it mantis shrimp?). Total bill was only RM40, we ordered a second plate of squid as it was good.

 

You will not miss this Coca Cola landmark. Folks would climb up to second floor for a better view of surrounding.

Cool refreshments are always welcome 🙂

Breakfast was a 10 minutes walk for us to Sekinchan’s town area.

You will find coffee shops, bike shops and a wet market. This place is very crowded in the morning.

We did pass by a popular old school coffee shop. (Kedai Kopi )

Wanton noodle seems to be popular with locals.

Bike shops all along this street (GPS 3.506692, 101.106362), prices start from RM30 to RM50 (Quad bike) for 1 hour (or is it 2?).

 

This padi stack (or roll) Ah Ma’s house (Grandma) is popular for photo props.

阿嬷的家 The House of Ah Ma (GPS 3.50760, 101.10848)

You can find nostalgic stuffs and food, popular with souvenir hunters. This egg crepe is their best seller. It may look plain but it is tasty.

Mango King (3.52782, 101.13948)

You will likely see tour coaches before the mango trees.

We had the sweetest mangos ever, and busloads of visitors kept popping up. Try to enjoy the mangos under the trees, for enhanced novelty feel.

If time permits, visit “fishy” Bagan fishing village (3.506837, 101.094621)

Trawlers are back in port, and fishermen busy repairing their nets. Try to spot eels and other local catch.

After seeing the seafood source, seafood restaurants for lunch.

No1 favourite would be 建旗海鲜饭店 (Restoran Jiann Chyi, GPS 3.504834, 101.099031), but queues can be up to 1 hour! We ended up with neighbour “Hai Kang” .

We enjoyed our seafood lunch although Google Reviews are less positive.

After lunch, there are some shops selling local goods (土产). Do buy the normal or coconut egg tart but skip the cendol.

 

Cycling offers a good experience to exercise off the seafood calories. Fresh air, green landscapes, but do avoid the huge quad-bike haha!

We struggled to sustain momentum for this bike over an hour and we got 6 pairs of legs!


Quad-bikes does looks cool for family portraits and Instagram haha.

 

There are minimum cars on the road but we must still exercise vigilance. Just stop anywhere and pose with the padi landscape.

 

More details can be found on Sekinchan website http://www.sekinchan.org

Do pop by our Facebook photos, Day 1 and Day 2.

This trip was taken in May 2016, we are two years late 🙂
More about our Container hotel at this link.

.. read our 2018 Sekinchan Padibox stay

ps.. We would like to highlight another Fun pace near to Sekinchan. Do Google for 天空之镜 Sky Mirror. I enjoyed my sand-bank and clams exploration with my boy, blog post below.

Sky Mirror in Malaysia is SUPER FUN

 

 

Google Map hacks

Sharing some basic Google Map hacks in this post. Google Map is a life saver when we travel. We do not even need to understand a foreign language to begin navigating.

 

Google Map can also help us to find new attractions and F&B. In some cases, we do not even need to be “online” to search our destination too (offline download is possible but the file size is huge).

We just need to understand the basics of Google Map to start exploring away, with our feet, wheels, or even from our tablets 🙂

Explore our destination virtually.. before our Holiday.
If there is one Google Map thingy which continues to baffle me,  it has to be bus services. I will always go to the wrong bus stop, or I will take the longer bus detour.

 

I encounter the same issues in Japan and Taiwan! (but not in Singapore).
Is it just me, or can someone provide some tips for me?

 

Meanwhile, my preferred mode of transport is still subways, hopefully with minimum transfers.
 

 

Ok, let me try to share some common tips which I found useful. hope it will be helpful for you too.

 

Wishing all the adventurers out there “Happy Exploration!”

A) Search nearby attractions

We all know about Johor Legoland, but do we know about NEARBY 煮炒 zhi char or Seafood stalls?

 

a1)Search Legoland
 

 

a2)Remove Legoland, and Search “Seafood Restaurants”.
NEARBY Seafood restaurants will be listed (screen below).

 

a3)There are a few seafood eateries along Gelang Patah (we love coconut crabs at Xin Ming Chu) . Just read the reviews of the listed restaurants and make your choice.
Google Map hacks
Google Map hacks
a4)Example if I select “Tian Lai”, the next step is to grab the GPS from Google Map.

b) GPS- Simply Right Click on “Tian Lai”, select “What’s Here”

 (this does not work on mobile devices)

 

b1)And the GPS coordinates will appear at the bottom of page (step 1 and 2  screen below)
 

b2)From screenshot above, we know Restoran Tian Lai is :
-categorised as “Seafood restaurant” (Use this as search term for NEARBY )
-there are 163 reviews
-contact number and opening hours are useful for me too

b3)Add a few more GPS, and you can create your own Map and itinerary.
Taiwan example (link), we plotted all the interesting attractions around Keelung (read our 基隆 Keelung attractions post)

 

To make it more challenging, go to a non-English country.
I was staying at Asakusa’s K’s House Hostel.

 

b4)Replace “Seafood Restaurants” from step a2) with “Ramen”, “Cafe”, “Sento” or  “Laundry” ( Mrs’ favourite haha) and I have a list of nearby amenities 🙂
For richer search results, you can use native language. Example search “ランドリー” instead of laundry.

 

Do search for Massage too (マッサージ) 🙂
Just mouse over and shortlist the attractions with consistent good reviews, and grab the GPS.

C) Get second opinions from Tripadvisor and blogs (example)

Not exactly related to Google Map, but we need to get affirmation that our shortlisted Cafes or Ramen outlets are reputable and trustworthy.

 

c1)We already got the GPS from earlier steps. I will be kiasu and look at the Streetview of building and nearby landmarks too. If need to, I even keep a photo so that I can reference and ask around if I am really lost.

 

c2)With all the tips above, I suspect many gems are still hidden from Google. Lookout for queues in nearby alleys 🙂

d)How do you capture your GPS at current location?

 

Have you ever wonder how you can capture a location’s GPS? I am assuming most of us do not have satellite phone.

 

This is useful for my future reference. I do not have a supercomputer memory.. I can then share the GPS on our blog too (you are welcome). This is especially useful for our road trips up North to Malaysia (read some driving tips here)

 

d1)Below image from (L-R), I use two Iphone apps to pinpoint my GPS location.

 

-“Compass” app captures my location in degrees “3°56’21 N 102°21’34 E”

 

-“DMS Convert” app convert my location from Degrees/Minutes into Decimal “3.93916, 102.359444”

 

You can actually use your Iphone’s Location Service to reveal your GPS on your Compass, but I am still hesitant to reveal my location to Iphone (paranoid)

 

Please try this Compass/DMS converter in Singapore before overseas. The compass tool does not need 4G signal to work.

 

Please share if you have more tips to capture latitude and longitude coordinates.

 

e)Bonus for those who frequent Malaysia. We found a few more gems during our recent trip to Mount Austin.

These restaurants were found by Googling “Restaurant” near our hotel.
Both restaurants are highly rated and we will definitely visit again.

 

e1)Goody Soup (好湯頭, rated 4/5)

 

e2)Chai Jia Chai 蔡家菜 Hakka Food , rated 4.5/5 !

 

These two Mount Austin stalls are only 700m apart, I will let you figure out the GPS yourselves 🙂

 

Do pop by more Mount Austin food options in our blog post ->
You may get more inspirations about Google Map Hacks here

 

The no1 tip – BRING extra powerbanks. Google Map will suck up your phone’s battery!