New found link thru Bidor

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Plaza D'MARA Sitiawan

I was involved with the final part of refurbishment project of turning the former  arcade building into what it is today some years back. It leaves a good feeling that it is still in good condition as seen from the well-maintained lawn. Kudos to MARA Sitiawan for keeping up the good work.

Sitiawan's architecture

I'm taking the opportunity while waiting for the traffic light, to snap some interesting architecture of Sitiawan. It has received new sets of windows but some of other parts are still intact.

Rojak Manjung

Rojak Manjung is very popular afternoon snack in Sitiawan/Sri Manjung. as the names implies, rojak means 'mixing various items together'. The rojak serves here is an elaborate version of Rojak Pasembor (the mamak version) and almost similar to Rojak Singapore where you have more mix of ingredients like fried tofu, cucur (prawn fritters), squid, crab, julienne cucumber, boiled potatoes, hard boiled eggs and fish cakes serves with spicy peanut sauce, a slightly different version of peanut sauce from those that were serve with satay.

It tastes good, I mean the gravy tastes good, with a good dose of spiciness and that's the key to 'rojak'. If the gravy failed to get the approval from majority taste buds, it would only means 'disaster', but that's not the case for Rojak Manjung. For instance, the rojak was all gone when I reach the stall around 5pm that day, which means it has become favorable among majority taste buds. Plus with all the review that I've gathered from the web, I think this rojak is in 'class of its own'.

Located on the Ground Level of D'MARA Plaza Sitiawan along the main road leading to Lumut. You could read more from Foodstreet, or the Ipoh's boy or from its own facebook page

Road to Lumut

You would pass through this particular stretch of road when you are heading for Lumut/Sitiawan. It's in Seberang Perak, where on both sides of the road lies padi fields. It has currently being harvest so it's look quite barren but it's always gives you such panoramic view each time you pass it through, be it whatever season you are in.

Out-of place architecture

The single block standing in front of the red building is the one that manage to attract my attention, not on the positive way but more of  'what sort of weird looking architecture doing here' kind of way. First and foremost, Perak DOES NOT have such identity for its architecture and that sort of roof belongs to Minangkabau where you can usually find it in Negeri Sembilan. There fore to apply it significantly onto this particular public building is such a nuisance to its architecture identity. I think the local municipal should be more alert before allowing such architecture to make a bold statement.

Crossing the Perak River

You would definitely need to cross this bridge if you are making your way to Sitiawan/Lumut from Bidor/Teluk Intan. The bridge was built high above the Perak River and am guessing, it is to allow any means of sea/river transportation to pass through underneath it. It is only a narrow single carriage-way and double lines means you can't overtake any slow vehicle ahead of you even if it's hiking up at 30kmph..tsk tsk

while on way up the bridge

making your way downwards from the peak of the bridge

Sitiawan - the way I remember...

I remember Sitiawan as a small town where I did drove by once or twice during my early childhood. The last time I drove-by Sitiawan was in 2004 where my family and I were actually heading for Teluk Batik. So basically, Sitiawan is a town where you only drove by on your way to Teluk Batik or to Lumut. It used to be an old town with series of colonial shop houses, but nowadays it has evolve to be a develop town and perhaps has gather the status as a city? (I'm not sure whether it has been upgrade to a city status, but the whole development makes it looks like one, the only trace to the old Sitiawan would be the existing colonial shop houses). And, it has already had a drive-thru McD while Ipoh still aren't any - so, it's a city or what?

For the past one year, I have to get myself to Sitiawan on monthly basis to attend meetings of a development project undertaken by our Firm, until it has recently completed. I remember that I started going during the period of road widening for the trunk road leading from Sri Iskandar to Sitiawan was still at the early stage of its construction, and now it has completed and I have no longer need to drag my hubby to accompany me. The older road was narrow with lots of heavy vehicle and the journey seems forever. Now, I can reach Sitiawan in 3 hrs (if you exit via Bidor from NKVE)