The last time I was in Perlis, it was probably when boybands ruled in the 90s. So I was pretty excited to head up north for a special broadcast of MHI in Arau.
Took a Firefly flight up to Alor Setar on Thursday and then it was a 40-minute taxi ride to Arau. Pakcik teksi took a shortcut through some kampungs instead of the highway, so it was a pretty scenic ride throughout. I must say I had my mouth gaping wide most of the time, admiring the peaceful surroundings of paddy fields and picture-perfect hills. Orang bandor lah katakan. Haha.
Our hotel was the Soo Guan Villa Hotel, an establishment that's been around for ages, I was told. It's a pretty decent place too lah, the room was rather spacious with a decent bed, hot water and TV with only terrestrial channels.
Best part though was the fact that it was right next to a paddy field. So this was my view from the balcony...
Cool huh? After a much-needed nap, it was time for some food-hunting. And of course the first order of business was the famous laksa Perlis aka laksa kola. Co-host Nurul Syuhada used to live here, so after a couple of phone calls, we were off looking for this particular place near her old primary school. We were shooting it for a VT story as well, so I assumed driving duties and less than half an hour later, we found it!
We ordered some "laksa special" and man oh man, it was indeed pretty special. The kuah was simply perfect and with the right combination of condiments, we were slurping up the good stuff like there was no tomorrow!
But although the laksa story was completed, I was not done yet and managed to convince Nurul, the producer and cameraman to eat some more. Haha. And off we went to Kuala Perlis in search of good seafood.
We picked a random stall and ordered some kerang, sotong, ketam and this thing called manterang. Didn't know what to expect but the manterang bakar turned out to be rather yummy...
With our stomachs all filled up, we went back to the hotel for some shuteye. Woke up the next morning around 4.30am and got to the location at Kampung Tambun Tulang around 5.15am.
Nurul, Ally and myself hosted the show and it turned out to be one of the most enjoyable broadcasts ever for me. We had the Aman Kampus participants as well as the Kampung folks all around us, so it was very meriah and colourful. And the main "set" was a cool gazebo!
Probably the best part was the kayak race between Team M.Zul and Team Ally. We knew nuts about kayaking, but hey, it was all in the name of putting up a good show!
We got into the kayaks with baju Melayu and all and led our respective teams in a speed kayaking contest. I lost to Ally, but the final team score was 4-4. Phew! But I'm confident if I had a bit of time to practice, I could have smoked Ally. Or turn over into the water. Haha!
But again, it was a truly enjoyable TX with plenty of good memories to take home. Thank you Tambun Tulang!
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