Prague - More pictures

Prague - Czech Lion dish

Had my dinner in a local restaurant, ordering "Czech Lion", obviously, not a lion of course but pork with goulish and potatoes dumpling. Taste real nice.

Prague - 1 day tour

Hot Dog Stand

Prague - view from InterContinental room

View from my hotel's room

Another one

Casino? in Prague

The river right next to the hotel

First Peacock Bass caught on Storm Soft Plastic (minow)

It had been many attempts for me to catch any fresh water fish on live baits which I thought to be the best. However, after reading some interesting articles in MFN (Malaysian Fishing Network) http://www.fishing.net.my, the article of Marlin on soft plastic really caught my attention and I had make an acrobat copy of his article, reading it over and over again, sentence by sentence. It is amazing how these soft plastic mimic the movement of a real bait. Anyway, after trying all the live baits available locally, like crickets, earth worm, chicken liver, etc., nothing, absolutely nothing was caught. Although I have much better results in salt water, I am totally screwed in fresh water fishing. But, not today.

Amelia with peacock bass in a tub

Well, admittedly, this is just a juvenile peacock bass, nevertheless, it is still a significant milestone to me. First fish caught on artificial lure, first peacock bass caught.

Balakong - Ah Wah (JB) Bak Kut Teh

We were on our way home from Sukida Resort, Semenyih when we passed by an exit on the highway that leads to Balakong. It reminded me of the good food in Balakong, typically, Ah Wah Bak Kut Teh that I have not been visiting for months or even a year. Our last experience there was not that impressive, quality of the food was going down the drain although still consider above average comparing to other joints, nevertheless, it lost its appeal, so to speak.

This time around, I decided to give it another try. Checking whether are there any improvements over the past few months, perhaps, they changed a new chef, who knows? To my surprise, after ordering the dishes, it took less than 20 minutes for the first dish to be served. I was still busy attending to Amelia (my eldest daughter) who was playing the ice cube to go with the tea.

Fried kangkong (a kind of vege) was crunchy and the fragrance of balacan (prawn paste) really brings out the taste

Spicy chicken soup served in a claypot with some chinese herbals and the most important ingredient, chili padi (a local petite green chili, extra hot). This is one hell of a soup that will sweat you in no time. Thumbs up!



This is a fried eel dish cooked in kungpo (sizchuan) style (with dried chili, green chili, onion, ginger slices, etc.). This dish is fabulous and you can still taste the springy eel meat minus the bones (ala japanese style), absolutely, not fishy at all.


This is my favourite dish, Ikan Haruan (a kind of fresh water fish of snakehead family) slices served with spring onion, ginger slice, etc. The fish is as fresh as it can be.


All in all, this is a surprising good dinner with the quality of food improved and no wonder to see the restaurant was packed and bak kut teh (a herbal pork soup) was sold out within the first 2 hours of opening. I shall be back again to this restaurant.

Kampung Hailam... Seafood Restaurant

It was Saturday again (27th May 2006), I bought my wife, daughters and in-laws for a site survey trip (see whether any new spots for fishing). And again, I am headed North Port Hailam Village and Tanjong Harapan. I reached Tanjong Harapan at around 4:30pm, bad luck, not much activities going on, besides, the wave was pretty strong. Nothing much to do, we moved on and headed Sea Lion Pay Pond after all of us had some ice cream bought from the hawker on motorcycle.

We reached Sea Lion pond #1 at around 5:15pm, boy, it was crowded. I can see the anglers are just few feets away from each other. Don't feel like be one of them, I drove along the road and headed Pond #2, #3 and #4... There are some hook ups in Pond #4 and my father in-law seems to be excited seeing someone landed a red snapper. However, looking at my watch, it was already 6:00pm and I really don't think that the girls (2 daughters) can hold till 9:00pm (minimal 3 hours per visit); so, without wasting much time, I drove them to the nearby seafood restaurant.

The restaurant has an extended area which is a wooden platform built on the muddy area facing the river right opposite the yacht club. The water was clear and looks very promising. My eldest daughter kept reminding me that this was supposed to be a fishing trip. Wife thought for a while and asked the restaurant operator whether we can fish from the extended platform since it was still early and no customer except us. The restaurant operator agreed since we was the first customer of the day and of course, we ordered a sumptous meal that they won't want to offend a small request from a customer... Wife tried her luck and asked for a prawn (not live, of course) as a bait, I thought to myself, I am sure that they will agree to this since we ordered a "drunken prawn" (a dish where prawns are steamed with chinese rice wine and egg white) and it is just a matter of simple math to deduct one from the total. The lady operator oblighed and brought me one with the shell removed. It was pretty fresh though. I setup the Amelia's toy fishing rod and reel, hook the prawn flesh as bait and off it goes.

It was a matter of minutes (approx. 4-5 minutes) that I noticed the tip of rod started to nod. I took the rod from Amelia and gave it a strike, I can feel the struggle from the other end of the rod but not a very clear signal, I had a second thought, wondering whether I hook up a plastic beg (it was quite polluted and still does). I handed Amelia the rod and show her how to reel in the fish (assuming there is one on the other end). While she reeling hard to retrieve the line, I notice the tip of the rod nodding again, I told her, I am quite sure there is a fish on the other end, seeing her struggle with the reel, I took over and started to reel it in. Wife was standing beside Amelia and started teasing me, she thought that I had hook up some rubbish, I challenged her that if it is a fish on the end, she will have to swallow it alive. She just laughs knowing I am dead serious.... Moments later, I can see a silverish shadow gliding below the wooden structure where we were standing. It is a funny looking fish with 3 hard bones on its fin. We took some pictures and release it back to the water.



At least, I fulfilled my promise to Amelia but I told her, I will be back again for some bigger catch... The trip ended with a sumptous seafood dinner and of course, the main dish was a steamed grouper...