Fraser's Hill and Bentong - Part 2

By Allan Yap & Nigel A. Skelchy

As we left Fraser's we had planned to visit the SPLASH centre.

But as we got to the bottom of the Gap junction, Raub/Bentong looked more interesting. Our sense of adventure prompted us to take a left instead of the usual right and off we went on a balmy Wednesday morning, meandering along roads which were shaded by leafy glades of bamboo and rainforest trees.

We drove through the valley town of Tranum and ended up in a little hamlet called Tras before we decided to stop and have a coffee break. But even here we had not escaped the pernicious hand of "civilisation" with machine made pau's and diesel lorries rumbling through what looked like an orchard town full of durians.

We definitely drew the attention of the villagers and all of a sudden I felt like a big city interloper who had no business being there.

Sitting down to a lovely cup of local coffee (lovely because it's fried in margarine) we proceeded to peel the pau. It was definitely of the Mcdonalds franchised variety, but it still tasted decent. Fluffy, pristine white pastry wrapping the requisite sticky "char siew" filling.

Not being sizeist but I think Tranum and Tras both share half of the proverbial horse that make them, together, a one horse town. Loved them both. Does that sound too Hollywood producerish speak? Or should I add the "darling."

From Tras we swung round and eventually headed off to the busy metropolis of Bentong. On the way in, I spied with mine little eye, a signpost pointing the way to "Air Terjun Chamang."


I was awed. Water was gushing down like gravity had concentrated all it's efforts at the bottom of the falls. And it was picture postcard picturesque.

Deciding that we had enough of straying off the garden path, Allan and I called a friend who is originally from Bentong to ask her for advice as to where and what to eat in Bentong. What we didn't expect was "I'll meet you at the restaurant."

It turned out that she had come up to Bentong over the weekend to visit her family and she was going to have lunch before heading down to KL. 20 minutes later we were ensconced in her 2nd favourite restaurant ordering our food. Her favourite was closed on Wednesdays.

One thing I've noticed about food outside of KL is that it's not as intensely flavoured. I'm not certain if this is a function of LESS MSG or it's just that our food in KL tends to be hit-over-the-head-with-sledgehammer type of cuisine but sometimes I prefer less of an assault on the senses so that you can actually taste the various flavours making up the flavour profile of the dish. We had stuff which wasn't out of the ordinary but was absolutely delicious and made more so by the company. Honey Ginger Chicken, Spring onions and ginger sauteed with sliced fish, and spinach in soup.

Allan had seen some lovely golden "pisang mas" on the way into the restaurant and so we stopped by to sample some of Bentong's produce, seeing that Bentong is a well known farmer's town. Just as we walk over however, our friend points out the tau foo fa stall next to it and since it proved too much of a temptation, we indulged. Yes, where food is concerned, we're easily distracted.
Silken, glistening, fragrant, hot, just set soya bean milk sweetened with the herbaceous vanillin notes of Pandan sugar syrup. Divine. It didn't slip or slide down one's throat as much as it got incoporated into the taste buds and vanished. It was magical. If you can imagine rippling silk in gustatory terms, you'd be close. I have not had better in KL.

I'm sorry I can't give the name of the shop because it was a stall behind the wet market.

From Bentong, we found our way back on to the highway and before you knew it we were avoiding KL traffic again.