Taiping: Happy 8 Retreat Cafe & Charcoal Factory Visit

#throwback

If you were to come Taiping for a day trip, I would recommend you to go Kuala Sepetang (Port Weld) for a walk. That is a fishing village and this is where you can get cheap seafood, famous Pau (Chinese bun), famous Curry noodles and enjoy the nature. Port Weld has plenty of mangrove trees and you can go to the Mangrove Forest Reserve to enjoy the beauty of nature. I remember during my last time visiting the Mangrove Forest Reserve, I saw baby crabs crawling out from the mud. So cute!

I wanted to bring my colleague to visit the Mangrove Forest Reserve in Matang but when we reached the place, there are very few humans and hence we were worried about our safety. 2 girls in "jungle" did not sound like a safe thing to do. So, we decided to change plan -- visit fishing village and try out the new cafe (opened early 2014) in Port Weld.

Here is it! The Happy 8 Retreat Cafe, Kuala Sepetang.
Design is quite nice but the food/drink that they serve are quite over-priced. 

We ordered a cheese cake to try. Cakes here are from Free Mori (a cake shop with franchise in KL).
OS in my heart: "Cheh.....Not made in Taiping... I'm asking a friend from KL to come Taiping to eat cake from KL.... ISHHHHH......"

The cake is nice, but too expensive. RM13 if I'm not wrong. X(


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Next Stop: Charcoal Factory (RIGHT OPPOSITE Mangrove Forest Reserve)

At first I thought we were just going in and have a quick walk around the factory. Who knows, they offer factory tour, with RM3/pax. The owner of the factory is very friendly and good in explaining the process. From tree trunk to charcoal, they need days of burning, with different types of fire + temperature. Amazing! 

Oh! And we bought 2 sweet potatoes from the owner. Overpriced but well, the tour for RM3 is worthy. =D

Look at the fire burning behind me =)

This is the trolley that the people use to carry the tree trunks.
So hard to balance the trolley. Arghhhh.....

Recommendation to tourist and locals: Visit the charcoal factory to expand your knowledge about how people produce charcoal. You like barbeque (BBQ)? Then you should pay a visit there.