As we close the chapter on 2022, and left the coronavirus pandemic hopefully on the other side, there’s no better way to look ahead and say farewell to the years endured in lock-downs than to travel with family. My brother-in-law’s family invited us to a cruise in the last week of 2022, and I couldn’t say yes fast enough. The cruise includes a stop in Klang, a region of Malaysia that’s renowned for their cuisine but which just happens to be a bit out of the way for most travellers from Singapore.
I boarded Dream Cruise in anticipation. It may not be as polished as Royal Caribbean, but for large family-sized units comprising of many kids, the value of Dream Cruise is hard to beat. We splashed around in the pools, sunbathed and skidded down their formidable network of waterslides. At night, we watched magic shows and cabaret performances, and listened to live music performances into the wee hours of the night. Each day on board was blissful, with nothing more stressful than trying to fit as much fun into each day as we could.
When we reached Klang, disembarkment was a pain-free affair. We didn’t even need passports; our Dream Cruise room card got us through customs within the hour. Just a few years ago, before the Port Klang Cruise Terminal came into operation, cruise guests came ashore on boats. As things stand now, entering Port Klang is just a short walk away. Port Klang has a convenient store to load up on fresh lobster crackers, ones that come in brilliant shades of purple and orange. From the terminal, the ride-hailing app Grab will get you to wherever you want to go.
A trip to Klang isn’t complete without going to one of their renowned bah kut teh joints. As we walked into Kee Heong Bah Kut Teh and saw that the restaurant was completely occupied by locals on a weekday at 1pm, I knew we came to the right place. Kee Heong used to have a franchise in Singapore’s Chinatown, but that was unfortunately one of the pandemic’s casualties. It was nice that after all this time, we were finally able to patronise the original store. We ordered claypots of dry and soup-based bah kut teh, poured ourselves rounds of kongfu cha, and had a really pleasant lunch. We enjoyed the meal so much, we bought an entire carton of their spice mixes on our way out.
Klang is a royal city and used to be the capital of Selangor, and wherever you go, you see much of that old-school Southeast Asia charm. Old towns tend not to be pedestrian-friendly, though Grab makes travel much simpler. The mall Aeon Tinggi is just a short ride away, and across it is GM Klang, a wholesale outlet. Malaysia has its laid-back easygoing charm, and it’s easy to see why Malaysians are fiercely proud of their country. In seemingly no time at all, we returned to the ship for our journey back to Singapore, and towards 2023.
To a brighter future.
