Welcome to the DARC Side

I just had words that my host from the party yesterday only just left DARC after an overnight stay and a hefty lunch. They hired a room which Anita used to shower the kids yesterday, a nice a roomy one, complete with the usual mod cons. As for the lunch, they served nasi padang every Sunday afternoon. And the patron were not charged a single sen, but urged to pay for what they thought the meal was worth .... And this novel concept permeate through to all aspects of the place. A strong sense of community.

As I mentioned, we took up membership to the place yesterday. It only cost us RM180 form the whole family forms year. And we would later get discounts for use of the facilities and horse riding lessons which according to my friend, were the most reasonable in town. You would not get the price anywhere near what offered anywhere else.

DARC offer care and training for the horses in their stable. They relied on members to volunteer in terms of time and money to make the place work. Therefore, the members felt that the place belonged to them, and most of the members hang around there regularly. You could even go a step further and sponsor the individual horses. And when it came to riding time, you would be able to ride your horse for free.

They adhere to strict regulations in terms of attire and etiquette. Members were briefed on the safety and precautions when riding and being around these animals. By training, you would gradually master the technique and could even became trainers yourself, or enter tournaments. A bit too early yet for us. We had yet to start any lesson. That would come in the coming weeks.

DARC however was not all about horses. Apart form the room and facilities for parties and events, they have motor cross, archery, gyms and play area for children. Around the rooms, they also had a swimming area for children. They have fencing lessons, and of course the restaurants. We had drinks yesterday while watching a football match at the centre.

Safety firstI don't think we were this good .... yetI had to convince the boys that swimming during party was not a good idea .....Of course you can choose to stay here overnightThe main issue would be logistics for us as we had to travel across town to get to Denai Alam. It should be bearable traffic on Sundays via the highway. And fitting that into their swimming lessons and later, sports clubs, their weekend would be full of activities.

As I mentioned, DARC had quite an atmosphere and we felt good signing up for membership. We would start our riding lessons soon, and it would not just be the kids, but for Anita and me as well.

More information about DARC here.

Horse-riding Party

Idlan had to miss his swimming lesson today - we would be taking him there tomorrow. Instead, we were in Denai Alam, attending the boys' friend's birthday. It was a party with a difference.

It was held at a horse-riding club - Denai Alam Riding Centre (DARC). We were not exactly familiar with the place, but the GPS helped us out. Although it did sent us through too many traffic lights. We were sure we would have got lost without the maps. But it was worth the search.

DARC is a family-orientated riding club, where the owner took up unwanted horses and raising them, often nursing them along the way. Most of them had been turned into rides, and the members could take ownership by way of sponsorship of individual horses or even come in as volunteers. But I would blog more about DARC later.

We started off all excited about the horses. My boys had never been up close with horses before, and the only time they had a ride was at Fraser's Hill a few years back. After being showed around, Idlan especially wanted to have a ride but he had to wait until the party started. That was after they had a pat and fed the horses some carrots.

I was starving by then, and even though it wasn't really a sunny day, it was still very warm and humid. The boys had some ice-cream to cool down while waiting for the party. The food was prepared by DARC, and the roast lamb was especially good.

The birthday boy was brought in on a pony for the cake-cutting. Then came the horse-ride for all the kids - when Idlan and Irfan got their first taste of riding on the back of a horse. They wanted more. And they persuaded me enough to become a member of the Centre.

I then had to leave DARC to attend to an admission at the hospital, with the rest continuing with the party. They were still dancing by the time I comeback, drenched in sweat, needing to take a shower. I was with the Dads watching football instead - Man City getting beat by Everton.

We finally called it the night at around 10. Our host would be spending the night at DARC - they have rooms for rent for those who wanted to ride early the next morning. All in all, it was an interesting party, and with us now being a member of DARC, we would definitely be coming here again and hopefully would be starting riding lessons soon.

I-City, U-turn

Well, as with all things in life, it would never 100% perfect. One hope that these inadequacy when pointed out were taken in stride. But I doubt if any of the people running the i-City attraction do read this blog. But I sure hope those planning to give it visit does, so as to better inform them on what to expect.

First of all, be prepare for a hike. Unless you were super early, or you were actually a VIP, during a crowded night, there would be some walking and climbing involved. Unfortunately at some of area, there were no railings or even proper steps. Some of the climb can be stee and should it rained, could be slippery. Maybe proper set of steps were needed towards the open car park area during peak times. So, if you were with children, or the elderly, take extra caution. Also imagine the muck you would be stepping into should there be heavy downpour ...... most of the area you would be stepping into were still barren.

The lack of signage was also typical of any of these local attraction. So far, only those around the Tasik Perdana and Sunway Lagoon have maps. Could actually follow. There wer no leaflets, nor clear signage pointing towards any of the attraction. If there rare some, they did a real nice job of hiding them away from us.

The above point were made worst with the lack of staff member to give any meaningful assistance to the visitors. The parking arrangement was best described as haphazard. After paying the RM10 parking fee, there were no instructions to follow, except "Jalan Terus", which ended up in a queue, and worse still, people cutting queue. A set of big sign posts - preferable in bright neon colours to blend in with the attraction - would be welcomed. Failing that, some attendants who knew how to direct traffic would be nice. I ended up confused in the end, finally finding a spot in the middle of a big open space. Luckily I parked near thee trace as those deeper were triple, if not quadruple-parked, plus some clown blocking the entrance. When we exited, we had cars driving from the opposite direction on our lane! And it was a double carriageway.

Talking about attendant, instead of sign posts warning us which area we can enter and what we should not touch, we had rude security guards, whistle in mouth blaring away to keep off list and to stay away from certain area. A sign would be great.

One thing peculiar about 1Malaysia, was the ongoing development. We do not like to maintain stuffs, but love to maintain - after all, most of the lucrative projects were for building not maintaining stuffs. Those were left for non-cronies. Same goes here. As I mentioned earlier, the venue was expending, and they were in the middle of building a monorail system to transport visitors around the park - which I was sure would not have any signposts lat as to where to alight from. They were practically welding the place while the public we're lingering around, complete with cranes and other heavy machinery. God forbid would there be mishap, then we would be entertained with finger-pointing, botch inquiry or two, followed by invitation for MACC to step in to investigate before a Minister or two announce on TV3 that work should be suspended - for a defined period of time of course. the had all day when the place was empty to carry out these works. Why when it was crowded?

I was sure these complaints would have been familiar to the management. I hope steps we're taken to remedy these as trust me, they had an attraction worth harping on about. A bit more management savvy, and they would have a sure win. If they organize the parking and the routing were better thought of, I wouldn't mind paying an extra RM5 of the entrance fee.

I-City, I-like

My flickr friends have been advocating a visit to I-City for quite some time. A couple of years ago, a group of them went, but unfortunately, I had a prior engagement at the time and had to give it a miss. A couple of days ago, I came across a photo of the place and showed it to Anita, and she and the boys went all excited. So, came the weekend, we asked if my sister, Julia, wanted to take here family along, and she agreed. So, off we went last Saturday evening, all packed into my minivan.

As it was right in the middle of the school holidays, the place was really packed. We decided to go there early, got our parking ticket, but was told by the attendant that food inside the area was rather expensive. W then decided to turn back and went for dinner at Sekinchan Ikan Bakar. What. Should have done was got ourselves the best parking spot, visit one of the many restaurants in the compound, waiting for the sunset.

But once we arrived late and got settled in, we were mesmerised by the symphony of light on offer. The children were in awe of what on offer, Irfan of course had my LX-3 on the ready and started snapping away as well as posing for photos. The venue was huge, and with the children on tow, it was not possible to visit the whole park that evening. By the time we orientat ourselves, the place was already jam packed with visitors. We decided to just stay at one general area and enjoy the lights. In the end, we spend more than an hour, until the children were tired. Irfan was excited with the camera and did not want go home.

The photos I had on this blog did not do justice however with what on show. The were also welding going on all around as a monorail system was being installeed around the park. That would be a nice way to travel around the venue, while enjoying the lights at a different vantage points. There was also a giant screen - it was showing Star Sports that evening for people to congregate at. Parking was situated all around the park, with the attraction being smack in the middle. The central area was also lined up with shops and restaurant - there was a KFC joint there as well as 7-Eleven. we did not have the chance to venture to a small staging area as well as a cold tent - apparently with snow. Maybe we give that a go on another day.

The evening we went out was one of those perfect storm for crowds. The weather have been hot and sunny all day, but was breezy at the same time, so the muggy evening was very bearable. Then, there was the two-weeks school holidays, and that evening sat right in the middle of that - a Saturday at that as well. We were expecting a big crowd to be quite honest.

All in all, it was a great night out for the family. Parking was aplenty, although rather disorganised - more on that later. There were plenty of area to venture into, and I suggest that rather than try to get through everywhere, you should just concentrate on one area - the big field in the middle of park would be a good bet. And the most important advice would be, do not come without a camera!

Sekinchan Ikan Bakar

If I were to be asked to give a one word review for Sekinchan Ikan Bakar, the word I'd use would be "embarrassing". I have heard so much reasonably good review of the chain, that when we came across an outlet on the way to I-City the other evening, my sister and I did not give it much of a thought. Anita was also into ikan bakar, so all was left was to get our boys to agree, and as their cousins were also along for the trip, they did not say much. We have already given them dinner prior to going out, so they were not too fussy about it.

The outlet we went to was in Shah Alam, right opposite I-City. Since we arrived there pretty early, well before sunset, we planned to pass some time there. So we sat down, and naturally, ordered some ikan bakar. Now, let me explain to you about how the order works. You don't actually ask for a menu for the fish. You go to the counter to choose. Unfortunately, this was where the problem lied. The workers at the counter did not know who came first, so, the more pushy you were, the more likely you would get your order first. And then, there was the risk of them messing out your order and until today, I was still trying to figure out how they could tell which one was your order. The restaurant was only a quarter full, and the still managed to mess up our order. And then they got the cheeks to say that it was our fault. To compound the matter further, they also messed up our drinks, which we ordered from the table, with the order clearly written. It was just plain embarrassing.

To be honest, grilling fish was not really that hard, and with the right equipment and experience, you would likely get it right most of the time. You have to make sure that you marinate it right, and perfect the sauce and air asam. Well, not only that the marinating sauce was worst than your typical teenagers running a pasar malam stall affair, even my clueless maid could make a meaner air asam. We ended up with a sour taste in our mouth - pun intended of course.

Save & Close

Ikan bakar - or grilled fish - if prepared the right way was a joy. It was plainly clear that Sekinchan Ikan Bakar had lost their focus as not only the messed up the actual meal, the bad customer experience we had made it unlikely that we would be giving the place the benefit of the doubt, even at another of their outlet. The workers there, being a mixture of locals and foreigners clearly couldn't clear less about how we felt. I shudder to imagine how they would cope with a full house. I would unfortunately label their outlet under "one which I would avoid". Please let me know if you have had a different experience, preferably indicating the venue which the fish was better. Bad service at these outlet were a given I was afraid.