River View Seafood Restaurant, Selangor

The Selangor river, which gave the state its name, meets the sea at the town of Kuala Selangor. Not surprisingly, for such a strategic location, Kuala Selangor was once the royal capital of Selangor before it was conquered by the Dutch in 1784, who established Fort Atlingsburg on Bukit Melawati (Melawati Hill) overlooking the river mouth and the Straits of Malacca.

Today, Kuala Selangor is part of the international tourist trail, with tourists coming to see the fireflies in nearby Kampung Kuantan, as well as the wild monkeys on Melawati Hill in the late afternoon.

As part of the experience of visiting Kuala Selangor, tourists will also make a visit to chinese fishing village called Pasir Penambang across the Selangor river. Pasir Penambang is famous for its dried seafood produce as well as a profusion of chinese seafood restaurants perched over the Selangor river on stilted timber structures.

River View Seafood Restaurant is probably the most famous of the seafood restaurants.

The restaurant is an open-air structure built over the river with scenic views downstream towards the river mouth.

Across the Selangor river is Melawati Hill with its tele-communication tower. The highest point in the surrounding countryside, it is no wonder that it was fought over by the Sultanate of Selangor, the Dutch and later the British.

The restaurant is a pretty simple structure, but it is clean and efficient. Even at 5:30pm, there are already people eating an early dinner.

The rather curious menu is pretty professionally done, with photographs of what you can order to eat. Curious in that there are no prices listed in the menu, so be careful in not getting carried away in what you order - or you may get a surprise when the bill comes later!

 

To start off, we ordered our drinks. As usual we go with the lime juice with preserved sour plum (asam boi). Any drink that is green in colour must surely be good right?

Essential condiments with seafood is garlic and bird's eye chillies (cili padi).

To start it off, we went with the salted egg crab. It was good, but nothing spectacular.

The oyster omelette was moist and fluffy and we liked it. Recommended.

We tried the Mantis Prawns next, again okay but nothing out of the world.

The butter prawns were hot and crispy. Fantastic when eaten hot and was probably the highlight of the dinner.

The seafood curry was good for eating with plain white rice.

The bill for two came to RM123.80. Price was not bad, the only thing to watch out would be the crabs and probably the fish, which would be charged according to the size/weight.

River View Seafood Restaurant

Address :   No.1, Jalan Besar Pasir Penambang, 45000 Kuala Selangor, Selangor.
Telephone: +(603) 3289 2238

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Update - October 2013

We made a re-visit to Riverview in October 2013, and this time we ordered the following dishes:

Long Beans

Fried noodles with cockles

Baby Squid in Marmite Sauce

Golden Aroma Crab

 

Leaning Tower of Teluk Intan, Perak

Teluk Intan is the third largest town in Perak state and the capital of Hilir Perak district. Surrounded on three sides by a bend in the Perak river, Teluk Intan's location close to the mouth of the Perak river made it an excellent location for a settlement.

The origins of Teluk Intan begins in 1528, when remnants of the Malaccan sultanate under the leadership of Muzaffar Shah, the son of the last Sultan of Malacca, came to the area and established the new Sultanate of Perak.

In the early 19th century, a beautiful Mandailing widow called Mak Intan came from Sumatera to trade with the Perak locals. Eventually the area where she came to trade became known as "Teluk Mak Intan" or "Mak Intan's Bay".

Teluk Mak Intan remained the seat of the Sultanate of Perak until 1877, when the court moved to Kuala Kangsar further north. In 1882, the British, who had been exerting their influence over the Perak Sultanate since 1874 via the British Resident J.W.W.Birch, renamed the town "Teluk Anson" after the Lieutenant-Governor of Penang (1867-1882), Sir Archibald Edward Anson.

100 years later, in 1982 and in conjunction with the town's centenary the Sultan of Perak changed the name of Teluk Anson back to Teluk Intan ("Diamond Bay"), in recognition of its original name.

Present day Teluk Intan is expanding rapidly outward from its original location encircled by the Perak river on three sides. However the core town area does have architectural relics from its colonial past, most notably the towns major landmark the "Menara Condong" or "Leaning Tower".

 

The tower was originally built by the contractor Leong Choon Cheong in 1885 to serve as a water tower for the town. Unfortunately, four years after completion, the water tower began to tilt, due to the presence of an underwater stream, hence earning it the name of "leaning tower".

The tower itself is only 25 metres high, with 110 steps upwards. Designed to look like a chinese pagoda, from the outside it looks like it has 8 storeys, but it is actually only three storeys high. 

In 1894, a clock designed by J.W. Benson-Ludgathy was brought in from London and installed on the tower. Today, the tower no longer serves as a water tower, but still acts as a clock tower and tourist landmark for the town.

Recently, the area around the leaning tower has been paved over with bricks to act as a plaza. The contractor Leong Choon Cheong, has been immortalised in the name of the main street Jalan Ah Cheong ("Cheong's road") in the centre of town.

The leaning tower can be visited by tourists from 8am to 5pm from Tuesday to Friday. On Saturday, Sundays and public holidays, it is open from 9am to 6pm. It is closed on Monday.

On the ground floor is what appears to be a well. Some old photographs of the leaning tower adorn the walls. A narrow winding staircase leads up to the next level.

 The mid level of the tower is empty. Another staircase leads up to the top floor.

At the top floor, you can look up and see the remains of the old unused water tank above you.

 

At this top level, you can squeeze outside into the encircling platform for a 360 degree view of Teluk Intan town. You will see a biscuit shop opposite the road.

 

This is the "Sin Guan Tin" biscuit shop, where you can buy locally made chinese biscuits and other snacks. There is another family run biscuit enterprise called "Sin Joo Heong" elsewhere in town, with is famous tiger-head symbol.

 

"Tau Sar Peah" is a type of chinese biscuit made of flour, salt, oil, sugar and green mung beans. One of the specialties of Teluk Intan.

A visit to Teluk Intan to see the leaning tower is not really a must-do itinerary, but if you are in the area, it is worth a stop-over, coupled with a food break to sample the local delicacies.

Bagan Nakhoda Omar, Selangor

Sabak Bernam is the most north-westerly district in Selangor state. The Bernam river to its north marks the boundary to neighbouring Perak state. Primarily an agricultural area, Sabak Bernam district is the rice-bowl of Selangor state, with its rice paddies in the areas around Sekinchan.

Bagan Nakhoda Omar is the main "beach" in Sabak Bernam. For convenience sake it is often called "BNO" for short.

BNO is not really a beach in the traditional sense of the word. A rocky flat coastline with a small river flowing into the sea. In the distance you will see sticks sticking out of the water - probably to mark how shallow the sea is.

There is an open air food court with the normal Malay gerai (stalls) selling local favourites such as mee udang (prawn mee).

BNO is also the starting point of the boat to the Kelong Paradise, 15 nautical miles off the coast. The Kelong is a structure built in the Straits of Melaka, for fishing enthusiasts to fish to their hearts content, complete with accommodation facilities.

For more details, refer to the kelongparadise website.