We were now in our second week housesitting in Seremban and we were feeling like we needed a good walk. We also wanted to venture a little further afield so we went out to find Broga Hill Park. This was an hour drive but through some gorgeous windy roads. We parked down the free potholy road, rather than paying for the plantation parking and clambered our way up the tarmac road to reach the beginning of the walk nicely marked by a large sign. The ladies from the plantation tried to tempt us to go through their property for a fee for an ‘easier’ walk but we had read online that this was not the way to go.
The start of the track took us next to fields giving some good views before winding down and up through the jungle forest. There were ropes to help us clamber up steeper sections and signs to indicate how much further we had to go. After enjoying the shade of the forest the path came out and started to climb up the hill, exposed to the sun. Obviously, as it is us, we were doing this in midday sun so it was boiling when the sun wasn’t behind the clouds. I really struggled with the path upwards, even though it wasn’t too steep and had to stop frequently as my heart felt like it was going to explode. It was frustrating as I was struggling to even enjoy the amazing views that were revealing themselves.
Eventually I made it up to a viewpoint area where there were lots of rocks and some shade under the trees where we enjoyed the view briefly. However we still have several hundred metres to go upwards to actually reach one of the hills. (Broga hills has 3 hills with the peak) after scrambling up a steep section we eventually made it up to one of the hills. It turned out to be hill number 2- somehow we had missed hill 1. We decided to just enjoy the views from here and not go on any further as we were both shattered and feeling it in our legs. That meant it was time for snacks! After eating some we ventured back down to the 1st viewpoint as the views were actually better to chill and eat our remaining snacks. The views were great but after a few minutes we decided to make our way back to the car as we still had an hour drive back. Originally we had planned to tie in going to the nearby Sak Dato temple but we were so tired and such sweaty messes that we scrapped that off and just went back to the house. Even though it was painful at the time we both really enjoyed this hike, it was physically challenging which was nice after only short walks in recent days and the views made it worth it!
On the way back we treated ourselves to more coffee buns and then spent the afternoon relaxing reading in the hammock in the sun and in the shade for me! We really fancied burgers for dinner however the 2 local places we knew were decent turned out not to be open, it was also a holiday and meant that a lot of places weren’t open. We ended up ordering from 1 place that cancelled half our order and we then ended up ordering a 2nd dinner. Both were a bit disappointing and neither really worth the money! Dave cheered himself up by making a virtual appearance at the D & D game back home with friends.
We had a bit of an admin day the next day- booking flights and cars at our next destination so we had a simple lunch at the house. In the evening though we did head out to Centrio to fulfil the craving for burgers from the day before. Smashed and stacked was a small burger stall in the car park but the burgers were delicious, although very heavily sauced (10 for a single, 14 for a double MYR)! We also went in the local bakery- Toast House and explored all the treats- getting more coffee buns and picking up a black sesame and coffee cake to try over the next few days which was really interesting.
After another lazy day we found a local park for a walk- Iringan Bayu is a small wetland park that has been built for a new housing estate. Despite the walk not being too long we managed to spend quite a bit of time there enjoying the weird and wonderful animal sculptures, taking in the views of the lake and birds and also trying out all the exercise equipment! As the journey back took us past there, we had lunch in the s2s food court getting fresh poh piah (fresh Malaysian spring rolls filled with vegetables 3 MYR) and some tempura veg (7 MYR). We also revisited the Vietnamese coffee shop we had found so we could cool off with an iced coffee (5 MYR each).
We had to go to the mall the following day to pick up groceries and to also buy ingredients so that we could try out the homemade woodfire oven our hosts had built. We only managed to find frozen bases, some basic pizza sauce and specific ‘pizza cheese’ so it was definitely going to be an experiment. In the evening Dave chopped up the wood and lit the fire, getting it nice and hot for the pizzas. Despite them being frozen bases, with very basic ingredients they came out surprisingly well and were very tasty!
We spent the next day booking accommodation for our next destination before heading out to check out some of the other malls in the area. This was more eventful than planned with us having to go in a very tight multistory but then not being able to actually pay to go in as we didn’t have the right card and didn’t accept cash (despite a sign on the side saying they only accepted cash!!). Thankfully we persuaded them to let us through so we could exit as they initially wanted us to reverse down the steep, narrow entrance!! We did then get stuck at the barrier at the bottom until a nice grab driver pulled the barrier up for us. After that we found a local area to park in to then check out the mall. Palm mall itself was very underwhelming with half the shops shut, it being quite dingy and there being no options we really wanted for food. It was raining when we got back to the car and we also found a parking ticket despite there being no signs to say it was paid parking. Feeling annoyed we checked out the other mall nearby- Seremban Gateway which was also fine but still not anything we wanted to eat with it all just being chain restaurants. Instead we just headed back to the house to eat lunch there and to figure out how to pay our parking ticket! After much stress with various methods of payment not working we did manage to sort it and thankfully it was only 10 MYR but the mall was definitely not worth even paying that!! We cheered ourselves up with more marmite chicken and crispy pork from S5 in the evening though, still delicious!!
More adventures and exploring from Seremban in the next blog!
Thanks
Alex
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