David Robinson

Dec 6, 20226 min read

Settling in to our house sit in Seremban 2

Ryan and Alicia, that we were going to be housesitting for for the next 5 weeks, had an early flight in the morning. However Coco is used to them leaving to go to work in the morning so there was no rush for us to get over to the house. After a late night with them the evening before we made use of the late check out and had a much needed lay in. For breakfast we grabbed some lemon teas, more baked pork buns, a curry puff and a coffee puff (15 MYR) from the food court across the way. Not a healthy start to the morning but a tasty ones, although the pork buns were still stand out winners. After checking out we got another Grab to the house in Seremban 2 (7 MYR) and let ourselves in (always a weird sensation). Coco was very confused but did say hello. We took a few hours to look around, find where bits were and to let Coco get used to us a little bit. Our hosts had left us some local sponge cake and coffee which we had out on the patio shaded from the sun.

The area we were staying in, and all of Seremban 2 is broken up into lots of housing estates, some gated, and then shopping areas that are a few blocks. From the house we couldn’t really walk to any of these areas as there were no paths and just crazy drivers on the road. Thankfully our hosts had left us their car for the duration of our stay so it meant that we could get out and about. Dave volunteered to drive and it took a few minutes to get used to the car (it being an automatic) and just how bad Malaysian drivers are. We went out in the car to get our bearings and to find a supermarket. We did a big grocery shop (91.80 MYR) to supplement meals being more expensive than our budget. It also gave us options for breakfast, vegetables as they aren’t so common in meals in Malaysia and of course we stocked up on snacks of course! On the way back we popped into a local shopping mall- Aeon. We had a quick wander around at the shops there just so we could be familiar with what was in there and so we could buy some other bits in their supermarket that we couldn’t get at Lotus. We also grabbed some cheap onigiri and coffee buns for lunch back at the house.

In the evening we headed to the closest restaurant area- Centrio, only 5 minutes away. The whole place was buzzing with everyone eating dinner. We headed to an indian malay restaurant called Nur Bistro that was really busy and everything smelt and looked amazing. One thing we always loved before in Malaysia was tandoori chicken done properly in tandoors, so we got some delicious tandoor chicken and plain naans (naan biasa). We were very happy and for 22 MYR it was definitely worth it!

Coco was fine with us coming in and out but was definitely still unsure of us and didn’t seek us out at all. The next day we had a very quiet day at the house as we wanted her to get used to us and the rain was pouring. After travelling around for a few weeks it was also nice just to have a fully chilled day- getting up late, cleaning the house a bit, having a lazy but veggie noodle lunch, calling family and meeting friends new babies over video! In the evening we found and drove to the local pond that Coco is used to going too and she happily trotted around this. Being 15 years old she is still springy but only needs short walks and she was happy to be back as that meant it was dinnertime for her!

As the weather was bad we made full use of the fact that food panda deliveries are cheap and plentiful here. We ordered Nasi Kandar from An Nass restaurant. Using food panda meant we could do some google translating to figure out what we wanted and also know how much it was going to be. As Nasi Kandar is usually done buffet style - rice, with different curry sauces, sides and then meats it is never clear for us how much it is going to bed. For 20 MYR (free delivery voucher) we got 2 nasi kandar one with curry chicken (kari ayam) and one with a sticky sweet dressing on fried chicken (madu ayam goreng), poppadoms and vegetables (sayur). It was delicous and there was sooo much food!

After not walking much for a few days, but still getting our bearings the next day we headed to the local S2 City Park. It was a bit drizzly and the park was only a small loop around the lake with the customary exercise equipment that we had to try out once but it was good to be outside. We also saw a good few monitor lizards and terrapins which is always fun. The park was by a different restaurant area and we found a random Chinese restaurant for lunch- ordering Mee goreng as it was the only thing we could see to order and knew what it was (6 MYR for fried noodles and 2.80 for iced milos MYR). On the way back we checked out the closest mall for us, grabbing bits and pieces we needed- it was a mission to find suncream that wasn’t whitening!! We snacked on more delicious buttery coffee buns outside by the fish pool at the house.

In the evening we tried to head to S2 hill park for sunset. We made it all the way up the hill before finding the park was just closing as we got there. We did enjoy the nice sunset from the path too the park though! For dinner we went to the Uptown restaurant area- this has generally more expensive or international options that the Centrio area. But we had been recommmended a cheap Malaysian restaurant there called Daniya. We couldn’t see any menus but there were various pictures of items dotted around so we tried the traditional malaysian meal of Nasi Lemak- fried chicken, rice, sambal (which is always a little fishy for meal), peanuts and small dried fish. Elements were tasty but overall it is not my favourite dish.

Now getting the feel for the place a bit we wanted to venture out and see a local sight- the Centipede Temple. This involved us heading towards and through traffic in Seremban city itself. The highways were busy and full with lanes suddenly merging together or suddenly turning off without warning. It was stressful but we made it to the outskirts of town and then had to navigate going up a very narrow steep hill to the temple. The chinese temple was bright and colourful with lots of different elements- rabbits, terrapins and fish, statues of folk tales and gods and a few different sections to climb and explore. Plus it gets its name from the large centipede sculpture on one of the walls. Climbing up some of the towers it gave great views over the city. By part of the shrine, large colourful wooden dragons were also being lit- flaming up into the sky. There wasn’t endless to do and see there but it was free and worth a visit if you find yourself in Seremban.

Making the most of being near Seremban city we stopped at a local food court on the way back- N-nine which had a wide array of different cuisines in it. We wanted to try some more local specialities to Seremban so ordered a curry laksa- curry flavoured noodle soup with bread and Hakka Mee- flat rice noodles with minced pork, green onioins and more of a fish sauce (13.50 MYR). The curry laksa was flavourful but still a little bit of an odd tang for me. The Hakka Mee was very plain but it is good to try the local dishes, not everything is always going to be to your pallete. We were also only a couple of minutes from a famous Siew Pau baker (the baked buns). The shop is literally just a wholesale bakery that has a counter at the front so we ordered more baked pork buns as well as trying their coffee bun and a kaya bun (9.70MYR). In the evening we headed back to the Centrio area and tried another local food court SS5 where we got another speciality dish- marmite chicken, as well as sweet and sour pork- both that were great. Marmite sauce is apparently a thing in Seremban and often put on baked crabs but they are definitely out of our price range. On the way back to the house we were also treated with seeing the local wild boar that lives at the end of the street- something you don’t see every day!