Sekinchan: Where Padi Fields, Seafood Delights, and a Wishing Tree Await

13 October 2019

“Should we head back to Kuala Lumpur in case it rains later?” I asked Pat, the “driver” for our Sekinchan day-trip. “I don’t think it will rain”, Pat predicted and suggested that we continue on with our journey to Sekinchan after our Sky Mirror tour.

So, we headed to Sekinchan to see the padi fields but not before our navigator gave us a little bit of a shock!

Forgetting that we had earlier switched it to “walk” mode instead of “drive” mode to guide us during our walk to Auntie Foo’s from the Sky Mirror Jetty, the navigator duly informed us that it would take us 5 hours plus to get to Sekinchan from Kuala Selangor!

After a bit of fiddling around by two non-techies, we switched the navigator back to “drive” mode, upon which, we were informed that it would take about 40 minutes to get to Sekinchan from where we were! Phew!

The first thing we were going to do as soon as we arrive at Sekinchan was to eat lunch. We were, by then, rather hungry. After some cursory research, we decided on “Ji Mei La La Chien” since it came recommended by a number of blogs. Imagine our disappointment when first, the navigator took us to the wrong address and second, when we finally found the right address, the place was closed.

Where to go? Most seafood restaurants (our meal of choice) were closed by 3pm and will only re-open at 5pm. As we went down the list of recommended restaurants, we found one that was opened – Loong Hua. Fortunately, the place was just a few minutes away from where we were and there was also ample parking space across the lane from the restaurant.

The restaurant has both an air-conditioned area and one without. We opted to sit in the non-air-conditioned area in order to take in the scenes of the fishing village across the river.

We had one medium-sized steam golden pomfret, fried calamari, steamed clams, yau mak vegetable and two fresh coconut drinks. The food was good. Total bill: RM88 – certainly more reasonable when compared to the pricing at Pulau Ketam!

From being absolutely hungry, we became extremely full! So, we headed straight to the padi fields to walk off the food we just ate. We decided to head towards Padi Box, a homestay that is designed from freight containers and situated amongst the paddy fields of Sekinchan. When we reached Padi Box, we noticed an old bus on top of a container that houses a café going by the name of N16.

The Sekinchan padi fields were a sight to behold. Some parts were green and some turning yellow. Pat in particular took loads of pictures while I just walked and walked and walked while taking in the scenes. Some visitors were also taking photos while others were cycling up and down the really long flat roads.

After what seems like hours of taking photos and walking around the padi fields, Pat and I decided to have coffee at the N16 café. As we got there, we noticed a sign stating that the minimum order per table is RM30. So, we added a piece of blueberry cake in addition to two coffees to our order, although we were really still full from lunch! The coffee and cake were so-so but the scenes from the bus were amazing. The café was also air-conditioned, so it helped cool both of us down after spending much of our day in the scorching sun.

While having coffee, we discussed our next itinerary, ensuring that we cover the major places of interest while in Sekinchan. As we were both mango freaks (well, more me than Pat!), we decided to stop by the famous Mango King stall in order to buy some mangoes. The mangoes were huge and sweet!

Our final stop was to Pantai Redang (Redang Beach) to see the Wishing Tree. The tree (and in fact much of Sekinchan) was made famous by Outbound Love, a Hong Kong TVB drama. It is “decorated” with hundreds of wishes written on red strips of cloth that are thrown over the branches and weighted down by two coins. The wishes do make the tree quite beautiful, though I do wonder how the tree feels about it all.

We were most fortunate to catch the beautiful sunset at Pantai Redang as the curtain fell on a memorable trip of adventure, food and great conversation.

Thanks, Pat, for the lovely day.