Wa-themed Gathering + Getting Lost In The Jungle.

      As the title states, it was a pretty hectic day today. 

Much yukata. Many smiles.

The group I was a part of that celebrates all-things-和服 (wafuku--or traditional Japanese clothing) had a gathering today. Months and weeks leading up to this event, I had contemplated ongoing, or not, because I wasn't quite sure of my schedule so far in advance. Turns out that it was a really lovely experience meeting people with similar interests, even though I've never met them before.

Fancy lettering for a fancy place.

Hearing the word いざかや (izakaya), I was immediately transported back to the time I visited one in Tokyo about a few years back. The place was cramped, reeked of alcohol and cigarette smoke, and best of all, noisy. It was where people went to unwind and rant about their bosses and hit on unsuspecting & potential dates (I'm just speculating. That's what people do when they get drunk, right?) One thing that's similar, was that food was expensive. Oh yes. You'd think eating at an izakaya would be say, affordable, like at the hundreds of thousands of English pubs, but no. The cost of a small side dish or appetizer/snack was enough to non-literally make my eyes pop out in horror. That night I resorted to just drinking beer and eating the complimentary (it's already included in the bill anyway) three teeny-tiny helpings of what's similar to 반찬 (banchan--side dishes).

Anyway, I digress. Pictures of food coming up after the fancy-schmancy interior decor below.

There are bar-seats at the far end of the restaurant where you can watch the chefs prepare your food.
And probably make you smell like wagyu beef.

Not much interior lighting, to be honest.
But has lot's of natural sunlight to light up the place during the day, otherwise.
Really nice ambiance though--chill, sophisticated Jazzy vibes.

A private room that can accommodate up to, say, 12 people?
The lighting isn't really that great in there. 

They use grey cups for hot tea, and white cups for cold tea. Smart.
Why didn't I think of that?

Their lunch set menu (11:30am-3:00pm) price ranges between RM28-RM73.
Average price: RM35. Each meal comes with rice, appetizer, soup, and dessert (served later). 

Below are what some of us got (read: pictures of food I managed to get before they disappeared):

Salmon teriyaki don; RM42

Chicken katsu curry; RM32

Cha soba; RM28 (cheapest item on the set lunch menu)

Hiyashi ramen; RM38 (Cold ramen--also comes with aforementioned miso soup, appetizer & dessert) 

Saba no shioyaki; RM42

Kaisen bara chirashi don; RM45 (freshly diced seasonal seafood served over rice--a popular dish)

Kaisen bara chiraishi don was what me, and two others, ordered. We just had to give this popular dish a try after seeing all the colourful cubes of seafood-goodness. And I was not disappointed.

looootttsss of goodies.

The fish and other seafood were really fresh and juicy. At first I thought it wouldn't be enough to fill me up, but turns out that the chefs really know just the right amount to feed you. But being a glutton, I wanted more.

The saba was really good too! For the price you pay, it's really enough to fill you up. Plus the meat was soooo soft--not over-cooked or over-seasoned, too. It was one of the dishes I got to eat half of (see, a glutton).

All in all, I'd give the food an above-average rating for freshness and delectable taste, and because this is more on the higher end of my budget I'd spend on food.

You can bring your dates here if you wanna impress them. I have to warn you though, if you're driving there, the restaurant itself is a little hard to find. There are also parking lots available, but a lot of the lots are reserved, so you and your date can have a nice time walking and getting lost together. Think of it as a pre-meal activity.

Once you see Botanica + Co, don't get confused and turn around and wander aimlessly for the next 15 minutes. Ask someone where Bocosan Izakaya is, and they'll tell you that it's just straight ahead after Botanica + Co, located on your right.

I'd post actual pictures of people who attended, but, privacy.


Anyway, moving on to:

HIKING.

Good thing I ate a lot of carbs because I totally did not expect to spend my entire late afternoon to evening getting lost in the jungle and feeding my blood to mozzies.

Behold: A girl with a phone in the middle of one of the many, many trails in Bukit Gasing
(or, Gasing Hill, for you non-Malay speaking folks)

Though, being a huge group of 18 trekking through the not-so-wild wilderness, I should have expected it to take about that long. But let me tell you, we would've probably made it out of the jungle earlier if not for us following another group (which was equally as lost). In fact, we got lost because we (for some reason assumed they were heading back the way they came) followed them, and ended up having to detour.

Regardless, the three and a half hours passed by in a breeze and my legs did not end up being jelly.

Noice.

No, you won't fall to your doom if you did fall off.

At this point in the picture, we managed to escape the dense jungle with muddy treks, to find that we still have a long way to go--uphill. So uphill we went.

I've never hated going uphill so much.

It was getting late, at least, for us who were still stuck in Bukit Gasing. My mum always cautioned me against being out at dusk on long highways, narrow & windy mountain paths, and the jungle. For very obvious reasons.

It was around 6pm by the time we got to the road in the picture above and there was still quite a distance to cover on foot. And some of us (read: me) were getting antsy and anxious, because I sure as heck didn't want to be camping over-night in the middle of the jungle unprepared. Of course, I knew we wouldn't, but I had to be mentally prepared for the worst case scenario, right? By then, I was drenched in sweat. The backpack I was carrying was partially soaking in my sweat (yeah, ew.). I had stolen a few mozzie patches from a friend and still gotten bitten by them larger-than-usual blood suckers. My shoes were threatening to fall apart. And I just wanted to be out of there before sunset.

There were a couple of times where I thought, "are we lost?!" and "did we go the wrong way, again?!" yet, despite that, and thanks to great navigation, we manged to arrive at the top of the hill where an Indian temple stood, all of us wheezing and sweaty, and desperate for a cold drink and a hot meal.

At least there were great views to snap pictures of.

Abandoned condo flats make quite the aesthetic.

"Look at the huge salted egg yolk!"

At the temple we gave up on walking and decided to call a Grab instead--at least, for the ones who were driving, but said Grab drivers were apparently "too busy", so we trudged down along the road, being careful to avoid the pesky monkeys that roamed the area until we came to another trek that led back into the jungle. 

Oh heck no.

Then miraculously, someone got a cramp. In both legs. And we stopped. Not too long after that, a little kancil was cruising down the road and slowed to a stop. 

Driver: Semua okey ke? (Are you all okay?)

us: Yeah, okay.

Driver: Kereta park dekat mana? (Where did you park your car?)

us: Dekat *insert place name here*. 

Driver: Okay. *gestures to hop into his car*

Hallelujah!

While those who drove followed the kind man down the hill, the rest of us chilled by the side of the road and fed more mozzies, until our rides arrived. 

We had started our hike at 4pm, and ended up leaving the area around 7:30pm. For most of us, we've never been on hikes, let alone one this exhausting. Would I do it again? Well, my feelings are ranging between 'never-again' and 'maybe-again-but-with-a-guide'.

Track title: "Why Did We Do This Again?"
Digital Single dropping soon.

You can be sure that we rewarded ourselves to a nice hot dinner after that. 

Gotta replenish all the blood-loss, you know?