83000 batu pahat, johor

It’s almost the annual ‘balik kampung’ time for many. The Chinese New Year is less than 2 weeks away. If you balik kampung via PLUS and exit from Air Hitam, you will pass by Parit Raja.

At Parit Raja, near the traffic light at Jalan Besar, you will see a building. (Sorry I can’t find the photo of the building, must have misplaced it). Inside this building you can find lots of stalls selling all kinds of Kerepek and tidbits.

Some of them are as colourful as this one!

It used to be in big big bags, and they scoop it for you. But nowadays, it is all packed into 500gm or 1Kg packs like the ones below. Yes, you can try them too if you want.

These stuff are all made in Parit Raja itself. So they are fresh. You know tidbits taste horrible if they have been left for some time. I have not made a trip to the ‘kilang-kilang’. Maybe one day.

Our family, we always tend to buy from this stall. I don’t know why, but the first time we bought things here long long ago was from this stall, and we stuck to it.

We always buy the cili kerepek, my colleagues loves them.
If you are wondering, yes, Parit Raja is part of Batu Pahat, but the postcode is not 83000.

Other than the Pasar Besar, there’s another Pasar in town. The smaller one is called Hiap Seng Market. It is along Jalan Mohd Akil.

Here are two photos of it.

Anyone can translate the Jawi on the top right? Does it translate to Hiap Seng Market or is it something else? Anyone has some history of this market? Let us know.

Maybe the next time, I shall go ask the vendors inside. It would be interesting to find out.

The last time I got back to BP, I saw that the Pasar Besar is painted. (What tickled me about the colour is that it looks like the High School colour! haha..)

I asked a PakCik who operates a stall nearby and he said, a few weeks before Raya, it was repainted. It now looks so clean and presentable. The fence is also clean now.

Buildings nowdays do not use this kind of bricks anymore ya?

Let me zoom in the sign board. Wonder if anyone who goes there all the time realise that it is there!

I wonder if the old clock will be back there. I guess not anytime. There was talk about this market being moved away to somewhere over the Peserai Bridge. Wonder if that is still true. Hmm a digital thermometer that tells the time would not be too bad an idea right?

This is the scene of the stalls outside the main market building. I think some of these things are really cheap. Selonggok RM1.

Here are some more pictures of BP Mall.

Going in the main entrance, you see this:

These pictures were taken during Chinese New Year. Crowds everywhere.

No Starbucks here, but there is authentic Batu Pahat coffee! Rengit Coffee.

If you are thinking, hmm shopping mall, is there a new food court? Yes! Food Junction, the Singapore chain of food court is here.

Someone asked before, what’s Pacific Department Stall? It’s part of “The Store” group which has hypermarts called Pacific and Department stores called “The Store” and “Fajar”.

This is the lower ground hypermarket entrance. Lots of people. Madness.

The upper floors are the Pacific Dept Store. Not suppose to take pictures inside, but outside can right?

Looks like any other modern department stores with all the branded stuff inside.

Shopping anyone?

Here’s some photos of Batu Pahat Mall, the newest kid on the block. When I visited it during CNY, not everything’s open yet.
The anchor tenant is the Pacific Hypermarket and the Pacific Department Stall.

Other shops are like GNC, Popular Bookshop, etc.

These few pictures were taken during a rainy day (in a moving car too). That’s why you can even see raindrops on it that looks like scratches.

Have some more collection of the photos, but will post it another day. Very sleep deprived.