Have Perut Will Travel...: PEN Day 5 │ Padang Besar Shopping: Padang Waremart • Aked Niaga

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Wednesday, 27 December 2023

PEN Day 5 │ Padang Besar Shopping: Padang Waremart • Aked Niaga

Padang Besar — The Border Town Adventure

Soon as we stepped out of the Padang Besar KTM Station, a large group of over zealous “taxi” drivers swarmed us. Overwhelmed, we stepped back and tried hailing a Grab — no luck.

Unwilling to endure the constant onslaught, we walked out of the station compound. A few hundred metres away, we tried the Grab app again.

This time, we were in luck. A driver was on the way to take us to Aked Niaga Padang Besar.

Early Lunch at Kori Corner

We arrived at 11:15am and immediately headed to the nearest eatery — Kori Corner. We hadn’t eaten all morning, so rice dishes were the obvious choice.

Our orders:

Cat’s Belacan Fried Rice
My Chicken Pad Khra Pow
Iced Green Tea

All for RM23.00 (≈ USD/EUR5).

With lunch sorted, we took a quick potty break before entering the vast retail maze known as Padang Waremart.

The Great Herbal Soap Hunt

Top on our list: Madam Heng’s herbal soap.

We found it at the very first shop — RM40 for half a dozen (RM6.67 per bar). Not fully convinced, we continued browsing, but every other shop quoted RM8.00+ per bar.

So we circled back and bought two dozen bars for RM160.00 (≈ USD35/EUR31).

Meanwhile, Cat kept an eye out for her compact powder — no luck here.

Compact Powder Success

We exited Waremart and crossed over to Aked Niaga Padang Besar to continue the search. We remembered buying the compact powder upstairs last time, so we headed to the first floor.

Sure enough, we found it — RM15 per refill. I told Cat to get five refills, totalling RM75.00 (≈ USD16/EUR15).

Fruits, Snacks, and the Ride Back

We returned to the area near Waremart to buy fruits and Siamese snacks, including Cat’s favourite Miang Kham.

With our shopping done, we tried hailing a Grab back to the KTM station — again, no luck. A “taxi” driver offered to take us for RM10.00, and given the circumstances, we accepted.

He was a friendly local who lamented how some unscrupulous Siamese smugglers siphon Malaysian petrol across the border — RON95 at RM2.10 here vs RM4.80 in Thailand — fuelling the smuggling trade.

Soon after, we arrived back at the Padang Besar KTM Station.

Be sure to catch our previous video to see what happened next — and stay tuned as we have dinner just across the street from The Green House.