Advertisement
Published: April 17th 2014
HE SAID... We woke early (in Kuala Terengganu) and headed down to a lazy breakfast at 7am. We sat on the hotel’s riverside deck beside the Sungai Terengganu (Terengganu River) and helped ourselves to tea, coffee, juice, cornflakes,
nasi impit with kuah kacung (moist rice cakes with satay sauce),
nasi dagang with gula ikan tongkol (red rice with fish curry),
fried kway teow(fried flat noodles), hashbrown potatoes, toast with sardines and toast with coconut jam. It was great, and we shared it with a very demanding street cat until the waiting staff shooed it away with a spray of water.
We had a two and a half hour bus trip to Jerteh (Kota Bharu), so after breakfast I walked around Chinatown one last time before the bus left at 10am. We caught a taxi to the bus station, picked up some toothpaste, jumped on a reasonably basic public bus and drove back along the road into Kuala Terengganu until the turnoff to Kota Bharu (which I’d seen the day before). By
reasonably basic I mean unswept (never swept) floors, grime and squashed bugs on windows, unwashed curtains (hanging for at least the past 20 years), broken seats and non–existent suspension.
We were sitting in the very back seat, and whenever we hit a bump in the road (a regular occurrence) we lifted off our seats and our heads almost hit the ceiling before we crashed back down. No wonder the seats were broken. But it was comfortable enough.
We arrived in Jerteh at 11.30am, unloaded our packs from the bus undercarriage, jumped into a taxi and headed to Kuala Besut on Malaysia’s eastern coastline. We arrived at 12.15pm and sat down for lunch at a small corner cafe near the wharf. We ordered
teh tarik (pulled sweet milky tea),
roti canai (flat flaky Indian bread served with curry sauce) and banana
roti – it was fantastic. We made our way along Kuala Besut’s floating jetty, climbed aboard a small open boat and sped off on our 30 minute trip across the South China Sea to
Perhentian Besar Island.
We glided into the tranquil bay of Teluk Dalam (Deep Bay), stepped off our boat onto a wooden jetty and walked straight onto the beach and up a few steps to our hotel – the Arwana Perhentian Resort. We checked in, lounged in the lobby to access the hotel wifi
and then headed out for cold drinks – iced
teh tarik and
ros bandung (rose syrup with milk) at B’First Cafe, which was just along the beach from the hotel. We wandered the beach from end to end, swam in its warm waters and then headed back to B’First Cafe for dinner at 7pm.
We sat at a plastic table on the beach and ordered spicy fried rice with seafood, chicken with soy and oyster sauce, and a small dish of hot
sambal belacan (chilli sauce with shrimp paste). It was a fantastic meal, and the ambience was incredible – sitting on the beach with a crescent moon above us. I enjoyed a beer with the meal, but Ren’s first mojito of the holiday was shocking. The guy at the beachside bar didn’t have any mint, so he substituted peppermint essence... I’m pretty sure there was no rum in there either. We walked back to the hotel along the moonlit beach, loitered in the lobby to access the somewhat intermittent wifi and then relaxed on the deck of our bungalow in the warm night air.
As we sat on the deck in our comfortable deckchairs, we listened to
fantastic ambient music (which slowly morphed into house music) pulsing from the outdoor bar, which was located right beside our bungalow. They played until midnight, and everyone (including us) just sat and relaxed in the warm evening atmosphere.
We woke reasonably late at 7.30am and headed straight to breakfast. We sat in the open dining area overlooking Teluk Dalam and enjoyed coffee, juice, cornflakes, bread pudding with cream and waffles with honey. It’s the first time I’ve had bread pudding and cream for breakfast, and it was fantastic (although a bit too sweet). We finished breakfast, walked onto the beach jetty, climbed into a small boat and headed off on a snorkelling trip around 9.30am. We snorkelled at Turtle Bay (where I swam with a large turtle), Coral Garden and Shark Point (where a reef shark swam underneath me).
We clambered back into the boat and sped over to a small beach on the eastern side of Teluk Dalam for a swim before heading back to Arwana Perhentian Resort around midday. We climbed out of the boat, walked up the beach to our bungalow, showered and then headed out to lunch. Bayu Bistro was just along the beach
from our hotel. We ordered vegetarian fried rice and
char kway teow (flat wide rice noodles, prawns, Chinese sausage, egg, crispy sprouts, and chilli), and we refreshed ourselves with a
teh tarik. After lunch we walked a little further along the beach and had another
teh tarik and chocolate banana shake at the B’First Cafe. We lazed on the beach and watched the posturing of a group of young tourists (we’ve all been there) before heading back to sit and relax on the deck of our bungalow. The afternoon slowly drifted by and the relaxation well and truly set in. Ren had a massage around 3.30pm, while I lounged in my deckchair and soaked up the island’s ambience...
After a few beer buckets and shandies at the bar beside our bungalow, we headed out for dinner at Samudra Cafe, which was just along the beach from our hotel. We shared hot and spicy chicken and ginger squid. It was fantastic, and the hot and spicy chicken was incredibly HOT and SPICY! It was the first (and only) time on the trip that I ended up with hiccups from chilli heat! I started the meal with a
teh tarik while
Ren opted for a diet coke. When we got back to our bungalow, a different guy was running the bar outside our bedroom window, and his music choice differed significantly from that of the previous night. He played doof doof music until 1.30am, so sleep proved to be difficult.
We woke late (7.30am) and headed to breakfast at 8am. We gazed out over the calm waters of Teluk Dalam and enjoyed coffee, juice, cornflakes, omelette and sausages. We decided to trek to the other side of the island at 10am. With very few people braving the overgrown and occasionally steep track, we encountered monitor lizards, squirrels, dragon flies, ants and monkeys (far more wildlife than we had seen in Taman Negara National Park). We explored the Main Beach tourist hub before returning over the jungle track to our secluded bay. It was incredibly hot, and the slightest amount of exertion was instantly exhausting.
We arrived back around midday, showered and walked along the beach to B’First Cafe for a
teh tarik. I pushed off the beach in a kayak around 1pm and paddled out to explore the eastern shore of Teluk Dalam, jumping in for a swim every
now and then to cool off. When I got back at 2pm, we walked to B’First Cafe for lunch – I ordered
roti canai and Ren went for the chicken chop. We’d seen chicken chop on quite a few menus, so it was time to try this amalgam of cultures. The chicken was cooked perfectly and was very tasty, but the thick sweet and spicy tomato sauce that smothered it was a long way off the mark...
Ren went for a pedicure at 4pm. I sat on the deck of our bungalow and tried to catch up on my travel notes, but the thumping music emanating from the bar beside us was so loud that the act of thinking and writing was barely possible. We decided to head to the lobby to write in silence.
We headed out to dinner around 7.30pm. This was our last night on the island, and our options for eating out on the beach were limited. We decided on B’First Cafe, as it had been consistently good. We shared
sambal prawns and
sambal fish, and both dishes were incredibly spicy and tasty. We sat at a plastic table on the beach in the
turtle point
photo credit: diane alfordmoonlight, with squid boats shimmering on the horizon. It was a heady atmosphere. We walked back along the beach at 9pm, caught up on our travel notes in the hotel lobby, retired to our bungalow around 11pm and fell asleep to the blaring music from the bar next door.
SHE SAID... We woke early in the not–so–nice room of the Seri Malaysia Hotel in Kuala Terengganu, and had a big breakfast on the terrace overhanging the Terengganu River. I got to try
nasi impit with kuah kacung (moist rice cakes with satay sauce), and
nasi dagang with gula ikan tongkol (red rice with fish curry) – two local dishes that people rave about. I loved the
nasi impit with kuah kacung, but the fish curry was a bit too strong for me first thing in the morning.
The hotel staff member was fighting a war with a street cat (or river cat in this case) – they would chase it off with a water spray bottle, but it kept sneaking back on the outside of the terrace railings and jumping over when the coast was clear. Of course I was on the side of the cat,
who loved the fish I couldn’t finish. 😊
After breakfast we caught taxis to the Kuala Terengganu bus station. We were heading to the squeaky sand and sparkling tropical waters of the
Perhentian Islands off the east coast of the peninsular in the South China Sea.
It was a quick and easy two hour local bus to Jerteh (Kota Bharu), although those of us in the very back of the bus felt like we’d been on a roller coaster ride. We didn’t mind, but it wasn’t going unnoticed that some of us were always copping the back bouncy seats, while others always got the front seats. We were thinking of staging a mutiny. 😊
From Jerteh we caught taxis to the ferry terminal at Kuala Besut. While we waited for our ferry we stocked up on water and snacks, and couldn’t resist having a
roti canai and a banana
roti at the local
roti stall. I would also have to vote the toilets at the ferry terminal as some of the best public toilets I’ve used in Asia. There were even curtains and air fresheners!
We had a very exciting 45 minute boat ride over crystal–clear
waters to the sun–kissed beaches of the Perhentian Islands ahead of us. However, we first had to navigate the wobbly floating jetty with ‘holes’ in it. It was ok for those of us with packs on our backs and a sense of humour, but it wasn’t so funny for the people who were carrying mammoth suitcases and had no sense of humour. Some people. Sigh.
The Perhentian Islands are made up of Kecil Island – the smaller, more popular backpacker island; and Besar Island – the larger and quieter choice. We stayed on Besar, and it’s only a quick water taxi trip between the two. There were no banks or ATMs, and it was a far cry from Thailand’s more developed islands. It’s a quiet and gentle place where time slowed down and the days blended into each other. It was also the sort of place where we only noticed the passing of the day when we got hungry and had to decide on where to eat. Most visitors are here for the diving and snorkelling, or like me, to try and do absolutely nothing – that was the plan anyway.
Arwana Perhentian Resort is located only metres
away from the sea in Teluk Dalam, and our room was only two bungalows away from the beach. The downside was that we were also right next to the restaurant that served breakfast at 7:30am and within touching distance of Jim’s Outdoor Hotel Bar, one of only three places that served alcohol on our stretch of beach. We were a little worried that the loud music would annoy us. On the first day the barman turned out to have excellent taste in music. But we weren’t so lucky thereafter.
We dropped our bags off and walked to B’ First Cafe, which was right next to Jim’s Beach Bar (owned by our hotel) for a drink. I tried
ros bandung which is made from rose syrup mixed with hot water, evaporated milk and served on ice. It was sweet yet refreshing, and I loved it very much – I think I’ll start making this at home. Andrew had an iced
teh tarik.
We walked the length of Teluk Dalam beach, checked out the restaurants and looked for massage places. We doubled back to the area of the beach recommended to us by the rasta guy at B’ First Cafe
and sat in the warmer–than–bath–water sea for about an hour. This felt and looked like heaven. The water was so high in salt that I could float without even trying.
We couldn’t help but compare the calm and quiet approach to tourism on this beach with the beaches elsewhere in South East Asian countries. I really didn’t miss the gauntlet of touts and sellers of cheap beach crap, or the end to end beach loungers and sun umbrellas that can take up an entire beach. Apart from the Spa at our resort and one other place, there was nowhere else to get a massage, so I booked a back massage for day two and a pedicure for day three.
We returned to B’ First Cafe for dinner, and I had my fist cocktail of the trip – and what a resounding disappointment it was. When I order a mojito, I really don’t expect to get green Listerine. Given a lack of mint, peppermint syrup had been used; and it tasted exactly as you would expect it to taste. On the plus side, our dishes of soy chicken and Thai style fried rice were fabulous. We asked for some
sambal belacan which made the meal even better. The rasta guy said we’d always remember him for the really hot
sambal, and I think he could be right. Apparently, the rasta guy used to be a banker in the 1980s, but took a redundancy package and moved here for the beach life. I think the beach life suits him, but he was oddly averse to having his photo taken, so we all theorised as to whether he was a fugitive on the run. 😊
We spent the rest of the night sitting outside on our balcony (a metre from the outdoor bar) writing up notes and listening to the happenings at the bar. There was a large gathering of diving staff, and we were surprised at how quiet and civilised their drinking session was.
The hotel breakfast was the usual fare of some rice and noodle dishes and some western dishes. My favourite was the bread and butter pudding! Such a treat as a breakfast dish...but I may have had about two servings too many.
We had a pre–booked a snorkelling trip for that morning, and a small boat took us to spots around the two islands.
Andrew enjoyed swimming in the beautiful turquoise waters and snorkelling among reefs full of fish, while I relaxed on the boat, only getting into the water at the first and last stops. The first stop at Turtle Point was off a beach – the water was extremely lovely and the salt content was through the roof, so I was blissfully buoyant. At the other stops (Coral Garden and Shark Point) people snorkelled off the boat, while I had to make the difficult decision between reading a book or compulsively taking more and more photos of the sea, boats and clouds. Andrew’s highlight of the day was swimming with a large green sea turtle! There were also a few reef sharks around and Andrew spotted one swimming under him, but I think he was glad that it was a fleeting encounter. Doug and Di are travelling with an underwater camera and kindly shared their underwater snaps of the day. There was consensus among the group that this trip was amongst the best snorkelling they’d done. The last stop was a swimming stop at a fresh water spring on a beach not far from our resort. The water was absolutely gorgeous and
it was a lovely way to end the three hour boat trip.
Back at ‘our’ beach, Andrew and I wandered around and settled in at Bayu Dive Lodge for lunch. We shared a
char kway teow and a vegetarian fried rice. Sadly, the food was bland compared to the food we’d had so far and the service was atrocious. We decided we wouldn’t be going back.
That afternoon I had my massage and it was amazingly good. A girl of barely 20 was able to use her entire body weight to work on every knot in my back and shoulders. She went directly to the ‘mouse knot’ I’ve developed under my right shoulder blade from years of computer use. I was very impressed. My back was so tender after the massage that I couldn’t sleep on it for two nights. The massage ended with a blissful head massage and a warm ginger tea.
Back at our bungalow, I joined Andrew on our deck, writing and listening to the music from Jim’s Outdoor Hotel Bar. Early in the evening Anne–Louise and Wendy came over for drinks, and we sat in the ‘boat’ at the bar (a real boat
acts as seating!) and had a few drinks. Andrew and the girls shared beer buckets and I had shandies. 😊
It was getting late, so we decided to head out to dinner at Samudra Beach Chalet. Andrew and I shared squid in ginger and a hot and spicy chicken. The food on the island had been quite good, but we were starting to realise that most places served the same dishes with varying spiciness. We walked back to our room and noticed that the music at Jim’ Outdoor Hotel Bar was much louder on a Saturday night. And the barman on duty had shocking taste in music. They finally shut up shop at 1:40am.
After breakfast on the second day (I managed to abstain from scoffing more bread and butter pudding), Andrew and I decided that we would burn some energy and walk the jungle trek between our beach and the main beach on the other side of the island. The track started at the back of our resort, but it wasn’t much of a track really. The grass was waist high on either side and we were a bit concerned about snakes. However, after about 500m the
overgrown path turned into a gorgeous jungle path that meandered through large forest trees, wild banana trees, wild ginger plants, vines and forest undergrowth. The path was gravelly in parts and sandy in others, but it was never even. Every foothold had to be concentrated on, especially on the steep uphill bits. At one point we came across a fork in the road, with one leading down to Main Beach and another mysterious uphill path with an arrow made of twigs pointing towards it. If you know Andrew you can guess which path we took. The mysterious path wound its way up and down small hills and finally came out on the side of Main Beach that was closest to our resort.
We walked the length of Main Beach, decided our beach was much nicer, and then followed the Jungle Trek signs to rejoin the path back to our resort. We saw and heard more wildlife on this short two hour trek than we had over three days at Taman Negara National Park. We saw squirrels, lines of soldier ants, monitor lizards, many different coloured dragon flies and birds, and my favourite part – a family of monkeys. We’d
stopped to have some water when Andrew spotted movement in one of the trees, and we realised that they were just sitting there watching us. The mothers had three little bright red babies, but the adults were fully black except for a band of silver around their lips and eyes. The males were a bit weary of us and came to the lower branches to check us out, as did a cheeky juvenile who hadn’t yet gained full control of its limbs, sliding all over the trees and branches and making an almighty racket. We watched them for a long while before beginning the downhill march back to our resort. I will have to find out what sort of monkeys they were.*
We rehydrated with two
teh tariks on the beach at B’ First Cafe, after which I had an hour nap to recover from a slightly upset tummy. While I slept Andrew took an open sea kayak out for a paddle. By the time he returned and showered, I was feeling much better and ready for lunch.
We went back to B’ First Cafe for lunch...Andrew had a
roti canai and I had something that had fascinated
me for weeks – a chicken chop! It was a big deep fried breast of chicken smothered in a weird spicy tomatoey sauce and topped with fresh corn, peas and diced carrot. The side of fries where also covered in a chilli spice powder. They really had taken the English chop and made it their own. It tasted much better than it looked, but without Andrew’s help, there was no way I could have finished even a third of the gigantic serve.
We spent the afternoon watching the large contingent of Malaysian Fire and Rescue divers (who were staying at our resort) practicing their drills and sorting out their dive gear. Two things about them amused me a little – their fat little rescue boats had the word ‘BOMBA’ on them, and their camouflage uniforms were bright orange, which made me think they were in onsie tiger outfits. Do you need to be camouflaged when fighting a fire? 😊
I normally never use the spa facilities at a hotel, and I always opt to go to a street or beach side massage place. However, as I’ve already mentioned, the options on this island seemed limited to the hotels
and resorts. Luckily they weren’t too exorbitantly priced, so I had a pedicure at the hotel. It was so nice to give my poor feet some attention after three weeks of walking and trekking. The nail polish colour choice was rather limited, so I chose electric blue. As you do when you are on holiday. I finished the pedicure with a lovely ginger tea while my nails dried. 😊
On our last night, we went back to B’ First Cafe for a group dinner. We had meant to have a beach bbq, but as we were still quite full from lunch we only ordered a
sambal prawns and
sambal fish to share. As with every meal we’ve had at this cafe, it was really delicious. It was probably the hottest chilli I’d come across on this trip to date.
As we walked back to the resort with a chocolate ice cream in hand, we both felt that we could have easily spent another two or three days here. It was a Sunday night and the music at Jim’s outdoor bar was not as loud or horrible as the night before, but we were still glad when it ended.
Next we travel to the state of Kelantan and visit Kota Bharu!
*
Postscript – Thanks to the commenter who helped us correctly identify the monkeys as dusky leaf or spectacled langurs! 😊
Advertisement
Tot: 0.3s; Tpl: 0.021s; cc: 14; qc: 32; dbt: 0.046s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Crystal Clear Water and Sun Kissed Beaches
We love mountains but we are water people and never get enough of the beach. We were saying yesterday that we had not had a beach holiday in a long time and how it is over due. This blog makes us long for it all the more. Certainly glad you shared Jim's taste in music. Slowing the pace is always, always a good thing. Sounds like a nice group of people on the island and glad there was no shortage of chocolate ice cream.