Advertisement
Published: September 7th 2007
Edit Blog Post
After a good sleep in Kenyir resort, I drove with the family to Kota Baru (KB). Since we have to pay for the breakfast in the resort, and still have some buns left over, we took a few quick bite and decided to take breakfast on the way to KB. At the checking out, we found that the boat fair was not inclusive in the hotel charges of RM120 per night. Later we paid the boat driver RM40 for both to and fro trips.
The journey to KB was shorter compared to that to Kenyir and we started early at 10am so it was a leisure drive and not rushing. We stopped half way at Permaisuri town and took roti canai. The taste was so so.
When getting nearer to KB we started to see vast green padi field with blue mountains as backdrop. The terrain is flat and roads straight. I choose Keterah road to see more kampung and local people.
The first stop was at Lim Siong Kee beef noodle shop. It was recommended in a few blogs
1 /
2 , situated near KB Mall and easily located after I turned left from Jalan Kuala Kerai
to Jalan Hamzah following my sixth sense and luck. We ordered sup noodles and dry noodles. The taste was above average, not the great taste I expected. May be I did not ordered the right dish as there were many options and I just choose the "mix mix" one :-)
The time was 2pm after the noodles. Everyone wanted to check into Perdana Beach Resort and had a rest istead of going round the city. The resort was at the famed Pantai Cahaya Bulan (PCB), marked prominantly in many a road signboard. Along the way we saw many batik shops cum guest houses near PCB. I screeched to a sudden stop at road side to the annoyance of other drivers when I saw a stall with a sign "Baulu, Akok" which was mentioned in another blog. It was a baked egg cake using charcoal fire below and coconut husk fire above.
The Perdana Beach Resort, with chalet room rate of RM140, was modern but lacked maintenance. There light bulbs were not working in our room, water tap leaking, and no electric kettle (again!). The swimming pool was in one secluded corner.
After a short nap we set
out to find the a recommended popiah (vegetable roll) in the state stadium. The complex was huge with stalls underneath, but the popiah stall was in another nearby eatery complex. I was not impressed by the food and the attitude of the shop
assistants. Later I found the popiah sold at a drink stall at the enterence of Siti Khadijah was much tastier.
We passed by an exquisite building with tourist info booth, and found it was the Handicraft Village with museum, art galleries and handicraft stalls. The time was 6pm and we went back and loitering at the beach, watching the locals playing kites.
At night we went to the famous Yati Ayam Percik restaurant
(location) to try the nasi kerabu and ayam percik. I asked the waitress what were those plates of rice at the counter and was told nasi kerabu. It was really tasty with all those herbs and coconut meat shred etc.
The next day, 2nd. of September, we visited the 'most photographed' wet market of Malaysia- pasar Siti Khadijah
(location). The vegetable section displayed a photgenic and colourful combination of vegetable, more prominent if view through photograph because our eyes are not
distracted by the filty surrounding typical of a wet market.
My wife was happying shopping for fruits sold at another section. Some nuts were said by the sellers to be only available only once a year and we were at the right time. We bought pomelo, langsat, longgan, asam jawa, etc, and also turtle eggs, presumably obtained from licensed collectors. The durians sold here were huge, might be from Thailand.
With a carload of eatable goodies we left contently this crowded market for Kuala Terengganu at 11am.
We reached KT about 3 hours later, not before turning into Pulau Duyong to this island where Ferrari boss Jean Todt planned to build a house with his Malaysian actress spouse. The houses here were quintessential of a Malay kampung, built near to each other with coconut trees abound.
We drove pass the Chinatown street, and landed in Payang wet market where my wife shopped for batik and keropok. I saw songket sold here for more than RM200, and a newspaper cutting display warning buyers beware of overpriced songket from India and Pakistan. The weather was hot and sun scorching, and a glass of fresh sugarcane drink from a
stall was a welcome quench, and a kaya pau and chicken pau compliment the drink. This was a quick lunch, all inside the car.
Only half an hour from KT on the way home, just passed the junction of Marang with Pulau Kapas on the horizon, we saw a stall with a few tourist buses parked by, and we found it sold barbecued fish dumpling called satar, with flour, coconut and chilli as ingredients. The first mouthful was enough to force all kinds of exclaimation of surprise. It was so tasty that we looked for more along the road, and it was not to be found until Cukai some 2 hours away.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.098s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0537s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
David Cheah
non-member comment
Nice trip
Yo bro, Din know that turtle egss are being sold in the open. Collected from licensed collector..yeah, right. Satar looks tasty. Never tried this barbie food before. Pulau Duyong must be beautiful to be able to attract the rich and famous to build their holiday homes over there. Never been there. Overall, nice travel blog. Thanks for sharing.