Look at this photo!! Don't you just wanna just laze at the beach and only have this view keeping you busy all day long?
Look at this sunrise! When was the last time you really hunted for a sunrise? I bet even when you're up early for work, you won't really notice the skyline when the sun peeks in. Don'cha?
Really, really long post ahead on the Redang trip and pictures. Grab a cuppa and scroll on. :)
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Sometimes when you feel life is eating you up, you gotta leave town and feed your soul. That's not the sole reason we went to Redang Island last week. It was pre-planned with my cousin Kit since November last cuz we been drinking too much beer at One Utama's Dave's Pub (hahaa!). Ironically, when the trip came, we were exhausted from all the pressure around us. My retrenchment, then my series of ill-health, the stress and difficulty in real estate and my husband lost a couple of deals he worked very hard on....it all snowballed and made us feel very trapped in KL. So the trip hit us at the right moment!!
The trip began at 1am of Thursday morning. It's a self drive trip to keep the cost as low as possible. The drive was very nice. The highway on the East is in very good shape. However, it's very foggy throughout thus we had to go slow. There's also a lot of bugs in the sky which kamikaze onto our cars which we had to stop at a Shell station midway to clean cars. While stretching, we found a lot of bugs everywhere. It's like something you see out off a horror movie.
See this bug here. I think it's called a rhinoceros beetle. The fella is as big as the centre of my palm! The other bugs are the little ones but it was spooky at the petrol station cuz it was foggy, full of insects everywhere and we're the only people there.
I stayed awake to keep Devan company. I talked to him on anything under the sky. By 4-5am, we hit Terengganu and the sights was amazing.
This is the plant to process petroleum in Terengganu. It's in a place called Dusun, I think. Unfortunately I haven't buy a new camera since I broke our old Ixus so I was only armed with my handphone camera. The view was breathtaking at night. It's like seeing a city of gold. At first we thought they're just lights from some towns but EVERYTHING was lighted. Upon closer look we realised it's the petroleum plant. It was only on our return trip on a daytime we saw the signboard that prohibits picture taking but what the heck...
After driving for 5 hours, we found this!!
After driving for 5 hours, we needed food. I don't know how the guys found a 24 hours McDonalds in the middle of Terengganu, the boy's a genius I tell you. It's such a happy feeling to see the golden arch at 5.30am. This is my earliest McBreakfast ever. We even get 2 free Banana Pie for every breakfast set. Fits even better in our budget trip concept heh heh!
By then I was tired and slept cuz I took no nap in the afternoon while Devan did. By then Kit woke up and she kept Devan company. When I opened my eyes, this sight greeted me.
Sunrise!!! Somemore outlined by the old shophouses of Terengganu, such old world charm. Awww.....! We haven't reach Redang and already everything looked so beautiful.
We parked our cars to go for breakfast. How can you missed the iconic Chinese Temple in Terengganu town? It's so Chinatown. Oh wait, we were in Chinatown of T'ganu hahahaha!!!
Not wanting to eat mamak food, we hunted for something Chinese and found a shack. Since there's mostly mamaks around us, we gave it a shot.
From the outside it looked promising. Just the typical Malaysian breakfast we wanted to kickstart our trip.
Befitting a shack's criteria, it has zinc rooftop which should've fried us if it was a hot afternoon. Thank goodness we're there at 7am instead, so it was very cooling.
Oh look! Innovative windows. Just cut the zinc for windows! Huh? You want more ventilation, go ahead and cut more then my friend.
Food came at last!! Wooo hoooo!! For all our expectations, the food was so-so but still better than mamak food. I like the teh tarik though.
I like this picture a lot, an old lady taking a rickshaw ride. I'm guessing she's heading to pasar. Imagine riding this in KL, it won't take 10 minutes before Mat Rempits assault them.
Walking back to our cars I found out that I have a restaurant in my name. May I introduce you to Restaurant Ho 183. My ancestors probably landed in Terengganu before making their way to Ipoh. heheheheheheh!!
I like how neat and clean Chinatown is. It's almost like being in an Australian town. Even in shops where they're selling pork, there's no stinky smell coming out from it. Not like the wet markets in KL here.
I like this building for it's brilliant yellow hues.
We later discover people in the early days are probably very short. The archway is ngam-ngam 1.65m high because my head just barely touch the top of it. Devan's 1.83m stature of course couldn't fit through. He has to hunched his way through the arch. See, it's not always great to be taller than the rest.
We finally reach the jetty. We took some pictures but with Jasmin's and Gan's camera so I don't have them here. But I'll show you how YOU CAN TAKE A GIRL OUT OF THE CITY BUT YOU CAN'T TAKE THE CITY OUT OF THE GIRL. This girl came to Redang in high heels. Mind you, the jetty has uneven levels and gaps in between the plank. But nothing can tear the fashion streak out of this girl. For she came with full make up. I secretly took this photo which she wasn't looking.
And finally baybeh!! The island!! Wooo hoooo! The water's so clear, you'll want to just jump in from the boat itself.
And this is where we're staying. Redang Reef Resort. The little bridge brings us from the resort to the beach and it's actually a pretty cool walk. The resort doesn't have its own beach but it's a very clean place to stay. For RM 530 I get 4 nights stay, including all boat transfer and all meals. It also includes snorkeliing trip and we only have to pay our RM5 entry to the Marine Park.
But in this trip, we didn't want to do the snorkelling trips. We just wanted sit at the beach and be a bum. Only Devan and Gan snorkelled near the resorts since they got their own fins and mask they brought for diving.
Why do anything when you have all this beach to soak in? Am I right or am I right?
While I lathered myself up with lotsa sun block, Kit and Jasmin came with the ultimate aim of getting a tan. They brought their own tanning oil and lotions etc. It took only few hours and Jasmin got herself a nice sexy tan. I only enjoyed sitting under the shade and be protected by sunblock lotion. A good book and good breeze, I was set for the day.
In the middle of our bumming at the beach, this young couple approached us. They were gathering petitions to make it illegal to consume eggs and other parts of sea turtle in Terengganu in effort to protect the species from being eated into extinction. Apparently bad asses out there still poached on turtle eggs and this is a serious issue to be dealt with. We felt our 4 signatures wasn't enough, so we signed in for our relatives and friends in KL to fill up the entire page hehhehehehe. Keep up the good work ya!
Then it was back to bumming in the beach. In between we made our way back to the little bridge for lunch and teatime and supper.
We always made sure we have dinner under the open sky overlooking the sea. It's so relaxing to eat this way.
For the rest of the stay we did more of beach bumming. It felt so good to just do nothing and just watch people only.
On the 2nd day we tried the Discover Scuba for RM150. The 45 minutes give a non-licensed diver like a mini experience of diving. The instructor stayed with me throughout because I am new to it but Devan, Gan and Kit didn't need supervision as they already have their license. They were required to do the Discover Scuba as they haven't dived for the past 4 years thus the instructor needed them to be reacquainted with it before setting them loose in the open water dive (each open water dive costs RM80). Oh I also forgot to mention these kids forgotten to bring their license, that's another reason the instructor made them do Discover Scuba.
In the Discover Scuba course, I didn't have to fix my own BCD (Bouyancy Control Device). It was all done by my instructor. I just put own whatever he gave me. He taught me basic hand signals to be used underwater. Signals to tell people that :
1) you're low on air
2) you're OUT of air
3) OK
4) Not OK/some problem here
5) ears problem
I also learned how to clear water out of my mask underwater and how to 'breath' if the respirator came off. Just little important things before getting in the water. Oh those air tanks, they weighed a tonne. Nope, make them 10tonnes. But the moment I hit the water, it just disappeared.
I know why people dived. It's not just seeing the sea creatures closer or anything. In the water, it's just you and the water. Nothing else. You hear only your breathing. You see only the blue. It's like a deep meditation with a exploration in the pack. You're just in your own space, your own world. Now I feel like taking up the full course but I intend to focus on my tennis first.
While it was really fun, I had problem equalising. I blew my nose with every breath and my left ear just refused to pop and the pain was really terrible. The instructor tried to bring me to the depth slowly but each time I gave him the signal my ear was giving problem and he had to ease out on the depth. Not wanting to waste my session, my instructor die die took me to one spot where 2 clown fishes resides (the famous Nemo fish) so I can play with them. They must really got used to divers around them. They stayed on my hands when I reached out to them and played with me in the water. Now, that is cool.
It's pretty obvious why there's no photo on the diving. If I have a camera, how would I get suited up and go in the water?
So back to the pictures, this one above here is the view from the Dive Centre to our resorts. The little blue lights adds some sparkle to the little resort.
One the first night, the girls made a pact to catch sunrise. And then I discovered that they do not know what time sun rises in Malaysia. They insisted it's 6am. I told them it's around 7am. In the end it didn't matter cuz no one could wake up except Devan and me hahahaha!! Jasmin joined us 5 mins after the sun rose so she caught a lot of good pictures too.
See....beautiful, ain't it. It's like watching the world begins.
And here...the sun again.
The tiny figure on the left is Jasmin. She loves taking photo but her camera fogged up in the airconditioned room so she also used her handphone camera like me. Only that my camera broke and I had no other cameras to use.
And Devan gazing at the sun. This fella always look food from any angle. I hate him. I am forever fat and ugly, thus I am fugly. *bleh* ;p Now you know why I don't like to take picture.
The tiny figure is enlarged now. She's so focused to get a good shot at Mr Sun. Poor Jasmin had an accident at the beach. Poor girl's toe nail was ripped off! Puts a shiver in your blood to hear it, right? She was pulling the beach chair to get the sun and there's bar of wood on the legs of the chair but it was buried in the sand. So when she pulled the chair, the bar hit her toe and tore out her nail completely. She was in so much pain but couldn't tell anyone until I arrived because the other guys had gone snorkelling. Thankfully Devan always pack his antiseptic cream and bandages for emergencies like this. Good thing there was no infection and I thought she's very brave to take in the pain without any complains.
The beach was pretty crowded but I always take my shot they're not around. I like the one above, makes you feel like being the fella in the photo.
Another lazy shot taken from the beach chair. I was that lazy.
How the end of the bridge looks like at dusk. I like the glow of the lights.
Typical postcard shot. I saw the famous blogger
Jolene Lai but wasn't sure in the beginning. When I was pretty sure it was her and went looking for her, she was gone. Later in KL when I messaged her I found out she left the next day. I love reading her blog and bought quite a lot of stickers from her before. Check them out
here. She's really into stickers and goes all out to get all sorts of stickers. It just brings out the inner child in you again. Plus her stuffs are pretty cheap and she always send them nicely wrapped to you with good service. I have yet to meet her but my biggest fear is I may buy off more stickers that I could use if I do see her hahahahah!
OK, back to Redang. See how white and soft and fine the sand in Redang. It's so fine, ours slippers were lounging in it too.
And here's the ever so famous More More Tea house from the HongKong movie Summer Holiday starring Richie Jen and Sammi Cheng. It's really beautiful and one of the most photographed spot of Redang. At night, it's very pretty with the coloured lights lit up. However, do you know that this is not the original building. The original was not built to last to management from Laguna Redang torn it down and built a copy and had it painted in more striking colours and even have a good mind to turn it into a mini market which we bought a lot of coke for our nightly drinking sessions and our peanuts to accompany our drinks.
One thing I really feel bad in Redang is the night entertaining. It's pretty obvious the tourists there are young kids who needed more than just the sea, moon and stars to have a memorable time at night. All the resorts were blasting music and karaoke to attract people. I mean, it's worst than being in Jalan P Ramlee sandwiched between the pubs! All the tranquility was shredded and we were assaulted with the loud music and worse, someone who thinks they can hit the right note in karaoke. It's really sad the operators turned on city's trick to attract the people. Gone were my intentions of just looking at the sky and the stars. I hope it's only this stretch of beach they do this and people get quieter options to chill in the night without those audio wars.
That said, the Thursday night beach party was pretty fun. Though I was only sitting with my frends drinking and playing stewpid card games (hahaha...Kit, I didn't get drunk still hahahaha) the DJ had the people going. That's what they want to have I am sure. A beach party.
So there's pretty much what we did in the entire trip. Beach bumming and getting meals on time. And lotsa of drinking at night. Made new friends, got a feel on the scuba. Oh oh oh!! I get to see a real sea turtle live! The resort have this 3 yr old turtle in their keep which they're caring for it until it's ready for the sea. Don't worry, the Jabatan Perikanan (Fishery Department) is aware of this baby in the resort and in fact they monitor on the turtle's growth and only upon on the department's approval that the resort is allowed to let the turtle go back into the sea. I was told the department will put a tag on the turtle before it goes back to sea to track and monitor it. It's so cuteeeeeee!
Another story to tell you. You see those people on the water? On this part of Redang, if you go to this spot at night and look closely in the sand, you'll find blue neon blinking lights in the water. The locals call it Blue Diamond because it resembles blue diamond sparkling in the water. They're actually microorganisme in the water and not all the time you get to see it. So I felt pretty lucky to catch them washed up in the water. They're really a sight.
Eventually we have to go back. That's the last shot I have of Redang, which is of my cousin Kit. Doubt she knows I took this shot. Hmmm...why is it no one could take a nice photo of me? I need one for my blog header. I have to stick with my little grass which Omie gave me earlier this year. Not that I don't like it, I just want something with myself in it but I hate to have a full profile. Something like the shot above....I am hard to pleased I guess.
When we got back to mainland and got in the car, we went searching for place to buy keropok!
Found one where they got a lot in their shops. Huge pieces of salted fish.....
huge pieces of cuttle fish.....
The best part is to watch how the ladies of the kampung made keropok lekor. The area here is to clean and pick the fishes to be processed for the keropok lekor. They're them minced up in a giant mincer machine which was too far for me to take any photo.
I am sure they add on spices and starch and other stuff to make the batter and the ladies here would churn them out in hotdogs shapes before deep frying them into the delicious keropok lekor. See the huge vat of oil there....?
It's fulled by this kick ass traditional stove fed with wood. How cool is that man? You don't get this stuff in KL anymore. You might as well search for it in the museum to see it for real.
Then we made the long journey out of Terengganu and to Kemaman, our destination for lunch. It was a pretty long drive which most of us slept through and I don't know how Devan managed to be so energetic to keep driving after a tiring trip.
After 4 hours on the road, we went looking for the place Gan said had very good stuffed crabs, a Kemaman specialty. The restaurant closed by the time we reached there so we went to the next one instead and they're really delicious! Now I want to try the one Gan said. Hopefully in our next trip to T'ganu for a friend's wedding next month, we can do it.
But the real deal is in the Kedai Kopi Hai Peng. The unassuming building that stood alone on a junction is the original Kemaman Kopitiam. Founded by Hai Peng (who else) the coffee shop has stood through time and is now a happening joint for Malays, Chinese and Indians. This is what we call Muhibah yo! People eating together regardless the race of the food operator.
You know it's a sign (no pun intended) of good food when you see this signage.
And they retained their original shop's name plate.
It maybe an old establishment but the interior is a cosy and clean with modern fittings and old photos and antique coffee shop apparatus everywhere.
And the food.....they had me at roti bakar. *grins*
It's the best I tell you!!!! The toast is thick with crusty bites on the outer layer while the inside is a softer crunch. They're so good, we doubled our order within minutes.
This is our table when the drinks and the toasts arrived.
This is our table after we whacked it in 10 minutes. hahahaha!
Our last food trail was to hunt for Satar. It's a Kemaman delicacy which is very similar to Otak-otak but I can't differentiate them. It's wrapped in a conical shaped and slightly spicier than otak-otak. Both tastes very good but by then I had no more rooms in my tummy.
The satar up close. Pretty much like otak-otak eh?
Last stop before heading back to KL is Chiang Kee's at Cherating to buy dried cuttlefish stripes in sugar. They're my favouritest. Though they're too high in sugar and stinks up the room but tell me, how can you not like this?
It's our final shopping spot before entering the highway to head to KL. Drive was better as it's not foggy. I was worried Devan might be too tired to drive but he so hero that day. He drove from 1pm to 11pm solo. *applause applause*
The sky on the highway. I love watching the sky.
Sigh...it was a really great trip.
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