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Peninsula Trip Part 2 – Introduction
Day 1: Kuala Lipis, Gua Musang
Day 1: Kota Bharu
Day 2: Kota Bharu
After leaving the Kota Bharu pulut tapai cendol at 2.39:50pm, we were heading southward to the beautiful coastline of Terengganu – Merang. There was quite a heavy traffic, and it took us about 20 minutes to get out from Kota Bharu town. Just the 565m stretch of Jalan Pengkalan Chepa and we have spent 6 minutes 43 seconds.
After crossing the Kelantan-Terengganu border, we came to Besut district, which backdated my memory to 3 years ago, when I was boarding a boat to Pulau Perhentian with my university coursemates from Kuala Besut jetty.
When we were approaching Setiu district at around 5.10pm, the journey was getting more excited. Why? Cos after a long stretch of dull trunk mainly surrounded by oil palm estates, we finally started to head towards the eastern coastline. In other words, we were getting a lot closer to see the sea!!!
We started to sing some songs in the cars, picking up some titles which are related to the blue sea. Soon, we were driving along the Penarik Beach, and I started to feel it as the real city-escape vacation.
Merang Beach and Kembara Resort, Terengganu
Finally, at 5.42:11pm, we have officially declared our arrival at Merang, better known as the gateway to Pulau Redang and Pulang Lang Tengah. Merang Beach is described as the most beautiful coastline of Terengganu. Its long sandy beach and stretches of tall coconut trees and sparkling crystal clear sea water is making Pantai Merang a good stop to enjoy the sea breeze.
Then, we headed to the first paid accommodation of our makan trip – Kembara Resort, which is a budget accommodation of kampung style chalets by the Merang Beach.
OK, let me think how I should fairly comment Kembara Resort. Hm.. the wooden kampung style chalets, which have accommodated us with 4 in a room, doesn’t really meet overall hygienic requirement. Firstly, the room floor was sandy, the bed sheets were not satisfyingly clean, and the washroom (individual washroom for each chalet) condition was.. erm.. not really well maintained as the pipe was leaking, making the washroom floor all-time wet and sandy, yet without proper dissemination. I don’t mind staying in any budget or backpacker’s lodge, but as long as the basic cleanliness and hygiene requirements are met.
Besides, the washroom water piping system also sucks big time. Among the 4 chalets that we occupied, mine was the last unit. I believe the piping was done in serial design. When my friends were using the first 3 washrooms for shower, my washroom was almost totally out of water supply. There wasn’t sufficient water pressure to reach my chalet anymore. My whole body was already applied with body shampoo, only to find that there wasn’t water supply. Wah lao eh~~~ I tell you, I can’t describe the frustration in words. Leaving with no choice, I went out, and took my shower at the open showering area outside my room. It was so much better!
Beautiful Beach
Despites the non-satisfactory accommodation facility, but we were completely rewarded with a very beautiful Merang Beach. The sand was clean and fine, the coastline was very much looking like a real beach with plentiful of tall coconut trees and the sea wave was decently firm (not like other lagoon places where the wave is very poor when it reaches the beach).
Needless to mention, the The Third Eye kakis had a very enjoying photography session at dusk. It wasn’t an ideal sunset, but the active and young-at-heart geeks were good models. Not forgetting, the beach volleyball, sea wave splashing, and wet-the-victim moments as well.
Terrible Dinner
Merang is a very quiet place at night. Looking for decent dinner was almost a mission-impossible like looking for gold on the ground. We tried to put our luck on the GPS POI (point of interest), but was disappointed as they were either closed or didn’t appear promising enough (would you want to go into a stall where there’s no customer caught in sight?).
We drove and drove and drove, towards the direction of Kuala Terengganu Airport, and we finally settled for dinner at Gong Dato Seafood, found along the main road at Wakaf Tengah, before reaching the junction to UMT campus.
It was 8.54pm, and we have yet to take our dinner! Hungry, eagerly in need for food, and yet we were greeted with slow serving and superbly small portion of dishes. To the extend that we had to finish our rice with left-over gravies from the dishes. Obviously, even after the dinner, most of us were still feeling hungry.
You see, we were so hungry that none of us care to take any picture of the dining place and the dishes.
Stay tuned for the next update – day 3 at Merang Beach in the morning, heading to Kuala Terengganu in the afternoon and arrived at Cherating later at night.
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