Pulau Perhentian Honeymoon Getaway (Part 4)

Slept. Woke up. Had dinner. Bought entertainment package from front desk (want to watch TV, too bored). MAN-LIV 0-1. Regretted buying entertainment package. Slept. Checked out. Breakfast. Got a taxi. Went to Pasar Siti Khadijah. Wife bought sourvenirs. Bought trolley bag at Giant. Lunch at A&W. Headed to airport. Wait until boarding. In the airplane. Touch down. Took bus to Salak Tinggi ERL Station. Arrived at KL Sentral. Took KTM Komuter to Kampung Batu Station. Brother waiting. Went to mum's house. Ate a little. Went back home. Sleep.

End of Perhentian Getaway story.

Fast forward to 25 July 2011.

Wife's pregnant. Yay!

Pulau Perhentian Honeymoon Getaway (Part 3)

I have forgotten where did I stop in the 2nd part, hahaha..

We headed back to our room to clean ourselves up. At this point of time, the sun had really shown his might. We were exhausted and hot. We quickly had our bath and changed to a lighter wear. Since it was still some time before dinner, we went to the little beach for some cam-whoring session *grin*

Dinner was as lunch, great. Night activity was very minimum though. There's not even TV here (and we didn't have a TV set in our room also). So after eating, we went to the nearby convi-store to buy some snacks. I had thought to have a nice, romantic walk along the beach. But there was no lighting provided and after some consideration, I decided not to take the risk. Who knew what might lurk among the rocks. Sea snake was among the poisonous snake in the world and getting bitten by one of it would really not be a good idea. So we decided to head back to our room and called it a day off. Well not actually called it a day, you have the idea what a romantic couple do on a romantic honeymoon..

The next morning, we resumed our snorkelling trip. Our destination was Pulau Susu Dara. Don't ask me why the island is named like that. I think this image may help to answer your question LOL. But the current was quite strong that day, there were times that we were slowly carried away from our boat. Even the corals were not as beautiful as yesterday's since we were only snorkelling near the beaches. And this was the first time I get to get friendly with our little jellyfishes hahaha. I was stung 5-6 times by this little beast, but since I didn't know what got to me I just ignored it, thinking it might be the effect of the sunblock cream that I applied before. Not until one of this cute thingy swam happily in front of my eyes and the signal from wifey to get back to the boat then I realized there were a lot of them.

We then headed to a nearby buoy, in the middle of the sea. Our escorts asked us to jump in the water because there were a lot of beautiful fishes around. At first I was like, "Are you crazy? It's in the middle of the ocean and I can't swim very well!", thinking in my head. But since both of us wore life-jacket, we decided to have a look. The underwater view was breathtaking. We even saw Nemo and Dory swimming among the corals. When we climbed back on the boat, we took chance to feed these fishes some bread. I took a piece of this bread, put it on my finger and dipped it in the water. My hand was swarmed by the fishes and it just took a matter of seconds before the bread was gone. Either the bread was very tasty or these fishes were just very hungry. That was the last destination of our snorkelling trip.

When we were back at the jetty, it was already nearing the lunch hour. So instead of climbing up to our room to have a shower, we decided to wait at the beach. I took the opportunity to have my own snorkelling session alone near the beach since I hadn't return back the snorkelling mask. Managed to capture a sea cucumber (gamat) and wanted to gave it to my wife. A Caucasian couple (French or Swedish I assume) wanted to have a look at the thing I captured. When I asked them to touch it, they freaked out haha. Those city-people..

The lunch. There's no word to describe it except, awesome. One big ass fish, deep-fried sotong goreng tepung, some veggie and drinks. We were already tired from the snorkelling trip, so after eating we went back to our room for a quick shower and some shut-eye time.

We went back to the restaurant near the dinner time. It was our last night there, so they prepared a special BBQ dinner for us. Man, I tell you, there were a lot of things prepared. Wife took some prawns from the BBQ menu (not in our set, need to pay separately) only to realize there were a lot of food around when the food finally arrived. Still, we managed to finish all of them so no wastage at all. After eating, we headed back to our room. Some local tourist arrived that day, so there's quite a number of people as compared to the previous day. And since they started their beer-drinking session quite early, I decided to leave and sat nearby the beach. Don't really mind them drinking, just that I don't like the smell.

The next morning, we had our breakfast quite late. We were scheduled to check-out at 10am and our boat would arrive at 11am. So we headed down at about 9am, packing all our things together. I decided to have western-style breakfast that morning, the usual scrambled-egg, toast, baked beans and so on. Finished eating, we had a little chat with the resort staffs. I didn't miss the chance to take a picture with my snorkelling escorts, the boat driver and the diver. Both were friendly chaps and wanted us to come again next year. We'll see brothers, if the budget permits LOL. While waiting for the boat to arrive, we didn't miss a chance for some cam-whoring sessions around the beaches and the reception area.

The boat had arrived earlier actually. We couldn't board it right on as there were some passengers just arrived and busy unloading their luggages. Not that long till our time to board the boat for our journey to the mainland. The return trip was a quiet one. Slowly the island became smaller and smaller, with my heart wishing and promising to come again in the future, with the hope that the natural beauty will not be disturbed by capitalism. Once arrived at the mainland jetty, we shopped around for some souvernirs to be brought home. Wife, as usual, hunting for her fridge magnets. While yours truly hunting for 'I Love Perhentian' t-shirt, has become a habit since the Bandung trip last year. Once finished shopping, we went to the resort office and boarded the van for our land transfer to Kota Bharu.

We stopped by somewhere near the Kelantan-Terengganu border to buy some keropok lekor. What I liked about the stall was that they even made the raw keropok there, which guaranteed the freshness of the products. Okay, you can ignore the fact that the stall was right next to a busy road and dusts might flown around. Even the sambal was good. After that we rushed to Kota Bharu (KB) since the driver was supposed to pick up some foreign tourists at the airport. We were supposed to be dropped by at Tune Hotel KB, but even the driver didn't know where it was located. Good thing that we did our research beforehand and we knew it was located next to KB Mall, so I instructed the driver to take us straight to KB Mall. He apologized for not being able to send us right at the hotel as he needed to rush to the airport, but I assured him that it was okay and we could find our way on our own. Yeah, finding our own way in an unfamiliar state LOL. Good thing I studied at Kuala Terengganu for 2 years before, so I could understand the Kelantanese dialect. I asked one pakcik there if he knew where the hotel was. Turned out the hotel was just right behind the mall. Very much convenient.

Part 4 coming soon. Last part, I promise :D

Berasap..

Sampai, salam-salam, terus duduk kat sofa kulit aku yang mahal tu (ye aku berlagak), takde tanya khabar apa-apa ke, borak-borak kosong ke. Tiba-tiba terpacul soalan ni..

"Kenapa TV ko ni rendah sangat? Patutnya letak tinggi lagi ni.."

Eh eh, ni rumah sape ni? Rumah aku ye. Sukati aku la nak letak TV aku camana. Hatta kalo aku letak TV aku dalam toilet pun, apa hal ko nak tegur pulak. Nasib baik je semalam aku tak suruh ko balik. Yela, aku ni ada adab Melayu lagi. Reti nak bertimbang rasa dengan orang lain. Ko tu aku rasa dah lupa kut. Maklumla, keje pegawai..

Agak-agak kalo aku datang rumah ko (kalo ye tu rumah ko..), aku tegur rumah ko bersepah-sepah, anak ko memanjat-manjat, ko angin tak?

Here's the ultimate killer yang dah lama aku simpan. Biar la placing TV aku camana sekali pun, ni rumah aku. Diulang, rumah aku sendiri. Bak kata sahabat aku En Pok Parid, a great milestone in a man's life is when first property is bought. Aku takde personal loan sampai beribu-ribu. Kalo dapat duit, aku tak abiskan gi modified kete. And I'm proud to say, thanks to God, wife aku memahami susah-senang hidup aku. If there are person to complaint, it's gonna be her and she deserves to complaint memandangkan dia bersusah-senang dengan aku. So satu aku nak tanya ko. Rumah yang ko duduk sekarang tu, rumah ko ke rumah kerajaan?

Panas gua ok.

Next Year Buat Lagi Yek

Burp, thank you McDonald's :)

..kekenyangan disebabkan Big Breakfast dan Sausage McMuffin.

Pulau Perhentian Honeymoon Getaway (Part 2)

Okay, this is like, overly delayed LOL..

Note: Condolences to those who perished in the 8.9 magnitude earthquake in Japan.

[Day 1 040311 - Kota Bharu-Kuala Besut Jetty]

Journey from Kota Bharu to Kuala Besut Jetty took about one hour, of which during the entire journey we were dazzled by the splendid scenery of a true rural area. I was quite amazed though, throughout the trip there were loads of bungalows by the roadside. And I'm not talking normal bungalows, these were huge-ass bungalows. I guess with the cheap price of land and building materials, not to mention labors, this is not really a problem. There was also tobacco plantation on SME scale, planted by individuals. Nearing Kuala Besut, we could see villagers diving in a nearby river searching for shells. According to our driver, the villagers were selling it at a cheap price. I guess if we were driving by ourselves, we would have stopped by, bought the shells and have a Hell of ourselves with barbeque (and a quick check for our cholesterol levels when we were back in KL, haha).

Arrived at Kuala Besut Jetty at about 0940. Headed to the resort's mainland office and settled the balance payment for my vacation package, then we were ushered to the jetty by one of the staffs. Had to pay RM5 per person for Marine Conservation fee, which will be used to take care for the Malaysia's marine park. In this case, I guess it would be Perhentian and Redang Marine Park. Then we went for a quick visit at the local convenient shop around the area to buy sunblock cream. Boat left about 1000. We were joined by a French family, a Caucasian couple and 2 Malay guys. The journey was fascinating. When we started to arrive near the island area, we could really see the crystal clear seawater and the corals, though hard to see with the fast-moving boat bobbing up and down due to the waves. Journey from mainland to the island took about 50 minutes. Once arrived the boat parked near to the resort jetty, and we could already see the numerous types of fishes swimming near our boat.

We walked to the receiption counter which was conveniently located in the restaurant area. Kinda odd to my view, but seeing that this was a resort I was sure lavish and classy-looking lobby was not their main concern. Not that this bothered me though. We were given our room key and informed that lunch would be ready at 1200. The walking to our room was very torturing, it was located in the middle of a hill. And we were carrying our backpacks and hand-luggage which were quite heavy. This reminded me that I needed to get fit, haha.

Once in the room (as usual, full-blast air-cond first), we changed our clothes and headed back out. What use were we staying in the room while out there nature was waiting for us to admire her beauty. Since this was Friday, I could see a couple of Muslims heading their way to a nearby mosque in the main island. I was on musafir-mode though, haha. We had our first lunch, which was to my opinion, quite extraordinary considering it was only for the two of us.

Snorkelling trip was scheduled at 1430. We lazed ourselves at the wodden chairs placed on the beach. It was so serenade. So peaceful to the fact we dozed off while waiting for the boat, only to be rudely awaken by the heat searing our feet. Coconut shadows had move away and exposed ourselves to the sun.

It wasn't that long till the boat arrived. We were joined by the French family from our boat trip earlier and a Malaysian couple. First stop was at a coral reef area, the same spot I went on my first trip to Perhentian before. Thankfully the environment was still the same as I left it 7 years ago. Many types of cute little fishes were around. Too bad we didn't have aqua-camera. We then move to our next spot, Shark Point. There's no shark visible at that time. I was informed that this was due to strong current and muddy water. Not a problem, not that I wanted to have a face to face session with a shark though.

We then moved to a spot where a turtle was seen frequenting the area. Well, either that turtle has migrated somewhere else or he's just shy to show his face. Nope, no turtle around. But there were jellyfishes. Lots of them little stingie creature. It was so bad that the little French girl was stung till she cried. She had to be carried onto the boat by her father. We didn't get stung as we didn't dive into the water.

That was the last stop for the day anyway. We then headed back to the resort to freshen up.

End of Part 2.