As the title of this post suggests, I'll never return to Kuantan ever again!
It's too ulu, undeveloped and the tourism there is such a lie.
You will know why as you scroll down and view the pictures.
DAY 1
So, this trip was planned by my 2nd uncle and since their own family was going too, my family decided to join in as well. Afterall, our last roadtrip to Malaysia was pretty fun and we missed such family retreat.
Then, uncle decided to pick Kuantan which we thought was a place famous for turtles as some travelogue used to introduce Kuantan as a place with beautiful sandy beaches where turtles will gather during a season to lay their eggs before returning to the sea. Hence, we thought we can really see some turtles laying eggs on this trip and guess what? We were partially right!
Woke up at 5am to board the coach at Parklane Mall
Caught the sunrise along the expressway
The very "BAAA" couple
Stopover for breakfast! Lucas joined us for the trip too! His first oversea (crossborder) trip LOL!
You must be thinking why I was wearing a jacket in such a weather. Well, it was to protect myself from the HUMONGOUS flies that can be found everywhere in Malaysia.
We had some wanton mee which my bro said was nicer than our local wanton mee but it turned out to be ok only. In fact, the tasteless soup tasted like seaweed in hot water.
The average wanton mee
After breakfast, it was a 3-hr journey to Kuantan and most of us just slept through the journey. The coach travelled along the east coast of Malaysia which was a much longer route and by the time we reached Kuantan, we realised that the total journey took around 8 freaking hours! We were tricked! The lady from the tour agencty told us that the journey was only 5 hours long!
You will find many of such open-air restaurants (yes, Kuantan-ers love to boast) where you will see utensils placed on the tables exposing to dust and sand. These restaurants were located by the roadsides.
Can't really remember what the tourguide was saying because he was slurring most of the time and sounded like he was talking to himself. But I think I heard him saying that Kuantan was a royal city (town?) because it was the hometown of a leader/sultan.
Another restoran
Very kampung
He was the highlight of my trip because he kept asking me to play with him! Very naughty boy! He will purposely disturb me so that when I looked at him, he will laugh controllably!
Finally saw some shops!
A furniture shop
Coconut trees and beach sighted, are we there yet?
Their residences
Will you want to live here?
So, it was stated in the itinerary that we will be staying some beach resort which has the largest lagoon pool and we were pretty excited. The thought of a resort next to a beach where you can taste the salty breeze blowing on your face when you are standing at the balcony just made me feel so relaxed. Are you ready to see my resort?
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Introducing you to the resort that we were staying for the two nights! (It was such a unimpressionable stay that I can't recall the name of the resort LOL)
The carpark
The lobby (the far end is basically closed to save electricity LOL)
The only pro of this resort? Free wifi in the lobby!
While waiting for our room keys, we checked out the cafe menu! We can't help it! We are the Wong and Thung families! LOL
Mr Act Cool
The pool that we were NOT interested in!
Oh, by the time we reached the resort, it was around 4 plus. So we were told to rest and wash up and meet at the lobby for dinner at 6.30pm. During the interval, we actually played some DAI DI at Sis's room.
Dinner at this chinese restaurant (this is a real restaurant!) and the food was not too bad.
Some chicken dish
Some tofu which was so smooth and tasty!
Prawns
Some pork dish fried with dried chili and salted fish, goes well with rice
Assam steam fish (very appetising)
Fried vege with garlic
After dinner, the guide brought us to a supermarket that looked like sheng shiong in case we need to stock up on food, drinks or necessities. We went back to the hotel and turned in early for the night.
DAY 2
We had a packed schedule that day
First stop: A souvenir shop where you can get salted fish and other dried products
By the way, it took us 30 min to travel from the city centre to our resort.
If you look closely, you will see cardboards (at the far end) with black things stuck on them. Those were the flies that were stucked to the masking tape on the cardboard! Yes, remember what I said about the flies in Malaysia?
Little Roo
Second stop: Sungei Lembing (a hill that is famous for floods and their yong tau foos which are made using the mineral water?) Anyway, this place is very kampung-style and I just found out that some Singapore actors went there to film a new tv drama and they also complained that the place is boring and very dirty.
The river that will flood the entire area if there will be heavy downpours!
How often can we see this?
But this is a common sight in Sungei Lembing
If you notice, the houses are levelled to prevent flooding of their houses but apparently it did not help as the flooding can get pretty serious.
Their NO 1 tourist attraction: Mining museum which made us climb up a very steep slope
LOL The weather was very hot!
Then, it was soon lunch time and we were brought to this very dirty hawker centre. The thought of it just makes me feel like vomiting. It was wet and smelly and they actually placed used plates on the floor!
That's the hawker centre
Guess what were they doing?
They were queuing to buy tea eggs.
Third stop: Kuantan Turtle Conservation Centre- The place where we didn't get to see turtles laying eggs or the turtles eggs
The eggs were buried in the sand and the area was fenced up.
However, we did get to see some turtles that were not released back to the sea due to some defects.
Some Hainanese coffee shop
Some roadside fruit stalls
Keropok "factory"
Back to hotel and dinner at another open air hawker centre
DAY 3
Headed to their East Coast Park
Then, we spent the rest of the morning at this Kuantan shopping mall before heading back to Singapore.
