Took a Five Star tour there. Lazy to book all the bus + ferry myself.
Saturday, 17 May, 2008
Reached Terengganu in the morning. Time for a short walk in the area before catching our ferry. Somehow the 10 hour bus ride didn't feel long at all, we had a good sleep. [and my ramly burger of course]
fantastic roti chenai at terengganu. a bit too oily though.
we-were-there-photo
The last time I went to redang, I stayed at the Laguna Redang, which is more of a chalet/resort. When we asked the tour agent whether Laguna or Berjaya was better, they recommended Laguna. It's a bit more expensive but it includes all meals. I had always thought Berjaya was expensive stuff but hmm since they recommended it.
Turned out that Laguna was full so we took berjaya in the end. So we took the ferry to the berjaya jetty. I was a bit apprehensive as we approached the jetty cos I remember seeing clear blue waters as we reached the Laguna jetty. However this time the jetty was filled with dirty water.
Had to wait for the bus to come and pick us up so we took the chance to sit down and eat some local fare while we still could in case we couldn't find any cheap food near the hotel and had to eat expensive crappy food for the next few days.
Turned out that Laguna was full so we took berjaya in the end. So we took the ferry to the berjaya jetty. I was a bit apprehensive as we approached the jetty cos I remember seeing clear blue waters as we reached the Laguna jetty. However this time the jetty was filled with dirty water.
Had to wait for the bus to come and pick us up so we took the chance to sit down and eat some local fare while we still could in case we couldn't find any cheap food near the hotel and had to eat expensive crappy food for the next few days.
not bad.
Well, we were damn lucky that Laguna was sold out. cos Berjaya's rooms are just heavenly.
Awesome. Damn wuhua! A pity that it was raining quite heavily when we got there, so skies were gray and all. But the sea view rooms! I like!
Luckily the rain stopped just in time for our snorkeling session at 2.30pm. We opted to pay 60ringgit more each to avoid the crowds going to the marine park [with the standard package]. Instead we could go to a few more stops around the island.
And it was a really good choice, cos instead of following the huge group of aunties and families with the standard package to take the bus to the jetty again, and having to wait for everyone, we could just take a speed boat straight from the beach! Really worth it. There were just 5 passengers on the boat. Me, pb, and a jap family of 3. We set out armed with our 5 RM fish food which never seemed to finish.
Luckily the rain stopped just in time for our snorkeling session at 2.30pm. We opted to pay 60ringgit more each to avoid the crowds going to the marine park [with the standard package]. Instead we could go to a few more stops around the island.
And it was a really good choice, cos instead of following the huge group of aunties and families with the standard package to take the bus to the jetty again, and having to wait for everyone, we could just take a speed boat straight from the beach! Really worth it. There were just 5 passengers on the boat. Me, pb, and a jap family of 3. We set out armed with our 5 RM fish food which never seemed to finish.
ok. i'm not really a fan of fish so I got quite freaked out/irritated everytime pb gets so happy feeding the fish and working them into a frenzy
i like this pict
this fish looks edible. Just steam it, and have some lime + chili padi + soya sauce..
pb managed to converse with the driver (er.. sailor? captain?) in his very basic malay that we wanted to see baby sharks.. and the guy was quite nice to bring us to this extra spot near laguna to spot this:
baby shark!!! =)
we concluded that this rainbow colored fish is the dumbest.
seriously. He's the only fish who keeps trying to eat at the plastic bottle pb is holding, even after multiple attempts. The other fish kinda get it and swim away.
left my havaianas at pb's house so i had to wear these to the beach =(
spent the rest of the evening armed with our cocktails and my summer edition cleo. Also ordered a very exorbitantly priced seafood pizza which was pretty good. All for the sake of chillin by the sea.
Sunday, 18 May, 2008
Woke up to this sight:
damn the gray weather.
breakfast!
they had this home made yoghurt thing. cheesy heart shape courtesy of me. it tasted really weird and i don't know if it had gone bad anot so I didn't finish it. i guess i'm used to processed sweetened rubbish.
Another day of lounging by the beach!
took our fish food to attract the fishies again
The best thing about Berjaya is that even though it does not exist along the main 'momo cha' beach area, [it has its private beach], it actually has local food stalls right outside its gates! So with a 5 minutes walk we get to eat good cheap food. Berjaya's food in the 14 RM for a plate of fried rice range and it doesn't look good. Good place to buy some mineral water as well cos those sold in Berjaya is also freaking expensive.
i was very amused by these goats who appeared everywhere
that's more like it. we LOVED the food. the sotong.
A spa treatment is always required to reward yourself for spending such a lovely weekend with good company, good cheap food, beautiful rooms with beautiful seaviews and fun excursions.
That night, we decided to roam and go to the Pasir Panjang beach (at Laguna). There's some open air disco, but mainly we just wanted to go there and explore a bit. We arranged for some villager Adi to bring us there by driving us to the jetty from Berjaya, then via speedboat (turned out that he works at Berjaya too) for some amount that is probably way above the market rate. The waters were quite choppy, and when we reached the place, it started to drizzle.
pb did his obligatory momo cha shot
live band! this group was singing chinese songs.. they looked quite young and innocent. we decided to sit down and have our dinner here.
very yummy butter something.. sotong? prawn?
We were lucky to have a seat indoors cos it started to POUR. and POUR. Ok this was like super worrying considering we had to catch a ferry at 7am the next morning at Berjaya. So anyways we just sat there and listened to them sing til 12+? Were damn tired. When they were finally ending we left and walked towards Laguna Redang (where Adi and the other passengers were happily in the disco).
At this point, there was non-stop thunder and lightning along the horizon out there in the water. Adi and the driver said that it wasn't safe to go back yet (duh). Luckily there was a reception area with couches at Laguna so pb and me took a rest there. I totally konked out while he read the papers..
At this point, there was non-stop thunder and lightning along the horizon out there in the water. Adi and the driver said that it wasn't safe to go back yet (duh). Luckily there was a reception area with couches at Laguna so pb and me took a rest there. I totally konked out while he read the papers..
After a couple of hours, Adi and friends finally made their way out of the disco to find us. At this point the weather didn't look any better at all but they said it was now ok to go back (??) Probably because they had had their share of fun already?
Being tired and missing our lovely berjaya room so much we didn't have much of a choice but to follow them amidst all the thunder, lightning and rain. We shuffled our way along the sides of other boats to reach our little speed boat.
As we sat down on the slippery wet seats, Adi and friend went:
'Ok. Better put life jacket.'
RIGHT.
Of course we all hastily put the jackets on. Adi and his friend (both tanned, skinny with well defined abs) said no need.
pb didn't really help by saying 'If the boat goes down, it will pull everyone together with it so most importantly you have to swim as far away from it as possible. Then look for me.'
Wah lau. Machiam Titanic like that.
I gripped on to the railing for dear life and we set off towards Berjaya jetty. I tell you, this was like a scene out of The Perfect Storm. only difference was that we were in a tiny speed boat that hardly sheltered us from the splashing waves. There was lightning every few seconds and the waves were SO choppy, we were going up like a viking, and then the whole boat would slam down. This process just keeps repeating and the driver could not go faster cos of the horrible weather.
I kept wondering what my mum would nag at me about if she found out about this episode. And it was totally not even worth it, considering we didn't have a LOT of fun at laguna. And if we really fell into the water, no one knew that we were there [cos it wasn't an official tour] and no one would ever come look for us until the next morning. Damn scary lah.
It got a bit better as we got a bit further away from the shore as there were less waves. Not that the waters were smooth. At least we managed to move a little faster but I was white knuckled all the way as I gripped the railings and hugged my cloth bag containing my camera. Actually, I was really tempted to take my camera out to take some shots of the whole scenario or better even, take video. But a bit siow lah considering there was water splashing everywhere and the boat was rocking like crazy.
We finally reached the berjaya jetty.. and by the time we reached the room it was about 2am. The most ironic part of our vacation was that we had spa-ed in an attempt to end it in a relaxing manner, but that was promptly followed by our most exciting adventure of all time.
Don't know why our vacations are getting more and more adventurous. First motorbike tours.. Then this boat-thing. What next? Hopefully nothing. I don't do adventures very well.
Monday, 19 May, 2008
Happy Vesak day! Haha thanks to this public holiday I managed to have this vacation without utilizing any leave. Woohoo.
Yes, we did manage to take the ferry back to Terengganu. Didn't manage to eat the berjaya breakfast cos we were so tired after the whole exciting adventure thing. Walked around chinatown and found this little eatery brimming with locals so we knew it had to be good.
Being tired and missing our lovely berjaya room so much we didn't have much of a choice but to follow them amidst all the thunder, lightning and rain. We shuffled our way along the sides of other boats to reach our little speed boat.
As we sat down on the slippery wet seats, Adi and friend went:
'Ok. Better put life jacket.'
RIGHT.
Of course we all hastily put the jackets on. Adi and his friend (both tanned, skinny with well defined abs) said no need.
pb didn't really help by saying 'If the boat goes down, it will pull everyone together with it so most importantly you have to swim as far away from it as possible. Then look for me.'
Wah lau. Machiam Titanic like that.
I gripped on to the railing for dear life and we set off towards Berjaya jetty. I tell you, this was like a scene out of The Perfect Storm. only difference was that we were in a tiny speed boat that hardly sheltered us from the splashing waves. There was lightning every few seconds and the waves were SO choppy, we were going up like a viking, and then the whole boat would slam down. This process just keeps repeating and the driver could not go faster cos of the horrible weather.
I kept wondering what my mum would nag at me about if she found out about this episode. And it was totally not even worth it, considering we didn't have a LOT of fun at laguna. And if we really fell into the water, no one knew that we were there [cos it wasn't an official tour] and no one would ever come look for us until the next morning. Damn scary lah.
It got a bit better as we got a bit further away from the shore as there were less waves. Not that the waters were smooth. At least we managed to move a little faster but I was white knuckled all the way as I gripped the railings and hugged my cloth bag containing my camera. Actually, I was really tempted to take my camera out to take some shots of the whole scenario or better even, take video. But a bit siow lah considering there was water splashing everywhere and the boat was rocking like crazy.
We finally reached the berjaya jetty.. and by the time we reached the room it was about 2am. The most ironic part of our vacation was that we had spa-ed in an attempt to end it in a relaxing manner, but that was promptly followed by our most exciting adventure of all time.
Don't know why our vacations are getting more and more adventurous. First motorbike tours.. Then this boat-thing. What next? Hopefully nothing. I don't do adventures very well.
Monday, 19 May, 2008
Happy Vesak day! Haha thanks to this public holiday I managed to have this vacation without utilizing any leave. Woohoo.
Yes, we did manage to take the ferry back to Terengganu. Didn't manage to eat the berjaya breakfast cos we were so tired after the whole exciting adventure thing. Walked around chinatown and found this little eatery brimming with locals so we knew it had to be good.
freshly fried noodles
this buttery sugared toast is as jy would put it: world class. beats ya kun hands down.
our cook.
a walk around chinatown
harvey norman
ntuc fairprice
BBDC
color colorful!
this very friendly boy was enthralled by the psp even though pb was only playing streetfighter which has crappy graphics.
stopped by this place and bought some taosapiah which my mum says is lousy. I thought they were pretty good and they were fresh ok! Nothing is ever good enough for mummy.
Wow. I'm surprised I can remember so much about the trip. Glad that I managed to pen it down.
Oh, I totally have to recommend this Berjaya Resort because:
Ok. i'm supposed to go for a ubin cycling trip and am supposed to reach tampines at 10am but it's already 1:45am now. I hope it rains tmr. =)
Wow. I'm surprised I can remember so much about the trip. Glad that I managed to pen it down.
Oh, I totally have to recommend this Berjaya Resort because:
- It works out to be not much more expensive than Laguna.
- Cheap yummy food right outside its gates
- Private beach with nice lounge chairs
- Fantastic sea view
- Service is really good the staff all speak English well and are very nice
- Beautiful, big, luxurious (for a beach resort) rooms
Ok. i'm supposed to go for a ubin cycling trip and am supposed to reach tampines at 10am but it's already 1:45am now. I hope it rains tmr. =)
