(TASIK KENYIR) KENYIR LAKE

When the dam was completed in 1985, the water catchments area raises, creating hilltops, rivers and highlands into 340 islands, 14 waterfalls and numerous rapids. It is by far the biggest man-made hydroelectric dam in South East Asia and cover 260,000 hectares. It offers exotic rainforest flora and fauna. Pengkalan Gawi is the main jetty to its many splendours. Boat services, food stalls, toilet facilities, ample parking space and tourist information centre are available at the jetty. The lush jungles of Tasik Kenyir offer jungle trekking, bird watching, freshwater fishing and jungle camping to the adventurous. Kelah Fish Sanctuary proves that Kelah, a type of deep water fish can reared and bred in a special pond. Plans are underway to breed and return the fish to its natural habitat. Also a canopy walk facilities will be built for visitors to view the spectacular nature from the tree tops. There are plenty of floating lodges, houseboats, chalets and international class resort that fit every budget. For nature lover and naturalists, Tasik Kenyir offers exciting and thrilling arrays of water-based activities that makes up memorable stay.

VIDEO:Inang Rodat

(BUKIT PUTERI) PRINCESS HILL

Bukit Puteri is a 208-metre hill that is rich in history. Situated next to the famous Istana Maziah, the name literally means The Princess Hill. It was formerly a defense fortress known to be built in 1820’s. At present what remains intact are a large brass bell known as ‘genta’ struck and chimed in different tone as a message to the surrounding town folks, family of cannons, flagpole, a lighthouse, cemetery and a fort. Bukit Puteri also lies next to the new Waterfront Heritage Bazaar.

VIDEO:Teluk Bidara Dungun

Perhentian Kechil:Simply Sunkissed

Hi again! More from me again!

I’m sitting in the office right now, with my northface fleece zipped up, and I put on socks and sitting cross legged on my chair, trying to stay warm! And in 10 minutes we’re gonna go get lunch in the 90 degree weather outside - this can not be healthy.

Okay, finishing up on my beach notes……

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I’ve been very fortunate to have the opportunity to visit many, many beautiful beaches in my life. And quite a range of them at that - from big beautiful beaches with world class amenities, to sleeping in just a hammock on the beach with no running water or electricity. I love the ocean/beach and have enjoyed pretty much all of these experiences, but I have to say that I really found an ideal blend on Kesar Island, and hope that I will be back there. I was SO peaceful and relaxed, had a fantastic time on the islands. Loved it. It’s pretty remote but not totally quiet/boring. It has the cheapest diving I’ve ever seen in the world and the underwater temp is 30 degrees - I never even got cold!
Very comfy. I didn't use the mosquito net, wasn't sure if they have malaria or if it's just for annoying bugs.few very local restaurants right on the beach where you can dine for less than RM5 by candlelight. Everything on the islands is done by trust. Noone ever asks you to pay, you have to actually go up and say “I need to pay for my food and this is what I had.” You can get a room with AC and hot water for MYR60 or less a night, or just a fan room with cold water for under MYR20. There is internet if you need it and the hostels show movies at 8pm each night which are fairly new since they pirate them here ;-) There are one or two beach bars where people hang out at night, and it’s very chill people. Everyone I saw there was backpackers. But they seemed to be a bit more of “mature” backpackers - if that makes sense. Maybe a little bit older people (and by that I mean my age), young couples with a bit more money or something, who came here for diving, etc. I met one really great British couple. They left the UK about 18 months ago, lived in Korea teaching English for a year, will now traveluntil they run out of money and then get another job - they are thinking maybe they’ll be in south America at that point, but really have no idea.

It’s funny, when I hang out with the “backpackers” now, I’m on the old end! One day on the beach I met these three great Swedish kids (like 19 years old) who were very nice. Dad, you would probably describe them as “punks” with their tattoos and their piercings. One girl had two piercings about 4 inches below her collarbone - NEVER seen that before ! I was asking her about them, and then I said, can you take them out? She says, “I don’t know I never thought about it before” haha. Anyways, chatted with them for a while, and they invited me to hang out later - they said, we’ll be down on the beach if you want to join us - probably just getting drunk. I laughed, and realized that as fun as it would be to get drunk on the beach with a bunch of teenagers, I was actually really looking forward to having a cup of tea after dinner and - reading my book.
As mentioned above this was definitely more of a “backpacker” type hang out (meaning there is no four star accommodation and you can’t really make reservations.) I showed up, looking for a place to stay. I was actually thinking it might be tough what with the holiday, but I figured I could always “camp” or simply find another backpacker that I could crash with. I kinda liked not knowing where I was gonna stay that night, but also know that it would be fine whatever it was since I was back in the backpacker world. Sure enough the first place I checked was full, it was about 11:15 and check-out is 11:30 so they said I could wait to see if anyone else leaves, but I thought it was unlikely and ended up finding a lovely chalet at the place next door, which had electricity for MOST of the day.

Whereas I had initially been VERY proud of my light packing, I have to say, by the end of my 5 days I was wondering why I brought so many clothes. I always get like this after I do backpack traveling - This is "long beach" where I stayed on Perhentian Kecil amount of stuff I have when I get home, and find it almost depressing. I left Kuala Lumpur with just a medium suitcase, one rolling carryon, and a laptop bag, and I have a feeling I will get the same feeling once I return and unload my boxes of stuff from storage (if it’s still there - I stored it in a really ghetto (read: cheap) place).

It’s always refreshing to travel around with just a backpack, nothing of value except a passport and cash in my money belt, and next in line my journal - and maybe a camera. This time I actually had my nice purse that Bahar got me ;-) and an IPOD, and I didn’t like that feeling - sort of a liability in this situation.

I spent a lot of time thinking and reflecting w/o distractions when I was on the Island, and I think this was very good for me! They had internet, and depending WHERE you stand on the beach, some cell reception. But I left my phone off and I didn’t check my email once - which was a really good feeling. I just Stocking Up

Talk about manual labor - these are supplies (water bottles) being unloaded for my resort.
realized, I am not expecting an email from anyone, I knew I had a couple job/professional/school type emails to deal with, but those weren’t exacting “fun” emails to deal with.

I read a TON, and loved EVERY second of it. I seriously can sit and read for 10 hours a day w/o even realizing it. I figured I could get some books on the island, and while there weren’t any bookstores, almost every resort had the typical backpacker book exchange. I, almost embarrassingly, read 6 books while I was there. MOST of which were british romance novels : -) It all started with these two very nice Malaysian girls I met on the boat over to the islands. They befriended me, and I ended up hanging out with them some when I was on Besar. They lent me a book to read which was British fiction, and then on Perhentian Besar, those are about the only books I could find in English. And they were so entertaining!

I also read some non-fiction stuff on the side, primarily some “positive psychology” books I’ve been reading since I got to Malaysia that have been really great. They are actually for oneof my seminars that I take the first week I get back which is called “The Psychology of Happiness.” I’m really excited about this class. In fact, I’m excited about pretty much all my classes this year, which is refreshing - it’s all electives and I’m taking only fun stuff. It’s nice to be excited about my classes and to WANT to be reading my books over my summer break ;-)

So - totally sidetracked again - point was a did a lot of reading, and I’m very much enjoying my positive psychology books and having a chance to reflect on my life as I face graduation in 9 short months (yikes) and figure out where I want my life to go from here.

On the way home, I got in a cab and the taxi driver, friendly as usual, was chatting me about where I’ve been, how long I’m in Malaysia, where I’m from, etc. He starts talking about something “America” and “yesterday” - I couldn’t’ understand him at all, I’m thinking maybe something happened in US news while I was gone - (as I haven’t been online). Eventually I figured out that he was saying he drove an American home yesterday - he said “big guy” and I knew it was Cole! Ironic. Very nice guy and he bought some fruit when we stopped for gas andmmmm.....I had these EVERY day!! (if not two)shared it with me. I think I am going to call him to take me to the airport when I leave next Friday (yikes! I just realized I leave in a week!!!)

That’s it for now! It’s Friday and the week has FLOWN by….I’m debating going to KL back. I kind of want to see it. It’s a 5 hour busride, so I’d spend the night. Haven’t decided yet, tho I guess I should soon.

Happy Weekend everyone, M&D see you sooooooon!

The Perhentian Islands - a paradisiac place to relax

As we were waiting for the night train to the Perhentian Islands to leave KL Sentral, we came to talk to a young man sitting beside us. He turned out to be an Indonesian currently working in London and was on his way to a beach holiday with his fiancé. He was very nice and refreshing, and when we left for our platform we told him goodbye in Indonesian, which left him quite surprised. We could only get to the platform and on the train half an hour before departure, the platform was closed up to that time. KTMB are comfortable and always on time, but the network is not very extensive. There are actually only two lines, one on the western side and another one on the eastern side, whereas these lines run as one until south of Kuala Lumpur which lies on the western line. Which means that every train running from KL to the east coast first has to drive south a certain range before it can join the eastern line. Rather complicated and time-consuming, but perfect for an overnight train. There were only air condition compartments, but bedding was provided and this was no problem.

Unfortunately we still did not sleep very well because of the narrow gauge and the subsequent constant rolling and swaying. The train took us to the village of Wakaf Bahru, where taxis were already awaiting the tired tourists. From there we were driven to Kuala Besut, actually not to the city itself but to a jetty, where one boat company had its seat, obviously the taxi driver had an agreement with them. No problem, we later found out that all ferries to the Perhentian Islands cost the same, namely RM 40 per person for a return ticket. After maybe one hour we arrived at Perhentian Kecil (literally ‘Small Perhentian’), the island of the backpackers, whereas the other island, Perhentian Besar (literally ‘Big Perhentian’) is the island of the resorts and therefore above our budget.

Perhentian Kecil mainly consists of two beaches, Long Beach and Coral Bay, we stayed on the latter in the Suria Resort. The hotel consisted of several wooden bungalows, where two rooms shared one bungalow and had very nice rooms but the vast majority was with air condition, which we try to avoid as often as possible. The rooms with fan were also very nice, but had one drawback they were situated in the uppermost row of bungalows and we had to climb very many stairs several times every day. The positive thing about the resort’s layout was the fact that we had a wonderful sea view although the bungalow was not directly at the beach. The season at the Perhentian Islands is roughly from March to October, they later close most of the places, Coral Bay for instance is completely shut down, because of the upcoming monsoon. So the island was already quite empty but this did by no means disrupt its natural beauty. The beach was not very long but had wonderful sand and was endowed with a lot of shade due to the abundance of palm trees. There were only few restaurants and the place was really calm, the main activity stemmed from the diving school. Swimming was not very good, though, the sea ground was littered with coral pieces, which made going into and out of the sea rather an adventure. As we had come there for swimming and snorkelling, we crossed to Long Beach on a footpath leading through a strip of forest, to have a look at the conditions there.

This was definitely the more active part of the island, one bar and restaurant after the other, shops and diving centres all around, as well as sporadic internet cafes. When we saw the prices, we decided that we and our readers can survive some days without internet. We would have liked to meet Ali on the island, but due to infrequent communication, which was only aggravated by the prohibitive internet prices, this did not work out. Well, maybe another time. Anyway, Long Beach was great for both swimming and snorkelling, and we spent many hours in the clear warm water observing the underwater world. The northern end of Long Beach did not satisfy our appetite for corals and fishes, so we booked a snorkelling tour. We headed for different spots around the two Perhentian Islands, on one of them (between the two islands) we should see turtles and our captain did his best that we could actually meet these incredible creatures. Stephan had his fins on and was in the water very quickly, so he could throw a glance on a huge sea turtle which was swimming beneath him at incredible speed. He tried to follow it
for a while, but man is definitely not an aquatic animal, and so he soon lost sight of the majestic turtle that was constantly followed by small pilot fishs. Another spot was made at Shark Point, which lived up to its name. Small black-tipped reef sharks were swimming by our side, but they were very shy and swam away from us as quickly as they possibly could. What a pity, we would have loved to see them a little bit longer! The trip culminated close to the lighthouse by the Coral Bay, where we saw the most wonderful corals we had seen so far. Apart from that, we were surrounded by many colourful fishes, big and small ones, in blue and green, yellow ones, others in pastel colours and an especially interesting species, small fish striped in black, white and yellow, were constantly surrounding us in big swarms. We felt like in a huge aquarium! We returned exhausted but very happy. This snorkelling was the best one we had made so far.

Although the beaches were wonderful and the snorkelling spectacular, we left the Perhentian Islands after three days. It is true, these islands came as close to paradise
as possible, but rain is not a part of paradise in our view. The rainy season had almost begun, so it was raining heavily every day in the late afternoon. Nevertheless I swear you will have a great time there .Wecome to Terengganu.The Pearl Of Paradise

(PANTAI PENARIK) PENARIK BEACH

Visitors seeking a place to unwind far away from the rush of city life will immediately be drawn to Pantai Penarik. This beach is a ‘postcard-perfect’ setting, complete with fishing villages and typical Malay traditional houses dotted by the beachfront underneath swaying coconut and pine trees. On any clear days, the scenic islands of Bidong, Redang, Lang Tengah and Pulau Perhentian provides a picturesque sea view. Watch local fishermen with their catch of the day or fancy buying some freshly caught fish, crab or prawn for an unforgettable barbeque dinner by the sea.

(AIR TERJUN LATA TEMBAKAH) LATA TEMBAKAH WATERFALL

In a lush tropical rainforest, lies Air Terjun Lata Tembakah, a 7-tiered waterfall that falls majestically, creating thunderous sound that has a soothing effect on weary visitors. Visitors climb to the highest cascading waters for a splendid sight. Ample parking spaces, food stalls, wooden walkways, jungle treks, gazebos, chalets and camping ground are some of the facilities that will entice visitors to stay for a night or two.

(AIR PANAS KAMPUNG LA) LA HOT SPRING

The La Hot Spring is a natural hot water pool originates from deep under the ground and seeps through cracks creating a pool with a temperature ranging from 45-49 degrees Celsius. The therapeutic sulphurous hot water provides ailment to the skin. There are man-made hot water pools, toilets, chalets, stalls, camping ground and parking areas provided for visitors’ convenient.

(PANTAI DENDONG) DENDONG BEACH

Dendong is another strip of beach that is a hit among tourists and locals, alike. It is a popular spot for outdoors activities. The beach has chalets and resorts catering to the needs of visitors. Here, visitors could mingle with friendly locals. Lazing on a hammock, lulled by the breeze and the soothing sounds of the gentle waves will definitely freshen up the day.

(PANTAI BUKIT KELUANG) BUKIT KELUANG RESORT

The rocky outcrop and caves give Bukit Keluang Beach an added advantage over other beaches in the vicinity. Tourists could explore the nocturnal species in the caves. Walkways built for access to the top of the hill provides breathtaking view of the open South Chine Sea. Most of the clear days, Pulau Perhentian provides the picturesque background.

(BAZAAR WARISAN PESISIR AIR) WATERFRONT HERITAGE BAZAAR

(BAZAAR WARISAN PESISIR AIR) WATERFRONT HERITAGE BAZAAR

A visit to Terengganu will not be complete without spending time at this well-known market. Tourists will find ample parking spaces in the multi-tiered car park. The market offers varieties of traditional handicrafts from souvenirs to songket, batik, handicraft products, keris, brassware, t-shirt, ladies garment and silk. The bazaar will be opened daily from as early as 7.00 am until 6.00 pm. Please be advised that some of the stalls are closed on Fridays.