Hello everybody! I am here again to update my blogger
website. After working on two part time jobs (Foodpanda, check out my youtube video here and Promoter) amid this semester break in
between of my 2nd year 2nd semester and 3rd
year 1st semester studies, I finally had enough money to enable
myself to kickstart a backpack trip. This time, the destination was set in
Kuantan – the capital city of Pahang State of Malaysia. I intended to travel
there attributed to recent pandemic outbreak making us only forced to travel
domestically (even though now the trend of Covid-19 cases is quietly going up
in a certain states of Malaysia) as well as I had been long time didn’t travel
to the East Coast of Peninsular of Malaysia. Anyway, these 3 days 2 nights trip
to Kuantan didn’t cost me much because I had a friend who lived there as well
as another friend who is from my living place – Puchong also came along with me
to there… Without them, my journey will be costly in terms of accommodation as
well as transportation and timely to reach to certain destination.
Teluk Mak Nik of Chukai, Terengganu.
Alright, without further ado, let’s begin with the
main topic.
Kuantan
city centre (brief intro and where to visit there)
Menara Teruntum of Kuantan @ Taman Esplande. 'Teruntum' was the initial name of Kuantan before it changed to the latter ones.
Kuantan,
as I mentioned above, is the capital city of Pahang state. Besides, it is also
being largest city in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The city situated
roughly 260km till 280km east from Kuala Lumpur (or other parts of Klang
Valley), which is straight on the other side of the coast of peninsular. Albeit
it is being far away from the main hub of commercial and other economic
activities, but still Kuantan is a rather developed and mature city as compared
to the neighboring states such as Kelantan and Terengganu. All thanks to a
certain sector - eg: mining sector and tourism sector, which had brought Kuantan to
be on par with the few cities or townships in Klang valley. For me, Kuantan is
a bit likened with Klang in Selangor. This is mainly because of both are near
to coastline, having some historical and old shop lots or buildings, some
interesting laid-back style of tourism places and most importantly both have
ports.
Iconic Plaza Teruntum
Old Street of Kuantan
The
main landmarks in Kuantan city centre are such as riverside jogging track and
miniature recreation park in Taman Esplanade. Usually the locals there will
loiter around there or do some recreational activities there in the early
morning and evening. It is totally just like an ordinary recreational park but
some tourists, let it be domestic or foreign traveller will capture some photos
there…
Across
the riverbank, there is a big sign of “Kuantan” is indicating that you are in
the centre point of the city and the nearby “Big Street” – Jalan Besar is an
old street that built with many old and historical shop lots.
Among
the shops on Jalan Besar, there is one bakery shop that worth for us, the
travellers to give a try of their cakes – Kula Cakes. Kula Cakes was founded in
2011 and it was so popular in Kuantan. The prestigious cake in the menu is
mango cheesecake (as shown in the photo below). The mango cheesecake is made of
obviously – cheese, egg, flour, base biscuit as well as included with slices of
mango and mango paste being pour onto it. In fact, you can even take away
(bungkus) back to KL too as the staffs there will wrap it up with aluminium
foil and, as usual put into a box that is with the brand logo. For example,
after 6 hours arriving to my home in KL from Kuantan, it still in nice texture
as just being made of in the shop. Apart from that, the fenced alley, which is
the property of the shop too, is the ideal place to dine in there. A few of
mural arts and decorations such as Japanese tsunami, rainbow and bicycles are
all there. You may capture some photos, aka check in photos and “打卡”
there while having your slices of cakes…
Le Me act cool
Oh
ya… I forgot to mention here, the shop operating hours begins from 11am till
7pm every day. Here is the Kula Cakes’s FB page.
Take note yah... Kula Cakes only accept cashless payment methods.
Apart
from that, my friend of Kuantan also brought us (my another Puchong’s friend
and me) to this well-known Cendol shop which is known as Cendol Air Putih.
Cendol Air Putih is selling a myriad customisation of cendol included with
Musang King Durian Cendol as well as the other side dishes like nasi lemak,
curry puffs and pulut ikan.
Cendol biasa and Pulut Ikan
Teluk
Cempedak (Kuantan’s well-known beach and tourist destination)
Teluk
Cempedak is the nearest beach to the Kuantan city and almost every weekend
people will definitely flock into there to enjoy the scenery of the beach and
relaxing there. In order to cater the demand of the tourists and local people
regularly flock into there in the weekends, many of the food and beverages
shops are available there. Those include McDonald’s, KFC, Starbucks, 7-11 and
Secret Recipe.
Teluk Cempedak in the evening
Dab.
However, in the latest trend of Recovery Movement of Control Order, the local town council of Kuantan had decided to limit the people on the beach by 1000 people in the weekends. Solely 1000 people are allowed to go to beach in each of the slots on that day. Although there is the limitation of people on the beach, but it is not included those who go and patronize at the restaurants).
View from Teluk Tongkang
There
is also another beach on Teluk Cempedak which is known as Teluk Cempedak
2/Teluk Tongkang. The beach is quite tranquil and free from the vibe of the
crowd. However, there got a lot more of wildlife such as monkey on the beach as
compared to proper Teluk Cempedak. So, beware of them ya… This trip I didn’t go
to there, so I “throwback” the old photos of 2 years ago instead ya…
Besides
of the breath-taking scenery of the beach few selections of fast food
restaurants at the seaside, there is also a renowned Halal Curry Mee restaurant
there. It is located less than 1km away from those fast food restaurants by the
seaside. The curry mee restaurant is known as “Restoran Hoi Yin”. What made therestaurant special is that its curry noodles have a flavorsome, fairly spicygravy, topped with very well-poached chicken, fishballs, fishcake slivers,potatoes, and tofu puffs, which complement the noodles beautifully. Take note
that the hours of operation of that restaurant is from 7am till 2:30pm.
(Source: Hungry Onion)
Outside
Kuantan city – Cherating, Pahang and Chukai of Terengganu.
Cherating, so near to Terengganu state border with Pahang.
Cherating
and Chukai are both quite far from Kuantan, both are respectively away 50km and
60km away from Kuantan. Indeed, there are a few options of going there such as
commuting the Rapid Kuantan bus from the city centre station (Hentian Bandar)
to Balok Makmur and then hop to another rapid bus that specifically link Balok
Makmur to Cherating (Bandar Baru Chendor) which is just few kilometres away
from Chukai, Terengganu states border. Another, option is to hop on an express
bus from Kuantan to Chukai specifically. I did may try these options, however,
these options got the drawbacks such as the long waiting bus frequencies to go
to destination (Rapid Kuantan) and the bus stop at the specific station which
maybe far from the real destination or the town that you need to arrive to.
Nearby Cherating Turtle Sanctuary and Med Club
Fortunately,
I got my friend in Kuantan that willing to travel to these two destinations
with both of us (me and another friend) from Puchong, Selangor. We went to both
places in our day 2 of trip.
Along
the way, we passed by industrial zone, mining zone and Kuantan Port. The road
is dusty and absolutely in maroon color. We saw quite a number of lorries or
trucks are loading with mining extraction in order to transport it to the
nearby Kuantan Port.
The scenery along the way up to Terengganu from Kuantan.
After
passing through the chaos industrial and mining places, then we entered into
rural area of Kuantan – Cherating nearby Pahang and Terengganu border. Although
it is a rural area but still it has numerous of hotels and chalets are
operating there. Among one of them are the Cherating Med Club, which is nearby
to Cherating Turtle Sanctuary. However, when we arrived to Cherating Turtle
Sanctuary, it was not opened for visit. Therefore, we just stayed there a while
and capturing some precious white sandy and aqueous blue sea water scenery.
Hai Peng Kopitiam since 1940
A
while later, we have reached to Chukai, Terengganu. The first thing we did is
to go and find the renowned the original Hai Peng Kopitiam. I emphasised on
“original” because there are plenty of the franchise of Hai Peng in both Chukai
and Kuantan. The original Hai Peng was established in 1940, perhaps the oldest
Hainanese Kopitiam in the small town of Chukai of the Southernmost Terengganu.
Although ‘Roti Bakar’ and Half Boiled Egg were the popular dishes in kopitiam
as usual, but we chose for nasi ayam goreng instead.
The way to Teluk Mak Nik (Monica Bay)
Then,
in the hot and scrotching afternoon, we had arrived Monica Bay, which is also
known as Teluk Mak Nik. It is roughly 5-10 minutes’ drive from the town centre
of Chukai. Therefore, it is the nearest splendid beach to the town as compared
to the seaside located at Teluk Kalong and Kijal.
Pine Trees (Pokok Rhu)
On
the seaside, there are pine trees available along the coastline and act as a sunshade
for the tourist. Perhaps, you may also check-in yourself aka 打卡 there. On top of that, for me, it is also an ideal
place to gaze towards the seaside and feel the sea breeze while emptying your
mind for a while. Enjoying the moment at the seaside before returning to the
hustling and bustling city (Kuala Lumpur).
Ending (Accomodation and how to get there)
For me it is quite a good experience to travel with
friends to somewhere in which I seldom visit. As overall, it was lower than my
expected budget at RM300 for 3 days and 2 nights. Specially thanks to both of
my friends whom they were willing to travel along with me as it had reduced my
cost of travel as all.
Usually the accommodation cost is accounted the biggest
part of my expenditure, however, this trip was not that high in cost. This is
attributed to I had chose for the budget guess house in Kuantan (Apple BoutiqueGuess House) and 2 persons sharing a room too. The price of a night there was
RM50.00 but it was divided into 2 persons, therefore RM25.00 per person, quite
cheap sia…
Apple Boutique Guess House
Meanwhile, there are myriad of options to get into
Kuantan. The most suitable for backpackers options are travelling through commuting
express bus at Terminal Bandar Tasik Selatan to the destination or through
riding a domestic airline to the destination. The former one is the most
economical for the budget traveler lah.
From left to right: me, puchong friend, kuantan friend.
Alright, that is all for today blog post regarding of
Kuantan trip. Thanks for sparing time to read finish this blog post ya… Cheers.
