Malacca has nice nonya food, Genting has theme park, Kuala Lumpur has big shopping malls, Kota Kinabula (East Malaysia) has it's mountain and plently of outdoor activities... And Kuantan has..... nothing.
Day 1 was spent mainly on the coach ride.. Set off at 6am and we reached the resort that the agency has arranged for us at 4.30pm.. We were told that the journey will be 5 to 6 hours... But add in the traffic jam, stopping at the customs and for our meals.. It all added up to ~10hrs.. kana duped by the tour agency. So all we did on day 1 was to have a dinner at a local restaurant followed by buying some snacks at a smelly super mart.
Pics - stopping for breakfast at a kopitiam in don't know where.
Having lunch at a run down restaurant at again don't know where.
Fish curry + calamari + fried chic cutlet in rojak sauce.
Taken at the resort lobby before we went to have our dinner.
Taking pictures happily at the entrance of the resort's cafe.. I ordered room service for us upon checking in.. The food was surprisingly good... We had Nasi Goreng with sambal prawns on the side and fried seafood Mee Siam... Yum! The food was probably the only 'worth to mention' item of the entire resort. Personally, I think the place was more of a chalet than a resort. There were ants here and there in my room.. the pillows are seriously gross... Brown and flat...
The resort's pools.. Quoting the message on a signboard advertising the resort - this is "the largest lagoon pool" .. Yeah right (*yawn).
And on day 2, we visited several places starting with a small mining museum at Lin Ming mountain.
Bonding with his uncle Jackson..
The slope up to the museum was very steep and it was close to noon when we arrived.. What can I say except Hot HOt HOT!
Afterwhich we went for a quick lunch at a nearby hawker center.. It has got to be the dirtiest place I have ever dined in!!! There was a thousand flies everywhere and there were leftover food in plates/ bowls on the floor.. Gross to the max! I was hoping to try the famous yong tau foo which the tour guide said that it was available at the hawker center.. Liar.. The yong tau foo stall there has only few pieces of items available with no crowd except the flies flying above the uncovered food.
After lunch, we visited a temple with some statues. Sort of like a mini SG Haw Par Villa.. I didn't bother to check it out because it was already so warm by then.. These photos taken by Melvin.
Next was to a turtle conservation center.. It was very small center and seriously boring..
There was only a few exhibits and they couldn't even keep them clean.. See the dust on this one..
Yeah, let's keep a few turtles in a conservation center..
It was supposed to a free and easy afternoon.. But our tour guide convinced us to pay Rm$10 each to go have hainanese kopitiam and visit a Keropok factory.. The coffee was pretty good but the Keropok factory was no factory.. It was just a small shop selling Keropok.. Many of them was disappointed.. Haha!
We headed back to the resort around 5pm.. Then it was dinner at a hawker center in the city and some shopping at the East Coast Mall.. No pic as I was grumpy and exhausted by then.
Day 3 - It was drizzling in the morning and our first stop was to a local beach.. We walked for a while before we went hiding at the Mac for coffee.. I didn't take much pic on the last day as Lucas was tired by the 3rd day so I was managing him most of the time. This group pic was taken at the East Coast Mall which we went after the walk on the beach. If you ask what is the highlight of the trip for me.. I would say that it's definitely the little shopping.. I bought many t-shirts as they were quite cheap after the currency conversion. We also had lunch at Sushi King which was the first time that my uncle tried Japanese food...
Bought rotiboy for us to munch on the trip back to Sg.. I think Sally gonna kill me for posting her pics!
No more pic after this as we embark on a long and painful journey home.. Seriously, I am so not going to Malaysia for awhile. I totally cannot understand why the level of hygiene goes hand in hand with the poverty. The poorer you are, the dirtier your place will be. Aren't poor people capable of being clean? I don't mean to be racist but the toilets in Malaysia and Batam have got to be the worst. From my observation, Asians are less capable of keeping toilets clean when compared with ang mo's... E.g. The toilets in U.S are mostly clean except for those at each city's Chinatown... I went to a nice Chinese restaurant or dinner... Food was good.. Service not bad.. Toilet sibei smelly and wet... See my point?
