Return to Pangkor Laut Resort

I decided to make a return trip to Pangkor Laut Resort and accordingly booked a Garden Villa in early August for last weekend, taking advantage of the public holiday on Friday. We had to make the trip by bus this time and I purchased a one-way Transnasional Lumut-bound ticket scheduled to depart Hentian Duta at 09:00 (so happy there are still buses departing from Hentian Duta as I was from micasa; this means I don’t have to make the trip to Terminal Bersepadu Selatan. Anyway, the Transnasional bus we were on orginated from TBS).

Friday, 22 September 2017

We arrived at Hentian Duta at 08:40 and settled down to wait in the boarding area. It was my first time there (the only other time I rode a bus heading north, I departed from Pudu) so I spent some time observing things. 09:00 came and went and still there was no announcement about our bus. I finally went to ask the chap manning the counter and making the announcement for Transnasional and was told there was a technical problem with our bus and it would be delayed. We ended waiting until after 11:15 when the bus finally pulled up and only left at 11:30.

I only found out about Jambatan Sultan Yusof that links Teluk Intan and Sitiawan which has been closed since 12 August 2017 just before boarding the bus. This of course means further delays and after a bottleneck after Slim River, we finally reached Teluk Intan at 13:30 and after a brief stop at Seri Manjung, reached Lumut at 15:30. I had planned to arrive 3 hours earlier so that we could take the 13:00 boat but having missed that and the 15:00 boat, we had to take the 16:30 boat.

We bought Arwana bus tickets for the journey back to KL before exploring our options. A cabbie approached us and quoted RM25. Well, good news that Uber is already operating there and we got our ride for a fraction of what the cabbie wanted. We arrived at the Pangkor Laut office at Pangkor Marina before 16:00 and after refreshing ourselves with cold towel and a glass of cold drink, I requested for a late lunch upon arrival at the resort. At first the staff was being difficult, informing me lunch was until 16:30 so I asked if she could phone the resort ahead to inform. I still insisted on my lunch and mentioned that I managed to get a late one too when I arrived at Tanjong Jara back in February. Then I talked to another staff and she said she would do her best.

As we still had to wait for the boat departure, I decided to go and perform prayers so that I didn’t have to perform prayers only after my late lunch. There’s a prayer room at the complex opposite the office, within the ticketing area.

We boarded the boat just before 16:30 and arrived at the resort jetty 20 minutes later. Another cold towel and drink awaited us and after checking with one of the staff, we made our way to Royal Bay Beach Club. I had the same dishes I had previously: tom yam soup and fried noodles. We left at almost 18:00 and returned to the reception. After collecting our room key and making dinner reservations for the two evenings, we went to our room. Our room this time was nearer to the reception and Feast Village.

We left for dinner at Feast Village 20:40 and had to wait a while to be seated. I noticed there were a lot more families at the resort and also groups of families and friends. Unfortunately, a few of the appetisers and mains had finished so we had to make do with different order. I finally settled on tenderloin steak but it arrived quite a while after I finished my appetiser and I could hardly look at it. I was just too sleepy by then and could only manage 3/4^th of one of the two pieces of steak. It was another wait for dessert and it was past 22:30 when we finally left.

Saturday, 23 September 2017

We went for a morning walk after prayers and made our way to Feast Village at 07:40 (breakfast is served from 07:30, a bit late in my opinion). I was surprised to find the staff still setting up the place with some tables with missing chairs and napkins. I didn’t eat all that much but enjoyed what I took. We wanted to do taichi (scheduled for 09:30, yoga is scheduled at 08:30 but we didn’t think we’d manage to finish our breakfast and trek over to Spa Village in time for it) but I was later told that there was no taichi session for the next few days. So we returned back to the room (I wasn’t going to jungle trek, having done it previously) and rested. I had borrowed a book from the library and set about reading it.

We left for lunch at Chapman’s Bar and got a ride from Manuel, the resort assistant manager. I was disappointed to find a buffet lunch spread as I had planned to order from the menu and was further disappointed by the buffet offering. Suffice to say that I wasn’t impressed at all. We went to the beach after lunch but didn’t stay long as it was so hot even under the shade as there was hardly any wind. We returned to the room and rested. I managed to finish off the book I borrowed from the resort library.

We left for dinner at 19:30 and walked to Uncle Lim’s Restaurant. Again, we had to wait a while for our food and even after they cleared our mains, our dessert took way too long to arrive. The plate containing the mango pudding was cold to the touch meaning it was already chilled and surely that had been done way before i.e., pre-prepared? The ice cream, meanwhile, was already starting to melt. Why??? I expected better, really. Now I know why we forgot all about dessert on our last visit: it took just way too long to arrive.

After dinner, we walked to the TV Room and I watched Love Story. Can you believe that the story is already 47 years old?!

Sunday, 24 September 2017

An early start today. We left for breakfast at 07:35 and left our room key at the reception before having breakfast. Again, I didn’t eat as much as I thought I would. We left at 08:30 and after a visit to the bathroom, headed for the jetty. We left at 08:45 and reached mainland at 09:00. We had to wait a bit for the Uber driver – maybe because it was a Sunday – and reached the bus station at 09:45. Our Arwana bus left on time and we reached Hentian Duta at 14:10.

I’m not sure if there’ll be another visit, having been there twice.

12 Hours In Kota Bharu

It’s been a while since my last trip to Kota Bharu. Firefly seems to have stopped offering free seats or low fares so I had to decide on an alternative. Malindo keeps rescheduling its flight times so that was out. Like it or not, I was stuck with AirAsia. And while I want to leave early (because I planned to return on the same day), 0630 and 0735 are too early to depart from KLIA2 (I have to leave the city at least two hours before for the hour-long journey). So I mulled about it, checked the train services (this was when I found out there’s no more overnight train service from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Bharu; you need to take it from Gemas and it takes a long time before you arrive too!) and finally checked the bus times. I then decided to take a night bus and proceeded to buy the ticket online before buying an AirAsia ticket for the journey back.

On Friday, 08082017, I left micasa and went to MadValley to board the Komuter train to Terminal Bersepadu Selatan. My Transnasional bus left on time (was pleasantly surprised at this) and I settled down for a long evening ahead. I was prepared with my pashmina, socks and eye mask but sleep was still elusive.

I peeked out at some point and it didn’t look like we were on the highway. We stopped for a half-hour ‘meal break’ at 02:00 and I remembered thinking, ‘Meal break? At this hour?’. It was a stall (warung) in what looked like the middle of nowhere. What a miserable wretched godforsaken place! I went to check out the women’s prayer room and I was so disgusted at the smell and condition of it – it was dusty and not at all a place you want to perform prayers in! So glad I had performed prayers back at micasa.

We resumed our journey and sleep continued to evade me. I had my eye mask on and closed my eyes but I was just pretending to be asleep. When I finally pulled off my eye mask in exasperation, I found we were already in KB. I was earlier told by a colleague that the coaches usually terminate at Tesco so I was very happy when I found that the bus stopped at the bus station in the city instead. Alhamdulillah!

The azan was in the air when we disembarked and I made my way to the mosque by Siti Khadijah Market to perform prayers. I rested a bit there too and only left after 08:30 after dhuha prayers. I walked to the market, went up to the food court and walked around. I didn’t find anything that caught my fancy so I left and walked to Mydin. Mydin opened early so I went in to buy water and rested outside, reading and eating my sandwich.

I left and went to Mr DIY (heh) and then went back to the bus station to ask for the airport bus schedule. Then only did I set off for the gold shops. I wasn’t successful at first and was only successful when I crossed over to the shops on the other side of the market (near to the palace) but there were more closed shops in that row of shops. For reference, gold price is RM215/gram in KL and RM175 in KB. After that, I ventured into the market and bought some pelikat and batik sarong at a stall. I told the salesgirl that I was running low on cash and she said they accepted debit and credit cards now! That’s good news but bad news if I didn’t want to shop (I did manage to fight my temptation. Also the bag I brought was starting to fill up).

I had lunch at one stall at the newly covered road by the market; it was the same stall I had my meal before and I liked the taste. I was not disappointed this time. Had to ask if nasi air and nasi sup are the same thing, I was told no, so I decided to have what I had before, i.e. nasi air and warm lay chee kang drink. My meal only cost me RM7 in total. Mind you, nasi air at the foodcourt in the market itself cost RM7 and that’s before any drinks.

After lunch, I walked to the bus station, stopping en route at Bata to buy three pairs of sandals which are no longer available in KL. I had to wait for the bus but the alternative was to return to the market and spend and while that wasn’t bad, the heat and humidity in there was.

The bus came and I got on into the air-conditioned relief. The fare remained at RM1.80 as it was on my previous visit. I was sitting down when I saw the text from AirAsia informing that my flight had been retimed from 1730 to 1820. Bloody hell!

It was blisteringly hot when I disembarked near the airport. There were a lot of people at the airport, presumably waiting for those returning Haj pilgrims. I walked up to another entrance and once inside, went to find the prayer room (it’s upstairs, next to KFC). After prayers, I decided to go into the boarding area as there didn’t seem to be many seats in the arrival area. After clearing security, I sat down to wait, even dozing off at one point.

A few flights were retimed and one Malindo flight was even cancelled. It got me wondering how bad the weather in KL must be for the flights from KL to all be delayed. Mine only landed at 1805 and while we boarded quickly enough, we only took off at 1845. If there was any bad weather, we didn’t experience it in any turbulence so Alhamdulillah for that.

We landed and I quickly made my way to the washroom before heading to the nearby prayer room. It was my first time ever at KLIA2 but I’ve heard of how far one needed to walk in there. I trekked for 1.3 km from my seat in the plane to the bus. I had planned to buy a ticket for the 2030 bus but was told at the counter that the first available bus was at 2050, the earlier ones being full. The ticket cost RM12 and even though she said my bus was at 2050, I still hurried to the bus station and was glad I did when I managed to board the 2030 bus as planned and hoped. Alhamdulillah!

We arrived in KL early enough but got caught in the nightmare that was Brickfields. Selfish inconsiderate thoughtless drivers leaving their vehicles haphazardly parked. In the end, we limped into KL Sentral at 2130. I was back in micasa just after 2200, knackered but overall pleased with the end result. Alhamdulillah.