Fun Taiwan: Day 1 - Taipei and Kaohsiung

I had been planning to revisit Taiwan since my first visit in March 2007. As I hadn’t any fixed destination for the Malaysia Day weekend, I started researching and promptly decided, OK, I would do Taiwan again! I scoured the flight fares and times and MAS’ schedule suited me better (it would actually cost me slightly more to fly AirAsia – even if I wanted to and I didn’t – and the schedules didn’t suit me at all) and because I procrastinated, the fares had gone up by the time I decided to buy my ticket. I then explored flying into Kaohsiung and out of Taipei (Cathay Pacific would be the best option; it involved a stopover in Hong Kong for both legs though, meaning longer travel time) but at the last minute, I decided to check PYO Travel website and guess what, the MAS fares were lower there by RM208 and the seats for both legs were pre-booked for me (5A for both legs!)! This was only the second time I used PYO Travel: the first time was when I booked Hotel Royal in Macau after scouring other sites:

Firefly Holidays (w/o breakfast): RM986.40

Hotels.com (w/out breakfast): RM962

Go Holiday (w/o breakfast): RM905.36

Ratestogo.com (rates change every day): RM816 then RM827

PYOtravel.com: RM797

Anyway. Back to the Taiwan trip. I bought my flight ticket on 21 July and set about planning my route. It’d be a whirlwind packed trip and I was determined to cover as many places as possible. I already have some brochures and guide books on Taiwan so I referred to them and Wikitravel of course. Now, you may ask, ‘Why Taiwan?’ Well, why not? I know the country is a very safe country like Japan. My Taiwanese friend told me that a girl can walk alone even at 11 pm and no one would harm her. And I don’t need a visa to enter Taiwan unlike China and Korea. I let slip my plan to SM on 4 August and she bought her tickets six days later. Finally the day arrived and we were good to go.

Wednesday, 10 September 2014

Now, our flight was at 01:25 on Thursday, 11 September, so we departed for the airport this evening. Met up with SM after midnight at the boarding gate.

Thursday, 11 September 2014

We boarded the flight at 1 am and I dozed off during take-off. I was about to fall asleep again when I was woken up by a cabin crew who wanted to serve me my meal. I was hoping the meal would be served closer to landing but no, it was served sometime after 2 am. I was already up so I chose noodles with chicken. Tried to fall back asleep but failed of course. I finally got up at 5 and went to the bathroom to perform ablutions for my morning prayers.

We landed at Taoyuan International Airport at 06:15 and I quickly disembarked. I had told SM that we needed to hit the ground running literally as we were travelling to Kaohsiung that afternoon and the train trip could take anywhere between 4 hours and 25 minutes to 6 hours and 49 minutes (actually, there is one service which takes 8 hours and 22 minutes and as it is the longest and also the costliest, we didn’t consider this at all of course). I cleared immigration within 15 minutes of landing and went to the washroom near the conveyor belt to freshen up. SM emerged later as she sat further back in the plane. We left after 10 minutes and took the airport bus to Taipei Main Station (return ticket costs NTD230). The trip took us 50 minutes.

At the Taipei Main Station, we searched for lockers to store our bags and then bought the 3 pm train ticket to Kaohsiung and the 07:08 train ticket to Hualien for the following Monday. I had already searched the train times and cost online prior to the trip – the website is easy to navigate and really helped us in planning our trips and budgeting. After buying the tickets and storing our bags, we made our way to the MRT for the train to Shilin station. We bought an EasyCard prior to entering the MRT – it works like the Octopus Card in Hong Kong and Touch ‘n Go here –and users enjoy a 10% discount on fares. Deposit is NTD100 and if you return your card, a NTD20 will be deducted.

At Shilin, we got down and after buying some buns from a bakery near the station, we walked to the nearby bus stop for the bus to National Palace Museum. This museum is among the best in the world and as I didn’t manage to visit it on my first trip, I really wanted to visit it this time. There are quite a few buses going to the museum, you just need to check the destination of the various buses.

We reached the museum after 9 am and paid NTD250 for the admission. If you’re carrying a backpack or bulky bag, you would need to leave it at the cloak room. We split up and agreed to meet at the entrance at 12:30. There are three floors and I covered all rooms although I must confess that I did breeze through some displays. Photography is not allowed by the way. There were very long queues to some of the more popular and rare displays like the ivory carvings and jadeite cabbage.

I finished just before 12 and was dithering if I had time to go to the other building when SM came up and told me there were paintings and calligraphy in the other building. I had seen some earlier so we agreed to leave. It was already blazing hot by then and it was with some reluctance that we left the cool sanctuary of the museum. We waited for the bus and then took the MRT to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall.

The memorial hall is flanked by the National Theatre and National Concert Hall. A park surrounded the Memorial Hall Square. We spent some time here taking photos and helping take photos of others. We left just after 1 pm, having agreed that we’d try to change our train time to 2 pm instead.

Back at the Taipei Main Station, we spotted a TRA ticket counter and went to ask if we could change our tickets. Thankfully, we managed to communicate this and not only got them changed at no charge but the lady managed to help us find seats next to each other. We then went to search for our lockers (and my, were there many lockers at the station, even at the MRT station! How convenient do the Taiwanese make life easy for everyone!) and finally managed to locate our lockers.

We boarded the train and made ourselves comfortable for the journey. The bathroom in the train was clean and guess what, there were even water dispensers in the train! In fact, I noticed this at a lot of places – at the airport, the Visitor Information Centre at Sun Moon Lake, in trains... like I said, they really make life comfortable for everyone. I didn’t have to buy water at all in Taiwan! I normally buy bottles of litres of mineral water when I travel.

We reached Kaohsiung at 18:42 (it was already dark by then; sunset was at 18:07) and went to look for our lodging. It was actually only four minutes away from the station (I had purposely searched for a hotel/hostel near the station). By the way, if you take the High Speed Rail train, the HSR station is different and you’ll need to take another train or taxi to Kaohsiung Main Station.

After checking in and freshening up, we walked to Liuhe Night Market. There was a lot of seafood on sale (grilled squids, grilled baby crabs, seafood noodles), and other stalls selling drinks, souvenir and clothes. Most of the stall keepers there knew some English and some even warned us that they used beef oil or had pork in their food. We had seafood noodle soup for dinner before returning to the hostel.

To be continued

Merdeka Day Weekend 2014

This trip was planned in mid-February 2014. I had initially planned on departing KL in the evening but changed my mind and bought a flight departing in the afternoon. I decided not to stay at my timesharing hotel and instead searched for a boutique hotel. As luck would have it, there is one such hotel at the Main Bazaar so I immediately booked a room.

I left for the airport from work on Friday (took half-day afternoon leave) and took the 13:20 KLIA Express to KLIA. I wanted to buy some bread for the next day’s trip but couldn’t find it at any of the convenience stores at KL Sentral so I had to search for it at the airport shops instead. I bought one of the last remaining two loaves and two buns before going in to the domestic departure terminal. Made my way to the departure gate after performing prayers.

We took off about ten minutes after schedule and landed at Kuching International Airport at 16:50. The bags took a while to emerge. I went to Tune Hotel’s counter to ask if we could take the airport transfer but was told no as we were not guests at Tune Hotel despite me telling that I had taken the transfer from the city to the airport on my last visit when I stayed at Riverside Majestic. The people at the counter wouldn’t relent so we went to the taxi counter. The taxi to our hotel cost RM26.

It took about 25 minutes to reach the hotel as we were caught at a long traffic light. After checking in, we had a cuppa before venturing out. We walked along the Main Bazaar all the way to Tun Jugah Mall, stopping in between at Tune Hotel to enquire on the transfer back to the airport, and at some food stalls behind Parkson at Riverside Shopping Complex. I was not surprised to find that we could buy our airport transfer tickets at the counter at Tune Hotel and told the lady that we were denied at the airport earlier. She said it should not have happened, we should not be denied from buying tickets even though we were not staying at Tune Hotel because the airport transfer is not an add-on to the hotel room. I wonder why the counter at the airport refused business. Here you have people willing to pay for your services so why do you have to be sticky about it? The transfer costs RM9.99 per person with minimum 2 persons travelling so if you’re travelling alone, you’ll have to buy two tickets. Well, RM20 still beats RM26 so we bought two tickets each as we would be taking different flights back to KL.

After checking out Popular Bookstore at Tun Jugah Mall (I bought a few books on my last visit to Kuching but didn’t buy any this time as the hotel has a Reading Lounge with its own mini library), we walked along the waterfront back to the Main Bazaar. We returned to the hotel after checking out the General Post Office and Jalan Carpenter. Dinner was had at the hotel. I had the set menu with Manok Pansuh, a local dish.

We woke up early on Saturday (prayer times are about 20-30 minutes earlier than in KL) and went down for an early breakfast. We left for the bus stop across The Court House slightly after 08:00 and of course this meant we missed the 08:00 bus to Bako. So we had to wait for the next bus at 09:00 %#T*)!~U#+~ It’s a red bus with Bako written on the front and the fare is only RM3.50 (unchanged from my last visit). We reached Bako about 40 minutes later.

At Bako, we had to register first and pay for the park fees (RM10 for Malaysians, I’m not sure what the fee for non-Malaysians is). There’s now a boat counter too and it costs RM15 per person one way. You have to buy the return boat ticket at Bako National Park boat counter.

We rode the boat and unlike my previous visit, we had to dock at the sea near the Park Headquarters and wade through the sea. It was low tide then. You have to register again at the Park HQ and indicate the trail you wish to explore. At the end of it, you have to return back and sign out. I guess this is to ensure there are no trekkers or hikers lost or missing in any of the trails. There are 18 trails in total but three (I think) were closed that day.

We set off and walked towards the beginning of the trail, passing the boat terminal. No vicious evil monkeys sighted so far, thank God. We had decided to take Telok Pandan Kecil trail and my, what a challenging trail it was! It was only 1.5 km long or 2.5 km from the Park HQ but it took us about an hour or so on the trail alone. The challenge started immediately where you have to immediately climb up almost vertically. The massive tree roots somehow formed a trail for you to follow and you climb boulders and the stairs provided (in some areas only) and climb up and up until you reach a large clearing with a rather smooth rock surface (instead of earth and forest). I was huffing and puffing and panting before long. Then we followed signs painted on trees after every few metres (yellow signs to Telok Pandan Kecil) and this was where another form of challenge began. Some stretches of the trail were wet and muddy and it was like wading through a very shallow river. In fact, I believe the wet trail stretch marked the beginnings of a small river prompting me to remark a few times, ‘So this is how rivers form in the mountains or higher lands.’ I’m never one who enjoys getting herself wet unnecessarily so I was a grimacing grouchy grumpy cat whenever we had to trek those stretches.

We finally reached the end of the trail and emerged onto a cliff top which overlooked a secluded bay and sea stacks. We stayed for about 20 minutes having our bread and enjoying the view. We decided not to descend down to the beach as it was low tide, content to just enjoy the view from above. We left at noon at trudged our way back to the Park HQ. It took us 50 minutes before we emerged from the trail.

We were making our way back to Park HQ and were at the boat terminal when a family (colony?) of monkeys made its way towards us. There were the normal-sized ones and a few babies and one fierce-looking alpha male. We looked at them warily and they eyed us in turn almost calculatingly. I told you they were a vicious bunch and I was right. We didn’t move as we didn’t want to alarm and appear intimidating but they advanced determinedly towards us. My mate started walking slowly and I followed suit but before we knew it, we were almost surrounded by them as some monkeys circled around and came from behind us. And they started to attack me, yes, just me alone. WTF? What is it about me that have people and monkeys attacking me? One tried to jump on my back or grab my bag – I wasn’t sure which but I know I felt something heavy on my bag and I almost yelled ‘Go away, stay away from me!’ Then the alpha male came and looked like it would attack. I continued yelling and somehow the monkeys stopped their pursuit. I was shaken and stirred and walked away muttering.

Back at the Park HQ, we signed out and then went over to the boat counter at the next building. Alas, the next boat out was at 2 pm so we had to wait about 45 minutes for it (apparently the first boat back was at 11:00). Again, we had to wade out to the boat and took the first boat back to the jetty. We decided to wait for the bus instead of taking the mini-van back to the city. The bus arrived at 15:10 and we had to wait until 15:30 when its scheduled service began.

We stopped back at the hotel for a while and went out again, walking along the Main Bazaar shops and entering some of them to browse. We were served by a sullen young woman with an attitude at our last shop. What’s with the attitude?

We returned back to the hotel and rested. I had a well-deserved soak in the tub.

After evening prayers, we went to Plaza Merdeka and browsed around. It started drizzling when we made our way back to the hotel. Dinner was again had at the hotel.

On Sunday, we walked to Jalan Satok (yes, walked). It took us only 20 minutes. However, the market has relocated to a trade area near Kubah Ria across the River Santubong. A couple who was driving by overheard us asking an elderly man for directions and offered us a lift. How kind! We accepted it gratefully, after all the morning was getting hotter by the minute.

We walked around the huge market, taking in the sights, smells and scents - there were some fruits and vegetables which were new to me. There are covered stalls and outdoor stalls and a lot of the locals do their grocery shopping here. We also saw some tourists there. We stayed for close to an hour before walking back (yes, we walked!) to Jalan Satok. I wanted to look for layered cakes but alas, the house shop where I bought them from on my last visit looked like it had been left uninhabited for some time. We crossed over to Jalan Kulas and waited for transportation back to Jalan Masjid.

We decided to check out the museum and headed there. I had checked and the website says the museums are open on Sundays and Public Holidays but when we got there, we found that it was closed. WTH. Surely Sundays and Public Holidays are the best time to visit museums and it was Merdeka Day too. Disconsolate, we trudged back to the hotel to seek a brief respite from the fierce sun.

We headed out again about 20 minutes later and took a boat across. Across the river, we looked for signs and trekked up to Fort Margherita. It was well-maintained with a fresh coat of paint and manicured lawns around it but it was deserted. We walked around it before making our way back to the river.

We decided to go to Jalan Satok again to find Mariam Cake House and after waiting ages for the bus to start its journey, we got down and walked (yes, walked again!) to Jalan Satok. We trudged up to the end of the road but there was no sign of the cake house. The lady finally answered my call and informed me that the shop which was listed on the company’s website had relocated... to the market. FFS, we were just there this morning! And why don’t people update their websites? We decided not to bother anymore and walked to the bus stop for the next bus back. It’s pretty walkable but the heat was getting to us.

I continued alone to the Main Bazaar and stopped at the first shop we stopped at the afternoon before and bought some pelikat and batik songket sarong. I returned to the room and had a shower. It was just too hot!

We stayed in and rested the rest of the afternoon, watching a movie. It was still raining when we went down for dinner (again, at the hotel). I don’t know if it was the food or the heat or both but we both felt unwell when we returned to the room. We had enough gas between us to rival Sarawak Energy and to light up Kuching, Bako, Santubong and Damai.

I got up early on Monday morning to use the bathroom. Despite this, I had tummy upset the whole morning right up to before boarding the plane. The breakfast service was slow this morning as it would inevitably be when you’re in a hurry and need to rush. The 24-room hotel is beautiful and tastefully decorated with friendly staff and a lovely ambience. Unfortunately, it is understaffed even for its size and it was glaringly obvious this morning.

We checked out at 8 and walked to Tune Hotel after settling the bill for the 08:30 shuttle to the airport. I was the sole passenger. Reached the airport barely 20 minutes later and went to drop off my bags.

We landed at KLIA at 12:18 but took a while taxiing the runway to our gate. The plane finally came to a complete stop at 12:27 and I rushed out. I was reunited with my bags at 12:50 and managed to take the 13:00 train back to KL Sentral.

So that was my Merdeka trip to Kuching. At the start of this trip, I did wonder why I don’t go to Kuching as often as KK. I think it’s because I always get a bad case of tummy upset after spending some time in Kuching but blame it on my sensitive tummy and not the local cuisine. I hope you had a productive and rewarding weekend too!

Legacy

I don’t listen to Malay songs apart and the only Malay songs I know are those Eid songs and some Sheila Majid and the late Sudirman songs. Of those Sudirman songs that I know, I do love some of them and even used to hum to them. I think it’s somewhat apt and fitting that one of the songs chosen for this year’s Independence Day celebration is Sudirman’s Warisan song and I’m only surprised it took the organising committee this long to realise how apt the song is.

Malaysia will be celebrating its 57^th year of independence this year (OK, some will argue it’s Malaysia’s 51^st year of independence because it only came into being when Sabah and Sarawak joined the Federation of Malaya to form Malaysia in 1963) and yet, I feel depressed sometimes when I look around me. I don’t know if we Malaysians really know how to be good Malaysians. It’s a fact that not everyone has a good command of the official language, heck, some can’t even speak it (and yet the foreign workers speak it fluently!). Shame on those of you who call yourselves Malaysians but can’t even converse in the official language. We look down upon the language, we corrupt it, we bastardise it, we make fun of it – in short, we have no respect for it. We’re almost ashamed of it. We will never be able to be like Indonesia whose people speak Bahasa Indonesia fluently and proudly. Sure, they have many dialects and Bahasa Indonesia is the one language uniting them. But what about us? We are too ashamed to speak Bahasa Melayu so how can it unite us? And what about the principles of Malaysia (Rukunegara)? I doubt if everyone knows it. I dare say there are some who don’t even know the words to Rukunegara, what more understand and try instilling those principles within themselves.

Look around you, you see litter everywhere. On the field, on the road, at the bus stop, outside the shopping malls, in the bus, it’s everywhere! I get tired of seeing all the rubbish. I get angry at the litterbugs. Don’t you have pride in yourself? Don’t you love the city and the country? Don’t you care about the environment? Or do you just think ‘it’s OK, there are always those who will clean up after me?’ What selfish pathetic twisted mind can think like that? But believe me, there are many Malaysians who think that.

And what about respect? Respect for your neighbours, for the elders, for the young, for pedestrians, for the environment (no littering), for the buildings (no graffiti, no destruction of old buildings which can be conserved)... the list goes on. There is seldom any courtesy accorded to pedestrians: who cares if they have to cross the road, let’s run the light! Who cares about this pedestrian walkway, let’s ride the motorbike here as it serves as a shortcut and saves our trip! That building looks like it needs a paint, hey, we might as well decorate it with graffiti! The boss is on leave today, let’s go for an early lunch! We don’t stop to think how the others view us as long as we derive satisfaction from it no matter how perverse or twisted it is.

Then there are those who don’t care if the country is gone to the dogs in the pursuit of their political ambition. Who cares about the state of education system? Who cares if our universities rank so low in the world? Who cares about we can’t prepare the future generation to lead the country? Who cares if we don’t nurture sportsmen? Who cares about the ranking of our football/hockey teams?

It would be simply depressing to go on. I would like to think I’m wrong except that I see the above failures every day and I don’t see them stopping any time soon.

Anyway. Selamat Hari Merdeka, Malaysia. I love you very much and that’s why it pains me greatly to see our failures even after all these years.

16.5 Hours In Singapore

I was in SG for 8 hours in mid-June to check out the GSS (well, not really). We took First Coach departing from Bangsar first thing in the morning and reached Novena at 12:30. After collecting the ticket for the return leg, we rode the MRT to Marina Bay and walked to Marina Bay Sands before walking to City Hall. Took the MRT to Orchard and spent the rest of the day there before returning to Novena for our coach ride back.

I hadn’t planned on returning to SG again so soon but there was an online coach offer for RM28 return (!) (RM55 for two and RM100 for 4 persons travelling together) and it looked so good that I bought it specifying 20 September as my travel date. I then scoured for online tickets to the Universal Studios Singapore and finally bought it at RM158.42 each after a further 11% discount by MyDeal. I only noticed in the terms and conditions that the tickets were only valid until 31 August 2014 (which meant I couldn’t go on the coach as my chosen travel date is 20 September) so I quickly bought return train tickets (lower berth) for 23 August 2014. I had to go and collect the USS tickets in person and it was then when I saw that the tickets were valid until early December 2014 after all. Well, what do you know, even online terms and conditions are not accurate. I decided to still utilise my train tickets (the train ticket cost RM46 one way or RM92 return and I’d rather burn the coach tickets than the train tickets).

So we left on Friday evening, the train pulling out of KL Sentral at 23:00. I couldn’t sleep well but must say I slept better than on my previous Senandung Sutera rides. I got up at 5 am to use the bathroom and perform ablutions. We arrived at JB Sentral shortly after I finished my morning prayers. We now have to get down at JB Sentral to clear immigration; before JB Sentral came into being, we needn’t leave the train as it was the immigration officers who came on board to inspect our passports. Clearing the immigration at JB Sentral was a short simple efficient process though as I used the autogate.

We pulled into Woodlands barely five minutes after leaving JB Sentral and joined the queue to clear SG immigration. After that, we walked out and walked to Marsiling MRT station (a bloody local woman decided to start a fight with me and that really riled me up). We rode the MRT to Harbourfront, changing at Jurong East and Buona Vista. From Harbourfront, we took the RWS8 bus to Sentosa. You need to pay the exact fare of SGD2 for the bus as no change is given.

We changed and freshened up at Resort World before having breakfast. After breakfast, we walked over to USS. The queue was already considerable then. We rode the very mild Sesame Street Spaghetti Space Chase at New York then Revenge of The Mummy at Ancient Egypt. As it’s a high-speed rollercoaster in the dark, you must store your belongings and loose items (hats, sunglasses, handphones etc) in the lockers provided nearby. The rental is free for 45 minutes (when we returned later, the rental was free for 55 minutes, I guess to take into account the larger crowd and longer queue). We had a good laugh at the photo hahahaha!

After Ancient Egypt, we headed to Lost World for the 11:15 WaterWorld show but as we still had some time, we detoured briefly to Far Far Away to ride the Enchanted Airways. After WaterWorld, we headed back to Far Far Away for the 12 noon Shrek 4-D Adventure. It was getting almighty and unbearably hot by then so the air-conditioned theatre was a welcome. After the show, I browsed the Fairy Godmother’s Potion Shop and bought two kids’ t-shirts for SGD19.90 and a magnet for SGD4.90. That was the only store with kids’ t-shirt offers; other stores had offers like buy two adult t-shirts and get the third for either SGD9 or SGD10 (and of course adult t-shirts cost more than kids’).

When we exited the theatre, the large clouds above had turned somewhat darker. There was supposed to be a 13:15 Madagascar Boogie! but the show was postponed because of the weather so we walked around before heading to the prayer room between Sci-Fi City and Ancient Egypt. It was a good thing we arrived when we did because barely five minutes later, a lot of people descended upon the prayer room too!

We snacked in between and debated if we should ride the Canopy Flyer back at Lost World. The queue was long though and it looked like we would need to queue for close to an hour so we returned instead to Ancient Eqypt. The queue was very long this time and we had queued for more than 30 minutes when there was an announcement informing of delays. The line moved after ten minutes but it turned out it was because people were abandoning the queue and not because the ride was already fixed. The announcement as we left informed that the problem had not yet been rectified and that it would take some more time.

We then joined another frustratingly tiring super long queue for TRANSFORMERS The Ride: The Ultimate 3D Battle at Sci-Fi City. Just when we thought we had neared the end, the queue snaked behind corners and into another room. The ride was at least enjoyable although it is simply ridiculous to have to queue for 45 minutes for a five-minute ride.

Next, we checked out Lights, Camera, Action! at New York before settling in to watch the parade.

This was my second time to USS; the first one was in February 2011. This time around, I was not as impressed as I was then. I took much fewer pictures for sure and I felt slightly disappointed – of the long queue which amounted to nothing and of the cancelled shows. The Battlestar Galactica ride is currently not available and even though it’s not likely that I’d ride it, it’d be fun to watch others brave it out. And I think the parade sucked big time. It looked half-hearted to me.

I guess I won’t be heading back to USS in a hurry...

We left around 5 and took the coach back to VivoCity. We were not charged this time. We headed to the food court at B2. There’s a halal section at the food court and even though I don’t normally buy chicken rice, I had that and some vegetables for early dinner.

We then rode the MRT back to Marsiling and walked to An-Nur Mosque to perform prayers. It rained while we were riding the train but had stopped when we reached Marsiling. It started drizzling again as we left the mosque. We went to the hawker stalls at Woodlands Centre Road and had some drinks and supper. We walked to the Woodlands Train Checkpoint and waited until 23:00 when the ‘gate’ opened for us to clear immigration before boarding the train. You clear both the Singaporean and Malaysian immigration at Woodlands, which means you don’t need to get down at JB Sentral. A good thing too as the Senandung Sutera train from Woodlands depart at 23:30. And yes, somehow 30 minutes are enough to clear both sides of immigration and find your berth/seat on the train.

I still haven’t decided if I would burn my coach tickets for 20 September. I might just go ahead and then take the MRT from the Harbourfront to central. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can transfer the tickets to other people as I’ve already emailed the coach company a copy of my passport as requested.

Cherating - In Pictures

Some pictures of Cherating

 View from our room

 At dusk on the first evening

 Pool area early in the morning before it was overran by kids

 Pristine white sand - it looked like waves

 High tide

Day break

Full moon on the second night

39 Hours In The East Coast

I was in the East Coast during the weekend. Took half-day leave on Friday and drove to Cherating. We reached The Legend Resort Cherating after three hours and fifteen minutes on the road (including a fifteen-minute break at Temerloh rest area). The highway was thankfully clear with the occasional heavy vehicles which stuck to their left lane. We checked in and after showering and freshening ourselves up, we walked along the beach until it turned dusk before checking out the hotel surroundings. My last visit was some four years ago, just weeks before Mummy’s passing.

After evening prayers, we drove out to find dinner. We eventually settled on a restaurant across the street from the mosque about a km away. We returned at almost 10 and spent the evening playing Scrabble before retiring just after midnight.

On Saturday, we woke up to catch the sunrise before returning to our room to resume our Scrabble game. As a result, we left quite late and had a late breakfast of nasi dagang at Tropika Café en route to Kemaman. We found a parking and walked to Kemaman Centre Point and the block of shops behind. I spotted a shop that provided blood cupping services and we went to check it out. So glad we did because it only cost RM60 for females! And to think I paid RM200 for the service in Kota Kinabalu!!! We were told not to partake any heavy meal for at least an hour after the treatment.

We went back to Kemaman Centre Point and wandered around. It was disappointing to say the least. We didn’t spend long here and walked to the mosque to perform prayers. We then drove and parked outside A&W and had a rootbeer double-scoop float each. We then drove to check out the food court near the Geliga bus station but they were mainly selling rice and we’d already had that for our late breakfast. Spotting a turn for Kuala Kemaman, we took the turn and found some stalls selling keropok lekor, otak-otak and satar. We bought some to bring back to the hotel.

We drove back to Cherating and even stopped by Cherating Beach. It was too hot however to venture too far so we turned back and drove back to our hotel to have our late lunch of keropok lekor, satar and otak-otak. I must say I was disappointed with the keropok lekor though. The heat made us drowsy and exhausted so we had an afternoon nap before venturing out to the beach just before sunset.

That evening, we drove out to check the local night market. There were not many traders – I’m not sure if it’s because it was almost 9 pm or if the traders still hadn’t started trading after the Eid break. We had dinner at the same restaurant we ate the evening before but my meal tasted a lot more spicier and nowhere as good.

We returned to the hotel and spent the rest of the evening playing Scrabble. Both of us had really awful crappy tiles though.

On Sunday, we checked out and left the hotel just before 9 a.m. Neither of us liked driving when the sun is already up and the day is already too hot. We had a late breakfast at Temerloh rest area and I decided to try some patin fish cooked in tempoyak gravy. It was somewhat spicy but the fish tasted really good so I didn’t mind the spiciness.

We drove on and reached KL at 1245. Oh I had a bad case of insect/bug bites especially on my left leg that left patches of angry red spots all over. They were very itchy and the unbearable itchiness even woke me up on Sunday night. I decided not to scratch them even though the itch was so unbearable that I wanted to cry out from having to control myself.

Hope you had a good weekend too that didn’t end up with you feeling itchy (except for any travel bug itch...!)

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Arsenal beat Nasri and co on Sunday in the Community Shield. Woohoo! Santi and Rambo scored in the first half with Sanogo involved in both build-up, and Giroud scored a screamer in the second half. And our World Cup German trio winners are finally back too.

Are You Gonna Go My Way

Following the Gaza crisis which started in Ramadan, there have been talks of late of boycotting products from certain companies owned/controlled by Jews and Americans (who clearly support Israel in the crisis). And of course there have been divided opinions as to whether a boycott is necessary or even effective, what objects it could achieve and so on and so forth.

It’s up to an individual if s/he chooses to boycott any one company or not. Personally, as you may already know, I have been boycotting McDonald’s, Levi’s and a few other American brands since 2001 when the US invaded Iraq (I hate Coach and Michael Kors bags and don’t patronise Star*ucks). Alhamdulillah, thus far, I don’t feel my life any deprived, any less enriching or poorer in these 13 years than before my personal boycott. To me, it’s just a small sacrifice on my part compared to the hardship suffered by the Iraqis and others affected by the US’ policies of invasion and politics against the Afghans, Iranians, Iraqis, Palestinians etc. I can only hope that my small (insignificant to some) acts can be likened to the little bird which helped Prophet Ibrahim (peace be upon him) (I have blogged about this before but thought I’d reproduce it here):

The story about the little bird, the fire and Prophet Ibrahim: When Prophet Ibrahim [peace be upon him] was thrown into a fire that filled up two valleys by the evil ruler Namrod, some birds were flying overhead. Some of the larger birds saw this little bird that kept on flying to the ocean to scoop up some water, bring the water in its tiny beak and then flying back to drop the water onto the fire. After seeing the small bird going back and forth a few times, the larger birds made fun of it and asked him why he was doing that, as such tiny drops of water could not possibly put out such a large fire. The small bird replied that it wanted to do its share so that on the Day of Judgement it could go before Allah with a clear conscience, because on the Day of Judgement, God would ask him what he did when Ibrahim was in the fire, and he wanted to be able to answer that he did everything within his ability to extinguish the fire. Wallahu’alam.

I share you with the following quote again: ‘I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.’ ~Edward Everett Hale

Do what you think is right by your conscience and personal principles. If you want to boycott, do it in a respectable and admirable way. No need to insult and offend those who still choose to patronise the establishment or the employees. We are all given brains and faculties by God anyway. If you don’t want to boycott, it’s your choice and preference. But it’s a small sacrifice and surely your personal comfort is not worth more than the hardship suffered by those affected? It’s jihad in a way anyway. Even the little bird could play its part in the fight against evil, gifted as it was with a clear conscience. Can we say the same about ourselves? Or are we still intent on being selfish and refuse to think beyond ourselves?