Monday, September 18, 2006

My first road trip to Kuantan/Cherating with Nuvi and Malsingmaps

Date: 26~28 August 2006

Day 1
The day started off meeting the rest of the MCFs guys @ the Woodlands Town Garden @ 5:30am with me arriving the latest =p

After some intro and we are off to the causeway to get our passport stamped and head off to our first pit stop, Shell petrol station. We were told that there is a pretty lady manning the store by one of the MCF guy but when we were there, we found out that it is not open till 8am =(
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so we got our car pump and release some water before we head off to the next pit stop ... Bak Kut Teh!(coordinate N01 49.662' E103 57.504')
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arriving at the BKT stall, found out that we were their first customers! They are still preparing the soup!!
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after the long wait ... Here comes the main agenda
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Verdict: This is one of the best BKT we ever had! The soup is thick and full of flavor, very generous in the ingredient (lots of MEAT!!). Remember to order the you tiao and dip it into the soup ... Heaven ....

While we were waiting for them to serve us, we were very surprise to see that the crowds start to pour in. The place is already pack at around 9am.

After the filling our empty stomach with BKT, we headed off to Mersing and made a pit stop at the petrol kiosk to fill up our tank, top up our tibits and release some water :p

We move on towards Kuantan and along the way, we saw monkey, bunker, cows, plantation and more plantation. We also made a few stop along the way to loosen our leg and release some more water.

Around lunch time, we arrived Kuantan and really clueless where to go for lunch, so we drove aimlessly but somehow, ended @ Teluk Chempedak for our lunch ...

Verdict of our lunch... Sucks! We can only say that this is a place for tourist but not a place to fill our stomach. Recommend to eat at the Mcdonalds nearby.

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After lunch, breakaway from the MCF guys, we headed off to Impaina resort (N04 09.509' E103 24.527') at Cherating, it was another 1 hr journey from Kuantan.

some inside photos of the resort
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Some picture outside the resort

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Dinner time @ Restoran Tong Juan (N04 13.910' E103 25.686')


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The must try is the stuffed crab ... Yummy

Verdict: Food is reasonable priced and the serving is just nice. Do go early as the place will be packed with people during dinner time and have to wait for your dish to be served.

Day 2

Had a normal breakfast (yucks!) in the resort and off we went to venture Chearting.

Some playful monkeys greet us as we drove out of the resort
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Also some cows
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First stop, some of the local small chalet near the seaside (N04 07.596' E103 23.764')
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Some of the stalls along the road side
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local pet =p
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A local riding club with some of the mean machines

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We drove further north to Club Meb to check out the place and also thinking to visit the turtle sanctuary. Didn't really go inside as it seem to be close.

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Getting hungry, so we went to have our lunch @ Kedai Kopi Hai Peng (Forgot the coordinate)
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Inside the kopitiam
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Verdict: We had their charcoal toast buns, 2 half boil eggs, ice blend and kopi-o. Price not very cheap compare with their local kopitiam but the standard is almost the same as the starbuck but minus the half boiled eggs =p

Went to the local 'The Store' to do some window shopping and visit those small shop around that area.

Spoted a BIG durain store... haha


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So off we went to check out the rest of the resort in Cherating

First stop, the Legend (N04 06.155' E103 22.981')
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The pool
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We went to the nearby 'Holiday Villa Cherating' (N04 05.990' E103 22.989') Each villa is named after a state in Malaysia

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Outside view ... nice
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It has a private pool in every villa ... WOW
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After the short adventure, we head back to the resort and found a friendly staff near our resort pool. Wearing the malaysia flag ... CUTE!!
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During dinner time, we drove to Kuantan to have our dinner @ 'Satay Zul'
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While waiting for the main dish... we had some side dish =p
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Verdict: As compare with Kajang Satay, each have their strength. For me, I rather have Kajang Satay. Had their beef and mutton, both taste like rubber band but their gravy is good. Bad point is their staffs don't speak simple english and having a hard time taking order... haha

Must have stuff to start my amazing journey

1) My mazda protege'03






2) My tour guide, the Garmin Nuvi 310 with map from www.malsingmaps.com
Picture taken from www.garmin.com

My nuvi setup in the car
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3) Last, but not least ... my Singapore passport with 6 months validity =p