The Perhentian Experience

I spent my first year in Malaysia doing all the major KL tourist things as well as hopping out to Penang, Redang, Langkawi et al. Then I started traveling around Southeast Asia, and then it was a lot of European jaunts. In the last few months I've thought of rediscovering the place I've come to call home for the last 3 years.

So for some long weekends I found time to get away to the East Coast beaches such as Kuantan, Cherating, and the latest and farthest I visited was Perhentian Island.

We decided to head towards the small Island (Kecil) for the true backpacker experience, hoping of course to stick to a tight budget, but that wasn't going to be the case. Perhentian Kecil is truly a beautiful beach and perhaps if we hadn't rushed through it in 3 days, we would have had a better time.

Here's some of the high and low points of the trip:

The Good

A gorgeous white sand beach, clear blue waters, filled with...

...beautiful people! I sat down on the beach at 2pm and marveled at all the beach bodies that walked by. In fact I told my friend, "Are they not allowed to have ugly people on this beach?" Rightfully she said, "Don't talk too soon." Sure enough, they trot out the regular people starting 4pm.

The snorkeling was fantastic! Although not as much as promised here:

However, we did just pay 40 ringgit (US$12) for 2 hours in Perhentian waters with 3 snorkeling spots where we saw (and touched!) big turtles, swam with colorful never-seen-before fish, and chased small grey sharks! We also met a nice Dutch couple to boot.

Every night we hung out at a beach bar called Buffaloes, with cheap (by Malaysian standards) liquor, free fire-dancing entertainment and the best chill-out/house collection I've heard in a while!

The Bad

Yes, the above was so idyllic if it hadn't been hampered by the journey back and forth. The locals said we had landed at the wrong airport (Kuala Terrenganu) instead of the nearer Kota Bahru, which entailed a 1.5 hour taxi ride both ways, airport to jetty, to the tune of 220 ringgit (US$66). The the ferries only travel 3x/day, 8:00am, 12nn and 4pm so we had to fork out another 150 ringgit on top of the 70 ringgit fare for a "special" boat to take us back in time for our return flight.

The Coral Bay jetty looks beautiful though:

In Perhentian Kecil, the cheaper places do not take bookings online or by phone. They want to make the most out of the place so they expect you to walk in. So at 12noon, in the sweltering heat and with backpacks strapped on we walked from place to place, through the jungle, until we finally ended up in the main beach (called Long Beach) at the not so cheap 120 ringgit/night Mohsin chalet which seemed to have the only available room. We did get this view:

The boat people told us that we had to be at the Coral Bay jetty at 6:30am on the day of departure to make our flight - and the boat couldn't dock on Long Beach. Our first option, a taxi boat would have cost 40 ringgit to take us there. Our 2nd option was to move to a hotel on Coral Bay but of course the money-grubbing manager of Mohsin wouldn't refund us our advance payment on the room since we were checking out at 12noon and not at 11:30am as their policy supposedly stated. I say "supposedly" because I later saw a different policy in a bedroom drawer.

So we took our last option. A 20-minute walk through the jungle at 6am before the sun rose, guided only by the light of our mobile phone screens. I felt like I was in Lost. Without John Locke to guide us, or Sawyer for eye candy.

Oh and there was a "friendly" boatman we met the night before this trek who offered to take us to Coral Bay on his boat. He promised to meet us on the beach at 6am. I was no longer surprised when he didn't show up.

You can see why I was quite relieved to leave paradise.

New Camera

Thanks to the generosity of Super F, I was able to get myself a Fujifilm S6500FD for a fraction of the price. It isn't a full-fledged DSLR but so far after using it over the weekend, I can see a big improvement in the photos I took in terms of colors, depth and sharpness. It takes pretty good night photos too, I haven't been too reliant on the flash and have been able to depict "real" colors rather than too-bright faces at night.

I also found an free online photo-editing tool called, Picnik. If you have the time and patience to wait for the upload and download from your PC, its cool to create effects like changing your photos into Vignette, Cinemascope, Lomo, Holga-ish or spot color. I did discover though that its faster to get photos for editing from a photo site like Flickr or Facebook rather than uploading from the PC.

Check out my newfound artistry:

Sultan Abdul Samad building near Merdeka Square


Cooling off at the KLCC park pool


Petronas Towers view from Menara KL

Mmmmm...Chocolate

Reposted from Klue. This is an interesting try for Anton's visit next weekend. I love chocolate!

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Today I skipped lunch to visit Theobroma Chocolate Lounge in Pavilion, after hearing a positive comment from reader puppylee at our earlier article. Yep I was super gung-ho about it as I'm a huge chocolate fan.

The store is located at Pavilion's Connection wing, below GSC Cinema and next to Dome Cafe. There weren't many people when I was there, but I liked how the store looked with its wood finishes and high-backed leather (or is it pleather?) chairs. Also like the lights and the display counters. Everything looks bright, clean and comfortable.

There's loads of choco drinks on the menu, from hot to iced to ice-blended. Also available are pancakes, fondue, waffles and stuff of that sort. If you want something more substantial, there are pies, quiches and salads to pick from.

Oh and besides drinks, you can get the most yummy looking chocolates there. All imported from Australia, apparently.

Picture above is but a small sample of what's available. You'll be spoilt for choice when it comes to picking out the ones that you want.

After staring at the menu for quite a bit, I finally decided on the Ms Coco Frappe which is made with dark Belgian chocolate. Too hard to resist.

Looks good, don't it? One sip and I was in choco heaven! Because it was dark chocolate, the drink wasn't overwhelmingly sweet or nauseating. I thought the dark swirls that you see in the picture was merely chocolate syrup but it turns out they were chunks of rich Belgian chocolate. After slurping down the drink, I spent a good 20 mins scraping off the chocolate with the straw. Damn greedy but you don't waste chocolate, right?!

If you're wondering about the prices, it's competitive with cafes like Starbucks, Coffee Bean and the likes. If you're thinking about visiting Theobroma, particularly the Pavilion branch (I know 1 U's branch is open but I haven't been there yet - any comments?), maybe you'll like to go on Thurs as the Pussycat Dolls will be making an appearance, as I gathered from the banner.

Theobroma Chocolate Lounge (Pavilion) is located at C4.05.02, Connection Level 5, Pavilion KL.

Climbing Down (Part 2 of 2)

Still smiling!! I must look good in photos!

I thought gravity would be my greatest ally just propelling me forward. Yes, I would have to take the same 6 km trail going down, but “down” was my operative word. How hard could it be? Again my overestimation of my skills got the better of me and I refused a porter for my bag. Butgoing down 3,300 meters of mountain is TOUGH. Especially if you just climbed it the day before. Thankfully during the descent it did not rain. After less than 2 km I gave up on my bag and handed it over to another generous colleague. It took less time to go down but midway I started dragging my feet at the back along with the 2 other trip-mates who were having a difficult time. It was even more embarrassing because I was a 30(ish)-year old single girl and they were both older, 2-time moms. My knees shook and threatened to give way with every step and by the time we reached the last 500 meters I was attempting short, crablike movements to alternate the weight on my feet. The last 100 meters consisted of steps going up, the worst torture of all after climbing down so long. Two guys I was with picked up one of my arms each and half-dragged me up the steps.

All of us had difficulty taking steps up or down immediately after that so it was difficult to get up and down the bus, up the hotel steps and so on. But what a relief to get into a hot and strong shower! We capped off the evening with a big buffet dinner at the Shangri-la Tanjung Aru, handing out the official certificates for those who made it to Laban Rata, and those who made it to the top which were about 5 from our group. I proudly help up my own certificate which counted my 3,300 meter ascent to Laban Rata and mentally added the 400 meters more that I climbed to the Sayat-Sayat check point (they should have certificates for that too!). Everyone ached and groaned for days after that but it was all we could talk about for a while, so in terms of a team-building experience, it was drastic but it worked.

My precioussss...evidence

I just wanted to share with some tips that I wish someone (like our more knowledgeable guides!) could have told me for it to be a better experience:

1. Wear waterproof everything! Jacket, pants, shoes and especially gloves. Buy one of those flimsy disposable raincoats which can also help shelter your bag. I wish I could have worn waterproof gloves rather than those lousy knit ones which weren’t much help against the rain and cold.
2. Hire a porter especially if you haven’t really trained for the climb. It will be the best RM 70 you’ve ever spent.
3. Kota Kinabalu bring to mind beautiful beaches and tropical breezes which is why I didn’t believe it could get that cold on the mountain. It does. Invest in warm clothing.
4. Wear good hiking shoes. My rubber soles ripped off before the climb down…your trusty Nikes wont hold up no matter what those guides say that its ok to wear them.
5. You don’t need moisturizer.
6. Check for the best time of year to go. We didn’t even bother about the weather but apparent when we went (June) is right at the start of the rainy season. Earlier in the year might be less chance of rain.
7. Train, train, train with cardio and strength exercises 3x/week for a few months before you go. Otherwise, do a more leisurely climb by staying 2 nights at Laban Rata. Book early because rooms run out fast.

Good luck on your climb!