Terengganu : Part 1 - To Pulau Perhentian I Go

Selamat Hari Raya! Happy Eid Mubarak! A Muslim celebration observed worldwide fell on a Thursday and a Friday! That means a very long weekend for me! I have been contemplating on what to do for this long weekend since the start of this year. I was out of places to visit in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur. I wanted to go somewhere further since it is the long weekend. But I don't want to fly to anywhere because I have limited funds. *restrain for Nepal* And when my sister suggested Pulau Perhentian, I said YES YES YES! I have wanted to go to this island so badly. Initially, I thought of going to this place in July by myself where we had a 3 day weekend because of a public holiday, but the idea of having to spend by myself is not very appealing. 

I made the accommodation arrangements 2 months in advance, afraid the budget rooms may be snapped up or there will be limited places open since it is a public holiday in a Muslim-populated state. True enough, when I made calls, a few places that offer cheap rooms were not available. The ones that were offered were too pricey for me. Finally, I got a contact number from a group I joined in Facebook - Backpackers Buddies Malaysia. It was just a name - Kak Mieha with her number 014-2156 179. I called the number, and in half a day, I got a room in D' Rock Garden Village that can fit 3 persons for RM190 per person. This price includes boat transfer from Kuala Besut jetty to Pulau Perhentian only. Other than that, it was all on our own i.e. the food, and activities. 

08082013 - Pulau Perhentian is located on the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia in the state of Terengganu. It was going to be a long drive. We started our drive at 12.45am. I anticipated a very bad traffic, but thankfully, there was no jam at all! The roads were smooth. Everyone must be back home on the first day of Eid. We reached Kuala Besut (where Pulau Perhentian jetty is located) after 7 hours of driving. I was hoping to see some gorgeous clouds but there were none. I had the best first impression of Terengganu when I went to Redang Island last year. 

Because we reached Kuala Besut so early at about 8am, we decided to stop at a random beach to have our breakfast. We saw a Pantai Air Tawar signboard, and thought it will be a nice place to visit. How wrong I was. The sand was coarse. There was rubbish on the beach. Anyway, we were just there to have breakfast. There were no shops opened, because it was the first day of Eid. All the men have went to the mosque. Good thing we brought our own supply. It was just bread, swiss roll and juice.

Oh yes, because it was Eid, I wore baju kurung! Yay. I am very supportive of everyone's culture. After breakfast, it was a walk around the area to see the place. There was no one around.

At 10am, we left the area, and was headed toward Pulau Perhentian jetty. It was actually very near but we got lost looking for the signboard. For drivers like us who are so bad in directions, I am of view that there should be more signboards for Pulau Perhentian. We cannot assume everyone has excellent sense of directions! *hmph* I already made arrangements to meet the guy (who I made accommodation arrangements with) at 11am. After driving in circles for 20 minutes, we finally reached the jetty. We parked at Safe Park Parking. I realised that D' Rock Garden (and other chalets) has a sort of partnership to have their customers park the cars in Safe Park, and the guy will recommend these chalets to stay in. It was RM7 per day for parking. From the parking lot, it was less than a 5 minutes' walk to the jetty.

At the parking lot, I met up with the parking man, En Mazlan. He gave me my boat tickets and accommodation receipt. Boat tickets cost about RM65 per person. One person even got it for RM55 too. You can get it cheap if you buy any accommodation package or you negotiate or if you have got good rapport.

You can also take the bus to the jetty. The bus station is located next to the jetty. The bus station is the yellow building in the below photo.

The boat ride took about 40 minutes to the island. The boat stopped along the way at different parts of the island to drop other tourists.

Nice compass on the boat.

Finally, we reached the place of where we were staying. But because speed boats cannot go to the beach because it is shallow, a smaller boat came to pick us up. It was about a 150m distance from the beach. These boats are called 'water taxi'. It was a RM2 fare to the beach.

The minute I stepped on to the beach, I was so surprised to see so many foreigners. I did not feel like I was in Malaysia. Well, the place we stayed is on Long Beach, and apparently it is a place famous for budget travellers, hence lots of foreigners. We walked to D' Rock Garden which was at the far end of the beach. It was not too far. Just that it was the last chalet on the village. Yay, I am getting super excited!

When we reached the chalet, there was a flight of stairs to climb up. Tiring with the luggage, but still manageable. At the reception, we were told that check-in time is at 2pm, and it was only 11.30am. So, we decided to have lunch at the restaurant in the chalet. Bad move! Although the food was lovely, it took so long for the food to be served. And when I said long, I mean 2 hours! Well, I can't blame the staff either because they were short-staffed due to the holidays. The staff has went back to their respective homes to celebrate with their family. Selfish me. Well, I should have expected it. But still... *damn, I am arguing with myself*

Because they are short-staffed, we did our own cleaning of the table. And that is how my sisters named me 'Fatimah'.. to match my attire. 

This is how the pricing is like. Expected prices.

For drinks, we ordered teh tarik and coffee which costs RM3.50 and RM2.50 respectively. Diluted drinks. Very diluted. The coffee especially. It was like drinking water but with hints of coffee powder.

One sister had fried seafood noodle for RM9.50. It was not spicy. The food was alright. Another sister and I shared D' Rock Burger Special Cheese for RM10. The burger was yummy. I like the potato wedges though.

We finished our lunch by 1.30pm. I asked the receptionist if we could get our keys to our room, but he said it's not 2pm yet. He has a point. So, I waited till 2pm. At 2pm, I asked again. He said that the housekeeping has not returned with the keys. So, I waited till 215pm. He said that the housekeeping staff will come down for lunch. So, I waited till 230pm. He said that the housekeeping staff has not returned. I was frustrated but I contained my anger because I knew they were short-staffed. I did the next thing I could do - I called Kak Mieha. I wished her Happy Eid, and I informed her I was really tired and needed a room to rest. We have been waiting for so long. She called up the receptionist. At 235pm, I went back to the receptionist. He went to look for the housekeeping staff. In less than 3 minutes, he came back with the keys. 

At 3.30pm, all of us passed out on the bed. I had 45 minutes of sleep the night before. My sleep is very much justified.