Road trip to the east coast, Pahang Darul Makmur

What a wonderful long weekend we had here in Malaysia and to take advantage of that mon coeur and I went on a road trip to the east coast to the land where nature is at best and just as it is. This time our road trip took us 3days and two nights in total. Started of on Friday the 29^th, leaving from our condo at around 7.00pm we head of to Batu Caves and take on the highway to go across to the state of Pahang. We estimated to reach our first destination before hitting the coastline of Paahng in 5 hours time and that is to Lake Chini.

On the way we made one stop to get our dinner and by that time it was already dark and raining! Got our Mc D's and off we go again and finally made a big stop at an R&R Somewhere close to Bentong area, where we had our Mc D's in peace :) and...it was still raining...

Then we continued our journey and finally we reached Gambang and turned left to the exit to Segamat, then all the way to the big bridge then finally saw the sign “Tasik Chini” then around 12midnight we reach Tasik Chini Resort and went to collect our room key at the Pak guard as everyone was already asleep when we reach there and the next thing we know we had to hunt for our room. We had to search high and low for it and finally found it just next to the restaurant and main office so poof! We went to bed :))

Here is our bed, our good morning faces after much needed rest and wake up to this wonderful surrounding! Green every where is greena nd birds chirping just wonderful to the eyes and ears! Before we booked this place, the add says, Basic amenities and no air conditioning and just a ceiling fan. But when we got there the Deluxe room was not too bad..we even have an extra bed on the floor :) We had a small balcony facing the lake so it was a really nice place to just chill out and relax and we did just that.

The morning we had breakfast at the chini resort owned restaurant and this is what we ordered

and here is what we see while eating our breakfast....

here are some shots taken at the Tasik Chini Resort restaurant. The highlight of the place is the squirells they are really cute and also quite an entertainer they are.

And then we were all set for our 1 hour and a half boat ride through tasik chini where we can see water lilly and some other facinating things that is available at Tasik Chini and mind you, this was my first boat ride to Tasik Chini and it was mon coeur's 4th time....ans he enjoys it very much without even feeling bored. heheheh

here are the water lilly or lotus to some...very beautiful indeed and according to our guide they arent a lot at this time of the year because of the rainy season and all but they are still some available so here they are :)

then we stop by at the place called snake hole by which a snake comes in and out of it i supposed and oh yes..i managed to snap a picture of our boatman too and i forgotten his name hehehe

Then our last stop is at the Orang Asli Settlement where you can try out various wood base crafts made from them and do a little bit of pipe blowing which what mon coeur did :)

After the boat ride and visit to the orang asli settlement we head back to the resort and we go around the place just to relax and mon coeur decided to track down a lodge thats been mentioned in one of the french guide book to malasie and particularly in regards to tasik chini and this lodge is called Rajah Jones Guest House and so we went on our journey looking for this place which intrigue us for the book is about 15 years old so what ever is written in it might not be in the present time so we set out to check this place out...during our first attempt...we almost ran out of petrol

running out of petrol is one thing but no petrol station around the place is another thing pfffffff!! we had to drive about 50km to get to the nearest petrol station; So folks, future travelling to this area bare in mind ur tank must always be more then half filled or else you will never make it to the next petrol station, so must always be alert and look at the petrol indicator and never assumed just filled up the tank to avoid this kind of worries.

But because of the trip to the petrol station we get to look and see a lot of interesting things like this typical malay house which we managed to stop by the road and snap a picture of it. then off we go and stop by some fruit stall to get me my dose of banana fruit which is a MUST for me :) then we proceed to another place where we found a lot of water lilies or Lotus around that portion of the lake and then finally we made a stop and took some nice pics of it :)

mon coeur hasnt yet given up to locate this place called the Rajah Jones Guest House so we went again and this time not worried anymore because we had a full tank this time around :) we stop by a couple of times to ask for directions and came across with a few kids from the village near by and suprisingly they speak goodenglish and so they were alot of help indeed.... so we proceeded up the hills and terrible road and finally we came to a junction then we thought its not the one so we went on again and asit turned out the road brought us back to Tasik Chini Resort which we didnt intend to go to hehehe...so very determined to find the place we turned around and get back to the same tracks and finally decided to take the turned that we decided not to take before this and a walla! the Rajah Jones Guest House. In the book it tells about an indian man married to an orang asli woman and settle down in that area and started the business of bringing people to the jungle for a wilderness experience and so we founf this :)

Mon coeur said definately we are going to book him for the trkking and hiking to the waterfalls trip and yes it does sound inviting and of course im up for the challenge anytime indeed besides im sure it will be fun indeed :)

So we had a lovely day the day before going around venturing around the places near chini lake then the night time we had no electricity apparently throughout the whole chini area so we had our dinner in the darkness hehehe well with candle light of course :) then it was off to bed early for both of us and it was really nice as the place was dead quiet and you can hear all the chirping sounds and all it was nice to hear all this then we woke up got dresszd and had breakfast tasik chini style with just a plastic of mon coeur's favourite "Kuih Baulu" and a cup of coffee. After breakfasr then we are off to Pekan which is quite a distant from chini but its on our way to go to Kuantan Pahang.

Its a very straight road going towards Pekanand here are some of the shots i took while driving past this palce. Our next stop is Kuala Pahang!

Here is Kuala pahang where there is a small fishing village around there so we went out and jalan-jalan and look see and snap a few pics and off we go continue on our journey to Kuantan Pahang to have our lunch.

Then after close to an hour of driving from kuala Pahang finally we reached Kuantan, the capital city of Pahang. the first thing i saw was Carrefour, Kuantan and quickly told mon coeur to go there to have our lunch and off we go to carrefour!

some more shots of Bandar Kuantan, Pahang

here is we at the Black Canyon Coffee restaurant at the mall in kuantan. the food was not to my liking...the salmon was a bit too spicy for my taste and mon coeur's noodles was a bit too much corn starched and overflowing....ermmmnn NEXT!

For our tea break we then stopped by at Hyatt Kuantan. It was eally nice and having free flow of orange juice by the reception area was a big plus and the area was spacious and nice pool area.

The area around Hyatt Kuantan

Our Tea-break yummies :)

Then we went for a walk around the beach...

a few more snap shots and its time to hit thehighway and go back home...

On our way i saw this at first i was not sure of the flag then as we go nearer YESS! Its a sabahan flag and since its the National Day they put flags on their car and this one clearly says tht he is sabahan so mon coeur drove past it and i managed to snap a picture then waved to him and clearly he is sabahn indeed :) what a delighful suprise indeed made me smile all the way back to our home :)

All in all it was a marvelous road trip! One that i will never forget and thank god for all this pictures i will surely treasure our moment driving thru the coastline of pahang it was a wonderful journey indeed and was my first time in Pahang as well and it was much more beautiful for mon coeur for this is his 4th time visiting Chini lake and he can recall back the times when he was there with his sister, brother in law and nephew and niece and see how little change it has been with chini lake so it was a nice going back to the past for him :) for his sister Aline and family at les Herbiers, im sure the chini pictures brings back a lot of memories for all of you hope all of you are smilling when you see and read about this post :)

Have a nice day everyone!

Love always,

C & R