Road Trip to Pulau Perhentian -> 18th ~ 21st September, 2008

This time our road trip brought us to at least 5 states in Malaysia. My assignment for this trip is to plan for the trip and that includes doing the bookings and also doing the supporting navigator for the driver and become co pilot :) One week before this trip i had the opportunity to speak to key operators in the island to arrange for our accomodation ad well as transfers to the island and back. With the help from a few tips from people who had visited the island i finally made up my mind that we are indeed going to perhentian island Besar and the Resort i have chosen for our stay there was Arwana Eco Resort.

Below is teh road map that we use for our road trip which was very hlpful indeed :)



Our road trip started on the 18th, with raymond and Philippe taking turns at the wheels throughout the journey going up starting from Kuala Lumpur up to Kuala Besut. Through out this whole journey we managed to cross over 5 states in total and they are ; Selangor, Pahang, Trengganu, kelantan and finally Perak. Not too bad for a road trip to be able to cover 5 states within 3 days! Our journey kicked off from KL at around 7pm with just one stopped over for "makan" at the road side Burger Kings, So we just take away and hope to eat in the car...and greedy me having to eat my doubled cheezed burger and frise in peace while the two people doing the navigation and the driving was just eating nuggets and fries hehehe then we procedded using the highway up to Bentong then turn left to proceed to Raub, Pahang then Kuala Lipis then the longest stretched ever to Gua Musang and Philippe finally made a switch with Raymond on the wheels. We were driving in the darkness so to speak as i think this road is not so famous (dont ask me why) but its just one stretched 2 lane road across some Palm Oil trees estate, that made us believed that the road is never going to end and that we hardly see any lights coming or going....then finally we reach to a stopping point for a police check point and then off we went again and still no road sign then finally we met with the another end of the police checking point and we finally ask them are we on the right track and thank goodness he said yes you just follow the road straight ahead and straight ahead we went and we went...it was about 12am or so then and finally we reach Kuala Krai and another long stretched of road by this time they have made one toilet break and coffee break where i pack us some coffee in a thermos and some petit Lu to go with it...

Then we continue our journey and Raymond is once again on the wheels and this time we are driving from Kuala Krai towards Machang and after a topsy turvy turning here and there finally we got to Jerteh and at around 2am in the morning all of us are feeling a bit of fatigue from the longest journey ever even for non driving person like me hehehe...

We finally reach to our accomodation at kuala Besut which is Nan Hotel. For a 65 ringgit per night stay for Three person in a family room of one double bed and a single bed it was fine indeed. The next morning we woke up at 6.30 am as our boat ride to Pulau Perhentian was already arranged to be at 8.00 in the morning and so we met with Solihin our car caretaker for the 3 days we will be away and Roslina the person incharged for our boat transfer to the island.

so, at 7.45am we were off to our Resort at Pulau perhentian Besar
some pictures taken at the kuala Besut Jetty and of Philippe so happy to be on the boat indeed :) also on the jetty during our arrival :)

some pictures of us minutes after checking in to our own bunggalows and we are just next door neighbours to each other and just relaxing listenign to the waves from our front sea view balcony.

We went walking and taking pictures and went swimming for a while after that as our first snorkelling trip was supposed to be that afternoon at 2pm but was cancelled due to heavy rain :((

here are some of the sights at the resort

more sights around the resort


Then i steal some time for myself and be myself, peace and serenity....clarity moment time for me :)

then we sample our food prepared by the resort which was pre ordered as the package includes; breakfast, lunch and dinner for 3 days and 2 nights..and so the picture above is just a sample of what we had for the time we were there...is no wonder i gained weight!! hahahaha

Then the fun begins!
Equipt with my disposable wtar camera our journey underwater begins after being postpone on the first day so we make it up the next day and had 2 snorkelling trip back to back! phewwwww!!

here are the product of the underwater disposable camera! i didnt like how it turned out BUT enough to say that i will definately get me an underwater camera soon before i got o any diving or snorkelling trip and its a promise!

then we steal sometime just to be with ourself, Peace and Serenity...raycilliently we walk the sands and watch the wave that promises a beautiful tomorrow :)

And then, it was time for us to leave the isalnd of Perhentian Besar and i leave you guys wt these beautiful scenic pics from the island :)

although our island adventure is done and over it somehow our road journey havent. So we start off from Kuala besut, to Jerteh and stopping by at one particular stall just to get my banana heheh :)

Then we tried to find some place where we can get some lunch but unfortunately its during the Fasting month and being in the state where its majority are muslim i guess it was a slim chance to get any small stalls to sell something to eatso what Philippe said is...ok we do "Puasa" aussi :)) so it was not until we reached Jeli which is border from kelantan with trengganu that we finally found a "pasar ramadhan" at 4pm where we went to buy some food ...wow it was a great reliever indeed and raymond and philippe were like two superstars there as they were amazed that the two can actually converse in bahasa malaysia...i was just observing them and it was so funny :) the colourful food they have is just so beautiful...i didnt get any photos of this area as i was busy agonising with a stomach ache aka gastric urghhh! anyhow it was a woonderful expereince we had some ayam panggang, nasi ayam and some murtabak ayam which was really delish!

so we continued with our journey to Gerik and here it was uphill all the way until lenggong then finally we cut short the journey by taking highway one from Kuala Kangsar all the way to Kuala Lumpur. we reached home sweet home by 1030pm and once again fatigue crept in and we were all dead in our bed by 11pm and so the story ends:)

was a delightful journey raymond and I had with our visitor Philippe. One that we all will cherish always in our mind and in our heart :) merci beaucoup philippe for travelling with us to the unknown and hope to do it again with you and hopefully this time you will join us in Kota Kinabalu , sabah where you get to have the title Prince Philippe!! hehehehehe

da di da di da!
C & R