Back to nature

That is, after 7 hours of driving to get there. I decided to take the CEO to Kuala Terengganu for a vacation since it was her birthday. After 7 hours of trunk roads through small kampungs and the whole freakin Banjaran Titiwangsa, we finally arrived and checked into the Primula Beach Resort Kuala Terengganu. Interestingly, I only slepy 6.5 hours the previous night, so I drove more than I slept...

That is the view out of the balcony. Hard to imagine this kinda view only 1km from the city centre. All the rooms have a view of the sea too, not like some hotels that suprise you by saying "Oh sir, the promotion is for hill/garden/pool/jamban view only, sea view is not include sir, sorry sir". Hmph!

We decided to go to Rantau Abang to visit the turtle sanctuary. Should be nice to see baby turtles. Drove there and found out it was CLOSED. Where got tourist attraction closed one??! The islands off the coast like Redang, Perhentian and Kapas were all closed because of the monsoon. At least they have a reason for closing lar!

So we just drove along the coast on our way back to Tasik Kenyir. The beaches are nice and clean! The coastal roads really remind of The Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia. With the sea barely 50m away from the road and kampung houses on both sides (of the road that is).

We stayed at the Kenyir Lake View Resort. It was damn quiet, no one there but the two of us. You'd think service would be good, well... it was good, but there were some liberties taken by the hotel since there wasn't anyone around, like stuff outta stock and not turning on the aircond.

There really isn't much to do unless you go for boat rides, hikes and fishing. All which costs money. Come on, even canoening and cycling costs money. They should lend it out for free mah. I decided to wake up in the morning during sunrise hoping to catch the famous mist-rolling-over-the-lake-with-trees trunks-terpacak-pacak-out-of-the-lake photos. Mana tau, there was mist all around and there were no dead trees terpacak out of the water. To add insult to injury, I realised the "mist" was mostly caused by my camera lens fogging up... hahahah!

The included lake cruise did take us a waterfall they call Saok Waterfall. Pristine and untouched, it is probably the best one I've seen in Malaysia.

So after 2 nights in Kenyir, we headed back to civilisation. On the way we bumped into this little fella by the side of the road:
Bwahahah! Caught him in the act of taking a royal dump by the side of the road. Story is that this baby elephant got hit by a truck while crossing the road at night. They've tied him to a tree to wait for him to heal up before he goes back into the woods. How would he survive out of his herd I have no idea. Anyway, people have been feeding him bananas and guavas while he's camping by the side of the road.

So after 1200km of driving, the holiday was over. Kuala Terengganu - highly recommended. Tasik Kenyir - only for adventurous/fisherman/rich people types.