I hope you guys had a great weekend, not bogged down by work and chores. Well, here's the time for me to gloat a little. I had an absolutely fantastically great holiday. One which i've not had for a long time.
Destination: Gem Island (where?!?! just beside Pulau Kapas in Terengganu)
Travel Date: 18/7/08 - 21/7/08 (4 days 3 nights)
On Friday morning, i left for KL sentral early in the morning. Reached sentral at about 7.15am. We wanted to check in our bags thru the KLIA express check in service but we were told we can only check in the luggages 2 hours prior to the flight. Oh well, since we didn't carry many stuff, it was OK to hand carry them. And the good thing was that since the flight we were on is a MAS flight, i checked in from my home before coming to Sentral. I had printed out our boarding pass. So all we had to do at sentral was to buy the KLIA Express tickets and off we went towards KLIA.
The train to KLIA, i have to say, is the best train I've sat in Malaysia. It's a pity that this isn't the case on any other trains that we have in Malaysia. We reached KLIA in 28 minutes flat (yes, i also timed the journey to see if what they boast about is true). We headed to the departure hall and we eagerly awaited for our flight to Kuala Terengganu.
(All the pictures i upload here have not been edited yet). I'll upload the edited ones as soon as i possibly can on my flickr). We would like to thank MAS for also having the free airfares promotion, or else this trip might not have been possible. The flight took about 50 minutes on a Boeing 737-400 plane.We reached at about 10 in the morning and since our speedboat service was at 3pm, we had some time to kill. So we headed over to Kuala Terengganu (KT) town and went to their Pasar Payang, which is famous for the silk and batik shops as well as the local handicraft stalls. We walked around, careful not to buy too much stuff as we had to carry our bags along. Then we went looking around for a place to have breakfast. Well, i forgot that inTerengganu, their weekends are on Friday and Saturday, so most of the shops were not open. So we had some trouble hunting for a retaurant that was open. After walking for about 15 minutes in the humid weather (with our bags), we finally found a Indian shop that was open. That place sold one of the best roti canais i've ever had in my life!!! so good, i had 3 pieces of "roti" for breakfast. It was really crispy on the outside, so crispy, that when i tried to tear it apart... (damn, its so good, words cant describe it).
After our brunch, we managed to get a cab to send us to Marang jetty, where we waited for our boat service. The boat ride to Gem island is only 10 minutes, however, the sea that day was choppy. So choppy that i could feel the roti canai up my throat at some times. Thank goodness we reached safely, as the ride was like a roller coaster in the sea.
We had our welcome drink and soon we were shown our room. Villa no. 11. All the villas here are named after precious and semi precious stones. our was called Bloodstone. Well anyways, all iw ant to say is the room is nicely decorated. From our balcony we can see fishes swimming below us. Cool!!We hit the beach as there isn't electricity from 3-5pm daily. The sea here is very clean. No rubbish at all. however, there were broken corals on the beach, unfortunately. The clear blue seas was good therapy for me. We had dinner at 7.30pm. the good thing about this place compared to most East coast island resorts is that the food here isn't served buffet style. Here we get set meals. So there isn't a need to fight for food and we can sit down and have a proper dinner. The food served there was pretty good, just like most of the reviews i've read.
After a nice dinner, we walked out of the restaurant only to be greeted by the nicest night view i have ever seen.
Yeah the picture is very dark (the top part is framed by trees. the background is Kapas Island), but it was the full moon that night. The whole island was illuminated by the moonlight and we can see its reflection off the sea!! Damned beautiful, if i must say... Well, if you all must know, i have timed this retreat as such as to clash with the full moon (with a quick reference to the chinese calendar, of course, hehehe). I had a feeling if i was lucky enough to see the full moon on a clear night, i'd be certain to have a damned good view.
And the next 2 days was spent beingin the sea; snorkelling (attempting to snorkel for me ;-p), kayaking, lounging around and curling up in bed. Oh yeah, ate like a "pandi" (pig in tamil) as well, hehehe... Except for a little incident to my right ring finger (which didnt allow me to enjoy the seawater as much since the incident), the holiday was of pure relaxation for me. Oh did i mention that looking at cute baby turtles swimming is also a good way to release oneself from all concerns of the mind. Seeing them swimming and "flying" thru the water was very peaceful.
On our 4th day, we checked out of the resort very reluctantly. With the amount of fun and relaxation we had here, its not impossible to see why some of the guests here have stayed for 2-3 weeks.
We arrived back at the marang jetty at about 10 am. We stopped at a place to see how batik was made. Quite interesting, but the place was too "touristy" for me. Then we stopped at the Pasar Payang again, to buy some souvenirs. This time all the shops were opened as it's the weekday. We spent about 40 minutes there before heading towards the airport. By the time we reached KL Sentral, it was already 4.30pm. We were tired but we said our goodbyes, with a tinge of sadness that our holiday getaway has officially ended.
Well, this has been another chapter in Boody's travelogue.
Boodeyboy, Out!!!
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