Day 1
We left Kuala Lumpur after office one late Friday evening. It was easy drive to Kuantan on the East coast highway. We stopped to fill up the petrol tank as well as had dinner at Temerloh rest area. There we found one stall selling all the kampong food. The specialty was ikan patin, the fish that made Temerloh famous. My wife opted for the patin buah, a slightly more expensive patin fish. I had a bad experience with patin fish before in Kuala Kangsar rest area, I went for other river fish. Any way, the patin buah didn’t have the mud taste and smell that I hated.
We continued our journey after dinner. I was not that familiar with driving at night to Kuantan. A few times I had to call my friend who lived in Kuantan for the best way to our hotel, Swiss Garden Resorts located at Balok beach. We reached our hotel at almost 10pm. Then, I found out that at the rate we were charged, there was no breakfast. No big deal as breakfast would be more tasty and cheaper outside than the hotel. Since it was late we retired early, looking forward to a fun day tomorrow.
Day 2
We woke up early the next day. We went for a walk on the beach and did some exercises. We just turned into health freaks! Then we went for breakfast at one of the many stalls nearby. We had nasi kerabu and our son had his roti telur. One thing about the stalls was that hygiene was lacking. I had to change my glass of nescaffe tarik because a fly took a dip into it. You just had to keep yourself busy fending off the flies while having a meal.
We were not very happy with the room at the hotel. The sink was blocked and the TV was not working well. The English League players looked like midgets on the screen. We checked out the swimming pool and found that it didn’t fit into our requirement. The shallow pool for the kids was too shallow at 3 feet and the rest at 5 feet was too deep for us non swimmers. So my wife and I decided to scout around for another place to stay. Legend was top on the list. We stayed there before and liked the huge swimming pool.
We decided to drive to Legend Resorts to find out whether there was any room available. On the way we stopped at a few other places but they just didn’t fit in. We got ourselves a room in Legend. It came with breakfast for two. We went back to Swiss Garden and checked out. Since it was still early, we decided to drive to Kuantan town.
We drove over the bridge towards Tanjong Lumpur side of town. We were looking for the keropok lekor stall that we had tried during our earlier trips. We overshot but managed to finally find the place. They had cut down the trees to widen the road and without familiar landmarks it threw us off our sense of place. We had our lunch at the stall consisting of keropok lekor, sata and otak-otak. It was a nice light lunch. We drove back to Legend Resorts which we had obtained the room key earlier.
The keropok lekor at this stall is very tasty
After a short rest we hit the swimming pool. The pool was huge and met our requirements. I met someone from Johore Bahru and we spent time chatting by the pool side. By then I noticed that something had bitten my right hand and it started to get real itchy. I didn’t pay much attention thinking that it was another harmless insect bite. By night time it started to swell. My hands and legs were red and itchy. I consulted my doctor friend in Kuala Lumpur before taking a pill for the itchiness. I always carry a load of medicines in my travel pack. By morning the next day, my hand was swollen, red and itchy.
The huge swimming pool at Legend Resorts
Day 3
I got a call from a friend living in Chukai, Terengganu. He invited us for lunch. Considering that it was only 20 minutes drive to Chukai, we accepted. Chukai is a border town between the states of Pahang and Terengganu. It is an oil town. When we arrived, our host had called in several other guests. Lunch turned out to be another business proposal meeting.
We drove back to the hotel. My wife and son went to the swimming pool and I went out looking for a clinic for my itchy and swollen hand. I managed to find one in Chukai. The doctor told me that I had a strong allergic reaction to something. That night, I was in no mood to go out and we had dinner nearby.
We left for Kuala Lumpur the next day.
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