A relaxing day in Kuantan
We woke up refreshed after a good night’s rest. Breakfast is a small but adequate selection of local and western delights. We saw someone cleaning up the pool so were tempted to give it a shot again. While the water tasted less salty, the water wasn’t any cleaner. The resort may have been more vibrant in its hey days, now it is just a sad state of affairs as if the funds that was initially set aside had run dry.
We left for Kuantan town to have lunch. We drove up to Teluk Chempedak, the resident beach hangout for the townsfolk. We were quite pleasantly taken in by the simple but charming beach with two resident fastfood outlets McDonalds and KFC. There were other shop outlets, pubs and eateries in the vicinity.
A narrow wooden walking trail is built against the hill fronting the sea, affording trekkers a tiny slice of nature. Monkeys and monitor lizards can be easily spotted along the trail which stretches about 500m. At the end of the trail is a sheltered bay where locals were swimming, so far the only place along the coast which looks safe for swimming.
One thing noted, facilities seem to sprout up around big name hotels. We left the beach around 4pm and headed back to Kuantan town proper where we stopped at the largest mall in town – Berjaya Megamall. The anchor store Parksons had a large selection of children’s bags. In fact there are more Transformers bags for sale here than the entire Midvalley Megamall. We also found a very pretty Pooh bear bag for Elizabeth which both Theo and I fell in love with at once. Our baby girl has fallen sick with inflammation of the throat and hasn’t been eating and sleeping well for the last two days.
The darnest thing about leaving children back home is that they somehow fall sick inevitably. Sigh. Just one more day. Shopping in this dilapidated mall actually bore some fruits. I got a nice t-shirt for only 5 ringgit!! Shops were also brazenly selling pirated dvds alongside original ones. Apart from the mall, you could also take a river cruise on the Sg Kuantan which Theo refused. The river seemed to service trawlers coming back from fishing trips in the South China Sea. A prominent white sign spelling Kuantan drew several photographs.
The Masjid Negeri, the state mosque and also the largest one in the east coast, occupies a squarish compound. It has a huge dome accompanied by four spires at each corner. The blue and white facade makes the mosque look regal. Kuantan town is small and easy to navigate. Thereafter we returned back to our hotel for an early night.