Pantai Timur Road Trip - 1150 KM

23-25th December 2016

After completing my elective / practical (whatever it is called) in HUSM, it's time to go home. Instead of taking the usual route; Kota Bharu - Jeli - Gerik - Sungai Siput, my family and I decided to take the other way around. It was never a mistake. At least, I managed to go to Kuantan, finally for the first time! 

Hanis Family's Road Trip 2016

Our stops were basically the capital towns of each states. And yeah, we went to beaches in each of them. Well, the best part of road trip was we didn't really have to worry about our luggage as we would always have spaces to store them. Just, towards the end of the trip, we need to stop buying stuffs as the car was almost full even to the passenger seats. -_-'

Too many good dry food to buy,
Too many reasonable souvenirs to take home.

All of us can drive so driving was not a problem and the car itself is an automatic car - which make the trip easier. My turn of driving was always on the highway. Haha. I was not encouraged to drive on complicated, dangerous routes like Karak Highway, Genting Highlands etc. Naah, never mind. I have Abang Ngah to take over the car if my dad feel asleep. 

1. Kota Bharu, Kelantan.

It was raining that Friday morning. We still went out to Pasar Siti Khadijah to buy some dry pre-packed keropok and to have brunch. Not so many people there yet, maybe because of the weather or maybe due to Friday. At the food court, I ate a plate of rice one with a big squid, a scoop of vegetables, I was charged RM 15. It makes sense that the squid was expensive as my mother's meal was only RM 5, she didn't take the squid.

I wish I can eat you. T__T

Do you know what are differences between squid, cuttlefish and octopus?

They are not fish but included in mollusk family of seafood. Octopus has round head meanwhile squid and cuttlefish have triangular head. Cuttlefish is different than squid by having cuttlebone.

Before heading out of Kelantan, my mum mentioned she would love to see Pantai Senok (hehe maybe because I showed her pictures of the beach, especially the beautiful trees that people said to look similar to Nami Island). Yeah, we went there, but seemed like the weather was really bad even there were signs of flood. So, from Pantai Senok we drove to our next destination - Kuala Terengganu.

2. Pantai Penarik, Terengganu

On our way, we stopped at Pantai Penarik. Hehe, I am not sure about the specialty of this beach. We were starving. There was a small 'warung' there, nope I don't know the name, just random 'warung'. :)

Underneath pokok kelapa. 

Even though it was raining a bit, there were still lots of people walking along the beach :)

Tadaaa, these were what we had that time. Finally, I managed to get myself cendol, once a while. Just like other beaches and especially in Terengganu, you can see lots of keropok lekor and any seafood tempura everywhere. :) At least the prices of the food in Pantai Timur are still reasonable compared to last time I went to Lumut and Pulau Pangkor T_T

It was my first time to try coconut shake (I think), the taste was a bit weird but... okaylah as long as it is edible, I don't have any problem with it.

Cendol, keropok lekor, sotong goreng tepung, coconut shake.

3. Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu

Arrived in KT about Maghrib, we checked in to one of beach resorts close to Batu Burok. Honestly, the last time I went to Batu Burok was like 2002 (maybe) and I think I bought a big kite that time.

We had dinner at a random restaurant as the one that we aimed for was busy and there was no empty seats, people were queuing as well. After that, my dad drove us around the city. He used to have lots of teaching and administration courses there. Well, both my parents are teachers and as you know Terengganu is always one of the best states in Malaysia for any exams... that's the main reason I think why most of education courses he attended were held here.

It felt like my dad was reminiscing his memories there. He can even mentioned when exactly some buildings were built, what was there before....

Still, we got lost anyway. HAHAHA

Isn't it lovely? It reminded me to the mermaid in TLOTBS at that time. 

Since our room was just like 100 meters away from the beach, watching sunrise was the first thing to do after Subuh prayer.

One of Korean dramas that my mum watched that time was The Legend of The Blue Sea (TLOTBS). Believe me, every time I skype with her, she will elaborate the dramas that she follows that time and I ended up watching them myself. :p

We are Kdramas buddies hahaha, I slowed down a bit when I went to Czech because despite the high-speed Internet, watching dramas consume a lot of time and emotion to wait for the next 2 episodes which can be watch after at least 6 days.

Chicken soup, nasi dagang, satar, coconut jelly

We had breakfast at Pasar Payang (the concept of this market looks kind of similar to Pasar Siti Khadijah) and keropok kering here was sold at cheaper price! One of my parents' attitude (and most of us insyAllah) that I think I should follow is buying souvenirs for other people. Usually my parents will buy something for their big families and our neighbours.

Since Masjid Kristal is famous for the architecture and I have not been here before, my dad drove us here. In the praying area, I can see exhibition area about the history of Masjid Kristal. That time, I just knew the mosque was actually planned to be built with gold. But there are many other mosques in this world using the same material so the designer changed it to glass with crystal's effects.

Cost saving :)
Still, it looks beautiful.

4. Kuantan, Pahang

Later in the evening after another round of keropok lekor haha, we continued our journey to the next city, Kuantan. It was my first time in Kuantan anyway.

I am not sure when was the Lebuh Raya Pantai Timur built, but our GPS was so out-dated. 

My backpacking friend listed few places to go in Kuantan and a restaurant he recommended is Ana Ikan Bakar Petai (because it is famous lol). So, off to that restaurant for dinner. Unfortunately, there were A LOT OF PEOPLE that we ended up waiting for more than 1 hour just to get our food. Late dinner and that was one reason why I gained 4-5kg in that one month. T__T

Fried rice, buttered prawn, sotong tepung, ikan bakar petai (siakap ke entah?). 

They were tasty, but I am not sure worth the money or not. Hehe.

The next morning before checking out, we headed to Teluk Chempedak. It was the best beach among the five that I've been to when I was in Pantai Timur! It was much more clean as well! Had breakfast there and we went on a walk along the wooden bridge as you can see in the picture below.

Captured my heart :)

Would love to be there again.

My family used to call these makhluk Allah as my friends. Haih!

On our way back to Perak, we stopped by RnR Temerloh for lunch and I had ikan patin for myself. In my family, my late abanglong and I are the only one who eat ikan patin T_T I just knew there are two types of ikan patin - buah & sangkar. Maybe someone can tell me the difference?

Drove along Lebuh Raya Karak, we tried to go to Colmar Tropicale / Bukit Tinggi but took the u-turn afterwards when it did not worth the money for that specific time. InsyAllah, we will make another trip there later :)

Rough journey.

That marked the end on my family's Pantai Timur Road Trip.

My family's trips are always like this, random plans. 

We don't expect much for the trip but to treasure the fact that we are together. 

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Anyway, this post is finally published after I saw a Traveloka's contest poster. Not expecting much to win or whatever, but I took this chance to not letting my post in the draft for another monthssss. I've been missing beaches a lot after reading Siqah & Nadia's posts. Haha. 

More details,
Click HERE

https://blog.traveloka.com/en/blogger-contest/

Feel free to join :)

Salam Nisfu Sya'ban, guys. Doa banyak-banyak :)

HK, Czech

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