Travelling to islands

Tioman trip in June 2011!

2011-07-21T21:31:00.006+08:00

I visited Tioman just last month!

Tioman is a great island to visit and is within easy reach from Singapore.
You can easily go to Tioman island by taking the direct coach from Singapore,
alternatively for people on a budget. It is possible to take the Singapore-Johore Express bus from Bugis Bus Terminal to Larkin (Johore Main Bus Terminal).

From Larkin, you will be able to take cheap bus or coach to Mersing, which is the main ferry terminal that you can take a ferry to Tioman or other islands near that area like Pulau Besar and Pulau Rawa.

There are not many ferry operators providing transport to the island. The ferry company that I took to Tioman was called Blue Waters. It does not seems to have the speed boat that I took many years back. As there is just one rate, RM 35 one way or RM 70 two ways.
You will just need to buy one way ticket. As you can easily buy the ticket on the island and giving you more flexibility on when you want to come back to Mersing.
It will take about one and a half hour to reach Tioman island.

I was staying a Panuba Inn Resort for a few nights. The place has been renovated with many rooms now as compared to my visit few year back.

The best room to stay will be Super Durian. It is spacious, clean and has a very nice sea view. Regard to the food served at Panuba Inn, it was okay, edible nothing fantastic. Most of my meals are taken at Air Batang Beach. There is a nice simple restaurant called Nazri. Nazri provides accommodation too. At Nazri, you can have delicious local food like mee goreng, fried rice and for dinner, you can choose to have BBQ seafood from barracuda, blue marlin and big prawn.

The beach at Panuba Inn was nice not spectacular. The corals were not in good shapes, as many were dead. It was no longer as beautiful and healthy as seen few years back.

One of the day, my friend and I took a long walk over to Tekkek town and started to look for a beach area, which I read from the Tripadvisor forum - Tioman, that huge coral was seen on Tekkek.

To my pleasant surprise, I really got to see a very huge hard green coral just off the shore of Tekkek beach. It was an amazing sight. I got to see stingray and a big pufferfish too. There are still healthy corals around.

I manage to see beautiful sunset and the view of the calm sea in the day is especially relaxing.

I got to discover a cheap and tasty BBQ seafood place near to Coral reef resort.
Because of the beautiful corals, beach and seafood that I found on this trip.
I will surely return to Tekkek Beach, Tioman in the future.

You can enjoy some of my photos taken at Tioman through Webshots slideshows

Tioman Jun 2011

Phuket trip in Nov 2009!

2009-11-27T09:38:00.031+08:00

I have returned from my trip to Phuket.

Tanamas House.
This was the place that I stayed during my 4D/3N trip. It was about 15 mins walk to Nai Yang Beach and 5 mins drive from Phuket International Airport. This place is a hidden gem for the price which the accomodation provides, it is indeed value for money. The place is neat, clean and welcoming. With cable TV, hot shower, complimentary coffee & tea, clean towels, and good friendly service from the owner himself. This is a family business run by 3 members of the family. You can make your booking or read the review from wwww.hostelworld.com .

Local Market.
This is very popular with the locals. This photo was captured as we were walking from Tanamas House to Nai Yang Beach. They sell almost everyting from fresh food, fruit to clothes, there are more people during evening time.
Probably most of the locals bought their fresh produce to cook for dinner.

This photo is taken from one of the many shades provided by the food stalls along Nai Yang Beach. They served delicious seafood fried rice! We sat here relaxingly with nice thai food with superb view of the sea, in quietness. Just the sound of the waves and sunlight.

Nai Yang Beach
Beautiful sunset view from Nai Yang beach!

Gibbon Rehabilitation Project
The Gibbon Rehabilitation Center is located near to Bangpae Waterfall. The project is to purposefully helped the injured, abuse and lost and found Gibbons to nurture them and help to live in the wild again. Read more from their website.

Bangpae Waterfall.
It was named the largest waterfall in Phuket.
It is a short trek from the entrance.

Naithon Beach.
Great waves! Another quiet beach just to enjoy the view and relax along the sandy beach.

Thai Mueang Beach.
Nice long beach. When we were on our way to Khao Lak Beach.

Thon Prae Waterfall.
This is one of the best waterfall I have seen. There are no one there, when we visited. The water was cold. but it was superb.

Khao Lak Beach.
It is a very long stretch of beach.
This photo was take along the beach near to Khaolak Orchid Beach Resort.

Lampi Waterfall.
This waterfall was more crowded with locals and tourists. We visited this waterfall on our way back from Khao Lak to Phuket.

Octopus Restaurant.
This restaurant is located along Nai Yang Beach.
The price was reasonable and the food is fresh and good!

My Trip to Badung in Aug 09

2009-08-15T15:32:00.006+08:00

I have just returned from my 4 days trip to Bandung! It was quite a relief, as I suffered a little bit of an uneasy tummy.

Let me share about the good things that I liked about Bandung first.

1. Friendly people. Although I did not know how to speak their language, which is Bahasa Indonesia. We can still make some conversation with some simple Malay words. They are always helpful and smiling.

2. The weather. The weather was between the range of 30-18 degree celsius. Which is cooler than in Singapore.

3. Interesting Food. They are famous for Sundanese Food. Which is a bit similar to Nasi Pandang. Where you can choose from a wide range of variety. From chicken, beef, vegetables, tofu, tempeh(made of peanuts) and other internal organ which I am not familiar with an unwilling to try. So most of the time, I will choose the chicken and beef, They have honey flavored, fried or grilled chicken drumsticks, thighs and wings. The beef was quite tender and nice.

Once you have selected the items from the food table. They then passed the selected choice to the kitchen to grill and to warm the food before serving the dishes to you. They served it with rice and a basket full of fresh vegetables, cucumbers, basil, and etc.

Nothing beats the delicious chilli sauce that came along. When we put the chillies with the chicken, beef or even with the fresh vegetable. It tasted quite good.

The Cendol was also something tasted quite wonderful. With the very soft green cendol strips, which were made of green bean flour mixed together in a bowl of coconut milk with sweet palm sugar.

I love the Bee Hoon Bakso Ayam too. Which I tried it in a simple restaurant at Paris Van Java Mall called Solaris(I think). It is quite popular with the locals. Nice tasty small bits of chicken with a savoury sweet sauce mixed together with the Bee Hoon. It came along with a small bowl of soup with two meat balls.

I would say it is a pity that I did not try the food from the streets stalls, which were found easily on almost every streets. Perhaps this is suitable only for the adventurous and people with good and strong stomach. Oh, I just remember that the only street stall that I tried was the durian ice cream stall. Which is pretty interesting. They put a durian with the seed into a small plastic cup and added the ice cream, some pulut hitam and evaporated milk.

4. My visit to Kawah Putih, which was also the place to visit Gunung Patuha/Where we got to see green turqoise lake.
http://www.indonesia-tourism.com/west-java/mount-ratuha.html

The downside about Bandung was.

1. High pollution. With the great numbers of cars and motorbikes. The road was highly polluted.

2. Uneven walkways. When we walked along the pathways. we were careful to watch out steps on every stesp, so as not to trip and fall. As most of the pathways were not repaired and quite dangerous to walk.

3. Poverty. We got to see many people sleeping outside the closed shops along the shophouses at night, some were families and some were single men. When we were seated on a taxi, Some youths would approached the taxi and started to play some Indonesian music and singing songs, hoping to receive the attention of some kind souls that were willing to give them some money.

Bandung is also famous for long stretch of Factory outlets. We walked along the many factory outlets at the street of Jalan Dago, we went into some the factory outlets, some provided some nice clothing others shops provided some unfamiliar names. My recommendation is a Factory Outlet called Rumah Mode(Pronounced as Model). They provided a nice atmosphere with good quality shopping. Plus nice cafe and restaurants to try their local delights.

Overall my trip was quite interesting but tiring, as the many places to visit are quite a distant from one another. Therefore we needed to do quite a bit of walking and took quite a bit of taxi. They do have a local transport called angkot. Which is a small van that has a fixed route, you will need to know where they are going. It is a cheap way of getting to place to place of maybe taking as a fun ride. They charged by a flat rate of 2500 rupiah per person to any destination. I managed to try once for the fun of it.

I hope these information will give you a little insight on what to expect in Bandung , if you decide to visit Bandung.

More Helpful information on Bandung is available on
http://wikitravel.org/en/Bandung

Bandung Aug 09

Just returned from Perhentian island

2009-05-10T11:17:00.003+08:00

I have just returned from the beautiful island called Perhentian Besar in East Malaysia.

It has been four years go before returning to this lovely island, which I loved it for its quietness and awesome beaches with wonderful and colourful coral reefs, amazing underwater creations.

As on my first trip, I have stayed at Abdul chalet again. This is the best place to stay in which is close to the beach and provides a clean and spacious room. It has now upgraded with aircon and fridges, the room and toilet gets bigger too. There is now a Marine Park jetty close to Abdul Chalet.

Thanks to Airasia, which I am able to fly from Singapore to KL and KL to Kota Bahru without costing me a big pocket. This has helped me to have a more comfortable travelling instead of taking a more than 1o hours overnight coach to Kuala Besut Jetty, which I would not be able to manage to sleep on a coach seat in a super cold temperature. From Kota Bahru airport, I managed to share a cab with another traveller . It cost about RM 78 for the cab to Kuala Besut jetty and took about one hour journey. From Kuala Besut, we need to take a fast boat to Perhentian Besar. This took about 30 mins. By the time we reach the island, I was about 5pm. it was all worth it to smell the breeze and look into the clear turqoise water.

Pulau Perhentian Besar May 09

Solar Powered Gadget

2009-03-30T20:14:00.002+08:00

I was reading this magazine called Sports+Travel Singapore (Mar-April) issue. Which updated some very interesting travel items. One of the items is Solio Magnesium Edition, which is a hybrid charge that accept power from wall socket or from the sun. It is compatible with iPhones, MP3 players, digital cameras, GPS and much more. Retail price USD 169.95 to know more about such products. visit www.solio.com

Langkawi from 22nd - 28th Feb 09

2009-03-01T16:55:00.013+08:00

I got to visit Langkawi in February. Which i think its worth going to this relaxing island.

Let me share the nice things about Langkawi!

1. Nice to drive around the island! (reasonable priced car rental available easily from Langkawi Airport) It is safe and no heavy traffic at all.

2. Great Seafood. Fantastic Tiger Prawn awaits you. You can get to eat many types of wonderful seafood at reasonable price.

3. Duty Free island. You can get to drink to your hearts content. As there is no tax on beer or wine. Therefore you can drink at a very low price from restaurants and buying at convenient stores.

4. Beautiful beaches. There are many lovely beaches to laze around or to enjoy some sea sports like parasailing, jetski and banana boat. Popular beaches are Cenang Beach with sea sports easily available and more crowded with people. Tengah Beach is quieter with less crowd, it is a nice beach to relax. Tangung Rhu Beach is up North secluded and quiet.

5. Waterfall. There are a few waterfall to dip into the cool spring water as well. The famous one is the Seven Tier/Well waterfall. It will be best visited during the rainy season so as to see a good splashing waterfall. If not, it is still nice to just swim in the cool clear water.

Places that I have visited.
Oriental Village - A place with many tourist shops and restaurant.
Kuah Town - a place to see the local shops.
Seven wells waterfall - Enjoy the cool water.
Pantai Tengah beach - Nice relaxing beach.
Tangjung Rhu beach - A quiet and relaxing beach.
Crystal Yacht - Enjoy a Beautiful Sunset Cruise.
Gunung Raya - Drive up to the mountain top. Enjoy the breeze.
Orkid Ria-seafood restaurant- Cenang beach. I love this seafood restaurant.
Debbie Irish pub - Cenang beach. Enjoy a Guinness.
Wonderland- seafood restaurant Kuah Town. Popular seafood restaurant among the locals.
Beach Garden restaurant- Cenang Beach. Enjoy a glass of Erdinger.
White van stall - Along Tengah Beach near Sun cafe. Great tasting Mee Rebus, Laksa & Cendol.
Breakfast bar - Great place to have your breakfast here. Try the local food.

Langkawi 22-28 Feb 2009

Travel research with Google Book Search

2008-10-25T13:19:00.004+08:00

Enter your destination or island name via a google book search.
http://books.google.com.sg/books

Best time to visit a Malaysia island!

2008-09-28T15:47:00.007+08:00

As we all like to take a break on an island with good sunshine and nice weather!
Here are some of the weather guide to note when travelling to some of these wonderful islands in Malaysia.

All islands on the East Coast of Malaysia will be hit by Monsoon during Nov to Mar.
So the available period to visit will be from April to Oct every year.
Best time to visit will be May to Sept.
recommended islands are
Perhentian islands, Redang island and Rawa island

All islands on the West Coast are able to welcome visitors all years round.
Example: Langkawi and Pangkor.

Map is taken from Ping Anchorage website.
Recommended travel agent in Malaysia
http://www.pinganchorage.com.my/

Malaysia Best Beaches

2008-09-02T22:29:00.005+08:00

Here are my recommendation on the best beaches to visit in Malaysia based on my experience.

1. Perhentian Island (Besar)
With absolute clear water, and soft sandy beach.
corals remains much abudance, and good variety of fishes like clown fish, parrots fish to see.
good accomodation to recommend is Abdul Chalet. clean and reasonable priced.

2. Redang Island
Beautiful water and soft white sandy beach.
Get to see black tip reef sharks, moral eel, turtles and lots of other colorful fishes
mostly available in 3D2N package
recommended Malaysia travel agent* Ping Anchorage

My trip to Sarawak and Sabah

2008-08-12T13:54:00.033+08:00

I have returned from my two weeks trip to Sarawak and Sabah.
Here are some hightlights that I would like to share with everyone!

Sarawak!

Sarawak Cultural Village: Interesting but a bit touristy. A good place to get to know the different ethnic groups in Sarawak. Example: Iban and Orang Ulu. They have a very entertaining cultural show. Entrance fee is quite high at RM 60 per entry.

Kubah National Park: Quiet place with not much people. the trails are quite similar all around. Attractions are Nice Waterfall and viewpoint. Need to get a taxi to reach there!

Nice Waterfall @ Kubah National Park

Bako National Park: Good interesting trails (up to 17 trails altogether) with exotic animals to look out for, like proboscis monkeys, bearded pigs and silver hair macque. Many Pitcher plants along the Tajor trail (Waterfall trail).
it is recommended to stay for at least one night, watching beautiful sunset, glowing fireflies and lots of hermit crabs along the pathway. (Need to prebook early at the visitor center to avoid disappointment)

Beautiful Sunset @ Bako National Park

Funny Big Nose Proboscis Monkey

The well known Pitcher Plant

Bearded Pig

Semengoh Wildlife Centre: This place trained up Orang Utans to live in the jungle. Therefore keeping very low or no interaction with people as much as possible. We got to see quite a few of them in action during daily feeding time at 9 am, due to low fruit season. Most of the Orang Utan showed up to get some fruit.

Orang Utan climbing down the rope

Huge crocodile in the cage

Kuching Town: Quite a simple town with a waterfront.
Must try out their local coffee and Sarawak Laksa as well as Kolo Mee.
Things to buy: Sarawak Pepper & maybe Bird Nest.

Sabah!
Kota Kinabalu National Park: Enjoy the nice cool breeze. They have some interesting trails around the park and you can visit the mountain garden, which does not look quite spectacular.

How to get to Mount Kinabalu Park?
You can get to Mount Kinabalu Park by taking a bus from the long distance bus station which is near to the Merdeka Padang.
This is a cheap way of getting to Mount Kinabalu which take about 2-3 hours journey. I`m sorry that I can`t remember the bus fare. You will need to inform the bus conductor or driver that you are going to Mount Kinabalu Park, so that they will let you alight at the correct spot. It will be quite inconvenient to travel around Mount Kinabalu, as there are no bus and taxi are not easily available. You can book the taxi from the reception at Mount Kinabalu Park. The reception lady is very helpful to locate a taxi driver for you.

If you are travelling in a group of four, you can consider to take a taxi up to Mount Kinabalu Park or can consider booking the taxi for the whole day.

Kinabalu Park (World Heritage Site) Conservation(Entry) Fee: RM 15.00

We stayed in a chalet at Mount Kinabalu Heritage resort and Spa, which is a fantastic choice, with great view of Mount Kinabalu and nice chalet. A good place to just relax and enjoy the cool breeze. They have two accomodation type: Chalet or Hotel room. Therefore the Chalet will be a more recommended accomodation.

Great view of Mount Kinabalu from Mount Kinabalu Heritage resort and Spa

Tun Rahman Marine Park: I went to two of the five islands from the Marine Park.
Sapi and Mamutik island.
Sapi island is nice but was quite crowded on Saturday afternoon.
Mamutik island was a great place to snorkel, probably the best for me so far and it is not so crowded even on weekend. 100% recommended to all.

How to get to the islands?
You will need to buy your ticket from Jesselton Point (Kota Kinabalu Ferry Terminal.

How to get to Jesselton Point (Kota Kinabalu Ferry Terminal?
More infor click here

Ticket prices to Pulau Gaya, Pulau Sapi, Pulau Manukan, Pulau Sulug and Pulau Mamutik
1 island - RM18 per adult
2 island - RM27 per adult
3 island - RM37 per adult
4 island - RM47 per adult
+
Ferry Terminal Tariff fee - RM 6 per adult
Conservation fee (Sabah Park) - RM 10 for Non Malaysian 18 yrs and above

Kota Kinabalu Town:
A bigger town compared to Kuching and more expensive as well.
Get to see beautuiful sunset at the waterfront with many nice restaurants.
Do visit the night market near the waterfront, which gives a wide display of fishes on the tables.
Local food to try will be Bak Kut Teh (Pork Ribs Soup) , laksa and claypot rice.
Famous Italian restaurant: Little Italy is worth trying too!

Must go*
Night Market: You will get to see a wide variety of colourful seafood, for cheap dinner, you can get to try the barberque seafood and local dishes.
Sunset at the Waterfront Esplanade: Beautiful sunset as on above photo can be taken by the Waterfront. You can have your dinner and enjoy a nice time with your friends and family.

Kota Kinabalu City Map

More nice photos from this slideshow:
Sabah and Sarawak 27 Jul to 10 Aug 08

Bintan Getaway

2008-04-29T21:05:00.019+08:00

I had a quick getaway to the lovely island of Bintan, which was really close to Singapore.
50 mins to reach Bintan from Singapore by Ferry.

I was unable to resist a good promotion, which included a 2D1N stay at Nirwana Resort Hotel + Ferry and Land transfer, all taxes included for S$218 for two persons.

It was my first time to Bintan, I did not have any intension to visit Bintan, as there are so many places to visit in Malaysia and Thailand. With such a good bargain that I could not resist, but to get my passport and jumped into the ferry to bring me there.

We took the ferry at 11.05am on a nice sunny sunday from Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal, which wasn't too crowded. we had a nice time on board the comfortable ferry to reach Bintan at about 12pm.

Upon reaching the Ferry Terminal in Bintan, the hotel staffs waited for our arrival and directed us to the coach that took us to the hotel. We reached the hotel within 15 mins, as we were no rooms to check in until 2.30pm, we had our lunch at *Dino Cafe* which serve some nice western food and light snacks.

Thereafter, we took a walk around the hotel, a nice swimming pool near to the beach.
We went into a small souvenir shop, which has the name of another indonesia island near Borneo, called Wakatobi, the staff is very friendly and helpful. He introduce us to a spa and massage place called Aroma Day Spa. ( Which I found somewhere on the travel guide that is recommended to go) As the souvenir shop is able to make reservation for pick up to the spa, We make a arrangement for transport to pick us up at 4pm.

We managed to check in about 2pm, rested in the hotel room ,until about 4pm, went to the souvenir shop, and the driver was there waited for us. We took the car with another two passenger, who were going to the spa too!

When we reached Aroma Day Spa, we were delighted to be welcome with nice reception and tea. As there are a good range of massage and package. We decided to go for the Traditional Javanese massage for 75 min S$58. We were lead to a nice decorated room, with soothing Indonesian music, got changed and enjoyed a great massage.

A nice recommended spa at Aroma Day Spa
visit http://www.mutiarabintan.com/

The hotel room was nice, spacious and clean too!
Definitely recommended for Family & Friends.
I also realised that almost everywhere, they have Polo Ralph Lauren Shop!
Overall, it`s really a nice trip, convenient, relaxing and comfortable.
It will be nice for a 3D2N stay as well.

Got to see nice eagle and owl in the cage.

Interesting green Cicada found near to our hotel room

Tips: At Bintan, I realised that most of the time that the prices were stated in Singapore dollars, in the hotel, spa and also at Pasar Oleh Oleh. Therefore you can bring most of your cash in Singapore dollars and change less amount in Rupiah, unless you are going to Tanjung Pinang, where there are more local shops that you can make good use of the rupiahs.

For Beer lovers, Bintang beer were sold for 1 can for S$2 or 3 cans for S$5 at the supermarkets or provision stores.

Getting to Koh Lanta

2008-03-29T22:02:00.018+08:00

Just an update that Tiger Airway no longer fly to Krabi direct. Probably the next best destination is to land on Phuket and take a ferry to Krabi. (For the budge travellers).

Sharing my experience about getting to the beautiful island of Koh Lanta!

The best way to get to Koh Lanta will be taking a direct flight from Singapore to Krabi. The budget way will be via Tiger Airways, else you can take Thai Airway.
The Krabi Airport is nice and simple. I experienced it when I was taking my flight back to Singapore. I took a longer route on getting to Koh Lanta, when I was visiting few years back. I took a Ferry from Phuket which will pass by Phi Phi Island. If you are keen to visit more islands, one suggestion on travelling from Phuket will be a nice alternative.
Click to enlarge the route map.
Useful Information & Tips on getting to Koh Lanta & out to other nice places from Koh Lanta.
Available on this link:
http://www.kolanta.net/getting-here.html

Upon reaching the beautiful island of Koh Lanta, there are many nice beaches to choose from.
Good Information on the beaches
Click on this link:
http://www.lantainfo.com/Beaches.htm
Click to enlarge the map of Koh Lanta
I stayed at Golden Bay Cottage, which I do recommend and will stay again.
It is along Klong Dao Beach which is not too far away from the town, where you can have tasty dinner at cheap prices.
Check out the website and email to the owner for good rates.
http://goldenbaylanta.com/index.htm
If you book early, do request the owner to give you the room close to the beach.
The beach is long & quiet, especially suitable for swiming and sunbathing.

Enjoy your trip to Koh Lanta!

Click on this link to view some nice photos from Phuket & Koh Lanta
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/555476619ydZQSR?vhost=outdoors

Tune Hotel by AirAsia

2008-03-21T17:58:00.004+08:00

I was looking for good budget accomodation for my trip to Sabah and Sarawak in July/Aug 08 . So the best solution will be checking on HostelWorld.com.
I chanced upon a new hotel called 'Tune Hotel' by AirAsia.
http://www.tunehotels.com
which I will consider staying when I`m travelling to Kota Kinabalu.

Check out the Room*
http://www.tunehotels.com/yourRoom.asp
No frills concept with great King Koil Mattress (Fantastic)!

Tune Hotel at Kuala Lumpur & Kota Kinabalu are available for booking now!
With good low prices.
So if you are considering to take a transit to the various islands in Malaysia.
You can always consider sleeping over at Tune Hotel!

Pengerang

2008-03-21T17:24:00.007+08:00

I was at the Changi Ferry Terminal few months back,
I noticed a destination called Pengerang, which I was not familiar.
So I got on to the internet to find out what the location is all about.

Interestingly, I found this really helpful and nice website,
which provides good information about the location and about accomodation,bike rental and more importantly the beautiful exploration of
Nature environment at a kampung like town in Malaysia,which is further up from Desaru.
Check out:
http://pengerang-johor.blogspot.com/

It`s popular with avid cyclists, seafood lovers, sunset gazers and 2 Day 1 Night people.
So surely, I will consider to visit this interesting place!

Flying to Sabah & Sarawak in July 2008

2007-12-23T20:10:00.001+08:00

Managed to catch a fantastic deal on www.airasia.com
Therefore I will be flying to Sabah & Sarawak with just about S$250(including taxes)
Will most likely book my accomodation via hostelworld.com for my two weeks stay( 1 week in Kuching then fly to Kota Kinabalu for another week!)
Will be excited to see Orang Utans,Proboscis Monkey,hormbills and even turtle laying eggs and many more...
These two location are well-known for various interesting and enriching National Parks.

http://www.sabahparks.org.my/pages/index2.html
http://www.forestry.sarawak.gov.my/forweb/homepage.htm

My Travel Map

2007-12-15T01:11:00.001+08:00

View my profile

Visit TripAdvisor.com

Returned from Pangkor trip

2007-11-09T17:39:00.002+08:00

Here's an update of my experience to Pangkor Island.

Summary:
I took a night train (RM43) from Johore to Kuala Lumpur.
From Kuala Lumpur, I bought a coach ticket (RM 18) to Lumut.
From Lumut, I took a Ferry (RM 10 for a return ticket) to the Island of Pangkor!

I stayed at Havana Beach Resort (Teluk Nipah).
RM 110 per night including breakfast via www.Wotif.com.

Pros: They served nice breakfast, the room was quite spacious, a 21 inch TV and it was situated near the beach.
Cons: Toilet flush was not working very well, need to flush a few time to make it work.
No remote control for the TV.
Overall personal rating: 3 /5

Pictures around the beach at Nipah and Coral Beach.

I would say the beach is really good and suitable for swimming!

There are two island nearby the beach, Giam Island and Mentagor Island.

Giam Island

Giam Island, popular for snorkelling.

Mentagor Island.

Got to see many Pied Hornbills!

Hornbill on video

On my way back to Singapore.
I took a 12 pm coach from Lumut to Kuala Lumpur (RM18.70) and took an evening coach from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore (RM 30) > 5 hrs.

Review:
Teluk Nipah is known for one of the best beach on the island, which is good for swimming.
Rating:
3 / 5

Take a Trip to Perhentian Island via the steady train

2007-10-28T16:42:00.003+08:00

My personal favorite way of getting to this beautiful island!
Instead of taking the usual direct coach from Singapore to Kuala Terengganu.
Here's an alternative, it will take a longer time but its more comfortable to sleep on the train with easy access to toilet, food are available on the train when you are hungry.

Firstly, I will make a booking to take an overnight train from Singapore or Johore to Kuala Lumpur (KL) (Sleeping berth, of course), journey time will take from 10 or 11pm - 7am.
Note: You will enjoy to pay cheaper when travelling from Johore.

Secondly, I will place a booking for KL to Tanah Merah train station, which leave from KL at about 8.30pm, so I will have about a day to enjoy KL food and do a bit of shopping if needed.
I will reach Tanah Merah train station about 9am.

Book your train ticket online:
http://www.ktmb.com.my/

From Tanah Merah train Station, take a taxi to Kuala Besut Jetty. Approximately 45 minutes. Charges by taxi /car from Tanah Merah to Kuala Besut -> Expect to pay between RM45 - 50 per taxi

From Kuala Betsut. Buy your fast boat tickets to Perhentian Island at the jetty

Kuala Besut to Perhentian Island Boat Service
Kuala Besut to Perhentian Island
Fast Boat	Journey:	Approximately 30 mins
	Rate:	RM60.00/person/adult RM30/person/child

I personally prefers to stay at Perhentian Besar, which is quieter and has a splendid long beach with beautiful view of sunset. With nice coral and colourful fishes not far away from the shore.

I've stayed at Abdul Chalet as recommended on Lonely Planet.
And yes, I will stay there again on my future trips.
It's reasonably price, nice, simple and clean.

Information about Abdul Chalet
http://www.perhentianisland.info/abdul.php

Taking a trip back to Singapore
Book your night train from Tanah Merah Station leaving at about 9pm, you will reach Singapore at about 10am the next morning.

Have a nice time on this beautiful island!
Perhentian Island (Pulau Besar)

Planning Pangkor trip

2007-10-26T01:49:00.000+08:00

Hello, Im planning my trip to Pangkor in Nov 2007.
after going through looking at all the various accommodation
I took up Havana Beach Resort in Pangkor Island's Teluk Nipah via
www.wotif.com

I`ve bought my train ticket to KL too!