Marang - KT - Sutera Beach Resort
I was worried of sleeping on the spring bed last night as it could spoil my entire holidays. Alhamdulillah I woke up fine in the morning. The only ‘problem’ was sleep kept being disrupted by Baqir and Fatah who wanted to use the bathroom. They were sleeping on the beach, initially in a tent, but later under the open sky. Obviously for safety reason I had to lock the door and I kept unlocking it for them at odd hours.. Why didn’t they just use the big ocean? Later they told me they were afraid of ‘kena tarik”. J).
Up early I came out of the chalet and stared out at the sea and one obvious thing that I saw was a big chunk of earth out at sea. Immediately I knew that the line of lights that I thought to be small fishing boats the night before was actually the Kapas Island. How could I have missed that? With the beach in front of me I could not resisted walking on the beach straight away. I tried to do end to end but only managed one third of it and returned to the chalet. Everyone except for Baqir, who was still sleeping happily on the sand, was up already. The water was calm with hardly any wave that prompted me to take a swim. Soon I was joined by Fatah and eventually others. Up on dry land my wife was already busy cooking breakfast. I thought I was going to Cendering to ‘tapau’ the famous Mak Ngah’s nasi dagang for some reasons I decided not to and relied on our ration of ‘maggi mees’ for breakfast. I let my family enjoyed the beach a little bit more until I announced that we were checking out at1030. They really were having fun so I let them have their own sweet time. My wife and her niece started to cook lunch for our picnic in KT. We planned to buy few more dishes to supplement what we had cook and have a picnic at Batu Burok beach, so we thought.
Slightly after 1030 we checked out and that was went I found out why the name of the resort is Angullia. The owner is Esa Angullia. As usual before we drove off we had our usual commemorative photo session. Just after we crossed the Marang bridge I turned right at the traffic light as planned. I just wanted to show my extended family the life around Marang’s jetty that could be picturesque if you know what to look for. As usual I took a few shots of the bridge, boats and water. There was a Friday market there and I stopped a while to check it out. It was the usual nothing extra ordinary that I was hoping to encounter. I was very sure my family would not like the taste of the local kueh so my wife settled for a ‘kilo’ of fruits. I drove out of Marang through the other end, again, for the benefit of my family. I saw the line of traffic first and I thought it was just a normal kampong’s accident watching activity. But the line persisted and I feared the worst as it would be really unbearable if the traffic jam was up until KT. My daughter was already complaining about the heat by then and even with the aircon running it was still uncomfortable. As we approached Rusila I knew straight away the reason for the traffic jam. It was Friday and on Friday they have a Pasar Jumaat on both side of the road that forced the traffic to stop or slow down passing it. As I was readied to speed through we received a notification from the other car behind us that somebody’s needed to pass motion badly so we stopped at the next Masjid. It was a long long wait ha ha, must be one nasty motion LOL.
The first itinerary in KT was to stop at Cendering to visit the batik making facility of Nor Arfa Batik. Of course it was not just about batik making that we were interested in J. I only bought a blouse for Mar as nothing else really fancied my eyes. Being Friday the other places were obviously closed to visit and we contented wit Nor Arfa Batik for the moment. We eventually drove into KT with some of the stomachs declaring to be fed immediately. I however did not want to rush it and drove slowly as we approached the town. We started to see the Karnival Terengganu 2006 banners as we neared the traffic light into Batu Burok. Big chunk of the Batu Burok area was closed for the carnival. I checked the time and it was 1230. We stopped to buy few more dishes at the nearby taman selera and proceeded towards the field across to have our picnic. It was so obvious we were the only one doing it. Again with limited choices of food and eating in picnic fashion we finished everything. I proved my point by now and whenever we had the opportunity then on we bought a supply of fish and ad a cook out where possible. Frankly speaking after lunch I did not have a clue as to what to do next. Acting like a true tour leader I just cruised around town and during this cruise that we discovered Kak Ton kedai rambut. Finally we drove back to the Batu Burok beach area to relax there. Just to past the time I bought two kites for Baqir, Kak Cik and Mar to play. The rest, trying to get away from the heat, rendezvous themselves inside the nearby A&W. We didn’t get to enjoy the place too long though as the Batu Burok pasar malam’s operators chased us out of the parking lot that happened to be their business area. I stopped at the Maybank first for Tareq and Intan to withdraw some cash before we had a field day at the Pasar Payang. I think I have been to Pasar Payang for so numerous times already but never once I felt bored or tired about it. If not the sales the people within the area are attraction enough for me to observe. Thinking about it now I should have taken few shots of the happenings. Being a school holidays of course there were several tour and chartered buses on the lay-by waiting. The rest of Malaysia knows that this kind of tour bus trip is called ‘rombongan Kak Kiah. So hundred of Kak Kiahs were shopping their hearts out there. One batik outlet was actually having happy selling anything day right from their pavement. That was how crowded the place was. Wondering around we found a t-shirt shop that we want and started our own buying spree. Our madness for t-shirts was part of our effort to have at least one each for every big cities or states that we have been to. We came out, out of there with at least two each. Around 1630 we left Pasar Payang for Sutera Beach resort and got there around 1720. Along the way I stopped to buy my favourite Batu Rakit’s keropok lekor. That meant another objective achieved. My main reason for staying at Sutera Beach resort was because I got a complementary 3 days 2 nights stay there. With the rest of the entourage I booked another two rooms and did not think much of it. When we checked in and subsequently got into our room we discovered it was not a bad resort. A bit hidden from the main road and with the road frontage looking like a deserted kampong it was really a nice surprise. When I saw the images of the place the first time I already form a view as I knew how those images could be spruced up to look like Hawaii. As I said it was a nice surprise it was not too bad at all. Again the beach was really inviting with the almost wave less ocean. Later the temptation became my agony. I was a bit tired and I didn’t plan to swim and was hoping to doze of a minute of two. But my children were already running out with their cousins in their swimming suits. Getting a bit worried letting them on their own I went out to check the pool and none of them were there. I knew instantly there were on the beach. with even Mar was in the slightly deeper water then she used to splashing happily. She was braver because the ocean was almost still. I took off my t-shirt and started to swim towards my sons. Halfway, I felt my left hand touched something that I thought what it would be so I immediately looked down on my left and confirmed it was a jelly fish. Immediately the stinging pain came and the area of my arm turned reddish. I immediately announced my predicament to my children and instinctively all of them followed me out of the water. I walked straight to the front desk looking for any form of medication. They have none for jelly fish and suggested a traditional treatment using vinegar and limestone. Duly the front desk called their F&B guy to prepare the concoction for me. Nevertheless he advised me, and it was my intention, to see a doctor and told me where to go. It was not that painful but still stinging as I applied the traditional concoction. I drove out with my wife trying to find the nearest clinic. The first two were either closed or the doctor was not in until later. We drove on a bit further and ended up with the young doctor at Balqis Clinic. Thank goodness the effect was only local and the good doctor prescribed me a cream and pain killers if the pain persisted. The incident actually almost spoilt the whole holiday for me and I thought that was the worst. On the way back from the clinic we stopped to buy some food as we decided to ‘tapau’ and eat inside. The rest of the planned activities for the night did not materialize. However, close to midnight I went out to the open air lounge to enjoy the music with my wife. Along saw us and joined us at the table. Just at normal night at Sutera Beach Resort.
