The fourth day of our Malaysia vacation, we woke up bright and early to view the sunrise and capture some wonderful sunrise images. Although we have been staying at one of the more renown Malaysia beach resort, we have not had the opportunity to enjoy the beach nor the pool yet. We shall be sure to change that today. We were also delighted by the sight of the mini saltwater crabs and their crab artwork.
Heading towards the beach and the South China Sea, it proved to be a very windy morning. It was beautiful watching the sunrise and making its appearance in this part of the world. Such a lovely experience though it was slightly cloudy and the sun appeared ‘covered’ in many of the pictures and images that we managed to snap.
Sunrise images
Sun peeping through the clouds
We also saw hundreds and thousands of mini crabs. These
saltwater sand crabs were everywhere on the beach. You can see some of the crab artwork as well.
Lots of mini saltwater crabs running all over as well...
Can you spot one of the mini crabs?
Crab artwork... :)
Balls of sand making up the crab artwork
Close up look of the saltwater crab making the balls of sand
The Legend Resort, Cherating - view of the Malaysia beach resort where we stayed. The patch of green in the foreground is the lovely pink beach flower plant as you can see below...
Here is a beautiful pink beach flower. Lovely...
Beach flower
Beach flower plant
Breakfast was a simple meal of more Chinese New Year home baked goodies that we had brought along on this Chinese New Year holiday vacation. On the menu for breakfast today were prawn rolls and almond crisps.
Home baked Chinese New Year goodies
Spending a lazy day by the beach and the pool, we made full use of the beach chairs, the pool and the beach. The waves from the South China Sea were very strong and many people were happily enjoying and playing with the waves even though there was a warning sign there which we did not see initially.
Danger sign...
Volleyball by the beach
Fun in the pool
Playing in the waves
Playground by the pool
Having a swim
Batik painting
Lunch was light and simple. We had the canned sambal ikan bilis (chilli anhovies) that we had bought when we went shopping on our first day here in Cherating Kuantan. It was niche and spicy, great value for RM2.20 (USD0.65)
Chilli Anchovy
Afternoon saw us moving out of our resort and into Kemaman town.
Along the way, we turned into the road towards Pantai Teluk Mak Nik (D'Monica Bay) and stopped by Warung Otak Otak Che Wan, the first shop on the left.
D'Monica Bay
Over here, we tried more local Malaysian food including the local East Coast specialities such as satar (fish wrapped in coconut leaves), otak otak (traditional fish cake wrapped in banana leaf), pulut panggang (grilled glutinous rice in banana leaf) and kerupuk lekor (fish crackers).
Somehow they all tasted good though the kerupuk lekur was a little oily.
Total cost including an ice kacang (dessert of ice shavings) and an orange juice cost Rm15 (USD4.55).
Grilling the satar
Satar - ready to eat
Yum yum... Satar
Otak otak
Otak otak - traditional spicy fish cake
Pulut panggang being grilled
Pulut panggang - glutinous rice
Kerupuk lekur
Ice kachang or ABC (air batu campur - mixed ice shavings)
Traditional Malaysian foodstuff
We then headed to The Store with the aid of our Garmin global positioning system for some shopping in Cherating before leaving for Rompin beach resort tomorrow.
The Store is another Malaysian supermarket cum department store chain.
However, this shopping complex is very run down and looks pretty old.
The Store - shopping
After The Store which is in Kemaman Chukai area, we headed to the Kemaman night market which is open only on Mondays and Thursdays. Over here, we took the opportunity to check out the Malaysian food and packed some food back to our resort accommodation for dinner.
Kemaman night market
Kerupuk lekur
Assorted kuih kuih
Our dinner for the day included Apam Balik (Malaysian peanut pancake) and Akok (mini wrinkled cake with duck egg, coconut milk and sugar) both of which cost 3 for RM1 (USD0.30), Putu Piring (steamed rice flour cake with brown sugar filling and served with grated coconut and brown sugar) where 3 pieces cost RM2 (USD0.60), Nasi Kerabu (Assorted Vegetable Rice) and Nasi Dagang (Malaysian dish consisting of rice steamed in coconut milk) @ RM1.50 (USD0.45).
Apam balik
Making of Akok
Akok - very delicious... yummy yummy
Putu piring
Stall selling nasi kerabu and nasi dagang - long queue
Operating from the back of a van
Most of there are indigenous to the Malaysian East Coast area and this is the first time we came across some of them. We were to discover that the Nasi Kerabu was made of white or blue (coloured) rice served with beansprouts, cabbage, long beans, coconut and chilli. As for the Nasi Dagang, it was served with tuna fish and gulai (watery curry).
Nasi dagang
Nasi kerabu
Excitedly we made our way back to The Legend Resort, Cherating.
Along the way, we ate the akok and found it to be delicious.
It was soft and spongy, not too sweet.
It was such a pity that we did not try it earlier or we would have gone back and bought much more.
The apam balik had some sugar and sweet corn in the centre and was no longer crispy. The putu was not too bad with its gula melaka (palm sugar) filling. Both the nasi kerabu and nasi dagang were nice and spicy and made a nice and simple, yet great tasting, meal.
Putu piring
Akok
Apam balik
Holiday Travel Tips:-
If you are heading to Cherating, a popular beach tourist attraction, there are 3 main beaches – Chempedak, Chendor and Balok. 40 km away from Kuantan, the state capital of Pahang, this is good place to enjoy the sun, sand and sea in a laid back environment away from city life. The beautiful white sandy beaches, with sand so fine, allows you to enjoy the kampung style atmosphere as well as take part in water sports such as surfing, jets, water ski, catamaran sailing and many others.
We had a great and wonderful time today trying out the various Malaysian food especially those indigenous with the Cherating Kuantan area. Coupled with our Malaysia shopping at Cherating as well as Kuantan, this has made a memorable Malaysia vacation for us. Even the resort accommodation we stayed at, The Legend Resort, was a good place to relax although the beach along this stretch is not safe for swimming.
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