From Terengganu

I don't know how much longer I can stand staying at home, doing nothing and not going out with friends. My hometown is so boring. There isn't a freaking shopping mall to go to, unless you consider Giant and Mydin and The Store as shopping malls (the people here really do, sometimes). MacKy's only opened recently and it's the first ever MacKy's here. I haven't tried it yet. Talking about it, I'm craving for MacKy's fries. (MacKy's stands for McDonald's. Don't ask why the name Macky's) Enough about my self-centred egoistic blah blah blah stuff about myself.

Let me introduce to you KUALA TERENGGANU.

If you don't know where TERENGGANU is, here you go:
It's on the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia (or Malaysia Peninsula?, whatever).
Here's a map with all the fun places to go to in Terengganu.

Don't be shocked or surprised by how many places you can go to in Terengganu. When you actually live here, you feel that you can't be bothered to go to these places. It's like you don't find them interesting at all, somehow it's like the grass is greener on the other side of the river. People here find other places in other parts of Malaysia other than Terengganu much more interesting. Sometimes I'm surprised to find that people want to go to Pulau Redang etc...

Okay now, about Kuala Terengganu, the capital city of Terengganu. And the place where I spent 9 years of my life in.

This is the Chinatown in Kuala Terengganu:
Many of the buildings here are more than 100 years old.

The view of the wet market called Pasar Kedai Payang (from the back end):
The boats can harbor there and fishermen can bring in their fresh catch for sale at the wet market. This is why the locals can always get fresh water products everyday. And I definitely love it. Well, it also depends on how you cook them though. The fish and prawns and everything are fresh but the local cooks or chefs suck, so in the end everything sucks. HAhaha...

One of the palaces of the Sultan. It's near the market, amazingly. Hahah.
It looks very British.



This is Batu Buruk beach. I'd been there many times before I left Kuala Terengganu. I think there had been many developments going on there since I left and I haven't been there once I'm back. My sister says that it's rather nice there. Hannyee you can get sun tanned there, but I've got many other better places for you. Lol. Just read on. (what a lame attempt to get anyone to continue reading this somewhat boring-i'm-blogging-coz'-it's-so-freaking-boring-here post).

Oh by the way, the beach where turtles lay eggs is not this Batu Buruk beach, it's called RANTAU ABANG. I went there when I was about seven and I didn't manage to watch a turtle laying eggs because you have to be awake or wake up at 2 something in the morning to wait until you can see a turtle, and I couldn't wake up. You must also hide behind the trees. I guess this (hiding behind trees) will be a problem for some of our fellow bloggers here. HAHAHA. EVIL.

I went there with my family and my dad actually said that he would wake us all up to watch turtles. In the end, none of us managed to wake up and HE ended up being the one who woke up the latest the next morning. pfft.


This is the floating mosque in Kuala Terengganu. There's a park around it and the place is actually quite near to the south of Batu Buruk beach. This mosque was built long time ago. The government recently developed the "Taman Tamadun Islam" near the town centre. I don't know how to translate it into English because I don't know what is TAMADUN. The park consists of more than ten replicas of mosques from around the world, and it is supposed to serve as a tourist's destination, not a place for prayer. lol.

Oh well, this is the centerpiece of the park:

THE CRYSTAL MOSQUE
And I nicked this picture from a professional photographer:
There are many other mosques in this park. My dad said that they (the government?) could have sponsored more than 50 medical students in UK using all the money spent on this park. Hmmm, is this controversial? Okay, my dad didn't say that, somebody else did.

If you're a nature lover, i.e. one of the pseudo-Hannyees, here's Kenyir Lake for you:
There are several resorts there for you to stay. My mom would never let me go there though. She said that it's 'dirty'. Hahaha....I guess that's not true because a lot of my high school friends went there and they had a really fun time.

Next, we have the largest museum in Malaysia, the Kuala Terengganu Museum. Located in Bukit Losong, somewhere near one of the places famous for Keropok Lekor.
And this is keropok lekor, a local delicacy (or shit. Hahaha)
You can have it deep-fried or steamed.

Now we move on to all the arts and crafts that you can see in Terengganu.

Batik

Silk (in the process)

Boat building

Okay, the following section is dedicated to MARCUS!

There are many islands in the waters of Terengganu. Among them are the famous Redang Island, Perhentian Island and the recently-discovered-to-be-nice Lang Tengah Island. There's also Kapas Island etc.

Here's Redang!
I kid you not. The water is seriously crystal clear and the beach is sandy white.
There are many resorts in Redang Island and the packages offered are not expensive.
However, I find Redang Island too commercialized and too crowded.

Next, PERHENTIAN ISLAND. It's less crowded, more private.
I would personally prefer to go to Perhentian Island (partly coz I'd never been there but I'd been to Redang for three times) because it's really good. The water is much cleaner compared to Redang AND the snorkeling experience is much better (this is what I heard from my sister).

Then we have The LANG TENGAH ISLAND. This island has only ONE resort so far and it's kinda lonely. VERY VERY PRIVATE. It's a very small island with very little pollution, which can be caused by tourism.
People usually don't go to Lang Tengah island because it is kind of secluded and lonely. But I tell ya', I bet it's going to be great because not having many people means you can do anything you like without much care.

Okay, that's all from TERENGGANU! Malaysia Truly Asia! Hahaha.
Hey marcus, which island do you want to go to? and How many people?