The Chinese New Year provided a great opportunity to head to the east coast of Malaysia for a relaxing get-a-way. I chose Kuantan because Google Maps led me to believe it is closest city that we could drive to that has both a beach and a reputable hotel. The estimated travel time was 5 1/2 hours so we guessed it would be closer to 8 with traffic and inadequate roads. We prepared ourselves with good-luck mandarin oranges, a read aloud book, prayers for safety, and lots of patience.
I should mention that Eric and I are getting a lot more comfortable driving here in Malaysia. We've figured out that the maximum time behind the wheel either of us can handle before we change drivers is two hours. The roads are extremely rough, the shoulders are narrow, and the drivers consider a distance between cars of 18 inches more than sufficient to make snap decisions at 110 km/hour.(70 mph). When Eric drives we do better if I read a book out loud so I'm not constantly gripping the door handle or slamming on my imaginary brake as he makes two lanes into three and makes sure nobody can cut him off. When I drive, Eric takes a nap and I take the slow lane rigidly adhering to the one-car-length-for-every-10-miles-per-hour-of-speed (as prescribed in the Colorado Driver's Training Manual I used to pass my first writing exam) distance between me and the vehicle in front. As you can imagine, I always have to keep adjusting my distance because lots of cars see the empty space in front, pull in light a cigarette, roll down the window, throw the empty pack outside, and blow gentle smoke rings of contentment as we lollygag in the slow lane no longer able to garner enough speed to reenter the race track.
But I digress..back to Kuantan...We arrived just under our estimated drive time of 8 hours and in time to walk along the clean, fine sand beach, stroll along a jungle path among monkeys enjoying their 5 star dinner from happy tourists, and sip several adult beverages at a cute sea-side bar built in the ruins of a Vietnamese refugee sampan. We enjoyed a delicious rib-eye steak and beef lasagna (my first here in Malaysia) at La Casa, a cute, bustling newer Mediterranean restaurant near our hotel.
We awoke early, grabbed a coffee and a muffin and biked north about 40 km along the South China Sea to Cherating. We found a Malaysian hotel/restaurant located on the beach and ordered some local specialties: char kway teow which is similar to Phad Thai, and Tom Yam Soup but with more Malay flavor rather than Thai/lemongrass spice. There was even a cute tiger-stripped cat who thoroughly enjoyed the heads of our shrimp. We had a little difficulty with language here. I ordered a fresh orange juice and Eric ordered a fresh orange and mango juice. He got two glasses of juice - one orange and one mango - not mixed.
In our typical vacation style we squeezed as much as we would into the remainder of the afternoon: a swim, a trip to the spa, a game of tennis (6 - 0 me!), and a bike ride back to the same restaurant - it was THAT good.
After a good night's sleep, and an Egg McMuffin (yes, we've gotten a little tired of the hotel buffets of fish porridge, spicy fish rice, spicy fish noodles) and a coffee, we biked about 20 km south along the same sea. We even found some tiny kampung (village) roads through the thick jungle vegetation to shelter us from the blazing sun.
Our drive home was uneventful and even a little quicker because the holiday actually doesn't end until tomorrow afternoon. Gong Xi Fa Cai!
I should mention that Eric and I are getting a lot more comfortable driving here in Malaysia. We've figured out that the maximum time behind the wheel either of us can handle before we change drivers is two hours. The roads are extremely rough, the shoulders are narrow, and the drivers consider a distance between cars of 18 inches more than sufficient to make snap decisions at 110 km/hour.(70 mph). When Eric drives we do better if I read a book out loud so I'm not constantly gripping the door handle or slamming on my imaginary brake as he makes two lanes into three and makes sure nobody can cut him off. When I drive, Eric takes a nap and I take the slow lane rigidly adhering to the one-car-length-for-every-10-miles-per-hour-of-speed (as prescribed in the Colorado Driver's Training Manual I used to pass my first writing exam) distance between me and the vehicle in front. As you can imagine, I always have to keep adjusting my distance because lots of cars see the empty space in front, pull in light a cigarette, roll down the window, throw the empty pack outside, and blow gentle smoke rings of contentment as we lollygag in the slow lane no longer able to garner enough speed to reenter the race track.
But I digress..back to Kuantan...We arrived just under our estimated drive time of 8 hours and in time to walk along the clean, fine sand beach, stroll along a jungle path among monkeys enjoying their 5 star dinner from happy tourists, and sip several adult beverages at a cute sea-side bar built in the ruins of a Vietnamese refugee sampan. We enjoyed a delicious rib-eye steak and beef lasagna (my first here in Malaysia) at La Casa, a cute, bustling newer Mediterranean restaurant near our hotel.
We awoke early, grabbed a coffee and a muffin and biked north about 40 km along the South China Sea to Cherating. We found a Malaysian hotel/restaurant located on the beach and ordered some local specialties: char kway teow which is similar to Phad Thai, and Tom Yam Soup but with more Malay flavor rather than Thai/lemongrass spice. There was even a cute tiger-stripped cat who thoroughly enjoyed the heads of our shrimp. We had a little difficulty with language here. I ordered a fresh orange juice and Eric ordered a fresh orange and mango juice. He got two glasses of juice - one orange and one mango - not mixed.In our typical vacation style we squeezed as much as we would into the remainder of the afternoon: a swim, a trip to the spa, a game of tennis (6 - 0 me!), and a bike ride back to the same restaurant - it was THAT good.
Our drive home was uneventful and even a little quicker because the holiday actually doesn't end until tomorrow afternoon. Gong Xi Fa Cai!
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