Weekend in Kuantan and Visit to Cherating

We spent a fantastic couple days with Jerad and his lovely wife Jamie (both co-workers of Van's) in Kuantan on the eastern coast of Malaysia. We were surprised that in just 2.5 hours you can be on the beach. It was great to have fellow adventurers with us and it made it all the more fun. I found some reasonable accommodations at the Swiss Garden Hotel. It was about ten years old, but maintained reasonably well. As soon as we checked in, we hit the pool with our cooler of fixings for Whiskey Sours. The heck with lunch, we were just thirsty, and the water felt great. After several hours of sun (which was way too much for those who work and can't lay-out every day like others can) we took a drive to Cherating to check out some of the hotels that were on the website. We drove in and got a tour of Club Med. I can't believe we live 2.5 hours from a Club Med. Amazing! The coolest thing about Club Med was they have a full size trapeze and bungee trampolines that you can get instructions on. It looked like some really fun activities for the whole family. You can see the bungee trampoline pictured below. We found out that they will allow you to come and enjoy the facilities without staying there overnight for about $200 per day. We might just do that sometime for fun.

Here is the pool at our hotel. It wasn't quite the Club Med, but it was much more reasonable. We had balconies overlooking the pool and you could see specks of the ocean/beach through the trees.

When we went into Kauntan on Sunday, Van and I spotted this "interestingly" named restaurant and all of us laughed really hard. We will spend the rest of our time in Malaysia looking for a sister restaurant named "Fook Mee."

We also walked along the Kuantan River walk watching the fishermen. We were wondering what the catch was and it seemed to be catfish. Below is a fine specimen that was still moving as it was weighed on the scale. It was interesting to watch. A man on a scooter rode back and forth picking up and weighing people's catches to sell later we assumed. It seemed that each fisherman had a number on their rod that told them who to credit for the catch. It was all very interesting. I wished I had a pole. Fishing is always fun for me.

On Sunday I woke up early and got a photo of the sunrise. It wasn't that spectacular, but it's the first time I've been on the right side of the peninsula or island to actually see the sunrise.

Van, Jerad and Jamie at dinner. We were absolutely starving. Unfortunately, the dinner was not that good. They had a large group that was having a buffet and we think the cooks were distracted getting ready for that event and didn't do as good of a job with our meals. Sunscreen is a must here, but even with slathering it on, these three look a little pink to me.
On our way back from Cherating, this beauty of a storm system moved in. Surprisingly enough, it didn't actually rain until later that night, but it "really" rained hard. It was running off the roof like a waterfall and didn't let up for hours.

On the way home when we were just about to Kuala Lumpur, the clouds opened up and the rain fell so hard that the wipers couldn't keep up. The traffic was bad and every time a bus passed in the oncoming lane we couldn't see because of the wall of water that splashed over the guardrail. We had a near fender bender when the car in front of us slammed on his breaks, but Van's defensive driving kept us safe. Way to go, Van!

Yes, it is monsoon season in Malaysia and it rains hard. The best thing is, it doesn't rain hard all day. We still manage to have some sunshine most days and some days are overcast, but it isn't continuous yet. Locals say it has changed so much from what it used to be that no one can predict how it will be.