Cherating Day One

It's August 14th, and I'm back home in Maryland now. Even though my vacation is over, I still have to finish blogging about the trip. The blog is as much for me as it is for you. Actually, it's probably more for me than for you. I never claimed to be selfless, people.

This blog is from July 31st when I went to the small beach village of Cherating. I took the train from Shah Alam to KL where I got on a bus to Kuantan on the east coast The bus was very comfortable which is a good thing since the trip to Kuantan was four hours. The scenic trip was beautiful, albeit a tad bit frightening. They drive like crazy monkeys in Malaysia and much of the trip was through the mountains. Let's just say the sound of squealing brakes is not a comforting sound when careening around curves which drop off the side of a mountain in a huge bus. Needless to say, we survived, and it was beautiful.

We reached Kuantan, and my tour book told me to take a local bus to the Cherating stop which was another hour away. I knew I had to get to the second floor of the bus station, but I was walking around in circles trying to figure out how to get up there. One of the taxi drivers asked me where I was going. My bus driver from KL heard me say Cherating and said he would drop me off since it was on his route. It was so nice. And free!

The bus stop was on the highway in front of the police station. When I say "highway", it is not. It is one lane in each direction. Anyway, I went into the police station to ask him how to get to Cherating. I made a major faux pas and didn't take my shoes off (woops). Anyway, he pointed behind the police station which was not a road. So I walked through a few people's yards, tripping over chickens, until I stumbled on a dirt path which lead me to a narrow paved road which lead me to a wider road which was the laid-back, quiet beach village of Cherating. Cherating, which is on the South China Sea, is nothing like your typical beach town in the US. It is also one of the less frequented beaches in Malaysia. The water is not crystal clear like it is on the surrounding islands so most tourists opt to go to islands such as Pulau Redang, Pulau Tiomann, and The Perhentians. I personally loved Cherating.

I got a little chalet at Ranting Beach Resort. It was the high end accommodations in Cherating (aside from the Club Med a bit down the road). It was just a room with a bathroom. It had a ceiling fan. It had TV but no cable. (I actually watched Spongebob Squarepants in Malay-I didn't understand a thing.) It was right on the beach with a little porch facing the sea. I would sit on the porch and get the breeze from the sea which was so invigorating. The only drawback was that they were building a chalet right next to mine so I was lulled by the tranquil sounds of hammering, sawing, and drilling instead of birds and waves. After some investigation, it seemed that all of the places on the beach were doing the same thing so quiet would be impossible. This was fine since they worked during the day, and I planned to be exploring the town(all 3 square miles of it) and chilling on the beach. As I said, this was the high end. It cost 100 ringgits which is less than $30. It was awesome. Unfortunately, I didn't get any still photos of the place. I only

filmed it with my camcorder.

I walked all 0.3 miles of the main road and saw many goats and monkeys as well as a cat and dog here and there. I think the SPCA should open a center in Malaysia. They should take all of the stray cats & dogs and spay or neuter them. I think they should hire me to take care of all of them. But I digress. Then I walked backed up the beach and stopped at a beach cafe for a fresh pineapple juice. The owner of the cafe next door, Muda's Cafe, brought me a grasshopper made out of palm tree leaves. It was very cool. They were all very nice, and I promised to come back the next day.

I went to a restaurant on the beach for dinner and had some delicious chicken curry. Just as I was getting back to my chalet, a storm rolled in. I love storms at the beach, and this beach was just sprawling and open so I could see the storm clouds moving closer and closer and the breeze got stronger and stronger. It was lovely. It rained the rest of the night which ended my plans to go turtle watching. I didn't mind though because I was rather tired. I sat on my porch,

listened to the rain, and read. Content, I fell

soundly to sleep by the steady hum of the ceiling fan.