Spinning: Moondance - Michael Buble

Fantastic news! My Literature test this Thursday has been 'put off' and that essentially means that I am free to do what I want for the next hour or so. Yes, I am easily contented with such little free time nowadays.

I decided to upload my Kuantan photos; but because I am waiting for the more 'people' photos (i.e. those with humans in them) from the genuine camwhores (read: Mabel), I decided to separate my log into 2 parts - one with more landscape photos (this one) and one showing the absolutely moronic side of those from 35/05. As usual, click on the photos to view a bigger version.

Geographers from TJ went to Kuantan (that's East M'sia for those who have no idea) from the 28th of April to the 1st of May. I've been to Malaysia quite a number of times; but always it was to the capital city (Kuala Lumpur), or to my mum's hometown (Muar). I never found these 2 places particularly exciting actually; because one was too much like Singapore, and the other was quite... er, boring. Just a little bit of background info: Kuantan's not a state; it's the capital city of Pahang. Yeah I know Singaporeans will be stumped - our country is too small to have 'state capital cities', you see. Kuantan's more rural, and sitting on the coach that we chartered, it wasn't uncommon to see plantations of all sorts sprawled over the rolling hills we drove past. The scenery, I tell you, is breathtaking.

The sky is always different in another country.

Before going to Kuantan though we did stop by at Perling - a small little town with weird little restaurants. Ok; weird is not the word. Quaint is a better choice. We wound up eating pratas there - the Egg pratas are GASTRONOMIC ADVENTURES in themselves! Top it up with teh tahrik and this is what you get:

Cheesy Yokey! No, honestly, egg pratas in Perling were really delish! And yah I lied, there IS a human in this photolog.

Part of Kuantan's charm is that it doesn't have too many high-rise buildings. In fact I didn't spot any in my time there until I reached a certain shopping centre. We did go into one of those HUGE plantations; in fact we went into the largest in the region: Tekam Plantation.

One of those banana tree (?) mothers with a baby banana tree at its own foot.

Our first stop was the Moonlight Cave; of which was filled with bats and Guano (bat dung). It was my first time going into a cave; and this one was pretty small compared to the one we'd scaled the following day. So if you ask me what it's like... a cave is like what everyone imagines it to be lah. Dark, dank, and smelly. BUT, I'm not complaining; because the feeling you get when you step into a cave is SURREAL. Absolutely surreal. It's like you're cut off from the rest of humanity (besides the 34 other homosapiens with me), and there is a kind of excitement in the claustrophobia of it all. Thrilling. And this was just the smaller version of the cave we were about to scale. No pic yet, unfortunately, because my camera didn't managed to capture A THING inside the cave. It's that dark. Wait for those from Ivan though, his Sony Cybershot was kind to him.

After the caves, we proceeded to retire for the night at Jerantut Hill Resort. Log cabin lodges. They had a more rustic feel compared to conventional resorts; and plenty of bugs. I was tired enough to sleep really well regardless.

Log Cabins at Jerantut - Neighbour #1 was Cang Yin. Neighbour #2 was Lizardman.

And so after that night; we proceeded to scale one monster of a Limestone cave. Charas Caves aka Panching Caves. Apparently a religious site. I think it was about 200m tall.

Taken from a moving bus. Couldn't get a good view :(

I thought going into a cave couldn't get more surreal than what I experienced in Moonlight Cave. Boy oh boy how wrong I was. If Moonlight Cave was Godzilla, Charas is like, the Matriarch of Godzilla! The climb up was quite a challenge though (and I know some experienced scouts would scoff at this but please lah; I take the stairs, I don't climb rocks to get up to the 2nd floor at home).

Say Hi to Zhu Hui!

Amazingly, Mr E. managed to scamper up the rocks with ease. Scooted off at least 10m ahead of those scrambling up the rocks - and we were at least 30 odd years younger than he was. Crazy old coot. The climb, however, was worth it. Magnificent view! Again, I had that deja vu feeling of being detached from humanity. There I was, stuck in the middle of the Charas Caves at an altitude of 200m above sea level. At that moment, it was 'talk to the soles of my feet, all you homework and tests.. and all you scum of the earth!' Very satisfying feeling indeed.

We headed to a visibly swankier Swiss Garden Resort. I liked the beds; they were comfortable enough. The rooms were OK too - but the service really left much to be desired. But because I am a student with no money, I will shut up. The dinners and breakfast there were very satisfying though, and my class spent the nights dai-deeing away/bridging away and slacking/gossiping/eating S$1.50 cakes/drinking mocktails at a lounge there. Mocktail I ordered: Shirley Temple

Shirley Temple is a mix of grenadine and lemonade (I think.) Tasted more like sprite+some other sweet concoction

The 3rd day was totally Sun, Sand and Sea. We went to 2 beaches, Telok Chempedak and Batu Hitam. Here's a view of Telok Chempedak (spoilt by many humans around.)

Just look at those dome-like rocks at the right - not the work of Man, people.

And our next stop: Sungai Pandan + a small waterfall. Upon reaching the Pandan Waterfall, I was appalled at the amount of people there. Mostly huge families with their children sloshing around in the river and annoying Mr E:

It was interesting to see how freely these children played in the river; pity Singapore doesn't have open rivers.

Pandan Waterfall. The first waterfall I'd ever seen in person. Not spectacularly beautiful but still quite a sight.

The day then ended; and I must say the 3rd day was the most tiring one. Totally sapped me of my energy. I still had energy, though, to drag myself to the beach near Swiss Garden Resort at 6.45 a.m. to catch the sunrise. I'd missed it the previous day and I was pretty sore about it - so I'd hoped to catch a nice sunrise. Unfortunately the sky was obscured with dark clouds, depriving me of a beautiful sunrise...

An Unspectacular start of a Sunrise

Of course I wasn't happy, and I was adamant about staying until I saw at least a little bit of that rising ball of fire... and I think I was pretty satisfied by what I saw after waiting for a while more (most of the others had gone back to a buffet breakfast)

It pays to be patient. Not drop dead gorgeous, but definitely charming enough a sight.

Other amazing things I saw included 'the cloud with a silver lining', complete with rays perforating the outline of the surrounding clouds. Why is it we don't see such things in Singapore?

The Cloud with a Silver Lining

And to end the trip, we took a roadtrip to the Beseras Granite Quarry. Looked like some wasteland to me; but nonetheless the granite there was pretty impressive:

Granite, more granite!

And with that, I end Part I of the Kuantan 06 photolog *sans humans except well, 1.* All those camwhores of 35/05, stop hogging those photos and send them to me! :D