Coastal Road Exploration - Part 3

Pak Long took us to one of the famous Thai Restaurant in Kuantan, Sara Thai Kitchen @ Wan Seafood & Tomyan located at Jalan Gambut, Kuantan. The food was good and the price was reasonable. The food is different than what you can find in the ordinary tomyam stalls and they don't serve anything beef which I find a bit weird....Thanks to Pak Long for taking up the bill.

After we had a nice, hot and spicy lunch in Kuantan, we continued our journey east towards Pekan, 50 km away, the royal town of Pahang and of course our PM's homewtown. We drove through Tg Lumpur and that route would get you reconnected to the main Kuantan - Pekan road (or shall I call it highway now?). Again, it was a hot day and we took a nice slow drive enjoying the view of the nice beaches after Tg Lumpur. Once we got onto the main highway, we were amazed by the development that has taken place on the road itself. Dual carriageway all the way to Pekan, nice tarmac and the best part is that the whole road is lighted with fancy street light pole built every 100m (or less)!!! I was personally amazed on how the government could spend so much of the people's money to do this kind of development. Is it because the PM's kampong is in Pekan? Whatever the reason may be, it was hard for me to comprehend and understand the facts and reasons behind it.

We arrived Pekan at around 3:30pm at stopped at Pak Long's house at Kg Mengkasar. We freshened up, shower and toilet, had nice tea with Puding Di Raja ("PDR") while Pak Su enjoyed a few rounds of bicycle ride (probably he missed that when he was in KL, always ride bicycle at home). Pak Long had also done some improvements to his house due to his booming PDR business. At about 5pm, we left Pekan and said goodbye to Pak Long's family and continued our journey south of Pekan towards Mersing, 145 km away. Passing through Pekan town, we could also see the town was vibrant with new developments. Some places are lucky to get huge development allocation from the government!



We left Pekan and sped off southwards. The late evening travel (almost dusk), brought us through beautiful and peaceful beaches and kampongs, and the road from Pekan to Mersing is simply superb - flat, straight, good surface and not many cars. We came across different ecosystems (mangrove and swamp) and different cultures and lifestyles. At one place between Pekan and Nenasi, we were surprised to see rows and rows of jeruk buah being sold by the road side. Of course Ibu would not miss the chance to grab some.




We later reached and passed by Nenasi dan Kuala Rompin which are nice, beautiful and peaceful small towns by the sea on the east coast. We didn't stop as it was getting dark and we didn't want to travel at night at unfamiliar places. The passengers were all relaxing after a tiring day and nobody complaint and everyone was still n good health and spirit.


Approaching Mersing, we came across different land formation with more hills and winding roads but still good quality tracks. At about Maghrib, we were 10km away from Mersing and the GPS said we got to turn left into a small road towards our next destination, Sri Mersing Resort at Pantai Air Papan. Luckily Ibu bought her new Samsung Tab along and it helps us with the directions. We were a bit skeptical about this area and was not 100% sure of wanting to stay there, but we continued to drive on since we needed to stop and rest for the night.

We drove into the small road into kampong and it was dark (no street lights) looking for the resort. We got lost somewhat before we came to Fishing Bay Resort (famous with Singaporeans). Although the review was good in the Tripadvisor, the place was too quiet and eerie and we were a bit scared that we decided not to ask further. We continued our search and finally arrived at the Sri Mersing Resort, just a basic resort but it was good enough, right by the beach and has a swimming pool.

We checked in at one of the chalet with two rooms, rest and took shower before we decided to explore Mersing town for dinner. We had nasi lemak for the night after which we drove back to the resort and went to bed. Pak Su was a bit scared to sleep alone in his bed so he ended up sleeping on the floor beside my bed. As long as hes happy, I'm happy and so is everyone else.
I did some reading (will write postings on these books later) before bed just to cool down and relax.

It was a very long day and we badly needed the rest as our journey will continue tomorrow.