It’s the children’s school holidays again and Gina planned for this trip to Pulau Redang. We drove from KL to Kuala Terengganu on the 15th March 2010. It was a long drive, lost count of the amount of hours but we basically allocate one day for the journey.
We stayed at Sea View Hotel that night and left for Merang Jetty the next morning. The trip from Kuala Terengganu to Merang took about 45 minutes. We had to take a speed boat from the jetty to Redang. It was a pleasant 30 minutes ride and we ended up at Redangkalong resort where Gina had pre-booked.
This resort was situated at an isolated part of the island. It was the only resort there. As we took the 3 days 2 nights package, the resort arrange snorkeling trips and meals for us. Meals include breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner. I would say we were well taken cared of. Our chalet along the beach was cozy and clean.
The highlights of our vacation were the snorkeling trips. The resort arranged one destination on the first day and another two the following day. On our first, we were taken to a spot and got off the boat to explore the sea. We brought bread along to attract the fishes.
The snorkeling spot on the second day was much better whereby the boat drop us at the beach. The place was called Marine Park. The water was very clear and fishes were visually abundant even near the beach. I had the privilege to see a huge Moray eel swimming at the sea bed that soon disappeared among the beautiful corals.
Gina got to see the head of a giant Garoupa peeping through an underwater cave.
The weather on the east coast is pretty erratic nowadays. The monsoon season use to be from October till January but folks at the island claim that they experience bad weather even in months after January.
Our rides between Redangkalong to the snorkeling spots were quite bumpy leaving us in a state of constant daze. I reluctantly tried taking some sea sick pill but that didn’t help either.
On the second day, we skipped the evening snorkeling trip and took a walk by the beach that lead to a path cutting through the forest ending up on the other side of the island where a string of resorts were situated. Just to name a few from Laguna, Redang Beach and many others located next to each other along that stretch of the beach.
For those who prefer to be around plenty of other tourist, you should book anyone of the resorts along this stretch. There’s lots of entertainment there including live bands.
But Redangkalong is perfect for a “getaway”. The ride back to Merang jetty was unfortunately horrendous.
The sea was extremely rough and we barely made it through. We were so glad to have reached the jetty and just sprawled on the wooden seats to recuperate and gather composure before heading back to KL.
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