Not many know that Cherating can be a great Holiday Destination, it has evolved to a great tourist location and there are many interesting things that can be done there. I had the opportunity to stay at Cherating Holiday Villa Hotels & Resort late last year for a work assignment as they were upgrading their property mangement system. During my 1 month stay, the Hotel GM and also a few colleague managed to take me around Cherating. Below are some of the interesting places.

Cherating Beach

The main reason to come to cherating is the beautiful beach, they are one of the cleanest beach you can find around this area. The cherating beach is quite long, and with the windy weather, it’s quite nice to stroll along the beach. The beach are also popular for Surfers, but this is usually during the Monsoon season (end of the year). The Cherating Holiday Villa was not that full during my stay, so not many hit the beach. There are also activities like Beach Volley ball and beach football that can be organised by the hotel itself. One can also have a picnic along the cherating beach.

Cherating Beach Volley Ball

Batik Paintings

You will realise as you reach the cherating area, just before passing by Holiday Villa Cherating and Legend Hotel, there are a few shops who sell batik printings. The Batiks are done with hand and not machine printed. Batik is one of Malaysia’s unique traditional fabric. One need to go through a series of repeated process of designing, waxing, dyeing, drying and boiling the cloth until you get the finished Batik cloth.  The process is quite delicate, so alot of patience is required but you will be amazed at the outcome. You can also try your skills at the Batik at one of the shops along Cherating Village.

Batik at Cherating

Take A River Trip & Firefly

This is one of the things that you should consider doing when visiting Cherating. Taking the boat trip along Cherating river can be amazing and a great experience, the price is quite affordable too. During this boat trip, one will be able to see many wildlife including monkeys, snakes, lizards, and many sorts of birds.

At night, the river trip is also available, this is when they take you to see the Firefly along Cherating river. The view is spectacular, it only cost RM20 for the 1 hour trip.

Cherating River Boat Trip

Tea at Hai Peng Kemaman

Heading north to Terengganu, you will pass a town called Kemaman. Here at the Hai Peng Kemaman is where you can have a cup of strong coffee brew, with a couple of kaya buns. It is one of the oldest coffee making company in the region. A must go for coffee lovers. I recommend the Vietnamese coffee, warning you may not be able to sleep for 2 or 3 days after it :).

Hai Peng Kemaman

Watch Turtle Hatch

This I did not actually get a change to see it, because it was not the season at that time. You will have to check with the local tourist information for more details. But cherating host one of the turtle sanctuary, a better one would be at Kuala Terengganu area. You will be lucky if there is any turtle at the first place, if you have a car travel on your own, but if yo are lazy to go around inform your hotel they will arrange for you if there is any turtle on that specfic day normally most of the cases tutle watching is only after 12 am.

Cherating Turtle Sanctuary

You will probably need 3 or 4 days at cherating to experience all of the above. Also recommended is their seafood. May not be very cheap, but you surely get fresh seafood there.

Well, on the 3rd day of our Perak & Pahang Roadtrip, we ended up in Genting Highlands. The stay at Awana Resort was not too pleasing, but we managed somehow. We had breakfast at Awana, which was very good indeed. They had quite a variety. After breakfast we took some photographs in our room.

Awana Genting Highlands Breakfast

Awana Genting Highlands

Awana Genting Highlands

We decided to go to the peak of Genting Highlands where all the action is. Instead of driving up, we took the Cable Car, which was much more exciting. Awana Resort gave us 2 free Skyway tikets, so we just had to purchase one more extra, which cost RM5. The journey was fun, and scary at certain point, expecially when the height was kinda high. We took the Awana Skyway back down as well.

Awana Skyway, Genting Highlands

Awana Skyway, Genting Highlands

Awana Skyway, Genting Highlands

Awana Skyway, Genting Highlands

At the top, we visited a Gallery that had all sort of photographs and awards that was obtained by Genting Highlands. An amazing history can be seen there. After that, we headed for lunch with some dim sum at Restaurant Good Friends. We also took some photos at Genting Highlands. I’ve been to Genting so many times, but I did not know it had so many things to do. The last trip we went to the Genting Theme Park. And of course my mum and myself are regulars to the Genting Casino :).

Restaurant Good Friends Genting

Restaurant Good Friends Genting

Restaurant Good Friends Genting

Restaurant Good Friends Genting

Restaurant Good Friends Genting

Genting Highlands

Genting Highlands

Genting Highlands

Genting Highlands

Finally found some time to continue my post on our Perak & Pahang Roadtrip. This one’s gonna be about the famous Berjaya Hills Japanese and French Village. I did not know this place existed until a few weeks back when a friend suggested that we go and check out this place. We were already at Genting Highlands early that morning. After getting some directions form a Taxi driver. We continued heading towards Bukit Tinggi (Or rather heading towards Bentong).

You have to go all the way down to the base of Genting Highlands and head towards Kuantan. Then look out for signs to Bentong. After roughly 15minutes ride, you’ll see the Bukit Tinggi (or sometimes mentioned as Berjaya Hills) sign. We made a mistake earlier by entering the first sign that said Bukit Tinggi, this is probably the old town. Rather you should only turn left when you see the Berjaya Hills sign.

It’s quite a curvy road way up. Not as high as Genting, but the weather up there is slightly cold and humid. We were charged RM10 per person to enter the peak, where the Japanese Village was located. We had to park the car at a parking spot and continue walking up a steep hill. Wow, it was steep indeed.

Climbing to Japanese Garden

Japanese Garden Bukit Tinggi

Japanese Garden Bukit Tinggi

Japanese Garden Bukit Tinggi

Japanese Garden Bukit Tinggi

At the top, the first thing we did was to get some Ice-Cream to cool us down. After that we visited the area where the Tea Ceremony is held. Two of my good friends decided to rent out the Kimono for photography. It was too hot for me so I refused to try on the Samurai and decided to just take photographs.

Japanese Garden Bukit Tinggi

Japanese Garden Bukit Tinggi

Japanese Garden Bukit Tinggi

Japanese Garden Bukit Tinggi

Japanese Garden Bukit Tinggi

Japanese Garden Bukit Tinggi

Japanese Garden Bukit Tinggi

We were here for about an hour. This place closes at 6pm so do plan your trip properly. After the Japanese Garden, we headed towards the French Village. All the hotels, restaurants and so on were in the French Village style. Very old school and ancient building. Also available were fun fair games, a game arcade, a snooker centre and a couple of restaurant. There was a drawbridge that led to a castle look-alike building. Under that was the pool where 2 pair of swan reside. The french village is quite authentic and beautiful. A nice place for photography.

French Village Bukit Tinggi

French Village Bukit Tinggi

French Village Bukit Tinggi

French Village Bukit Tinggi

French Village Bukit Tinggi

French Village Bukit Tinggi

French Village Bukit Tinggi

French Village Bukit Tinggi

French Village Bukit Tinggi

French Village Bukit Tinggi

French Village Bukit Tinggi

French Village Bukit Tinggi

French Village Bukit Tinggi

French Village Bukit Tinggi

French Village Bukit Tinggi

French Village Bukit Tinggi

French Village Bukit Tinggi

French Village Bukit Tinggi

Activities there include Paintballing and Target Shooting. There was also a mention of Go-Carting but we could not locate the track.

On the 2nd day of our Roadtrip to Perak and Pahang, we decided to stay at Genting Highlands (instead of the initial plan of staying at Bukit Tinggi Berjaya Hills Resort).

We managed to reach the peak at around 11.30pm that sunday (11th April 2010). After discussing where would be the best place to stay, went to First World Hotel to try to Walk In. When we got there, all rooms were fully booked. There was some chinese event going on and alot of foreigners were staying at Genting Highlands. After checking with the receptionist, we found out that the only available property was Awana Genting Highlands Golf & Country Resort. The only available room was the Apartment which was going at RM248. We added an extra bed which cost RM60 (This includes breakfast).

Awana Fountain

Awana Mini Waterfall

Awana Entrance

Awana Golf Club

Awana Golf Club

Awana Golf Club

Awana Golf Club

Awana Golf Club

This room was suppose to come with a King size bed, but instead it had 2 single beds put together. When I enquired at the reception as we checked out, the person in charge mentioned that this was how it is done, a king size bed means 2 single beds put together. This is ridiculous, never in the history of English, or even all the hotels I’ve been to, set 2 single beds as a king bed. It’s quite uncomfortable to sleep on with a gap in the middle. Anyway, we accept the fact that that was their way of setting things and carried on.

View from Balcony

Awana King Size Bed

Awana Room

Next problem was when the toilet got stuck, knowing that it was already late, we decided to call the maintenance in the morning to fix it. But when we contacted them in the morning, they started passing the call to a few people. After making that complaint, no one bothered to come into our room to check the blocked toilet.

Awana Toilet

That was not all, the shower started to clog up too. Instead of the water running down the water hole, it started to flood the whole area and leak out to our room. This was really annoying, there was roughly 4 inches of water in the shower, disgusting. We also made complaints about this, but no one attended to it.

Awana Shower Flooded

To top things up, the towel that we got had some pink stains on them. One even had brown stains that I could only guess that it had something to do with shit. Thank god I remembered to bring my own towel that night.

Awana Stained Towel

Awana Stained Towel

Awana Genting Highlands is quite a beautiful place to be. They have a superb golf course, their swimming pools are good, restaurant serves good food. I remember seeing also a Korean and Japanese restaurant. They had multiple banquet and event halls. But with all that, they could even maintain a good apartment room.

Breakfast at Awana

Breakfast at Awana

Breakfast at Awana

Awana Breakfast Per Person

I was quite disappointed when I approached the person at the counter when checking out, he sort of didn’t give a damn what we went through. He was more concerned on who we spoke to on the phone about the complaints regarding the toilet and shower area. I maybe complaining about my stay there, but dont you think that when we pay for something, especially during the peak period, we expect something good in return?

Awana Check Out

Awana Reception

Awana Lift Area

Anyway, I dont think me or any of my friends would be going to Awana Genting Highlands to stay anymore. Probably the next time we would either stay at the peak, or even Hotel Seri Malaysia.

So finally we decided on a roadtrip. Initially planned for  a Singapore trip, but budget wise stopped us. Also we’re trying to cover Malaysia as a tourist attraction.

When we planned this trip, starting on Saturday morning of the 10th April till 12th Night on Monday, absolutely no one believed that we will be able to cover that many locations. But we were confident in making this a reality. I will write one separate blog for each town we visited, this is so that I don’t cramp everything under one post.

Roadtrip: Perak & Pahang

Yesterday The team gathered and we had 1000pcs of photographs per camera. We brought 2 camera’s for that trip. Most of the photos are too blurry and cannot be used. Will be sorting them out tonight and hopefully by tomorrow the posts will be ready.

So what did we do within that 3 days, below is the summary.

Day 1
10am : bah kut teh at Taman Sentosa, Klang
12pm : Was at Sekinchan (Padi Field, Coconut Hut and Seafood Lunch)
6pm : Arrived at Kellie’s Castle, Batu Gajah
7pm : Sam Poh Tong Buddist Temple, Limestone Cave both located in Ipoh
8pm : Dinner at the town of Ipoh
9.30pm : Night Safari, Taiping
1.30am : Arrive at Sitiawan to sleep

Day 2
8am : Wake up time
10am : All ready and out for Breakfast
12pm : Arrive at Segari (Turtle Santuary)
2pm : Arrive at Lumut
3pm : Took Ferry to Pangkor Island
3.30pm : Arrive at Pangkor Island and took the 2 hour Tour
6pm : Journey back to Lumut
6.30pm : Arrive Lumut
8pm: Teluk Intan (Leaning Tower)
11.30pm: Arrive at Genting Highlands

Day 3
7.30am : Woke up, others still in Lala land
8.30am : Awana Hotel Tour
9.30am : Breakfast at Awana Hotel
10.30am : Photography session at Awana Hotel
12pm : Cable Car to peak of Genting Highlands
1pm : Lunch at Genting Highlands
2pm : Photography session
4pm : Headed towards Bentong, Bukit Tinggi
5pm : Arrived at Bukit Tinggi (Japanese Garden, French Village & Horse Tour)
8pm : On the way back home

To me this was one of the best trips I even had. The team for the Roadtrip were Thristhan from Malaysia, Robin from UK, HweeLi from Malaysia and Siew Geok From Malaysia. The 1World team will continue planning other trips in the near future, bringing it to you from our Official Broadcaster, Blue.fm, 69.0 fm.