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.

When I was at cherating in December 2009, The hotel GM managed to take me for a ride to Kuantan town. As we were on the way home to the Hotel, we managed to view this Security post that is made in a shape of the 1Malaysia logo. A good idea and very patriotic. Below is the photo of it.

1Malaysia

Suppose to leave the house at 7.30am in the morning thinking that my flight departure was at 9.45am. After checking the flight slip, realised that that’s the arrival time, and departure was actually at 9.05am. Woke my brother up and had to rush to the airport, namely KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport). I was taking the Malaysian Airlines to Kuantan.

Thank god there were no traffic jam that morning, smooth all the way and my brother also convinced me that we’re suppose to be only 45 minutes earlier at the airport instead of the 1 hour that I thought.

At the airport, KLIA, I went straight to the check in counter for Domestic flights. An airport personal stopped me and told me to print out my boarding ticket. Everything is automated now, no need to wait in long queues for your bording tickets. There’s an interactive kiosk that can print the boarding ticket for you. Firstly, insert your online confirmation ticket number, check for your name, check for correct spelling, check for correct issuing country and proceed to print. The boarding ticket will then be printed out. Proceed to the check in counter to check in any bags if required.

I was suppose to take this flight along with 3 Vietnamese supplier for the new system that we’re installing at Cherating Holiday Villa. Since I could not find any 3 group guys looking like a Vietnamese, decided to proceed to the boarding room.

After scanning the boarding pass and a long stare at my face, the security personal allowed me to proceed to the boarding room. My boarding gate was 8A, and a flight number of 1268. There are many shops in there selling expensive and branded stuffs. From perfumes to designers’ bags. Looking at me dressed so casually, no one bothered to stop me for a sales.

The airport is quite well labelled and it’s easy to look for your boarding gate, only that you have miles and miles to walk. I think it took me 15 minutes to my boarding gate. Burger king had a stall there, Famous Amos had a stall there and of course some cafeteria which double or tripled their prices.

Upon arrival at the boarding gate, I searched for those vietnamese friends again, not knowing how they look. Finally decided to ask a group of 2 people and the only one with a camera, yes it was them.

The flight was delayed, we had to wait about an hour just to know what was going on. Kuantan was raining badly, so the pilot was adviced not to carry on with that flight until further notice. Finally at 11.30, we boarded the plane and had clearance for lift-off.

The view was marvellous from up there, you can see every river was flooded due to the monsoon season.

We arrived at Kuantan Airport at roughly 12.15pm. Mr Ridzuan from Cherating Holiday Villa picked us and from there, it’s another 45 minutes to the hotel.

First thing we did was to check in, dump our bags into our rooms and  Mr Khaled, the GM of Cherating holiday villa invited us for lunch.