Part 1: Terengganu Day Trip Sept 2008

Posted by azuan on Sep 17, 2008 in :: All Posts ::, Adventure, TRAVEL, Wedding | 4 comments

Hi friends,

To those of you who have been bugging me for updates either via MSN, YM, Facebook or even this blog, I’m sorry for the delay. Yes I’m guilty for not updating this little personal cyber corner of mine as frequent as I used to. Work is getting over me hence personal time has been limited to sleep and recover for the past few weeks.

Anyway, a great way to rejuvenate this blog after a short silence is with a typical Trip Report. In preparing for my wedding (which is getting closer, faster that I anticipated), me and my fiancée along with my mom and my sister made a day-trip visit to Kuala Terengganu to buy some ‘traditional’ stuff for the wedding. Terengganu, well known for its High Quality Songket, Delicious Kereopok Lekor, locals ending sentences with a ‘g’, is indeed a great place to enjoy the ‘cultured’ side of Malaysia.

The trip was made possible via Firefly Airlines promo cheap fare for the month of Ramadhan, The return ticket for 4 of us cost us only RM490 nett. It may sound expensive but imagine this scenario; a nice yet simple songket from Terengganu is typically sold at RM400 in KL. The same exact thing will cost only RM300 in Kuala Terenganu’s Pasar Payang. It make sense to spend on flight ticket when you plan to but many things since not only its cheaper, but there are much more choices to pick from.

The drawback for flying Firefly is the old 20+ years Fokker-50 which is absolutely safe and comfortable but yeah stills an old-horse plane. The flight was the second earliest flight from Subang airport. At 715am, we went out from the house at 6am and made it there 45 minutes before our flight time. I got the feeling it’s going to be a long day, going out so early and coming back the same day!

The Good Old Firefly Fokker-50 that we flew on both ways.

Comfortable nevertheless.

I’ll do a separate review on Firefly Airline in a few days time. It was an ‘interesting’ flight on the way back from Terengganu.

Upon arrival in Kuala Terengganu’s Sultan Mahmud Airport, I was told that 2008 is Visit Terengganu’s year. I was excited as I’m quite sure there will be brochures of events, attractions and most important maps for the city. I was left disappointed. The moment I stepped to the airport’s visitor center, these are what I saw instead:

A not-so-impressive brochure rack

Empty

Nevermind, I survived touring London all alone, I can find my way around here without a map ….i have my trustworthy Google Map on my mobile! Thank God for unlimited data 3G package.

We headed straight to Pasar Payang, the famous central market where traders from all Terengganu gather to mainly sell cloth (songket, batik), food (traditional delicacies), brassware and local crafts. It’s definitely a ‘must-visit’ place for a tourist/outsider.

Pasar Payang

Typical shop in Pasar Payang

After a while, I started to get bored. 4 hours of non-stop shopping while fasting starts to irritate me. The females just don’t feel like giving up anytime soon. Shop by shop, item by item. I got a feeling they were really enjoying the moment. I spent my time on ‘people watching’ instead. Also spent some time chatting with the locals and traders to pass time.

My fiancée having fun and no sign of slowing down

While I try to figure out the weird names of various headscarves. How weird?

This weird. Bawal = fish; how can it be a headscarf?

The food section on the ground floor is equally interesting.

Traditional snacks

The famous Keropok Lekor, I’m sure the most frequent item being scanned in Kuala Terengannu’s Airport security check.

Nice and colorful, small-scale packaging creativity

The traders are friendly and came from different levels of life. All unite in the name of making money.

and the traders for non-food items especially songket and batik accept major credit cards with average of 3% extra charge. Very convenient since ATM is few minutes away and not available in Pasar Payang.

Mastercard….even in Pasar Payang! Priceless..

I was ready to leave Pasar Payang after 5 hours, but it was then my turn. The little sacrifice of willingness in the sake of being ‘groom-to-be’. Time for me to pick up my stuff.

Choosing the best color and material with the assistance of my sister.

Can I bring this home?

It turned out to be fun after all. We left Pasar Payang around 3pm to check in into a budget hotel nearby since our flight back home was at 9pm.

I’ll continue with the rest of the trip (more fun pics!) in the next few days. Till then I leave you with these classic random shots of Terengganu.

Learn grammar? Hehe Grammar School

Classic!

Till the next part….leave comments….c ya!