Almost all island hopping tours regardless by speedboat or long tail boat include the transfer from hotel to the beach. Just don’t expect a limousine to pick you up

We made arrangement the day before and upon arrival at the beach all we had to do was just to sign some insurance form and we were all set to go with 15 other tourists on the same tour.

Our tour guide not only speaks fluent English, he is also one funny and knowledgeable dude. The 25 minutes boat ride wasn’t too bad on the 2-engine speedboat.

Our 1st stop, Lading Island.

We were lucky to be the second boat to reach Lading Island. Just like what I had in mind, peaceful, clean and beautiful island!

For a good few minutes we could hear camera shutters clicking at every angle. Including my better half, testing her new Olympus Tough camera.

A nice giant swing.

While the others opted for sunbathing, my wife and I decided to do some swimming and snorkelling.

Wonder why she was so excited?

This!

Wow! Beautiful sight.

Our tour guide did some wall climbing while waiting for the 60 mins allocated time to expire.

60 minutes is really short when you are having fun! It was time to move on to the next island.

Koh Phak Bia or the Phak Bia Island!

White sand beach and even clearer water!

We hit the water with some other tourist who carried some bread. Great to see more types of fish here compared to Lading.

Lunch was served by the beach as part of the package, Unfortunately we were not sure whether the food was Halal so we decided to stick to the trusty, Ayam Brand Tuna and bread! haha

And of course the unlimited fruits!

After lunch, we hopped into the boat for our next destination the Hong Lagoon.

Surrounded by beautiful tall cliffs and can only be reached by boat through a narrow gap, Hong Lagoon is very calm and a good place for a relaxing kayaking activity.

Mangrove at Hong Lagoon

Nature at its best.

We then took another hop to the final island, the Hong Island. Despite the tour being called “Hong Island tour”, I think that the Hong Island itself is the least attractive. Still it was nice to just chill out and relax by the beach.

Overall it was a satisfying 6-hour tour of 4 places. I strongly recommend the Hong Island to any visitor to Krabi who don’t want to take the hour long boat ride to Phi Phi. You are going to love it!

It felt good to end day 2 with a nice 1-hour foot massage

We had the “4 island tour” lined up on the next day so the rest of day 2 was spend just chilling out in Ao Nang enjoying good food, good company and good holiday ambience. This is what I call a holiday.

The end of the year is always a good time to take a break, chill out and reflect on the hard work that was put in continuously throughout the year. My wife and I are fortunate that our wedding anniversary is on the 27th of December and that allows us to have a 2-in-1 celebration every year, the year-end break + wedding anniversary.

Alhamdulillah we were lucky to be able to secure cheap air fares on Air Asia for a 4 Days 3 Nights trip to Krabi Thailand on the last week of 2011. So the year of 2011 ends with a romantic adventure for two to Ao Nang Krabi and its nearby islands!

On day 1, by the time we arrived in Krabi it was already late afternoon thanks to the long immigration queue at the Krabi airport. After a 40 minutes cab ride we arrived at our pre-booked hotel in Ao Nang, the Centara Anda Dhevi Resort & Spa Krabi (เซ็นทารา อันดาเทวีรีสอร์ทแอนด์สปา กระบี่).

Centara Dhevi is a nice new resort which I would give a 4.5 star rating for its facilities, location and service. A great place for honeymooners and special occasions like wedding anniversary celebration.

Ao Nang is a small resort town that has its own charm. Beaches, connections to islands, shopping, seafood and bars are common attractions in Ao Nang. Similar to Phuket with probably 50% less happening nightlife and party which is perfectly fine for me!

Almost all the shops, bistros, restaurants and tour operators are within walking distance..

…but there are still public transportation available for anyone to hop on.

Private ‘tuk-tuk’ for 20 Baht per trip per person around Ao Nang

Nice bus stop.

We continued walking for a good 15 minutes on the road that leads towards the Ao Nang Beach.

Despite this particular stretch of the beach being used for embarking to speed boats, the beach remains clean and gave a good vibe to the image of Ao Nang as an unpolluted laidback beach town.

Nevermind the typos and spelling mistakes, the message is clear and serves as a friendly reminder.

The beach at Ao Nang isn’t perfect, but it is a good spot to base yourself for the island excursions departing every morning from the Ao Nang Beach.

After checking out a few tour operators, we decided to randomly pick one to arrange our day 2 activities – an island excursion to Hong Island and its surrounding islands.

Since we were going to the islands the following day, it was a good excuse to shop for some beachwear.

Almost everything is negotiable which may be good news or bad news depending on the type of person you are. I’m quite bad with bargaining but Krabi people are friendly enough so it was not too bad.

Saw this cute Volkswagen as we were walking back to the hotel.

One excellent thing about Krabi is the availability of Halal food. It’s everywhere! I personally think this is a very big plus point as Muslim visitors like me would be able to taste local cuisine prepared in halal manner. This is something I don’t get to experience in many countries.

Pancakes, deep fried shrimps and spring rolls are as common as seeing someone in 2-piece bikini. Ok, bad comparison.

We decided to try some Krabi street food for dinner.

A mobile Tom Yam stall. It was impressive witnessing delicious meals being prepared at the comfort or discomfort of seating on a bike.

Tom Yam Gung, Thai Style chicken and omelette.

Delicious.

And of course Banana Pancake for dessert. These so-called pancakes are actually ‘roti canai’ with toppings. It’s quite tasty especially eaten hot with the right toppings.

We spent most of the evenings in Krabi in our hotel room. After all what’s the point of spending so much on hotel if you don’t make full use of it right? It was nice just chilling out at the balcony watching the view and enjoying the sea breeze and a plate of banana pancake.

When I heard that the ‘hot-shot celebrity pilot’ Johan Farid Khairuddin or better known as JFK was organising night flights to earn his night flying hours, I quickly grab the opportunity to experience for the first time flying on a light plane during sunset.

After a couple of tweets and BBM messages, we agreed to fly on Sunday 080112.

Weather was not on our side. It was cloudy and raining prior to the flight. While it is perfectly safe to fly in this kind of weather, the view would not be that great. Luckily the weather improved throughout the flight.

A Harimau Malaya die-hard supporter, aviation enthusiast and airport staff. All about me in one photo.

JFK doing his pre-flight checks.

JFK is currently attached to Berjaya Air and earning his hours on Berjaya’s ATR72. He is still a part-time announcer at Hitz.FM. I got to know him for the first time at a Youth’10 Festival (click here to read) and since then we met at a few events including the launch of MAS New A330 (click here to read) and I even flew with him once, touring KL City with my other half (click here to read).

It’s always nice to catch up with someone that has similar passion towards aviation.

Taxiing to the runway.

All set for take-off.

“Positive rate of climb, gear-up”… eh fixed-gear bird lah! Airborne at 7:13pm.

Subang tower cleared us to join the circuit, a circuit is a pattern flown around an airport to ensure smooth and orderly traffic flow.

First Touch and Go with still a bit of light.

Touch and Go is a manoeuvre in which an aircraft touches the ground as in landing, and immediately takes off again. For the second round, I was in control of the yoke and enjoyed the sensation of doing some turns and change in altitude. JFK would make a good instructor!

The fun part was getting the 2 Reds and 2 Whites on the PAPI lights. Flight sim rocks but this thing is super cool and real minus the P button! Ok i suck. 3 Red lights. LOL

The sun sets as we completed the second touch and go.

Admiring the beautiful sunset from 1,000 feet. Despite the cloudy weather, MasyaAllah…beautiful view!

Sunset flight is a common attraction in some countries especially during summer as romantic couples fly on light planes to enjoy the view from 1,000 feet. Obvously there were no romantic moments for us as JFK was busy with flying the plane and I was busy snapping photos.

From day to night.

One last Round, a low flypast over the runway.

As it gets dark we were relying more on the instruments. Sunday night traffic over Subang was quite busy with a mixture of Firefly, RMAF and light planes arriving.

The finale of the flight was a long ILS approach to the runway.

Great photo opportunity

Few seconds before touchdown. My favourite shot. What do you think?

Clearing runway

Safely parked at SkyPark. One for the album. Thanks JFK!

To experience flying with JFK, you can email him at jfk(at)hitz.fm or follow his tweets at @JFKjohan

What’s next for me? InsyaAllah a PPL once the ‘piggy’ bank is full

Late last year I was invited to a unique gathering that gathers a group of fans passionate about one thing, WRESTLING!

Yes, you read it right. Pro Wrestling.

Many years ago, it is not a rare sight especially outside the cities to see Malaysians gather at ‘warung kopi’ to enjoy a cup of coffee with friends while watching wrestling matches shown on a small TV screen. Not to forget those VHS tapes that I myself used to rent at video outlets when I was in primary school. I had fun growing up watching wrestling matches involving characters such as Ultimate Warrior, Hulk Hogan, Bush Whackers, etc and following their storyline.

Thanks to the Internet, the wrestling scene in Malaysia is now even more fun! With the idea of connecting Malaysian-based wrestling fans through the Internet, Peminat Gusti Malaysia (PGM) was formed.

On 17th Dec 2011, PGM members had one of their many gatherings for the year. PGM Rasslin’ Roleplay Mayhem @KLCC.

A gathering of people from different background, all with one common passion, wrestling.

Some came from other states just for the event.

1Malaysia gathering, no racial boundaries.

No age and gender discrimination as well. Everyone can become a PGM member!

Due to other commitments, I attended the event a bit late and miss the first part of the activities. In case you are wondering what people do during a wrestling fans gathering, check out the following photos.

Mr PGM, the founder of PGM, arriving for the 2nd part of the activities, fully equipped with a suitcase containing all the ‘accessories’.

Inside the suitcase, replicas of championship belts flown in from the United States. These hardcore fans actually spent their own money purchasing these items online.

Fans also came to KLCC with their own masks. Identity + character + accessories = Cool!

Photo opportunities for many!

The hero behind PGM.

The ‘ringside announcer’ for the day announced that it was time for some live demo of wrestling moves.

All in the name of fun and togetherness.

It’s cool to know that during this time when our unity as Malaysian is being tested on daily basis with so many issues, people can still get together and have fun regardless of their background. School and university students, graduates, professionals such as doctor, IT Manager, train driver, entrepreneurs all under one banner!

Click here to LIKE PGM’s Fan Page.

An Emirates Airbus A380 took off on January 1st 2012 from Dubai to Kuala Lumpur, marking the first passenger-carrying/revenue superjumbo flight to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).

The Emirates A380 fleet now flies to more than 15 destinations around the world, with the latest addition being KLIA.

Starting from today, the Emirates A380 will be a regular visitor with one of the thrice daily flights between Dubai-Kuala Lumpur-Dubai will be served by this superjumbo.

I was co-incidentally at the airport working on a few work-related tasks when I was told that the first revenue landing of an A380 in KLIA is happening today. With a camera in hand (although I was not equipped with the right lens), I dashed to a nearby location within the terminal to witness the arrival.

Here are some of the photos:

The airport has been ready for the A380 for quite a while with a few of the gates having dual-level A380-ready aerobridges.

AFRS Fire vehicles ready for the water-cannon salute.

It was around 2:56pm when I saw the first glimpse of the A380 on final approach.

ATC cleared the plane for 32R landing although 32L was in used for landing. From what I read on Facebook and Twitter, some of the spotters waiting to see the plane got disappointed when they realised the aircraft was heading for 32R.

Seconds from touch down.

With Sepang Formula 1 Circuit in background.

My ‘best-effort’ shot.

I did not get a clear shot of the actual touchdown due to the aerobridge blocking the view.

The aircraft cleared the runway and taxied to Gate C27.

The first officer was spotted waving the Emirati flag!

The A380 showed her ability to perform tight turns as she comfortably made her way to Gate C27.

Water Cannon Salute!

At this point I noticed that the Captain was also waving a flag and it’s Jalur Gemilang, the Malaysian flag! Well done Emirates, who knows it might be a Malaysian crew flying the plane?

Ground crew got into action to disembark the passengers, 3 aerobridges at this A380-ready gate.

All set!

One nose shot.

Welcome A380-800 to KLIA!

While witnessing the arrival of this first commercial A380 flight to Kuala Lumpur, I cannot help but to recall the moment from few years back when I actually stood at the airport fences for many hours just to catch a glimpse of the A380 on its world tour stop in Kuala Lumpur.

I personally hope to see more A380 movements in Kuala Lumpur moving forward. I am sure that many would agree with me that today’s arrival is a good start for 2012 for both Emirates and KLIA!

Love this aviation post? why don’t check out my recent flight from Malacca to Subang where I had the plane all to myself! Click here to read.

Note: All Photos Copyright Azuan Ahmad Zahdi – No photos may be reproduced in any form without prior permission from me. I can be contacted at azuan_az ‘at’ hotmail ‘dot’ com

The taxi driver who drove me from the airport dropped me at the Dutch Square, right in the centre of the tourist attractions, in front of the famous Christ Church. This unique red-color church was completed in 1753 and follows an extremely simple design of a typical church with Dutch architecture.

Also at the Dutch Square is theTan Beng Swee Clock Tower, a clock tower built by the third generation of a Chinese philanthropic millionaire family.

Queen Victoria Fountain - built in 1901 by the British to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria.

From Jalan Gereja, many of other tourist attractions are within walking distance.

Malacca River – now famous for its river cruise. Hats off to the Malacca authorities who successfully transformed the river into a tourist attractions. Something that other states can learn from?

My initial plan was to go by foot around the area, that’s the best way to explore every single site in and out.

But I cannot resist the temptation of wanting to take an easy ride on one of the trishaws! Haha

At least I have a personal tour guide explaining the background of the tourist attractions…

…and someone that can snap photos of me! This is me standing in front of a model of an old ship that was used hundreds of years ago. Melaka was an important trading port due to its location on the Straits.

Menara Taming Sari, a 110m tall tower that provides visitors a 360 degree panoramic view of Malacca.

A pleasant surprise when out of nowhere my eyes caught this lovely old plane! A Twin Pioneer Mk.1 “Lang Rajawali” (FM1064 c/n:583) on display at the Melaka Transport Museum!

Not only that I got to fly on an empty flight from Subang to Melaka on that day, I also got to see one of the earliest plane of RMAF that flown Allahyarham Tunku Abdul Rahman! An interesting ‘aviation day’ for me

My personal tour guide also showed me a pokok Melaka and buah Melaka right in front of the plane. I swear I would never notice the tree without the help of a tour guide.

Next stop, Porta de Santiago or better known as the A Famosa – a Portuguese fortress built in 1511! The Porta de Santiago, a small gate house, is the only remaining part of the fortress still standing.

Last time I visited this ‘icon’ of Malacca was when I was 12 years old. Somehow I think the A Famosa was much bigger, or maybe I was small at that time! Haha

The Fort Terrace is a good place to spend some time admiring the surrounding sights.

BE52- the car which carried Allahyarham Tunku Abdul Rahman for the proclamation of independence from the British rule at 1957. This car is kept at good condition until today.

Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat Armoured Vehicles

Next stop, Jonker walk – the perfect place for street photoshoot!

Makam Hang Jebat

Tukang Tong??? Unique for a town boy like me! Hehe

Masjid Kampung Kling

One of the Chinese temples.

A malay house in Kg Ketek

Bound Feet Shoes!

Way back during the Ming dynasty, only the women of high breeding had bound feet. It was a beauty that few women could boast of. In Malacca you can still find shoemakers making this kind of unique shoes. Source: http://www.cityturtle.com/Bound_Feet_Shoes.html

Malacca especially Jonker Walk is famous for its Pineapple tart.

Taking the recommendations from my guide, we stopped at this shop for a dose of Melaka Cendol Durian which is another signature dish of Jonker Walk.

Good stuff!

On the way back, I saw this long queue of people waiting to try the Chicken Rice Ball. It’s non-halal so obviously I did not join the queue.

One last stop, the museum.

One last photo, thank you abang beca!

Malacca is a great place not only for foreigners but also Malaysians. I managed to only visit a small portion of the city within my 4 hours trip but I’ll definitely return for more. Afterall It’s only 2 hours drive or a 25-minutes flight from Subang. Firefly Airlines / Melaka Air flies twice weekly (Monday & Frieday) between Subang-Melaka and Medan-Melaka. Check out my review on the flight here.

Click Here for My Other TRAVEL STORIES.

This new route was introduced since 21st November 2011 as part of the collaboration between Firefly and Melaka Air Sdn Bhd, a Malacca state-government entity. In a nutshell, Melaka Air sees the opportunity of Melaka-Medan-Melaka route and since they chose to collaborate with Firefly, the ATR need to travel between Subang to Malacca v.v to serve the Medan route completing the route as SZB-Malacca-Medan-Malacca-SZB.

As an aviation fan, it was music to my ears when they announced that they will be selling the seats from Subang to Malaka and back. I see it as an opportunity to fly a route that is quite rare due to the close distance between the 2 airports and a good highway infra. I posted the question on Facebook and here are some responses that I received.

This route is being served twice a week, Monday and Friday. On 12th Dec 2011, a public holiday for Selangor, I walked into Subang SkyPark for my Subang-Malacca-Subang daytrip adventure. A quick glance on the flight information screen, I noticed that there was no indication of a Malacca flight, I got a bit nervous thinking that the flight might got cancelled on a last-minute notice. With a bit of doubt, I walked to the check-in counter.

I was greeted by a friendly check-in officer. The moment I said “Malacca”, the check in agent just smiled and said “You must be En Azuan”. I was quite surprised only to find out that the flight to Malacca has only 2 passengers and the other passenger has checked in.

Check-In Agent: There are only 2 passengers for the flight, you are very lucky!
Me: Wow, this is a pleasant surprise, it would be even cooler if I’m the only one though.
Check-In Agent: Well I have chcekd in for you both ways and good news is that for Malacca-Subang, you will be the only passenger!
Me: Double wow (“senyum sampai ke telinga” haha )

My ‘lucky day’ boarding passes.

9M-FYJ being assigned for the route today.

Passengers boarding for flight to Alor Setar at the same time as our departure time. It was funny to have a boarding announcement made for our flight with 2 passengers. Even before the announcement can be finished we were already on our way walking to the plane.

Me and the other passenger were greeted with “Hello gentlemen, please choose any of the seats”. Nice!

2 pilots, 2 flight attendants and 2 passengers. Awesome feeling. I chose to be at 18C, and chit chat with the friendly crew throughout the flight.

We left ahead of the Alor Setar bound flight.

Clear skies, a great day to fly.

The crew were at their stations for take-off and landing despite the almost empty cabin. Safety is a serious business! Well done Firefly.

We were cleared to fly above Putrajaya, this flight turns out to be quite a scenic flight. (sorry for the zoom-crop photo).

FSS Roshini and FSS Vanessa kept offering hot drinks, juices, muffins and peanuts but I have to politely decline as I was saving it for Malacca food

After 25 minutes, we were all set to land in Malacca.

Spotted this submarine museum, one of many tourist attractions in Malacca.

Final Approach

Welcome to Malacca Airport! See you FYJ in 4 hours.

The “VIP”

I had a fun time touring Malacca in 4 hours (will share it in my next blog post) before returning to the airport for my flight home.

It’s cool to have 2 check-in counters for me. They greeted me with “Welcome back En Azuan, your private ATR’ will be ready shortly.”

Making full use of the timer shutter on my camera. I was really alone after clearing security.

Time to fly

FYJ after serving the Medan sector.

I went inside the cabin, greeted the two stewardess and they cutely said “Ready to go?”. I just nodded and the door was closed.

We left Malacca airport earlier than our scheduled time by a few minutes. I took some of this photos. After more than 100 flights with Firefly this is the first time that I got to snap photos freely inside the cabin during flight. Haha

I decided to put my camera away and just hang out with the lovely cabin crew throughout the flight.

The plane arrived in Subang ahead of schedule and after personally thanked the pilots and the cabin crew, I left with lots of good memories of being THE ONLY PERSON IN A 72-SEATER ATR! A flight to remember

Head on to http://fireflyz.com.my to book your flight to Melaka. There is no way to guarantee that you will get an empty cabin but it’s definitely a cooler way to travel to Melaka. I really hope the route will sustain and looking at the almost full Melaka-Medan-Melaka route on that day, I’m quite confident that the arrangement will last for quite some time.

My last trip to Cherating was many years ago and I am happy that it has not change much and developed into another tourist trap. It’s still the same relaxing Cherating.

Business as usual despite monsoon season.

Harimau Malaya in Cherating?

Motels and Chalets are cheap and literally on the beach!

Fine sand

Our main programme in Cherating – to visit Pak Ali and his “Mat Salleh”

Mat Salleh is a trained monkey, majoring in none other than plucking coconuts. Hehe

We got to witness Mat Salleh in action.

Mission accomplished. Pak Ali sharing the coconuts and stories of Mat Salleh

Refreshing

Mat Salleh taking a break.

Pak Ali is 67 years old and has been to as far as the United States in sharing his talent in traditional games such as gasing.

A very good relationship between the two

The group.

A poser.

Give Pak Ali a call the next time you are in Cherating and for a minimal fee you will get to experience Mat Salleh in action and enjoy fresh coconuts.

Instead of driving all the way to Cherating, why not fly to Kuantan and take a short taxi/bus ride to Cherating. Firefly Airlines fly to Kuantan from Penang, Subang and Singapore – Head on to http://www.fireflyz.com.my for more details.

This post is suitable for those who have about half a day to spend in Kuantan and do not want to explore the surrounding towns like Gambang, Pekan and Sungai Lembing.

I’ll start with Pantai Teluk Cempedak.

If Venice has its canals and Paris has the Eiffel Tower, Kuantan folks are very proud of its own icon, the Teluk Cempedak.

Located within Kuantan borders, only 5km from the city centre, Teluk Cempedak is the place to be for anyone visiting Kuantan. The white sandy beach facing the South China Sea is a great place for swimming, sun-bathing, kite-flying, sailing, wind surfing, water-skiing and jet ski.

It’s also a perfect place to unwind after a long day at work.

And of course for couples wanting to spend time chatting dan ‘lain-lain’ hehe our friendly tour guide showing one of the many common poses in Teluk Cempedak.

With so many different people coming in for different activities, it makes Teluk Cempedak the perfect venue for my favourite activity which is People Watching

I still find it hard to believe that such a beautiful beach can be maintained clean despite having so many visitors.

Facilities like wooden walkaway/platform, toilets, food stalls, fast food outlets and natural tree shades allow easier and more comfortable access to visitors.

For visitors to Teluk Cempedak, leave your pets behind.

Teluk Cempedak has its own ‘pets’.

On that day, I spotted the monitor lizard

and the macaques monkeys

While Teluk Cempedah has a few stalls selling souvenirs, I would strongly suggest for those looking for souvenirs to go to the Natural Batik Village instead.

This is the place for visitors to get all kinds of ‘ole-ole’ or souvenir from Kuantan all under one roof.

Being mainly a batik factory, visitors can also watch live batik demonstration.

And even try your skills on batik stamping.

No, this is not a batik meal!

End product.

Visitors can buy multiple batik products and also usual souvenirs like key chains, fridge magnets, etc

But if you are someone like me who usually avoid all these touristy souvenirs, then Sin Kee Hung might be the place for you.

This is a famous place to get all the cheap and good dried seafood and ‘ikan masin’

The dried fish.

Udang Kering

The shop has also some delicious snacks that I enjoyed while waiting for the rest to shop. Halal certs are displayed at the counter.

There you go, from white sandy beach to souvenirs and ikan masin. The right combination if you are visiting Kuantan on a half-day trip. Also don’t forget to try Kuantan delicious food as shared in my previous blog post here. If you have more than half a day, why not explore Sg Lembing, Gampang and Pekan!

Instead of driving all the way to Kuantan, why not fly to Kuantan and take a short taxi/bus ride to all these interesting places. Firefly Airlines fly to Kuantan from Penang, Subang and Singapore – Head on to http://www.fireflyz.com.my for more details.

Click Here for My Other TRAVEL STORIES.

In no particular order, here are some great ‘makan’ that we had as part of the Firefly familiarization tour. I am aware that I missed out a few famous ‘must-try’ food like Nasi Lemak Zaman but there’s always a next trip to Kuantan

Let’s start with “MEE CALONG BESERAH”

Beserah is about 8km away from Kuantan and it took us about 10-15 minutes to get there by bus. We had our Mee Calong at the famous “Joe Warung Mee Calong & Keropok Beserah”. It’s by the roadside of the main stretch so it’s not that difficult to spot this warung.

A simple warung setup. In my food dictionary, the simpler a warung is, the higher the possibility of it serving good food.

The Mee Calong Beserah.

If you ask me personally, I would describe Mee Calong as Mee Sup + Yong Tau Foo + keropok lekor + fish ball with the noodles made by mee lidi or dry noodle sticks.

So what actually is Calong? “No one really knows. Here’s a better description of the history of Mee Calong.

A warung that comes with SOP on how to eat Mee Calong!

Not convinced with the explanation, I went to attack the ‘kitchen’ to better understand Mee Calong.

This must be one of the ‘unique features’ of Mee Calong, the Keropok Leko.

No wonder the ‘fish taste’ of the soup is so good, look at the amount of fishballs, fishcake and other ingredients thrown into the soup.

As I’m not a big noodle fan, I would give Mee Calong 7.5/10 for its unique taste and freshness of ingredients. Definitely a must try.

Proud owners of the warung.

Next up is another warung that need no further introduction to Kuantan residents.

Akob Patin House!

A normal malay Nasi campur setup but you can also request for the dishes to be served to your table.

The signature dish is of course – Ikan Patin Masak Tempoyak.

What else can I say… it’s a combination of 2 of my favourite dishes, fresh ikan patin + tempoyak. I was in my own world for a good 30 minutes.

Alhamdulillah, I had the opportunity to taste the fresh ikan patin and the cooking style is just perfect. Exactly as what I had in mind when people spoke to me about Akob Patin House prior to the trip. Soft texture and smells good all the way are indicators that the fish was fresh.

Some other ‘kampung style’ dishes

Sambal Kicap + Sambal Belacan + Sambal Tempoyak

Ulam-ulam.

Gulai lemak daging salai.

Thumbs up! The owner entertained us well. All we had to do is to raise our left hand up for more rice. Many did not realised that I raised my hands 3 times. Yes, 4 plates of rice.

Tapai for dessert. Cannot get any better than this.

Last but definitely not least, allow me to share the delicious dinner we had at Ana Ikan Bakar Petai.

The Tanjung Lumpur stretch in Kuantan are famous for many seafood stalls but Ana Ikan Bakar is always the first one being recommended whenever I speak to a Kuantan resident.

The signature dish – Ikan Bakar or Grilled fish with Petai. Perfect combination. I’m a huge fan of petai so the addition of petai makes the fish even tastier.

Lala sweet sour. Tasted quite ok and nothing special about it.

Kerabu Mangga and Mushroom.

Ikan Tiga Rasa, suitable for those that does not eat petai or those that one fish is not enough…. like me. Hehe

Happy faces after a full day of GOOD FOOD!

Food is a a good enough reason to justify your trip to Kuantan. I can guarantee that you will be fully satisfied with my above recommendations. Bon apetit!

Instead of driving all the way to Kuantan, why not fly to Kuantan and take a short taxi/bus ride to all these delicious eating places. Firefly Airlines fly to Kuantan from Penang, Subang and Singapore – Head on to http://www.fireflyz.com.my for more details.

Click Here for My Other TRAVEL STORIES.