Fashionista's Travels: Perhentian Island

Last August, me and my friend Nihal went off to Perhentian Islands for a weekend getaway post our short-semester exams. I've heard so much about Perhentian Islands, my friend Imelda visits the island almost every year so I've always had a hankering to go and visit the islands myself. Perhentian Islands or Pulau Perhentian is made up of two islands, Pulau Perhentian Besar and Pulau Perhentian Kecil, located off the coast from Terengganu.

Me and Nihal

Based on Imelda's recommendation, we booked our accommodations with Mrs Mazila of Anjung Holidays and selected to stay at Coral View Island Resort. As we wanted to make the most of the trip, we booked the first flight from KL to Kota Bahru, Kelantan (Kota Bahru airport is closer to Kuala Besut, where the jetty to Pulau Perhentian is located) and flew in from Subang Airport via Malindo Air and left on the last flight two days later.

Sunrise at 30,000 feet.

The flight took roughly about an hour and it was a smooth, pleasant flight. We had booked with the same travel agency for them to pick us up from the airport and true enough, as soon as we arrived, we were whisked by the driver to Kuala Besut Jetty.

An aerial view of Kota Bahru, Kelantan as the plane was preparing to landing at the airport.

The drive from the airport to the jetty took roughly about an hour and we dozed off almost all the way to the jetty.

Kuala Besut Jetty

We arrived at the jetty at about 9 am and was welcomed by Mrs Mazila herself. She was very efficient at checking us in and allowed us a few minutes of strolling around the jetty (for souvenirs or trinkets) before calling us to say that the boat is ready.

Passenger boats leaving for various islands off the coast of Terengganu. 

We shared the boat with a group of students (by looking at the size of the crowd, I assume they must be going on a field trip) and the boat ride was rather bumpy (the speedboat was fast and the seas were slightly rough). It took about an hour or so for us to reach Perhentian Besar.

Teluk Dalam

The driver made a short stop at Teluk Dalam to dispense off the students before carrying on to Tanjung Genting, to where we were staying. To tell you the truth, when arriving at Teluk Dalam, I was so excited to see the clear green vibrant hue of the water that I wanted to jump off the boat there and then. Anyhow, they say patience is a virtue so I stayed put in the boat.

Turtle alert!

And I am glad I stayed put. As soon as we left Teluk Dalam the driver alerted us on a turtle that was swimming right next to the boat. Truth be told, that was my first time seeing a turtle swim in its natural habitat and let me tell you something, turtles are very, very fast swimmers! We could only catch a glimpse of the turtle for a minute or two before it swam off into the deep sea.

The mosque at Perhentian Kecil

On our way to Tanjung Genting, I was pleasantly surprised to see a beautiful mosque at Perhentian Kecil. From what I've learnt, the majority of the locals (who are working as fishermen, boat drivers and at the various resorts around the islands) are staying at Perhentian Kecil and there's a primary school, mosque, police station and shops on the island, catering to the needs of the locals.

Tanjung Genting

There are various resorts around both Perhentian Besar and Perhentian Kecil, so basically it's a place that caters to everyone i.e. the ones with bigger budgets get to stay at better resorts and the ones with smaller budgets get to at BnBs (bed and breakfast motels). There are coconut trees everywhere and plenty of activities for everyone.

The view of the beach from Coral View Island Resort

Beautiful bright blue sky, pleasant breeze from the ocean and salty smell of the sea. What more can a girl want?

One of my favourite photos of the island

We took a stroll from Coral View Island Resort and after climbing a flight of stairs, we ended up at Perhentian Island Resort. It was almost sunset by then and we decided to enjoy the rest of the day watching the sun set into the horizon and enjoying the warm breeze of the ocean.

Jetty

This jetty is located right in front of Perhentian Island Resort and is mainly used to ferry passengers who are checking in to the resort or those who've checked out of the resort.

Going somewhere?

There's plenty of water taxi services available on the island so do feel free to roam around the island and visit the nearby islands as well. We went to Perhentian Kecil for only RM10 per person (return trip) and managed to explore the small village at the island. We also took an island hopping and snorkelling trip to Pulau Rawa the next day for RM60 per person. I'll put up another post on my snorkelling experience but before that, let me leave you with a teaser photo =).

Snorkelling

All in all we spent three days in Perhentian, the first day was our arrival where we arrived at the island at around noon. We spent the afternoon actually sleeping (because I had just finished submitting a major assignment the night before at midnight and then woke up at 4 am to catch our early morning flight (which was at 6 am from Subang airport). We woke up at around 5 pm and enjoyed a leisurely stroll around the beach and sunset. Unfortunately it rained on our first night in Perhentian so we weren't able to do much exploring. The second day we went snorkelling (left at around 8 am if I'm not mistaken) and enjoyed snorkelling at around 4 spots, Pulau Rawa, turtle cove, the lighthouse, and shark point and came back to the resort at around noon. It rained in the afternoon so we ended up enjoying some downtime in our chalet reading the books that we brought with us. On the third day we decided to go for a bit of a swim in the morning before packing up our bags and leaving the island.

Getting ready to head back home

So, the verdict? If given a chance, I would love to go back to Perhentian Islands and enjoy some quiet me-time. But there are plenty of other islands in Malaysia that I haven't been to as well =).

However, my word of advice, do check the weather forecast, rain could be a real downer on your vacation and you could end up cooped up in your chalet throughout the whole trip. In terms of cost, we paid RM265 per night for the chalet, RM30 per person for the shuttle from the airport and back, and RM60 per person for the snorkelling trip. Flight tickets, if I'm not mistaken, Subang - Kota Bahru was less than RM200 for a return trip with Malindo Air.

Not sure if you should bring your kids with you? Let me just say that there's loads of families with small children at Perhentian.

I'll share on our experience staying at Coral View Island Resort, the snorkelling trip and even of Perhentian Kecil in a separate post, inshaa Allah. For those who are interested in going to Pulau Perhentian, you may want to visit Anjung Holidays website [here]. 

xoxo Mrs Fashionista

Fashionista's Travels: Bandung and Jakarta, Indonesia

[This post have been edited since I last posted it on the 2nd of April 2014]

Two months ago me and some of my fellow colleagues decided to go for a short trip to Jakarta and Bandung as a way for us to take time off from work and also spend time knowing each other's families.

This trip consisted mainly of Bandung (except on the last day which we spent the morning in Jakarta, we had driven from Bandung to Jakarta right after breakfast). I have been to Bandung a couple of times before, my last one being about three years ago (you can read the entry [here]) with another colleague and I have always loved the place. It's a great place to shop (there's plenty of factory outlets for bargain hunters), there's also plenty of fabrics to choose from for those fashionistas who's keen on designing and making their own clothes (like my friend Sherry from Sherry Says is among one of those talented creative people who can design and sew her own clothes), or even those who are passionate about food (like yours truly).

Despite some concerns over the eruption of Mount Kelud which could hamper our trip and also have adverse health implications but we decided to wing it anyway (the volcano is about 600km away from Jakarta so we decided that the mountain might be quite a distance away).

So here are some of the photos that we took while in Bandung and Jakarta:

Tangkuban Parahu, a dormant volcano (it last erupted in 1983) about an hour's drive from Bandung.

Tangkuban Parahu is considered as one of the tourist attractions in Bandung, thus you can find many vendors selling their wares near the parking lot next to the volcano.

Tourists at Tangkuban Parahu.

Wooden idols, anyone?

The row of stalls were set up strategically right next to the volcano's crater. I guess that unless the volcano display signs of volcanic activity, it would be quite safe doing business next to the crater.

Me and Alexa. As usual, she prefers the Ergo baby carrier compared to her stroller. I guess she just loves to snuggle next to me or hubs .

A lady selling grilled corn on the cob. There's actually plenty of stalls selling these around Tangkuban Parahu.

So this is basically how Tangkuban Parahu looks like.

Alexa, having woken up from her nap.

Hubs and Alexa. Weighing around 7 kgs, she's quite heavy to carry now.

For Muslims, there's a musolla for those who'd like to perform their prayers.

Post Tangkuban Parahu, we stopped by at a tea plantation for some tea.

Burnt grilled corn on cob. A word of caution though, most sellers use kerosene to light up their grill, therefore I do not recommend the corn. We took a bite and immediately we can smell the kerosene from the corn. Yuck!

Hubs and Alexa.

Next we stopped by at Sari Ater for a short dip in the hotspring

You can sit at the benches and enjoy a short dip in the hotspring. The water is almost boiling hot, so enter at your own risk!

You can see the steam rising out of the water. I must say, the water from the hotspring is definitely very, very hot.

Hotspring.

There's also a mosque within the area.

We also stopped by Paris van Java for a lil' bit of shopping.

Those who are looking for exotic food could try sate biawak (monitor lizard sate), rica-rica sate (spicy sate), or sate kelinci (rabbit sate). And in case you're wondering, nope, I did not try any sate when we were in Bandung. I am a foodie, but exotic food are definitely not my thing.

Nasi Uduk anyone? For those who are interested to know what is nasi uduk, you can click [here].

We ended our trip with a short stop to Hard Rock Café Jakarta for Alexa's first Hard Rock t-shirt. Hopefully she's be able to wear them for our next holiday trip which will be to Tokyo, Japan, next week.

It's a tad unfortunate that I'm pressed for time, there's still a few more photos that I'd like to add to this post. Will try to edit this post later so that I can add some photos of Jakarta. Am looking forward to our next trip which will be to Tokyo, Japan, next week.


xoxo Mrs Fashionista

Fashionista's Travels: Ta Phrom Temple

Before you read this, I would like to apologize for not writing/ blogging as often as I would like to. Work has been rather manic so my time devoted to blogging has been limited to weekends (it used to include weekday nights but now that I'm preggers, I've committed myself to an earlier than usual sleeping time thus no blogging during weekday nights).

Ta Phrom temple is also known as the Tomb Raider temple (due to it being in one of the shooting locations of the movie) but despite the nickname I've noticed that Angkor Wat and Bayon Temple are also featured in the movie. So the nickname could be due to the very distinguishing feature of the temple, which is a tree growing and molding itself to the temple walls and roof (just scroll down and you'll see the photos), and I must admit, seeing it (the tree and all) is absolutely breathtaking.

So, as an amateurish traveler, I have to admit, Ta Phrom temple is definitely one of the best temples in the Angkor Wat complex I've ever been too (and unfortunately I wasn't able to visit all) and I'll show you why in this blog.

Oh, before you start reading, you might want to refresh your memory on the Tomb Raider movie. Let's see if you can notice which one is Ta Phrom temple.

And this is how the plan of the temple complex looks like. The temple is not that big, there are other temples that are bigger, but it's quite a walk from the entrance (where your tuk-tuk driver would be leaving you). It really does look like a hidden temple in the middle of the forest (considering that you have to walk about at least 10 minutes to reach the temple). 

And this greeted us (after then 10 minute walk that is). A pretty sight, isn't it? I still can't believe that a temple like this would exist right in the middle of the jungle and I could understand why it was chosen as one of the movie locations. It looks almost deserted and in a way, for a moment (before the hordes of tourists come crashing in anyway) you could really believe that you are in another time, transported to the past. The temple was built about a century ago, you know. 

A temple in ruins (and a little walk further you'll find that some parts of the temple is currently being restored too). Come to think of it, if you've been around for hundreds of years you'd be in ruins too.

A carving of the dinosaur on the temple walls? Interesting...

Moss covered temple walls.

Here's the first tree (there's quite a few apparently) that we saw that had already attached its roots quite firmly onto the temple walls. I wonder if it's the trees that's holding the temple structure together...

This really reminded me of the scene in Tomb Raider where Angelina Jolie was running away from the temple as it started to crumble. Looking at the size of those stones, I wouldn't want to be stuck in this temple during a storm for sure. 

Here's another tree and I must admit, this is among my favorite photos of Ta Phrom, the ruins of the temple in complete disarray in comparison with the firmness and stability of the tree.

Carvings on the temple walls.

This is actually the center of the temple complex, its ruined stone walls arranged (most probably by the temple caretakers) at the left and right of the temple walkway.

This is what happens when you're looking up to take a shot and rain starts pelting on your camera lens. September is not really a good time to visit Siem Reap (it was raining almost daily when we were there, thus explaining why we weren't able to visit more temples than we should have), but we were lucky enough to have visited at least the three main temples in the Angkor Wat complex (i.e. Angkor Wat, Bayon temple and Ta Phrom temple).

Decided to take another shot with my iPhone. 

And took refuge inside the temple corridors when the rain got heavier (lucky for us the rain lasted for only about 10 minutes).

If you like, you can get these paintings as a souvenir of your trip (don't worry, you can find these paintings being sold all over Siem Reap).

Temple restoration in progress.

And this is how the temple looks like from the back entrance. The best thing about walking to (and back from) this temple is that you don't need to turn back the way you walked in. So in a way you can actually explore the whole temple and walk to the other end of the temple (your tuk-tuk driver will most probably be waiting for you there). But still, the walk out of the temple complex is almost as long as the walk in so wear comfortable shoes (or in my case, I took to wearing flip flops due to the unpredictable weather).

I must say that Siem Reap is a wonderful place to visit. It's a complete contrast to Phnom Penh (but I'll get to that in my future posts). The history and culture is amazing (and it's even more amazing to find out that these rulers of centuries past actually came from Indonesia; made me kinda proud to be part Indonesian, Javanese to be exact). For those who plans to visit Siem Reap, I do recommend a visit through the Angkor Wat complex as well as the Angkor Museum (preferably visit the museum first so that you'd have a better appreciation of the temples and their history). 

Let's travel more, shall we?

xoxo Mrs Fashionista