rahman.pauzi

Alya & Me @ The Crystal Mosque

This year I was tasked with the not so tough but still time demanding duty of invigilating the SPM examination, from 23rd November till 20th December I was stuck. All plans was cancelled, had to cancel going to Johor for my cousin’s wedding, was only able to went to the groom’s side here in Kelantan. Was also unable to visit wife’s brother that had a knee surgery in KL.

After some discussion with the wife, we decided that if we couldn’t go to KL or Johor, a trip to Terengganu would do. So that’s what we did. We planned to go right after SPM finished and wanted it to be on a weekend so we can meet up with friends in Terengganu. So we decided to go on Christmas weekend.

Unfortunately for us, we had to push off later than we planned as on 23rd the PMR results was announced, and I myself had a meeting on that particular morning. Still that didn’t dampen our enthusiasm, as I said to my wife, better late than never.

With the hotel’s assurance that they would hold our booking until 11pm , we pushed off at around 4pm, the journey was uneventful as it only took us 1 and a half hours to get there… not too much traffic on the way there. Felt more like I was driving to KB on a busy day.. heheheh

Arrived there in a small shower and me thinking this weather would really ruin our trip as we need to be indoors most of the time. But we were already there so enjoy it we must

So we checked in at the Felda Residence Kuala Terengganu and got ourselves a room on the 12th floor! The room was actually a corner room so instead of it just facing the riverfront we also got ourselves a view of Kuala Terengganu city. A nice room indeed if I might say so

So we got comfortable and unpacked, my wife had already packed us some nasi goreng the only thing it was lacking was a dish, so we head out to a nearby McDonald’s and bought their Ayam Goreng McD.. spicy for me Then the night was spent eating dinner in front of the TV inside our room, and afterwards straight to bed, but of course my daughter wouldn’t allow us to sleep that early..

Second day there we had an early start, had the complementary breakfast at the hotel, I don’t know why but some of the food tasted a bit salty, chef must have had a bad day ehehheh… Then right after breakfast we head out to Chendering in search of “Mak Ngah Nasi Dagang“, quite famous for its delicious nasi dagang, our intention was to “tapau” some for lunch. You will be saying, why so early? Because by the time we arrived it was already 9 am and we had to wait for half an hour just to get to our turn. The crowd was packed, ppl arriving since 7 in the morning, but most of the crowd was dining in, and the owner prioritizes the dine-in crowd. Lucky that ours was take-away as it was a long queue just to get a place to sit.

After Chendering we went to Pulau Wan Man, to visit the Taman Tamadun Islam / Islamic Heritage Park, but we didn’t go in to the Monuments Park instead spent our time at the Crystal Mosque only. Was wondering why there were so many people at the mosque and thought it was because of the school holiday, apparently not, there was actually a wedding taking place at the mosque at that time, so we went and had a little walk by the river instead.

After resting for a bit at the hotel, we went out again that afternoon. Went over to Kg. Bukit Tok Beng (BTB), wanted to order some kerepok lekor to take home, alas it was closed. Then we went to a shop called Pak Ndut’s as it is said his keropok keping is the best but it was also closed. Then and only then did we remember that it was a Friday. Not everybody opens on a friday hehehe

That night as I was supposed to meet up with a few friends, we had an early dinner. Went to a little place near our hotel called Zie’s Corner, as the western there was highly recommended, I order a Sirloin Steak while the wife had Chicken Chops and not forgetting the daughter we ordered omelette with sausage for her. Did I mention that my daughter just love to eat eggs in general. All I can say is the food there is delicious and reasonably price, certainly not a 5 star affair but for the price it was a bargain.

Later, the meet up with friends was cancelled due to some technicalities Instead we decided to stay in and watch the television as there was Anugerah Skrin that night. I went out before hand to the nearby Pizza Hut and ordered a small pizza to munch on while watching the award show.

On saturday, right after breakfast we went back to BTB and ordered our keropok lekor, we wanted to pick up the keropok at 2pm, but they told us it would only be ready at 5. So after discussing with my wife we decided to reschedule our day and instead go back to Kelantan after 5. After that we went back to Pak Ndut’s place but it was still closed, apparently they have a ‘kenduri kahwin’ that day. Seems we need to go to some other place to get our keropok keping.

As we have a few more hours to kill, we went back to TTI and this time around we went to the Monuments Park. Alya had fun running to and fro inside the park, but instead of being interested with the monuments she was more interested with the playground and the rides they have. We had fun as well checking out the different monuments from all over the world, there we definitely many photo opportunities. At 11.30am we realized that we were running late and it would almost be impossible to get back to the hotel and check out by 12. So I called the hotel and asked for an extension, they gave us the extension and that leaves us with an extra hour.

Rushed back to the hotel so that we can pack our bags. Arrived at the hotel at 12 and hurriedly packed everything. By 12.45pm managed to haul everything to the car and check out from the hotel.. phewwww! As my wife had promised to meet up with her friend from her university days we head out to Batu Buruk beach. Met my wife’s old friend and her family at the Batu Buruk Food Court. Went to this Nasi Ayam Yunnan stall for lunch, and my wife definitely had a wonderful time catching up with her old friend, the husband is from Kelantan so I was talking to him throughout the meal making small talks

After lunch we head out to Bazaar Warisan where my wife went shopping for Batik while I wait in the car with my sleeping daughter. It didn’t take her long to purchase her batiks.. but I did manage to do some surfing while in the car. hehehe
Later on we went to Masjid Terapung Tg Zaharah for our Zohor and Asar prayer. We also spent some time there as it was still early and we didn’t want really want to rush back to BTB.

After Asar prayer we head on to Losong and went to Kak Yah’s, it was a stall/restaurant and there were many people there eating their keropoks. Bought our keropok keping and then continued our journey to BTB to pickup our Keropok Lekor.
Arrived at BTB just around 5, in time for our order to be ready. The place was packed to the brim. One interesting fact about this particular shop is that it is so packed and full of people that they had to utilize a queue system similar to the ones used in banks. If you ever get to the shop you might be greeted by the sound of “Number One Two Five (125), Counter One”. And by the time we got there the numbers were already in the thousands.

So we headed straight home as it was already late, but we still had time for a short stop at Penarek beach. Bought ourselves some take-away dinner from Hasnik’s Restaurant…. Sotong Goreng Tepong, Ikan Celup Tepung every type of seafood imaginable fried in a light batter. Simply marvelous..

Managed to arrive in Machang just right after maghrib at around 7 pm So you can say it was another 1.5 hours journey for us minus the stops of course …. so that’s the condensed version of my trip to Terengganu last weekend.

Adieu