12 Apr 2010 to be exact.
After some incident being carried away by strong underwater current while diving in Phuket in 2011, I kinda have little bit of phobia towards sea. I had not touch sea water since then.
Well, now is 2014, hallooo... we have to keep going. What happened in past is past. :)
So for my son's 7th birthday, we off for quick 3 days 2 night stay at Perhentian Island, to celebrate brithday and to overcome some fear towards sea.
This is our first oyako vacation - to mark the beginning of ultimate Mum & Son travel adventure (^^)
Camera : Sony Xperia ZR phone camera ( 2 photos were from GoPro Hero3)
Mode of Travel : by Car, ERL, flight, taxi & speedboat.
4:15 am - Drive to Putrajaya Sentral, parked at the covered parking. ( Cost for 4 days : RM16)
4:50 am - KLIA Transit to KLIA2 (Cost for 1 adult, 1 child : RM9.20)
6:20 am - Air Asia Flight to Kota Bahru ( we had some promo ticket for RM250 for 2 of us)
7:30 am - took airport taxi to Kuala Besut Jetty ( RM78, nice comfy Nissan Sentra cab)
9:20 am - Speedboat to Perhentian Island (it's RM70 per/pax 2 ways and RM5 for Marine Park fees)
10:00 am - Arrived to Abdul Chalet - Check in time was at 12:30pm, so we decided to leave our bag, took out swimsuit and straight into the water! no time wasted at all.
* price shown here for reference purpose only, to see how much inflation has affected for our next trip. :P
I definitely love this mode of travel compare to long night bus ride from KL to Kuala Besut that I used to had.
Perhentian. It is still a magnificent place.... quite over developed though ( I saw a white big mosque is being built at one part of the island)
This time round we stay at Abdul Chalet, at the big island. Neverbeen to Perhentian Besar or big island of Perhentian. Always read about this chalet at Tripadvisor, ranked at No 1, so why not check it out myself. Quite lucky, still managed to book a Standard Garden View Chalet for RM160/night ( actually I was hoping to book for the Deluxe Seaview room)
The room is at far better quality compare to those at Long Beach. It comes with 24 hours electric, aircond, fan, hot water, fridge and timber floor. Room quality is similar to Shari la resort at Coral Bay, at the small island, but Shari la's room are quite far from beach, you have to walk a bit.
Abdul Chalet's located right on the beach. Although our room is called Garden view room, it is actually just about 10 steps at the back from the Deluxe Seaview room :).
We had a great time with extreme sunburn due to sunblock malfunction!... We saw a turtle, 4 baby sharks and lotsss of colourful coral fishes...
these 2 photos was taken by boatman using GoPro Hero3 during our snorkelling trip.... and this made me so inspired to get one GoPro for myself...hehe
Here's some photos of the room... the bathroom is spacious, you can sleep 4 people comfortably inside the bathroom.. lol.
Night view at the chalet's restaurant. They served BBQ, but not as nice as Shari la's BBQ option. Still, my son enjoyed his BBQ prawn so much that he had that for both dinners. Oh ya their Manggo Lassi is very nice too.
The beautiful beach right in front of the chalet. You can snorkel to the platform, where there's still some corals and fishes.
Abundance of fishes under the jetty, next to the chalet. My son, love this spot. He spent most of the time here. He even fed the entire pack of Gardenia bread for these fishes.... and I see a lot of visitor brought along Gardenia bread to fed this fishes... quite worry if the chemicals in the bread might turn these fishes into some sort of mutation... (^p^;).
we got the second floor room, so we can still enjoy see partly seaview from our balcony...with some green roof of the seaview room.
Sunset evening shot. Yes, that is my son in the water. :) He wanted to sleep in the water if possible.
We left Perhentian for 1 night stay at Kota Bahru. The initial plan was to visit the town, to go to Kopitiam Kita for breakfast and try the famous Roti Titab, visit the museum and to see some art performance at the cultural village. But my son had fever from the 3rd day and the weather was extremely hot in Kota Bahru. We stayed at Tune Hotel, KB which is located about 20 steps away from KB Mall. Quite a big shopping mall in Kota Bahru. It has everything. :)
Quickly, we're back into the town people mode and start to shop some stuff at KB Mall and laid on the bed watching TV whole day. :P
Notes to myself for next island vacation with my son.
Essential items to pack for my son:
1) Fever, sea sickness & allergy medicine
2) CoolFever patch (helpful when kid having fever due to exposed to heat for long time)
3) Gamat oil/cream
4) Some heated ointment/oil for body massage..minyak urut :)
5) Water bottle, mark with my son's name.To measure that he drinks enough water.
6) Good sunblock that is suitaable for our skin.
For myself :
1) Cucumber / Aloevera collagen mask from Skin Recovery. This is reallly good to sooth my skin after a day exposed to the sun.
2) Aloevera gel.
Till the next trip... :)
