Pulau Perhentian - a resort island

Koh Samui’s lesser-known sister
Thursday September 14, 2006
By Kamaruzaman Yaacob

The resort island of Pulau Perhentian off Tereng-ganu's coast shares geographical similarities with its Thai counterpart of Koh Samui, situated 600km to the north. But it still lags when it comes to drawing tourists.

Tourism operators on the island are of the opinion that networking with their counterparts in Koh Samui can help bring the much needed tourists.

A boatman waiting for passengers to disembark from the speedboat to take them to shore at Pulau Perhentian Kecil in Terengganu.

The Thailand Tourism Association's Deputy Chairman Abdul Aziz Awang Seman also opined that tour operators in Malaysia must take steps to promote Pulau Perhentian in Thailand as no information was available on the island there.

“Everyday, almost 12,000 international tourists visit Koh Samui and some of them want to continue their vacation to other places,” he said.

Abdul Aziz said for the benefit of both islands, he was trying to establish a networking between tour operators in Koh Samui and Pulau Perhentian.

There are at least 10 snorkeling spots, with the full works, onl Pulau Perhentian.

Pulau Perhentian is made of a cluster of islands consisting of Pulau Perhentian Besar, Pulau Perhentian Kecil, Pulau Susu Dara and a few other small islands covering 1,392ha.

It has been gazetted as a marine park.

The tourist attractions are in Pulau Perhentian Besar along Teluk Pauh, Pasir Jong, Teluk Keke and Teluk Dalam. Meanwhile the attractions on Pulau Perhentian Kecil lies at Kampung Pasir Panjang and Teluk Kerma.

Turtles are regularly seen around the Perhentian Islands.

Dominic Johnson, 20, a tourist from England when met at Pulau Perhentian said the attractions were similar to Koh Samui.

“Here, the situation is quiet and refreshing compared to Koh Samui which is always filled with tourists and traffic congestion.

“Here, we are free to engage in varied activities like scuba diving, snorkelling and jungle trekking. The natural surroundings are also untouched, while over there, it's cramped with rapid development,” he said.

However, there are some impediments in bringing tourists from Koh Samui.

Obviously more needs to be done to draw tourists to the island despite its having natural beauty and crystal clear waters.

Firstly there are no direct ferry services or flights from Koh Samui to the island or even to the nearest town in the mainland as pointed out by Abdul Aziz who is also a member of the Thailand Tourism Board.

Above: Coconut trees providing shade at a beach along an island.

Because of this, tourists from Koh Samui must travel back to Bangkok to take a flight to Kuala Lumpur before continuing to Pulau Perhentian.

The other option is a RM180 van ride that takes eight hours to reach Besut and then board a ferry to the island at a cost of RM30 for a one-way trip.

Secondly the facilities and infrastructure even for the in-habitants are limited, and at any one time the most it can only cater for fewer than 3,000 visitors.

According to the local head in Pulau Perhentian Kecil, Che Omar Che Mat, 57, there are currently a bazaar, a primary school, a midwife clinic and a police station under construction.

More importantly the island needs clean fresh water and Che Omar hoped the government would speed up the building of a pipeline from the mainland to bring clean water.

Thirdly and probably the most critical impediment concerns the coral reefs, which are among the best in the region. But these tourism assets for the island, are fast vanishing.

The white monolith extending from Pulau Perhentian is another attraction for foreign tourists. — Bernamapic

The coral reefs especially at Pantai Teluk Dalam, on the eastern part of the island, were seen to be facing extermination due to the receding water level.

During low tides, the dead corals are washed ashore along the 3km-long beach, creating an ugly beachfront with the sight best described by Dutch tourist Romano Ruis, 23, as disappointing.

“The authorities must take action to overcome the problem before it's too late,” he said.

Dutch tourists, Ester Odenhinehen, 20 (left) and Ruis, showing the damaged corals found along the 3km coast of Pantai Teluk Dalam on the eastern side of Pulau Perhentian — Bernamapic

For the owner of Arwana Resort Datuk Abdul Aziz Mat Daud, the coral reefs around the area have long been dead and it's hard to revive them again.

Efforts should be taken to deepen the area though it may incur huge cost.

“Similar efforts in the Caribbean islands helped to produce a new marine park.

“The dead reefs were dug out and made into a fortress in the water. In long term, a man-made lagoon and marine park was created,” he said.

About 95% of the 1,500 villagers in Pulau Perhentian Kecil are now active in the tourism industry around Pulau Perhentian Besar.

Here, there are about, 40 resorts and chalets providing job opportunities to 600 people.

Despite the limitations, Pulau Perhentian is still a worthwhile destination for any nature lover. – Bernama / Star.

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Langkawi Four Seasons Resort

Langkawi Four Seasons Resort
By Jan Leow

This is really a luxurious resort. Six-star class, with the lowest room rate at US$450 per night is very well out of range for most average income earners. On top of that, they just won the FIABCI-MALAYSIAN award 2006 in the resort development category.

If the photos of the resort are anything to go by, it definitely left my mouth watering and longing to at least visit the place. But being a high class snob place, I bet they would not allow any outsiders to simply waltz right in to have a look at their premises unless you are a fare paying guest. Perhaps just dining in would be good enough to enable you to have a look around.

The Four Season Resort Langkawi is a six-star resort hotel under a joint partnership between Malaysian Airlines System Bhd (MAS) and Four Season Resort group.

So let's see what do they have:

91 accommodation units available in five types of guest rooms and suites:

• 34 units of Melaleuca lower pavilion
  
• 34 units of Melaleuca upper pavilion
  
• 20 units of beach villa
  
• 2 units of two-bedroom villa; and
  
• a royal villa
  

The resort has three restaurants with its own distinct concept and architecture.

• Serai offers buffet breakfast and dinner with the flavours of southern Italy and the Mediterranean
  
• Ikan-Ikan offers fresh seafood in an exotic South-East Asian regional mix of Thai, Chinese and Malay styles; and
  
• Kafe Kelapa features a full service bar and serves an all day menu with a mix of western and eastern cuisine.
  

Other amenities at the resort:

• Rhu Bar offers a selection of snacks and an evening beverage list. Turkish water pipes, Indian Moghul hangin swings and a pool table complete the picture
  
• A 55m seafront infinity edge lap pool provides an airy yet intimate retreat, complete with lounges, fountains and eight private cabanas;
  
• A family pool with a unique design consisting of fountains, water jet streams and bubble beds;
  
• Spa Complex with six pavilions set against a backdrop of limestone granite and a separate pavilion for guests to practice yoga and meditation; and
  
• library.
  

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Langkawi - Freshness Guaranteed

Freshness guaranteed
Saturday September 2, 2006

Food is a four-letter word that can be enjoyed in so many ways. BOEY PING PING goes from a business-class flight to first-class dining at the celebrated Four Seasons Resort Langkawi.

FLYING into Langkawi, the plane passes low over waters so clear I can almost see my dinner jumping out at me. Fish, squid and prawns swim playfully in the turquoise sea, oblivious to their fate as my meal soon. It’s been a while since I last visited the island but now is better than ever to visit Langkawi as the curse of Mahsuri has been lifted and business is booming.

The legend of Mahsuri tells of the execution of a princess wrongly accused of adultery. With her last breath, she put a curse on Langkawi that would last seven generations.

While the curse of Mahsuri has ended, the success of the Four Seasons Resort Langkawi, opened last year, is only beginning.

The resort is a village of pavilions, pools and landscaped gardens.

The sprawling 19ha resort which took six years to build reveals an amazing world-class destination that Malaysians can proudly call their own.

Even before it celebrated its first birthday, the resort was named World’s Best of the Best in the premier issue of Robb Report Luxury Resorts.

Surrounded by sandy white beaches, lush greenery and emerald waters, the resort is a tropical paradise where every restaurant overlooks the sea and every room has a view. Here, food isn’t just food but a celebration of the senses and surroundings.

The freshest seafood assured.

Bountiful breakfast

I arrived at the resort in time for my breakfast appointment with public relations and sales co-ordinator Warren Fernandez, but a hotel staff member turned up at my door bearing a tray full of delectable pastries. I wondered whether my breakfast appointment was cancelled, but the staff clarified that “we didn’t want you to go hungry”.

That probably reflected the state I was in for the next three days – well-fed.

The feeding frenzy started with a hearty breakfast at Serai restaurant. There’s an oft chance that you could spend the most important meal of the day sitting next to someone important as celebrities are known to spend their holidays here.

All sorts of smells wafted around the buffet spread. Roti canai was made on the spot and the chocolate-chip pancakes didn’t remain on their plates for long.

It seemed sinful to indulge in the santan-rich nasi lemak but it would have been even more sinful not to try it with the lip-smacking chicken rendang. Western pastries sat side by side with Nyonya delicacies, while healthy options of granola were just as tempting as the less wholesome sugar-sweet pastries.

We had breakfast by the beach, amidst tall palm trees and the gentle caress of a tropical breeze. The option of breakfast in bed can wait till tomorrow.

Mediterranean munchies

When seafood is so easily available, you can sprinkle it on top of a crisp-thin pastry base, pour tomato sauce over it, add a pinch of oregano and call it the Frutti Di Mare pizza.

Pizzas at Kafe Kelapa are cooked in a wood-fire oven lending a smoky flavour to the crunchy base. Not surprisingly, pizzas are popular with the diners – bikini-clad women and hunky men. And because hunger strikes easily after a swim, Kafe Kelapa, the resort’s poolside café, is a favourite hangout.

Picnic basket

The next day was sunny, perfect for a picnic lunch. By the time we finished touring the mangroves and visiting the bat cave, we were just as famished as the eagles that swooped down to catch the pieces of chicken skin we threw up at them.

At Gua Cerita, a little beach enclave, we carried three sturdy rattan baskets which opened up to reveal a delicious three-course meal. Instead of a picnic mat, we sat at a picnic table. As we enjoyed our curried chicken salad and mango relish, we enjoyed the natural surroundings. The focaccia sandwich of roast beef, aragula and asparagus seemed too posh for a simple picnic setting.

Even then, there was more to come – Camembert with dried apricot compote and New York Cheese Cake with raspberry sauce.

Lunch came to an end when I spotted two monkeys checking out our five-star lunch. We quickly left as I didn’t want to meet the monkey’s extended family!

Find tropical cocktails and rich Middle Eastern ambience at the Rhu Bar.

Sunset cocktails by the beach

If you want to catch a jewel-toned sunset on the warm beach with a cold drink in your hand, Rhu Bar is the place.

An elaborate tapestry of rich colours and textures accentuates the Moorish ambience of Rhu Bar. Coloured cushions, hanging swings and glowing candles lend mystery to this seductive, romantic hideaway. The bar is probably the only one in the world to have a fuchsia coloured pool table.

When the sun sets, the Arabian Nights inspired lounge comes alive with a mystical glow that is perpetuated by genie-costumed staff. Mohan Naidu, the food and beverage assistant director, was kind enough to let me play bartender for a moment. From him, I got the bar’s secret recipe for their signature drink, Mojito.

As I left for dinner, I noticed the staff setting up a tiny table by the beach. Apparently, a couple had decided to have their romantic dinner outdoors – with their legs dangling from the hanging Indian Moghul swing. At the resort, anything is possible.

Cooking class

Nyonya recipes are usually passed down from one generation to another, and jealously guarded. So I was excited to attend the resort’s Nyonya cooking class. Plus, I had the honour of having the chef de cuisine, Chef Khairusshahri Ghazali, teach me the finer points of cooking.

We started by tackling an easy recipe – popiah. Simple was what I thought until I tried making the popiah skin from scratch.

The batter refused to skim smoothly over the pan and the skin was too full of holes to be used. I resigned myself to watching the chef rather than participating as he conjured up delicious treats of Inchee Cabin (fried chicken with galangal, ginger and lime leaves) and Nyonya Achar (pickled vegetables).

The sago pudding – sago doused with freshly squeezed coconut milk and palm sugar seemed simple enough to make but I decided to practise at home and enjoy the meal instead.

The relaxing Ikan-Ikan.

Romance of the Rajasthani tent

Feeling like a contestant on Survivor who had just won the reward of a lavish dinner by the beach, I joined Fernandez under the resort’s Rajasthani tent.

Had I been on my honeymoon then, I would have relished the experience even more – a beautiful dome tent, a carefully crafted bouquet of pink roses and exclusive one-to-one service while dining on the beach with no one else in sight.

Even if several couples decide to have a Rajasthani tent dinner, the tents are scattered around the island to ensure privacy.

The menu is from the resort’s Ikan-Ikan (Malay for fish) restaurant which is built like a traditional Malay-style home. Like its name, you’ll find the freshest seafood from the Andaman sea cooked in all styles – from Thai shrimp cakes to otak-otak and skewered calamari.

Once again, Chef Khairusshahri dazzled me with his cooking skills. Instead of boring old soup, he created a lovely laksa sauce broth with a plump prawn wonton. Without a doubt, the steamed seabass was the freshest I had ever savoured.

As all the resort’s three restaurants and bar face the sea, you’ll always be feasting on succulent seafood against a backdrop of ocean and islands. And here, the setting is always as spectacular as the cuisine.

For more information, visit www.fourseasons.com/langkawi

- The Star

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Orang asli villages pulling in the tourists

Orang asli villages pulling in the tourists
BY Nik Naizi Husin
Friday August 25, 2006

MUADZAM SHAH: Visits to orang asli villages are so popular with foreign tourists they have been included in the itinerary for the homestay programmes here.

State Arts, Culture, Heritage, Tourism and Women’s Affairs Committee chairman Datuk Maznah Mazlan said the orang asli in Kampong Kedaik, Kampong Tanam and a few other surrounding villages still carried out traditional activities like fishing in ponds, streams and making blow pipes.

She said foreign tourists loved to follow the orang asli fishing or observe them making blowpipes and sometimes even tried to do it on their own.

She added that they loved the food they got during their stay here.

School children from Toyogawa Junior High School - who had participated in a homestay programme in Muadzam Shah in Pahang - trying to play the gamelan. On hand to help is state exco member Datuk Maznah Mazlan (in blue baju kurung).

“The lemang periuk kera (glutinous rice steamed in the monkey cup plant) is among some unique local food that is available in Muadzam Shah,” Maznah said on Tuesday after meeting 23 Japanese visitors who had participated in a homestay programme here recently.

The 18 students from Toyogawa Junior High School, aged between 11 and 16 years and accompanied by group leaders and officials lead by Masakatsu Maru, spent five days at the village.

Muadzam Shah homestay programme co-ordinator Abdul Khalib Abdullah said 11 “foster parents” had taken care of the group throug-hout their stay.

Abdul Khalib said the homestay programme started to get foreign tourists in 2001, attracting mainly repeat as well as new visitors from Japan. - The Star.

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Going it alone - Travel Tales

Going it alone
TRAVELLER'S TALES

Alexandra Wong tells us why she would never take a tour again, after surviving a self-planned trip to Australia and backpacking solo in Kuching.

Mark warned me not to expect your typical tour itinerary in Melbourne. I suspected as much that we weren’t going to do the usual koala and wombat routine.

”I’m showing you the real Australian lifestyle!” he said.

But, the Royal Botanical Gardens? He brushed off my misgivings airily.

“Trust me! I’ll guarantee you two hours isn’t even enough.”

Duly warned, I traipsed into the Royal Botanical Gardens, clutching parasol and a hatful of reservations. That day, I learnt something new about temperate countries and their inhabitants’ obsession with flora and fauna.

Over there, parks are mostly luxuriant, lovingly maintained expanses of verdant foliage and luscious blooms, worlds apart from their ill-tended counterparts in Malaysia. Not two, but four hours later, I had to be dragged out kicking and screaming. My flower caper made me a lifelong believer in Mark’s travelling mantra: throw out the guidebook with the bathwater.

By the time I graduated to my own solo backpacking trip to Kuching, I was determined to take the path less beaten. I skipped the tourist cliches and asked the locals about their personal favourites.

I took the town bus instead of the cab if the route was accessible. I forced myself to go up to strangers and ask for assistance.

Of course, old habits and misconceptions die hard. During my early days, I clung to my pepper spray like a chastity belt, and wore my unwieldy moneypouch to the toilet. Never mind the encumbrance, I’d been spooked by too many stories of single women falling prey to sexual predators in strange, foreign lands.

It took a while before I relaxed enough to realise that it was completely unnecessary to eyeball every stranger like they were a potential rapist/mugger/pickpocket.

“When you’re travelling alone, you have to risk talking to people,” said Bario, a Bavarian sound engineer who stayed at the same hostel as I did. “More often than not, most travellers are decent people like you and me.”

Armed with hobbling Malay but aided by plenty of local insight, not only did he discover the best place for lobak, lemon-style fried pork, Sabah greens and kung-po chicken feet (a few streets away from the Borneo Bed & Breakfast guesthouse), he also found the trail to Bario. (You take an 18-hour bus ride and then hop onto an 18-seater Otter plane.)

Yes sirree, do things the local way, but I’ll improvise a little: see it with a stranger’s eyes. When you’re new to an experience or place, you’re unburdened by the preconceived assumptions of a local who may be oblivious to elements that an outsider might find novel, and that is a vantage point that can work beautifully in your favour.

While I was at the New South Wales Art Gallery, I was blown away by the profusion of award-winning artwork, but silently cursed the house rules of not allowing photography. After I’d had my eyefill, I wandered into the café which was teeming with art aficionados discussing art (what else) over steaming cups of flat white and café latte.

Ostensibly, it was also the only place where you could take photographs. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a Japanese lady hamming it up at the glass window for her pre-pubescent son’s camera.

I walked over to check out the source of her bemusement. Lo and behold, right smack in the middle of all that genius was the piece de resistance: the window afforded a stunning vertiginous view of the entire city.

One of many quotations inscribed all over the walls summed it up best: Art is not what you see, but what you make others see – Edgar Degas.

The thriving art scene in Melbourne reaches far beyond the venerable walls of its many museums. On his off days, Mark gleefully steered me to the labyrinthine laneways that divide the Melbourne Commercial Business District into neat, easy-to-navigate squares – and also a haven for Australia’s graffiti artists. We spent hours ogling at wall after wall of brilliant murals that would rival any street in the Bronx.

I was very lucky to have Mark (my childhood friend who now resides in Melbourne) squiring me around town. On the days I was left to my own devices, there was still eye candy aplenty to keep me agog. Every morning, I would park myself at one of Temple Street’s ubiquitous sidewalk cafés, and feast my eyes on the denizens that lent the busy thoroughfare its inimitable character.

There was one lady in her 60s sporting dreadlocks and countless neo-punks strutting down in their studded and rainbow-haired glory. Most were unfazed by my bug-eyed stares, while one or two would wave back and holler: “Hey love, how are ya doing?”

While my experiences have taught me to fall back on town-proud locals for recommendations to the sweetest spots, a female friend, a veteran solo traveller, puts her own spin to this thumb rule: “When you’re in a foreign place, better to listen like a dumb a$$ than talk like an expert. People will be more willing to show you the ropes.”

In Kuching, I ended up in the cab of a garrulous taxi-driver who subjected me to a running commentary on Kuching politics.

Although exhausted from the day’s pottering, I still forced myself to pay attention and show interest. At the end of the exercise, he rewarded my patience with a free personal tour of the local bus routes and a discounted ride to the best ice-kacang stall in Kuching.

I’m not asking you to be a phony, just advocating plain old courtesy. Everyone likes to be an expert, but there’s a time and place for everything. Remember, you are supposed to be on vacation.

Now I’m sure this list of to-dos is hardly comprehensive. If some altruistic soul would sponsor me a ticket to go uncover the other 273 travel tips that’s not found here, I’d be more than willing to volunteer my efforts. Any takers? W - Star.

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