Day 1 - Cherating - 1 May 2005

At last! A long 'overdue' vacation - ni kira desperate la.. the last we went was to Genting last year, and after that takde pergi memana until la this one. A short, sweet and cheap vacation hehehehe. Bertolak dari BA pukul 9:30 pagi and went to Alliance to pay the house loan, singgah Dharbar kat Melawati for breakfast then singgah my father's house. By the time kitorang masuk highway was about 11:30am. The tol charges were RM4 at gombak, another RM2.50 near Karak and RM19.00 on the new Lebuhraya Pantai Timur. Arrived Kuantan at about 3pm.

The actual planning started a couple of weeks before; bookings etc. although we have talked about going since as early as February! We managed to get a place kat Seberang Balok since most of the chalets refuse to take advance booking (eventhough i offered to pay in advance) and all the large 3 - 4 star resorts were fully booked. So, we had no choice but to book at Kabana Resort. Upon arrival (that is after terlajak ke near Kemaman - didn't expect this Kabana was like 30 minutes drive to Cherating) we were greeted with an unpleasant news of paip pecah dekat Kabana. Bilik pun boleh tahan tak best - the place was deserted and macam a ghost motel je la.. hehehe ada swimming pool but didn't look inviting at all. So we decided to go back to Kampung Cherating to see whether we could get a last minute room at a decent chalet there. Lucky enough we got a place for RM74 at Cherating Mini Motel (it's a bungalow style chalet with TV, Aircond, 1 double bed, a single bed and an attached bathroom) Ok ler.. happy hehehehe. So we had to go back to Kabana and return their keys and hopefully get some refund from our booking (kat situ price was RM80 per room per night).

At Kabana it was hard to convince the owner that we do not want the room due to 'takda air' lucky us that the water supply was still not on at 5:30pm. So gunalah alasan tu and i negotiated with the resort owner and offered a half day payment for his room. Kira win-win situation and got la my RM100 back.

After taking a short nap, I was eager to see the sun set. Hahahah that's the reason for going to the beach at 7pm! Disspointed by no sun set view (Blocked by some pine trees) we hopped for a drink kat Duyong Seafood Restaurant.. balik to our 'bungalows' and prepare for dinner. (Dari lunch tak makan!) and drove to Kemaman. Had nasi goreng ayam and my dear had favourite tom yam campur (which was tak sedap at all) hahaha and headed back to Kg Cherating after a short drive along Kuala Kemaman beach. We watched Cerekarama on TV3 and tido after that.. tak sabarnya nak tengok sunrise the next morning!