Redang, April 2007

My dear friend and travelling companion, Anke, and I had originally planned to head to the Malaysian F1 Grand Prix in Kuala Lumpur over the Easter break. Anke has a friend in German media who covers the F1 circuit and could have possibly gotten us some pretty cool access. We had arranged to have the Monday off work in anticipation of dragging ourselves home nursing hangovers from some, as I imagined at least, glamorous apres-race partying. Anyway, neither of us pursued the arrangement of this trip vigorously and as the Easter weekend loomed in front of us with no bookings made, we found ourselves weighing up the alternatives: a party weekend in KL or some sun, sand, salt, surf and spa at a beach somewhere. We opted for the beach.

We had already had a great long weekend in Phuket over Chinese New Year and were keen to try somewhere new. But as we had left it so late, the more usual getaway locations were looking booked out - Krabi, Langkawi, Bali etc.

Anke, though, did some clever internet sleuthing and discovered Redang, off the east coast of Malaysia. And we could get flights and accommodation.

We left Singapore on a 6.50am flight to KL on the Friday morning, which meant getting up at 4.00am for me. Anke, though, had a tonne of work to get through before she left and ended up staying in the office until 3.30am - what dedication! - before going home to change and pack.

The flight to KL is about an hour, then we had an hour in transit before catching an 8.50am flight to Kuala Terreganu, which is a town on the east coast. I was very impressed with KL airport - very nice, new and a very easy transition from international arrivals to domestic departures with immigration desks directly between the two.

I have never been to KL, so it was nice to get a view of the city as we flew over and I was chuffed to see the Petronas Towers out of the window. Will have to go back there soon and check it all out.

Fifty minutes to KT (as I will now call it) and then a transfer from the airport to the wharf. We had not picked up any Malaysian Ringgits and so had to do some negotiation with a bus driver to buy some from him as there was no ATM at the airport and we had to pay a national park fee before we got on the boat. I do not think the guy was too smart and he used his little calculator about 25 times trying to see if he was being ripped off - as it was it was a pretty fair deal for both of us.

It was a pretty weird looking boat and we sat inside down low in the boat in coach-like seats in air conditioned comfort. I was expecting a quick run over smooth waters, so was a bit surprised when we left the river and there was a great heaving and a THUMP-CLANG as we hit the swell of the South China Sea. I think most people on the boat were surprised as there was a fair bit of murmuring and gasping as we pushed through the waves. We turned side onto the swell and headed northwards along and out from the coast towards Redang. Evryone soon got over the initial fright of the sea and actually must have quite enjoyed the rocking and swaying because before too long, every single person in the cabin was asleep - even I dozed off for a few minutes.

The trip out took almost 2 hours. We were met at the other end by a bus which took us the short distance to the other side of the island and our resort, the Berjaya Redang. Quickly saw that there was not much else going on on the island, just a bit of a village in the middle with some houses, a school and a lot of goats. There are apparently some other resorts on the island, but I did not see them or how you would even get to them.

All up, door to door, the trip had taken 8 hours. I will not even mention that we had later found out that there are direct flights from Singapore to Redang!

After a buffet lunch whilst we waited for the rooms to be ready and then a slight mix-up with the room allocation, were were soon installed into a room overlooking the gorgeous beach that is exclusively used by the resort. I must say that it was the perfect example of what I would consider the view should be on a tropical island getaway.

Straight down to the beach for a quick swim. The bay, as I gather, is usually as smooth as glass and had been up until we arrived. But today there was a swell coming through and a bit of surf. The water was warm and it was actually very nice to swim in a bit of surf again after a year away from the waves. It soon started to rain, though, and we headed back to the room where we read for a while and booked in a spa treatment for that evening. I had a salt scrub and a facial and Anke had a massage and facial. Very nice treatment rooms and Indonesian therapists (if that is what they are called). The facial put me into a bit of a trance and we went off for a lovely Thai meal in a very relaxed state.

More beach and sunning ourselves the next morning - nothing more strenuous than that. I think that the beach is one of the nicest I have ever swum at. Beautiful clear, blue warm water. I even managed to do a bit of body-surfing.

In the afternoon we went on a snorkeling tour, stopping off at 3 places around the island, each one a bit differnt fro the other in the types of coral etc. Once again, this was definitely the best snorkeling I have ever done: crystal clear water, lots of fish, amazing coral (although it did look as if quite a lot had died off).

The snorkeling inprired me to try a dive the next day, so when we got back to teh resort I booked in for Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, when the time came, they had cancelled the trip due to "weather conditions" which I did not buy for a minute. Not sure why it was cancelled, but it was no problem, just back to the beach and more swimming.

We ended up going to the spa on Saturday and Sunday evenings. I think we have turned into spa-whores.

Otherwise it was a lot of relaxing on the beach and eating. We did not touch an alcoholic drink all weekend! But it really is not the sort of place for partying.

We did the whole trip in reverse on the Monday, leaving the resort at 12.30pm. We had a couple of hours to kill in KT, and so wandered around the shops and things near the wharf. All a bit third worldish and we were obviously attractions as we drew many stares and smiles from people driving by.

We had left our bags with the security guys at the wharf while we wandered about. When we came back we had a bit of trouble getting a cab. In the end we only just made the flight out of KT. Back home again by 9.15pm and it was all over.