Lazy Days in Cherating

We got to the Tioman ferry at 7 AM, as the guy who sold us the ticket had said to do.  "You should be early, so we can load faster," he had told us less than 24 hours before.  So we were very much on time, if only the ferry had been so obliging.  They did not actually open the ferry waiting area until 8 and the ferry itself finally pulled up to the jetty at about 8:45.  Fortunately since everyone was well prepared for the ferry's arrival at this point, it did not take long to load up and the ferry was off before 9.  We put our bags down to claim some seats and made our way to the back of the boat again so as to sit outside.  Outside in this case was a cramped back deck that couldd seat maybe 10 people if they were skinny Malays.  We ended up sitting done just as some other foreigners came out.  They were unfortunately only out to smoke, though they did stay once they were finished.  After about 10 minutes though, the ferry pulled into, what's this: another jetty to pick up more people.  The captain seemed to be unsure as to which way to park at the jetty and the ferry moved in, the pulled back out then moved in again for about 15 minutes.  As it did, the sky opened up and rain began to pour.  From the back of the ferry we some good pictures of the rain on the Ocean:

The ferry finally found the right way in and again people quickly piled into it.  The rain got a lot worse and all us foreigners were chased back indoor.  Nancy and I got further reading done when we sat back in our seats.

The ferry docked at Mersing Jetty around 11:30 a full 2 hours later than it was supposed to, we were troubled by this as we had looked up bus schedules for our next destination and there was one at 12 that we were hoping to get.  By the time we were close to the bus station 12 had arrived and I'm fairly sure we saw the bus leave.  It was alright though, we had not eaten yet and did not like the idea of going for another (supposed) 3 hours without food.  We stopped and ate at (and we're not proud of this) KFC, which seems to be the biggest western chain in Malaysia (they are everywhere!).  After they gave us 3 small bags containing our modest meal for two, we decided that we could probably skip KFC next time, unless we were going to be eating in (even then..).

There were no direct buses to Cherating (our next destination) from Mersing so we had to take a bus to Kuantan and take a local bus from there.  When we inquired about the bus to Kuantan we were told the next one left at 5.  We did not want to wait 5 hours and then stay in Kuantan.  We asked at another place and they said that maybe the one at 1 was not full, but we would have to wait for the bus to arrive to find out.  So we sat down and waited, hoping for there to be room.  Fortunately an agent for the bus company arrive before the bus (which didn't arrive until 1:30) and asked us if we were going to Kuantan.  Presumably he had talked to lady at the counter.  He called the bus driver for us and secured us the last two seats on the bus for us.  We were very grateful.  We talked to the man for a bit, he said that he used to be a ferry captain, and at another time a cargo ship crew member in Singapore.  He had been married to a Dutch woman, a Chinese woman and a Malay woman at different points in his life and said he was looking for his fourth wife.  "Muslims can have 4 wives, you know?" he joked.  Of course this was not quite the same.  We thanked him very much when the bus arrived and hopped on.

The bus did not take quite 3 hours to get the Kuantan and we enjoyed the ride, though the driver did seem to be going a little fast for a bumpy 1 lane road.

We arrived in Kuantan, and decided from the window view that it was a good thing that we were nor staying the night.  We ate at a restaurant between the express and local bus stations and made our way to the local bus station.  The bus to Cherating (actually its final destination was another town a bit further than Cherating) had just left we were informed there, but another one would be arriving in an hour.  So we waited.  As we were waiting we began to notice that several other people were also waiting for the same bus.  The crowd got rather thick at the bus stop and when the bus arrived (an old rickety, but quite large one) it was immediately mobbed by the crowd and we knew that we did not have a hope of sitting down on the ride.  We pushed our way through to the back of the bus and put our bags down on the floor beside us.   And then we waited for another 20 minutes or so.  The bus had no air con and no wind wind was blowing through the windows.  It was not a pleasant wait.  Finally the bus got underway, but not before more people crowded aboard.  On one side of us data group of 3 boys around the age of 10 or so and on the other side a group of girls about the same age.  They spent a good deal of time glancing at each other when they thought no one was looking.  It was rather cute to see.  What was less cute was watching them dump their garbage out the window of the bus when they were finished with it.  It seems like there is a bit less in the way of education when it comes to garbage clean up here, with the younger folk.  Its disappointing. An old woman eventually made her way to the back of the bus to collect fares.  She took one look at us and said, "Cherating?" (how ever did she know?).  When the bus arrived at the proper stop she stopped it for us.  Apparently this was where all the foreigners got off.  It was 8:30 by this point.  We had spent more then 12 hours on transit or waiting for transit.  We were tired and a little grumpy and really just wanted to put our bags down for a final time for the day.

The Lonely Planet pick for Cherating was the Villa de Fedella and we made our way there for the night.  We were greeted by a kindly older man who showed us to our chalet.  We were initially unimpressed with our new lodgings, especially since it was 70RM a night, more expensive than anywhere we have stayed in Malaysia.  While large it seemed dank.  The light was florescent and unappealing.  We decided that we only needed to stay one night as we got ready for bed.

It was a different story when we woke up though.  The room had grown on us in the night and when we stepped outside we were greeted by the most pleasant of grounds we have ever stayed on:

Nancy by the lotus pond.

Our Chalet.

A cute kitten that wanted to eat with us.

More with the lotus pond.

Still more.

In all we ended up staying 5 nights.  The gratis breakfast wasn't bad either.

Cherating is on the coast and ostensibly it was a town to come, relax, surf and swim.  We did not like the looks of the water so we did not swim on the first day, instead after walking up and down the beach for a bit we tried to walk to the turtle sanctuary that was just up the road from Cherating proper.  We got about 5 minutes up the highway and realized that we would have to go earlier in the day if we did not want to roast.  There was no shade close to the road and there  was little in the way of a pedestrian path.  We walked back to Cherating unnerved by the traffic and sun and tried to find a place in the shade with a cold drink.  We found such a place that also offered a 10 RM batik painting session.  We picked a picture of two cats and Nancy painted one, while did the other.  To paint batik style one needs to have picture already, using wax (the cats were outlined and crisscrossed with wax), then the painter takes a brush and dips it in the paint and puts the tip in the centre of a waxed off area.  The paint spreads from the brush and fills the area (if it is small enough).  I'm not much for the technicalities of art, but it was fun.

On our way back we inquired at a place called Hafiz's tours, which The Lonely Planet recommends.  Hafiz, a self made expert on the local fireflies, told us that we simply had to show up at 7:45 to hear a talk on fireflies, then we could board a boat and go on a firefly tour.  After a great dinner at Matahari's restaurant (the lemon chicken was divine) we did jus that.  Hafiz loved his fireflies.  His english was not super good but his exuberance was infectious.  He talked about how the light from these particular fireflies were mating signals and light pollution was bad for fireflies.  Malaysian fireflies don't have a constant glow but a flicker on and off.  They sometimes think that human made light is mating calls and die trying to follow it (most this is the flicker of cars on the highway near their habitats.  It was hard to follow everything he said, but he sure talked a lot.  Eventually his wife had to cut him off so that he could actually lead the tour.  they needed two boats for the tour and after everyone was boarded we were off.

We cruised slowly down a dark river, with little to guide us but the moon and few flashlights.  Hafiz continued to talk.  We passed under a bridge and then were away completely from all artificial light.  The boats suddenly slowed down and our attention was draw to a tree to our left.  It was sparkling with little flickering lights, like an oddly shaped Christmas tree.  Hafiz clicked his flashlight once and on masse the entire glowing tree seemed to lift up and drift towards us.  We immediately surrounded by glowing little pixies, drifting around us and landing on us.  They do not feel hot, in fact they are so light (haha), that we did not feel anything at all.  Nancy held one in her hand and its glow lit her hand on and off.  One landed on top of my pointer finger and made it look like I had magical powers.  This continued all up the river.  An hour seemed too short.

On our way back to the Villa we ran into an Australian couple who were looking for a place to stay.  We suggested that they stay at the Villa.  They apparently took our advice because the next morning we met them at breakfast.  Their names were Otto and Tila (I think).  We struck a long conversation with them.  They were on what they referred to as a short vacation (only 6 weeks) and they had spent many a month in Indonesia during the previous year.  Indonesia and Malaysia speak pretty much the same language and they were trying to practice what they had learned while there.  They had travelled all over Southeast Asia, and like many people we had talk to, they said that Laos was their favourite and Thailand was so-so.  They also, during the conversation told us that we should go to Australia at some point.  It was easy for foreigners to get jobs there and we would be able to travel the country with relative ease, while working when we needed to.  It planted a seed.  We may just do that in the coming months.

After parting with the AUstralians, with promises to meet for dinner, we decided that we were going to rent bicycles and ride to the turtle sanctuary.  This was not to be.  After an hour searching we found one place that had lots of bicycles for rent but only for guests at their hotel and one place with a single bicycle to rent (which was not very helpful as it was not a tandem).  Dejected we were walking back to the Villa when found ourselves in another batik place.  We asked, one final time, if they knew any where that we could rent bicycles and a girl working there said we could borrow hers (though the brakes didn't really work).  We borrowed it anyway and rented the single bike from the other place.  We did not attempt the highway with a brakeless bike, but rode around Cherating for about half an hour, before returning the bikes.  They refused to accept money for so short a ride, so that was a bonus.  We jumped into the Ocean to cool off, before heading back to the same batik place we had borrowed the bike from.  This one allowed us to do our own picture and involved a lot more instruction.  Nancy was quite interested in this so while she worked on her first tea batik piece I read.  There were several stages to the batik process and after Nancy had waxed and painted we had to wait for it to dry before "setting" it.

We met our new Australian friends for dinner, though they had to run before they could actually get dinner because they were keen to see Hafiz's fireflies.  Before they went we told them we had been thinking about taking a river kayak up the same river as the fireflies were the next morning.  They said they just might join us.  After setting the paint at the batik place we returned to the Villa for an early night.

The next morning we were up bright and early, and while we did have breakfast with our Australian friends they said they weren't up to kayaking, they were taking a river cruise to see the otters on the river around the same time and we decided that we would discuss what we saw when we were both done.

The kayak we rented was from Hafiz and as we climbed into it, the man who had helped us get it ready told us (at Nancy's questioning) that crocodiles were usually much farther down stream, so unfortunately we were unlikely to see one.  We didn't think that this was so unfortunate.  The river was incredibly calm as we paddled along.  We didn't see much in the way of wildlife but the tranquility of it alone was worth the trip.  As we were turning back we heard motor boat approaching and shortly saw one approaching.  At the front of the boat was our Aussie friends who discussed with us what they had seen thus far, across the water.  Their guide was good enough to point out a small snake curled in a tree not far away for us and some of the richer looking tourists actually took pictures of us as well as the snake.  I guess (as we were the only people on the river in a kayak) we were kind of a novelty too.  As we kayaked back some children on the bank made crocodile hands at us and laughed.

Our time in Cherating over all pretty lazy, with a few flurries of activity from time to time.  The atmosphere of Cherating was one of peaceful idleness and well we got a lot of reading (I finished finished The Painted Veil and started The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time; Nancy started A Walk in the Woods) done in the shady spots of the Villa.  The Villa itself was neat and not too strenuous to explore.  All in all, Cherating was like a calm little pool that we could float around in before hopping back into the rushing river that is the rest of Malaysia.  We enjoyed it, but we had to move on.  After all we could spend all of our vacation on Cherating time.

The hornbill we saw as we were leaving the area.