Kuantan Joy Ride (part 1 @ Mersing)

Being too bored at home, and actually wanna try out my newly bought GPS, so decided to go Kuantan on 1 Feb (Sunday) for joy ride. Total distance to n fro about 800km++

This is the Teluk Chempedak beach at Kuantan when I arrived at noon. Very sunny day with nice white sandy beach. But let me tell you my ride story slowly first okay...

I actually left Singapore on 31 Jan (Sat) at about 3pm to Mersing. Took route 3 there and it's very enjoyable ride because the road from JB to Mersing was mostly straight with lots of slope... so u can max your throttle all the way up n down like roller coaster.

But this same road proved to be quite scary at night when I came back to SG... really the Dr Jekyl n Mr Hide personality. On the way to Mersing, saw these funny structure, not sure what are these but think maybe are some bunker?

Went to Mersing first to visit some friends. After that then just hang around there tried to look for a place to stay. I quite enjoyed the small town atmosphere here. It gave me the Thailand feel because it has only one main street and from begin walk till end you can see lots of shops selling everything.

A very cute looking pedestrian crossing. I don't think can find it elsewhere liao... very the antique.

I found one seafood restaurant named Loke Yuan along the main street seems doing very well and crowded and thought of give it a try. Actually I found a table inside liao, but weirdly the lady boss seems don't want my business. When I sat down she told me if I mind to wait long time for food. I said it's okay I can wait. Then after a while she came back and asked again if I mind, then I asked how long it will be and she said maybe half an hour maybe one hour. Nabeh... sound really want to chase me away like that lo... sigh, maybe cos I alone and she think its not worth the business?

Never mind loh. I walked around and found this restaurant seems doing well with local too. It's called Lucky Food & Catering which is a simple coffeeshop zicha. The lady boss seems very nice and I ordered one steamed fish (si ban), fried prawn, and hotplate tofu. The food is so so only, but I got a shocked when I asked for bill cos its... RM55! I personally find this pricing quite steep... even if I order crab n tua tao etc at Sg Renggit or JB normal zicha also wont be that ex. I'm not sure if the high price was due to fish but... you can give it a try if you wan?

Back to where I stayed... actually I planned to find a cheapo place to stay, so along the road I saw a signboard saying Rajja Villa RM66 and using my GPS I found it. But it's so deserted and the building like half done construction and gave me the spooky feeling like those Guai Tan ghost building, and the price not cheap, still need RM120 (explanation being RM66 is old pricing, sux man). So, I U-turn back along the main road back to Mersing and the first hotel I saw was Hotel Havanita. It attracted my attention because of its bright lighting... very appealing at dark dark trunk road there. So went to counter to reccee... the price is ex, superior room is RM180, deluxe room is RM220. The staff also very kind enough to show me the room, and explained to me the differences between the room types etc (like those sale wanna sell me condo hahaha). Deluxe room meant its really large and got bath tub. So I ended up stayed at Deluxe one... just to pamper myself for a night lah cos it work out less than SGD100, quite worth it.

Although this hotel has only 2 floors, it has about 40+ rooms and seems to be in those designer boutique hotel category. The hotel is quite new and it also has some awards like nice design etc.

Inside my hotel room.. swee bor? It's only better if got a beauty beside me... hehe... but like that I may not have energy go Kuantan liao... :P

You will know the hotel clean or not by looking at their bathroom...

View from my window. It's super windy night, don't even need aircon also very cooling liao. This hotel is along the main road out from Mersing towards Air Papan. The hotel just next to Hotel Timotel and opposite the Petronas. Very highly recommended! One of the nicest hotel I been.

Night night...

(to be continue...)