Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Damai Laut getaway trip

Two weekends ago, Gurl and I made a trip to Lumut, Perak for a relaxing getaway. Tons of engineering work put behing our minds, we were hoping this would be a refreshing and fun holiday.

The journey itself was not very interesting...half of it was on the NSE and the other half on trunk roads. I must say the Perak government really takes care of its state roads, it was rather a smooth journey all the way long. So after about 4 hours of driving and a quick stop at Lumut town for dinner, we reached Swiss Garden Resort & Spa Damai Laut, which would be the place of our accomodation for the next two nights.

That was my second time being there and I chose the place because of its lush, beautiful surroundings. Although quite isolated from the town areas, it is the perfect retreat for people who want to escape from the daily hustle and bustle of the city.



Didn't do much for the first night, as we were weary after the journey. Took a walk to familiarize ourselves with the place as it was quite huge. After that, it was Star Movies all the way.



After a good night's sleep, we were raring to set out for Pangkor Island. Before we left the resort, Gurl took this pic with an orang asli (native) warrior. He was playing some sort of musical instrument which was connected to a speaker. I wouldn't be surprised if he whipped out a PDA and started talking into it.

It took us half an hour to reach Lumut town. With a town area even smaller than Bentong, it would be a quiet and sleepy little place if not for the regular tourists. At the jetty we were greeted by some sort of a mini Bintang Walk, with stalls that sell mostly Malay food, sea produce and souvenirs.



After another half an hour spent on the ferry, we set foot on Pangkor Island. First destination: to fill our stomachs as we had not had lunch. Surprisingly, some of the stalls in the town area served some delicious food.

We decided to skip the usual rent-a-van tour and instead, rented a motorbike from the locals. It cost us RM10 per hour, which was really expensive as I recalled that even a Kancil didn't cost that much back in uni days. Anyway, it had been a long time since I rode on a bike, so we had to be extra cautious on the roads given that the roads in Pangkor are known to be notoriously narrow and hard to manouvre at times.



We stopped at a few tourist attractions. The pic above was taken at the Fu Lin temple. I did not notice the guy beside me who mimicked my pose...must have been a nutcase or something.



You see, Sports Toto is everywhere. There is no escape.

We didn't spend much time in Pangkor and left just about when evening came.

Back in the resort, I took this pic of Gurl looking out into the Straits of Malacca. Evening had come, and it was beautiful.

(To be continued)

Technorati tags: pangkor, damai laut, swiss garden, lumut

thought completed at 10:40 PM | 7 comments

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