Awana Kijal (11 June 2005, Day 2)

Slept like a baby... until Mrs B woke me up, "De de, wake up... come look at the sunrise?". Groggily I obliged. Took out my Canon Ixus40 to look "interested", took this shot, said "wah... so nice.." and then plonked back into bed! bwahahahaha!

(Actually, I took several shots at different zooms. The beach was extremely quiet in the wee hours of the morning).

The night before, Mrs B and I had already decided to have breakfast in Chukai at the famous Hai Peng Coffeeshop. We woke up the kids and had them freshen up. That was when we noticed baby SueAnne has a new "friend"... her image in the mirror! She was coo-ing and gaga-ing to her image and even kissed "it" several times! It was so funny that I had it on digicam video. Muahahahahar! I can blackmail my baby girl already! *evil daddy grin*

At the car park, I was extremely horrified to see our car with bird shit all over it! Yes, all over it! Arrgh! This is worse than Klang! The cars beside us tak lepas the bombardment too. Cursing under my breathe, we drove down to Chukai town about 20 minutes away.

Hai Peng coffeeshop is pretty easy to find. Coming from Awana Kijal, you will reach a big cross junction with traffic lights that has the timer (the only timer in town). Turn left and immediately you will see Hai Peng Coffeeshop on your left in a 3 storey white building. At about 9.30am, the place was full! You will find Singaporean tourists, Malaysian tourists like us and the best part, old local Malay, Chinese and Indian men puffing away and enjoying a good cuppa coffee.

By then, they were already out of toasted roti kaya so we settled for small toasted buns. Not bad. I also tried a packet of their nasi dagang and commented like an expert to Mrs B that it was a bit dry. After I had finished it, Mrs B nudge nudged and pointed out the other customers scooping kuah into their nasi dagang. Wahlaueh, I missed that pot of kuah! So malu-fying man! For coffee, I ordered the Hai Peng Classic while Mrs B ordered the Hai Peng Traditional. We both agreed that the Hai Peng Classic tastes better. Full body coffee aroma, hmmmmm... ;)

After breakfast, I dropped Mrs B and the kids at The Store because I wanted to take the car for a wash. I just couldn't tahan the sight of all the bird shit over the car. Drove to a nearby Shell Station with car wash facility. The operator said I had to queue up behind another car. I thought a car should be quite fast as our KL cuci-kereta's take only 15 minutes max to wash and vacuum your car. It was only an hour later that I took my car and I was charged RM12! For the same it only cost me RM8 in KL. Anyway, I was glad that my car was bird shit free and I must remember not to park under the "shitting trees" of Awana Kijal. ;)

This was a shot I took while waiting at the car wash. Noticed how blue the sky was?

Went back to The Store and we ended up buying a baby chair for SueAnne from AnakKu. It's made of rubber wood and we liked it because this chair's design made it more difficult for baby SueAnne to climb out than our existing chair. Still, it cost us RM60 (70% off RM200).

By now, it was already 12 noon and we decided to have an early lunch. We drove to Restoran Malaysia which is located about 500 metres down the road from Hai Peng. It is a chinese restaurant but doesn't serve pork. We were early and was the 2nd customer of the day. The restaurant is clean, not fanciful and fan-cooled instead of airconditioning. As Restaurant Malaysia claims to be the originator of the baked crab, we ordered 2 for our tummies. The verdict? Better, crispier than Grandview's and cost RM1 less at RM7 per piece. We ordered a simple dish of steamed fish, kailan vegetable and two baked crabs. The fish was fresh and sweet but the simple dishes didn't warrant any shouting. The bill came up to RM38.

Midway through our lunch, two of the tables were taken up by Malay families ordering chinese dishes. I can only look with envy at the amount of baked crabs they ordered, hehehe. On hindsight, I didn't see any Halal signs but I guess operating in Terengganu with a small chinese community, they would have adapted to halal cooking. ;)

The guidebook found at Awana Kijal recommended Restoran Tong Juan, which is just two doors away from Restoran Malaysia (see pic above). Maybe we will try Tong Juan at the next trip.

Back at the hotel, Mrs B and the kids were tired from the morning excursion so they slept in the afternoon. I decided to walk-about and burn off those calories from baked crabs. Awana Kijal was full with conventions and meetings when we were there. There was also a small promotion counter on Cuban products. There were cigars, music CDs, lighters, caps, t-shirts and some paintings. I was tempted to buy a cigar and smoke at the poolside but decided not to when I saw how crowded the pool was.

Suzanne loved Awana Kijal's fun pool for kids. There are water slides, mushroom fall and animal floats for you to climb over. Suzanne particularly liked the floating buaya (see bottom right corner of pic below). However, as Suzanne was still coughing, we decided not to take the kids to the pool. Sob sob, that means Belacan also didn't get to swim in the pool. But really, there were too many people at Awana Kijal this time around due to the conventions and Singaporean tourists as it was their school holiday season.

I also checked out Awana Kijal's Windows by the Sea restaurant which was promoting Cuban dishes. (I was game to come here for dinner but later, as Mrs B was also having a sore throat, we decided not to and ended having dinner again at Grandview Restaurant).

After that, I checked out Taman Sari Royal Heritage Spa. As I had time, I wanted to get a massage that evening but was told at the Spa desk that they were fully booked for that day. Told you that there were too many tourists this time. Undeterred, I booked myself for a spa treatment at 10am the next morning. ;)

Went back to the room and rested for a while before gathering everyone for the beach.

Coming up next:
- Belacan flys kite!
- Baby SueAnne's antics on the beach
- Will you get to see Mrs B in her new swimwear? (of course not! you think i stupid or what?)
- Will Belacan blog about his Spa experience?

For a virtual tour of Awana Kijal, go to http://www.genting.com.my/en/pixaround/awn_kijal/default.asp#

Belacan says... "the salty sea breeze (and view) will do me some good, muahahahar!"