Redang Experience part 1

Even though it’s almost a month ago (14 March 2008) since I went to Redang island, I still want to share my experience on how unforgettable moment in the paradise. It took us less than 1 week to take care of the preparation to go this Redang (would you believe it?).

Actually we were choosing the place to stay since 2 weeks before the departure, but just 1 week before departure we really plan and taken care of EVERYTHING. We were choosing Laguna Redang Island Resort as the place to stay, because since we saw complaining about other creatures (lizard, etc) and activities joining their holiday (on several travel website), we decided to stay in hotel that is REALLY HOTEL rather than taking risk enjoying another type of “unforgettable moment” with other creatures' presence. The best hotel in Redang is Berjaya Hotel, but since we cannot afford within our student budget (except I’m fasting for the whole semester plus begging for money on Petaling Street), we chosen Laguna Redang, and luckily they have this “Early Bird Promotion” so we are “early bird” who got “early worm” (literally speaking) by having 3d2n package for “only” RM 438 per head (exclude weekend surcharge, land and sea transfer) until the end of March. Last time, I checked again, the last promotion was "only" RM 548 (still exclude everything) per head for same package from April to October. So, this is a suggestion for you all that planning to Redang, go during March, be an “early bird”, this is the most low season as Redang was just opened again (the island is closed during monsoon season, November to February).

It was 7^th March, we wandered around Bukit Bintang looking for official Laguna Sales Office, this is why I chosen Laguna, because it has its own sales office, as foreign student it is more certain for us to take care of everything in the official sales office rather than other travel agents (and hell yeah, I didn’t encounter any service problem til the end). The office is full of people, I was asking to a female staff regarding to the package, well it looked like she had “kia su” marketing approach, her expression is flat but when we said we want to think about it, she coolly said “it is better inform us as soon as possible, because (checking the computer), there’s only one deluxe garden room left.". Out of 212 rooms, only one room left!!! How “lucky” we are!!! @$$#*!3!!! Well, we still think about it. Several walking metres, we confirmed to go, taken care by another’s staff who is more polite. Confirmed the date, package, and payment, we headed to bus station to buy the ticket to Kuala Terengganu. We just realized later, that we forgot to buy return ticket. Later we come back, the available ticket is depart 10:00 PM from KT, so we were imagining waiting in the bus station from 1:00 PM (the time we arrived in KT from Redang) to 10:00 PM. Haihhhh....

13^th March, we headed to Putra area, waited in Putra Mall (in kopitiam something), 9.30 PM, we headed to Putra bus station 10PM we start the journey to KT, for suggestion, if you have problem with sleeping in bus, better buy travel sickness medicine, it helped you avoiding nausea and help you hibernating. Regrettably, I didn’t eat that god's pill, I had insomnia during journey!! The only slept I got only from 4AM til 6AM when we already arrived in KT bus station. I'm not suggesting you to take pill, but you need your beauty sleeping for such long trip. What's the point of you're arriving in Redang but too tired to do anything?

14^th March, 7AM, hotel transport came, we headed to Merang Jetty around 1 hour. Our boat is departed 9.30AM. So we strolling around souvenir stall and nasi lemak stall (quite nice food there!!!). Around 11AM we arrived in lovely Redang (what a struggle!!!)