Lang Tengah Island - Overview and tips

LOCATION
Lang Tengah Island is located in between Pulau Perhentian and Pulau Redang.


ACCOMMODATION
Since Lang Tengah is really small compare with Redang and Perhentian because there is no village (meaning no hospital, school, police, shops etc), currently there are only 4 resorts on the island.

Listed are the 4 in the order of their proximity with the government built jetty:-

1) LANG TENGAH RESORT - great for budget travellers.

Contact them for actual price as the prices listed in their website are just a general guide.. I managed to get RM269 per person (tirple sharing) for 3D2N include meals, snorkelling, jungle trek and boat transfer. Exclude bus transfer to airport/bus station and rental of snorkelling gears.
http://www.redanglangresort.com.my/intro.asp

2) SARI PASIFICA - the best for high budget - but mostly targetted to Italians or foreigners.

I was told that the furnishings in the rooms are so opulent that you cannot differentiate the wash basin from the toilet bowl (the toilet bowl was that luxurious it seems!)
http://www.saripacifica.com/index

3) LANG SARI (formerly known as Blue Coral Island Resort) - the website is really nice but in reality, quite run down as at March 2012.

It used to be the best resort as it still have the longest stretch of beach in Lang Tengah but since the new management took over with no effort of upkeep and maintenance it has fallen into disrepair with alleged 2 staffs only on the resort.
http://langsari.com/v3/index.php

4) D'COCONUT LAGOON - the best for mid range budget
It consists of EAST and WEST wing but apparently the East wing is better just like how for nature, you need to go to East Malaysia. It's a resort with 2 swimming pool in case the beach dont strike your fancy.
http://www.dcoconutlagoon.com/index.asp 

My thoughts on LANG TENGAH ISLAND

- less mat sallehs here but plenty of tourists from China.

- less malay but still I see some

- not much animals on the island - they claim to have no venomous or poisonous animal - only monitor lizard or iguana.. not much geckos too now as apparently geckos weighing 350gm above can cure HIV so they can fetch up to RM100,000-00 each!! A bit of bats and 4 - 5 keluang (which is a bigger version of bat)

- best place to buy souvenir (t-shirt or key chain) is Lang Tengah Resort as price is more reasonable.

- a fresh coconut is sold for RM6 and beer is RM10, stout is RM12 in Lang Tengah Resort souvenir shop (open from 8am - 11pm)

- a must to get full meal and board as there are no independent restaurants on the island...

- wear long sleeve for the snorkelling as it can get very very hot.

- must have bread for snorkelling as then you can get really up close with the fishes

- it's good to be friendly with the staffs as they meet different people every 3 days... so initially they are not that instructive. But if you get to know them, they'll tell you more about the island and it's secret places.

- you can go turtle watching on Turtle Bay (when there is no moon) and there's a special place to watch the blue sands (on nights with full moon only) but you need to jungle trek and rock climb in the middle of the night for both activities.

- there is monsoon season in Malaysia's east coast.. so plan your trip well!

I met plenty of people (staffs and tourists) and asked them on their preference on islands and gist of their answers:-

Lang Tengah vs Tioman - beach wise, Lang Tengah is better but in terms of mountains, scenery, flora and fauna - Tioman is better

Lang Tengah vs Perhentian - different crowd as Lang Tengah is really isolated

Lang Tengah vs Redang - Laguna Resort Redang if you can afford the price is the best of all these 3 islands as staff and hotel is really good.

But for me, just paying RM269 I have no complains about Lang Tengah as the quality of the sea and beach are fantastic!!

GETTING THERE

Getting there is through Kuala Terengganu and NOT Kota Bahru.


TRAIN

Therefore going by TRAIN is out of the question as the station Tanah Merah is really far from Merang Jetty.

BUS

From Kuala Lumpur you can choose the day or night bus from Putra bus station (near PWTC) cost about RM40 (one way). Journey is about 7 hours and the last bus is 1030pm so you'll reach Kuala Terengganu about 6 or 7 am really early.


Recommended bus companies:-
A) SANI EXPRESS (originate from Kuala Terengganu) but buses are all double decker
http://202.190.123.247/online/Main/Main.asp?pageID=002

B) Konsortium Transnasional Berhad
https://www.ticket4u.com.my/


PLANE
Air Asia, Firefly and MAS flies from KL to KT.

However return from KT to KL is really inconvenient with Air Asia as they only have 2 flights per day (morning and night) so Firefly is better albeit more expensive (cos they serve drinks and a piece of cake PLUS 20kg baggage allowance - but major plus point, it lands in Subang so you can save the taxi fare from LCCT)


SELF DRIVE
Then you can just park you car near the jetty and pay like about RM30 for someone to look after your car.

Contact lens HAVE cup size.. are you aware what is your cup size?

For all contact lens wearers in Malaysia, this might come as a shock to you..

This was because as my friend from Japan who recently visited me in Malaysia was very surprised to see contact lens being sold in kiosks. She explained that in Japan, one must visit an optometrist in order to determine your cup size.

"Cup size??", I asked.. Turned out beside the power, every individual have different eye shape.

To know the cup size of the contact lens, just refer to the number above the power. That's the cup size which is 8.7 in the picture below.

So once again, another example where consumers in Malaysia are short-changed by the local industry... Imagine the comfort of wearing contact lens which are fitted for your eyes but for years we have been given a one-size-fits-all contact lens depending on what stock we have in Malaysia.

Considering the prices of contact lens by famous brands are not cheap, these kind of practices should not be accepted as norm in Malaysia as we are no longer third world country but a developing country.

Snack time!!

My current favourite shopping item whenever I travel are BISCUITS!! They make very good gifts and do not cost a bomb... Rather than cracking your head on what to buy for who, I just buy plenty of biscuits which are not available in Malaysia.

Like in Japan I will go to 100 Yen shop but many times these biscuits can be found in Shojikiya locally but at higher prices.

Surprisingly Indonesia has a lot of biscuits from the brand Monde and Nissin, sometimes also known as Monde Nissin. Anyhow their biscuits costs less than Rup10,000 (less than RM3.50) and taste so much nicer than the ones in Malaysia.

Our current favourite are these:-

My current favorite.. inside are small small biscuits with chocolate sauce as filling

 

 

Recently my boss came back from Turkey and as usual he will get for us this famous ULKER chocolate wafer cum biscuit bar - kind of like Kit Kat - but more wafer and much thicker.. Really nice and precious treat for us as we only get one bar each... Sigh...

 

So the next time you travel, instead of just buying things for display, consider buying biscuits instead and you'll be surprise at what you can find the local supermarkets ;D

See my money stretch in Indonesia

One of my favourite shopping activities is to visit pharmacy or personal stores like Watsons and Guardian whenever and wherever I can.

Now my favourite item to purchase from Indonesia is eye drop because my eyes tend to be more dry in Indonesia (partly due to bad pollution there) and eye drops are cheaper there. But plus points are the packaging! I liked that it's clear, transparent see through bottles.

My recent purchase is this Rohto brand which costs Rup8,600 which is about RM3.00 but there's discount so I paid about RM2 only. Made in Indonesia under license by Rohto, Japan. This could explain the low price but I believe there are many brands manufactured in Malaysia too but sad to say consumers are paying higher price for eye drops here.

Not only that, I also notice that all the eye drops in Malaysia will tell consumers to discard the drop after 1 month of opening but surprisingly, no such warning in the one I bought from Indonesia.

It just says to discard if contents turn colour or becomes cloudy.

Hmm… interesting.. I will check out other brands on my next visit to Indonesia.

UPDATES: Managed to checked most of the eye drop brands in Indonesia... YUP!! No mention of discarding within 30 days... which leaves the question, why does the ones in Malaysia ask us to do so?? Interesting...

* * * * * * * * * *

My 2^nd favourite item is sanitary pad. There are many other items which are cheaper in Indonesia like shampoo, tissue / toilet paper and pantyliners.

Again one might say that it’s cheaper cos manufactured in Indonesia but I found out that Carefree Breatheable pantyliners, even though it’s manufactured in Thailand, the price is almost half in Indonesia. I pay about RM9 in Malaysia but I can get for about RM5 in Indonesia for the exact same product cos the one in Malaysia is also manufactured in Thailand!!

This is really disturbing.. cos one might argue that Indonesians pay lower cos the have lower standard of living.. but Singaporeans with higher standard of living are also paying lower prices for their daily personal use products.. So where does that leave us??

It is really disheartening to see our ringgit shrink.. till some even call it Shringgit. It's time that people know that they are paying higher when we shouldn't be... Till then I will continue to stock up on these products whenever I travel overseas; limited only by Air Asia baggage allowance ;p

Lucas PAPAW Ointment

FERMENTED PAPAYA CREAM FROM AUSTRALIA

Read some very good reviews on this product and decided to try it cos I have a very bad case of dry skin, almost eczema like on my feet. The review says that it is very good for cold sores meaning dry skin due to cold and dry weather.

After just a few applications (about 5 times) my skin is totally restored without those awful cracks. So I am a total believer.

Pricewise is very reasonable for such an effective cream, provided you can get over the smell since it's fermented papaya.

I tried it on my chapped lips and it works like a charm.. I have some darker spots on my lips.. though not totally gone after 5 applications, I do find it lighter.

My sister who studied bio-chemistry was of the opinion that any fermented product is good considering it is a powerful anti-oxident and disinfectent. How it helps, I dont know.

The instructions on the pack reads:-

Traditionally used as a local topical application for symptomatic relief of minor cuts, wounds and insect bites.

THE OINTMENT RELIEVES AND CLEANSES.

It's available at VitaCare pharmacy at Gardens, KL. A 25gm tube sells for RM18.90 and 75gm for RM49.90.

But recently on 4th March 2011 I bought another 25gm but the price has increased to RM22.90 and RM53.90 for the 75gm. Sigh... our malaysian ringgit is really shrinking...

Girls and Bags

Girls are always buying bags.. Dont believe me, just take a walk around Sogo Ground floor. It's always crowded.

For me, I have always been a 1BAG person cos once I tried to change bag to match the outfit, I left my keys inside... Nightmare Nightmare!!

So that's why I always buy black bag cos it'll always match any outfits.

Saw this Guess bag last year, bought it as wanted it to be my birthday present for 2011. Used it for not more than 4 months and found a few suspicious small black specks inside the bag... Didnt know what it was at first then later there were more and more of it..

By the 6th months this is how the bag looks like:-

Behind

Side

Top

Front

I paid RM381 for this Guess bag and I expected it to last for at least a year but was very very disappointed with the quality of the bag. Not sure if this is a problem with all Guess bags or just this model..

With this, I "guess" I will have to turn back to Esprit for bags as they seem to deliver better quality at lower prices.

So how have your experience with bags been like? Any favourite brand? I not a fan of designer bags as they cost a BOMB even though they last cos like I said Girls like to change Bags...

Contact lens and eye mo

Important WARNING!!

If you wear contact lens, you CANNOT use normal eye drops like Eye Mo to rewet tired / dry eyes.

You can only use eye drops specifically for contact lens wearer. That's because normal eye drops sometimes sting the eye and they may react with the contact lens you are wearing.

With the prevelance of colour contact lens especially being sold in night markets or "pasar malam", many do not know how to practice good eye care.

Once I saw a train, a young man, his contact lens came off (maybe cos too dry). Without any saline etc on hand he basically pop the lens into his mouth, wet it and wear it back.. That is so disgusting not to mention endangering his eyes to infection.

So if you really want to look different in keeping with the trends and if you know for sure that you are not going the extra mile to clean and keep it, do yourself a BIG favour and get daily disposable contact lens.