Growing up in Malaysia, I never thought to visit the east coast of peninsular Malaysia - you just don't hear about it as much as the west. The east coast has its own charm, with its strongest qualities being peaceful and quiet. Its coastlines are dotted with fishing towns and tranquil beaches whilst its people will welcome you warmly. We also try wild camping for the first time on the trip and meet new friends in Kuala Terengganu.
MalaysiaBlog start: Mersing, Johor
Blog end: Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu
Days in this blog: Day 7 - 18
Welcome to our third journal entry - Tash here! After 7 days of journeying from Singapore to Mersing through the state of Johor, it was time to explore new states; Pahang and Terengganu. From Mersing the quientessential quadruple became a terrific trio as Fendi had to get back to Kuala Lumpur for work. It was a great experience to have family join the Journey to the West. It is even more special because no one on my Malaysian side of the family has gone cycle touring - so it's happening - the infectious hobby is spreading!
Day 7: Understanding the east coast of Malaysia
Our journey through the east coast took us through a demography of predominantly Malay people with mosques dotted around the place. We seldom saw Chinese or Indian people, and neither shrines, churches or temples. I wondered why this might be the case and where was that melting pot of cultures and religions like I had experienced in Kuala Lumpur?
The Malay-dominated east coast can be explained with a trip back in time. The west side, particularly Melaka, had major ports, tin mines and connections to India, China and Europe. The peak of the trading regime came about in the 1400s with Melaka (historically and colonially referred to as Malacca) hosting more than 15,000 merchants of Chinese, Arab, Persian, Indian and European decent.
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Islam spread by way of Arab and Indian merchants from the 13th to the 17th century. The term 'Malay' came about in the 15th century by the most Islamicized people of Melaka. Islam was popularised in the east coast and took root in laid back towns, where life was slower and work was centralised around agriculture and fishing. The conditions to be a Malay were a) religious loyalty to Islam and b) linguistic ability in the Malay language. In fact, before Islam was popularised, the peninsular region was actually influenced by Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism. Even when the British had colonised and ruled Malaya (an old colonial term referring to all areas under British rule) in the 18th and 19th century, the goal was to develop the west coast, leaving the east coast mostly untouched. The west was bustling with tin mining, rubber plantations, trade, plantation railway constructions, etc, pulling in migrants who came in via Penang, Malacca and other major ports. So that explains why the east is mostly composed of Malays, whilst the west is a cultural hotspot. You can read more about the history of peninsular Malaysia here (Ahmad, 2025).
So here we are rocking up to Endau, a small fishing village on the border of Johor and Pahang, expecting to eat Malay food. But, lo and behold we find ourselves at one of the first Chinese hawker stores. We became bemused with the idea of eating some Chinese food so we decided to sit down to have a break from the hot sun and sweat. We order chicken rice and flower tea (probably chrysanthemum or something of the sort) and take in the morning chatter. The demography was mainly older Chinese people but surprisingly a group of four Vietnamese people were also there and had been talking about us in Vietnamese. Little did they know Huy actually can understand and speak the language too. Once we had sat down, Huy told me that they were saying something about us travelling with bicycles - nothing bad. We speculated they may be Vietnamese boat refugees who had settled in Malaysia. We know this because not far north is Pulau Bidong, an island that hosted the largest influx of Vietnamese refugees - of which one such refugee was Huy's dad in the 1980s (more on this in the next journal).
After lunch, we continued cycling northwards - oh and had completely crossed into Pahang by this point! We decided to visit our first mosque to try to refill our empty water bottles. Fendi had mentioned each mosque should have a Coway (a popular Malaysian water filter brand). It was 2pm when we rolled in. I greeted the first person I saw and asked if it would be okay to sit in the shade for a few moment and refill our water. They said, of course you can, and motioned for us to sit down on the plastic chairs.
Huy and Alex sat and chatted with the young Malay who was able to converse in English. I conversed withe aunties and uncles in Malay - the questions came my way included why I could speak Malay, where we were headed and where we had come from. Mind you, Alex knew some Malay too though so he definitely got quizzed by the older generation too. I talk with Mak cik Marina (aunty Marina) and found out that they were attending a relative's funeral, which is why there were so many people at the mosque that afternoon. They had just finished their prayer, 'solat jenazah' (funeral prayer) and were heading back to their village.
Our serendipitous meeting with our Thai friends, Traiphum and Neenee, had us thinking about wild camping a little more. It is a great way to keep our trip budget. A night's stay in a hotel was averaging RM80.32 (AUD$ 29.46), which is fine but adds up in the long term. At the start of the trip we thought we would ease ourselves in and stay in accommodation but now it's time to start camping!
Just 10km short of Kuala Rompin, we decide to head down a side road towards the beach. We strolled along the coastal road until we got to a shaded plantation site of pokok rhu (she-oak trees). It was quiet, well hidden and facing the ocean - a perfect first wild camping spot. We set up quickly, sensing the coming of a storm with the wind bellowing in our faces. Being extra cautious on our first campout, we gathered it would be a good idea for one person to go and get takeaway while two people stand guard at base. So, Alex went over and brought us back delicious fried rice and fried chicken. We appreciated the warm food in our tummy. Huy ate in the tent as he was a mosquito magnet - already having collected several bites while setting up the tent earlier. Alex and I sat on the lightweight Helinox chairs and enjoyed the warm breeze carrying sounds of crashing waves.
We went straight to bed in our hot and stuffy tent - it was actually quite warm and humid and almost impossible to sleep. I mean Huy was really struggling to get to bed - I was more used to the heat being brought up mostly in Asia so I went to bed with little effort.
When we woke up, we were hot and bothered and as we hadn't showered we were still sweaty from yesterday's cycle. Packing up quickly, we left before Alex as we had wanted to go find some showers at the nearby mosque. After a couple of kilometres we find one with a brand new bathroom and a strong pressure shower - it was heaven. No one was at the mosque when we arrived to ask for permission, so we had quick showers, got changed and left without leaving a mess.
For breakfast, we stopped at a restaurant and got one big plate of nasi campur (mixed rice) - this one was loaded with vegetables as we had been lacking fruit and vegetables in our diet so far. Malaysia has great food but a lot of it is fried. After so many days on a fried diet, we were ready to go light and healthy.
Along our travels, we cycle past many three to five story concrete buildings with no windows accompanied by a booming speaker relaying bird noises. I know these are bird houses as my cousin had a small one-story building back home in Sabah (a Malaysian state on Borneo). They are constructed to attract small birds, swiftlets, of which which their nests (that are built out of their saliva and various other things) are harvested and sold for about RM 2,000 - 20,000 per kilogram (AUD$ 742 - 7425), depending on quality and processing (Skrine, 2020).
Edible bird's nest, or the 'Caviar of the East' is considered a valuable product in Chinese medicine and cuisine. In Malaysia, nests are produced by swiftlets from the genus, Aerodramus. There are two species, the white-nest swiftlets (A. fuciphagus) and black-nest swiftlets (A. maximus). Though, in east Malaysia it has been reported that only the edible bird's nest of black-nest swiftlets are commercially farmed (Rahman, Ghazali and Ju Lian, 2018). Although their natural habitat are dark, isolated caves, people have been able to commercially farm edible bird's nest in buildings that closely resemble their natural conditions for more than a hundred years (Mardiastuti and Soehartono, 1996).
The nests are meticulously cleaned before being consumed and the Department of Standard Malaysia has set high standards for export purposes (mostly to China, as it nest collection has been banned due to the decreased switflet population). Possible contaminants include, feathers, dirt, wood and metal contamination, disease-causing bacteria like E. coli and Salmonella, high nitrite concentrations and many others (Yeo et al, 2021). Though, if you buy high quality edible bird's nest you should be fine. I personally will never try edible bird's nest as it is a energy-intensive activity for the swiftlet to produce to be able to raise their young. Taking that away from them jeopardises their population and wastes their efforts.
We eventually arrive at our destination for the day in Tanjung Batu, a sleepy coastal town with not much going on. When we were stopped at the local mosque to get changed for the night, a local stopped by for a chat. He informed us of a quiet camping spot 1km down the road. We thanked him and found ourselves at a beach side shelter big enough for us to pitch the tent up underneath.
It was so windy, we felt relieved that it was nice and cool. Though, the wind had brought with it a phenomenal thunderstorm forcing us to set up quicker. Though, the light show was amazing and everytime a lightning striked the earth the whole sky would light up. Secretly I was anticipating to see creepy shadows in the distance with each lightning strike (like how they do in the movies), but lucky for me nothing eerie of the sorts showed up. A family was also camping next to us and were about to have freshly caught fish on the fire, but they left when the thunderstorm hit. We had another three people come past during the night, but they must have gone sea fishing and didn't bother us. A man in a Hilux rocked up early in the morning and said hello just as I was getting changed. We didn't have our outer cover on due to the heat. Luckily I laid flat, undetected, and Huy talked to him.
We took our breakfast on the roadside, enjoying nasi lemak (rice, egg, chilli sambal and anchovies) for RM2.50 (AUD$ 0.90), and continued on our ride northwards. We pass by Pekan, the royal capital of the new state we had traversed into, Pahang. We didn't know whether to stay here or keep going. We were about to stay when I get a response from the new acquaintance we had made from the mosque. She was offering her 3-bedroom guesthouse in Kuantan at a reduced 'mates-rate'. Alex was going to meet back up with us in Kuantan, so we had agreed to share the accommodation which made it more affordable. We were riddled with excitement to have a house with aircon and a washing machine. We must have doubled our speed because before we knew it, we were in the guesthouse before Alex (he was in front of us that day but took a detour to a bike shop). We ate takeaway that night, and the next few days were spent resting, cleaning and cooking. I was craving something home cooked so I made 'chicken' bolognese (because beef is expensive in Malaysia) and pumpkin tapioca pudding.
When we left Kuantan for Kuala Terengganu, Alex was destined north-west (towards Taman Negara and the west coast), while we would continue up the east coast towards Kuala Terengganu and shortly afterwards, Kota Bharu, where I was excited to see my other cousin. With Alex we knew this wasn't the final goodbye though as we would meet in Thailand or Laos again very shortly. Through Kuantan, we passed by a quirky lane with absurdly good street art. Most of the art here was commissioned art and contributed by Project ZeroSix, a collective of multi-disciplinary artists. We met Azri Azhar (Ron), who gave us some context to the artwork we observed.
After an artsy time seeking city sights, I decided to take us up and over a hill to get out of Kuantan - a bit of off-road wouldn't hurt right? Did we ever make it to the other side? No, the tracks going down the other side were unpaved an not wide enough for the bike. Was it steep? Hell yes! And our brakes were squealing so much we actually had to walk down the mountain instead of cycle. So, if you're smart you would just take the highway to get out of Kuantan, not the goat track! After that disheartening climb, we only made it 6km out of Kuantan because we had exhausted our energy pushing our bikes up a steep track for nothing (not even the view was worth it). We found a campsite at a little shelter area on the beach and showered at the nearby mosque. No one bothered us during the night. We were grateful for all of that and wouldn't have had the energy to deal with anything more.
Luckily for Alex, we were only 6km from Kuantan. Due to an unexpected issue that he had to deal with he cycled towards us after spending a night in Kuantan city on his way to Taman Negara. We met up and had breakfast, and in the coming days, he eventually deviated to Kuala Lumpur to finalise the unexpected problem. We felt bad that he had to miss cycling within the national park, but at least he was connected up with my cousin and would have a home in Kuala Lumpur.
The roads are straight and long all the way up to Kuala Terengganu and nothing made us more excited than a sign board advertising smashingly 'good smash burgers'. We decided to stop and taste-test it. It sincerely was a great smash burger (you'll see our review in our next film).
We routed ourselves to the bay of Teluk Kalong, a beach littered with she-oak trees glistening in the late afternoon sun. As we rode past, scouting for a good undercover campsite, an uncle motioned for us to stop. We see an elderly figure sitting inside a house, of which the external area was covered in smoke from a small rubbish burn. We stopped and I spoke to him in Malay. He asked us where we were going and where we had come from. After telling him we are in need of a place to sleep, he motions for us to camp under his shelters in front of his house. He told us we will be safe there and protected from the rain. We were so grateful and set up after eating a scrumptious dinner. Thinking we would have good sleep, we were disrupted by a group of youths having a barbecue from 9pm to 1am?! I mean, look, that's fair, it's a public space, but there was everywhere else they could have chosen on that beach to do their barbecue and they chose to do it right next to us. Huy couldn't sleep all night. I managed to sleep as I had ear plugs and an eye mask. I do have spares for Huy too but he didn't want them as he preferred to be alert with the group around us.
After this experience, we were a little done with camping and looked for places to stay for the next two nights on our way up to Kuala Terengganu. Huy also starts complaining about his lower back, wrists and riding stance. We try to adjust his seat, and his handlebar grip positioning but none of it really helped. I knew that what he needed was an upwards extension to his handlebar as he was crouching too forward to reach his handlebars. This is how the mountain bike is built and it usually isn't the most comfortable for riding long term (my dad made me ride a MTB since I was 6, and no it just isn't built for long term touring with the aggressive stance where you are reaching for the handlebars and unable to sit upright). That's why I opted for a jones handlebar with back-sloping grips and got that installed before leaving Australia. I promised Huy we would find a good mechanic to do a bike upgrade soon. So our first night in accommodation after all that camping was in Paka, a busy town where we honestly had the best freshly juiced mango drink ever.
Leaving Paka and heading northwards, we stopped by a local honey megastore, Big Bee Honey. It was my first time ever seeing local honey, and it doesn't taste like the honey you are used to at all! What a rich, sour and earthy flavour with a non-thick consistency, something akin to a honey liquor or apple cider vinegar with a sweet floral aftertaste. The local stingless bees are called kelulut in Malay. The honeycomb looks very different as it is made from propolis and not beeswax, of which propolis is a mixture of natural resins collected by the stingless bees. Propolis from kelulut bees are both antiseptic and antioxidant (Ismail et al, 2018).
Sleeping wise - even I couldn't fathom getting back into camping as I had developed a strong migraine that left me weak and dizzy. Huy of course agreed on getting a place that night too, so I found a local mosque that had 'roomstays' out the back. It was affordable, clean and hidden from the road and we had a delightful sleep. The next day's ride from the mosque (Surau Al-Rezqi) honestly wasn't that spectacular - we just put our heads down and rode our bikes. I was still with a migraine and Huy was tired. We were just looking forward to resting again.
I managed to find us accommodation for RM65 in the centre of Kuala Terengganu. The property was tucked away from busy roads but only within minutes of air-conditioned malls and restaurants. It wasn't fancy and it was small, but we managed to fit all our belongings and two bikes in the room.
The next day, we walked over to Chinatown, excited to change up our palette again from Malaysian food. We had Penang Loh Mee in two different renditions and it was delicious. After our long walk back to our corner of the world, we wanted to enter the air-conditioned shopping mall to catch up on some computer work.
The first entrance was locked and we couldn't get through. 'Strange', we thought, 'how can they shut down a whole mall?'. Peering inside, we saw the mall was completely ghosted, but felt the cool air against our face. We wander over to an outside seating area where a couple ladies were seated. I asked a lady in Malay if she knew why the mall was closed. She responded in English and was wondering the exact same but explained that it was probably due to the Friday prayers. Every Friday, muslim men attend an obligatory midday prayer. As most of the population in this city is muslim, most shops and restaurants were shut down - including the mall. She noted that this doesn't happen in Kuala Lumpur as they would put non-muslim staff on to keep businesses open. Her husband had gone over to the mosque to do his Friday prayer and she thought she would be able to wait inside the mall. We ended up sitting with her and chatting for 2 hours in the heat before we could get in and enjoy the aircon! Anisa and Joe had travelled from Kuala Lumpur to Kuala Terengganu, starting at 3-4am in the morning that day and didn't get to their hotel until 3-4pm. Even though they hadn't had much rest, they invited us out for dinner at a local seafood restaurant. That night, we enjoyed fried fish with 3-taste sauce (sos tiga rasa), prawns, omelette and drinks until 11pm. We slept well and had made new friends so we were very grateful.
We departed Kuala Terengganu after two full rest days and took two full days to get to Kota Bharu. In the next blog, you will read how over the moon we were to finally catch up with my cousin, Airi and meet her partner, Axel (who is also a cyclist). Funnily enough, we also catch up with Anisa and Joe again (as they had planned on going to Kota Bharu after Kuala Terengganu to visit family). Along the way northwards, we catch a glimpse of Pulau Bidong, share a night camping with an adorable stray kitten and nap along the beach listening to the waves. After Kota Bharu, we do a crossing to the west coast where we reach the eastern states and meet more amazing people. Stay tuned and, thank you for your patience with our updates - cycling is so tiresome sometimes we just can't help but crash straight to bed!
Lots of love, Tash and Huy
(This journal was handwritten and not aided by AI)
