[wu_isaac]

Trip to Redang Island.

Redang island is located on the East coast of Malaysia. It is off the state of Terrenganu, about 30km from the coast. Around Redang island are other islands like Pehentian islands but they aren't as popular as Redang island which caters to both dive and non-diving tourists.

Day 1(night): Bus ride to Jetty

Took a coach from Beach Rd, headed for Syah Bandar jetty in Terrenganu. It's a 9 hour coach ride, pretty long plus we were mostly travelling not on the north-south highway but through smaller roads on the East coast. I didn't really get a good sleep cause of the traffic stops and occasionally bumpy roads.

Day 2

From the jetty, it is a 90min ferry ride to Redang island. Had a better rest on the ferry. We had to disembark from the ferry onto a 'landing ship' as there were no jetties on the beach at Redang island. The landing ship with its retractable platform will go as close to the shore as possible so no need to walk in the water.

I stayed at Redang Beach Resort. It is located on the longest and most popular beach on Redang: Pasir Panjang Beach.
Snorkelling starts in the afternoon, we took a boat out to one of the sites and I was absolutely amazed by the clear waters and abundant variety of fishes there. Some corals were dead(due to the reckless behaviour of tourists who step on corals, stand on them etc.) but there were quite a bit of living corals as well.

At night, there was a live band playing at the resort's bar but it was really bad, plus it played cantonese songs which I didn't appreciate nor understand. Well what can you expect... who'd wanna leave the city to play music on a small island...

The resort looked beautiful at night, the trees were lighted up, their outdoor dining area too. The ambience was there.

Day 3

We headed out to the Marine Park in the morning. It is a conservation site with lots of fishes swimming under the jetty. Supposedly you can see manta rays, eels and other creatures there, my friends saw the eel and I think scorpionfish but I didn't. Under the jetty, many people will use bread to feed the fishes, and they will swarm all around you, a very memorable experience! There's also a shipwreck somewhere at the Marine Park.

In the afternoon we headed out for another snorkelling trip. Same, the waters were wonderful and it was really a pleasure swimming in the sea there.

There's also a portion of Pasir Panjang beach that is home to some baby sharks. It is near Redang Beach resort.

At night there's supposed to be open air disco at our resort, but I guess it was cancelled after heavy rain even though it stopped, the mood probably wasn't there. There's disco at the other smaller resorts though, but I guess it's nothing compared to what we have in Singapore.

Day 4

Left early in the morning like 6am to catch the ferry to take us back to the jetty. The timing of the ferry is pretty standard for tourists from Singapore as there's only 1 bus trip back to Singapore from the jetty and it leaves at 10 something so the only ferry you can take is at 6am (next one's at 11am). Bus ride home was even longer... almost 12hrs as there were detours to pick up other tourists along the way.

Conclusion:

Redang island is a really relaxing place to go, it is not that commercialised and most of the tourists there are Malaysians which means prices there aren't that high. There's no need to 'travel' on the island, the rest of it is just jungles and inacccessible. Just stay at the beach, snorkel and laze. No need to worry about where to go and what to do.

There are about 9 resorts on the island, most of them are lower quality resorts catered to locals I guess, if you want comfort, try Laguna or Redang Beach. I think Laguna is a more commercialised resort, it does remind you of Singapore a bit, with a bit more rules. Redang Beach is more 'free & easy'. Meals are at the canteen, they are included as part of the room rates and so are the 3 snorkel trips. Food is like basic coffeeshop food, rice and dishes. Quite normal for a small island with no food supply of its own.

Beer on the island is expensive about 8-9RM for one can. They can be bought from the minimarts at the resorts.

You can rent an underwater camera from the resorts, of course if you go to the cheaper resorts the rent is cheaper as well.

Redang island is the place to go if you're looking for a cheap holiday (transport, hotel & meals all in ~$290) plus you want somewhere relaxing with nice beach and beautiful coral reefs, on a simple less commercialised island...

[dradjwg]

make me remember my first redang trip a few years ago... really nice..

btw, what time did u reach singapore on the way back?
and $290 is cheap, is it weekend or weekday trip?

[wu_isaac]

is weekend (non-school holidays) trip, weekday will be even cheaper. reach singapore very late, 11.45pm i think.

the beach and sea + fishes ... awesome right?

[ColdFusion]

a noobie question (i've nv been there b4 ) : is the sea water clear??

[weixiang]

sounds fun wu, sure y0u have some pics to share..?