In the morning we decide that we don’t want to go to the Perhentian Islands. We don’t trust to leave Mickey behind, so we decide to continue our journey following the east coast. There’s not much to do in this part of Malaysia but it's been a while since we were just cruising with our motorbike, so we really are looking forward to it. We follow the road that is closest to the ocean and occasionally we really are driving just next to it.

Driving Along the East Coast

We enjoy seeing Malaysian families on a picnic at the beach. The beaches are still surprisingly clean here. Malaysians are constantly honking at us and waving from their cars. At one point we even get some fruit, which a man hands us from his car while driving. There are a lot of young people driving in group on scooters, often performing stunts or racing like crazy.

Masjid Kristal in Kuala Terengganu

We read that McDonalds in Malaysia is one of the cheapest in the world, something we definitely have to check out. This proves to be so, and in addition there is now also a promotion which makes a meal at McDonald’s as cheap as fried rice and a coke at a street stall!
In the evening we arrive in Kuantan, the largest city on the east coast, where we spend three nights. Here we have to do the usual small things and we also put new brake pads. At last we find an ATM machine that works with Maestro so we withdraw enough money this time. After our stay in Kuantan, we continue our journey along the coast. What strikes us in Malaysia are the many palm oil plantations.

Palm Oil Plantations Along the Way

We take our first break at a small beach where, as usual, some families are picnicking. Soon someone comes to us with a plate of noodles and a piece of chicken from their BBQ and as dessert we get some fruit. Wonderful, this Malaysian hospitality. With a full stomach and after saying goodbye to the family, we can continue our drive. By nightfall, we see a sign of a campsite at the beach of Air Papan and we decide to go and take a look. We see the campsite straight away, but there doesn’t seem to be a toilet / shower. We ask the reception for it, and they tell us that we can use the bathroom in one of the chalets, but only until 7pm. We know that we can camp in the wild here, so why pay for a campsite without any sanitary facilities? We decide to set up our tent on the beach, so we are much closer to the sea than we would have been on the campsite.

Camping at the Beach of Air Papan

There is also a public toilet with shower. It's already pretty late, so we wait for the next day to take a dip in the ocean. Air Papan is really a nice beach and here we see many families picnicking and swimming, which is done with all clothes on. After breaking up the tent we drive to Mersing.

The Beach in Mersing

Here lays the pier to go to the Tioman Island, so we look for an affordable hotel where we can leave Mickey behind while visiting the island. We notice that the accommodations in the ferry towns are more expensive, probably because people tend to stay here for only one night. We find a nice hotel with Wi-Fi in the room and in the evening we search the internet for a hotel on Tioman Island. It soon turns out that there are no cheap accommodations there, and since we have already spend a lot of time on the islands in Thailand, we don’t feel the urge to pay a lot of money to see yet another island. We choose to save our money for a trip to Singapore. Our tour continues on the mainland. We drive the final kilometres along the east coast to end up in Johor Bahru, the gateway to Singapore.

Traffic Jam of Boats to Singapore

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