Breakfast Club, East Coast Edition

Please click the photo above to play the daily videoSunday began the way Sundays ought to, slowly and without apology. No alarms, no rounds, no particular reason to be anywhere at any specific minute. The sea outside the villa was already up and about, but it seemed happy to let us lie in.

Eventually we stirred ourselves and drove into Kuantan for breakfast with the MRSM friends. The venue was Nasi Lemak Lerek, conveniently close to the house of one of the group, which is the sort of local knowledge no guidebook can quite replicate. The food was very good, and the company better still. There is a particular ease that comes with friends who knew you before you had any idea who you were going to be. Conversation picks up exactly where it left off, sometimes decades earlier, and nobody needs reminding of the plot.

Most of them were heading back to KL after the meal, so the farewells came with full stomachs. We, rather smugly, had another night in Cherating.

First, though, the car needed charging, a ritual now as natural as checking the weather. Then came the seaside drive back, taken at a leisurely pace with frequent and entirely justified stops. Fruit from a roadside stall, roti paung still warm, putu and keropok lekor. The back seat began to resemble a small travelling market, and the car smelt faintly and wonderfully of fried fish crackers.

Along the way we stopped at Holiday Villa. We used to stay there many times when Idlan and Irfan were toddlers, often with Anita’s parents. Walking around, I was pleased to find it still well maintained, the gardens tidy, the sea exactly where we had left it. Places like that hold memories rather patiently. You return years later and find them waiting, a little older, a little quieter, but intact. Small feet on the sand, grandparents in the shade, the endless negotiation of naps. It was good to be reminded.

Back at our resort, we arrived in time for the F1. A quick late lunch at the café overlooking the sea, then settled in for the race. This year the Bahrain Grand Prix was held in Malaysia, bringing Formula 1 back to Sepang, which felt like a homecoming of sorts. The weather, being Malaysian, insisted on making a contribution, and rain delayed the start. There is a certain poetry in waiting for cars capable of three hundred kilometres an hour to be held up by a cloud.

The race eventually finished, just in time for a walk on the beach. The tide was out, the light was going gold, and the sand was firm underfoot. We did not talk much. There was no need.

Dinner was at the stalls just outside the resort, simple and satisfying, with plastic chairs, good food and the hum of other people’s weekends around us. It was the right ending to a day that had asked very little of us and given back a great deal.

We slept well. Properly, deeply well, the way you only manage near the sea.

The Long Way to the Sea

Please click the photo above to play the daily videoThe day started at six with a ward round, at an hour when the corridors are still yawning and the coffee has not yet decided whether to help. It was an early start even by recent standards, but there was a reason for the haste. The rest of the day had plans, and they were not inclined to wait.

From there I headed to Pudu to meet the photography crowd for the Kelby Walk. Ripi was leading again, with the easy authority of someone who knows exactly which alley has the best light and which has the best kopi. All the usual suspects were there, cameras slung, arguing amiably about lenses and pretending not to compare kit. Pudu obliged with its usual texture, all peeling paint and morning bustle. I could not stay long, which felt a little like leaving a party just as the good conversation begins, but the east coast was calling, and it does not call quietly.

We left by eleven. The drive to Cherating is long enough that you settle into it, the city thinning out and the hills taking over. Temerloh provided our first charging stop, and with it a pleasant interlude of stretching legs and watching the percentage climb with the patience of a kettle you are trying not to stare at.

The final stretch took us past Lynas, which I can report is not exactly scenic. Industrial in the most sincere sense of the word. One does not drive towards the beach expecting a rare earth processing plant, but here we were, and here it was, unbothered by our opinions.

We reached Royale Chulan by four. The villa turned out to have an extra room, which was a welcome surprise, if slightly puzzling, as though the place had been expecting guests we had forgotten to invite. We settled in, took a quick walk around the resort, and let the sea air do its gentle work of persuading us that we were, at least briefly, on holiday.

The rest was short-lived. By evening we were driving to Kuantan for the wedding dinner of Aya’s daughter. Aya was a classmate from MRSM Terendak, and there is something quietly remarkable about watching the children of school friends get married. It does sharpen one’s sense of time. The dinner was warm and generous, full of faces and familiar laughter, and we enjoyed it thoroughly.

Afterwards came another round of charging in town before the drive back to the resort. Forty minutes or so, along a road that was not in great condition and seemed to regard street lighting as an optional extra. I drove with the concentration of someone reading small print in a dim room, and the car, to its credit, did not complain.

When we finally arrived, I made it as far as the balcony. The plan was to sit down for a moment before changing. The moment, as it turned out, became the rest of the night. I fell asleep there, still dressed for the wedding, the sea somewhere out in the dark doing what seas do.

A long day, by any measure. But a good one, from a dawn in the wards to the waves at midnight.

Rain, Road, and Ridiculously Nice Villas

Please click the photo above to play the daily videoThe day started apologetically, with rain doing its best to slow everything down before it had even begun. Morning rounds went ahead regardless, followed by the usual business of sorting Day Care, though the weather had other ideas about scheduling — a patient arrived later than planned, and the whole morning shuffled along a half-step behind itself, like a dance where someone's missed a cue.

Still, by eleven it was all wrapped up, which felt like a minor triumph given the circumstances, and we were out of KL before noon. The first stop was R&R Nilai for lunch — not glamorous, exactly, but there's something honest about a highway rest stop meal eaten with one eye on the road ahead. Then south properly, the PLUS highway giving way eventually to the Senai–Desaru Highway, the scenery gradually trading city grey for a greener, flatter kind of quiet.

Somewhere past Kluang or thereabouts, the sky cleared. Johor, it turned out, had held onto the sun we'd left behind in KL — a small but noticeable act of generosity from the weather gods. Four hours in total, traffic smooth the whole way, which for a road trip out of the Klang Valley counts as something close to a miracle.

And then, the Mandarin Oriental. Whatever fatigue had built up over the drive dissolved fairly quickly once we arrived — the place has that particular hush good resorts manage, where even the air feels like it's been asked to keep its voice down. The sound of the sea reached the room before the sea itself came into view, which is its own kind of welcome.

The villa itself was absurd in the best way — around 1,100 square feet, a small pool sitting between bathroom and bedroom like a very civilised negotiation, a dining area, and a balcony made for nothing more strenuous than standing still and letting the breeze do its work. I spent a good stretch after settling in just wandering with the camera, chasing light rather than anything in particular.

The only real disappointment was the maths of it all — one night is not enough, and the spa, gorgeous as it looked overlooking the Ernie Els-designed course, was priced for a longer stay and closed at seven regardless. We let it go. There was tennis, padel, cycling, all politely declined — we hadn't come to compete with anything, just to walk, slowly, and let the day undo itself.

Dinner was grilled, eaten indoors with the aircon on, the heat outside making a strong case for staying put. And then, sleep — the deep, dreamless kind that only a very long day and a very good bed can conspire to produce.

The Lone Droner

The weather on the two afternoons we were in PD was great. And the tides were high before sunset when we went to the beach. That made for some nice strong waves and great condition to hit the sea. The boys certainly enjoyed it.

The warm sun contrasted well with the cool sea water - sunscreen needed of course. Once you got in, you felt like staying in all day since to was really nice and refreshing in the water. The great breeze also was an added bonus.

But somebody had to fly the drone. Despite the heavy breeze, the drone held its position well and flying was not a problem at all.

I managed to get some great 4K footage and the customary photographs as well. Unfortunately there were clouds on the horizon, hence I was not able to get the red sunset as the sun kiss the horizon. I was happy enough however.

I brought the drone out on both afternoons and managed to fill up my memory card. Good thing I brought the charger along, otherwise I would be out of juice by the end of the first afternoon.

Now came the part of doing editing on those huge 4K files ..... That could wait I supposed ....

One Sunday to the Next

The last weekend went by like a blur. The stay in PD was a mellow one punctuated by trips down the beach, having a nice swim in what I must say were the windiest afternoons I have swam in.

It was great fun though and the beach was actually rather empty. Staying at out apartment meant that we could head down at any time and I had fun with my drones during sunsets. I ended up just chilling out in the apartment rather than venturing around town. Maybe I just needed a break.

The original plan was to take Idlan to school on the Friday but after swimming on Thursday, Idlan had a coughing fit. We decided just to rest at home that day rather than drive all the way to Seri Kembangan. We did go out for dinner at the Golf Club after the swim, but we soon found our way back to the apartment having an early night.

Come Saturday - the final day we were in PD - we decided to head back to KL before lunch rather than wait for the evening. Clearly the boys had had enough of the beach and were missing their PS4 ....