Last month, we took a trip to Marang and Cherating, two cities on Malaysia’s east coast.
It takes about five hours by car from Kuala Lumpur to Marang.
Our trip looked something like this:
Marang → Pulau Kapas → back to Marang → Cherating
You can get to the east coast by car, bus, or plane. There’s also a railway line currently under construction, so getting there should become even easier once it’s completed.
What is Marang like?
Marang is a small town in Terengganu, where around 97% of the population is Malay. Because of this, the area has a strong Islamic influence.
I felt like that being non-Malay basically meant being a tourist.
Every time we started chatting with someone, one of the first questions we got was, “Where are you from?” haha
Marang is also a port town where boats and ferries to Pulau Kapas depart.
The cottage we stayed at was right in front of the sea, with a BBQ area and a turtle ponds. (Unfortunately, I completely forgot to take a photo of the turtles…)
It had exactly the kind of relaxed, seaside-cottage atmosphere you’d expect from a small coastal town.
Basically, the perfect place to do absolutely nothing.
The only problem was that the shower only had cold water.
But our survival skills have reached a level where cold showers are hardly enough to shake us anymore.
Kapas Island (Pulau Kapas)
We booked a tour to Pulau Kapas through Klook.
From the jetty, it takes only about 15–20 minutes by small boat to reach the island.
The weather was cloudy that day, and because it had rained the day before, the sea was a little rough.
The boat was bouncing around quite a bit, but luckily, we arrived in no time.
After taking a short break on the beach, we headed to a hiking spot on the northern side of the island.
The hike was short but quite steep, but once we reached the top, the view was absolutely beautiful.
It honestly felt like we had walked straight into the world of Moana.
After getting back from the hike, we immediately joined a snorkeling tour.
I had bought new snorkeling equipment just before this trip, so I had been looking forward to finally using them. hehe
From the beach, the water around Kapas didn’t look particularly crystal clear (probably because of the cloudy weather) but once we got underwater, it was a completely different story.
There were so many corals and fish, and the underwater scenery was wow.. beautiful.
There were sea anemones everywhere, which meant there were also Nemos and all kinds of other fish living around them. I honestly lost count of how many clownfish I saw.
While we were snorkeling around a rocky area, a shark swam right past me.
Although, unfortunately, no one believed me.
(Don’t worry, the shark is docile according to Chat gpt)
Dinner
For dinner, since we were staying in a seaside town, we decided to have some seafood.
So we went to a seafood BBQ and hot pot restaurant and enjoyed a dinner filled with fresh seafood.
Just exactly what you’d want after spending the day by the sea.
On our last morning in Marang, we also tried some local dishes that are particularly popular in this part of Malaysia.
One of them was Nasi Dagang, a breakfast dish made with rice cooked in coconut milk, usually served with a rich tuna curry. It is definitely something worth trying when you’re in Terengganu!
We also had Satar, a kind of grilled fish paste wrapped in banana leaves.
And, of course, we also had some familiar Malaysian staples like omelette and nasi lemak.
A perfect way to start our last morning in Marang before heading off to our next destination..