A Visit to Gua Charas Kuantan

We woke up almost 9.00am in the morning, and check out from the hotel. After our breakfast, we headed to Sungai Lembing.

We stopped at Gua Charas to see the Sleeping Buddha. Gua Charas is located nearby Sungai Pandan Waterfall, on the way to Sungai Lembing from Kuantan.

There are some stairs climbing before you reach to the cave entrance. There is entrance fee of RM 2 for adult and RM 1 for child. Parking fee is RM3 per car.

Along the way inside the cave, there are many statues of Buddha and also Indian Gods. Prior to that, one need to climb up a long staircase before you reach the entrance of the cave.

It is very smoky inside the cave due to heavy incense burning. For kids who have asthma or difficult in breathing, it is best recommended to just view from the outside.

However, there is a distance of walk from the entrance of the cave to reach to the Sleeping Buddha, hence you won't be able to see the Sleeping Buddha from the the entrance.

You may anticipate about 45 min - 1 hour for this visit, including all the steps climbing and picture taking. It is so beautiful inside the cave.

Finally we managed to climbed the stairs and reached the sleeping Buddha place. We were told that we can see the pillar of light shining from out of the cave into the Buddha’s face if it is a good sunny day.

Unfortunately, this morning is not the day. Nevertheless we took a group photo in front of the sleeping Buddha. Annabelle too, managed to scratch her name on the cave wall.

We took few more photos before we went down from the caves. It is indeed have a stunning view of the cave and how huge the cave is and able to cater a temple inside it.

After we drove out from the area to a distance, we took a group photo again with the Gua Charas as the background.

Then, we continued to journey to the Sungai Lembing. And here we are at the entrance of Sungai Lembing.

There are a lot visitors at the Sungai Lembing town. People just came from all corners of the peninsular when the RMCO come inforce. Everybody need a breakout from their home!

Basically we just wondered around at the town, took our lunch at the food court area just to relax and easy, after the short trip from Gua Charas, and prepare for tomorrow morning hiking of the Panaroma Hill.

Teluk Cempedak Kuantan

After last May Sekinchan trip, this would be our family weekend getaway during this pandemic time. We were planning for this trip for quite sometime as celebrate Alvin’s birthday at the same time as well.

We were out from home quite early and we headed to Kuantan straight. It was about 2 hours drive from Kuala Lumpur. It was around 9.00am we reached Kuantan town.

We had our breakfast at Yi Soon Restaurant. Although it can’t be called authentic specialites, but there is no doubt that the taste is really good.

This bowl of pork bone and peanut porridge did not disappoint at all. The soft and dense pork bone porridge, with its natural sweetness, is very good. Moreover, it comes togehter with two side dishes marinated by the owner himself.

Issac ordered the a bowl of tomato mushroom noodles. The first taste of soup was enough to surprise me. It was so sweet and not sour at all. There are also refreshing mushrooms that are not soft, and the simple noodle soup, but it warms the stomach and heart.

We like it very much. We were sharing our portion of food with each other. Other than that we ordered some Chinese dumplings with dry mee. We were so hungry and I had forgotten to take some of the food pictures.

After our breakfast, we drove to the famous beach in Kuantan – Teluk Cempedak. It is supposed to be a pretty "happening" beach. You would see huge crowd especially during this long weekend holiday, but due to the pandamic, the beach did not feel crowded at all.

Most interesting part of the beach: A wooden bridge/walkway that connected the main beach to another smaller beach which was less crowded. It was a long walk but it was most scenic.

The walkway passed the beach side and giant-sized rocks. People actually climbed over the bridge to sit on the rocks! And there are a lot of monkeys were wondering around and trying to snatch pedestrians’ food.

It is so co-incidentally I was carrying some snacks and wet wipes and unfortunately all were snatched by the monkeys!

We had been here in the year of 2008 when Annabelle was 1 year old. We were celebrating her birthday at Kuantan. Issac was almost 2 years old at that time. Alvin got this funny idea of wants to take the photos exactly 12 years ago, we will see how it is looks like! It was so funny!

There are a lot of changes at Teluk Cempedak during this 12 years of time. There are a lot of stalls and buildings were erected to cater for the ever increase of retail space at the area.

We had a break at the Starbuck Coffee and around 12 noon we left for our nect destination – Muhibbah Seafood Restuarant. It is a very famous and recommended seafood restaurant in Kuantan. The seafood here is very fresh and sheap. You can never get this kind of price in the city or even town. Secondly, the food here is very different, as they provide dishes that you hardly find in some of the seafood restaurant, like shark meat.

This is their famous shark meat. We ordered 2 types of different flavour of shark meet – one is Kunf Pao style and the other one is curry style. It's very fresh and the sauce is very nice. Other than that, we ordered deep fried sotong, steamed egg and stir fried vegetables too.

After the lunch, we drove to check in to the hotel. We stayed a night at Kuantan before we headed to Sungai Lembing the next day.

We had our dinner at Alor Akar Seafood Restaurant. Their signature dish is the herbal chicken or Chinese said ‘Begger Chicken’. The portion is huge and is very tasty as well.

We also order the butter-fried mantis prawns and salted egg yolk squid.

And homemade tofu with minced pork and salted fish. The cooking here is very homely and portions are generous at a very resonable price.

After the dinner, we called off the day and back to hotel to take a rest. In the evening both Alvin and I were out and walked at the side of the river just next to the hotel we stayed.

There were a few guys fishing on the platform along Sungai Kuantan. May be it is due to the Covid-19 pandemic. There were less people along the road and eateries at the Medan Selera which we saw along the road.

It is a great day for all of us and we had our stomach filled up with good and yummy food!

Extraordinary Daughters of God #4

I am a Mother

~ Sister Benjarin K Tan

Elder L. Tom Perry taught, “Motherhood is the noblest and greatest of all callings.”

"While not all women have the opportunity to be a mother, God does entrust all women with the divine responsibility of mothering, nurturing, and guiding his children. You are not alone in this divine role. You are partnered with Him, our all-knowing and loving Heavenly Father."

"God is not only there to hear and answer your prayers when you call upon Him for help; He is continually blessing you as you do this hard and important work. He is ready to help you become an even better, stronger woman, wife, and mother."

Sister Benjarin K. Tan or Sister Beam grows in the Church. She graduated from BYU Hawaii where she met her eternal companion, and now she stays in Malaysia.

She is an online English Tutor. She has a cute son and is expecting her 2nd child. Currently she serves as Young Single Adults Advisor, Primary teacher and Pianist in the Church.

Please do come in and listen to what she would like to share with you about her motherhood journey relying on God's strength.

Extraordinary Daughters of God #3

How You Have Been Benefited or Grow from the Church Program ~ Food Storage?

~ Sister Peggy W. Snelson

What is Food Storage?

“We encourage members worldwide to prepare for adversity in life by having a basic supply of food and water and some money in savings. We ask that you be wise, and do not go to extremes. With careful planning, you can, over time, establish a home storage supply and a financial reserve.”

Sister Peggy Wong has a strong testimony of the Church teaching or Program, namely Food Storage. It has help her and her family, especially during this Covid-19 pandemic time.

Please do come in and listen to what she would like to share with you.

Alvin's New Working Toy

This is Alvin’s new working car – a Mitsubishi Triton Adventure X ^^.