Teluk Chempedak, Kuantan

I had always believed that Teluk Chempedak was one of the most beautiful beaches on the mainland of Malaysia. The picture memory that I had of its sandy beach and all the stones with beautiful formations kept haunting me with a strong urge to come back to Teluk Chempedak for them.

When I chanced upon a return to Kuantan, I knew I had to go there came rain or shine. Being one of the top beach destinations on the East coast of the Malaysian peninsular, there was no way it could shut itself entirely from the siren song of commercialization. Teluk Chempedak has indeed changed a lot from the last time I remembered it.

The transformation was overwhelming. It now has all kinds of fast food restaurants so you wouldn’t go hungry provided you’ve got enough $$ in your pocket. Feeling a tinge of hunger biting at the pit of my stomach, I hastily parked my car and headed for the McDonald’s outlet where I ordered a large set of Big Mac and brought it down to the beach to feed my hungry stomach with.

While I like the transformation that the beach of Teluk Chempedak has undergone over the years, I couldn’t help but thinking how it looks quite fake now. It reminds me a little of the man-made beach at the Sentosa Island of Singapore – minus the half-naked beach-goers of course. LOL.

There is now a metal walk-board which makes going to the other end of the beach much easier. I remember how it required a little bit of trekking to do back then. The walk-board is even good enough for cycling activities and it branches out to some resting hut at certain points along the way so I had the best of time taking in the breath-taking view from under some of them.

I remember how I used to come here a lot. Being the only Catholic in my batch, I had the privilege of going out of school to attend the morning mass at St. Thomas church every Sunday. I had the whole day to hang around town so I would use the time to do a little bit of window shopping before taking a bus to Teluk Chempedak where I’d spend the rest of my outing lepaking around.

I would go down to the beach and take a nap on top of one of the stones with flat surface. Sometimes I’d spend hours looking at the South China Sea thinking that just on the other side of it was my beloved homeland Sabah. Being thousands miles away from your family could pretty much make you go sentimental at times. Heh.

Teluk Chempedak really is different from most other beaches that I’ve been to in Malaysia. Being on the East coast, there’s no way you can see the sunset from there. It would have been so beautiful if you do.

I imagined how beautiful it would be to catch the sunrise so I actually planned to drive down there to watch the break of dawn early the next morning. Thanks to the late-night outing that I later had that  night, my oversleeping had denied me the chance. Damn.

I actually spent almost 3 hours strolling on the beach of Teluk Chempedak while playing over and over again the original version of “What a Wonderful World” on my earphones. It really was a down-memory-lane time for me. 😀

Well, to conclude this post on my visit to Kuantan, I’d like to reiterated again that a visit to Kuatan would never be complete without a visit to the beautiful Teluk Chempedak beach. NEVER. 😀