Jalan-jalan Pekan-Rompin

I love road trips. There is an excitement which is hard to describe, in going through small 'kampungs' and discovering hidden treasures.

During the recent three-day weekend, we decided we would spend it in Kuantan, having gone back to KL the last two, and just thinking about driving to Kelantan was enough to exhaust me.

Since we're only about 40km from Pekan, I googled things to do there. Almost all the websites mentioned decent-enough sites like the Royal Palace, Sultan Abu Bakar museum and the Water Transport museum.

So off we went, cruising along the 4 lane road (passing only a handful of other vehicles, tau la nak pergi Pekan DiRaja kannn) - and in 20 mins we had arrived!


Pintu gerbang pun ada payung


One of the mosques in Pekan




and this was what greeted us:




How come no one bothered to update the tourist information sites that the museum is undergoing renovation? Hel-lo....?


View down the road from the under renovation museum

and across the road, the Watercraft gallery looked interesting enough - on the notice board, it says opening times 9.30 am.


Badly maintained tourist site in Pekan (Royal Town some more!)

It was about 10.45am when we were there and the gate was securely locked, complete with rusted chains.


Locked gates

Undeterred, we drove around the almost -unpopulated town, went round the Palace and the Polo Club.



Gates of the Palace

I especially like this very old building - old building makes me sad, I wonder what history comes with it, but the gates are locked and there are no notices to explain what this building is. Abg tells me it's the tombs for the Royal Family.

**further googling has revealed that this is Sultan Abdullah Mosque next to the Royal Tombs


Royal Tombs, apparently


Severely disappointed but still cheerful, we decided to drive further down to Rompin - apparently it's famous for 'udang galah's.

From Pekan just before you reach Rompin, on your right is an R&R with a prawn shaped statue. There are about 4-6 shops there, all selling the specialty dish.


'Udang' shaped statue, see...?



Anyone who can correctly name the price of these babies gets a mystery gift!


I think it is safe to say that we won't be running back to this makan place.

and finally, stopped by this stretch of road where there are several stalls set up selling pickled fruits, apparently locally made in Muadzam Shah. Bought a small jar of 'buah salak' [snake fruit] and 'sengkuang'. Discovered the salak pickle to be rotten when we got home. Ah well.




I love road trips.