Gem Island for 3 Days 2 Nights

28-30^th May 2010

I am back again to Gem Island or Gemia Island, which is situated in the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia’s Dungun town in the state of Terengganu and if you have read my posting on my first visit to this island in September 2009, you will have most of the details to this island.

The difference between my first trip to this island and the current one is that this time round, we will be heading there on the Malaysian school holiday period, which means crowd. The reason I am heading back to this place is due to 2 reasons. Firstly, to organize a long overdue island trip for my church pastor in Singapore, which eventually became an 18 people group. Secondly, due to the heavy traffic during this school holiday period, all other resorts in other islands are either fully booked or does not have the capacity to house 18 of us. Initially, I was planning to head to Lang Tengah Island where I got married in but as mentioned, due to heavy traffic we have to consider other options. Don’t get me wrong by having the impression that just because we could get an 18 pax group in Gem Island while the others are fully booked means that Gem Island is a crappy place/resort and is not a destination of choice. While your impression might be true in some situations, Gem Island fortunately lives up to its name… Gem and gems are by no means cheap and crappy.

The reason why this place could still accommodate us is due to the pricing of its package, as it is a higher end resort with way better facilities compared to many other islands’ so naturally the reservation is slower. The pricing we’ve got is RM585 for a 3D2N full board (all meals included) twin sharing adults Water Villa, which is RM85 more expensive than the last time we went in 2009 at RM500 and similarly, costs us RM85 more compared to last year’s RM480 for the triple sharing full board package at RM565. Why the price increases? I guess it’s the peak period so naturally it is more expensive… Irene, if you are reading this, you better give me a better rate the next time I visit Gem Island. 18 pax group is equivalent (If not better) than the businesses you’ve got from agents and your agent got commission… winks! On the other hand, thanks to Irene for the smooth arrangement of rooms and giving us the priority to the extra rooms. Despite the initial hiccups in the room reservation, Irene has handled it well. Kudos!

Our gang departed from Singapore with Alisan Coach, which took the Singapore-Malaysia Woodlands’ causeway and the traffic is horrendous. The coach cost us S$130 per pax (A peak period rip off again… last year cost S$90 for a return ticket) for a return trip but the seats on the coach left us felt wanting. Adding salt to injury, the bus driver took the wrong turn and ended up north of Terengganu. I was awake early to see where the driver was driving us to and taking the sun as my compass, I realized that he is heading the wrong way. He made several calls to his friend and I overheard that the friend is suggesting him to head to Setiu and I was like “What?!?!”. After he hung up, I asked him where he is heading to and he told me Setiu. To cut the story short, he later admitted that he does not know how to go to the jetty that we wanted to go i.e. Marang Jetty in Dungun.

[Tips: One important note, the jetty you are supposed to be at is Marang jetty and NOT Merang jetty (Take note of the ‘A’ and ‘E’)]

Later, I have to direct him the way… fancy that? A tourist directing the bus driver! Anyway, thank God that we managed to get to the jetty on time to board the speed board on schedule. Once we reached, I brought the group for breakfast at the local stalls near the jetty selling the following:

Nasi Lemak

A Malay peasant food and the story goes that it first started off as farmers’ breakfast and lunch with the aim to provide the nutrients required for the hard day’s work. Nasi is the malay word for rice while Lemak meant fat or cream. Nasi Lemak are rice cooked in coconut milk (Thus the name “Lemak”) and Pandan leaves. The rice is served with anchovies, peanuts, cucumber and spicy sauce. The Nasi Lemak is wrapped in Banana leaves to allow the farmers to take it to the field for consumption later during lunchtime. The tradition to wrap it with banana leaves carried on till now as many would swear that the banana leaves contributes to the overall recipe as it not only is good for wrapping but actually gave a mellow fragrant to the rice.

Roti Canai/ Roti Prata

An Indian peasant food, this food has gained widespread popularity and has become a staple all over Malaysia and Singapore appealing to both young and old. Made of flour and ghee, the dough is skillfully toss and flip continuously till the dough is paper-thin. The dough is then worked into an envelope and fried over a flat iron stove in either more ghee or butter until both sides comes to a golden brown crisp. In old days, some of the dough has eggs or onion fillings but over the years, many variations was created to appeal to more people and various types of fillings was added such as cheese, mushroom, banana, chocolate and practically anything.

Nasi Kuning

Rice and glutinous rice cooked either in coloring or turmeric. The rice is yellow in color (Thus the name “Kuning”, which means yellow in malay) and served with dogtooth tuna curry. The rice tasted slightly sweet and the curry is not the regular coconut milk laden curry but a clear curry. This dish is native to Terengganu state and you most likely would not find this anywhere else save for a few migrant stalls.

Nasi Dagang

Rice and glutinous rice cooked with coconut milk, shallots and a special spice called Halba or fenugreek seeds (It was said that lactating women frequently use Fenugreek to increase milk supply [Source from wikipedia]). The rice is served with dogtooth tuna curry. Like the Nasi Kuning, the curry is not the regular curry and is also native to Terengganu state as well as another Malaysian state, Kelantan.

There are other type of food sold there but be sure to try out the above dishes if possible. Pastor C tried the Nasi Kuning but was not too game about it. After breakfast, some of the guys headed to the fruit market to buy some fruits to bring into the island for snacks. Oh, I understand that the Duku in Terengganu is the best due to its soil. Well whether it is true or myth, the fruit tasted real good and I guess that is more important than arguing who’s best. Then we took the 15 minutes boat transfer to Gem Island.

A few things remained unchanged in Gem Island both good and bad. The good part, the hospitality provided by Hizam is ever friendly and helpful. This time round I opted for the Premier Villa half-board (All meals included except lunch) package, which cost me RM605 per pax but comes with better accommodation than the regular water villa. Hizam upgraded my wife and I instead to the Hideaway Villa Full Board package (Costs RM815 per pax) for free. The Hideaway Villa is at the beach and is the best room for the resort. Thanks!

The bad unchanged area is the saltwater infinity pool, which still seemed like the last time they cleaned it was like forever… and the floor of the pool badly required maintenance. Why not mosaic the floor of the pool? The other thing is that there are still plenty of baby jellyfish during high tide… ouch! That’s nature for you, which the resort couldn’t and shouldn’t do anything about.

The bed remained comfortably the same

View from our balcony

Nice as it is, it may not be suitable for the elderly

There are a couple of hammocks on the beach and they are excellent
for lazing around and reading a book

There are plenty of changes as well since the last time I visited and again the good and bad. The good is that I can see significant change in the corals’ health and I’d like to salute the effort of the resort in maintaining the marine conservation site in great condition. Thus far, I have yet to see any corals so near to the island in such great health with plenty as big as a huge dining table! If you are an avid coral watcher, this is a good place to be at.

The bad part is that the Hideaway Villa that we reside in has leaking toilet seat sewerage pipe… initially we have no idea and my wife was accusing me of having high uric acid in my urine and I was like “What? No!” We later discovered that it was the sewerage pipe. Gem Island Resort management ought to do something before the pipe burst and I wouldn’t want to go to the extent of describing how gross it will be. Another bad area, which is really not anyone’s fault, is that the resort is filled with lots of people and it made the stay less pleasurable. The best choice is to avoid the late May to end June period. With so many people, littering is hard to control and water bottles are left everywhere and on one occasion, we even found pampers with fresh stools left on the beach… what are these people thinking??? One thing the management could do is to erect a “No Littering” signboard all around the resort and beach as well as providing more dustbins.

Gem Island's beach

Canoeing will cost you RM15 per hour

There are plenty of shades on the beach as well and you may move the beach bench over these shades if the sun proved to be too brutal for your liking

We opted for a guided snorkeling trip this time round and were glad to do so as we are able to snorkel in better areas around the small island. The first location is located off Pulau Kapas and for this one, my advice is to skip if possible or just do a quick one as the next location is way better and it is behind Gem Island itself. Corals are healthier and more variety of fishes can be found here. Pastor C said that he saw a huge red Hump Head Wrasse (HHW) pass by right in front of him but none of us saw it so consider it fortunate for him. Male HHWs are either blue, green or purple or in short, cold colored whereas the female HHWs are bright orange to red so I guess the female wrasse was only attracted to Pastor C hahaha! I am actually more inclined to believe it is a Bump Head Parrotfish than a HHW but since Pastor C said the color is red, I supposed it has to be a HHW as the Bump Head Parrotfish is green.

The Gem Island gang.
Pastor C is the dashing man sitting on the far end of
the right-hand side of the photo (The one in gray T-shirt)

I'll have to say the water is not as clear as I would like but
visibility is decent enough. Fishes variety is a little upsetting
but the corals are definitely one of the best!

IF you are tired of the beach, you may venture towards the rocky area,
which is also an adventure in itself

We are fortunate to see the resort performing its turtles conservation
duty. This man is gently placing the turtle eggs collected early that morning
so that they are able to have a higher survival rate as some of you may
not know, turtle eggs are a delicacy to the local and the local fishermen
will take these eggs if the resort conservation team didn't reach the eggs on time.

All the meals served during our stay is buffet style and I would like to compliment the chefs as the food although being buffet are in good quality and one of the nights, we even had seafood BBQ! What else could I say about this place? Good food, good service, good bed, good location and good marine life… This place is worth visiting at least once in your life!

The end of the trip may not be as enjoyable due to the unnecessary coach traveling time of 12-13hours back to Singapore, but overall it is a good trip and we are looking forward to another one next year. It may or may not be the same resort but we are sure that this will be one of the best island trip we’ve had.

Hope you enjoy reading the post and the photos.

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