Cherating, Pahang

If you are planning a trip to Cherating, Pahang in the near future, please consider the following photos taken during our recent trip before deciding. 

We had booked and paid for 5D/4N at Holiday Villa; but we were so shell-shocked that we did a 2D/1N and abandoned the holiday. The "burnt" money we consider as charity to the half-dead resort which did not manja us as promised.

Photos taken with iPhone 6 without any filters.

Idyllic east coast? Gone! We were devastated, to say the least.

Signages - broken and some were missing altogether. The Other Half said the road authorities must have presumed everyone uses Waze and Garmin. I was not delighted.

Bauxite mines, aluminium being exported to China, laterite earth and red dust everywhere. How do the residents cope with this? Seeing red, both literal and figuratively. We were utterly horrified.

That single, obstructive tree has to go too? Most FELDA and FELCRA palm oil plantations have had their trees felled for mining purposes. Soil erosion everywhere within sight. Red mud after a short rainfall. Red rivers. Reddish water flowed from taps. Red stains in bathrooms and toilets. We started to feel real empathy and sorry for dwellers in that once beautiful and idyllic coastal area.

Sigh. Politics and business aside, can Kuantan residents voice this up, again and again until constructive remedial actions are taken? Enforcement on the existing 11 mines, pretty please?

This must have killed the entire tourism industry, and whatever cottage-industry dependent on tourism. Irreversible environmental damage and impact, We felt ready to march with anti-Lynas group of protestors, at the very least.

We could not even find the familiar signage to Turtle Conservation Sanctuary, zero batik art centre was within sight, keropok lekor stalls were completely smothered in red dust. It was a heart-breaking sight. Imagine the perpetual pain and suffering of dwellers there.

Those were not holiday-makers, for sure. They drove really fast unloaded at 110kmph at 90kmph stretches too. The loaded ones kept to the speed limit, oddly enough. That is not how strict liability applies, legally.

Not all trucks were covered. Free-falling pieces of earth/ore posed real hazard to other road users.

There you have it, my lovelies. Stay away from Cherating, Pahang until the dust settles - both literally and figuratively.

I pray earnestly that all powers that be and wanna-be would just sit down and resolve this serious matter. This is beyond politics. This is about lives.

(I really wish local mainstream media had given this more highlight with consistent attention so that we could have made informed decision and did not have to suffer/experience Mars on Earth. Oh, well.)

Happy holidays, not!