Lang Tengah

Lang Tengah is a resort island off the coast of Terengganu and lies in the Redang marine park region. It is somewhere between Pulau Redang and Pulau Perhentian. Most of the island is rocky and hilly and guests come here to unwind, snorkel and dive. The coral reefs are comparable to that of Redang Island, and I would say even better.

Getting there

Air
There are daily flights to Kuala Terengganu from Kuala Lumpur operated by MAS and Air Asia. The Air Asia flights are cheaper, but you will have to get out of bed much earlier. Both carriers operate out of KLIA. Flight times: Air Asia flight to Kuala Terengganu 7:15 a.m. MAS flight to Kuala Terengganu 10:25 a.m. MAS sometimes have extra flights. Check with your travel agent.

Note that you should try to reach Kuala Terengganu in the morning to meet the boat times. There may not be boats to the island in the afternoon. The resorts usually sell an all-inclusive 3day-2night package which includes hotel transfer to the KT airport. On arriving at Kuala Terengganu airport, the resort�s transport service will meet you and take you by a van to Merang(about half an hour�s journey). There are lots of jetties in Merang and each resort will normally have its own jetty.

Bus
There are daily buses to Kuala Terengganu from Kuala Lumpur(check out the bus times at the Puduraya bus station). The bus journey takes about 9 hours and many travellers take the overnight coach to reach Kuala Terengganu in the morning. The resort operator can arrange to meet you at the bus station.

Car
It is a 8-hour drive from Kuala Lumpur to Merang by car without stopping. Allowing for stops and asking for directions, better allocate 9-10 hours of driving time. In order to reach Merang in the morning, you will have to drive overnight. Merang is north of Kuala Terengganu, so you will pass through the town of KT. Finding the appropriate jetty will not be easy so you will need to arrange for the resort transport operator to meet you in Merang to take you to the appropriate jetty. Note that Merang is different from Marang, so don�t end up in the wrong village! There should be parking spaces for your car at the jetty area, for which you will have to pay an expensive daily car parking charge(even if you are parking under a coconut tree).

Speedboat times
This will depend on the tide times. The jetties are situated at the banks of the river in Merang and the speedboats are unable to come in at low tide. The earliest boat times can be anywhere between 10 to 12 noon. We reached the jetty at 9 a.m. and the speedboat only turned up at 12:15 p.m. The sea is much calmer in the morning compared to the afternoon. Normally, after 3 p.m., the sea get very choppy and the boat passengers get tossed about in the boat. No, we're not kidding! The speedboat ride will take about 40 minutes.

Accomodation

There are four resorts on the island at the last count: Blue Coral, Square Point, Redang Lang and D�Coconut. All of them are located on the southeast side of the island where there are beaches. We stayed at the Redang Lang resort, and we managed to take a brief look at Blue Coral as well as Square Point. We noted that foreigners like to stay at Blue Coral or Square Point and locals tend to stay at Redang Lang. We try to give a brief description of the resorts based on the impression we got from our visit. Note that our description may not be reflective of how things will be when you get there.

Blue Coral
This is reputed to be the most luxurious of the resorts on the island. Most foreigners tend to stay there.There is a swimming pool on its grounds. Guests tend to sit under the trees and read their books i.e. not an active crowd. It does not have a shop, so guests go to the neighbouring resort(Redang Lang) to buy their necessities. Accomodation prices are higher than the other resorts, but if you purchase your package during the MATTA fair, or other travel fairs, prices can come down to almost that of Redang Lang Resort. Blue Coral Resort has a good house reef with a patch of blue corals a short distance in front of the resort(hence the name, I guess). The corals are best seen in the sunny afternoon when it is brightest. The blue coral reef looked like a seabed carpeted with purplish blue broccoli. It was quite a beautiful sight, even for those who are normally not impressed by corals. I have not noticed a reef like that in the other islands.

Square Point
Sitting at the raised deck of Square Point Resort. No, we did not stay here, but it was within walking distance from where we stayed.

The Square Point Resort is situated on the next beach. It has a mix of both foreigners and locals as guests. The activities are based on the "free and easy" concept. People come here to relax. So there is no karaoke or free boat trips for snorkelling. It has a decent house reef for snorkelling which is reputed to have adult black tipped sharks towards the eastern end of the house reef. For some reason, Square Point has a better breeze than Blue Coral and Redang Lang. The beach is rather narrow compared to that of Blue Coral/Redang Lang. It has a raised wooden viewing deck along its frontage which is quite popular for relaxation. We were allowed to look at the rooms and we noticed that the furnishings were better than that at Redang Lang. It has both seaview and standard rooms. The food is buffet style, but we were told that they would introduce an a' la carte menu later. Square Point can be reached from Blue Coral by a short path behind the resort(an easy two minutes' walk).

D' Coconut
This is the latest resort on the island and we were told that it was 75% complete although its brochures were readily available at the KT airport. So we guess it is already in operation. It is situated on the beach next to Square Point's beach. Note that the beaches are separated by rocky outcrops so guests do not normally go from one resort to another. The staff, however, know about the paths at the back of the resorts, so they can be seen sometimes relaxing at the other resorts.

Redang Lang
Redang Lang was built in 2002. It had around a thousand arrivals in its first year of operation. Last year there were more than 4000 arrivals. Most of the arrivals come on a 3-day -night package. The resort has 40 rooms, and it was 90% occupied when we were there. Redang Lang and Blue Coral share the same beach and it is not uncommon to see Blue Coral Resort guests walk next door to patronise the shop at Redang Lang. This beach is the widest on the whole island. The Redang Lang Resort is a place for the younger crowd(mostly local) as it is the most happening resort among the four. The resort has only a small frontage so there are no seaview rooms. It makes up for this by making sure that the guests have plenty of activities. They have boats that take the guests out to snorkel in the morning and afternoon(what they call 'round island'). Since the island is small, the boats will go around the island on the return trip. All rooms are of only one type. This is where we stayed and our trip report is given below.

Redang Lang Resort trip report -April 2004

The view of Redang Lang Resort from the sea.

From the KT airport, we arrived at the Redang Lang Resort's jetty by the river at Merang by 9 a.m. and waited for about 3 hours before there was a speedboat came to fetch us to the island. We were told that the speedboat could not enter the river due to the low tide in the morning. We started the speedboat journey at 12:15 p.m.. The speedboat headed down the river to the open sea and reached Lang Tengah island at 12:55 p.m. There we disembarked and headed straight for lunch. After lunch, we checked into our rooms.

The Redang Lang Resort was built in a "longhouse" style, in two-storey blocks. We had the downstairs corner room, which was good as we did not have to climb the stairs, and the water pressure in the bathroom is always better than that upstairs. The corner unit allowed us more privacy and also a more convenient place to sun our wet stuff. (You will have to take the word "resort" with a pinch of salt as the furnishings are not luxurious enough to merit that description.)

In the afternoon, the resort boat would take us out to a reef for snorkelling. The snorkelling session lasted only about 45 minutes and the boat then took us back to the resort. Since the island was small, the boat would take us back by going around the island. Back at the island, we would normally have our tea before doing anything else. At this time, the afternoon has begun to cool a bit so quite a number of resort guests would play beach volleyball. Some of us who loved snorkelling would head out to the patch of blue corals just opposite the neighbouring Blue Coral resort. Others would indulge in swimming. There are no sea urchins in the area so swimming is quite safe. The Redang Lang Resort operator had a thing about sea urchins and would get somebody to remove them from the resort seabed if they are spotted.

Dinner was served at 7:30 p.m. so we would normally take a shower before dinner. The water in the resort was pumped up from a well and surprisingly, the water quality was quite good and hardly tasted brackish at all. Also, the water pressure was okay even with so many people bathing at around the same time.

Electricity in the resort is provided from three generators and electricity is available 24 hours a day. The grounds are decently lit at night so it is possible to walk around without a torchlight. At night, guests can go play card games, carroms or snooker at the snooker centre although the people enjoying themselves there at night appear to be the resort staff most of the time. The staff members are very young and they socialize easily with the resort guests. The snooker tables provided are the small size mini tables. The Karaoke room is only opened after 9 p.m. and seemed to be popular. A very good selection of Chinese songs is provided but English songs are more limited. Astro TV is available in the TV room and the reception is decently clear.

Rooms
The rooms are all standard rooms with two queen size beds per room. Each room is quite spartan. A small chest of drawers and no other furniture is provided inside.( That's right, no chairs and tables.) The lighting is adequately bright enough for reading. The walls are of wooden panelling and we could hear somebody from the next room snoring on our first night there. The room is air-conditioned but it also has an overhead ceiling fan. Towels and soap are supplied, but not changed on a daily basis. There is no shampoo in the room, so you will have to bring your own. The people who come to this resort are usually the young crowd who come to have fun without a care about luxury. We noticed that most people were there on quad-sharing basis. Those who came on twin-sharing had to pay a slight surcharge. Each room came with an attached bathroom. There is a three-pin plug point available in the room to plug in your hair dryer and whatnot. Luckily, the rooms are mosquito-free. In fact, there don't seem to be many mosquitos at the resort and we never had to use my insect repellent at all. However, there seem to be some flies in the dining room. This is a minor problem in all the Terengganu islands.

Meals
Four meals are provided each day: breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner. They are served buffet style and you can eat as much as you like. The quantity is adequate so there is no need to rush. There was one morning when we were late for breakfast and some of the food was gone. The resort cook obligingly dished out something for us. Generally, there would be food left over.

The dining hall.

Breakfast is typical Malaysian breakfast. They rotate the menu so some mornings it is nasi lemak, or fried noodles, or eggs and sausages. Generally they provide 2-3 different types of food in the morning. If the breakfast does not agree with you, there is always toast bread.

For lunch and dinner, this seem to be the standard combination: Rice + 4 dishes + 1 dessert + 1 soup The resort serves fish, chicken and vegetables(usually choy sum) everyday. The dessert is either fruit or agar-agar. We loved the soup they serve. On Saturday dinners, they would serve barbequed fish, chicken and lamb. The lamb was superb. The weekend we were there, there was a lot of unconsumed barbequed stuff, so they brought it out again during supper time in case anybody was hungry. You get the feeling that this resort operates very informally.

Tea is a simple affair amd is usually red bean soup with curry puff.

Some items are available 24 hours a day. These are bread, biscuits, margarine and kaya. As for drinks, teabags, Milo, Nescafe and condensed milk are available throughout the day with a tank of hot water for you to make your own drink. There are three tanks in the dining hall: hot water, normal water and cold cordial drinks.

Supper is normally not provided but you can always help yourself to the bread and biscuits. The dinner is quite filling so there is actually little need for supper. We brought along some snacks which we left untouched for the whole duration of the trip. The only thing that we brought that was useful was the 3-in-1 packet stuff like coffee-tea and red date-with-longan tea.

Oh, another thing.....guests are not allowed to wear shoes and sandals in the wooden-floored dining area. They have to leave their shoes and sandals at the steps. So make sure you bring slippers that are easily distinguishable from other people's footwear.

Snorkelling
Most of the guests come here to snorkel. The resort likes to bring the guests by boat to the eastern side of the island to a place called Batu Bulan('Moon Rock'). Here, there are coral outcrops growing out of a sandy seabed. Nearer the shore, the corals disappear leaving only the sandy seabed so it does look like you are in a giant outdoor swimming pool 3 metres deep. Many shoals of white colour fish can be found here and they are not very apparent against the white coloured sand, but nevertheless easy to spot. We saw an Olive Ridley turtle and a black-tipped shark while we were here. There was nothing spectacular in the way of reef fishes or corals. What we really liked was the 'outdoor swimming pool' effect. Although our package stated that we were allowed only one boat trip a day, in actual fact, the resort did not impose a limit on its guests. Boat trips to the reefs are available both morning and afternoon. I think Redang Lang is the only resort on the island providing such a service without extra charge.

The other place that is good for snorkelling is near the blue coral patch opposite the Blue Coral resort. Just walk over next door to Blue Coral and snorkel out to the floating buoy line. The blue coral patch is located right under the floating buoy line. This is a sight not to be missed. If you follow the buoy line to its end, you can see shoals of fish hanging around almost motionless around a rock. We had fun observing a 'cleaning station' nearby, which is a spot where the bigger fish come to be cleaned by a type of small fish.

The "Snookling Centre" is where you can rent snorkelling gear.

Diving
There was a dive centre at the Redang Lang resort. We did not dive on this trip so we did not check it out. Since we brought our own gear, we did not rent any mask and snorkel from the dive centre either.

Jungle trekking
Actually there is no reason for anybody to go to an outlying island to trek in the jungle, but we did it nevertheless. The resort provides a guide to take guests up a jungle trail. The trail goes over the forested hill to the other side of the island and back. The first 15 minutes can be hard going and therefore may not suitable for older folks. We had to stop for a breather a few times during the climb. The guide pointed out some of the jungle plants to us such as Tongkat Ali, Jangkut Ali, Kerbau Jantan, Lebai Samad and rattan. Jangkut Ali and Kerbau Jantan have the same male medicinal usage as Tongkat Ali, but is reputed to be more potent. The whole trek took about two hours.

Checking out
The checkout time is 10 a.m. The speedboat will take the guests back to Merang on the mainland before noon. Lunch is not provided on the last day. We did not feel like going back to the mainland so early as our flight was at 9 p.m so we requested a later departure. The resort operator provided us a speedboat to leave at 2:30 p.m. probably only because the speedboat had to go to Merang to fetch more arrivals. Since lunch was not provided in our package on the last day, we paid 20 ringgit per head to have lunch at the resort. The sea journey in the afternoon was very choppy. On arrival at Merang, the resort's van driver took us to the market for some last minute shopping for the local prawn crackers, dodol, otak-otak and other stuff. Then we headed to a coffeeshop for some good nasi dagang. One thing good about the resort is the service factor. Their van driver was helpful and obliging. We on our part try not to put him out too much. So after the late tea/early dinner of nasi dagang we headed to the airport and waited there a few hours for our flight.

Costs
On a per head basis and based on twin sharing, we paid RM439 each(or a total of RM878 for both of us) for a 4-day-3-night package. This includes airport transfer to the resort by van and speedboat. The meals are covered for 3 days only, from lunch on the first day to breakfast on the last day.
The air fare is not included. We flew by Air Asia from KL to KT and the return fare per head is about RM177 inclusive of airport tax. We booked 2 months in advance of the trip and managed to get the ticket at that price. It would have been cheaper if we had booked even earlier. MAS flights cost much more but had more convenient morning flight times.

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