What to eat and Where to play in Bentong

When you are here in Bentong, things that you cannot miss out is the food! Bentong is a small town, 45 mins away from KL, easy to access and weekend are floated with KL people. So, today let me bring you around Bentong and see what can we find for good and cheap food.

1. Restoran SHL
Address: 71, Jalan Chui Yin, Bentong, Pahang ( just opposite Pasar Besar Bentong)
Tel: 09-2222879
Operating Hour: 6am-10pm

We came over here for lunch since it was recommended that they served good food with reasonable price. The place were filled with locals during lunch time. We seen to be the weirdest because both of us are holding cameras when walking in (obvious we are not local!).

Braised Pork with Yam (芋头扣肉)-RM18

Quite a big portion for both of us. Both yam and pork are well braised, a yummy serving with juicy pork belly and soft yam. 

Tau Fu Pok- RM 9 (6 pieces)

The smallest portion they served come in 6 pieces. We love the giant tau fu pok stuffed with generous fish meat and chives. Must Try!

Stir Fried Potato Leaves-RM 8

2. Kow Po Ice-cream

Address: No. 2, Bentong Heights, 28700 Bentong, Pahang

Tel. No: 09-2221258

Operating Hour: 10am-7pm

This is a place that you shouldn't miss out. The home made ice-cream is here in Kow Po. The place is so famous that when we arrived around 11am, it was packed and crowded inside the shop. Everyone was there with the same purpose as we do-to have their ice kacang!

Although it is packed, we still managed to get our ice kacang and ice-cream within minutes. They are fast and efficient, before we can even pay at the counter, the ice kacang is ready on our table.

That day, they only have 5 flavours-banana, peanuts, vanilla, chocolate and pandan. The best is their banana flavour, creamy and nice!

Ice Kacang- RM 4.50

Special about their Ice Kacang is that they use red bean paste instead of red bean. It brings up the flavour of the ice kacang when you eat with the ice. However, the portion is quite small. You may need to order two bowls or more to get satisfy. 

Ice- cream (3 scopes)- RM 10.50

Their ice- cream is charge at RM 3.50 per scoop. Their home made ice-cream is creamy and smooth in flavour, it taste richer than those mass produce ice-cream in the market. It taste like the ice cream we used to have during our childhood time.

3. Mokie Home Baked Pastry
Address: At Pasar Besar bentong, located at the back entrance outside of the market.

I was told that Mrs. Mok sells very good kaya puff, so do her homemade kaya. The kaya puff comes in two packing, small packet consists of 6 pieces and big packet consists of 10 pieces. Price vary accordingly. 

The homemade kaya puff filled our car with the kaya puff smell once entering the car. It just make our whole journey mouth-watering just by smelling on it.

Kaya Puff-RM 9 (10 pieces)

The filling of kaya is fluffy and smooth, with the crunchy layer of the skin, making it irresistible. We can easily finished the whole packets in a day.

Pineapple puff- RM 5.50 (6 pieces)

The pineapple puff didn't turn out as good as the kaya puff. The filling is too dry and making the whole puff a bit too hard.

Chamang Waterfall
One of the attraction in Bentong, lots of people visit the place for picnic and family outing.

How to go: Pass by the Hospital Bentong and Pejabat Kesihatan Bentong on your left, there is a signboard indicating Chamang Waterfall/Kampung Chamang on your left, take that turning and proceed about 10km into the deeper part of the village. On the way, there is a signboard leading you into the waterfall.

The road toward Chamang waterfall

We have reached! There are two parking areas to park your car. However the one nearer toward the waterfall was closed. We have to park at the upper area and walk down to the waterfall. You can still see a lot of cars park illegally beside the road for convenience, this is what Malaysian do when comes to parking!

The closed parking area. There is a public toilet as well.

Water flows fiercely from the cliff. Be careful and not get too near to the water flowing down area as the force was very strong. 

Caravan Serai Private Villas | Bentong

Recently, we feel like going for a short vacation, if possible far from town. Since it is a last minute planning, most of the private villas are fully booked until next year January and so coincidentally I found this place from the LivingSocial advertisement.

I searched from the internet and hoping to get more information about this place, however they only have FB and photos of the place also limited. So, we decided give it a try and adventure it since it is only one and half hour drive from KL. There are three types of accommodation- Superior Safari Tent, Deluxe Safari Tent and Caravan Suite. We booked Deluxe Safari Tent which comes with attached bathroom.

School Holiday Package for Safari Tent- RM368
-2 days 1 night stay
-Steamboat Dinner for 2 pax
-Breakfast for 2 pax
-Natural Walk

Entrance of Caravan Serai

Here is where we stay-Deluxe Safari Tent

Our first time to stay in tent. The last time I stayed in tent was during my Universiti time, camping with my schoolmates in Penang National Park.

The tent is equipped with one Queen size bed, basic furniture, portable air conditional and attached bathroom. It also comes with simple toiletries like towels, shampoo and bath gel, included 2 bottles of mineral water per tent.

If you are thinking Safari tent is like camping style, you are wrong! It is actually a big tent equipped with basic necessity, more like a 2 star hotel. At first he was so worry that he need to sleep under humid and hot tent, but after seeing the portable air conditional, he is relieved. There are power sockets for you to charge your phones or camera too. However, bad news is there isn't any line in this place.

Bathroom outside the tent but it was built with bamboos and covered.

You will need to wear slipper while bathing as the floor is filled with stones. Since it is raining in the evening, we expected to receive cold water in the next morning as it is using natural water.

This is where the Caravan suite located. There is a door toward the house. 

Just in case you need to grab some snacks at night, there is a convenient store right beside the entrance. You can also watch movie or play around in the activities room.

The bridge linking from the restaurant to the tents area. This part is a bit run down, it shown some repair work on the bridge as well.

Keratong Riverside Restaurant

The place that we had our breakfast and dinner. You can also order their ala carte menu that provides a combination of local cuisine. There is a function hall on first floor that can accommodates for a large group of people.

Simple and light steamboat dinner for that night. Both of us love their air sirap limau, we end up finished two jugs of it.

Breakfast of the day

The taste of their food is quite nice, out of our expectation.

Caravan Serai is a nice place to rest and relax, far from the busy town area.The place is surrounded by forest, local fruits orchard, river and hills. It is very natural place, be sure to woke up by the chickens and ducks around. No line is available there, you can't imagine how slow the time pass without your phone. Suddenly, we felt so out of place without our phone. I guess we need to train ourself stop being a slave to our phone!

The place is not as beautiful as we expected it to be, they are still under construction as loaders are parked in the area. The walls around the river are missing and barricaded by red construction tape, be caution when walking near to the river.

Caravan Serai

Lot 3159 & 3160, 12 3/4 Mile,

Jalan Tras, 28700 Bentong,

Pahang Darul Makmur

03-79723655

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Latitude: 3.6238850877391

Longitude: 101.872208118439

Hyatt Regency Kuantan Resort

If you are hoping to stay at a beach resort in Kuantan, other than Club Med at Cherating beach, there is a 5 star beach resort located at Telok Cempadak beach-Hyatt Regency Kuantan. I was there for 3 days 2 nights with my team last month. I actually felt quite hot and humid when we arrived although it was monsoon season for East Coast of Malaysia. The raining started to pour around evening time till night. So, it still not too bad if you are planning to have your beach holiday during monsoon season.

Reception Area

The Telok Cempadak beach, view from Kampung Restaurant. We saw two man fishing by the beach, I wondered how do they fish when the wave is so strong.

Beach Area

The swimming pool is located beside the Kampung restaurant. You can actually relax near the pool side while having a good view of the beach. It is just a few walks to the beach.

Swimming Pool Area

Hotel Rooms

I was sharing the room with another colleague. We were given a corner room, facing the staircase while other colleagues gets garden view.

The floor is tiled from the bathroom towards the door area. While, the room area is covered by wooden flooring. You won't feel so cold when stepping on it in the room.

The room is quite spacious however it doesn't give us a 5 star feel of it. All of the furniture is quite old and the air-conditional sounds at night which gave us sleepless nights.

The Minibar area consists of a refrigerator, a kettle, some coffee and tea, and two bottles of water. Again, sign of old cupboard, some of the area already torn off. It is quite disappointing when they claimed themselves as 5-star resort.

Overall the toilet is clean, however there are stains in the bathtub. I do not actually dare to use the bathtub after seeing the stains. The housekeeping service also kinda bad. For my first day there. they actually give us one hand towel instead of two. For second day, after cleaning they didn't give us the floor mat and hand towel at all. 

So far, the toiletries are quite complete.

Here is the view from our balcony, directly facing the staircase. We have to close our balcony door 24/7 since it is too expose to the corridor.

Most of us didn't really have a good stay there although it is a 5-star resort. In this three days, we had our breakfast, lunch to dinner in the hotel and variety of food is always the same for three consecutive days. We were quite disappointed with the food both taste and variety. When we confronted the chef about the food, they have a lot of excuses to counter back us. In addition, most of the staffs are temporary staffs that are not well trained, in few meals the staffs actually try to avoid me when I asked for refill of drinking water. Some of my colleagues actually got food poisoning after back to KL.

I hope the management will take serious of the customer's feedback, this is to help them to bring improvement of their services as 5-star resort. The resort seriously need to refurbish the rooms, it seem most of the furnitures are old and faded.

Hyatt Regency Kuantan Resort
Address: Jalan Telok Cempedak, 25050 Kuantan, Pahang
Phone:09-518 1234
Hyatt Regency Kuantan Website 

Sri Jaya Pau | Restoran Sin Tong Kok, Pahang

If you are visiting Kuantan or Pahang area, there is another food you should never miss out. That is the Sri Jaya Pau! It was recommended by my colleague long time ago but I never had a chance to visit the place. This time, we purposely make our way there. It is located in Restoran Sin Tong Kok, Maran.

Advisable to place your order in advance before you visit the place to avoid disappointment. They normally sold out all the pau before noon. 

Once you step into the restaurant, you can see lots of steam trays staging at the corner. All these trays are full of pau pre-ordered by people. Ours are in there too! *Excited!*

Sorting time with the owner. We had pre-order more than 100 Pau! Unfortunately, all pau are reserved and we are unable to buy more on the spot. So, it is best to pre-order it.

I bought 10 Char Siew Pau for RM1.80 each. It seem a bit expensive and the size also quite small but the taste is just splendid. What I like about this pau is the skin is really thin, mostly are covered by the filling. Overall the pau is so soft that when you try to peel the outer skin, the filing just burst out. The taste is simply delicious! No wonder my colleague bought 50 pieces back KL! 

Here is the address and phone number. To get there: exit Sri Jaya and head toward Sri Jaya Town, it is just a short drive after the toll. You can easily use waze to get there.