beaches of kuantan - balok & berserah beaches (2)

i think we have been to kuantan at least 6 times. after staying twice at hyatt kuantan, we decided to stay somewhere else on our subsequent visits to kuantan. we picked le village, a 3-star hotel about 15km outside kuantan. (today it goes by the name duta village beach resort.) we have also stayed at 4-star swiss hotel along the same beach. windsurfers will have heard of this beach. kite flying and wind surfing are very popular activities at this beach.

normally, i do not enjoy swimming at the pool in a hotel but i did in this one. the reason is the water in the small pool was so warm that it felt like you were in a heated pool. the hotel was, and still is, in a rustic setting but there were not many amenities or facilities.

usually, for meals, we would make our way to telok chempedak. we would go to this restaurant by the beach. from the restaurant, you could watch children and adults flying kites on the beach. for the afternoon meal, we would sometimes have it at a food centre in the middle of town.

about 5km from balok beach is another beach called berserah. there is a fishing village at berserah and as you drive into the village, you will get a whiff of the smell of salted fish. we do not specially go there to buy salted fish, we actually go there to watch the water buffaloes haul in the basket load of fish. we managed to watch this once, at about 10 in the morning when the fishing boats had just returned.

on certain evenings, there is a pasar malam on the main road outside the village. i think we have eaten at the food stalls at this pasar malam.