Friday, October 2, 2009

Of kepah, kemunting and wild water melon

As I drove along Chendor during my routine Kemaman-Kuantan commute, I couldn't help but felt nostalgic about that part of the beach.

Chendor beach, though not as famous as its neighbour, Cherating, it has a special place in my memory.

Its rather shallow waters (you can even wade far into the sea without even wetting your hair) attracts many, especially us, Kemaman folks.

The only problem is that at times the water is infested with jelly fish, and you wouldn't like to be stung by these creatures!

Those days, I'm talking about the 60's friends, Chendor was famous for two things - kemunting (wild berries growing well on the bris soil) and kepah by the thousands!

I am not exaggerating to say that I used to rake in kepah by the pails and so too was kemunting. I used to gather these black-when-ripe berries by the basket.

Kemunting resembles budu (anchovy paste) in a miniature tempayan. The difference is that kemunting is very sweet and seedy.

Whereas kepah is a just like a lokan that I had talked about in my older entry. It is smooth-shelled however. They are very delicious if stir fried or just steamed.

From the look of things, Chendor is not that well developed compared to its neighbour, Cherating. May be its vicinity to Terengganu border prevents it from challenging Cherating as another tourist destination.

No matter what, we all loved to swim in Chendor waters, not in monsoon seasosn of course!

Why not try it!

3 comments:

Martin Lee said...

I drove during the weekends or rest days to explore beaches or river mouths areas just to get an idea. From Sungai Ular, Cherating, Club Med, Chendor, Pantai Mak Nik, Telok Kalong, Awana Kijal, Kemasek, Kerteh and Paka, all the way up north.

Club Med was fenced off and guarded, Cherating beach especially near the restaurant Duyung I think, is a bit dirty though a lot of foreign tourists. Pantai Mak Nik beach is nice but deep and also space occupied too excessively by Intan. Telok Kalong beach is also steep and could be infested by shark. Awana Kijal is very nice for tourists, Kemasek is serene and well organized. The river mouths of Kerteh and Paka are impressive.

I am supposed to stay in Impiana near Chendor but they raised the room rate too high for no reason at this juncture of time.

Surprisingly, Telok Cempedak in Kuantan seems to be good and convenient.

One day I will try Chendor beach as suggested by you!

Barbara said...

Thanks for visiting my blog and commenting.Yes, so much of the gardens and scenery are breath taking here and I never take it for granted.

I scanned through your posts and got a feel of a very different culture which I am sure has its own beauty.

Martin Lee said...

I had visited the Chendor beach, here are some of the photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/martinleefh/ChendorBeach?feat=directlink