Club Med Cherating
Our Club Med Cherating journey started with an overnight in Kuala Lumpur…one of my favourite shopping destinations! After settling into our hotel we enjoyed a lovely meal at the renowned local restaurant Bijan for a taste of Malay food.
Club Med Cherating is perched on the East Coast of Malaysia so next morning we took a short flight to Kuantan where we were collected in comfort and introduced to Club Med Cherating by a friendly GO (an abbreviation of “Gentil Organisateur” the name given to the Club Med team members) on the journey to the resort.
On arrival at the club we were again greeted in typical Club Med fashion by a group of GOs from different departments clapping us as we arrived at the grand entry and direct us to reception where we received a welcome drink before a staff member personally showed us to our rooms.
A word of warning! It was not long before we spotted the mischievous monkeys that sneak into the resort; so be vigilant in locking your room and keeping the balcony door locked too. They are very clever and like all things shinny especially mobile phones, jewellery and iPads!
The Club rooms are great for families and have all the amenities required including Air-conditioning, TV and Safe. However, if you want to spoil yourself and have a little more space and comfort it is hard to look past the suites.
Club Med offers so many activities and we did try to experience most of them!
Starting with a quick ride on the train to the “Quiet Pool”.
We did enjoy more than a few visits here as we weren’t travelling with children and so the ambiance of the infinity pool and long beach walks was hard to pass up.
Club Med Cherating offer a myriad of keep fit and sport options such as Yoga, Aqua fitness, and sports like Badminton, Tennis, Basketball, Football, Squash and Volleyball.
The Wellness Centre has all you would expect - spa options, massages and beauty treatments. In fact we even did a short class to learn the art of back and shoulder massage ourselves.
One of my highlights was a private cooking lesson with the resort chef. We learnt the art of making a wonderful Malay Chicken Curry and Satay. It was truly enjoyable as we were shown the process, discussed the ingredients, and discussed the health benefits of various herbs and spices used locally and in his home country of India.
In addition to the on site activities there are some wonderful optional tours to select from. We were visiting at the end of October…quite late in the season so we were lucky not to experience too much rain.
The highlight of our experience was two fold. A short walk to a turtle sanctuary situated just outside the resort late afternoon and we were given the opportunity to each release a little turtle on to the sand and watch it makes its way into the water and negotiate the waves to freedom!
The second highlight was a Hafiz Firefly boat tour at night. The weather was perfect (as we were visiting at the end of October…quite late in the season so we were lucky not to experience too much rain).
Mohd Hafiz Abdul Majid gave a fascinating talk about the fireflies and he was passionate about preserving their environment. We were asked not to take photos but I can tell you as we cruised down the river we were surrounded by them. I held out my hands and they landed gently and twinkle all about us. The fireflies were on both sides of the river and lit up the trees on the banks like tiny Christmas lights. I over heard a French family with children in our boat exclaiming “magique” and it was certainly that!