Like I said in my previous post that Brunei and Terengganu have a similar culture but Terengganu is more laid back in terms of shopping malls or entertainments such as movies (You need to drive at least 2 hours to go to the nearest cinema). Instead Terengganu has more cultural places to visit and the food is awesome too. One of the biggest pulling factor for Terengganu is “resort getaway” and also home stay programme.

The Brunei delegate was given the opportunity to try out the home stay programme at Teluk Ketapang which is also supported by the government via Tourism Malaysia. Though the community is small but most of the efforts were done through volunteerism which is something very unique that I’ve learned from the community of Terengganu. Their warm hospitality is priceless and most of us felt slightly embarrassed by the welcoming party because of the awesome welcoming treatment they gave.

The rooms were pretty decent and if you are lucky enough, the owners might give you their password to their wifi access *Awesome* Oh, by the way, if you happen to be in Terengganu, Maxis line has better coverage. I was using DIGI line but I could only get E signal but I was still able to tweet, whatsapp and post pictures on instagram 😀

Apparently some Bruneians had experienced the Teluk Ketapang Home stay programme and most of them are exchange students. Perhaps, the youth community in Brunei can take opportunity to give this home stay a go because you can benefit and learn on the culture of Terengganu in just a span of a few days.

I would also like to take this opportunity especially for Brunei Tourism to tackle into this industry of “home stay” programme where it can draw quite a lot of visitors to the country as there is a market for this kind of programme. Yes, I did hear of Kg. Matan home stay but I believe it wasn’t heavily promoted and not many people are aware of this. I’m also not sure if the programme is as exciting as the ones provided at Teluk Ketapang, Terengganu.

Anyway, enough of my rants *lol* and a big thank you to the community of Teluk Ketapang for their warm hospitality and also to Tourism Malaysia for giving us the opportunity to experience a wonderful home stay programme.

Apparently one of the guys from Teluk Ketapang can make a “belalang” from leaves.. Cool stuff!!!

One of the activities programme was playing congkak and mat salleh Jake gave it a go

Dj Daffy had an attempt to make roti jala

Melvin had a quick run on the ATV nearby the beach side

Having a quick race with Ari (writer for AirAsia online content). Image courtesy of Melvin

The crystal mosque at Kuala Terengganu and the mosque is located at Islamic Heritage Park. It was officially opened in February 2008.

At one stage, we had 6 meals in one day and one of those meals was the roti tuning.. The texture was totally different and it has a unique taste too 🙂

This was Jake’s foster family during the one-night home stay at Teluk Ketapang

Dj Daffy and I stayed with this family and the owner is a well known architect in Terengganu. Beautiful house too.

Group photo with the Teluk Ketapang Home Stay community