Kuantan is a fairly big town, set on a river and with some of Malaysia's best beaches stretching from north of town all the way up the coast. Nige's friend Benedict (and his family) had recommended Cherating to the north, but we figured we'd have a night in a nice hotel (with aircon!) in Kuantan first. Still finding the tourist-prices of the unmetered taxis (the only kind in Kuantan) outrageous after India and Thailand, we opted to walk the 2kms into town with our backpacks, regretting it deeply about 400 meters later as the sweat poured off us in the sweltering midday heat. We finally got to the main drag which runs along the river, staggered into a little noodle shop, necked a cold coke (heaven!) then did the usual thing, one of us walking around town to find a place to stay (Nige this time) and the other staying with the bags. We decided as a treat to stay in the Suriya Hotel in town, which must have been a very swanky place in the 80's - the era it's decor dates back to - it's bit tired-looking these days but clean, friendly and without a doubt the poshest place we've stayed this trip! We ended up spending 2 days there - and thoughly enjoyed just wandering around the town, through the impressive mega-mall - adding another 10 DVDs to our now massive collection, getting a haircut at a trendy place which would have cost a month's wages in the UK (still expensive for Malaysia at about 15 pounds!) oh, and wait for it, watching our very own TV - how exciting!!!! I know, I know - it sounds like we did absolutely nothing, but, in our defence, we did TRY to get out to see some lakes a couple of hours away but disappointingly there was no sign of the promised hourly bus and, after 2 hours of waiting, there wasn't enough time left to make it worthwhile...and we've mentioned the price of taxis in Kuantan! So, better late than never, we decided we'd follow Benedict's advice and head north to Cherating!