however,unlike nora,
I found pakmat to be an irritating old man with almost rude behavior! we accidentally invited him to join us for coffee by the beach the first night we were there, just for get-to-know-the-locals thingy. At first he sounded like the usual old man, giving advise et al, but about an hour into the conversation, he started asking us abt our jobs and kept asking us to send him gifts, telling us that he had had so many repeat ‘customers’ that are really nice because they send him gifts etc.

our next 2 days would’ve been great if not for pakmat. all of a sudden he acted as if he’s our exclusive guide (we never asked him to), i saw him glaring at some of the other guides (during snorkeling) so they stayed away, kept harrassing us to belanja him makan (my friend jested that we might wanna go hang out at the restaurant next door) and got on our nerves. pak mat was more keen on one of my friends and she honestly didnt know how to say no every time pakmat made her have coffee with him or sit down and chat with him. it was really awkward — we didn’t want to be rude to an old man, but he was everywherein our face, everywhere! whenever we manages to avoid him, he’d found us later and would ask repeteadly why we missd out on one snorkeling trip etc. he was rude, called us dugong’ and ‘tong’, while at the same time asking favours from us. i had to resist the urge to bark back at him.

Redang Pelangi was fabulous, and i would go back there in a heartbeat, but I wont since pakmat will be there.

maybe this only happened to me, but I feel like i should warn future holiday-ers about this. Don’t let this put you off Redang Pelangi as the place is great, the staffs are friendly and really helpful — just be aware of pakmat.

you can park your car at Merang jetty, there is a car park there, only RM5 per car per day.

if i were to drive up to the jetty, where do i park my car for the next 3 days or so? thks.

Regards, tango