Hello travellers,
We are staying some dass in Belum Eco Resort and are travelling without Car.
It seems we finally found a way to get from Penang to Pulau Banding Jetty by bus to Kota Bharu. Anybody experiences to get further to Kota Bharu? People from Belum Eco resort were not very helpful until now to help in this direction other than taking a taxi for 170km. Pretty expensive suggestion. Any hint appreciated.
Best,
Christian
Yes, it seems very hard to get transport to Royal Belum if we don't have our own transport. If you take bus from Penang to Kota Bharu, I think you have to tell the bus driver in the first place to stop you at Royal Belum, as the bus will go direct to Kota Bharu, and along the journey, the bus will only stop once at Gerik. Royal Belum is up further than Gerik from Penang. Anyway, if you decide to take bus from Penang, all bus operators for the route of Penang-Kota Bharu only offer at 9am/10am and 9pm/10pm (depends on the bus operators you choose).
I've visited the Belum state park this August, and stayed at the Banding Lakeside Inn. No problem, because I rented a car.
Be careful with the Pulau Banding Jetty, because it's a bit far away from the east-west road (where the bus would likely drop you off). No problem if you have somebody from the Belum Eco Resort who picks you up with a car and brings you from the main road to the jetty.
If not, it can be a challenge to roll a suitcase with wheels on that not so smooth road full of holes (especially under strong sun or if it rains).
Regarding the taxi option, I met a couple in Ulu Muda who paid RM 250 from transportation from Pinang (Georgetown) to the Muda lake. That's 150km. If you found a taxi driver from Kota Bharu willing to bring you from Belum to Kota Bharu for RM 300 or less, that would sound like a good deal.
Do a Google search for "Kota Bharu taxi" - that might be the solution.
Belum Eco Resort (ask Steve) arranged a taxi transfer to Kota Bharu for 250 MYR which was a fair deal, especially as the driver had to come from Grik (~40 km).Our pickup and drop-off was not the jetty as intially agreed, instead directly next to second bridge (coming from Grik. This was more convenient than walking to the jetty which is actually under construction and therefor temporarily moved further away from the mainroad.
You can check it out the official website. There is one page dedicated. From KL seams there are daily buses going to Grik.
Check it out:
http://belum.com.my/directions/