Finally I am starting to write … I couldn’t stop myself from penning down my blog on my Desaru Malaysia trip. Its been a long time that I have posted anything on my blog. And here is one.
Last Friday on 27Apr at lunch time I just happened to utter to my husband that I wanna visit the Ostrich Farm ya… And he said we can go tomorrow. ๐
That blinked a light in my head… Eureka… Yes…. We can…
Actually both of ours Malaysia visa is expiring on 5Jun and last couple of weeks I have been trying to plan a MY trip before that. But unfortunately my husband will not be able to take a single day leave before 5Jun. So the plan had not materialized yet. Because all the location that I was planning for needed atleast 1 day leave.
Wondering how come I didn’t think earlier about Desaru.
To give you a background.
I got to know about Desaru when I was planning for a day trip on the Chinese new year long weekend. And that time I had completed all my research and plan, and it only didn’t became successfully because I was looking for a road trip and it was turning out very expensive. That time I did understand from one of my colleagues that he had already been to Desaru years back, and they had gone via Ferry from Tanah Mera terminal. I had exhausted all my energy that time googling all possible sites, but no where I found the info about ferry from Tanah Mera.
So now, back to our lunch time on 27Apr.
I told my husband that yes, we can. Any which ways we wanna go to MY before 6Jun and Desaru is a perfect destination.
I came back to my desk and spent about an hr or so googling again in my office hours ๐ [w/o impacting my work ok :P] And I was really lucky. This time I came across a web page which mentioned that now there is a ferry to Penerang, Johor from Changi Point Terminal and from Changi ferry terminal.
Ferry from Changi Ferry Terminal goes to Belungkor, Penerang Johor.
Ferry from Changi Point Terminal goes to Tanjung.Pengelih, Penerang Johor.
Note: These 2 are different terminals both on changi beach side of Singapore. And there is a difference in route, boat type and cost and time taken for ferry.
Since Tg.Pengelih is closer to the places where I wanted to go and cheaper ticket, I explored info on it. I got the contact no. of Changi Point Ferry Terminal and enquired. The person who attended the call mentioned that first ferry to Penerang from Changi Point Terminal is at 7am. And I need to be at the terminal early.
Yepiee…. Atleast this time my googling efforts had been fruitful and I have the right info to execute the iternary with perfect cost.
I made all the plans that day, right from timing schedule to cost. But I was tempted to spend a night there rather than coming back in a day. So I started finding hotel. But none were available because it was going to be a long weekend for most of the folks as 1 May being a holiday. People had put leave on 30Apr (Monday), effectively getting 4days leave and were out for long vacations. As a result all the hotels in Desaru or Penerang were all full.
I finished my work and workday and left office at 6pm. I was raining like cats and dogs that Friday evening it was pitch dark as early as 6pm. Usually in Singapore it gets that dark only at 7-7.30pm.
While returning back home, I went to Money changer and converted 500sgd to MYR and got 1200RM. The rate that day was 1SGD=2.96RM.
Then I came back home and did nothing but googling to find a hotel to stay. Also while on the day back home I had asked couple of my friends, Tarun and Shekhar if they wanna join. And for both of them it was too short of a notice and both said NO. They mentioned that I should have informed them earlier. Lol…. I didn’t know myself that I am going to MY tomorrow until evening 5pm ๐ Its very common with me and my husband to make and execute such sudden plans. When back in India, we had our another Crazy Partner Parag who use to join us on such sudden crazy plans. Infact we have a whatsGrp “CPCP” which means “Crazy People Crazy Plans” hahaha I so remember those days when 3 of us – Me, my now husband Kishore, then a friend and Parag use to go on such unplanned trips.
Anyways, so I came back home and spent lot n lot of time finding a decent hotel. I wanted the hotel on Desaru Beach. Not in middle of city. As such I had mentioned to my husband that if we don’t get hotel then we will return back in a day. But in my mind, I so wanted to stay back and spend a night on Desaru Beach.
It was already 8.30pm and my husband Kishore arrived yet I didn’t had a single hotel booked.
Kishore said lets directly call. And on calling different hotels we found that Lake View Resort had 1 room available. But that was not on beach and when we checked their room photos weren’t impressive. There was Tiara Desaru which showed rooms available for 84SGD online. But they didn’t pick up the phone. And we didn’t book online because the google reviews of that hotel was not nice. But it was the hotel on Desaru beach like I wanted. Still we didn’t book it online because of its reviews.
All my enthu was going down by then as I had drained all my energy googling for hotel booking. Also my enthu went further down when I checked the weather forecast for Penerang and Desaru for Saturday 28Apr, it was showing all rains.
Anyways, we had a quick dinner. Did packing for a 1 day trip as 90% now we were going to return back in a day. Still somewhere there was a hope and wish, so we packed a night dress and tooth brush ๐
The day arrived – 28Apr 2018
We woke up at 5am. Got ready, booked a cab and reached Changi Point Ferry Terminal by 6.30am. Now I was all fresh and pumped back with enthusiasm and energy ๐ New Day New pack of energy.
Before us there were 5 ppl already waiting near the Penerang counter. The person at the counter took our passports, and mentioned that it’s a long weekend and going to be very busy. Good that we came early so that we can take the first boat.
We waited for long. It was past 7am still no signs of boarding. We found out that a old man had our passports and was noting down details on some paper. Later understood that he was the boat owner cum captain, and the one who was going to take us to Penerang in his boat.
Now, its 11SGD for bump boat and 13SGD for fibre boat. Bump boat takes 75mins, while fibre boat takes 35mins to reach. Both boats take max. 12ppl. Boat will start only after boat is full with 12ppl. If we want to start earlier, then we need to pay for missing people.
We wanted to via Fibre boat, but when we are there we don’t have choice. Passengers are sent with which ever boatman comes first to the terminal. And this boatman who had our passports had a bump boat.
He was one man army. He did all our entries at the counter, helped us board his boat, gave us back our passports. Following him, we 12 ppl cleared our immigration. Then on his boat he collected $11 from everyone, unplugged the boat and started.
Our boat journey from Changi Point Ferry Terminal to Tg.Pengelih start at around 7.30am. Sun was just rising. I asked the captain how long will it take, he said it will take an hour. Hmm… but it was fine. We had time.
The boat was really old and like a khatara ๐ moving at very slow speed. Though we still did enjoy the time on the boat clicking and taking videos. It took us 1hr 30mins to reach the terminal in Malaysia.
We reached Tg. Pengelih terminal at around 9am. It was a deserted but nice silent terminal. We 12 ppl got down there. Immigration clearly quickly as there was no one else other than we 12 immigrants and the immigration officer. There was no one else on the terminal. What a amazing thing actually to happen on a long weekend. Had we chosen to go via roadways, we would have got stuck for hours at the Woodland Immigration, as 100s of ppl goto Malaysia from Singapore on long weekends. Thanks to our plan via waterways ๐
We came out of the terminal looking for a taxi. I had read that we get taxi from here. There were many vehicles parked in the car park outside the terminal, but there was no human being visible. I don’t know where the remaining 10ppl had disappeared who came with us in the boat. We had spent some time inside the terminal taking videos and pictures, were left behind.
There was one man who came out of his cab. We approached him. He couldn’t understand English much. Only spoke in nouns … no subject predicate, not speaking a complete sentence in English. Meanwhile a lady cab driver arrived who knew English. We could establish some communication with her, in her broken English. She managed to tell the other man in Malay and to us in English, and finally come to a deal of 230RM for halfday booking.
So in 230RM the cab driver would:
Take us to a hotel for breakfast
Then to Ostrich Farm
Then to Fruit Farm
Then to find a hotel near Desaru Beach.
We finalized the deal at 230RM and dint bargain for 2 reasons
There was no other option. One can bargain only if there is other options ๐
230RM = 78SGD seemed pretty reasonable to us.
Our journey start with that Malaysia Cab driver at 9.20am.
To start he took us to a Indian Restaurant, where we had Dosa and Nescafe each. Bill was total 10RM only. It was surprising to find Bollywood songs playing in that hotel on FM. As I was filming my VLOG, the hotel waiters got curious. They asked my why I am shooting. I told I was making a YouTube video. Then they asked how and where can they see this video. They asked me to write and give it to them. So on our bill I wrote my channel name and asked them to subscribe to watch their hotel in my vlog ๐ And I hope & wish they did subscribed later ๐ And I will make sure I will not edit and will put their footage that I have taken ๐
Next, we reached the Desaru Ostrich Farm at 10am.
As soon as we got out of the cab, and approached the counter, one guy immediately removed something from fridge and came to us. Asked – “You have come for a the Ostrich farm tour?”. We said – “YES” and like a machine he started giving us the information about an Ostrich Egg w/o any pause, and w/o even we being ready to listen to him. ๐ He was so mechanical.
We finally managed to adjust to his talking speed and understand what he was saying. So that thing what he removed out of the fridge when we came was the Ostrich Egg. He has a whole unbroken one and a broken one.
I have recoded it in my video uploaded in Youtube.
This boy continued to speak non-stop for about 15mins. After that we purchased the tickets to go inside for 15RM per person. A lady took us inside. There opened the door to the world of Ostriches.
Wow. It was smelly and stinky inside. Was expecting that, because I had already read about it on internet. And Obviously can’t expect a farm of ostriches smell like a garden of flowers. So that was ok and bearable.
What we did inside the ostrich farm you can find it in my YouTube video. Actually, to see ostriches otherwise, I had heard or read of Australia only. Since the time I got to know so close by in MY I can get to see this rare and world’s largest bird, I wanted to visit it. So when I was finally there, I was living what I had thought of. We fed ostriches, We touched them. We stood up on Ostrich Eggs. Got info about Male and Female Ostriches. We also tasted Ostrich meat there. It tasted like goat mutton. Overall, we spent 45mins there.
At 10.45am we started for Desaru Fruit Farm now. It was a 30mins drive. That Johor area if anyone goes, will find vast acres of farms only. Manly of Banana tress and Palm trees on both sides of the highway. Last time when we went to Tioman, MY. via roadways from SG, also we saw same time of farms on the way then.
At around 11.15am we reached Desaru Fruit Farm. While entering we passed by ppl riding ATVs. Ofcourse we wanted to do that. As soon as we got down, there was BUS and many ppl had come to visit the farm. Driver showed us SG registered cars who had driven from SG and come here.
We booked for a double ATV ride for 20mins for 65RM. There was a guide who would ride before us, and whom we were supposed to follow. One guy gave us KT about how to operate the ATV. I sat behind and Kishore rode the ATV. Our guide on ATV ahead of us, took us through the 100acres fruit farm, via small bumby trials, amidst the bushes and from besides the lake waters. He even stopped us at different locations and helped take out pics.
After the way, we exchanged the seats and I took on the handle. It was my first time to ride a ATV. Kishore had done is before. It’s a thrilling experience to ride a ATV on bumpy jungle type trails. And that guide defiantly took us for a tour which was more than 20mins i.e. for more than what we had paid for ๐ he was so nice. After we were back, we clicked a picture with him.
Next, we booked the fruit farm tour for 26RM each. In this tour another lady guide took us from a truck inside the farm, and this was a walking tour. With us was a couple with 2 children. So we were total 6 of us and the guide. This lady guide explained and shared info about lifecycle of each and every fruit that is planted there, followed by their mini zoo. It was quite hot and sunny. Yet we managed to continue as the surrounding kept us motivated ๐ the 45mins walk tour turned to 1hr.
On returning back they gave us free box of fruits. One each. From there I bought a bottle of 3yr old organic honey. Now by 1.15pm we were done and exited the Fruit farm.
Overall we had spent 2hrs at the fruit farm and our driver was quite a patient guy. He waited w/o uttering a single concern man.
Now we were heading towards Desaru beach side area. It was only 1.20pm and we had completed our planned iternary. Now praying we get a hotel to stay.
Driver took us to Hotel Lotus, Tanumaya, Sand & Sandals where I already knew that online there were no rooms. Yet took us to each of these and we got down and checked personally if by accident or due to any cancellation if any room was available. But no where it was available.
At hotel Sand & Sandals one security asked us to check in “TIARA DESARU”!!! O man… the hotel that we avoided to book. Is where we finally wanna go?
Our driver was really cute. While on the way to Tiara Desaru Hotel, he felt bad that we weren’t getting any hotel room to stay. He said to us, that - “now what, if we don’t get it in Tiara Desaru? We can have come on a vacation and no hotel room”. We also were disheartened, and told him that he can drop us back to Ferry terminal in that case. We so wanted to stay back. And were double minded to stay at Tiara Desaru.
Yet, it so happened that we did get a studio room in Tiara Desaru. Our driver left us here. A nice guy, though from physical appearance he didn’t seemed so on first sight ๐
To my surprise Tiara Desaru is such a nice hotel, that too with a completely private beach side, and nice pool area also. Cost wise also we got it a rate cheaper that what was available online. Staff was also very friendly. I say so because for dinner we reached at 8.30pm in their restaurant by when it was CLOSED already. Yea, they close at 8pm. Yet on our request, they prepared whatever we wanted and served us with full dignity. We got a pool side facing room. Lovely room. What more to ask for on a unplanned vacation like this.
We were damn hungry, as after morning breakfast, we didn’t have anything. But the hotel restaurant was closed. It was going to open at 3.30pm. So until then we decided to take a nap.
At 4pm we got fresh and came down. We ate at the restaurant and then with all our gears headed towards the beach.
From 5pm to night 7.45pm we were at the beach. It was a the best time spent ever. There is are couple of hammocks as well as couple of swings here. Hardly any people to be called to be present.
Desaru beach is a black sand beach. Water is completely clear and unpolluted. Waves are so calm and non-dangerous. From a distance the sea appeared deep blue with dusky sky. It was such a blissful sight. All that I wished for from this vacation was happening. What more to ask for.
We took SOOOOOOOOOO many videos and pics. So many time lapse. It was the first time I used my new tripod cum selfie stick to a great extent. Paisa vasool. Spent enough time relaxing on the swing and hammock.
We were back into our room to refresh, and down for dinner by 8.30pm. And what happened with dinner I already mentioned above.
After completing our dinner, we took a round of the hotel premises and again headed towards the beach. It was so quite and peaceful. We again sat on the swing. It was a full moon rising over the sea as it was Buddha Poornima next day. The sight then was again so elating.
I played Marathi songs on my mobile like – “Chandra aahe Sakshila” & “Shukra Tara” to add to the mood.
It was only when mosquitoes started biting us that we left from that perfect place of ecstasy.
Back in our room all set to wake up at 6am next morning to witness the Sunrise.
Yes…. If you are conscious and aware of the fact that back in India where we stay is on west coast and get to see only Sun Set at the beach. And one need to goto all the way to KanyaKumari or Puri to a beach on east to be able to witness a Sun Rise. And we didn’t realize this, until in evening when we saw that the sun wasn’t setting at the beach, that on this unplanned vacation to Desaru Beach, we were going to be on the east coast of Malaysia. Thus, landing at the opportunity of being able to witness the rising of the ALMIGHTY SUN from that beach!!!!! Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!
We google and found that sun rise time was at 6.55am.
Next day 29Apr 6.30am.
We were at the beach as planned. It was for the first time in my life that I was at a beach in morning. I have been to many beaches in Goa, Ratnagiri, Malvan etc… but always at the time of sunset.
There was no one other than both of us at the beach that time. I setup the camera ready to capture the sun rise.
And then we both did Yoga and Surya Namaskar.
And Finally, the time came. 6.55am. Far at the horizon, I could see the light emerging. It was like watching the clouds getting enlightened, and getting enlightened with them. I was absolutely thrilled and overjoyed. More so because this came w/o me planning for it, or asking for it ๐ I am telling you, it is so lovely to see the rising of the SUN, when so far in your life you only saw it setting. I loved what was happening. Those moments stay and will continue to stay fresh in my mind. Whenever in future I feel dull, I am sure this is one of those moments which I will recollect and relive in my mind to recharge myself … lots of love and blissfulness filled in it.
Then we also took a dip in the sea that morning. Returned back in room got freshened and back down for breakfast.
After breakfast at around 9am it was like we had completed doing all that we could. So we checked at reception the timing for ferry back to SG. And to our surprise found that 11am and 3.30pm are the timing. So we decided to check out and take the 11am ferry. Reception booked a cab for us to drop us to the ferry terminal in 80RM.
At 9.45am the cab came. On our way back to the Tg.Pengelih Terminal, the way seemed a little longer. So I checked on maps and found that this guy was taking us to the Belungkor Terminal instead of Tg. Pengelih!!!! O man… The only glitch was cost of the ferry ticket. We had cut to cut cash left in RMs. And we had calculated the return fare of 13sgd each. But now at Belungkor Terminal, bigger ships are there and costs higher.
So when we reached the terminal, found that per person the ticket as 65RM=23SGD. Since we somehow had exactly that much to be lucky we continued from that terminal. Had we not had that much, we had already spoken to driver to drop us back to Tg.Pengelih terminal instead.
So from Belungkor terminal the Ferry started at 11am and we reached SG Changi Ferry Terminal at 11.30am in only 30mins. It was worth the ticket cost. Plus it was a AC ride.
By 12pm we were back at our home ๐
Also I want to mention about the misleading weather forecast that I had read on internet. We didn’t get any rains anytime of the trip. Thankfully I didn’t change any plan based on weather forecast.
Yipieeee what more should I say. Such a unplanned trip turned out to be such a success. And it has been like that so far with us. Unplanned trips turn out to be great than planned trips. May be because you don’t know what to expect on unplanned trips and you explore as you go. While on planned trips you have a set expectation.
That’s all to pen down for my trip, that I want to cherish and share. Keep travelling Keep exploring.
