Brand new horizon

4th November 2011

Travel to broaden one's mind and lengthen the conversation.

Take half the clothes yet twice the money, bringing yourself to a new horizon.

My birthday was around the corner and bf had decided to bring me on a short trip as a little treat to me. I was over the moon and as happy as a lark. I simply looked forward to the trip to Desaru in Malaysia. Not many are familiar with this place. It is located near a town in Malaysia called Bandar Penawar. 

Desaru used to be an abandoned beach. It was then foreign investment was made such as implementation of facilities and attractions. Eventually, there were quite a great varieties of resort to be chose from since the 90s or probably even earlier. Today, many of the resorts were old and rundown due to lack of upgrading. Therefore, you got to be wise in making choices if you had decided to stay overnight. 

The popular one is Lotus Desaru Resort. It's popular not for it's quality room, great amenities and services. It's sort of reputable for it's old name since the early 90s. Now, it is still good afterall from what I see. Just a little rundown with bright coloured buildings. Typical chalet style like the Coasta Sand resort or maybe slightly better abit. You definitely can't expect it to be like the Aranda Country Club at Downtown East for the price you are paying. Resorts at Desaru tends to be more expensive as they monopolized the market. You either pay more to stay or you don't stay.

People tends to be more familiarize with Lotus Desaru Resort rather than the others as Travel Agency liased with them directly to get a special cut. Maybe not all, but I assumed mostly. 

In my own opinion, Lotus Desaru is not worth the price you are paying. You might be paying Travel Agency for the coach plus resort at a fee of SGD160 per night including taxes. Let me name you the pros and cons and you judge it yourselves.

Pros:

1) Convenient and one-way non-stop to Desaru.

2) The coach leave terminal punctually.

3) Worry-free about finding the right place.

Cons:

1) The time to set off (morning) and return (early afternoon) are fixed.

2) You can only stick to Lotus Desaru Resort. 

3) You are paying more than what you should.

4) You have no say for the time-of-departure.

5) Getting a rundown room.

As for me, I stayed at Pulai Beach Resort and Spa.

By the way, I'm on Free & Easy. It's definitely possible to travel to Desaru without driving a car or ferry. It was said to be impossible by many people who had been there. Well, it's proven to be possible. At least, I made it there. I'm sure my F&E trip there is more than enough to prover my words.

There are many way to get to Desaru. You can email me if you got doubts or enquiries about travelling there on your own. I will definitely help if I know the shortest route. As for my trip, bf and I took Bus 170 from Kranji MRT station. Remember to take the overhead bridge to the opposite bus stop.

The bus will stop at Woodland Checkpoint and you can always resume your ride on the Bus 170. No worries even if it's a different bus. Just make sure it's Bus 170 will do. Bus 170 will take you to Larkin Terminal (refer to the picture below) and that's where you should alight, the very last stop.

From Larkin Terminal, approach the ticket booth for Mara Liner. There are only two option for you to choose from.

1) Express from Larkin - Bandar Penawar (approx 1.5 hr)

2) Larkin - Kota Tinggi - Bandar Penawar (approx 2.5hr)

These bus servives are only available from time to time. It cost about RM8 per person. If possible, I'll recommend you to take the Express bus unless you are not able to make it for the available timing or the tickets are sold out. By then, you got to take option 2. Alright...

We met a kind girl who offered to translate Melayu for us. We were able to communicate in English with the staff. Still, I aprreciated her help. She was amazed to see us travel on our own to Desaru and kept warning us to be careful etc. Nice girl.  Everything nice about her except that, she was not really talking to me but Christopher most of the time. She boarded the same bus with us and claimed that her seat was taken. She took the seat in front of us and talked to Chris from time to time. I'm sure Chris was pretty overwhelmed by her friendliness.

Haha, please don't mistaken that I was unhappilly chewing on a sour gum (not jealous at all, by all means). I'm was glad that she kept Chris entertained through the ride as I was dead tired. Chris must be giggling deep within wondering much about his attractiveness. LOL!

We reached Bandar Penawar, no Taxi in sight and my tummy growling like tornado. We decided to settle our lunch at Mary Brown. Cool, we had the swinging seats and Chris was grumbling about how uncomfortable it was. He was making gestures telling me to get out of the swing. Too bad, I insisted to be on the swing. He sat upright throughout the meal except me swing front and back, enjoying myself tremendously.

I had not tried SG outlet, Msia one seemed good to me. It's cheap and nice.

We hopped on a cab to Pulai Beach Resort and Spa. You may wish to check out more from Tripadvisor about the resort too. The cab ride should not cost you more than RM15 unless it is a public holiday. It's just a 5-10 minutes cab ride. The resort was clean and the air was refreshing. Sea breeze and sound of waves swinging their way across. 

If you are interested in farms or water sport, you may check it our the the Tourist Information Counter.

We were initially given a ground level. Chris found it uncomfortable to stay at ground floor as he was afraid burglar might seized the chance. He requested for a change of room with pool view instead of sea view.

This resort was absolutely cater to my liking. It has everything I love to play. Table tennis (free) in an enclose area, you need not worry about the ping pong ball hopping it's way out. You can play board games or rent playstation to kill time. There's tennis court available, lounge, massage, spa and even gym facing the beach. It's really full of enjoyment.

The room was fairly big and spacious. Most importantly, it's clean and bright. Toothbrush and toothpaste not provided was the only unsatisfatory. They provide shampoo and shower foam, everything except toothbrush and toothpase. So, dont forget to bring your own one if you happen to visit Pulai Desaru Beach Resort and Spa.

Overall, it's still good isn't it?

Next, we went to take a walk at Lotus Resort. I never take any pictures from there. Lotus was rather rundown with old furnitures unlike the modern ones. It might be suitable for family and kids since they got their private water themepark. Children can play on the water slide and their pool was bigger than Pulai one. It was said online that there were insects and cockroaches floating on the water at Lotus Resort. Mmmm, from what I see, not so bad. It's by the sea, I'm sure it's common to see insects around such areas.  That's all for my comments.

Have a good day everyone.

Cheers,

Pzy