Where on earth is Desaru, you may ask?

“Desaru is a beach and resort area in Johor, Malaysia. It is located approximately 88 kilometers east of Johor Bahru, on the South China Sea. It is a very popular weekend escape for residents of Singapore who come to enjoy the attractive 25 km stretch of beaches and splendid golf courses. The Desaru Golf & Country Resort is a popular establishment here.” - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, HAHAHA.

So being a resident of Singapore, I dutifully visited Desaru last weekend before my last day on earth. It was quite a relaxing trip, and it was also the first time I travelled with my two friends; one, a colleague and the other one, an ex-student. It was quite an experience to travel with females, to have people in my room showering longer than I do, to see so much girlie stuff in the washroom, and to have to find space for my girlie stuff (not that I have a lot). My colleague brought a lot of facial and skin stuff, and I was so amused because we were only staying for one night and she brought so much stuff with her. For a moment then, I wondered if I was neglecting mine because I have never used so much girlie stuff, neither does my mom, and I do not have a vain sister. Okay, I do not have a sister or a close girlfriend. BOO, but that is for another day. Anyway, I am glad I brought a nice proper pouch for my bathroom stuff and not a cheapo plastic bag. HAHA! There were so many nice pouches of all shapes and sizes in the washroom and a cheapo plastic bag lying around could have been fatal.

I suppose the Desaru Golf Country Resort is a better resort. We stayed in the Pulai Desaru Beach Resort, which is really below my expectation. For the kind of price we paid, they could have done better than that. For one, the resort is very old and is in need of renovation. For two, they could have been more hygienic. The toiletbowl in our washroom had this yucksies stain which cannot be flushed off no matter how hard we tried, and that really turned me off. The bedsheet had brown stains too, and I woke up the next morning to realize that the sides of my pillowcase had brown stains too. C’mon. I did not pay peanuts for this.

We arrived in Desaru on Saturday. The ferryride from SG ferry terminal to Desaru ferry terminal is about 30 minutes, and the roadtrip from Desaru ferry terminal to our resort is also about 30 minutes. In an hour’s time, we were in our resort room! After some form of unpacking, we went for our lunch. After lunch, we went for a walk along the beach and soon made up our mind to go for a swim in the resort’s swimming pool before our therapeutic back massage in the late afternoon. The massage was such a pain and my back cracked three times. It was almost paraplegic. We all had bruises in our backs after that and mine still hurts now when I press my back bone. Can you imagine that?!

After the massage, we went back to our room and rested for a while before dinner. Dinner was at the hotel’s only restaurant, and it was seafood BBQ buffet! Yummy to me but my friends did not like the food. After dinner, we went back to our room and showered ourselves before leaving the room again for our fireflies expedition. We were taken to a jetty by a van, and put on a boat that took us out to some dark river. There were not a lot of fireflies, and I find the ride to the jetty via unlighted roads more exciting than anything else. In about two hours’ time, we were back in our room. We watched the F1 qualifying round on SG channel. HAHA! We felt so at home. My friends were not sure what a qualifying round was, so I explained to them, and they got all interested to watch the race, and that’s when I fell asleep! HAHA! Yes, I fell asleep and woke up in the morning feeling like a happy pig. Both of them claimed that they could not sleep the night before and they woke up every now and then. Man, they missed SG or what?

We washed up and went for our breakfast buffet, which came with the overnight stay in the resort. Guess what?! They let us into the outdoor buffet area but there was not a single table available!! So we had to go back to the counter to tell them that, and they told us that we could either wait (WAIT?! This is not a f. foodcourt!) or have our breakfast in the indoor area but they warned us that the air-conditioner for the indoor area was not switched on (Okay, this is worse than a foodcourt!). Whatever, we just sat indoor. My friends did not like the food again.

After breakfast, we went to the resort’s swimming pool. I went for a swim, while my two friends chatted and suntanned. I guess they did not want me in their chat because when I went to join them, they went kind of quiet. I think my ex-student was telling my colleague her personal problems. I got bored after swimming and being alone, so I told them I would go back to the room first. They chatted for hours without me. We didnt have lunch because our checkout time was 1PM, and our ferry, at 3PM.

Nice pictures:

Like my sunglasses ma?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 1st, 2008 at 9:11 am and is filed under 2008 Desaru, Blog of Sadness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.