Travel: Malaysia - Desaru

[jacsplace]

Thanks for sharing, eskimo. Poohbear also mentioned lack of food variety. I'm thinking of popping down to FairPrice during my lunch break to see what goodies we could bring. Maybe popcorn? Might be fun to pop them in the microwave

[buds]

Sounds like a cool short getaway guys!


Which agency did you make reservation
with, jacsplace? We've been to Desaru
quite a number of times but never b4 @
this Lotus Resort. Other times were @
Pulaie Beach Resort. Mebbe different
part of Desaru town bah?

I've made bookings with WTS Travel &
Holiday Bagus so far and both agencies
were good. All tours and transfers were
prompt, clean and with *helpful guides.

*Not for Desaru trip..

Poohbear, cool write-up! :celebrate:
As we do not drive either, we gotta
look into those ferry packages as well.

Jacsplace, no worries.. we've brought
both our girls for short trips since they
were babies. It'll be fine and fun!
Just go prepared. As there seem to be
little to do over there, bring along like
playdough, craft activity stuffs or games
for the children... to keep them occupied
when they're in the room.

Snacks are a must since children get
hungry easily playing at the beach in the
sun and the pool/theme park.

As for ferry trips, once we took from Changi
Ferry Terminal... it took only 25 mins tops to
reach destination. From other terminals may
be a little longer but the ride was smooth sailing..
mebbe also cos of sunny weather. If the
children seem a little groggy from the ferry ride,
you may consider offering them chewable candy
or sweets. Older children can listen to music on
iPod or sleep it off. Try not to board ferry on an
empty stomach and ask children not to focus on
looking at the rippling waters outside the ferry esp
if they feel giddy... better to look far out.

Some ferries do not have those small vomit bags,
so good to bring your own plastic bags.

Enjoy your trip!

[jacsplace]

Hi buds, thanks for all the tips. We reserved direct with resort. I'll be on this forum until 5pm today (27 May). Next couple of days we'll be too busy (have a major family wedding tomorrow morning, then have to pack for trip) so no chance to log on until we return. Thanks everyone for all your advice. Much appreciated :thankyou: Enjoy your long weekend :celebrate:

[IsaIvamum]

Hi Jacsplace


Hope you & your family enjoy your trip !! Can have some sharing ? How is the resort ? Is it convience from the Jetty ? Is there transfer to the resort ?

I had went to the website and take a look... Looks nice !!

Intend to bring my children before school re-open...

[en107rn.01056yahoo.01056com.01056sg]

[quote]Hi Jacsplace


Hope you & your family enjoy your trip !! Can have some sharing ? How is the resort ? Is it convience from the Jetty ? Is there transfer to the resort ?

I had went to the website and take a look... Looks nice !!

Intend to bring my children before school re-open...[/quote]Been to Lotus Desaru during the March school holidays. Was fun. A good and cheap short holidays. For a family of four (my kids age 11 and 9 the skinny type), we took a single duplex room. I like it a lot because of the ample space. Bedroom on top and living room with kitchenette below.

There's free internet via wifi too. So, bring your laptop just in case you need to get updated on the happenings of KS forum. :lol:

There are 3 swimming pools scattered all over the resort. One located near the beach (deep pool), another one is a huge swimming pool that is kids friendly with slides (never mind my age, I play on it too. Someone must attend to the kids mah ) is behind the right side of a block and the other one is located behind the left side of the block (if you view the resort from the front office).

We rented a barbecue pit and had our barbecue there. Nice breezy night, well lighted area and easy access to an open air sink (to wash our hands or utensils). No mosquito or sand fly. But beware of red ants. I do a fair bit of walking around the area and ask the recreation person to place the sitting area and barbecue pit at the spot that I have chosen.

The sea is as usual choppy and not meant for swimming. Nice to sit with the kids near the water edge and feels the waves hitting us.

Food wise, in the hotel okay. But we drove out to find better and cheaper food.

Went for a firefly cruise. The hotel charged quite exhorbitantly on the tour. Managed to wiggle out information from the front desk person to inform us the direction to the place. Save us quite a bit.

Firefly cruise trip is fun (not to be missed). Only thing it was marred by my child's sensitivities over the way things are done to get the firefly flying (only then will they glow). So if your child is an animal lover and sensitive over animal/insect treatment, please beware.

Apart from watching the glow of firefly, I thoroughly enjoyed looking at the night sky while cruising. There seems to be thousands of stars twinkling in the sky. It was beautiful.

[jacsplace]

[Editor's note: Topic selected & edited for http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/content/our-trip-desaru.]

Hi everyone, thanks once again for all your advice. Here's an overview of our trip:

We took our cab from home to ferry terminal. Fortunately, driver knew the way. Got there at 9.45, no crowds so went straight through to ferry. Terminal has no f&b place and wait area. Ferry was quite comfortable, smooth voyage. On Msia side, resort van was there to pick up us, another family of three and a single guy. Many people were checking out so we had to wait a couple of hours for our room. Had leisurely lunch at Teratai Coffee House. There was buffet lunch but I thought it would be there everyday so I ordered a la carte. Wish I had taken the buffet cos my fave dessert (bread & butter pudding) was there :stupid: The coffee house menu is good spread of Chinese, Malay, Indian and Western. All prices in RM so when convert to SG was really good (not like Bintan ). We finished lunch but our room still not ready so they upgraded us to 3-bedroom for free (we had booked 2-bedroom). Not a duplex which was good as I don't like them.

For the next few days, we almost had the entire place to ourselves. We only went to the huge water park, which had some dead insects floating in the pool with the play equipment. The beach is beautiful, my daughter collected lots of pebbles.

We went to the fruit farm on our last day, no big deal. Kids didn't enjoy walking through the orchards (it had rained earlier and ground was muddy) but did like the petting zoo.

Check out was fast, return ferry trip was smooth too. At Changi, called for cab and returned home.

My husband, daughter and I enjoyed ourselves. My son didn't like it because there were insects (dead, alive, flying, crawling, moth in lift, bee near coffee house, big ants, small ants, ants with wings, praying mantis, lizard) everywhere. But thankfully none in our room. I did get bitten by mosquitoes quite a lot. And flies were our regular meal companions at the coffee house (Equatorial Cameron had them too when I stayed there just after they opened in 1999).

Resort staff are very very nice. Even when they made mistakes (like serving chicken fried rice when I ordered Chinese fried rice), they quickly and quietly took the dish back and returned with the correct one. Food is superb, fresh and tasty. My kids loved the chicken nuggets, which are in heart shapes. I loved the fried rice dishes (tried Chinese and yong chow) and my husband enjoyed the roti canai (prata). My son really walloped the french toast at breakfast on our last day, so did I, it was really good.

Rather long post so I haven't gone into details. Anyone interested in more info, just let me know what you'd like to know :celebrate:

[BlurBee]

:thankyou: for all the tips.

I will be going next week :rubhands:
Hope everything, including weather, is smooth.

[tree nymph]

Hi jacsplace,

can you give me the link to the hotel? Are there any other hotel there? which is a better hotel? Is there a ‘town’ in Desaru?

[BlurBee]

tree nymph,

below is the link for the hotel
http://www.lotusdesaru.com/cms/

Can also go http://wikitravel.org/en/Desaru for a intro.

[buds]

jacsplace:

Here's an overview of our trip.

Nice overview, jacsplace. See if we can go too once our move is settled.

jacsplace:

Terminal has no f&b place and wait area.

Sollie. Forgot to mention there is nothing @ Changi Ferry Terminal.

jacsplace:

Ferry was quite comfortable, smooth voyage.

Yes, much more comfy than the ones taken from Harbourfront for us.
Open air and airy. So i think it's the different ferry type plus the better
proximity to destination (short travelling time on water).

jacsplace:

Had leisurely lunch at Teratai Coffee House. There was buffet lunch but I thought it would be there everyday so I ordered a la carte. Wish I had taken the buffet cos my fave dessert (bread & butter pudding) was there :stupid:

I thought i read on its website that buffet lunch & dinner only
offered on weekends. Which day did you go again, jacsplace?

jacsplace:

We finished lunch but our room still not ready so they upgraded us to 3-bedroom for free (we had booked 2-bedroom). Not a duplex which was good as I don't like them.

Lucky you!

jacsplace:

For the next few days, we almost had the entire place to ourselves. We only went to the huge water park, which had some dead insects floating in the pool with the play equipment. The beach is beautiful, my daughter collected lots of pebbles.

Wah. Sounds nice. :love:

jacsplace:

My husband, daughter and I enjoyed ourselves. My son didn't like it because there were insects (dead, alive, flying, crawling, moth in lift, bee near coffee house, big ants, small ants, ants with wings, praying mantis, lizard) everywhere. But thankfully none in our room. I did get bitten by mosquitoes quite a lot. And flies were our regular meal companions at the coffee house.

Alamak. My DD1 will be like your son. :faint:
Extremely sensitive to the bugs and flies. :roll:

jacsplace:

Resort staff are very very nice.

I like this. :love: I find this an important quotient to complete a beautiful trip.

jacsplace:

Anyone interested in more info, just let me know what you'd like to know :celebrate:

Any pictures to share apart from those that can be seen from the website?

Hey, thanks for updating us on your trip. Very happy you guys had a great
time! :hugs: No trouble from the children? :evil: