DESARU BEACH JOHOR HOLIDAY | 3D 2N Weekend Escapade Day 1

Picture courtesy of Lembaga Kemajuan Johor Tenggara

Desaru is a beach and resort area in Kota Tinggi District, Johor, Malaysia. It is located approximately 

88 kilometers east of Johor Bahru, facing the South China Sea. It is a very popular weekend escape for tourist from other states and Singapore who come to enjoy the attractive 25 km stretch of beaches and splendid golf courses.

Xplore Johor - Tourism Johor

+BestRestaurant ToEat was invited by the Tourism Johor to join in the Xplore Johor program to this beautiful resort town Desaru, Johor for a 3 days 2 nights (3D 2N) escapade to explore some of Desaru places of interest and Desaru attraction.

Picture Courtesy of Wikimedia

We started our exploration from the Malaysia Tourism Centre (MATIC) office in Jalan Ampang Kuala Lumpur early in the morning as we are scheduled to arrive at Desaru in time for lunch.



Our first destination is the Desaru Fruit Farm one of the popular tourist destination; as there are plenty to explore on this farm.

On arrival, after a wash down, we were served an array of juicy and sweet local fruits which is freshly harvested from the farm; are offered to us to eat as much (buffet style) as your heart desire.



The local fruits which include my favourite fruit i.e Jack Fruit,



Guava & Passion Fruit,



Pineapples,



Red and White Dragon Fruits



Jambu Air & Rambutan and more; are freshly cut and peel to serve to you. Too bad, it was the end of the Durian season, so we didn't get to eat the King of Fruit and Mangosteen from Johor.

For some of the other fruits, the farm has also preserved some of them, so you get to eat the preserved Kedondong, Mangoes, and Papayas.

After our fruit buffet, we were then served our lunch. The dishes here are very special; in that, most of the recipes for the dishes are using the farm fruits as one of its ingredient like our first dish which is the Fresh Papaya Chicken Soup With Tongkat Ali.

followed by the Assam Pedas Stingray With Passion Fruit Juice

Next, is the Deep Fried Squid with Red Dragon Fruit sauce.

As part of the Desaru Fruit Farm entrance fee (RM58.30 - Adult, RM50.90 - Child) which includes the fruit buffet, the set lunch; it also comes with a Fruit farm tour where you can experience and explore all the different fruit trees and its growing process which are explained during the tour on a specially crafted lorry.

Desaru Fruit Farm Tour 

We were delighted to have learned a lot about the planting and caring process of these fruit trees.

Dragon Fruit

The fruit farm has over 100 varieties of fruits and herbs that are planted in this 100 acres (45.5 hectares) fruit farm.

Pisang Seribu

Passion Fruit Juice, Roselle Juice, and Lime Juice

Halfway thru our tour, you can also enjoy a cooling Passion Fruit or Lime juice to soothe your throat on a hot day.

As part of the attraction at the fruit farm; it also has a mini zoo where you can get up close with the Rabbits, Ayam Serama, Goats, Turkeys, Goose, Pythons, and more.

Dirt Kart Ride

For a premium entrance ticket (RM72.10 - Adult & RM63.60 - Child), the farm also offers you a chance to drives the Dirt Kart. The difference here is the Go Kart in on a tarmac road while Dirt kart kicks out a lot of dirt and dust. Truly enjoy the experience; good thing it was a dry day so no dirt but end up eating dust.

After our fun stop at the Desaru Fruit Farm, it was time to check into our hotel. Our stay for the entire holiday is at the Tiara Desaru Seaview Residence located at Jalan Tanjong Lompat, Bandar Penawar, Desaru Johor - a service apartment home stay style which has a beautiful beach facing the South China Sea.

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At Tiara Desaru, there are 4 swimming pools where you can take a dip to relax your tired soul.

As our units are located on a block which is nearer to the beach, there is also a swimming pool for the residents in this block which offers a more private swim.

We had the single room apartment (RM190.00) which is quite like a suite as there is a spacious living room area where we can chill out or just watch the television before calling it a night.



there is also a small pantry area where you can do some light cooking.

For our rooms, it comes with a queen bed and is quite spacious on its own.

with an attached bathroom.

After unpacking, we decided to take a stroll around to check out some of the facilities available at Tiara Desaru Seaview Residence, the first is the Gym which faces the beach where you can work it out while enjoying the serene view of the beach.

Or if you decide to cycle around, you can rent one of the bicycles to leisurely check out the places.

For those that loves BBQ, there is numerous BBQ pit available inside the compound and on the beach hut facing the sea. Please arrange with the staff if you plan to have a BBQ.

After that, we decided to check out the famed Desaru beach; as there is no adjoining development, you can virtually have the entire beach which stretched to around 3 km all by yourself. It is this seclusion that makes city folks like us enjoy the quaint & tranquil moments to relax while enjoying the quiet moment and the sea breeze.

For dinner, we headed to the Lotus Desaru Beach Resort which offers a water theme park and beach activities where we had some specialty dishes crafted by its Penang born Chef Leong which includes his signature



Penang Rojak - who would have thought that you can eat such nice Penang Rojak in Desaru Johor.

followed by his creamy Authentic Seafood Tom Yam Kung

and his aroma filled Deep Fried Chicken with Lemon Grass.

Deep Fried Fish Dressed With Miang Kham Sauce (Daun Kodok)

Grilled Squid

and the flavourful Authentic Thai Chu Chi Prawns to finish our dinner with.

After our hearty dinner, it was time to go back to Tiara Desaru to have a good rest for the next day event. Catch our Day 2 adventure here.

Tiara Desaru Seaview Residence Video

Desaru Fruit Farm Address and Location



Tiara Desaru Seaview Residence Address and Location



Lotus Desaru Beach Resort Address and Location

Explore Best Restaurant Other Food Trail

Explore with us on our Road Trip Food Trail

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Sungai Lembing Kuantan Pahang Holiday

It has been more than 15 years we last went to Kuantan, Pahang for a holiday. As it was a long weekend, we decided to make to trip to the east coast Sungai Lembing Kuantan and Kuantan Pahang for a short holiday.

Our holiday started with a very early morning drive from Kuala Lumpur. We decided to take a short detour to try out some talked about food in Bentong for our breakfast. More of this in our food trail.

After a quick breakfast, we continued our journey towards Sungai Lembing, Kuantan where we made a pitstop visit to one of the popular Sungai Pandan Waterfall, we were a little disappointed as there was very little upstream water flowing down this picturesque waterfall.

After a short stay at the Sungai Pandan Waterfall, we continued our journey to Sungai Lembing town where we had lunch at one of the restaurants (more of this in our food trail section) at the town centre before checking into the Pollock View Resort for a night stay.

We took the opportunity to make a trip down memory lane at the Sungai Lembing Museum where we got a first-hand understanding of the history surrounding this little kampung town called Sungai Lembing.

We were told that there is a mine tunnel where we can explore first-hand the lives and experience of tin miners in the early days. So after our museum tour, we headed to the enter the very cooling and damp tunnel.

We really had an insight towards the lives of the miners working in such dangerous environment although, at that time, it was touted as the best paying job during that era.

After that, we head over to the suspension bridge of Sungai Lembing which we thought was a little frightening as this bridge is not only used by pedestrian but also motorcycles as well.



It was a real nice experience though as on the other side of the river, we could see some cottage industry namely the famous noodle manufacturer and the home of the Mountain Spring Water TauFoo.

Before heading back to the Hotel, we had dinner at another restaurant which was recommended by a local we met earlier which said that this restaurant offers the most original Tomato noodles which are a popular dish in Sungai Lembing.

After dinner, we headed back to our hotel to call it a day as we plan to trek Sungai Lembing popular Bukit Panorama the next morning to witness the sunrise which is acclaimed to be a sight to behold.

We woke up at 5am and after a piece of toast and a cup of instant coffee, we made our treacherous journey taking a step at a time to reach the summit of Bukit Panorama to see the first light of the day.

Although feeling exhausted on reaching the summit which is already packed with people, we soon find ourselves overlooking at some the cloud bedded scenery on top of the hills. It was really worth all the effort to look at this beautiful view.

After trekking down from the hills, we made our way to the Sungai Lembing food court, where we had one of the smoothest and silkiest Mountain Spring Water Tau Foo for breakfast before checking out of the hotel to make our way to Kuantan town.

We were told that on our way to Kuantan town, we should make a pit stop at Sivan Temple at Gua Charas where there is a statue of a Sleeping Buddha inside the cave. We reached there at 1230 pm and were not told that the best time to visit this Gua Charas is from 11am to 12pm as there is a light shining from the top of the cave directly at the Buddha's head at 11am until the toe at 12pm.

It was another trek up and a journey that takes us deep into the Gua Charas where we finally witness the Sleeping Buddha. After a short prayer, we then headed back to our car.

We then continued our journey to Kuantan where we decided to take up a special promotion offer for a twin bedded Executive Deluxe room at Megaview Hotel Kuantan which is located at 567, Jalan Besar 25000 Kuantan which is next to the Kuantan River.

One of the nice feels is that this hotel; which is located by the river offers a very relaxing ambience for our holiday and being a public holiday, going to the hotel was a breeze.

Upon checking into the hotel, we find a pleasant nature tone that sets the theme for the hotel. The green colour denotes the natural feel of the environment.

The hotel itself is celebrating its 18th anniversary and we learned that they are refurbishing all their room in stages. We choose the newly refurbished room that overlooks the river.

The rooms were clean and have had in-room coffee and tea making facility.

Our room also came with a glass wall that separates the room and the bathroom to give it an upmarket feel and is really suitable for couples on holiday.

Our bathroom also comes with rain showers for you to relax your tired muscles. One of the plus points for me is the water coming out of the faucet was very strong and when set with the right hot water temperature, it was a marvel to drain away all my tired muscle from all the trekking for the day.

The difference between the Deluxe rooms and the Executive Deluxe rooms is that the latter has a balcony and located on the 8th and 9th floor, while the former only have a windows view. If you are not really on a budget, the executive deluxe rooms will make your stay much more rewarding.

After a brief rest, we decided to venture to visit some of the popular destination in Kuantan, As Kuantan is located next to the sea, one has to visit the many beaches that are less than 10 minutes drive away. Our host brought us to the Teluk Cempedak for a brief walk to a rocky beach. Here the local council has erected a canopy walkway to the other part of the beach which was quite difficult to go some years back. As we walk along the canopy walk, we were greeted by monkeys along the walk, an advice is not to feed them as they can be quite aggressive if they didn't get what they wanted.

After our short trip to Teluk Cempedak, we made our way to Tanjung Lumpur for some popular and Kuantan must eat food, but was disappointed as all were close for Hari Raya Haji holidays. See this we decided to go back to the hotel to check out the food at the hotel. (Click Here).

After dinner, we decided to take a stroll by the river. As it was a Public Holiday, there were not much going on there, we saw a few people fishing by the riverside. The cool and breezy walk were indeed therapeutic and relaxing.

The next morning, we were awakened to the sound of the fishing vessel coming back from its fishing expedition which is quite a common occurrence this time of the morning. It was a nice sight to behold as the fishing vessel slowly trough along to the inner sanctuary of Kuantan.

We had a nice buffet breakfast which is included in our hotel stay. The hotel breakfast buffet offers some of the local delights like yellow rice with curry, make your own eggs (sunny side up, scrambled and more), Teochew porridge and other breakfast delights.

After our breakfast, we went to another beach which is the Batu Hitam, beach in Beserah. It was a long white sandy beach and only a part of it; is where the Batu Hitam is at. Although it was very hot and sunny, the strong breeze from the South China Sea continues to blow away much of the heat.

We spent about an hour at the beach before heading back to the hotel to have our lunch at the hotel  and bid farewell to Kuantan, Pahang.

Overall, this short trip was a nice break for us as it is quite some time we took to the road to explore some of the special destination and awesome Malaysian food. With a nice and comfortable place to stay, it was indeed a welcome break from our routine. We look forward to our next Malaysian Expedition.

Link to our Sungai Lembing Kuantan Pahang Food trail and holiday

Sungai Lembing Kuantan Pahang Holiday

Bentong Food: What to Eat and What not

Sungai Lembing Kuantan Pahang Food Trail

Kuantan Food Trail - What We Eat in Kuantan
DurianBB University - Raub Pahang Durian Farm Education Tour

Direction to Sungai Pandan Waterfall Kuantan

 

Direction to Sungai Lembing, Kuantan

Mega View Hotel Address and Location



Teluk Cempedak, Kuantan Location



Batu Hitam Beach Location

Explore Best Restaurant Other Food Trail

Explore with us on our Road Trip Food Trail

Join Us On Our Food Trail