Miucciastory: My first and last with Desaru

Had a nice gathering with my childhood friends before heading off to Desaru with baby. Ginnise, Moon and I had great time catching up and it has been so long since we last met up.

This time, Jelaine and Javern came along and I had a fun time playing with Jelaine. I am usually "not so popular" with children because of my cold and distant nature and partly because I become helpless when I face them but glad Jelaine was willing to give me the chance to get close with her and we eventually had countless rounds of paper scissors stones (Opps! I mean, scissors paper stone) and having her rewarding me with her sweet sweets.

Baby was waiting with a stalk of rose and surprised me. The rose was strong and sturdy, with a healthy thick stalk and big petals. As we are approaching Desaru, we realised the rose was blooming...bigger and bigger.

We were so looking forward to this trip but were a little pissed off (esp me) with the series of events that had occurred during our stay. Below are my "reviews" and reasons why Desaru should be strike off from our traveling destination list, even if it’s a short getaway:

Point 1) Changi Ferry Terminal
There is no nearby bus stop. You have to take a cab to the terminal. There is no food, only a vending machine that is dispensing can drinks. No aircon. The ticket staff is a BIG TURN OFF with her gloomy depressing and expressionless look. We were filling up our arrival and departure cards when she told (it sounded more like chasing) us to the empty counter there to write. There were no other awaiting passengers behind us at all. But she chose to chase us to an empty counter a few steps away from her. Ok! Small case.

Point 2) Bumpy Coaster Ride
Upon reaching the other ferry terminal, a van picked us up to send us to the resort, Pulai. The ride was fast (as expected), bumpy (not so expected) and scary. If you were another 2cm taller, your head would have hit the roof and hit hit hit again after and after each bumps on the road. Anyone with spinal problem (or degeneration disc) would have his/her spine squashed into pieces, because the driver will not slow down and would travel at the same speed even if there are a few continuous bumps ahead. If the vehicle ahead is traveling slower, he will overtake quickly from the right and the risk of bumping the opp vehicles.

Point 3) Weather
THIS IS A BIG TURN OFF WITH NO ONE TO BE BLAMED. IT WAS RAINING, RAINING AND STILL RAINING…

Point 4) The room
Pulai Desaru has a very very nice website picture showing the resort amenities. But the actual one, was almost like the ancient look of what we have saw in the web. There was a smell when you open the room door. No I don’t mean aroma smell but a kind of stale smell. The room is very spacious, with a pathetic one metre width-sized woredrobe. I was looking for bedroom slippers and am surprised to see NONE. We called to request for it and I was SHOCKED to hear "we don't provide".

Point 5) The toilet
Rusty ceiling, stale smell. Hmmmm not that bad actually because though it’s old, it’s clean.

Point 6) Flies Flies…
Well! Because of the rain, there were countless flying ants all over the place. Even as you are walking along the corridors, it will be good to keep a look out of those flies while you are happily walking. In order to keep those flying ants away, it will be good to keep a compact camera sponge casing with you and “piak” the ants away before it lands on your shoulder, hair or in your mouth. Do it like you are in a badminton game. Fast and swift action.

The next morning, we thought we could walked out to the beach from the balcony, but to my shock, I screamed and jumped back into the room after seeing a lot of broken wings and dying ants on the balcony..and it’s really A LOT.. covering the edges, all over the floor, the sides were all covered with these ants. We closed back the sliding doors.

Point 7) One and only restaurant
Food that are not worth the price esp the 'cream of chicken and mushroom" which turns out to be mee soto's soup base with some chicken skins. A bowl of soup like this cost RM12. The only thing worth eating is their main course which I feel, still a reasonable price to pay for, taking into consideration that resorts are by default, out to earn and knock every cents from the tourist's pocket.

Point 8) NO TOOTHBRUSH
HOW CAN THAT BE? Yes, it’s true. They say they DON'T PROVIDE. Perhaps that’s because ppl there do not have the culture of brushing their teeth. The only place that provides toothbrush and paste is the small and badly lit souvenir store in the resort which OPENS AT 9AM. And the morning breakfast will be ending at 10AM. So meaning to say, either you wait till the store opens at 9am, brush your teeth and head to have our bfast or, eat your bfast with your sinko breath before brushing your teeth. I should have read this review before packing our bags (see this).

Point 9) The stuffy ferry
While we thought we could happily wave bye bye to Desaru Pulai without looking back, another disaster strike on us. Apparently , the aircon was not working at all. I believe that it could have happened quite often because there were fans installed, implying that “in case if the air con is not working, there are still fans”. Why would they install fans when there is aircon in the ferry, correct?! So I thought, it’s all a scam!

"That’s it”. Once the door is closed, we are all going to die in the ferry, die of suffocation when we reach Singapore" I felt like an illegal immigrant, hiding in the ferry among others, trapped in the ferry for hours. I couldn’t withstand it and decided to stand on the upper deck, never mind having to stand throughout the journey. The sea breeze made me felt I am alive. Never mind the Ah Nxhs walking up and down stairs....nothing matters more than the fresh sea breeze blowing on our faces.

Am so glad to be back in the arms of our home town yet again and swear we will never return back to Desaru aka Disaster ever again. Nevertheless, we took some nice pictures to remind ourselves that we still have each other's accompany despite the bad experiences. Opps! Forgot to mention about the long worm wriggling next to my feet while I was bathing…..bye bye wormy!

'Auntie Mary" (centred) taking picture with us

Javern's meal time!

Look over here!

Jelaine (aka Auntie Mary) feeling bored..

Striking a nice one for me!

On board heading towards our disaster discovery trip!

The after rain effect of Desaru Beach. Not that bad after all..:)

Mini zoo?! yahoo!