Holiday assignment
To Ms. Zheng
Submitted by her most favoured student.
My ferry is due to depart from Changi Ferry Terminal at 1000h and I had to check in 1 hour beforehand. The ferry terminal was very close to Changi Airport*. That means travelling by cab would still take at least half an hour, but it wouldn't be advisable to leave right on the dot.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* For those who went cycling at East Coast with me earlier this month, the ferry terminal is at the other side of Changi Airport from where we saw the planes took off.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Anyway after adding in time needed to get ready, wait for a cab to appear, etc etc etc, I did some math and figured I had to wake up at 0600h. And that equates to only 3 hours of sleep left for me.
Bad habits die hard.
Despite the lack of sleep, I became trigger-happy the moment I boarded the ferry.
Just out of curiousity, what would your reaction be if the very first notice you see when you board a vessel is this:
On the way there, my mom told me that she had booked a 3-star resort (called "The Pulai") for us to stay in during our 3 days and 2 nights at Desaru. The term "3-stars" made images of the hotels I stayed in during my trip to Taiwan pop up in my mind - rooms with just enough space to move around after comfortably furnished for 2, and not forgetting lousy window views.
I thought hotel ratings are universal. Maybe the places I stayed in at Taiwan only have 1-star rating.
They have a whole lot of activities available too.
The (horribly misrepresented) map sure does bring back memories of Taiwan. Distance from the ferry terminal to the resort is half an hour's ride by car, while the fireflies viewing grounds is only 15 minutes ride away. Places such as the "Petting Zoo" is only 15 minutes of bicycle ride away.
There are lots of activities available at the resort, especially sea sports. The other thing that caught my eyes was "Extreme activities". Go Kart, All Terrain Vehicle, Jeembuggy and Microlite (what an interesting name). Drool, drool, drool and drool. That settles the next day's activities.
Now we come to the most important part of any holiday: FOOD. The only place that sells food in the entire resort is the one and only restaurant. Food sold there is definitely not cheap. My word of advice is to bring as much food as you can if you're staying there, and choose only the Asian cuisine from the menu.
Time to soothe the disappointment. Check out the beach (no babes though)!
I fell asleep to the sound of the waves splashing against the sandy beach.
In the centre of the resort is a nice big swimming pool...
I felt compelled to do some swimming, especially with such a beautiful pool tempting me. 20 laps would be a good idea, since I haven't swam for about a year and I could do with the exercise. I could hardly catch my breath after 3 laps. Suddenly, it dawned upon me that it took less than 20 strokes for me to swim from one end to the other. The length of the pool was actually only 25 metres.
Just when I thought my standard had not dropped too much...
Night fell. The sky was very clear on our first night there. I saw almost as many stars as I did at Pulau Tioman. Wanted to catch a glimpse of shooting stars, but my mom's neck was going to break soon, so we retired to our room for the night.
The handphone alarm went off promptly at 5.30 am. Desaru is situated along the eastern coast of Malaysia, so we decided to watch the sunrise. However there were so much cloud cover that the best I could manage to get were these shots:
Breakfast, in intercontinental buffet style, was provided as part of the package. My mom and I spent the most time in the restaurant having our first meal of the day. I ate so much that I had to skip my lunch. Typical Singaporean.
Time to check out the extreme adventures. The location is marked by rectangles in blue, between Golden Beach Resort and Desaru Chalet. As recommended by the resort staff, we rented a bicycle each to cycle over. The complimentary bicycle rental should stay in the "touch-me-not" category. I should have opted to rent a motor vehicle to get to my destination, depsite the distance.
Worse of all, after a rather knee-aching ride, we discovered that the extreme adventures were only open for half day on that day (and the earlier half of the day was already gone).
Nevermind, it's ok. I can take it. There's still watersports to check out. The only activity that I could do by myself was canoeing, because I couldn't water ski and jet ski seemed unable to last for an hour.
The sea was perfect for canoeing - the waves were rather small, there were no other vessels in sight at all, and the weather cooperated perfectly fine. Even beginners have nothing to fear. As I didn't dare to venture too far away, I only canoed for an hour before returning to shore.
After canoeing was another 20 laps at the swimming. My aim was actually to wash off the sea water on my body, but since I'm there I might as well swim. The consequence was that my arms ached up till now.
The final activity which we checked out at night was fireflies experience. We took half an hour of car ride to a swamp, where we got onto a boat and drifted around, watching fireflies settled on the mangrove trees. A few of them landed on my palm (only because I stretched out my hand in their path of flight), walked around my fingers a bit, and flew off towards the trees. It was a rather interesting sight watching their blinking lights move along my fingertips as they explored my hand.
However, 10 times as many mosquitos landed on me. If only the fireflies were the friendlier ones instead.
We returned to the resort at 9.45 pm. The sky was overcast and star gazing was out. As the night was still young, we decided to watch TV. This was when we made an important discovery: there are a Singaporean channels and a few cable channels available!! Then again, I was too tired to watch TV for long after the day's activities.
We tried to catch the sunrise again but it rained in the morning. When the rain finally stopped, the sun was already up in the sky.
The good thing about Desaru is that you can see the horizon across a very wide angle. Breakfast was still a few minutes away, so I decided to while my time by taking more photos.
After another long and heavy breakfast, my mom and I went to the beach to pick seashells.
At one end of the beach, somewhere in the middle of the bay, where the sand looked like those used for mudbath. It was greyish, with a tinge of brown contributed by the conventional sand. The 'mudbath zone' was spread over a pretty big area and was literally crawling with crabs, mostly hermit crabs and the kind that likes to dig holes in sandy beaches (whatever they are).
The 'sand-diggers' dominating the 'mudbath zone' were the tiny, minuscule baby crabs no bigger than my thumb, but yet extremely nimble. Watching them dart around the sand would make me dizzy. Watching the patterns left on the sand from their normal daily activities left me in awe.
The 'fireworks' drawings were much nicer on the previous day, just a pity that my camera batteries went flat and I didn't carry spares with me at that moment. Patterns created by the sea as it washed the lighter brown sand to and fro over the heavier grey sediments did not lose out to the handiwork of the crabs.
We spent about 1 hour picking up seashells and stones before scurrying off the burning sand and away from the scorching sun. I went back to the resort with a nice collection of seashells, a few stones and lots of insect bites.
The dark coloured stone on the bottom left reminds me of coal, while the larger one on the right looks like charcoal used for BBQs. The top row seems like quartz to me, except that the one on the extreme right looks too unatural. Actually it's glass, 'frosted' by wear from the surrounding sand.
Time flies when you're having fun. We had to depart for Singapore. I'm already wondering when I'll get to go to Desaru again.
Submitted by her most favoured student.
Desaru, here I come!
My ferry is due to depart from Changi Ferry Terminal at 1000h and I had to check in 1 hour beforehand. The ferry terminal was very close to Changi Airport*. That means travelling by cab would still take at least half an hour, but it wouldn't be advisable to leave right on the dot.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* For those who went cycling at East Coast with me earlier this month, the ferry terminal is at the other side of Changi Airport from where we saw the planes took off.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Anyway after adding in time needed to get ready, wait for a cab to appear, etc etc etc, I did some math and figured I had to wake up at 0600h. And that equates to only 3 hours of sleep left for me.
Bad habits die hard.
Despite the lack of sleep, I became trigger-happy the moment I boarded the ferry.
Just out of curiousity, what would your reaction be if the very first notice you see when you board a vessel is this:
On the way there, my mom told me that she had booked a 3-star resort (called "The Pulai") for us to stay in during our 3 days and 2 nights at Desaru. The term "3-stars" made images of the hotels I stayed in during my trip to Taiwan pop up in my mind - rooms with just enough space to move around after comfortably furnished for 2, and not forgetting lousy window views.
I thought hotel ratings are universal. Maybe the places I stayed in at Taiwan only have 1-star rating.
They have a whole lot of activities available too.
The (horribly misrepresented) map sure does bring back memories of Taiwan. Distance from the ferry terminal to the resort is half an hour's ride by car, while the fireflies viewing grounds is only 15 minutes ride away. Places such as the "Petting Zoo" is only 15 minutes of bicycle ride away.
There are lots of activities available at the resort, especially sea sports. The other thing that caught my eyes was "Extreme activities". Go Kart, All Terrain Vehicle, Jeembuggy and Microlite (what an interesting name). Drool, drool, drool and drool. That settles the next day's activities.
Now we come to the most important part of any holiday: FOOD. The only place that sells food in the entire resort is the one and only restaurant. Food sold there is definitely not cheap. My word of advice is to bring as much food as you can if you're staying there, and choose only the Asian cuisine from the menu.
Time to soothe the disappointment. Check out the beach (no babes though)!
I fell asleep to the sound of the waves splashing against the sandy beach.
In the centre of the resort is a nice big swimming pool...
I felt compelled to do some swimming, especially with such a beautiful pool tempting me. 20 laps would be a good idea, since I haven't swam for about a year and I could do with the exercise. I could hardly catch my breath after 3 laps. Suddenly, it dawned upon me that it took less than 20 strokes for me to swim from one end to the other. The length of the pool was actually only 25 metres.
Just when I thought my standard had not dropped too much...
Night fell. The sky was very clear on our first night there. I saw almost as many stars as I did at Pulau Tioman. Wanted to catch a glimpse of shooting stars, but my mom's neck was going to break soon, so we retired to our room for the night.
Yo yo, check it out check it out
The handphone alarm went off promptly at 5.30 am. Desaru is situated along the eastern coast of Malaysia, so we decided to watch the sunrise. However there were so much cloud cover that the best I could manage to get were these shots:
Breakfast, in intercontinental buffet style, was provided as part of the package. My mom and I spent the most time in the restaurant having our first meal of the day. I ate so much that I had to skip my lunch. Typical Singaporean.
Time to check out the extreme adventures. The location is marked by rectangles in blue, between Golden Beach Resort and Desaru Chalet. As recommended by the resort staff, we rented a bicycle each to cycle over. The complimentary bicycle rental should stay in the "touch-me-not" category. I should have opted to rent a motor vehicle to get to my destination, depsite the distance.
Worse of all, after a rather knee-aching ride, we discovered that the extreme adventures were only open for half day on that day (and the earlier half of the day was already gone).
Nevermind, it's ok. I can take it. There's still watersports to check out. The only activity that I could do by myself was canoeing, because I couldn't water ski and jet ski seemed unable to last for an hour.
The sea was perfect for canoeing - the waves were rather small, there were no other vessels in sight at all, and the weather cooperated perfectly fine. Even beginners have nothing to fear. As I didn't dare to venture too far away, I only canoed for an hour before returning to shore.
After canoeing was another 20 laps at the swimming. My aim was actually to wash off the sea water on my body, but since I'm there I might as well swim. The consequence was that my arms ached up till now.
The final activity which we checked out at night was fireflies experience. We took half an hour of car ride to a swamp, where we got onto a boat and drifted around, watching fireflies settled on the mangrove trees. A few of them landed on my palm (only because I stretched out my hand in their path of flight), walked around my fingers a bit, and flew off towards the trees. It was a rather interesting sight watching their blinking lights move along my fingertips as they explored my hand.
However, 10 times as many mosquitos landed on me. If only the fireflies were the friendlier ones instead.
We returned to the resort at 9.45 pm. The sky was overcast and star gazing was out. As the night was still young, we decided to watch TV. This was when we made an important discovery: there are a Singaporean channels and a few cable channels available!! Then again, I was too tired to watch TV for long after the day's activities.
Time to return already? I haven't had enough yet
We tried to catch the sunrise again but it rained in the morning. When the rain finally stopped, the sun was already up in the sky.
The good thing about Desaru is that you can see the horizon across a very wide angle. Breakfast was still a few minutes away, so I decided to while my time by taking more photos.
After another long and heavy breakfast, my mom and I went to the beach to pick seashells.
At one end of the beach, somewhere in the middle of the bay, where the sand looked like those used for mudbath. It was greyish, with a tinge of brown contributed by the conventional sand. The 'mudbath zone' was spread over a pretty big area and was literally crawling with crabs, mostly hermit crabs and the kind that likes to dig holes in sandy beaches (whatever they are).
The 'sand-diggers' dominating the 'mudbath zone' were the tiny, minuscule baby crabs no bigger than my thumb, but yet extremely nimble. Watching them dart around the sand would make me dizzy. Watching the patterns left on the sand from their normal daily activities left me in awe.
The 'fireworks' drawings were much nicer on the previous day, just a pity that my camera batteries went flat and I didn't carry spares with me at that moment. Patterns created by the sea as it washed the lighter brown sand to and fro over the heavier grey sediments did not lose out to the handiwork of the crabs.
We spent about 1 hour picking up seashells and stones before scurrying off the burning sand and away from the scorching sun. I went back to the resort with a nice collection of seashells, a few stones and lots of insect bites.
The dark coloured stone on the bottom left reminds me of coal, while the larger one on the right looks like charcoal used for BBQs. The top row seems like quartz to me, except that the one on the extreme right looks too unatural. Actually it's glass, 'frosted' by wear from the surrounding sand.
Time flies when you're having fun. We had to depart for Singapore. I'm already wondering when I'll get to go to Desaru again.
posted by Tengkia | 12:18 am
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Level of response: 1
Level of response: 1
by right i should let ms zheng mark ur desaru essay first, but i juz cant wait to comment here :p
nice entry!.. the desaru pic are real cool! the dawn and beach pictures are nice.
well, the taiwan hotels that we stayed in are not even rated, therefore they are not 3-stars, in fact, no stars rated at all, guess that explains the service quality we got there.
haha, u did a stones fall-in again!.. guess it is because of influence from taiwan trip!
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