Okay, now I have time to work on my Desaru post! I’m in a bimbotic chirpy mood today cos I’m happy for no reason! I can feel my heart smiling. For no reason!!! So I’m going to make lots of exclamation marks today like this!!!!
I’m kidding. Too many exclamation marks are irritating!!!!!!
Plus it’ll be a bit ironic cos the post I’m setting out to write is full of rants. HAHAHA!
Okay nevermind we’ll see how it goes.
We did an impromptu trip to Desaru last weekend. Me and Nanny Wen, the Goonfather and Unker Kell. Well, okay it wasn’t that impromptu. We planned it like two days before.
The road trip was as fun as all our past road trips have been. We had cushions and stuffies this time!
In the car, Nanny Wen was busy BB-ing away, so I decided to camwhore myself.
But she, being a consummate camwhore and multi-tasker, will abruptly abandon her Blackberry and stick her face into frame, every time her peripheral vision catches sight of a camera about to take a shot, never mind the camera wasn’t planning on capturing her.
That’s why you can only see half her face, cos I was aiming at myself when she stuck her head in! LOL!
We booked rooms at The Pulai Desaru Beach Resort because the Goonfather said it’s the best and biggest in Desaru, being the first resort to be listed in Google.
DO NOT BELIEVE IN GOOGLE RANKINGS.
Well, okay, maybe it IS the best. I wouldn’t know because I’ve never visited the others. I might never find out.
The first thing that greeted us after we parked at the open-air carpark was Thomas the Train!
Damn cute lah! But we didn’t get to sit in him cos we didn’t sign up for any resort activities.
My first impression of the resort was okay. It was spacious and the decor was decent and everything was neat and tidy. But I had a feeling it was, like, old and dusty, as if nobody had stepped in the place for a long time.
When we first checked in, we didn’t see anyone else (except the staff lah).
Our room, although large and seemingly clean, smelled old and musty.
But we had a great view!!
Beyond the swimming pool is the beach.
I took an obligatory camwhore shot on the balcony while Nanny Wen took a moment in the bathroom.
It was around noon. We were waiting for the boys to settle into their room and then tell us what they wanted to do next. So we went to bed while waiting.
Then we received a call. The Goonfather said he wanted to go to the beach, so we changed into our beach wear!
HAH. No bikini pics for you!
The pool:
We each get a towel card to exchange for towels. If we lose a towel, we have to pay RM50!! Crazy lah daylight robbery. Who wanna steal your lousy towels anyway!
The beach:
The water was a bit murky cos of the rainy season. But the waves were nice! NO ONE ELSE AT THE BEACH.
We’d only been there for two minutes when it started to drizzle. Hahahaha so loserish.
Nanny Wen and I hid under a shelter while the Goonfather and Unker Kell went to sit at the shore to let the waves hit them. They ended up with pants full of sand.
They finally gave up the beach for some reason and went back to the pool, where the two of them spent 20 minutes showering at the public shower, trying to get rid of all the sand without stripping.
Nanny Wen tried to get a tan but the sun kept alternating with the drizzle.
You can see the rain clouds gathering!
Another 10 minutes or so and we totally gave up and went back indoors.
It was an epic phail.
Before heading back, though, we made a small detour to the resort’s mini farm, which turned out to be a small chicken coop plus a cage with, like, three bunnies. Hahaha.
With nothing else to do, we went to the resort spa and booked a two-hour package each, consisting of 1 hour massage and 1 hour scrub.
It was a total rip-off! It was RM180 each but it was so bad I expect them to pay me money to compensate!
Firstly, the massage wasn’t very enjoyable. My masseuse didn’t hit any right spots and she kind of glossed over everywhere quickly. Not only that, because we were in a couple room, the two masseuse kept chatting.
I didn’t mind the chatting because they were speaking in low voices. But at times, she would suddenly concentrate on chatting and STOP MASSAGING for like half a minute! Very unprofessional.
And there was one time she stopped in the middle of massaging my shoulder and disappeared for five minutes.
I don’t think they did a full hour because, very quickly, the massage was over and they started on the scrub.
She said, “I leave the scrub on you for seven minutes to dry, then I’ll come back later to scrub it off.”
The scrub beads were cold and I was shivering the whole time I was waiting, even though covered in blankets.
I estimate that we waited at least 30 minutes before the two of them came back, giggling, to massage the scrub away.
That was done quickly AND THEN WE HAD TO TURN OVER TO DO THE OTHER SIDE.
Once again, they left us shivering with cold for 30 minutes before coming back again, giggling.
It was the most horrible scrub experience in my entire life!! Okay, not that I go to scrubs a lot. I’ve only done it twice in Batam and I think once in Singapore. The Batam one was so awesome I fell asleep.
After the scrub was done, as we were freezing, they slathered ice cold yoghurt all over us (to soothe and moisturise the skin). Nanny Wen and I shrieked in tandem each time the yoghurt splashed onto a sensitive area.
Once our whole body received the yoghurt treatment, we were able to rush to the bathroom to wash off and hopefully get some warmth back into our shivering bones.
THE BATHROOM HAD A DEAD COCKROACH WITH ANTS SURROUNDING IT.
And the shower was a small drizzle when turned to hot. And hot wasn’t even hot. It was warm. The shower was horrible and there was only one bathroom for us to share.
At the end of the ordeal, I didn’t feel relaxed at all. Bah.
We visited a nearby fruit farm after the massage! It somewhat saved the day.
Giant jackfruit!!
But we didn’t get to see the actual farm. I think you have to book a tour for that. We only had access to the store, which sold fruits, tidbits and souvenirs.
After the visit, I was forced to play Monopoly with the guys at the resort lobby. WHYYYYYYYY?!
The Monopoly set provided by the resort looked pirated!!
By the time we finished our game, it was, like, 8 pm and time for dinner. We were starving so decided not to drive out to search for food. We went for the BBQ Buffet at the resort’s restaurant.
It cost RM65 per person and the food was bad.
It looks decent but when you start biting into things, everything is bland. Even the sauces provided are weird.
Only the satay was good. And the satay sauce.
Unker Kell asked, “Can I eat RM65 worth of satay?”
The answer was no, because the satay (only chicken and beef) kept getting snapped up really fast.
And the bread and butter pudding looks like this:
Small piece of it:
You probably think it’s nice because it looks edible in the photo, thanks to my kind photography and the cute dollop of custard on it.
But bread and butter pudding is not supposed to be like that!! You can actually taste the bread, which tastes just like bread straight off the loaf!
Anyway, we tried to fill ourselves with the satay, and then Nanny Wen and I retired to our rooms early while the boys stayed in the lobby to enjoy the complimentary movie at the lounge, played on a dodgy projector screen.
And that was when the real trouble started.
After staying in the room for an hour, I realised that the tip of my throat was feeling very itchy and irritated, and my eyes were almost watering and feeling strained (like it feels when you have fever fatigue). I thought I was coming down with something because I had only slept two hours the night before, and very little the nights before that.
Two hours later, when it became really uncomfortable and I started sneezing, I realised that I was getting an allergic reaction to the oldness of the room. You can’t see or feel the dust, but my body was reacting to something.
I didn’t think of it earlier because I seldom go to dusty places where the allergy will act up.
But I finally remembered the time when I was filming at this rented HDB flat. Nobdy had stayed in there for ages, so it was musty and dusty. For weeks, I suffered exactly the same thing I felt that night in Desaru.
I also get it sometimes when spring cleaning for Chinese New Year.
That horrible itch and irritation, fitful sneezing and watery, tired eyes. My lungs also felt irritated from the stale air I was breathing in.
I was planning to blog that night since there was so much time, but feeling the way I felt, I just wanted to curl up and pass out.
Anyway, the night passed. I read myself to sleep.
The three of them went to the the beach the next morning while I slept in, because I don’t like getting a tan. After that, I joined them for breakfast at the same place we had the horrible dinner.
Breakfast was complimentary.
And it was actually edible!
Well, I suppose you can’t go very wrong with toast and eggs!
The soft-boiled egg was a bit of a failure but maybe this is how Malaysians eat soft-boiled eggs. I don’t know.
BUT I LOVE IT. I love too-cooked soft-boiled eggs!
There was also nasi lemak and it was good.
This was Unker Kell’s original selection:
Nasi lemak with potato wedges and fried egg. No sambal!
When we pointed out the lack of sambal, he was, like, “YAH HOR, HOW COME I DIDN’T TAKE SAMBAL.”
CRAZY GUY.
And that ended our very quick vacation because Unker Kell had to be back in Singapore by noon to attend his grandmother’s birthday party.
We ended up reaching Singapore around 3 pm or 4 pm, delayed because we made a stop at the fruit farm for more fruits and tidbits to bring home, and then at JB for lunch. Haha.
Anyway, despite the dodginess of the resort, I enjoyed myself because, as always, it’s the company that counts!
