Thursday, November 26, 2009

Trip to Desaru- our first day!

Posted by Dawn at Thursday, November 26, 2009
This would be our first trip together as a family to Malaysia. Its also CT's first time driving up there. So we were all pretty excited and probably nervous as to the safety aspect of it and whether we can find our way around. I also borrowed my friend's GPS for more security...just in case! We left Singapore at about 10am.

We first stopped at "Ah Soon Bak Ku Teh" (N1°29.323' E103°46.049') located at Jalan Keris 1 of Taman Sri Tebrau, Johor Bahru. I have a 'bad' habit of finding where are the good places to eat whenever I go for holiday so as to make my trip worth!


I like anything traditional and tasty! Here were the must-haves for any bak ku teh meal- the salted veggies and tau pok!


We also ordered yellow rice wine claypot chicken which was recommended from the internet. Caleb just ate this dish with rice which was good enough! It was so tasty as the gravy was thick and savoury!



And the claypot bak ku teh. Not the usual thick soup base but its still tasty and yummy!



Total price was about $40 plus ringgit! Will definitely be back again!

After lunch, we went to pump our CNG for the car which only costs us about 8 ringgit for a 200km long journey! Its that dirt cheap! We then made our way to Pulai Springs Desaru Beach Resort. It was about an hour half to 2 hours drive. Not that bad!

The kids were entertained by my netbook which I brought. And guess what? It actually fit in between our car seats. Great way to save money, instead of installing a DVD player in the car! The children were watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Moreover, we had the cable to plug the netbook into our car stereo system. So the sound was coming out from the car speakers. How cool! haha.



After a while, they fell asleep..how peaceful. Oh by the way, Danielle's 'new' car seat was bought from Salvation Army for only $12! It was supposed to be $16 as what the price tag stated but there was a further discount! What a steal! We just needed to take home and washed the covers and I sterilsed the plastic with dettol. Thats all! Its as good as new!



We arrived at the hotel at about 2pm. Caleb headed straight to the Kids Club area to play as it was right at the lobby!



We ordered a pool view deluxe room. Here's our view from the room.


The children slept for a while and after their afternoon nap, we went for a swim!


Caleb seemed to be more fearful of the water now than Danielle.




But I do not believe in letting Caleb's fears get in his way. Instead, I took him up to the waterslide and slide down with him.




I believe very strongly in facing up to your fears than to avoid it- the more my children is scared, the more I will do it with them until they are not afraid anymore. Seems harsh but they will probably thank me for them in future when they have learnt to enjoy every activity to the fullest without being afraid of anything.



As we were about to finish playing in the pool, it started to drizzle. So we hurried back to the hotel to bathe the children!


After a nice shower, we went for dinner at Sungei Rengit! Its a great place for seafood! I asked the reception and they recommended eating at Jade Garden Restaurant. It was about 40km to the destination- half an hour drive. Thank God the skies cleared...



As we headed to the restaurant, we saw a number of Singaporean cars, which probably reaffirmed that the food here was good and reasonable priced.


I found it rather interesting that Malaysia high chairs for kids look so traditional, unlike the Ikea typed ones found in Singapore.



We ordered 2 extra big lobster ( I ordered this because I heard Sungei Rengit is a place famous for lobster), home made bean curd, kurau fish and vegetables.



Because there werent a lot of us, the waitress suggested serving us few slices of fish instead of the whole big fish.



The highlight of this meal was really the lobster! It was so sweet and tasty!! I think just having this and veggies would suffice as the gravy went so well with the rice! Even Caleb loved it!



We ordered the food without a menu. That was a mistake as we didnt know how much each dish would cost us. We just assumed Malaysian food would be very cheap and there is no cause for worry. Big mistake. The lobster came up to be very expensive (according to my standard). I have never really ordered lobster before and did not know the market rate. So I was very surprised when the bill came up to RM$210 (that is S$100!!!)

Here's the break down of prices

1) Bean curd (RM $8)
2) Kurau Fish (RM $30)
3) Veggies (RM $6)
4) Big 1.2 kg Lobster (RM $144)
5) 2 cups of Lime juice (RM 4)
6) young Coconut (RM $4)
7) Towel (RM $0.90)

Its really the lobster that killed us that night. But still, I did not regret eating such a wonderful dish! Moreover, I heard that the price of the lobster was already considered cheap! Guess I was just not used to seeing such price coming from a "bigger version of prawn"!

After a satisfying dinner, we went back to the hotel where CT and I played darts while the children were playing in the kids club.I was so glad this hotel has kids club as its really a good place to dump our kids there where CT and I could be on our own.



After playing for a while, we went back and got ready the children for bed.


What a tiring but yet enjoyable day!

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