An All-Girls Desaru Getaway!

Text & Images by IRNEE NORRIS & IRINA NORRIS FB | TW | IG | YOUTUBE @gayatraveller #gayatraveller

It is official: the passport is truly the most useless thing for many Malaysians in the year 2020. When the Prime Minister announced that the Movement Control Order is to be continued until 31 December 2020, we knew we had to take a break from travelling beyond the country’s borders for a while. We are taking strict precautionary measures during the Covid-19 pandemic for the sake of our family. Nevermind the country’s borders – we have not even crossed any state borders since the whole Movement Control Order was implemented back in March 2020!

At the time of writing, Malaysia is bracing for the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic with daily new cases numbers on the uptrend, with the affected areas mostly concentrating in Sabah, Kedah and Klang Valley.

However, it is impossible to ignore the travelling itch and the excitement of scouring the internet for good deals – the planning, the decision making, the booking, and even the dreaded packing! We miss all of that. While travelling far and beyond is not feasible, a change of air is still doable. Life was getting a bit too routine and monotonous for us, hence a quick break to recharge is warranted.

So, we decided that a getaway with our girlfriends is the way to go! It was to be a much-deserved self-pampering trip with our closest and dearest girlfriends, which is always a good idea. After some brainstorming on our destination, we decided on Desaru Coast for two nights. In hindsight, we feel that we should have at least stayed for three nights instead.

Desaru Coast was the perfect choice due to its proximity to Johor Bahru since it is still in the Covid-19 green zone (no cases reported) and we haven’t been back to Desaru since the early 1990s! Therefore we thought it would be nice to see how the once sleepy holiday town has changed over time.

Instead of having to drive for three hours from Johor Bahru as in the past, Desaru Coast now is only 45 minutes’ drive away, thanks to the Senai – Desaru Expressway (SDE), which has opened since 2011. The highlight of the journey to Desaru was the 1.7-kilometre long SDE Bridge – the longest, single plane cable-stayed bridge in Malaysia – to cross the Johor River, which we find impressive! With the travelling time saved, Desaru is fast becoming a popular beach destination for daytrippers. This is indeed a happy news to us because now we have discovered a good beach holiday destination that is practically in our backyard.

We were pleasantly surprised with the present Desaru compared to what we remembered back when we were small. The late Sultan Iskandar was a keen windsurfer, and most of our Desaru trips back in the 80s were because of His Majesty’s love for this water sport. If we were not mistaken, annual internationallevel windsurfing competitions were held in Desaru. We recalled the waves as harsh and fierce, which made Desaru suitable for windsurfing.

Truth be told, we were too young to remember much about Desaru, and our last trip to Desaru before this was only for one night. Since hotels were not that many then, we frequented Desaru View Hotel (currently Tunamaya Beach & Spa Resort) and the chalets by the beach that have now become staff housing for Desaru Coast! There were not that many shops too, and we had to go deep into the town of Bandar Penawar to look for sundry shops.

Fast forward to the present day, Desaru now has come of age, even though it does reverberate with a smalltown vibe, but there are more shops not far from the hotels and resorts. It is now even more tourist- and familyfriendly with the presence of attractions like the Adventure Waterpark and Desaru Fruit Farm. A free shuttle service that runs on schedule taking visitors to selected places in Desaru Coast is also provided.

The Abode

Since we haven’t been utilising our usual annual travelling budget, we could very well afford a nice vacation this time around. Our fellow team members from the magazine have been raving about their stay at Anantara Desaru Coast Resort & Villas (Anantara) a few weeks earlier, so we thought Anantara would be a nice choice for us too. But instead of the normal rooms, we chose the twobedroom villa for the ultimate all-girls getaway!

Staying true to the new norms of vacationing during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is reassuring to observe that the management of Anantara seriously adheres to the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that the Malaysian government has imposed. Upon arrival, we were requested to check in using the MySejahtera App, and our body temperatures taken. We were then led to the lobby overlooking the infinity pool with a spread out view of the beach for further processing. At that time, we were greeted by the very hands-on General Manager (we caught him sanitising the dining tables at breakfast) Mr. Christian Gerart. The lobby is a fabulous space to lounge around and watch the world go by. We adore the lounge chairs; each of them as big as a queen-sized bed!

Our two-bedroom villa is a two-storey stand-alone villa with a surrounding wooden fence for privacy. Anantara, being a luxury chain from Thailand, has presence across the globe and has chosen Desaru Coast as its first Malaysian home. Naturally, good aesthetics and architecture are expected from the brand no less, thus we were pleased with what we saw.

The highlights of our two-bedroom villa are the swimming pool, Nespresso machine, a notably welcoming bed that feels like a snug hug when being in it, the rain shower with the heavenly Patchouli scented shower gel, and of course the view from the second floor! We also love that the villa is equipped with three water closets that come with their own doors, separated from the rest of the bathroom space.

The common area holds a small dining table perfect for morning and evening snack. And may we add that there are plenty of seats inside as well as outside the villa? The villa’s common area can even accommodate up to 20 people and still not crammed! We just love lounging on our private pool deck that overlooks the lagoon.

In short, Anantara is a good choice for those looking for a comfortable and aesthetically pleasing space for a relaxing getaway because it does not feel crowded at all, especially when we need to maintain social distancing.

The Feasts

Boy, did we eat! We were all suffering from indigestion due to the amount of delicious food we consumed throughout the trip.

» Dinner at Sea.Fire.Salt, Anantara

As a a warm up, we had dinner at Anantara’s beachfront restaurant, which had a nice touch because it provides each diner with an individually wrapped wet tissue for quick sanitisation and a self-sealing plastic bag to keep our face mask when dining.

We ordered to share several appetisers and mains like Beef Carpaccio, Tuna Tartare, Grilled Seafood Platter and pasta. While everything was delicious, the highlight of our dinner was the Chocolate Fondant, the perfect way to end the night!

Sea.Fire.Salt is open on Wednesdays through Sundays (Lunch from 12:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m., Dinner from 6:00 p.m. until 10:30 p.m.)

» Breakfast at Turmeric, Anantara

Our favourite thing to look forward to during holiday is the hotel’s breakfast buffet. Anantara’s breakfast spread was fantastic. Due to the new norm, we could only hold our plates while the food is spooned by the servers. It is compulsory to wear masks when we are at the food stations.

Menu on offer are the typical spread at any reputable hotel: a good mix of pastries, cereals, eggs (they offer poached eggs!) upon request, local and western fares, cold cuts and not forgetting hot and cold drinks. The orange juice was so good that we can’t help but crave for it days after we checked out!

Turmeric is open daily (Breakfast from 6:30 a.m. until 10:30 a.m., Lunch from 12:00 p.m. until 6.00 p.m., Dinner from 6:00 p.m. until 10:30 p.m.)

» Lunch at Nelayan Seafood By The Coast, Tunamaya Beach & Spa Resort

If you love Chinese-styled seafood, do come to this restaurant. We enjoyed its food dearly because the fish was caught fresh from the aquariums within the restaurant. It was our first time eating siput gonggong (a type of edible sea snails), and we must say that it is tasty! We also had Nyonya-styled steamed sea bass, salted egg cuttlefish, braised tofu, brocolli with oyster sauce and foo yung omelette, all eaten with steamed white rice.

Nelayan Seafood By The Coast is open daily from 11:30 a.m. until 11:00 p.m. Address: Tunamaya Beach & Spa Resort, Desaru Coast, 81930 Bandar Penawar, Johor. Tel: +6 07 833 8803

» Dinner at Prego, The Westin Desaru Coast Resort

We have been told that making reservations to eat here is a must, considering it is popular with the holiday goers. The bread here is superb, especially when eaten with marinara sauce. Since we were still stuffed from the hearty lunch at Nelayan, we decided to “order something light”, which turned out to be their signature salt crusted sea bass, bruschetta, spaghetti carbonara, pizza margherita, and all of the desserts that were on their menu!

Prego is open on Tuesdays through Sundays from 6:00 p.m. until 11:00 p.m. Address: The Westin Desaru Coast Resort, Jalan Pantai 3, Desaru Coast, 81930 Bandar Penawar, Johor. Tel: +6 07 838 3333

» Lunch at Sengat Seafood Restaurant

After checking out, we decided to have lunch at a nearby smallish fishing town called Teluk Sengat, which is about 30km away. It was a nice afternoon drive, passing by palm oil plantations along the way.

This Chinese seafood restaurant looked like it has been around for generations, indicating that it has endured all these years because it serves uncompromisingly scrumptious food through its irresistibly mouth-watering menu! Interestingly, the price here is just a fraction of Desaru’s standard price. We ordered steamed sea bass (again!), chilli crabs with fried small buns called mantao on the side, fried lobster with butter, kailan (Chinese broccoli) with oyster Sauce and onion omelette. Everything was finger-licking good that we decided to bring home another order of chilli crabs and steamed lobster with garlic!

Sengat Seafood Restaurant is open daily from 11:30 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. Address: 58, Jalan Belanak Teluk Sengat, 81940 Kota Tinggi, Johor. Tel: +6 07 895 5116