Desaru - 16 Sep 2013

This time we went to Desaru, Johor. This was during the Malaysia Day Holiday.  The week before we still didn't have any idea what to do during the holiday and Papa came up with this just a few days before. Awesome!

We started the journey very early - right after the Subuh Prayer.  We stopped at McDonald's in Pekan for breakfast around 6.30am.  We should have opted for the stalls because the food there wasn't much.  Nasi Lemak would've done the deal better.

The journey along the Kuala Rompin stretch towards Desaru was a beautiful one but I didn't have the chance to snap any pictures - Papa drove too fast.  Since Papa used to study in Johor, he suggested a few places to visit in the vicinity. We did venture out of the normal route but nothing interesting there.

While looking at the map to get back to the normal route to Desaru we found a signpost showing the Tanjung Balau Fishermen Museum.  It was still early - around 11.00am - so we decided to stop there.  It was the best decision!

There was an exposition going on. So, we scrounged the expo and found lots of interesting food to eat.  We stopped at a stall and ordered Bee Hoon Soup - not very tasty, but we ate it anyway.  We also bought some Otak-Otak and the taste was okay -  not out of this world. Biasa-biasa ja. It was almost noon, the sun was heating up and the music from the expo was blaring.   Both too much for the eyes and ears to bear. It's time to find somewhere cool.

The museum's entrance fee was super cheap - RM2 each. The exhibits were very interesting with loads of information about fishing, fishermen, fishing village and their history.  Since sea buffalos are still in abundance in the area, they have a special gallery for it.  The lives of fishermen in the olden days were shrouded with mystery and myths. They had all kinds of matras for all kinds of activities.

They also had exhibits on traditional games - I used to play most of those games when I was small and I bet the same goes to Papa.  There was also a replica of an old kampung house.

After the main gallery, we ventured out to look at the many kinds of intricately designed and decorated old sampans used by fishermen.  I'm not sure whether they used the sampans for fishing in the olden days because they were so beautiful.

Out in the back of the museum there's another gallery - in another building.  They showed many different stone and rock formations over the centuries showing different eras.

Since the main gallery was built on stilts, they also had an exhibition area under the building for old sampans.

Many old sampans were exhibited under the main building.

There's also an exhibition hall for sunken ships from centuries ago.  There was detailed information on ship wrecks found in the surrounding area.  

 A replica of a light house inside the exhibition hall.

There was also a corner for modern nautical stuff. 

 Replicas of world famous ships.

These are some of the artifacts from the sunken ships

Certificate of authenticity for each artifact.

Some china

Looking interested.

More certificates.

After the tour. Time for a little fun outside.

This cape was secluded and not really promoted as a tourist destination.  Maybe it's famous among Johoreans but we haven't heard of this place before.  And so the detour was actually worth it after all.

After that we drove to Desaru (about 3km away) and were given the only room available at the resort (forgot the name).  It's crowded and full house because of the national holiday.  So the urban legend was true after all - don't agree to take the only room available at any hotel.  

In our case, the water flushed itself every few minutes but we slept throughout the night without any other 'interruption' - thanks to tiredness.  Luckily the water didn't flush while we're using the water closet!  I hated the bathroom. Period!

That's the only attraction there other than the sea and the beach.  The nearest town was Bandar Penawar - a new township without much attraction but given time, may flourish together with Desaru.