Places for Activities

Desaru Beach

i personally have strong affection to Desaru Beach. When we were young, it was the greatest day outing we could get with family. It was only feasible during time when aunties or uncles came back, as we did not have car. I have good memories in this place and when possible, i always wanted to visit here.
Desaru is around 30km from Sungai Rengit.

A Chinese newspaper, Guang Ming Jit Poh (光明日報) mentioned about Desaru as a place for family outing. (16th May 2012)

親子休閒好去處‧迪沙魯碧海藍天

http://www.guangming.com.my/node/135308?tid=9

Desaru used to be a very popular weekend escape for residents of Singapore. They come to enjoy the attractive 25 km stretch of beaches and golf courses.
Nowadays, i think Singaporean know Desaru Fruits Farm more than Desaru Beach.
In the non-rainy months, the water is very blue and relatively calmer.



Over the years, i think the public beach areas looked run down. However, it is still a popular place for the local to enjoy picnic, flying kites with the children and enjoy the strong wave of South China Sea.
The beach managed by the hotels are cleaner.
We used to come and stay in the apartment or hotel, just for a weekend break or Chinese New Year family activities.



One of the resort or apartment invested by Jacky Chan (he was here for the ceremony) had a grand opening years ago. But eventually, it closed down. It had reopen again when we came.
The government is making efforts to develop this ares more. When the Senai-Desaru Expressway complected, it will connect Desaru to Johor Bahru in 45 minutes, compared to the present 1.5-2 hours.



When the weather is good and in the season -- not raining season, between April to July, this is how the beach looked like.
This is how the beach appears as in my memory too. Blue sky and crystal blue water.
(Picture is courtesy from aunty Elena and friends.)



Besides from hotel, there are also apartment for rental. i remembered i came here with my family and we brought our own small stove and had potluck in the apartment.
(Picture is courtesy from aunty Elena and friends.)

Sebana Cove

During its grand opening, like many 'feverish' local who had a little bit of money, my uncle became the member of the resort. So we got the opportunities to come and enjoy the facilities, for us, the most interesting thing is obviously not the tennis courts, but the swimming pool.
The resort is quite well maintained. It looked the same as in my memories as far as 15 years ago when we first visited there.
Sebana is around 10km from Sungai Rengit.



Located at the tranquil Santi River, Sebana Cove is integrated with golf, marina, residential and holiday resort.
This is the most expensive and most comfortable rented accommodation you can get around Pengerang areas.



During weekends, the resort come alive and is crowded with either local who comes back to Pengerang, or visitors from Singapore.
If you truely want a very quiet place to enjoy your holiday, come during weekday.
You can enjoy the relaxed ambience of the marina, play golf, enjoy the mangroves or simply sunbath by the pool. The whole place is almost all yours!

Access to Pengerang (2): Via Sebana Golf Resort

Noted: i am currently at North America/ Europe, not likely to come back until next year. i do not intend to abandon this blog, but updating it can be tricky since i do not have the latest pictures or inputs. i would appreciate if someone is kind enough to share his/her pictures in Pengerang with me. Merci.




The marina of Sebana.
Many visitors do not know about the Ferry service between Sebana and Singapore Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal.
From Singapore Bedok or Tanah Merah MRT Station (i don't quite remember now, check SBS service), take shuttle bus to Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal.
Take note that, taxi will apply a surcharge like in Airport.
From Sebana to Sungai Rengit (the biggest town in Pengerang area), transportation can be tricky.
Somehow, you do need to arrange a pick up either with Sebana or local Sungai Rengit taxi driver. It probably costs you a steep RM 50 or so. (A 20 minutes drive.)



This is how the ferry looks like.
The ferry actually takes a detour towards Tanah Merah direction.
So eventhough the speed is definitely faster than the bump boat, but the journey time is around the same. An hour or so.
The Malaysian side immigration is easy and casual (the immigration is only for Sebana ferry passengers only), but the Singaporean side is kind of tedious.
Sometimes, there are long queue and Woodlands custom kind of immigration, due to Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal is also used by Indonesia-Singapore ferry services.



Since it is far from the town, the journey takes around the same time as the bump boat, more costly (far more) and possible of nuisance immigration, so why should someone takes a ferry?
The only reason for local like me to do so is: The ferry service is until late evening at 7pm and it got a fixed schedule.
So if you do not want to stay overnight at Pengerang and want to hang out until late evening (since the bump boat stops the service at around 3.30pm), then this can be your option.

http://www.sebanacove.com/ferry_service.htm



Sebana provide the best accommodation at Pengerang area. (In my personal opinion.)
Resort or hotel kind of room with facilities such as swimming pool, restaurant, sports ...
If you are willing to pay and do not intend to stay at a small RM 30 motel in Sungai Rengit, then you might want to check it out.

http://www.sebanacove.com/accommodation.htm



Not to forget, you can see many mangrove monkeys around the ferry areas.
Obviously somebody has been feeding them as they are not 'that' scared with human beings.
Please do not feed them, so that they won't grow to expect food and when they don't get it, they eventually attack people for food.
They have sources of natural food around, so don't worry about their diet.



Mangrove: source of food and breeding ground for many marine creatures such as fishes and crabs.
It is also the habitat for some mammals, such as monkey and reptiles, such as monitor lizard.