One of our best holidays ever! TJR is going to be etched in my and my wife's memory!
This was a mid age honeymoon trip for me and my wife. We left our 2 daughters (18 years and 10 years) behind for a 2 nights trip. We booked Anjung - Single Storey Seafront Room through booking.com. The 2 room nights inclusive of breakfast costed RM 3108.60 inclusive of taxes. Additionally, we spent RM 896.11 at the resort for spa session for both of us + 2 dinners. So, in total RM 4004.71! Definitely on the higher side for us. But, I was very clear that I will go for it because me and my wife hardly get time to go for trips on our own and we are so caught up with work and family, that we get no rest.
I do most of my hotel bookings on booking.com. But this time I felt cheated after booking because I found a much better deal on Luxury Escapes, a new travel app which gives luxury options. On this app, there is a package for RM 2877 for 3 nights + 1 dinner + 1 spa session!! Look at the difference! But, I could not avail the same because I had already booked for 2 nights on booking.com and Luxury Escapes did not have a 2 nights option. But, I still can't get over the huge difference. So, please check out prices on all sites to book for this resort.
Next is about the room which we booked. As per the map (attached) the exact name of the room we booked is as above. We thought there are only 2 units of those. But actually there are 10 units of the room category we stayed in. Initially we thought those are the best rooms. But on visiting the resort and checking on the map we found another category called Anjung Seafront - Single Storey Seafront Rooms (2 units numbered 201, 202). As per me these are better than the ones we stayed in because if you see in the map from these 2 units you get the best view of the sea. You are literally on top of the sea. Also when we did the Jara Hill Walk, we actually walked passed 201, 202 and we observed these are better sea view rooms!
Our room number was 601 and it was beautiful. We loved every part of the room. The bathroom area is huge and a couple of steps down separate it from the bedroom. You can see the sea but at a distance over the lawn in front of the room. But you cannot hear the waves in the night as it is too far for that. Yet we loved the room immensely. Few observations. The bathroom had a separate air con unit to keep it cool! What was missing from the bathroom is a bath tub. I wish they would have included a bath tub as there was enough space to have one in the bathroom area. The other thing to note is that our room had a nice balcony but not the biggest one. There are many other rooms which have bigger balconies. One big miss was that they could have put a ceiling fan in the balcony. Else it gets very hot to sit there most of the times. The good surprise in our room was 5 big candles in glass bowls which you can actually light up in the night. And then if you switch off the lights, the effect is magical. The air con is very effective. The bed is mmmmm, too good. You get superb sleep. The pillows and the quilt are very nice. The lighting is perfect. Now coming to the shower. We had one of the best showers in this room. With good hot water availability, you can mix with cold water just at the right temperature you want. And very simple traditional knob controls and a ceiling based shower unit which drops water in the most mesmerising flow. You will not feel like coming out of the shower. Other things. Enough of clean towels provided. The room has locker, slippers, umbrella and a lovely cane bag to carry your stuff to the beach. In fact we liked it so much that we bought one from the gift shop! Good coffee, tea options. And enough drinking water provided in the room through, alas, plastic bottles! We consumed over 15 X 500ml water bottles in our 2 nights stay. So imagine the amount of single use plastic generated. I would strongly urge and request the hotel management to please, please get rid of plastic water bottles and introduce reusable glass bottles. One big advantage our room had was that it was right next to the main pool (with kid’s pool; the other pool near the reception is only for adults). And also next to the spa village, the gym and Nelayan restaurant which serves western food. We needed to walk for 50 meters to reach the beach. But the distance to the beach from all rooms are pretty similar.
Now coming to the facilities and activities. I will not get into full details as many of the info you would get from other reviews. About our 50 minutes spa session which costed RM 300 each - nothing great! I was lucky to get a good female masseur, but my wife was not so lucky with hers. The spa facilities and each spa unit was fabulous and luxurious. But the overall experience not worth the money. But we still enjoyed because of the smiling service given. Special mention goes to the gym. Though we don’t use one, we noticed the gym is housed in a completely separate hut with glass all around. Really nice. The resort also has tennis courts which was right behind our room. The main pool has a kid’s pool also, whereas the other pool is only for adults. The non kid’s section of the main pool is uniformly deep (1.6 meters) which is kind of bugging because ideally they should have kept one side a little shallow. Even for good swimmers it becomes difficult to hang around in the middle of the pool without swimming. There is a bubble pool in the main pool too. There are many activities. Please see sample activity sheet and schedule. We just participated in one which is Jara Hill Walk which is very good. It is conducted at 10.30 am and 3.30 pm. We went for the morning one. Our session was conducted by a good looking guide, Sylvester. He is also very knowledgeable and passionate about conservation of flora and fauna. You actually trek up the hill but it is manageable for kids also. You learn about the local herbs, plants, trees and get to know about conservation of mangroves. Also about some of the resident animals which live there. It’s worth it, don’t miss it.
The food....hmmmm. Now, you will see many reviews which are critical about food. But we had a very good experience. I will tell you how. The simple thing is don’t go for packages which are inclusive of all meals. Take a package which is inclusive of breakfast only. Because they have limited choices for all meals, approximately 5-6 choices for each meal and the choices don’t change. So if you are having all meals then you might run out of choices. We just did breakfast and dinner. Both lunches we did in a Chinese mamak restaurant called C B Wee Restaurant (please see my separate review of this place) which is exactly a kilometre away from the resort. Thanks to TA, I learned about this place which is a delightful place and we enjoyed both lunches here. For 2 dinners which we had at the resort, for the first one we chose Nelayan (please see my separate review of this place) the western food restaurant. We had the Sirloin and the Sea Bass. Both were very good. A little on the expensive side. Costed us RM 220+ without alcohol (please note you get 50% happy hours before 8 pm). The 2nd dinner we had was in the Malay restaurant called Di Atas Sungai (please see my separate review of this place). Here we were entertained by the very famous chef Anne (you will find mention of her in many reviews). She after checking on our preferences, chose chicken fried rice, spicy dry udang (prawn). We also asked for a portion of kailan. For dessert we opted for ice cream and sticky rice. The latter we didn’t like at all because we actually don’t like any of the Malaysian desserts. This is what they would call a 2-course Malay dinner in many booking options. The food was average and not as enjoyed by us like the western dinner. The breakfast also had limited fixed choices and is served at your table at the Di Atas Sungai restaurant. Good thing is breakfast is till 11 am. For breakfast we had the Classic English Breakfast which is quite a lot in quantity. We also tried other choices like kuay teow and roti canai. We liked all the choices, but I can understand with the same choices repeated daily if you are staying for 3 breakfasts or more, you might run out of ideas. We didn’t have to order alcoholic drinks at the resort as we carried our own booze which we had before going for dinner. But we know for sure that you have alcoholic drinks available at Nelayan.
The resort itself is superb. Every bit of it is beautiful during the day and during the night with fabulous lighting comprising of electric lamps and in certain parts, old age kerosene lamps! The check in and check out is smooth. And then the service is just excellent. It is service with a smile and humbleness. Room service requires special mention. They just come in 5 minutes even if it is a small thing like a matchbox we asked for to light the candles. With all the units spread over quite a distance, kudos to all the staff for giving room service within 5 mts flat. Very interesting thing. When you arrive at the porch of the resort, the front entrance personal actually sounds a big gong! The resort paths, the layout and the flora are impeccable. Simply beautiful. The resort is located in a sparsely populated area of Dungun. It is a 4 hrs drive from KL with the last stretch through lovely roads which hardly have any people and cars around. The drive to the resort also adds to a good holiday. We were lucky as 2 days out of the 3 days we were there it rained. And 1 day was superbly sunny and hot but that same day at 4 pm, dark clouds formed over the sea and the resort and it started raining heavily. We took an impromptu decision to get wet in the rain and go to the beach. The combination of rain and getting into the sea was simply an awesome experience. Also during that time we noticed several fishes out in the sea near the surface. Both of us saw fishes jumping out of the water. Not clear what kind of fish they were. My wife actually exclaimed that she saw a dolphin! It was nature at its beautiful best. One morning we also tried to see the sunrise as per google timings. But it was cloudy and it seemed that there was no sunrise only. We woke up early for this but didn’t get to see a beautiful sunrise over the horizon.
Now coming to the last one which is the pudding on the cake. The beach. Whoa! It is so clean. Have never seen a cleaner beach. You don’t see a single piece of plastic! And most of the beach is private. The sea water is stunningly clean and superb to get into. Though there are many warning signs for jellyfish all over the resort, you have to get a feel of the lovely and clean sand and water. The view of the clean horizon with very few boats and the sound of waves and the clean sand and water were a beautiful combination. The resort also has lovely sets of tables and chairs and gazebos with cushion and pillows at the edge just before the beach. Just don’t have any more words for the beach at the resort. It is the best part of the resort.
Few other things. There is a mini mart outside the resort gate where you get most drinks, snacks, ice cream, etc. This is useful if you want something like we bought ice cream from there to have in the night at the resort. The resort also has a gift shop behind the reception which is very nice. We bought the cane bag given in every room from here. The resort has a turtle conservation project. You will get to see many turtles and fishes at the ponds next to the reception. You can feed them too. We were told about a possible opportunity to see a turtle nesting opportunity whereby they would give birth to babies. But in spite of good chances of it happening during our stay, it did not happen during those 2 nights. You have to check with the reception at 6 pm to learn about the possible birthing.
Our experience was magical here. For both nights post dinner we went to the beach and lay down on the beach chairs and listened to our playlist songs with the accompanying sound of the waves and looking up at a star gazed sky in mostly darkness (the beach is not lit up in the night). But it is absolutely safe as it is a private beach. But this was a very special moment for us. Then we enjoyed the sea water and the beach. We then loved our room - beautiful. We enjoyed the smiling service. We enjoyed the Jara Hill Walk. These are the things which made this stay a magical one to remember forever! We have promised to each other that we will definitely come back here, but this time with our kids! Thank you TJR for a lovely holiday!
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