Monkey Go Places

Monday 5 May 2014

Pulau Rawa, Malaysia // 2014

Pulau Rawa is a very small island off the east coast of the state of Johor. The island has only one small stretch of white sandy beach that houses 2 resorts. 

We went to Alang's Rawa. It's a pretty resort with very basic facilities. 
No air-conditioning, no TV and no water heater. But it doesn't matter, because you don't want to spend time in the room when you have such awesome view at the beach.






Prior to the trip, we read some reviews and everyone said that the food was good. On Tripadvisor, there was even a reviewer who was very unhappy with the resort and given a 1 star rating, yet commented that the food was good. True enough, we enjoyed the food very much. It's served buffet-style for lunch and dinner.





The resort's theme colours are white and blue. Just like the sea and the sand. It's really very pretty and relaxing. The hammocks are from IKEA! And it's pretty comfortable. It's big enough I could wrap myself and covered my whole body in it. WH and I did't sleep in the room at all, both nights. We were at the beach.



Top right in picture above was our room. It is a very very basic room. There were just a row of beds, for the 5 of us, a small table, mirror and fans. The only thing not so cool about this place is probably the tap water/shower. It's salty. It's most probably just filtered sea water pumped up. And the water pressure is so so low, it's like I can only wash one small part of my body at a time. As if that's not bad enough, the water could go off anytime. As I was in the shower the first night there, I was all covered in shampoo, then... the tiny stream of water got even tinier and tinier and eventually dropped it's last drop. =______= My friends had to go get the resort guys to go pump up the water.

And of course, it's damn weird when it comes to brushing teeth. It's so weird that I didn't brush my teeth on the second night. Oops!




All equipments (snorkelling gear, life jacket, kayak) are free to use, but need to put a RM50 deposit. And the ambitious us decided to kayak round the island. Yes, around the island. So we went, after breakfast. 3 of us. 

Besides the small stretch of beach, the rest of the island are just rocky cliffs. Well, the island is not as small as we thought. And the sea was pretty rough on the other side of the island. There were quite a lot of jellyfish, small and big. It was purplish/pinkish in colour. Quite pretty.


Somewhere in the middle on the other side of the island, WH's kayak overturned >.<" Luckily he managed to get back on the kayak with H's help before any jellyfish stung him.


By the time we made it back to the beach, it felt like we were castaways lost in the sea for a week and finally found civilisation. I'd already used up all my energy. I felt like I had done 1 month worth of exercise and I need food!





The other cool thing about this place is of course the water slides. This is actually a jetty at the other resort. Very nice!



This place is not like the regular island holidays where your resort provides services where they take you out in a boat to the middle of the ocean for snorkelling. Here, there are already a lot of corals and fishes very near to the beach. 

WJ went snorkelling. After a while, she came back to where we were feeding the fishes with bread.


WJ "Ugh, the stupid fish bit me! And damn snorkeling mask. Dunno why water keep going in. Gimme your mask. I wanna go f*ck up the fish."

So WJ went, and after a while....she came back.


Us "So did you f*ck the fish already?"

WJ "No, I went there and there were a bunch of them this time."

LOL. 

Unfortunately, besides the beautiful live corals and fishes, there were actually a lot of dead corals by the shore. It kinda covered a quite big part of the beach that it hurts walking up to the beach.







In the morning, i took a walk to the other side of the beach to check out the other resort. Well, it's more premium (well, of course it is. can tell based on the room/package rates). 






There are 2 dogs at Alang's Rawa. Daisy, the beagle and Manja. Daisy looked like she's quite old already. She's just living a quiet and peaceful life on a beautiful beach. Such serenity. The kind of life I adore. I envy Daisy.






MonkeyTips: Alang's Rawa - the resort has very limited number of rooms. You'll need to book very early, as early as 2 months ahead if possible. And be very patient. The don't accept calls for inquiries and reservations, only via email, and it may take some time for them to reply. So it may take up to a few days to finalise your booking.






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