An Unexpected Find

In the course of her work, Mama gets to travel to uncharted territories too, sometimes. Well, in this case, it was uncharted as we don't usually stay at a hotel or resort when we visited her maternal village. Somehow, this time, we did. Thanks to Uncle Google, we found this hitherto unknown (to us) beach resort that was pleasantly nice and clean. It's called Dorani Bayu Beach Resort in an area called Sungai Besar (literal translation: Big River), in the district of Sabak Bernam, about half an hour's drive from Mama's village. We don't know the GPS coordinates but in Google Map, look for Sungai Dorani near Sungai Besar. (sungai means river in Malay)

Anyway, no website but they are listed under the Sabak Bernam District Council list of places to stay. The resort does belong to the council but managed by a private company.

We get to choose between sea view or village view chalets, there are also bungalows and apartments on offer. The resort offers a restaurant as well as a paintball arena. There's a fishing jetty nearby so you can guess what are the main dishes on offer at the restaurant. There was a makeshift market along the small village street leading to the resort, with some hawkers proudly displaying "free wifi zone". Oh yes, compared to Australia, Malaysia is generous when it comes to broadbands and wifi services. Many eateries, big or small, offer free wifi to their customers. In comparison, you get free wifi at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport but have to pay AUD$4 for an hour at the Sydney or Brisbane Airports.

Oh, but I digress. So, there we were, with a village view chalet as everything else was fully booked. The chalet was clean though Mama was not so happy with the torn pillowcases. And there was no in-house telephone, which we thought was funny! Yeah, there were three mobile phones, one iPad and one Galaxy Tab among us, and yet we still wanted a house phone as it was a long way to reception to complain about the pillowcases. Cheapskate, Mama!

I enjoyed going around on a shooting spree (of the camera kind, not with guns) and managed to capture the essence of this place, I hope. So, here they are.

Ours was the one in the middle. It was very airy as it has many windows. But you can turn on the air-conditioner instead if you don't fancy salty sea breeze.

The porch leading to the reception area. I don't fancy them cacti.

Sea view on the left, village view on the right.

Fisherman at work, apparently looking for clams and cockles... I love zooming on far away objects like this.

Resident cat inspecting the landscape. At first glance looks like me except for the short tail.

Another resident cat, a tortie, snoopervising the rock works.

Third resident cat was in charge of parking, I guess.

I wonder what he'll do if we don't pay up....scratch our car?

Activity at the fishing jetty. I heard you can hire boats and guides for fishing as well.

By the power of the zoom lens....come to Angie you juicy birdie!

This must be Dad's favourite photo as he looooves young coconut juice. This variety is called kelapa gading (kelapa = coconut, gading = ivory tusk). 

Next time we'll try paint-balling here, eh?

View from the sea view chalets...it was low tide so....hohummmm...

Whereas from the village view chalet, we could see this mangrove patch. There were some regeneration efforts going on as well....yeay!!!

Angelina's note: Dad said we must come again to capture the sunset scenery here. We couldn't do so this time around as we had to be at an iftar event that took place at dusk. It's a promise, right Dad? purrr....meow!