Read Part 1 here.
After leaving the Ostrich Farm we made our way to the Desaru Fruit Farm. The Desaru Fruit Farm is about 160 acres (= 80 soccer fields, or 240 of SunHo’s house in LA).We had a guided tour by the farm employees, who took us on a 45-minute walk in the tourist designated areas to look at various tropical fruits. Here are the photos from the fruit farm:
(Click the pictures to enlarge)
You can see that there are some animals there. Yes! There’s a mini petting zoo at the end of the 45-minute trail. There is one (or more) crocodile, rabbits, mice and tortoises on platforms for you to touch, goats to feed, monkeys, birds and also a big pond with many koi fish. My niece and I really enjoyed ourselves at the mini zoo petting animals and feeding goats.
They also sell various fruit juices (unfortunately from their house brand cordial, not freshly squeezed) like rosella drink (sweet and slightly sour), noni juice (smells and tastes like shit even though my mum feels it is ok), calamansi drink, passion fruit drink and even jumbu /water apple cordial. You can buy the cordial itself at the gift shop. We were also made to sit through a talk on bees, honeys and Malaysian tongkat ali, which the presenter claims is not an aphrodisiac but a herbal plant. I think otherwise; somehow I have a grave mistrust of salespeople sheerly because they have a conflict of interest when it comes to giving advice and opinion. But that’s for another day.
After the fruit farm tour we went to a bizarre shopping place that has a supermarket, wet market, and random shops. The building had sparring airconditioning, and the place was crawling with Malaysian Malays. ‘Nuff said. So we sat down at Marrybrown, a Malaysian answer to KFC to wait for time to board the bus and go for dinner. Dinner was at a Chinese restaurant. The food was good but I didnt’ take any pictures. There was a soup, steamed fish, steam prawns, tofu, deep-fried squid-like things and vegetables. Simple Chinese fare but I think it’s not bad. After dinner was yet another highlight – firefly watching.
We had to board a boat to take us to the marshlands upriver.
It’s funny that there’s a variety of boats available, open top, bench seats, normal seats… lucky for us we got the one with a roof AND normal seats like a bus.
We all had to put on lifejackets, so there’s this field of orange at the jetty.
We went under a bridge on the way to the wetlands and we saw these under the bridge:
Our tour guide claims it’s swallow birds’ nest, the kind that is sold at an exhorbitant price for people to consume. My mum thinks otherwise; if it were the valuable sort why haven’t these been stolen? Good question. Nonetheless it looks gross, and if it is really that valuable birds’ nest, can you imagine what rubbish people are consuming? Yes, they wash it, but seriously, swallow spit?
As we left the river and ventured into the wetlands.We took the boat at about 7pm, and we had to wait till it was dark. It didn’t take long because there is no light where we went. It was total darkness except for sporadic idiots’ camera flashes and a small like at the front of the boat.
Emo shot
These are people’s houses and community. They live by the river.
On the day we went to Desaru (26th June), it happened to be the lunar eclipse so we caught a very good view of it. Alas my camera zoom is not enough, and the boat was moving so the picture is subpar:
You can see it’s not a case of a waning moon, but a full moon that’s eclipsed.
I tried taking pictures of the fireflies, but found it challenging because no flash is allowed (not like it’d help, don’t understand the photography idiots who insist on using flash). The following picture is one of the many I took. Look at the white specks – that’s not camera dush or dust on your monitor. This photo, obviously, does not do justice to what we saw.
The fireflies were a sight to behold. They clustered on trees and lit up the trees like Christmas lights. They flicker on and off, and sometimes they fly into our boat, mistaking camera lights as a mate. It was really fun to watch and for a city kid like me, it’s an eye-opener. While we slowly progress on the river which has no artificial lights whatsoever, we could see the stars very clearly. And the darkness that surrounded us made me feel small in this universe, which is somewhat unsettling. I think I’m more urbanite than I think I am.
Following the end of the firefly trip we took the coach back to Singapore. It was one whole day of fun. Nonetheless, day tours are tiring. Will I go on a day tour to Malaysia again? I might, my young bones can endure it, heh heh.
Guess what? Next week we’re going away again! This time we’re going on a 3D2N trip to Sunway Lagoon in KL, making use of the Youth Day long weekend. I’m not a fan of theme parks, but I suppose this might be fun. It’s a 5-park compound with an animal park. Can’t wait! So, next next week you get to see more Malaysia travel pictures!
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