Our Malaysia Trip - 1

We planned this trip sometime back but everything fell into place only after the approval of our Malaysia Visa.We booked one day tour with Desaru Fruit Farm through Groupon. The booking process was neat and very clear.The staffs of  Desaru took care of everything.We just took printout of the confirmation and they sent the vehicle details in SMS.

Wait to crossover to Malaysia :
We started from People's Park Center,Chinatown at 7:05 AM and reached the Singapore immigration around 7:30,there was a big queue of all kinds of vehicles. In spite of  wonderful traffic management and police , the whole process took 2 hrs and 15 minutes.Both Singapore and Malaysia immigration were fast and maintained orderliness.We came out of Malaysian Immigration and headed to a hotel for breakfast.We are supposed to eat in a chinese hotel but due to Chinese New Year it was closed and we were asked to eat in a nearby one. We ate Roti Prata ,it was good.

Desaru Fruit Farm:

After our breakfast we moved in top gear(in fact the vehicle speed was around 110 KMPH) to Desaru.First thing we noticed was the vastness of the land.We thought everything was big -the road, the trees and the land when compared to Singapore. We are used to Singapore's traffic and closeness of buildings but Senai-Desaru expressway is surrounded both sides by green fields.Whichever direction one turn he/she can see palm trees.The bridge on the Johor River(Sungai Johor Bridge) is beautiful and i learnt that it is the second longest bridge in Malaysia.

After almost one hour we reached Desaru Fruit Farm.I love farms thats the reason why i immediately agreed to this trip and i was not disappointed.This farm is a beautiful place to learn lot of things specially about fruits. We were taken inside the farm in a neatly covered truck.Our guide was a old lady but very lovable and knowledgeable . She explained as if she was explaining to children, she really made us love the place.Fruits like Dragon fruit,Passion fruit, Jack fruit and many others were in numbers and they gave us some to eat.

Dragon Fruit

Passion Fruit Trail

Passion Fruit

After the Passion fruit trail , there is a herbal garden where you can find many different herbs like Tulasi etc.I was really fascinated by the plant called "Sweet Leaf" as the name suggest these are replacement for sugar, our guide told us that she is using these leaves to sweeten tea. She gave us to taste it and it was really sweet.

Sweet leaf

Another plant which fascinated me was Coffee Plant, the guide explained us the process of Coffee bean processing,really interesting.

Coffee plant with beans..

In the middle of the farm there is artificial but beautiful lake with dummy animals and sculptures.There were lots of  Koi fishes .

There is a mini zoo with rabbits, 2 monkeys,same snakes(pythons),rats, Ostrich ,Goose,Ducks,turtles and goats.Wow.. my daughter was thrilled to see all these wonderful creatures. She specially liked rabbits and started playing with them and spent lots of time with them.

Rabbits are sold for 20 Ringgits thats almost half the price in Singapore.We started asking the guide about buying rabbits and taking it to Singapore but she told that we can not buy like that and take as they keep the animals for quarantine and its not worth to spend money.

Beautiful rabbits.... very playful ...

An Ostrich 

Goats and Sheep

After the zoo visit , we walked for sometimes ,ate pear fruit and gooseberry.We were given honey to taste ,they are breeding honey bees and harvesting honey too in the farm.Around 2 PM we had our buffet lunch. The buffet had
                            - Rice
                            - Fried Chicken
                            - Squid (Sotong)
                            -Fried Prawns
                            -Chicken Soup
                            -Tofu
and some more desserts. But the highlight of the lunch was definitely the fruits-all fresh and very tasty.All were locally grown and harvested.

   After the lunch we were supposed to go to Ostrich farm but due to Chinese New Year it was closed and our tour organizers told us that they will arrange a trip to Crocodile park.

Beautiful Entrance

The only thing which disappointed us was the climate, it was very very hot, nevertheless the trees and the guide made our day a memorable one.Overall a great place to spend time ..

 Bye bye Fruit Farm....