Travelling with Babies; Hard Rock Desaru 4D3N

First family trip overseas ever with 3 kids under 3 in tow; destination: Desaru. A proof of concept expedition. And like parenthood, it probably doesn’t make you happier but you’re still glad you did it. It certainly wasn’t restful

The Covid-19 pandemic has lasted way longer than I expected. Border restrictions are almost back to normal and my kids born in the Covid era are old enough to travel. Sort of.

For kids under 2, a 2:1 adult to child ratio is my bare minimum. This family trip is really an extended family trip, with 3 grandparents and a cousin to reinforce this pair of exhausted parents.

These babysitters aren’t cheap though, we booked 3 rooms at the Hard Rock. 2 rooms we booked early so we got it cheaper at about 250 sgd a night while 1 room was a last minute book which set us back >400 sgd per night. Total accomodation spend was just shy of 3000SGD

Our trip would span over 4 days, leaving on friday and coming back on monday, hopefully allowing us to avoid the worst of the weekend crowd.

Day 1

Setting off early to beat the crowds, we begin our journey at 7 am, which means waking 3 grumpy kids at 6.30 am. We got them changed quickly and stuffed them into the cars. Didi in my car, the twins and their mother in my dad’s. Breakfast would have to wait until we’ve crossed the Second Link.

This would be the kids’ longest drive yet. Fortunately we didn’t take too long at the checkpoints, about 45 minutes to cross both checkpoints. To make sure I wasn't kidnapping a random child, the ICA staff asked for my son's birthday. Kudos for checking. If you aren't a very involved dad, please remember to memorise your kid's particulars.

Didi pooped while waiting to cross the malaysian checkpoint, stinking up the car. Had a quick stop at the R & R stop just pass the checkpoint to change his diapers then headed to Ah Ma Teo Chew Kueh from exit 312. 

It's perfect for breakfast, just a short hop from the checkpoint. Air conditioned, clean, great for families with kids. The older folks loved their kuehs. I had the curry noodle, and tried some of the char kway tiao. Flavourful and reasonably priced, about 15 MYR for mains.

We reached before the twins and my parents. No time to take pictures once the twins arrived.

After breakfast was a mainly uneventful drive to Hard Rock Desaru. The drive was about 1.5 hours, and was generally pleasant. 

We arrived at Hard Rock at about noon. Rooms were not ready, which was expected because it's the school holidays. I planned to get the welcome drink, change the kids into swim wear and hang out by the pool until the rooms were ready. 

I came prepared, I was already wearing my swim shorts, because foresight. But the rest of the entourage, supposedly seasoned travellers, were not.

All not in ready-to-swim attire. all unprepared. Noobs

We got our welcome drinks and fed the kids some snacks and pondered how best to kill the next 3 hours.

Activities Plenary Committee

We decided on Desaru Fruit Farm.

It was unexpectedly crowded. Some company booked it for a corporate event. We wandered to their gift shop/ fruit store that doubled as their ticketing counter. They had options for walking tours for about 30-40 MYR, 20 min ATV bikes ranging about 150-250 MYR depending on the size and class of the bikes. And finally there was the option for a 1 hour Jeep tour, was about 580 MYR for 4 pax, but because there was more of us, though it was still the same 1 Jeep, it came up to about 750 MYR.

You get a fruit platter that is the same size no matter the number of people apparently. Because another family booked a Jeep tour just before us, we had to wait an hour.

Fruits and waiting... I wish I was back at the hotel... But the kids seemed to like it... Parental love...

My kids seem to be extremely afraid of new people ad experiences. Screaming as we forced them onto the Jeep. They would not have survived the ATV bike ride.

Waiting for our turn on the Jeep. One of us missed our nap time...

There are no good pictures of Gor Gor eating. Freshly picked whatever that is.

Not yet ripe rambutan. We did pick some ripe ones later on.

Part of the tour included a petting zoo, rabbits, peacocks, and goats.

One baby goat to another

Unfortunately didn't get to sample the durian. You get to eat the durian if you can find one on the ground apparently.

Kids executing the durian overhead drill.

Was it worth it? Well Desaru Fruit Farm is fun, great for kids, but I'm not sure it's 750 MYR of fun. I would have preferred the ATV rides if my kids could tolerate it.

By the time we were done it was about 4.30 pm. The kids have all missed their bed time, so I had the brilliant idea to take a nap from 5-7pm so we could get dinner than go for the firefly cruise. You know, since their sleep routine has already gone to shit, might as well capitalise on it.

We got our keys, and got to work showering the kids and putting them to sleep. We'd requested for cots, but they never arrived until later that night. Being too tired, toddler logic naturally dictated they fight the sleep. One particularly naughty boy didn't sleep till 6.30pm. 

But we're on a relaxing family trip, so we've got a tight schedule to keep. I did bloody tell them we were leaving at 7. The compassionate dad in me let them sleep till 7.30pm. 

We headed to Lotus Seafood Restaurant which is in the Lotus Resort. Reviews are deceiving, with  4.1 rating, it would be the worst meal I had in Desaru. Their fried rice is the kind of fried rice that would bring a smile to your face if your face was covered in camo, helmet on, in the jungle, but not when you’re paying for it on holiday. It wasn't like it was expensive, especially when you are used to Singapore tze char prices. It is convenient, but if you have the time and willing to drive into town, don't bother.

By the way Lotus Resort looks like a very family friendly resort. That night they had a bubble festival, which was just brilliant, they rented out bubble sets, big sticks with long strings to create huge bubbles. It was a huge hit with the families there. My freeloading kids were going around popping other people's bubbles.

Telling myself this is just a once off exception, we decided the kids would just have to sleep at 10, because the next part was a river cruise to see fireflies. 

The location is just right by the Desaru Fruit Farm. You drive in about 5mins, a winding, unlit trail, and you get to Restoran Terapung Seafood Bujang Firefly.

It's a seafood restaurant on stilts that doubles as a cruise terminal. When you arrive you just head in towards the restaurant and you will see the counter to buy tickets for the river cruise. There is a koi pond near the entrance where you can pay 1 MYR for a koi feeding experience. The tickets for the river cruise are 20 MYR for adults, 15 MYR for children, infants are free and comes with a free mosquito feeding experience.

Didn't know fireflies were so bright (not pictured)

Everyone is tired, everyone is powering through. We're gonna enjoy every minute of this holiday.

It's a short 20-30 min ride, thoroughly enjoyable, especially if you've been reading Gordon the Glowworm ad nauseam to your kids (real ones would know). No point taking pictures on the ride, so just sit back, relax and make sure your kids don't fall into the water.

Kids really enjoyed this. Highly recommend. They remembered this part of the trip, yay!

At the end of this exhaustingly fun day, the kids are ready to hit the sack. We can probably sleep in the next day to make up for the sleep debt today. 

Day 2

But it's a relaxing family trip, so we were all up by 7.30am

We headed down for the buffet breakfast by 8.15. Which was a good time because any later than that and the queue builds up. We enjoyed our breakfast leisurely while people watching those in the queue. Standard fare, not much to write about. In typical Gor Gor fashion, he eats till he pukes, happened at least 2 of the 3 breakfasts we would have.

He will puke that out.

Post breakfast, we headed to the Adventure Water Park with out free tickets. You will see a lot of people crowding the entrance, what you need to know is that there are two lines. One line to exchange the vouchers from the hotel for the actual tickets (wristbands), and one line to enter. Most people milling about are either waiting for someone to tell them what to do, or struggling to put on their wrist bands. So quickly send one person forward to get the tickets, come back, slap them all on, then shuffle your way forward.

For the trip, we brought a foldable wagon, super convenient to dump 3 kids in, the diaper bag and the sand toys. 

Once past the entrance you will find the wave pool and the sand play area on your right, water playgrounds and slides are further in on the left.

My probably on the spectrum oldest boy fixated on the sand and immediately attempts to crawl out the wagon to get to the sand with his toy excavators. For the next 2 hours he will be digging and filling holes endlessly, pausing only to destroy whatever sand castle structure you try to erect.

First thing we did besides letting our eldest out to go dig and fill holes like a modern day Sisyphus, was to chope the lawn chairs, dump our gear. We were there early enough so we had prime spots without having to book cabanas, which might not be a bad idea if you are there the whole day, they’ve got shade, day beds, a safe, a mini fridge, with drinks and lunch provided. 

Dig a hole fill a hole, the sand cycle. Much simpler than the kreb cycle

The wave pool is awesome, it’s huge and the waves come quite regularly and frequently, unlike the ones in Singapore where they are turned on for like 10 minutes every hour, miss it and you’re just floating around waiting. My daughter, usually timid, bravely waded into the pool. The lifeguards there are attentive, and quickly whistled and signalled me to put on a life jacket for her. 

My wife and I stand back and take it all in, our 3 beautiful kids having fun, enjoying themselves in the sun. I let out a blissful sigh, with my arm around my wife, and wonder how blessed a man can truly be. Then a quick glance at my watch, asked our parents to if they could watch the kids for “awhile” and we gleefully ran towards the rides. 

"wave, stop!"

But it didn't stop.

The park is designed like a crescent, so you have to walk really far in to get to the adult rides. A lovely variety, similar to what you would get at Downtown East’s Wild Wild Wet. We got to each ride just before the queue really started. The last ride we rode was one of those swinging pirate ships. As we strapped in, we realised we had already been gone an hour and a half. As I experienced that sinking feeling in your bladder at the apex of the swing, I wondered if it was the ride or just an overwhelming sense of guilt at having abandoned my children. It was both.

Old people enjoy water parks too

We regrouped with the rest of our family. The grandparents had been taking turns floating in the wave pool. We offered to taking over babysitting duties so they could go try the rides, but they declined. Nearly time for their afternoon nap, we cleaned up and led two of the kids off, dragging the last one kicking and screaming from his excavator fantasy.

Not sure what to eat around the area, we decided it was just easiest to take away some food from the Sessions restaurant and one of Hard Rocks cafe after we showered the kids. Some Asian fare for the old folks, and sandwiches for the kids. But the whole process too so long, that by the time I came back up, the kids had already had snacks and knackered, had already gone to sleep. Sessions’ food was so so, had the Nonya laksa, mee goreng and some grilled chicken. Sandwiches from the cafe was quite delicious, and prices reasonable, so was the coffee and iced chocolate.

Determined to have a good seafood dinner, we drove down to town when the kids woke. Headed to Superlobster, one of the super popular restaurants with Singaporeans. 

It’s a 30 minute drive from the Desaru coast, but it was well worth the drive. Food quality leagues above Lotus, and prices a lot cheaper than Singapore. 180 MYR/ kg for large mud crabs, 268 MYR for Australian lobsters, 168 MYR for local lobsters (But i find that these restaurants don’t want to sell them? Not sure if advanced reservation is required) and if i recall correctly about 110 MYR/kg for groupers. Ended up not having the lobster because I couldn’t really stomach the price of the Australian lobsters. We had hot plate tofu, steamed grouper HK style, crab stir-fried with garlic, prawns, an omelette, and some vegetable. Total was about 350MYR. Here in Singapore with crab prices exorbitant, I continue to regret not ordering more crab when I had the chance. 

No time to take pictures once the food arrived

If you would like to try out Super Lobster, and I highly recoomend you do, I would suggest making a reservation as it gets crowded really quickly. The walk in queue gets really long at around 6.30pm. Service is also a bit slow, so if your kids are already hangry, expect screaming.

Day 3

Pretty much a repeat of day 2. 

After breakfast, we had a little time before the water park was open. Determined to at least see the beach, I dragged everyone in the hot morning sun to walk that 10 minutes from Hard Rock, through Westin, to the beach. It was underwhelming. Not the white sands and turquoise waters I had hoped for. It was way too hot. We hastily took a group photo, just because, and then headed back.

Spent the morning at the water park again. Though this time, we quickly made a left turn once past the entrance, so the kids won’t be stuck at the sand play area again. There we found a slide area for toddlers (parents can accompany their kids down the slides), a water play area for toddlers, and a huge water play ground for the older kids. We mainly hung about the toddler area, kids too scared to approach the bigger playground. The little ones enjoyed it tremendously.

Got stuck, awkward shuffle down the slide

After awhile, Gor Gor wanted to go dig sand again, so we headed back to the wave pool for the remainder of play. 

For lunch I headed out to Woodfires Burger Desaru, a 10 minute drive from our hotel, where they did not in fact use wood fire for their burgers. Preordered via whatsapp, but it was still a long wait. Burgers were really flavourful, especially enjoyed their fried chicken burgers. Once again lunch took too long, by the time I returned, they had already munched on some snacks and fallen asleep. They only had some cold burger when they woke 2 hours later.

For dinner, we are once again having seafood. This time to their famous Jade Garden Seafood Corner. It was apparently featured on some Singapore programme years ago. It’s also right next to possibly the only hipster cafe in Desaru, Yard & Co. I didn’t get to try the cafe, but I also didn’t drive all the way there for coffee. No I drove all the way there for good cheap seafood.

The restaurant is by the sea

Why does she protect her head at every restaurant? I guess you should protect your head at all times but still...

Jade Garden’s table availability was good, no waiting even without a reservation at around 6.30pm. Seafood prices was the same as Super Lobster. Place had an al fresco area and an air conditioned area. 

The food is good, we had pretty much the same thing we had at Super Lobster. Fish might be marginally better. We also decided to splurge on a lobster. The family liked it, but I thought it was a bit rubbery. Family liked Jade Garden better for it's fish, aircon, and availability. I prefered Super Lobster because it had hotplate tofu. Jade Garden had their own signature tofu which was nice, but I just like hotplate tofu.

Day 4

Ah the blues are setting in now. Work the next day, a long drive home, but the holiday is not quite over.

We debated if we would let the kids play in the swimming pool, head to the water park again but eventually decided to make a detour to the Desaru Ostrich Farm. 

The tickets are 20 MYR for adults, 15 MYR for children (2-12). Probably because we had so many adults, the 老板娘 just waved our toddlers through. We arrived just in time for the opening of an ostrich egg. The whole experience there was actually really entertaining. The staff were engaging and energetic. 

You are however frequently reminded that everything is for profit. One loud staff would be announcing the price of an ostrich omelette (12MYR) and the price for an ostrich ride (20MYR).

The feed is cheap, at just 5 MYR. The ostriches are really big abit pushy, so I guess be firm and stand your ground, hold the feed out firmly and don't withdraw otherwise the ostriches will keep leaning towards you and it becomes a vicious cycle.

Ostriches are huge and very in your face.

There's a goat as well, Gor Gor's spirit animal. He gave most of his feed and time to the goat.

We had a late lunch at Restaurant Pekin Sutera, somewhere near Paradigm. Food slightly pricier than what we've had the last two days. Your typical chinese 酒楼 fare. Food quality is good and reasonable pricing with your Singapore price goggles.

We headed back to the second link, filled up the gas tank and took another 2 hours to get pass the checkpoints. Finally home at 7pm, and my wife and I could finally rest after the 4 day ordeal.

Final thoughts

Hard Rock Desaru is a convenient choice for a family get away. The interiors are nice. Their housekeeping/ concierge leaves much to be desired, though the staff sound helpful and are friendly. They smile, nod, acquiesce and then nothing happens, there's no follow through. Prices are reasonable. Love the fact that the water park is right next to it, and we spent most of our time there.

Travelling with my toddlers is an exhausting affair even with all the help we had. This is because you can’t really relax, when they are in fact your circus and your monkeys. Speaking of monkeys, I am reminded of the song 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed. You would think after listening to this song so many times, my toddlers would understand the dangers of jumping on the bed. They do not, and my daughter did in fact jump on the bed, fall off and bump her head. 

I would still want to travel with my kids, show them the world, will look forward to it, grumble when we're actually there, then look back fondly again...

Bonus pictures

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