Golden Beach Resort - our home away from home for 4 days :) The structure reminds me of a building that can only be found at surfing paradises, no?

We got a big room for this trip! Woots! Looks really classy, doesn't it?

There was even an added bonus: We got an entire building to ourselves! :DDD

My family stayed in the room on the right, 2nd level; Uncle Andrew & family took up the one next to ours; 姨姨 Penny & family stayed in the one below us, while Auntie Lily & family took temporary residence in the one at the bottom left-hand corner :) This is more than I asked for!

The front view of our villa :)

The first day was pretty boring, affecting what would have been a perfect holiday trip. As all of us were bonked out from the long journey to get there, we behaved like a bunch of recluse. None of us ventured out of our rooms, except for meals, which we settled in the resort's canteen (I refuse to call it a restaurant because it looks nothing like one). And it was raining the entire day too, so all hopes of checking out the beach were dashed.

The second day was loads better, especially since the rain decided to give us a break :) We finally got out to have fun at the beach! And it felt like I was back in Bintan all over again. The waves were incredibly gigantic, due to the monsoon wind, no doubt, and believe it or not, we spent the entire morning just soaking ourselves in the sea, letting the waves sweep us off our feet :P It would have been an enjoyable experience if it weren't for the saltiness of the water and the extreme hotness from the Sun which got me sunburnt, and nothing but sore eyes.

After washing up, we went onto to have lunch at Jade Seafood Restaurant! It took us ages to locate, because it was approximately half an hour away from our chalet, and we weren't familiar with the roads there either. But the search was certainly worth it, and I'm sure my uncles and aunties agree with me :)

Because it's been recommended by Channel U's Yummy King 3! (Ignore the bike, please.)

And it really lives up to its name and recommendation :) I ate my first lobster there and wow, it tasted heavenly. So heavenly that I felt as if I was floating! Or it could be the effect of the alcohol in the gravy, I don't know. Still, it was great, just like the herbal chicken, abalone slices and black pepper crab that we decided to order too :P

We really had our fill there xD And no pictures of the dishes before we tucked in, because we were all too busy eating to whip out our cameras!

Then off to the fruit farm in Desaru for a tour! It was a very long tour, and a very hot one I must add.

It was really boring at times, because I didn't even know the fruits the guide was explaining about more than half the time. Some ahlonglong fruit that tastes sour and fruits that grow from barks. Not forgetting stupid mozzies and the scorching sun.

But there were several fruits which were so unique, I actually spared some of the miserable memory space my camera card has (128MB only!) to capture some shots of them :)

Here's one which sadly resembles a caterpillar. Understand why it's not a well-known fruit now? I sure do.

Well surprising it may be to you, this is a banana :) The pink one la! Haha, but it can't be eaten; used mostly for decoration purposes. And it has a pretty name to complement its pretty looks - Minas Valintino :D

And tadaaah~! Bananas again! The guide said that as long as there's space for them, these bananas never stop growing downwards, so growing them is really an easy feat. They're of another inedible type though - a bit of a waste. They taste so horrible that they are not even fit for monkeys' consumption, lol. BUT! We were told that touching it will grant:

1. Men: Wealth & fortune
2. Women: Lots of children (百子千孙) O_o
3. Children: Intelligence

And so, being the kiasu guy that he is, my father not only touched it, he HUGGED it xD

After the long tour, we stopped for a rest near a pond, with - can you believe it - 1388 kois!

There were lots more, but I just couldn't fit all of them into a shot :D And since we kids didn't have anything to do and our parents still had a few spare cash on their hands, we decided to feed them!

Genevieve and me :) Haha. And obviously, I'm the taller one lmao. Oh, and my mum told me 1388 means "一生发~" in Hokkien, I think.

Then it was off to the tiny zoo!

And there, we saw a snake haha. The one and only, and my father was the only brave soul who dared to hold it:

We were told that most of the goats had been brought out to eat fresh grass but fortunately for us, there were a few young ones left because they were too small to travel a lot. And it must have been our day because there was a baby which was just borned the day before!

And it's so damn cute xD

And there was a monkey who couldn't stop swinging around the pole it was tied to... Pole-swinging?

There were two ostriches too! :D

This other one just stood and didn't turn to face us. I have this feeling it knows we ate ostrich meat for lunch... oopsy.

And before I boarded the van to get back to the entrance, I caught sight of a plant that's been planted by CHIJ Katong! So I embarked on search to look for one with the words Nanyang Girls' High on it, but there weren't any :(