karenkaien: 2013

Let's start this post with a trailer/video of our trip to Rawa Island edited by JunChew! :D

Last week, I spent the semester break with my classmates (Vivian, Fahad, JunChew, Beh, Gary and Sean) in Rawa Island. Before we actually plan the trip, we were just randomly having a conversation to getaway which I don't think is gonna happen. But surprisingly we made it!

Rawa is a Sultan’s private island. Owned by the family of the Sultanate of Johor, Rawa is a 16 kilometers small island off the east coast of Peninsula Malaysia. I would say that's the perfect place to relax and bond with no crowd by the beach. But if you are looking for fancy facilities then I would suggest you to go other island. There's two resort you can chose to stay in Rawa Island. For high-end lodgings, check out Rawa Island Resort. Budget hunters should look up Alang's Rawa. We chose Alang's Rawa because it was much cheaper and the review of it was good.

The content of this post:

Our journey to Rawa Island
Review of the - Management
- Room service
- Food
The activity to do in Rawa Island
Photos :D

-Journey to Rawa Island-

This is the our estimated schedule to leave our house and route to pick up everyone. But on the day of our trip we stop by at Seremban KFC to take our breakfast so we delayed our departure time.

Some of us said it was quite suffering to sit in a car for five hours. But some of them fall asleep maybe due to our early schedule. We parked our car in the Mersing jetty for RM30 (two nights). Too bad the resort officer said our boat will depart at 1pm but it delayed until 2pm because we need to wait for another couple to join our boat. So we had our lunch at a cafe right in front of Mersing jetty. When the couple arrived, we took another 30minutes speedboat ride to Rawa Island. I read a lot of review that saying we will get drench on the speedboat and suggest us to sit on the left side. But we all didn't get drench getting there, maybe the handler had improve his handling skills? Haha.

I'm so regret that I didn't tied up my hair that day, the wind is so strong and messed up my hair. So I must face the other way to avoid the hair hitting on my face. Friendly reminder: Please tied up your hair :P
Throughout the ride, we could see different color of the sea. The water at Mersing jetty was more brownish and polluted, as we go further, the water is turning dark blue. And as we get nearer to Rawa Island, the water becoming more and more clean and clear!

This picture doesn't add any effect and it was took by my Iphone. As you can see the beach, the water is very clean and clear. The sand was super fine as it looks like the sand in the hourglass. It was hard to hold with your hands also.

-Review-

Honestly, I am not very satisfied with the management because I'm the one who deal and contact them for the booking inquiries. First, they do not accept phone booking and ask for phone inquiries. So I need to email them for more booking info and worst is that they reply very slow. Plus their website is outdated because the package and the booking price was different so it confuse us the price. From our research, the people spent around RM300-350 and we spent RM500+ for 3D2N. The package mention in their website says RM390+ for group room (min 6 pax). But after the dealer confirm my booking, she told me that there's no more group room and offer us another smaller room which the price was more expensive. We were quite upset so I send another email saying that we were students and couldn't afford to pay too much. Lastly, she offer us the smaller room but same price with the group room.

Sorry I forgot to take pictures of my room but the room number is B1 and B2 and here's the picture I got online.

That's exactly how our room looks like. Is clean and simple, but we would prefer the group room because is bigger and we don't need to be separated. At Rawa, everyone walks barefoot. No aircond or hot water, but rooms have fans. Water is saline water. Towels, toilet paper and soap are provided. Very good service by very friendly staff.

The package includes 2 breakfast, 2 lunch and 2 dinner. I would give 8 of out 10 marks for the food because the food is really nice. But it was too salty so we were wondering if they use seawater to cook everything. And also, it takes quite long to serve your meal.

This is where we have our meals.

First dinner
Main course - Creamy prawn
Side dishes - Green Vege and wedges
The prawn was very fresh, but if you are a voracious person who eat a lot, please don't order the prawn because the portion is small. But is fine for me though.

First breakfast
Main course- Scrambled egg with toast
Side dishes - Fruit and extra toast bread
Juice, coffee or tea.

Breakfast was simple but I must say their scrambled egg and butter is nice. I normally don't like milk product especially butter but I like their butter here :D

First lunch
Main course - Tropicana Fish
Side dishes - Steam white rice and mixed vege

The best choice I made! The fish is super nice and special. It cooked with pineapple and watermalon, it was the best choice when the weather is very hot. Their steam rice is also simply delicious. Another thing I like the most is the Mixed vege. Is so nice until I order it again the next day.

Second Dinner
Main course - ( Forgot what's the name)
Side dishes - bean sprouts, rosemary butter potatoes.

The sauce for the fish is really good. I would like to recommend you the rosemary butter potatoes for all the potatoes lover. Again, I don't like potatoes but I'm quite in love with their way of cooking potatoes :P

Second Breakfast
Pancakes and the same side dishes.
I'm actually a pancake lover but I'm not very satisfied with their pancake because it has too much of baking powder.

Second lunch ( Our last meal ) :(
I chose Rawa Special Fish as my main course. Mixed vege and steam white rice again.
I have to say this is the best dishes in Rawa Island. Rawa Speacial Fish is fantastic and that's a most recommended dish I found on other review and also their staff recommend.

-The things that you must do in Alang Rawa-
Well, I did mentioned just now that Rawa doesn't have fancy facilities, but these are the things you can do in Rawa Island.

1) Jump on the jetty or play the slides.

We went to the jetty and play the slides right after we settle down our luggage. Well, dear readers, if you want to play the higher slides, please make sure you can swim in deep sea. I'm going to tell you my silly experience on the first day. I'm quite good in every sports but not swimming, I can't swim in deep sea and I went to play the slides. Then I almost drown into the sea, I tried to call for help but my friend thought I'm just acting ( just so you know we are all acting students -.- ). Then suddenly Beh came down from the slides and hit my head. My whole body drowned deeply into the sea. For the few seconds I think I'm dying. So, for advise, please make sure you swim well before you play the slides. Another advise is don't jump during the low tide or else you might hurt your back. When the tide comes in, make sure the water reaches to about waist level and is perfect for that landing.

2) Climbing to the top of the hill.

There's a flight of stairs follow by some rocky path to the top of the hill with a full view of the island. We went up around 5.30pm because the workers said we can catch the sunset view on top of the hill. But too bad the day we went was too cloudy and we actually spent 2 hours up there chilling and taking pictures. The view is really nice and you can see the other side of island which is a wider ocean. We came down before it is too dark because we literally need to climb instead of just walking up and down. We stand on the mountain top and shout to hear our voice echo.

3) Snorkeling ( That's Gary and Fahad)

Another good thing about the package was included the activities fees. You don't need to pay extra for the equipment. All you need is to pay RM50 deposit for each equipment and is refundable. Well Alang's Rawa don't have much equipment as Rawa Island Resort but Rawa Island Resort charge for every activity.
This is the price for the activity with Rawa Islands Resort:
Snorkeling - Mask & Snorkel RM 5.00 per hour
Snorkeling - Fin RM 5.00 per hour
Kayak (Single) RM 22.00 per hour
Kayak (Double) RM 28.00 per hour
Hobie Cat RM 66.00 per hour
Windsurfing RM 33.00 per hour
Island hopping ( maximum 7 pax ) RM 300.00 per trip
Fishing trip ( 3 to 4 person ) RM 300.00 per trip
Fishing trip ( 5 to 10 person ) RM 500.00 per trip
Pool table RM 3.00 per game
Life Jacket RM 6.00 per day
Diving equipment ( full set ) RM 85.00 per dive
Tank refill RM 20.00 per tank

As I said if you are budget hunters then chose Alang's Rawa. We didn't paid extra money there except for the drinks. But there's this complain from my friends saying that the snorkeling equipment was not very good because the equipment was old and they don't have enough smaller size for the fins. Only me and Vivian got the S size and all the guys were wearing L size and they felt uncomfortable with it. Other than that, the equipment was just a little bit yellowish and looks dirty.

4) Kayak

Alang's Rawa also doesn't charge extra for renting kayak, you just need to pay RM50 and get it back after you return the kayak. After the drowning experience on the first day, I'm afraid of going to the deeper sea, so I went snorkeling for while and I start handling a kayak. It was easy to paddle the kayak and easy to control. One thing about handle kayak is tiring because it exercise your arm. But for greater efficiency, use not only your arms, but your torso and shoulders as well. Is a very good workout I can say!

5) Cheer at the bar at night!

Well the resort that we went don't have a nice bar, so the first night we went to Rawa Island Resort for drinking. The guys ordered 3shots and a bucket of beer. We chill at the jetty and the wind is so cold that we feel relax. All the drinks we can get in this island is more expensive from KL, we understand because it came with a boat transfer everyday and there was quite a high cost for them.

6) Try their fresh plug coconut!
(Left : Fahad, 1st role from the left : JunChew, SeanLee, GaryEe. 2nd role : Beh, Me, Vivian )

Coconut water is refreshment and delicious especially during the hot weather. Their coconut water is fresh plug by their worker and is RM5 each. It might not cold but is really replenishes your body better than water after staying under the hot sun. It was amazing that the worker climb very fast up to the coconut tree. We actually tried to climb after it but it was hard for us. So the worker stay on top of the coconut tree for quite a while to chose the nice coconut and make sure there's water in it.

Meet Daisy! ( She like to be buried with sand)

Of course there's more activity you can do in the beach. For us, we brought our own Frisbee and Rugby to run on the beach and you can also play Frisbee with Daisy! She's very friendly and keep us accompany for the whole day since the day we arrived. We didn't bring any beach pail and shovel set so we can't build sand castle because we thought they will provide us. So if you are bringing kids along remember to bring beach pail and shovel set yourself.
Baby shark! The third day, me and Fahad woke up very early around 7am and we saw a baby shark swimming near the beach. I read some of the review said that we can manage to see baby shark in the morning if we are lucky. :P

Well I guess that's what I want to say. Let's end this post with some of the pictures that we took in Rawa Island !