Hello readers! So i just spend my last weekend on a 2D1N trip to Segamat Johor with Jeremy and my relatives.
Some throwback photos back when we were celebrating our 5 years anniversary with a simple dinner outside. A short video
We were supposed to set off at 6am, however the driver was late so we waited for 1.5hour and it was 9am by the time we cleared the customs.
Apparently we had a change of driver because the first driver is only in charge of bringing us inside and the other driver took over for this 2D1N trip.
The driver took us for breakfast first before we visit our first stop. Honestly, i had no idea where is this temple initially located at, until i came home and google this place. Hahaha. This was the first trip that i don't plan for any itinerary but simply follow but i think i would still prefer to be in control and plan the itinerary next time if i ever want to go somewhere out of Singapore. This temple is located in Yong Peng, and its called Tian Pao Kong chinese temple, the icon should be the giant Ji Gong. Took pretty decent pictures using my new phone!
After the praying session, as it was still early to check in at the minsu, so we went to another tourist attraction within Yong Peng, which is the fortune dragon. Entrance fee charges apply if you want to enter, we didn't pay for it, heard that it's something similar like Singapore Har Paw Villa so we only went to the opposite side to take photo of the fortune dragon.
I think it was a good chance for me to test my camera and my photo-taking skills to take a photo that i am happy with. Haha
Photo with my cousins and aunts.
The weather was pretty hot that day so the driver took us to the resting station whereby most of the buses will stop for toilet break for the passengers etc. However i think it doesn't help much because the station doesn't have strong air conditioning, and the items were too pricey for tourists. If you travel long enough, you would know not all items is suitable to buy especially at the resting station because the prices could have all been marked up.
As i was consolidating all the photos, and i saw this photo and thought how my cousin kids pretty summarised the feeling when we were at the resting station. Not much caption required. Hahaha
So after that, we went for our lunch, there were 14 of us including the kids that makes up to be 2 tables. For this trip, i feel like i been eating non-stop. hurhur.
After a full lunch, we were on our way to segamat johor area.
It was quite a pretty long ride, halfway i was already dozing off and it started raining heavily. We wanted to go to the hot spring first but it was closed so we ended up checking in to labis sunrise farm.
This will be our accommodation for 1 night.
My aunt coordinate the logistics before the person-in-charge allocated our room and guiding us how to use their room keys.
Their office was at level 2, which is also the same level of my room that Jeremy and I were staying for a night, the rest were either allocated to level 3 or level 1.
This was our room for one night! Haha cute graffiti drawings.
I went to check out my aunt room as they were family of 4, so this was how their room look like, each of them assigned a single bed. I tried to use the panaroma but it's abit distorted because they were in their room while i crashed in to take a photo of it. Haha
Then, i went over to my cousin room, super cute beautiful graffiti. They had a queen size bed and two single bed for their kids.
Then we went to check at my uncle and aunt rooms, their room was located at level 1, it looks the biggest compare to ours, they even have a sofa as the living room area and the room comes with high ceiling! The room is quite spacious too.
After settling down, it was time for our tea break!
After that, we began to explore around this farm stay.
In this farm stay, they had massage services, karaoke room at the back of the building. We were greeted by this greenery view at the back of the building too. My aunt/uncles went to the KTV room, i only went to check out the room before exploring things to do around this farm. But there is nothing much to do! Hahaha in the end i managed to find some games like mahjong, carrom, some old school games that i used to play. Jeremy and I was playing the carrom before my cousin joined us and Jeremy taught us how to play mahjong. But it's still pretty confusing to me, probably my lack of interest in mahjong that after awhile, we simply went back to our room to rest for dinner.
Luckily i brought my tablet. Haha
Some of the photos that my aunt took before the sky turns dark. Due to the rain, it was a windy and cold evening. Our dinner was steamboat so it was best to have in this rainy cold weather!
The owner has prepared all the ingredients at the side table as we help ourselves with the ingredient for our steamboat. Best feeling ever to have steamboat on a rainy day! Haha
It was the first time i joined in this gathering organised by my aunt, my parents didn't join because my mum leg was still recovering since her last op so she was not keen to join. For the dinner part, i thought it's pretty heartwarming because it's rare that we gathered outside of CNY period for an outing like this.
The bonding part was good but i thought there are areas of improvement to be better. If you do not like to explore, like to do nothing whole day but eat and eat. This is definitely a suitable itinerary for you. Haha but sadly, i am not the kind that can stands around doing nothing, i must do something or at least something that i enjoy.
My feedback to improve the overall stay experience of the farm stay.
If you were to ask me the possible improvements of this farm stay to entice guests to visit back again is to revamp and create a gaming room beside their existing ktv and massage service room.
This gaming room can be converted into something like their karaoke room, just that all sort of board games, pool table, suitable for all ages are consolidated in that room and visitors can have more family bonding time through playing all the different type of board games in the room. More activity to do. Plus point.
They can conduct some workshops, since their rooms are limited and they would have expect the confirmed number of pax checking in, they can allow their guest to select the kind of workshop that they would like to participate for a small fee for eg : an art workshop for participants that suits for all ages. Just using as an example.
During our stay, we can opt for steamboat or the dancing crab kind of seafood dinner. We choose steamboat because of the weather, but i thought it was a good idea to include DIY BBQ session, perhaps allowing us to bring our own food to have a bbq session sounds a pretty good idea to me since we have a bus to bring us around.
At night after dinner, movie screening can be displayed for their guests because they have a really large functional space.
Even though we manage to release the mini sky lanterns, but i thought they could put it more effort to make it a nicer version like the ones i release at Taiwan. If you don't check out their store, you probably wouldn't know they can allow you to release the sky lanterns.
As we were not the only guests at the farm, there were another group of ladies and they were making use of the space to do some workout exercise, really dancing and blasting the music so i thought it would probably be a good idea for them to introduce morning workout or workout exercises before dinner for guests who would like to participate.
I was not doing anything much in the farm, beside using my tablet to watch some shows. The farm stay do not have any wifi so it was a wise decision for us to bought the mobile data, otherwise i think i would really die out of boredom.
The farm do provide supper too. As my cousin was going for her massage so Jeremy and I helped to babysit her kids. I thought it was a good idea they brought the monopoly deal, which got me addicted and i bought one for myself after the trip. Hahaha, Jeremy and I was having fun with the kids when we were playing the monopoly deal. If i, as an adult feels bored at the farm, needless to say, kids would definitely feel the same sentiment, so i guess they were happy too when there are people playing with them some games together. Hahaha, the kids taught me how to play the monopoly deal. That was my first time playing it too. If i had know, i would have brought my rummyka and any other board games over to kill time.
Supper was satay so after my cousin was done with her massage and handing her kids back to her, we went for the satay before heading back to our room to rest. The next morning, i was lazing in the bed but there were knocks at our door to get us go down for breakfast, so i got Jeremy to go down and see what is the breakfast first to see if its worth me getting up for it. Hahahaha. We was not early so the food run out pretty fast but i was ok because we had been eating since the day before.
As there were another group that will be visiting the farm tour first, so we had to wait till 10am before the farm owner bring us inside their farm. Meanwhile, we were hanging around this area which i was suggesting previously can have the movie screening since they already got the large screen at the back.
There were 16 of us as we squeeze in this lorry and experience the bumpy ride inside their farm as the guy in the blue shirt introduce us the type of fruits they grow as the lorry move on
Some introduction of this spiky fruit that i didn't catch its name because i didn't listen. But i do remember it's good for preventive against cancer. Hahaha
Then there were this big plate of rose apple and what the chinese commonly known as the buah long long! One thing that i love during my stay in this farm is they provide us the buah long long juice and it's super good. It was the first time i had it and i like it. Haha
We are allowed to eat as much as we want, alternatively we can also purchase their ready packed rose apple.
Group photo!
After that, the lorry drive us back to the main lobby and i think the most funny thing that i heard Ken ask his mum was, 'so that's it?' no more fruits liao? 'i thought farm tour can see alot of different kind of fruits. Like that only uh?' Hahaha, i agree with him that it's pretty funny the farm tour only consist of two type of fruits in their farm even though they mentioned they have durians, they have watermelon etc.
After the tour, fruits has been prepared to serve us, if i had known hor, i think i would prefer to sit down and eat the fruits before getting prepared to check out. Haha i was in my sleeping attire, as i roam out to the farm and to other places.
After that, we went to play at some lake, the water was super cold.
Hahaha, see that is my attire for roaming outside the farm, to the lake and walking through the forest.
As we was walking back, my slipper was spoiled so the driver drop me to the nearby convenience store to get a new pair of slippers. I thought we were heading back but we were going to the hot spring area that we was supposedly to go the day before.
Initially i thought it was a hot spring so it was quite disappointing when we pay the entrance fee to come in this pool that is filled with hot water instead, they mentioned the water comes from the hot spring and somehow they just transfer it to this pool,well, i was even more shocked when people use it for shower because the water seems to be quite dirty. The water temp was more than 35 degree celsius and took me some time to put my leg inside. But not for long before i came out this pool and wait for them to be done.
After this, we were heading back to our accommodation, it was already late so my aunt told us to get a quick shower before we had to check out already. So after the check out, we went to this place that sells really good bak kut teh and Jeremy has drop pin this place so next time if we ever come back, we can try again! But this is almost like 2hour drive from the woodlands customs. It will be nearer if we are visiting Malacca next time.
I am not a fan of bak kut teh, so when initially we were being led into this shop, Jeremy first reaction was asking if i want to eat chicken rice, the shop next door because he know that i am not a fan of it and because of me, i don't think he got any chance of eating bak kut teh whenever we visit JB.
But not trying to be spoiled, i told him it's ok, my dislike level is not to the extent that i refused to eat, but more of if there is a choice, i will not choose to eat. I hate those peppery kind of taste so when this was the herbal one that they ordered, i was surprised this taste really good, the richness of the soup. super good!
If i don't remember wrongly, they called this the 花支汤. initially we had the bak kut teh soup first but if u order this and consume it and take the bak kut teh soup, the overall taste might be slightly different.
So after a good lunch, we were on our way, passing by yong peng and initially i wanted to go the tidbit store but it was not open after i check their facebook operating hours, so eventually we went to paradigm mall. Surprisingly it was very quiet on a weekend, not sure if its due to the muslim fasting. But i realised after multiple visit, there's nothing much to do at the mall. We were shopping for some stuffs before we went for our dinner - Seafood!
Opposite is Singapore already, this was the second time that i have come here for seafood though its different restaurant, but the food is equally nice and cheap!
A table full of foods, from fish, squids, crabs,chicken, lala, tofu, veggie for 2 tables! I remember its super cheap compared to if you eat in Singapore but can't remember the exact price already.
Overall, this trip consist of eating all the time. Food wise, i will rate it 9/10 throughout this whole trip, but when it comes to enjoyment and activity, i will give it a 4/10.
