“School Trip” – Malaysia Pulau Besar – D’Coconut Island Resort

During this year’s Easter we visited Malaysia again. This time we did not go that far as a couple weeks earlier when we went on Pehentian Island…Our destination: Pulau Besar, is an island on the south east malaysian coast, close to the Tioman Island, and it takes about 3 hours car and 1/2 hour boat drive. Our escapade was actually much like a “school trip”…with 16 interns from the Plaza travelling in a minibus I’m afraid we reallly looked like kids on a school excursion . The ”KIDS’ were interns from Volkswagen, BMW, Lufhansa, DaimlerChrysler and others.

Our weekend started early Friday morning, since this was a holiday here in Singapore (differently than in Europe where there is Easter Monday free..whereas Good Friday is still a working day). The mini-van that was supposed to pick us up was half an hour late, so we left the Plaza at quarter to 7. Crossing the border was very tiresome as always. There was a lot of traffic due to the holiday and it took us quite a while to cross it. The ride to Mersing Jetty was nothing special, all of us in this tiny mini-van packed like sardines in a can and Simon trying to talk to the Malaysian driver in mandarin … guess how funny that was? very good entertainment indeed !!!

The speed boat ride from Mersing Jetty to Pulau Besar was included in our package bought at the D’Coconut Island Resort and took about 30 minutes. The rooms at Coconut Island resort are all with AirCon, really nice and clean. The hotel has a nice pool with a waterfall and a lot of nice flowers smiling at you. Staff is friendly and most of them understand at least some English. The food which was also included in the package was OK, just OK…actually a slight dissapointment as we felt. There was a buffet 3 times a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner. The bar could not make up for the rather poor cuisine. It almost offered nothing except from some can beer, gin and rum. Looks like they haven’t had a lot of German&Polish guest previously – worldwide known demanding and experienced alcohol enthusiasts ….
The island doesn’t offer a lot of recreational options. There is a beach-volleyball field that we obviously intensivle used …. considering lack of alternatives Apart from that not much to write about. The 2 days we spent there were therefore extremely relaxing. No diving unfortunately, although the website tempts with diving trips descriptions. As it turned out, last diving school on the island closed over a year ago. And next closest diving spot is Tioman. As we found out, the corrals in this region are distroyed in big part, so if any diver has a chance to go further north the Malesyian coast, it is defenitely a good choice.

Besar is undoubtedly a beautiful, virgin, clean island, optimal for 2-3 days beach relaxing. But defenitely not a good choice for a longer holiday, especially for sports enthusiasts. Since the spot is relatively close to the mainland, the water is neither as clean, nor as transparent & wavy as on Perhentian Island.
However we made 2 interesting discoveries:

There are beautiful shells on the beach brought everyday with the tide. This makes every walk really exciting, you never know what you can find ! And the sand is sooo soft and white…your feet will be delighted
The reality show : ”Expedition Robinson” was shot on the island. So TV teams from different countries came for a couple weeks each, inclusive the Polish one my astonishment was enormous as one of the hotel guys spoke to me in my mother tounge…whereas most people there do not even know where Poland is a really sweet surprise I must say !

Here are some photos from the school trip to Pulau Besar [see all photos]