I have always loved the sea. I love to scuba dive, sail, jet ski, fish, or even bum around the beach. I have always wanted to live in a water chalet, built over the sea. Those I read about are in the Maldives, which are built on private self-contained islands, and hamburgers cost US$30 each. I know of someone who paid US$250 to scuba dive to see whale sharks there, and he saw one, about 30 metres away. Including the cost of air tickets and hotel accommodation, the price was just too prohibitive.
Then my wife chanced upon the Lexis Hibiscus at Port Dickson, which was having a promotion on its premium pool villas, built over the sea, each with a private swimming pool. Without hesitating, we booked it for two nights.
Credit: Jeffrey Yang
The villas were built along the shape of the hibiscus flower, the national flower of Malaysia. Electric buggies bring guests to and from the villas 24 hours a day. The villa was huge and beautiful. Imagine a rectangular unit, 5m wide and 16m long. As you walk in, the room is 7m long with two king-sized beds on one side, and a long table with a black screen throughout the length on the other side.
Credit: Jeffrey Yang
Advertisement
Beyond that, still at 5m wide, and 3m long is the shower and toilet on one side, and a wardrobe and baggage area on the other side. In the middle of the floor is a 1m by 1m glass floor panel, through which you can see the sea below.
Credit: Jeffrey Yang
Outside of this area is a private swimming pool, steam room, outdoor shower, and seating area to enjoy the sunrise and sunset. The private swimming pool was about 4m by 3m and 1.20m deep. I thought that this would be the one time I could swim 100 laps!
Credit: Jeffrey Yang
WOW!!
As I switched on the television, expecting to see a very wide screen the length of the bedroom, the television screen was only a small portion of this long black panel. It was the size of a 50-inch television set. I felt short-changed!
Credit: Jeffrey Yang
The Lexis Hibiscus compound
Exploring the grounds on shore, there is a free-form swimming pool with its longest side 50m long, which is in the shade in the morning until 11am. There is the Hibiscus Walk, which leads to the private beach with sea sports, all-terrain vehicles, archery, table tennis tables, beach volleyball, and even a section for children doing craft, etc. Very nice. Lots of activities. But wait, we only saw bougainvillea instead of hibiscus along the Hibiscus Walk. What happened??
Credit: Jeffrey Yang
There is the Umi Japanese restaurant, a bistro and bar on the 13th floor to catch the sunset, and the Roselle coffee house, which has the best buffet breakfast, because it has an ice cream counter.
Credit: Jeffrey Yang
The main building is illuminated with dancing lights in the evening, much like the casinos in Macau, and everywhere else is lit up to make evening walks a joy.
Credit: Jeffrey Yang
Port Dickson exploration
We signed up for a sunset cruise for MYR99 per person, and got a 20% senior citizen discount. It was a very nice schooner, but after half hour of unsuccessfully starting the engine, the trip was cancelled.
Credit: Jeffrey Yang
Disappointed, we headed further down the beach to watch the sunset, and had dinner at the warung there. Correct decision. The sunset was awesome, and a steamed fish was MYR18, four barbeque squids with roe and four prawns was MYR25, deep-fried chicken thigh was MYR5.
Credit: Jeffrey Yang
Food at two seafood restaurants were a bit disappointing. The mantis shrimp was cut into strips and deep fried. Crispy but only tasted of the batter. It could have been strips of chicken or pork or squid or plain batter. They did not sell whole mantis shrimp. It was served on a yam ring which was beautifully fried to a crisp. The razor clams were as good as I remembered from 30 years ago, but the crab was disappointing, with the shell breaking into tiny pieces and the meat sticking to the shell. Not fresh lah!
We visited old familiar places like the Blue Lagoon (Pantai Biru) and its lighthouse (Rumah Api), the town itself, Mr DIY, Econsave hypermart, and the old bungalow which we stayed in just after we were married 46 years ago.
Overall, it was a wonderful trip, staying in an overwater chalet which was on my bucket list, great company (wife), nostalgia visiting familiar places, and a very nice drive. When we reached home, I sayanged my car, thanked it for a safe, beautiful and reliable drive, and promised that I will renew its COE at the end of the year. Sayang, Sayang.
How to get there?
Some details.
KKKL and WTS used to have daily coach service to Port Dickson but they have been discontinued. Even if we got there, there is no Grab service to travel around. The only option is the hotel limousine service, which is pretty costly. So we decided to drive there, which was a bit daunting because the last time I drove there was some 30 years ago, when I was much younger, and had a much younger (newer) car. My present car is 19 years old, but my mechanic assured me that it can make the journey comfortably.
The GPS said the journey from the Johor customs to the resort takes three hours, but with two rest stops along the way, we took an extra hour. Two hours of driving on the North-South highway, and another hour on the small roads through Linggi. The small roads were well paved, beautiful, scenic with no traffic and a real joy to drive. We only slowed down for a minute as we drove through Linggi, and then we were out of the town.
Note: My trip was not sponsored.
