The Long Journey to Rompin

Sorry for the lack of updates. I was rather busy the past one week in office as well as at home. Before I knew it, I was already packing for another short trip with the office’s sports club to Serai di Lanjut Beach & Golf Resort, Rompin, Pahang.

I know a lot of you would go, “Huh??? Where the heck is that??”

I shared the same sentiment when I was told that this year our sports and social club would be organizing a trip to this resort.

A quick check on the internet did not show many blogs writing about this place. The already few blogs did not really give a clear picture of how this place is. Most were disheartened by the long journey; taking about 6-7 hours to reach by bus. I almost did not make it when I read some blogs on how tiring and sickly the journey would be as the bus would take the old trunk road to Rompin via Seremban Highway, cut through Senawang, Kuala Pilah then Batu Kikir and finally Rompin.

Day 1

The day started as early as 7 am, waiting at the office lobby for colleagues to arrive and register. We started the journey about 8.30 am, half an hour late from scheduled time – as usual people just cannot be punctual. We ought to have just 10 minutes cut off time. Those who were late ought to be left behind to learn their lessons!

The journey to Serai di Lanjut Golf & Beach Resort was not as torturous as I thought it would be. The moment the bus exited the highway to Senawang, we reached a winding road like snake. The guide said; this stretch is much worse than Cameron Highland’s. I was panicked when I recalled the not so pleasant journey up to Cameron Highlands two years ago on how I turned green and was lucky enough to be able to hold myself from puking my guts out.

Not wanting to risk vomiting over the pristine clean double deck bus, I opted to sleep it off and was glad that I somehow could fall asleep throughout the 20 minutes of gut wrenching stretch.

We made a brief stop at Astana Seri Menanti, Kuala Pilah. This palace was well known for not using nails to hold the building. The guide said that, this building was built to commemorate a story –the Bugis came to invade the small village. Seeing the fertile paddy grew on the vast land, the Bugis decided not to destroy the small village and decided to build a palace to stay in order to wait for the harvest of the paddy. The “waiting palace” was aptly named, Seri Menanti.

A quick check on the internet did not really mention this story. But it was quite a nice story – even if it’s being made up!

When we stopped at Batu Kikir for lunch, I had a slight headache. I decided to sit at the lower deck of the bus where the karaoke machine is. It was quite an agonizing moment but despite all the songs they sang whether off key or not; I was surprised I was able to take cat naps lying straight on my back with well laid cushion and a luggage bag as pillow. It was actually quite a comfortable way to travel!

After about 6 hours, we reached the resort and were greeted by the reception at and was given a drink made of serai (lemon grass) and pandan leaves. It was quite refreshing.

Once we were shown to our hotel room – it was quite decent but the floor was somehow sticky . We called up the housekeeping and in just a matter of five minutes, the workers came to our room and started to scrub the bathroom. We told them it was the floor of our room and not the bathroom which was dirty. But they cleaned the bathroom anyway and place a floor mat in the bathroom. Talk about swift action!

We then went to the beach front to play some telematch games. Being a highly passive person, I did not play any games but opted to take photos of my colleagues making a fool out of themselves! Haha!

As they were lining up to form groups, the super moron colleague’s son threw sand at me. I was mad not because he threw sand at me. I was fuming mad that he threw sand at my camera!!!

Somehow, I managed to remain composed despite showing an utterly disgusted face that the stupid woman didn’t know how to teach her son to behave. The funniest thing was, just after she shouted at the son for throwing sand at me, they still had the cheek to pose for my camera; showing peace sign. I cropped out both mother and son and took pics of the other three colleagues instead. Revenge is sweet!

The game ended and we were given free and easy time. I chose to walk about the beach and then went to my room to have a bath and a short nap before dinner.

At night, having dinner at the dilapidated restaurant overlooking the sea, we were entertained by the workers of some dances and games. It was indeed a remarkable feat, given that they were actually the office staff – the cleaners, the receptionists, the waiters, etc. This place is also clearly under staff like A Famosa’s! I guess it’s hard to retain workers in such a far away place.

I ended the night early, feeling tired from the long journey and went to bed, only to be greeted by this bug in the bathroom. I was lucky to have a brave room mate to shoo the bug away!

To be continued…