Blabbering Dad

Earlier last month, me and my family had a family vacation to Peladang Agro Resort, Setiu, Terengganu. Attracted by its reputation as an agricultural resort, the first in Malaysia we choose the resort as our vacation spot.

Main Lobby

Camp site

I went there together with my family of 4, my parent in law, sister and brother in law together with their family. We booked 3 rooms with 2 of them are connecting room. Actually we only booked 2 rooms through Booking.com and add another room at the check in counter. The receptionist in-duty was so kind to give the third room same price as the other two. It was a great deal actually.

Receptionist

We arrived at the lobby and were astonished with the tranquility of the lobby and restaurant which are seems to be built on a man-made lake which also serve as the kayaking trek. Check in was a bit confusing because this is the first time we used Booking.com, we need to pay full amount at the resort because the credit card details inserted at Booking.com was only for booking confirmation. Luckily we have enough cash with us, credit card facility had been broken that day. So guys, if you are coming here, spare enough cash for room charges and MYR100 per night security deposit.

We arrived on 10.30 and was given a room for early check in without additional charges. The other 2 rooms are not ready to check in. We headed over to the room and put all our luggage there. There was no trolley present at the lobby area, so please keep your luggage to minimum weight as there are rooms that are located far away from the lobby.

Road to rooms and chalet

Setting our luggage and eating some foods that we had bring from our home, then we headed over to the pool which is the main attraction here. It was advertised as a mini water theme park. Unlucky, the mini theme park pool was closed and the water level was very low and seemed poorly maintained. They only open a child pool and adult pool which could only cater for 20-30 persons per session.

ordinary pool

adult pool

The pools are not only open to the resort guest but also open to public which could make the guest feel nonexclusive. The public only had to pay MYR2.00 per person to us the pool. It is about USD0.50.

Mini theme park

The resort is maintained by an NGO so you could expect their government servant level of services. No standby person on public holiday, only a trainee assigned to collect pool money. When asked on the closure of the mini theme park, he could only tell us that he is a trainee, no authoritative staff works that day, water pressure is too low. He was not authorized to operate the pump. What all could we do except to accept it and just use the ordinary pools.

Poor pool maintenance

Way poorer

Pump house

Our childrens were having so much fun at the pool, their main activity here is swimming and playing in the pool. Morning, afternoon, evening. There are many gazebos around the resort which we used one of them located in front of our room as our grilling station. We brought with us portable mini stove and use them for grilling.

Closed. At first I thought there was a police case seeing the famous do not cross yellow tape

At the night, nothing much could we do except for resting and sleeping. WIFI is not available at the resort and 3G reception is very low. So, don't dream of updating your blog here.

The next morning, which is a working day for Terengganu and Malaysia, we had the pools to our clan only. The mini theme park was also being open but was not properly cleaned. We had some kind of gross feeling soaking our feet in the pool.

The resort once had a very great name during its early days. Poor maintenance, poor management and poor financial made the resort very poor. They need to hand over the resort to private company to manage it. Surely, tourism is not Peladang expertise. The resort really need to be managed in the hand of an expert in tourism.

1 queen bed and 1 single bed

If you really want a very cheap budget agrotourism resort, head over to Peladang Agro Resort. Join the jungle trekking activity in the jungle behind the resort and have a taste of local fruits here.