Part 7 of our series of ten posts on our stay at Telunas Beach Resort. For the other posts, do check this link.
For guests, there is no restaurant to speak of on the island. Essentially, each accommodation package comes with three square meals a day. Guests are invited (‘summoned’?) to meal time at the canteen with a loud bamboo gong at 7:00 AM, 12:00 PM and 6:00 PM. In short, you eat what they give you and when they give you, unless you’re going to pack in your own SAF MREs, potato chips, or cup noodles into your luggage case (there’s no need to for the latter two by the way; the resort canteen sells them at prices just slightly higher than on mainland Singapore – not too bad).
If that sounds bad, it really isn’t. Communal dining is always a fun experience, and the guests there all behaved themselves. Perhaps that there was always excess food on the table meant that I didn’t see the atypical Singaporean behavior of making a straight line for whatever they want most and hoarding it for themselves. Breakfast was often western-styled with the odd Asian dish, and throughout the six days we stayed, we had toast, pancakes, cinnamon rolls, mee goreng, and done-on-the-spot omelets. Lunch and dinner routinely saw rice, a meat/fish dish (fried sesame prawns were out of this world), a vegetable dish (e.g. xiao bai cai, long beans with corn, vegetables in coconut milk) and another side (their onion rings and fish soup were super), supported by desserts (cakes, apple pies, banana crepes) and condiments (Matt scooped up the super hot belacan chili and ate it by the spoonful). The menu was rotated every 4 days or so during our stay.
Coffee and tea was available 24/7 and DIY. And for our class of accommodation, we had the option of having our choice of teas and coffee brought to our room each morning for us to sip on our balconies. We didn’t go for that option though, preferring for our beverages to be brought into the canteen for communal breakfast.
To be fair, those of us spoilt on luxurious buffet spreads at other Resorts might feel a little underwhelmed. Then again, for what we paid for the accommodation and that all meals were included (they’re also available at SGD12+/adult), I certainly had no complaints. Food was replenished quickly, and as a general rule, delectable. On the occasion when we returned late from the Jungle Waterfall Hike, food was already laid out on the table for us to dine.
My only complaint? There were two large water dispensers to keep us hydrated. I would have appreciated a couple of ice blocks dumped into the dispensers to keep the water cold! Our stay was at some of the warmest months of the year, and room temperature water meant slightly lukewarm-ish water. Ugh.=(
The next post – Part 8 – on Shrimping.=)
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