Malaysia — Drive south from Desaru Beach, Bandar Penawar, 81900 Kota Tinggi, Johor, Malaysia
Exploring the coast east of Johor Bahru
May 2015
From Desaru Beach, I drove south and explored the peninsula east of Johor Bahru.
The map I found (see below) looked quite promising, but in reality, there was not much to see or do along the route.
When I visited in 2015, the region was undergoing a massive rebuild, and there were many areas under-construction. However, as with many projects in Malaysia, it was unclear where the people (or the jobs) would come from to support all the people living in the new houses. Was it a ‘build it, and they will come’ project?
One thing that intrigued me on the map was the ‘World War II British (Defence Bunker)’; however, when I got there, I could find no sign of the bunker apart from a small abandoned machine gun emplacement on the side of the road. No sign of any tourist attraction. There was a large Malaysian military base.
What I did find odd on the drive (besides the lack of obvious petrol stations) was the number of abandoned buildings I saw along one stretch of the road.
