All About Your Child

For me, among the 5 places I visited during my stay in Desaru, THIS IS THE PLACE I HAD THE MOST FUN!!!

Warning: I Had So Much Fun in The Ostrich Farm in Desaru, thus I have PLENTY To Talk About!!! *laugh* So you have been warned, its a Looooooooooong Post!

We were all ready for the Real Adventure when we woke up on 9th August 2012, our 2nd day in Desaru. We checked Google map and found out that Ostrich Farm was on the southern part of our resort. We thought, so long as we keep heading in that direction, it should bring us to the big birds. With that, we set off! Real Dare Devils! *eyes widen*

Once again, there were many moments during the drive we would ask ourselves, “We did not miss any ‘Ostrich Farm’ signs, did we?” *laugh*

Nope! We did not miss any indeed and after traveling at 90-100km/h for about 30mins, we finally saw ‘Ostrich Farm’ signs, they were too big to miss!

The moment we got out of the car, an EXTREMELY vocal lady started to signal us over and started to talk about the Ostrich Egg, before she suggested that we should buy admission tickets to enter the Ostrich Farm itself.

She called for the cashier and while waiting for the cashier to appear, the kids were totally mesmerized by the Cute ONE DAY OLD baby ostrich at the cashier counter.

In my view, Desaru is a great place to visit IF YOU DRIVE to these places of attractions on your own. Once again I want to show you the BIG difference in price between using the transport provided by the Lotus Desaru Beach Resort and when you drive yourself there.

Resort Transportation to Ostrich Farm : RM70/hr (Adult) and RM40/hr (Child)

Note, the charge is by ‘per hour‘. If your child is as crazy over the Ostriches as mine, then, one hour is definitely NOT enough!

So how much did we pay, since we drove there on our own?
Only RM15/hr (Adult) and RM10/hr (Child) and you can stay at the farm as long as you wish!

Can you see how MUCH you can SAVE??!!!

In short, now that I know the vast difference in price, I would NEVER go Desaru, unless we drive on our own.

In fact, we do not like to follow guided tour because if the tour guide says “C’mon we have to leave now.” You cannot say “No”.

When we go on a vacation, we like to take our own sweet time to fully enjoy every moment instead of having someone around to keep reminding us of the time, “We will meet here after 30mins.”, “We will spend only 15mins here.” etc…etc… *bleh* Not the kind of holiday experience for us for sure.

Of ‘cos without any doubt, there are also the pros for having a tour guide = you will never get lost! *wink* But we still prefer to go for Free and Easy type of holiday trips.

Alright, enough said, take a look at the whole Ostrich Farm in the video below :

This is one other bird not captured in the video above:

When we entered, there was already a tour group there feeding the Ostriches and kids were taking turns to ride on an Ostrich for RM30 with a professional photoshot. Keatkeat and Binbin were afraid that it might be too ticklish, so they were not interested to ride at all. What a waste!

If they had allowed adults to ride on them, I WOULD!!! *laugh*

The moment we stepped inside the farm, the uncle who works there started to gather the four of us with the other tourists and demonstrated how they would open an ostrich egg. They NEED AN ELECTRIC DRILL!!! *jaws dropped*

The explanation was very detailed and I loved it. The kids had a little issue understanding what was going on though, ‘cos the uncle only speaks in Mandarin.

After pouring out the egg, the nice uncle started to share the goodness of the placenta. He tore up the placenta into different pieces and passed them to some of us. Allan got a piece and I touched it too. Felt a little like those sheets of facial mask. Smooth, rubbery and a little slimy.

In fact, one of the tourists asked if it can be used as a facial mask and the uncle actually said It is Good For The Skin! So the answer was Yes! *jaws dropped*

Suddenly, another HUGE tour group came into the Ostrich farm together with another staff. Immediately, the nice uncle passed the ‘job‘ over to this other staff instead and moved away. We thought the demonstration was over and thus went over to buy a bunch of vegetables, ready to feed the ostriches.

Little did we know that the demonstration was not completed, the nice uncle merely asked the staff to pick up where he left off.

So with a bunch of vegetables in my hand, we went back to hear the 2nd half of the ‘show and tell’. This time, it was in English. The kids enjoyed it more because they can understand what was said.

It was only then that my children understood that ostrich eggs must be kept away from the rain, or else the eggs will not be able to hatch into baby ostriches. The numbers written on the ostrich eggs is a way of recording how many eggs had been laid ever since this ostrich farm started.

Ostriches in this farm lay 2 eggs every 4 days on the average. Those eggs which had been showered by the rain will be used as delicacies in their mini restaurant, right beside the cashier counter. The empty shells are then used to create table lamps.

I wanted to try their ostrich egg omelette for RM8, and the ostrich meat too, but our breakfast from the resort have not been digested yet; so we were too full to eat anything. What a waste! I would want to try, if I ever get a chance to go there again.

The jovial staff talked about how their ostrich essence (yes, just like chicken essence) must be taken in the morning or else you will start roaming around like a tiger at night. *laugh*

So does ostriches hide their heads underground when they are being attacked? NOPE, its a myth. They either run away or attack the attacker.

The ostrich’s skin is used to make bags. This ostrich farm do sell their ostriches away as well. Different prices for different ages. Anyone wants an ostrich for a pet? *wink*

My fingers were aching from clenching the bunch of vegetables after many minutes and decided to put the bunch behind me, so that I can give my full attention to the staff. But it was a WRONG MOVE!!!

Two ostriches approached me from behind almost immediately and wanted to eat my bunch of vegetables behind my butt. I was so afraid they would peck my butt! *laugh* Binbin who was sitting beside me sprung to his feet like a coiled spring and that made Keatkeat and I jumped out of our chairs too!

It was scary and hilarious at the same time and the other tourists started clicking on their cameras for a nice close up while the three of us sweat under our socks. *laugh*

I took the bunch and hand it over to the staff who sold the vegetables to me earlier, who also promised to return it to me without charging me for the second time again. *phew* And I went back to my seat.

In the beginning, I find them intimidating. But after feeding them over and over again, they are really friendly birds. We became so ‘fearless‘ that we flipped their feathers, touched the skin under their feathers, stroke them on their neck and stood really close to them for awesome photo shoot.

We, especially the kids, just did not have enough fun! We just kept buying the bunches of vegetables for RM2 each time a bunch has gone down the long necks of the ostriches, AT LEAST 5 times or more! SORRY we lost count! *laugh*

We just kept on feeding and feeding and feeding……

Some of you may ask, “Is it dangerous? Won’t the ostriches peck your hand during feeding?”

Well, this was Keatkeat’s experience…..

There were too many people feeding the FEW (4, I think) freely roaming ostriches and my boys, just like Allan and I, do not like crowds, so they held on to their bunches of leaves and went to feed those that were fenced up.

And when you decide to do that, you must be prepared to hold as close to the end of the stem as possible, because there will be more than ONE ostrich coming at you AT THE SAME TIME!

With 4 ostriches aiming at Keatkeat’s bunch of leaves and him not holding close the the end of the stem after being told several times already, the ostriches aimed wrongly and mistook his hand for food!

“OUCH!” Keatkeat yelled and squeezed his hands between his thighs.

The ostriches’ beaks are not blades, so no blood shed. The above incident was witnessed by Allan. According to Papa, Keatkeat’s facial expression was hilarious! Damn! I missed it!

So what was I doing? I was busy chasing smaller birds : A mother Hen and her chicks. They were SOOOOOOOO CUTE!!!

Because we had planned to go to two other places of interest in Desaru, and remember? we had no clear idea how to get there, so we need to give ourselves ample time to explore. Therefore, reluctantly we had to end the fun here earlier than we wished to.

Thus we said goodbye to the ostriches’ strong legs,