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DRIVE TO RESORT
Driving down mostly straight coastal roads for the next hour, I had a feeling the resort would not be too nice. The area did not look appealing, and we had to swerve twice to avoid cows crossing the street and a huge iguana. That thing was so big, I thought it was a dinosaur. I did not see any hotels along the way. But when we reached the Tanjong Jara Resort, and I saw a carved, dark wood sign set in a stone wall, I thought, "Holy cow – that is very cool!".

TANJONG JARA RESORT
Tanjong Jara Resort is located on a 42-acre site on the east coast of peninsular Malaysia, facing the South China Sea. When we pulled up a traditionally dressed Malay man and woman greeted us (one even gonged the gong). We were handed tropical fruit drinks and cold towels. When I walked into the open-air lobby, I was impressed. It was so much nicer than I imagined. The resort’s design derives from the elegantly crafted wooden palaces of Malay sultans long ago. All the ceilings are high; there is lots of open space, and the grounds are immaculate. At night the wide sidewalks are well lit, so you don’t have to worry about stepping on any tropical creatures. Best of all, there is no malaria (huge sigh). In fact, that was my first question to the general manager, Adrian Chung (I had not taken any anti-malaria pills, because there was no time – this was a last-minute trip). He laughed and said I didn’t have to worry about malaria there, or almost anywhere else in peninsular Malaysia. That eased my concerns tremendously. But I still showered myself with DEET before going outside – just in case.

THE DESIGN
The men’s bathroom in the lobby is seriously one of -- if not the -- nicest bathrooms I have ever been in. As you can see, it’s nothing fancy – just well designed, nicely lit and immaculate. That goes for the rest of the resort as well. It opened in 1979, and underwent extensive refurbishment and restoration in the late nineties. The resort’s slogan, "Unmistakably Malay," is very accurate. Not only have they preserved Tanjong Jara's 17th-century traditional Malay architecture, but the food and 200-member staff also honor Malay culture. Part of the cultural is that everyone is exceedingly friendly and hospitable to visitors. They go out of their way to make sure guests’ stays are memorable. For example, the resort has free Wifi and computers in the lobby, but when a worker saw me schlepping my laptop back and forth every few hours to check my email, he asked if I wanted him to put Wifi in my room? Of course I did -- and 10 minutes later I was surfing the net bedside. Yeah, baby! With service like that, no wonder this 5-star resort is a member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World.

MY ROOM
The resort has 100 luxurious rooms in three different categories: Serambi (on the ground floor of a two-story building), Bumbung (above the Serambi rooms) and Anjung (10 single-story beach rooms, one of which I called home for three nights. My room had dark wood floors, a comfortable king-size bed, a desk, and a sofa bed against the wall. The bathroom was huge -- and that doesn’t even include the sunken outdoor bath set out back in a private garden. What impressed me most about the rooms (besides the firm water pressure) was that there were no bugs or loud geckos crawling around. At most tropical resorts you at least have ants, but not here. And every night the staff left a different kind of fresh tropical fruit in the room, with a note explaining what it was and all of its nutritional qualities. Every room has a TV with satellite (including ESPN and HBO), telephone, coffee/tea machine, mini-bar, oversized toiletries, and a hairdryer. All the rooms face the South China Sea, just 100 yards away. What I did not like about the rooms was that they lacked screens. You couldn’t leave your windows or doors open at night -- but they did have air conditioning.

FOOD
One of the best features of the resort is their food. OMG, do they serve incredible traditional Malay and Chinese cuisine! They also have American food like hamburgers and chicken fingers, but I don’t recommend them. You don’t go to Asia to eat food you can get back home. My favorite dishes were the chicken and beef satays (with to-die-for peanut sauce), roti (plain or egg and onion), rendang, spring rolls, and soups (the chilled mango soup was insane). Oh, man – writing about this makes me hungry! The resort has four restaurants; they can also set up a private barbecue on your balcony or the beach (for an extra charge), as they did for us one night. Food is not included in the rate, and you really have no other place to eat, so it’s best to purchase the dining package for 150 RM ($42) per person per day. Is that a great deal or what? The price includes all non-alcoholic drinks, of which they have a wide variety (including plenty of flavored ice teas). Dining at the resort is casual, so don’t worry about bringing fancy clothes.

FOOD STALLS
Speaking of food: Once a week during the high season (November to March) the resort puts on Kampong Sucimurni (which translates to "lifestyle experience"). It takes place on the lawn, and includes traditional games like congkak (a board game), batu seremban (a traditional children’s game played with five stones) and sepak takraw (like hacky-sack). There's also martial arts, music, and food stalls with local culinary delights like lemang (rice mixed with coconut milk), serunding (coconut fried with chilis), kopi kampong (coffee with condensed milk) and these dishes (sorry, I don’t know the local names): fried plantains, peanut pancakes and porridge with seafood. It’s all free, and takes place from 3:30 to 5 p.m. I sampled everything, so when dinner rolled around a few hours later I was not hungry. But how do you say no to foods you can’t get anywhere and taste so good?! There was even a not-so-friendly monkey plucking coconuts from the palm trees.

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