Guest User
December 18, 2023
Where to begin! What an incredible stay. We recommend reaching the island with Cataferry, premium cabin. Transfer time from Singapore to Mersing was 2.5 hours (contrary to the resort’s advice of 5 hours!) and 4.5 hours for the Mersing to Kuala Lumpur leg. We found our own private taxi services which were much cheaper than other quotes received and we’d happily pass on their contact details to any future travellers. The speedboat from Genting to the resort was a quick 5 minute journey. We were in a seaview room which whilst it was lovely, became unbearably hot at night even with the fan on, and this combined with animals (frogs/lizards) inside the room, didn’t make for great sleeping. The housekeeping team were helpful at removing the animals but it appeared that general wear and tear enabled their entry. A storm one night also had rainwater pouring into the room, which again was quickly investigated by the team the following day but wasn’t ideal at 3am! The permitted usage of a drone by other guests was pretty intrusive (and actually appears was in contravention of Malaysian law). The spa was unavailable as they don’t have a therapist, however we were able to obtain a massage at another resort. The sundowners were lovely but the night it was held in Tamarind due to bad weather was actually more enjoyable than some of the other extremely windy nights at the jetty bar - it would be good to have the option of sundowners at either? Per another review, we also noticed there is zero flexibility r.e food/drink adjustments, and minor requests (e.g no mushrooms) often fell on deaf ears (we think this was often due to a language barrier issue, especially at breakfast). Again more flexibility in general wouldn’t go amiss. Lastly, I came down with stomach issues for the second half of our stay which put a dampener on things but at least my partner was unaffected. Let us caveat all of the above with the following. The service was absolutely second to none, and the staff could not have done more for us. They truly make Japamala what it is and John and Edwin in particular are an absolute credit to the resort. We were always overjoyed to find out if John would be serving us each day, and remember our chats with him very fondly. Edwin took us on a snorkelling trip which was superb and helped us swim with sharks and turtles, and also took us on a sunset trek. Zahaim (apologies for any misspelling) in the Lobby was another friendly face. Having heard that we hadn’t seen monkeys yet, both John and Edwin separately came and found us on our last day to show us the monkeys. Similarly on our last day, John ensured our afternoon tea drinks order was ready and waiting for our arrival from snorkelling - it’s the little touches like this that make such a difference, and is what really separates Japamala from other resorts. The level of personalised service we got there was the best we’ve received anywhere in the world. The two restaurants were amazing and exceeded exp