When we arrived we soon realised that all that there was at Desaru were three large (and very expensive) hotel resorts (yes it did look fabulous, no we didnt stay there!). So we got back in the taxi and back to Kota Tinggi (cost us double, had to pay each way... d'oh! The taxi driver seemed pleased though!).

Kota Tinggi is a mainly muslim town just north of Johor Bharu, it was quite quiet and we visited the local waterfalls and took a dip in the ice cold water.

This is the closed thing for the locals to having a public swimming pool.

We stayed a couple of nights before heading to Johor Bharu (the gateway to Singapore).

Johor Bharu is the largest city in the south of Perninsula Malaysia and is similar to Bangkok in many ways, it is extremely busy on and off the road, has lots of night markets and street sellers and was pretty grubby (and so was the hotel we stayed in, but it was also cheap!).