Malaysia is it’s own unique country, and what we’ve seen so far we like. Our first stop after Indonesia was Puteri Harbour, Malaysia. A bay carved out of the mangrove jungle just across the narrow channel from Singapore, Puteri Harbour offers a marina, restaurants, and some good provisioning nearby.
Checking In to Malaysia
Checking in was so easy because of the proximity to the ferry terminal, which brings visitors from Batam, Indonesia daily. Once we docked, we sat on our boat until the Pine Tree marina team retrieved us in their golf cart for the short drive to the ferry terminal. At the terminal we had a very brief meeting with a government agent representing customs and immigration. We gave him our paperwork and he briskly stamped us into the country. Welcome to Malaysia in a few minutes. One of the easiest check-ins to a country ever!
About Puteri Harbour
We had a few options for marinas in Malaysia, and Brian chose Puteri Harbour, located in Johor, the southernmost state of peninsular Malaysia. The project was begun in the early 2000s, so it is a relatively new marina and neighborhood. There are a lot of apartment buildings, but it didn’t seem like many people lived there. Traffic on the streets is very light, but we could always find a Grab (Asian Uber) to take us to shops or train stations.
Puteri Harbour has a ferry to Batam, Indonesia and a not very frequent or efficient bus to the land border of Singapore. The “town” itself is a few areas of restaurants and lots of apartment buildings and a few hotels. We got the impression that many of the apartments are second homes or investments.
We took advantage of the many empty accommodations and stayed in air conditioning off the boat while we were there.
Eating and Drinking in Puteri Harbour
We found a surprising amount of good restaurants around the neighborhood. Once we started exploring more of Malaysia, it’s got less surprising. This country is a foodie paradise, with an influence of Chinese, Indian, Thai, and traditional Malay, plus Western options. And we thought Singapore was delicious!
One of our favorite spots was Lily’s Mini Mart, a liquor store with streetside seating and a friendly ex-pat clientele. We met Canadians, Australians, Singeaporeans, and other friendly folk over Tiger beers and wine at Lily’s.
There’s also an excellent Mediterranean spot with delicious hummus and grilled meat plates just across the main road. We ate in and took out from Restoran Arab Zaatar a few times while we stayed in Puteri Harbour.
Close to the marina, from which we could see our boat, we enjoyed the beer specials and food at Rockafellas, apparently a franchise around Malaysia. The servers, all Indian, were always nice and friendly and the food was hearty and good.
Finally, the street up by the cat hotel has a host of different restaurants which were very good. We liked the brunch place and feasted on delicious Korean food. There may not be much to do, but there’s a lot to eat in Puteri Harbour.
Jumping Off Point for Other Trips
Other than restaurants and the marina, Puteri Harbour is pretty dead. The closest “cultural” attraction is Legoland, which we never visited. Still, it’s a fairly good base location for side trips, and we took a few and left Go in the marina. First, we spent a few nights in Singapore before a longer trip to North America. It takes several hours to get from Puteri to Singapore, including a few different buses and customs on both ends, so it makes more sense to stay overnight unless you want a very long day.
After that long trip, which included a layover in Hong Kong, we explored more of Malaysia with a bus and train trip to Malacca and Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia covers a lot of ground, and some places are not easy to access on our boat.
Safe Place to Leave Domino
The good news was Domino was well looked after in Puteri Harbour while we were gone. The nearby vet has a cat hotel where Domino lived in air conditioned comfort. We even got to watch her on video, which was a little depressing because she didn’t have as much space as at home. And we couldn’t pet her.
Dangerous Monkeys
The one negative about Puteri Harbour is our first scary encounter with a monkey. We often saw troops of macaques roaming around by the restaurants on shore near the marina, but didn’t realize they’d come to our boat. Considering the marina is surrounded by water with one guarded entrance, we have no idea how the macaque made his way onto our dock, but he did.
The last week we were in the marina, a monkey came to the dock on more than one occasion, terrorizing us! Dockhands and boat-owners had to fight him off with water hoses and boat hooks.
The monkey was not afraid, bared his teeth and claws, and jumped all over our boats. That was our only negative experience there, and I am glad no one got hurt. Thanks for reading. Share in the comments any tips you have for Malaysia. We are loving it!
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