5th Anniversary: The Dusun, Negeri Sembilan

To celebrate our 5th anniversary this year, I told the boyfie that I will choose the location! This conversation happened like half a year ago? I wanted to getaway to somewhere not to far to travel yet being away from the city. After some research, I found the one that appealed to me the most. I actually came across this place earlier last year while planning for our Monthniversary but then the place was already fully booked about one and a half months before my travel date! So guys and girls, if you want to head to The Dusun, book early!

Buuutt hold your horses just yet. For room bookings 2 weeks and earlier requires patrons to have a minimum stay of 2 nights. Payment has to be made within 7 days in order for your room booking to be confirmed. You will need to fill up the booking form on their site and then they will send you an email to notify you on your booking details BUT it is not a confirmed booking until you make the payment within 7 days of the booking date. After 7 days, if payment has not been made, the booking will be void and they will release the room to other guests.  

If you have any questions, feel free to send them an inquiry email as they are quite responsive. I sent them an inquiry via email and they got back to me within 2 hours.

This is the kampung road leading towards The Dusun entrance

You will see the signboard on the left side which indicates that you are near!

It took approximately 1.5 to 2 hours to arrive at The Dusun. Although on their site it states that their location are untraceable via GPS but Waze managed to locate the destination. We also printed out the map which they provided in case. It is actually quite straight forward if you follow the map (and/or Waze). There are 2 entrances, the one we went to was the main entrance. Once you reach the gate entrance, you will need to call them to get them to open the gate for you. Mind you that the road from the entrance to The Dusun compound is very steep!

This is the parking area

We were greeted by the host whom brought us straight to our house and give us a quick tour of the house and was left alone. If you have anything you need, you can give the host a call. Their working hours are till 7pm but if you have any emergency you can call them and they'll try to attend to you as best as they can. 

This is the patio area where the kitchen is located and breakfast is served


Getting excited as we were about to approach our house for the 3 days!

So the tour of our house begins...
Now! :D

Entrance to our Berembun House, they have a small door there, but there's no lock and guests can still actually go in. Even so, don't worry, the guests and the workers there respect the Berembun house guests 'privacy. Please note that it is a No Smoking area as well. 

View from the outermost patio area of our house

The view looking outwards to the pool from the inner patio area

The infinity pool view from our patio

The patio area just beside the pool...

With a little potted herb garden which you are free to use

The dining table (which is quite small). You'll see what I mean in my later pictures of our meal

The kitchen area which comes complete with the kitchen utensils, kitchenware, basic seasoning (i.e., oil, pepper, spices) drinks (water dispenser, coffee and tea) and sugar and salt. The glassware containing the sugar and seasoning were kind of wet, probably due to the humidity on the hills. We didn't use the seasoning other than the black pepper cause we had already have the marinade for our food.

Some of the utensils like the BBQ skewers are quite worn and cause it is an open-air concept in forest you should check and wash the kitchenware and utensils before you use them because there are lizard poop at random places around the house like on the kitchen cooking counter, the utensils drying area, on the floor and at the edge of our bed.

You can see the common patio from our kitchen!

There are also basic first aid kit, insect repellent and plenty of candles

Next part is the interior of the house. The house does not have a key to lock the door. We're not sure if you can actually request for the key. At first we were kind of worried about it but then it just slipped off our mind after that.

Blue towels on the bed are for the pool

The toilet has the necessities - block soap, shampoo & bathing soap. It was kind of a turn off that the bathing soap was not refilled and was running low. The toilet is semi-open air. If you are tall enough you can look out to the common patio area and people there could probably see the head and silhouette of the person bathing. Haha. Another thing was that the water pressure in the toilet was very low. The water pressure in the kitchen was much stronger.

Love the natural sunlight that brightens up the room

See what I mean? :D

Oh, now we have a new travel buddy - Rufus The Naked Mole Rat!

Boyfie and little Rufus having a break on the bed

After a short break and tour of the house, we proceeded to unpack our food. The refrigerator had enough of space for all our food. Probably if you are cooking for a bigger group or for a few days then it might not fit all. 

Rufus taking a shot with the serene forest

Well after we're done with unpacking the food, we went for an exploration of the compound. Make sure that you put on mosquito repellent before you head out or else you will be swarmed by mosquitoes. 

The view from the other end of the pool. That's our house!

They even have a playground for kids to play. 

They have plants around the compound which they labelled the name, benefits and also some has suggestions and recipes.

Further down, there is the Perling House and also the other swimming pool which is closest to the Perling House. It is quite private as it is the furthest away from the other houses. You will need to walk down some stairs to get to this pool.

Along the way, we met their house dog - Maya (picture below). She's a very friendly dog and roams free around the compound. Oh yes, the Berembun House is dog friendly so guests can bring their furry friends along-with.

A short flight of stairs leading up to a garden with some plantation on the right

They are also building a new house! Yay for future patrons!

The owner of The Dusun stays on the same grounds as well and they have their own house. We then explored the grounds closer to the common patio area . The house you see on the right below is the Emas house. It is a steep flight of stairs going down and no railings so you'll have to be careful.

After the adventure around the area, we retreated back to our house and chilled by the pool. They have a board game - chess and checkers. Feel free to bring more of your own games to play.

After a couple of games, it was time to jump into the pool! Their pool is cold and refreshing which was just the pick-me-up from the warm afternoon weather.

Definitely a picturesque landscape

Lookie who came to visit. But no, she didn't jump into the pool with us. Haha.

I would say that this is a perfect spot for a tan

The staff there lit up the charcoal about 6pm. They will only help to light up the charcoal and then we will start the fire ourselves. Along-with the charcoal, they will bring the food as well (if you have placed an order). I ordered for us their BBQ set which includes 2 types of marinated meat, seafood OR tempe/vegetables Western OR local salad Roasted potatoes/pumpkin. You will get meat and seafood or if you are vegetarian you get things like tofu and tempe which can come with Western or local salad and potatoes and pumpkin. If you decided that you would like to add-on a a meal for the the second day of your stay but you didn't made a pre-order in their online reservation, you can still place an order, they will usually have stock but it is safer to pre-order.

RM160.00 per BBQ set for 2 pax

We brought our own Citronella candles & mosquito coils. I bought the Citronella candles from British India which was about RM6.50 per candle for the small candle. The staff told us to light up the mosquito repellent from 5pm onwards. We basically lit up the mosquito coil from morning till night. Trust me. you should bring your own mosquito coil, there wasn't any mosquitoes at all within our house.

Dinner's almost done!

Dinner's served!

We felt like the food wasn't enough so we BBQ-ed our mushrooms together with this meal. My favourite dish were the roasted potatoes & pumpkin. The pumpkin was very creamy, boyfie find that it was too creamy but I felt that it was yummeh! The salad was light and refreshing, nicely paired with the chicken kebabs. The fish was really fresh! There wasn't much seasoning for the fish except for the tomatoes stuffed in the fish. Guess that's what the cili padi and black soy sauce was meant to complement. FYI we felt like the table was small to fit all the dishes. On the second night, we took the small table from the swimming pool patio to place our dishes.

It would be good to start dinner at about 6 or 7pm because the house is very dark at night. The area around the house was still dim although we have turned on all the lights in the house. Actually it is a really romantic ambiance. Below are a few pictures to illustrate how the Berembun house looks like at night.

The kitchen at night

We placed the BBQ pit beside our door so that it gives some warmth to the chilly weather

Night time view of our house from the outside. They turn off the water "fountain" from the frog

Okay so, morning comes.. We survived the night!

It was a chilly night so even with the fan on low speed was good enough. We didn't get any mosquitoes BUT BUT BUT there was this one insect that was annoying the hell outta me!! It was attracted to the light in our room and it was just buzzing in our room the whole night and it was still there the next morning.

Awakened peacefully by the sounds of water from the frog statue hitting the swimming pool water and the bright sun peering it's way though the holes from the design of our house. We woke up to get ready for breakfast. Breakfast is between 8 - 10am and is being served at the common patio area. I read from other guests' experience that you can request for your breakfast to be delivered to your house as well. Breakfast comes with 1 main meal + 1 plate of fruit + fresh juice & coffee/tea. Breakfast for the first morning was wrap with scramble eggs and vegetables, jack fruit & watermelon juice. The wrap comes with homemade The Dusun sambal which tastes quite unique, a rather different taste compared to the normal sambal. Very spicy too!

You can see our house from the common patio

When we were almost done with breakfast, we spotted this precious one!

Meet Tiger!

The owners have 1 dog and 2 cats, which you will meet the other one later on. It was a very manja cat but it didn't like it when boyfie held it up as such. We were told that they have a Deer Park and if you would like to visit them, you can just call the host and she'll be able to arrange for the visit cause she'll need to unlock the gates for visitors to enter the pen.

Quite a narrow pathway to the Deer Park. Do be mindful of your steps.

The deer literally stared at us like we were food. Hahaha.

Pose for photo first on the way back from the Deer Park

The pathway that I am pointing to us to the dusun which means the orchard. Durian orchard to be exact. We walked up the path a bit and the we realized that we were under Durian trees which the durians could just drop on us anytime! So.. we decided that we should just skip that path.

The grounds for small weddings/events

A small food reflexology just outside the Sora house

There we met Whisky!

We forgot to put on mosquito repellant this time and oh boy we regretted it. Mosquitoes were attracted to us like bees to honey. There is daily house keeping services as well. The staff there will help to wash the dishes, clean the floors and clear the trash.

Lunch was served between 12.30 - 1pm. Similarly to the BBQ set, they will deliver it to your house. The Minangkabau set comes with rice, vegetable & "ikan masak lemak" directly translated to "fish cooked fat" something like curry but more milky and not spicy. I am generally not much of a fan of ikan masak lemak but yes the fish is fresh and the sauce is not to much milky that it makes you feel like you had a little too much to eat.

Minangkabau set RM80.00 for 2 pax

Me being a dessert freak, I just had to add on the dessert. It was an interesting combination of Gula Melaka Sago with slices of banana. It is a thick texture, tastes naturally sweet from the Gula Melaka and it tastes as though the banana was briefly cooked together with the Gula Melaka concoction. It does taste really good.

Dessert RM10.00 each

We had an unexpected visitor during the afternoon. Tiger came to bunk in our room for the whole afternoon. The weather got kinda warm in the afternoon about 2 - 3pm so we dozed off to a short slumber as well.

He certainly enjoyed it

Ahh.. the life of a cat...

Seriously, after we woke up, this little one was still sleeping even after we moved him from his original spot and poked him to wake him up. we had to carry him to stand on his 4 feet to get him to start walking.

I brought my book of word search along with the trip to fill up time there. You'll be surprise how therapeutic it can be.

OOTD swimsuit for second day!

Yeah while he cooks, I went on to take a swim. Oops.

First time handling a selfie stick during this trip. I do see what's the fun in it though.

We couldn't wait to try our own marinade. That's the best part ain't it? Preparing, cooking & tasting the fruits of your labour. Since we retreated into the forest, boyfie decided that the theme for the marinade would be Lemongrass. The marinade was prepared at home - blended the Lemongrass & ginger with some water, added soy sauce to taste and some chilli. The wet food were all cleaned and marinated the night before.

In case you would like to know what was on our menu. We had...

1. Lemongrass Chicken Chop
2. Pandan Lemongrass Chicken Wings
3. Lemongrass Giant Prawns
4. Capsicums
5. Sweet Corn
6. Scallops
7. Russet Potatoes
8. Tomato Salsa

Now that I have it listed down, dang, we ate alot!

Okay, I had the bestest idea to transform the big chair outside on the patio to our dining table and we'll just sit on the floor to eat. How romantic right. Already prepared everything already... But noooo, it had to rain! :( Thankfully, our food were all cooked just in time before the pour. We had to move all our food to the dining table but the wind was too strong and the rain water was splashing in. So we moved our food into our house instead and ended here...

It was really dark indoors from where we sat so we lit all our available candles

Close enough, still the same concept but indoors. Haha

I still enjoyed every moment of it! :)

The rain subsided slowly and the weather was even more chilly. After a hearty meal, we clean-ed up and chilled outside for a while and went to bed then after. Oh yes.. We had a "slumber party" with some party crashers on our last night.

Two of them!

We brought it the pillows that were actually placed in the bench outside our house as we didn't wanted it to get wet. So we adjusted them a little for these two darling to cuddle on. Well.. didn't lasted long before they wanted to go out at about 2 in the morning.

I do need to mention that when we had an unexpected visitor that night (othr than the two kitties). There was a bug that somehow landed underneath our pillows. A flying bug. we kinda  freaked cause we were literally seated next to the pillow when we lifted the pillow and the little creature freaked out too. We had to think fast and devise a plan to get it into the toilet (that was the nearest and fastest only way out that time). That fella was still in the toilet the next morning.. -.-

#datface Not impressed at all

The night was definitely much cooler than the night before due to the rain. What a wonderful slumber it was. I was looking forward for breakfast because I knew that it was going to be Nasi Lemak!

The Nasi Lemak comes in a traditional basket. It comes with chicken rendang and a plate of pear to wash to finish off the meal. Although it comes in somewhat a serving fit for 2 pax but you can request for a refill or extra.

With some time to kill, we just chilled in our house, I went for a swim (again). They have other activities to offer such as (but not limited to) Jungle Trekking to Waterfall & Bird Watch. Depending on the purpose of your stay. We were looking for a more chilled and laid-back retreat.

Before leaving, remember to pass the payment for the food which you ordered to either the Pak Cik who runs the kitchen or the host who will be in her office near to the kitchen. With a heavy heart, we said our goodbyes to the lovely house and the people there and headed back to the city.

Check them out!

The Dusun

Kampung Kolan Air,

Mukim Pantai 3437,

71770 Seremban,

Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia

Email: hello@thedusun.com.my