Casuarina Cafe

One major lesson I learned the hard way while camping by the beach during the strength of the monsoon season: your camp stove gas will run out quickly. The incessant fierce winds will blow the butane out of the canister and up into the air, leaving you with cold-brewed coffee and cold-soaked instant noodles for food. So I was pleasantly surprised to find a clean and comfortable cafe, Casuarina Cafe, along this lonely stretch of beach at the Tiger Base campsite, near Desaru on Johor's east coast. They have a full kitchen, plenty of gas and a large windbreak so getting a warm meal and a hot drink for breakfast wasn't a problem.

The meehoon goreng or fried vermicelli (RM8) was slightly spicy and had large chunks of chicken, while the egg was the right side of sunny side up. Hot coffee (RM3) after a cold and windy night dreaming about hot coffee? Sublime. The prices at Casuarina Cafe? Reasonable given the fact that it's in the middle of nowhere and getting to the beach requires some gnarly offroad driving or riding.

The friendly crew at Casuarina Cafe will also deliver if you stay at the adjoining Logok or Southern Fort campsites. You could also increase your daily step count by walking a few thousand steps along the wide expanse of sandy beach to get there.