This blogspot is being created to compliment our main Tourism Melaka website at www.tourism-melaka.com.
We hope to write our comments and views on the development of the tourism sector in Melaka so that old cultural jewels can be retained and new ones generated to attract more visitors to our Melakan shores.
For us to continue our journey, we like to invite visitors to pen their comments and views so that we can create a sustainable and vibrant tourism sector in Melaka.
Enjoy.
TW Kang
On the beautiful island of Redang, located on the east side of the peninsula of Malaysia, you have quite a few resorts. The Taaras Beach Spa Resort is one of the few internationally known resorts, and it is part of the Berjaya Group hotel chain. At the resort everything is organized perfectly, which makes it a very luxurious 5-star resort and the most luxurious resort on the island. The Taaras lies within a beautiful bay, north of Redang.
At the complex you have several wooden houses with a classic interior en appearance. There are also a few terraced houses, which usually exist of 4 houses. The resort has its own diving school, were you can book diving trips. You can also rent snorkeling equipment. Between October and March you will have the monsoon going through this area and as a result you can (almost) never snorkel or dive due to bad weather. However, The Taaras is one of the few resorts on Redang where you can stay during the monsoon season. Since you are reliable on transport to get to the island, and since there won’t be going any boats to the island during the monsoon season, you are better off not going to the east side of Malaysia during this period.
If you want to stay at The Taaras you are best off booking prior to your trip online. Prices are going to be cheapest online, especially with special discounts. We do not recommend just going to the island. Redang is a popular destination under the wealthier locals, and also quite popular with people who live in Singapore. If you do not book in advance, you are taking the risk of the resort being completely booked.
Redang is a true diving- and snorkeling paradise. Snorkeling can be done at many places through out the island. You can also snorkel in front of the resort, but there won’t be a lot of coral. There are plenty of beautiful diving sports, and a lot of divers will go to Redang since the view under water is very clear. The island next to Redang, called Perhentian, is a lot better for snorkeling; where Redang has better diving locations. Redang is easily accessible through the city of Kuala Terengganu. Just north of this city you have the fishers town of Merang; and this is where the boats to Redang depart from. The trip to Redang takes about 40 minutes by boat. When you arrive you will be awaited by an employee of the resort; and with a large golf cart you will be taken to the resort which lies on the northern side of the island.
Would you like to spend a couple of days in a luxurious resort on a tropical island, you should definitely consider staying at The Taaras.
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Johor Bahru, where is that? You question in your head, located at the border of Singapore, it’s a slowly yet rapidly fast developing state in Malaysia which is home to many working in Singapore but can’t yet afford to live there as it’s an easy hop across the edge. Johor Bahru is the richest state in Malaysia, it’s where the biggest source for palm tree plantations come from, and also home to the richest sultan who currently owns 200 (give or take) vehicles in his classic car collections in between old school style cars and an old Mercedes Benz that the Nazi legend, Hitler used to own.
Johor Bahru is also home to the ever-popular sport in Malaysia, horse polo and we have our own Royal Selangor Polo team which Malaysians are extremely proud of and therefore carry out a weird fashion trend wearing polo shirts even if they look a bit tack with their collars up, although Ralph Lauren has specially designed polo t-shirts for the Malaysian polo team, if you follow the leader of the herd in Malaysia, you fit in.
Once arriving to Johor, even though it looks like there is not much to do, you might want to consider looking around a bit, as the main part of Johor Bahru city is a hustling and bustling with quite the nightlife taking place in it’s several bars and pubs. Another thing would be to take a visit to LEGOLAND, which has just been newly built and quite the attraction that draws children in like bees to honey.
If possible whilst no shooting is going on, you might get lucky and be able to take a tour of Pine Studios Malaysia in Johor, as it is a private and the biggest film studio here and contains six massive stages where directors from all over the world come to build-up their sets and shoot their international films.
Moving on, food-wise, Johor Bahru is one of the top states in Malaysia that have some of the best local delicacies South East Asia has to offer, due to the proximity to the border of Singapore, Johor has the best of everything in local Asian cuisine which brings us closer to more exciting things to explore whilst in Johor. As Johor is extremely close to the border of Singapore where it’s an easy hop across with a bus or taxi and Singapore is on a whole different level of a perfect urban city and a temporary escape from the average lifestyle into a more luxurious NY-style era.
If you don’t feel like going through the hassle of hopping across borders, don’t worry, Johor Bahru is rapidly developing into a an advanced urban city area and there are lots of malls to be entertained in, including quite a big community of expats working there. There’s also the Johor Premium Outlet where you can find items from popular international brands on cheap discounted rates. As well as all these little bits and pieces adding up to the entertainment in JB, there is much more to explore in JB as well quite a big landscape scenery if you’re into palm trees. If you drive down to Mersing, you’re able to take a boat to Alang’s Rawa, which is a little island of paradise as mentioned in a previous article and well worth checking out! Mersing itself is cute town in JB providing tourists with opportunity to check out how local fish villagers live and homemade foods made in cute little restaurants that will definitely be a huge tick to your liking. Do take the opportunity to check it out!
Amanda Chini was born in Kuala Lumpur, lived in Mexico for 12 years, is culturally diverse and a third-cultured kid who’s been to Greece, Spain, England, Ireland, LA, NY, San Antonio, Colorado, Mexico, Aruba, Tenerife, Singapore and plans to travel to many more! Amanda is fluent in both English and Spanish, and her interests include photography, reading, writing and good food.
The Sweet Moment dessert corner (N1.49135 E103.76201) is located in Lemon Tree Restaurant, Taman Melodies. The dessert corner is running by a young man – Mr Kevin Sio who provide many choices of dessert which suitable to all dessert lover in Johor Bahru.
I was fortunate enough being invited for the desserts sampling session on one of the evening, appreciated. You can view through the environment of the Lemon Tree restaurant from my previous post. The Sweet Moment corner is situated in their new expansion wing next door. The area is cozy and comfort to dine in. I like the retro ambience very much.
Before the series of desserts present on our table, we ordered a pizza to filled up the empty stomach before the desserts…
Apologies for forgot the name of the pizza, but it was cheesy, crunchy on the edge and delicious!
After the pizza, where everyone can’t wait to see and taste of the desserts…Kevin Sio presented the first dessert of the evening – Matcha Tiramisu.
An utterly unique and delicious blend of flavors :-
– a layer of cheese cream,
– with a matcha powder –
– lady finger which dipped into sweet sake
– and a thin layer of chocolate cake at the bottom.
Before we can finish enjoy the tiramisu, another attractive dessert presented on the table – Mousse Au Chocolate.
I said, this was a creative chocolate cake I ever taste! (even I’m not a dessert lover)
It had 4 different layer provided with 4 total different textures, you will be surprise in one of the unique layer which cannot described by words, you have to taste it yourself. The vanilla ice cream was just nice on the sugar level, not overly sweet.
The third – Chili Padi Sorbet. (bird eye chili)
A lemon base sorbet mixed with slight taste of chili padi spiciness. I bet you can’t imagine the taste even, the sorbet was not spicy at all, but with a humble chili padi flavor which will appear before the ice dissolve. Surprise!
You have a try it at least once, if you are a true dessert lover!
Forth – Chocolate cubes
This plate of dessert served with a chocolate brownie in cube shape, a scope of vanilla ice scream (with some almonds) and a teaspoon of vanilla.
Before we can grab the chocolate cube, the vanilla has to pour slowly on to it. The taste went well with both of it.
The enjoyment of having the dessert was fabulous!
Beside the desserts above, The Sweet Moment also has other type of desserts available in the restaurant. All are serve with the healthy sugar level to comply with today taste, suitable from children to the seniors customers.
The Lemon Tree Restaurant is a nice place for lunch and dinner, even for a quick bite! I like the comfort environment with the friendly staffs, not to forget the humble boss – Mr Jeffery Bong. Most important, and everyone concern about it…is the bottom line – reasonable prices (I rather called it ‘friendly prices’).
Specially thanks for Mr Kevin Sio (in black shirt) with his Art of Masterpiece! And appreciated for Mr Jeffery Bong (with checker T) who given this opportunity for us to enjoy the new series of dessert in Sweet Moment.
Malaysia’s much-awaited flower and garden festival is back from the 14th to 22nd June 2014 with mesmerising colours, spectacular gardens and a whole lot of fun for everyone.
Whether we’re declaring our love, sharing our sympathies, giving a token of thanks or even saying we’re sorry, flowers have never failed to express our emotions when we can’t. Which is why a visit to this year’s Floria Putrajaya, Malaysia’s annual international flower and garden festival, offers more than a regular stroll in the park.
A scene right out of Mary Poppins greeted us at the entrance of the event, held at the Promenade in Precinct 4, Putrajaya. A canopy of colourful umbrellas marked the start of a wheelchair- and stroller-friendly path (fun for all ages, yay!) that would lead us to over 400,000 species of flora in more than 80 outdoor garden displays. If you didn’t have your fill of flowers last Valentine’s, this will surely be enough to last all year.
Whether we’re declaring our love, sharing our sympathies, giving a token of thanks or even saying we’re sorry, flowers have never failed to express our emotions when we can’t. Which is why a visit to this year’s Floria Putrajaya, Malaysia’s annual international flower and garden festival, offers more than a regular stroll in the park.
A scene right out of Mary Poppins greeted us at the entrance of the event, held at the Promenade in Precinct 4, Putrajaya. A canopy of colourful umbrellas marked the start of a wheelchair- and stroller-friendly path (fun for all ages, yay!) that would lead us to over 400,000 species of flora in more than 80 outdoor garden displays. If you didn’t have your fill of flowers last Valentine’s, this will surely be enough to last all year.
A colourful welcome at the entrance
Creative graffiti boards along the entrance
Be king for a day
Entrance to the Royal Garden
The centrepiece of the event, the Royal Garden is designed with Malay Sultanate influences and incorporates features and elements from the Royal Palaces in Selangor. It was fun trying to spot the design influences from Istana Kayangan, Istana Alam Shah, Istana Darul Ehsan and Istana Jugra. Our attempt at feeling like royalty took a slight tumble when we ran into some friendly neighbourhood ducks in the garden. (See, everyone loves flowers.)
The Royal Garden
Replica of a Bugis ship and anchor, symbolic of Selangor’s conquest by the Buginese people
Our royal garden caretakers
A Celebration of Love
“A Lover’s Paradise” – Outdoor wedding garden concept by Tourism Malaysia
Outdoor weddings are all the rage these days. Get inspired by Tourism Malaysia’s outdoor wedding garden concept, or celebrate love at DBKL’s charming garden. And if you’re looking to propose, the heart-shaped arch at MPSP Pulau Pinang’s garden provides the perfect backdrop to seal your love!
Beautifully decorated pelamin
Celebrate love at DBKL’s garden
Stunning walkway by DBKL
Heart-shaped arches by MPSP Pulau Pinang
This 38 feet wide canopy structure was built with 15,000 used mineral water bottles
Eye-catching pot holders dressed in jeans
The Urban Garden by The Five Contractors Group
Recycled wooden pallets enjoying their second life
A showcase of young talent
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