Yesterday we had a Bloggers Gathering for Buka Puasa at Holiday Villa Subang. We decided to have it here because the food variety is superb, I was told that there are about 270 different dishes that is made available for their Ramadhan Buffet. Frankly I was excited to meet these bloggers, that I did not have a change to try all the dishes. The buffet dinner was set at Palm Terrace Coffeehouse which is open 24-hours. Barbecue, oyster, mussel, prawns, crabs, chicken rendang, steam item, satay, roti john, skewed lamb, malay kuihs, kebabs, cookies, cakes, puddings, jelly, tepanyaki, fresh bread, curry noodles, noodle soup, ice-kacang, Len Chee Kang (Sweet Lotus Seed Soup), and the list goes on.

The reason for the gathering is of course to get to know some Travel Bloggers, who in the future, Holiday Villa would like to engage with to help promote all the promotions and competitions that we have in store. We were placed in a private room and that gave us alot of private chit chatting time with each other sharing tips and skills on Social Media. I’m currently quite active with Facebook and Twitter (@thristhan), but still finding it  a challenge with FourSquare, only because of my old skool mobile phone (!#$#@!$ someone give me an iPhone).

I’ll introduce everyone with the photos below. Enjoy.

At the Hotel Lobby

Our Private Room

Oyster, Prawns and Mussel

Barbecue pit, with a Skewed goat

Malaysia Local Dishes

Curry section and vegetables

Cakes and Desserts

Oyster

Ulam, local raw vegetables

Guest helping himself to some mixed rice

Fresh Bread

Kebab etc

Local Malay style Kuihs

Steam stuffs

Tepanyaki

Check out the size of that Wok

Ice-Kacang Area

Anna Bella helping herself to some delicious food

One of the many eating area

Crowd at the Ramadhan Buffer

Gorgeous Anna and Cheeky Feeq

The Charlies Angel - Edelina, Lillian and Rebecca

The Macho looking guys - Kenneth, Tian Chad, Marcus and Feeq (right to left)

I felt left out here, everyone was FourSquaring - David with the wide smile.

The Gang, Holiday Villa Team and Bloggers

Special thanks to Tian Chad, who I’ve met for the second time now and who also gathered most of the bloggers to join us at Holiday Villa. Also Anna Bella for being such a darling (you’re too quiet la). Special thanks to Malaysia Asia and BeautifulNara for joining. Last but not least, Rebecca, Marcus, Nicole and the Little Monkey. Be good guys

Eventhough I was born in the city of Kuala Lumpur, I lived most of my 28 years in the state of Selangor Darul Ehsan. During my younger years, we rented a house at Subang Jaya because my Dad was working as an Air Traffic Controller at Subang Airport, namely Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport. Years later when I was 3 years old, we moved to Klang, Royal Capital of Selangor.

Thristhan.com features interesting places that you can visit in Selangor. To start with, I would like to talk about I-City Shah Alam (Shah Alam is also the state capital of Selangor). I-City Shah Alam is a retail and commercial hub with advanced information-communication infrastructure in Section 8 Shah Alam, and to introduce this place, it has installed millions of LED lights to brighten up the night.

I-City Shah Alam

I-City Shah Alam

Bukit Cahaya Sri Alam (Bukit Cahaya Agricultural Park), which is also in Shah Alam is a place to promote the agricultural and forestation advancement in Malaysia. It hosts all sort of activities which consist of jungle tracking, camping, cactus farm, animal farm with parrots, deers, peacocks, horses, buffalos and many more. The highlight of Bukit Cahaya Sri Alam is the Four Season House where you get to experience Winter, Summer, Spring and Autumn here in Malaysia.

Bukit Cahaya Sri Alam

Tropical Fruit Garden

Animal Farm

Four Season House

Cactus Garden

Nearer Meru, which is about 15 minutes from Klang is a Shooting range called Klang Shooting Club. You have to sign up as a member in order to be able to access this area due to security issues. Experience using a Handgun is marvellous.

Klang Shooting Club

Klang Shooting Club

Malaysia has the biggest limestone caves in the world, Batu Caves is one of them. There are also alot of restaurant around Batu Caves who serve delicious Indian Cuisine. Inside the cave reside Indian temples where prayers are conducted.

Batu Caves Selangor

Batu Caves Selangor

Batu Caves Selangor

Just a few kilometers North of Selangor is a town called Sekinchan with vast paddy fields and windy atmosphere. This location is one of the biggest rice producers in Malaysia. Famous for fresh fruits like Mango, water apple (Jambu Air), Corn and Coconut Juice. Since Sekinchan is just beside the coast, it is also famous for Sea Food.

Sekinchan Selangor

Sekinchan Selangor

Sekinchan Selangor

Sekinchan Selangor

Food wise, Kajang Satay at Dengkil is a must try. Pulau Ketam near Port Klang is also a recommended place to eat seafood. Klang is famous for it’s Bah Kut Teh which is a herbal pork soupy dish, usually eaten with rice. If you’re around Kuala Selangor, try their famous Begger Chicken at Ijok town. The restaurant name is Ijok’s Begger Delicious Restaurant where each delicacy is marinated and wrapped in foil before heating it up in an underground oven.

Satay Kajang at Dengkil

Satay Kajang at Dengkil

Ijok's Begger Delicious Restaurant

Ijok's Begger Delicious Restaurant

As you have just witnessed, Selangor is a great state to chill at and I would surely recommend it as a tourist destination to all my friends locally and internationally.

I’m entering a competition to promote Selangor along with Selangor Tourism. Kindly vote for my post at www.myselangorstory.com so that I will be motivated to write more about this wonderful state. Thank you in advance

I like Malaysia alot for it’s diversed culture. You will find other countries in this World that has a mix of races and so on, but nothing can compare to what we have here in Malaysia. I’ve been to many parts of the world, UK, Australia but at the end of the day, I always enjoy coming back to Malaysia. One of the great things that you can get here is the tourism and the effort the goverment puts in order to market us. In my blog, I feature some of this place that you can visit in Malaysia, all place I always visit first before writing about them. You can view the Place I’ve visited in Malaysia.

Towards north of Malaysia, there’s a town called Alot Star (used to be know as Alor Setar between 2004-2008). Alor Star also happens to be the capital of one of Malaysia’s state, namely Kedah. Alor Star is famous for the distribution of manufacturing and agriculture products such as Paddy. Below is the list of the things that you should visit if you happen to go to Alor Star Kedah, in no particular order. If you haven’t yet booked a place to stay, you may want to try Holiday Villa Hotel & Suites Alor Star, one of the top 4 star hotel in that location.

Kedah State Art Gallery

Kedah State Art Gallery

The Kedah State Art Gallery holds a good collection of paintings, photographs, musical instruments and handicrafts. It used to house the office of the Sultan, the state treasury, audit office and the British Adviser residence in 1912 but was converted to its present day gallery in 1983.

Pekan Rabu

Pekan Rabu Alor Star

Pekan Rabu or literally translated as Wednesday market, is located near the government offices in Alor Setar. Eventhough it is named such, they market is open every single day. Pekan Rabu is open from morning till night. Many goods are be available at a bargain including crafted products and delicious tidbits. Malaysia’s former Prime Minister, Tun Maharthir was once a trader at the Pekan Rabu.

Menara Alor Star

Golden Jubilee Park

The Golden Jubilee Park in Alor Star was built in commemoration of the Kedah Sultan’s golden jubilee celebration in 2008. The park took seven months to be completed, was designed with a beautiful landscape comprising a golden jubilee landmark, sculptures of Kedah’s rulers, fountains, a mural wall, man-made lake, jogging track and skating rink.

Batu Hampar Waterfall

Batu Hampar Waterfall (aminzaki Photo Copyright)

This place is roughly about 30KM drive from Alor Star. This Recreation Park can be reached easily from Yan. Just outside Yan there is a junction where you take right to Batu Hampar. The falls are not spectacular but the stream is nice and quiet.

The Birth Place of Tun Mahathir

A visit to Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s birth place will give you a different perspective of the life of this revered leader. He was born in Alor Star on Dec 20, 1925 at No 18 Lorong Kilang Ais, off Jalan Pegawai. His home has been seen as a historical building and was restored by the National Archives in 1992.

When visiting this place, you will be able to view items from his childhood to his schooldays to the time he became a doctor. There are photos, furniture and other household items. You can even take a look at his old bicycle. Just Amazing

It is open on monday to saturday from 9 a.m to 6 p.m.

The Paddy Museum

The Paddy Museum

The Paddy Museum is an important tourist attraction in Kedah as the state is known as the Rice Bowl state of Malaysia due to its important economic contribution to the country. It honours the history, culture and significance of paddy farming in Kedah and is dedicated to the hardworking and simple paddy farmers, whose blood, sweat and toil have contributed to the objective of achieving self sufficiency in the rice industry.

The Paddy Museum opens daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. It closes for Friday prayer from 12.30 to 2.30 p.m. on Fridays. Admission fees are RM3 for adults and RM1 for children while school groups are charged RM1 per person. Each camera brought in will be charged a RM2 fee. (This details was derived from VirtualTourist)

So peepz, remember to visit these place during your visit to Alor Star Kedah. Drop me a comment with your experience and photographs.

What a weekend that was, we were suppose to be meeting up with our friends at Seremban that we’ve not met for more than 5 months. Everytime we make a plan of meeting up, something surely comes up with either one of us. Anyway finally last weekend we managed to gather together :). Hweeli was kind enough to pick me up and drive her car all the way up to Seremban. (Oh Ya, before I forget, Hweeli’s having her birthday next monday)

Unfortunately, she’s been over-drifting and her tires were badly worned out. To the extend that it punctured. And being a lady and not giving a shit about cars, there were no tools nor space tire available for us to fix that night. After a couple of team came to help us, none were capable to help us. Due to that, fortunately or unfortunately we had to bunk the night at our good friends place, Thomasu Kussu.

One of the reasons we wanted to meet up at Seremban was because of the burger that they had there. It is claimed to be Seremban’s best burger that’s available. I still remember a couple of years back, they only had a corner to themself with 2 tables. Now they have merged with a restaurant and their sales are superb. They are known as the Ijan’s Burger. Now the have all sorts of meat burger, including Deer meat, Rabbit meat, Ostrich meat and many more. They also have their own blog, Ijan’s Burger Blog.

Ijan's Burger Seremban

Ijan's Burger Seremban

Ijan's Burger Seremban

After the tire incident, Rao Broom was kind enough to drive us to Ijan’s Burger to takeaway. Jaz My Ass and Leon The Shorty suggested that they go and buy a crate of beer. Being Fasting Month and Hari Raya is a month away, the Police are all of a sudden hardworking and working at road blocks, probably to collect a few bucks for the celebration, you know what I mean? This is something obvious in Malaysia.

We then chilled in front of Thomas house, the best place to chill with some cold beer and Ijan’s Burger by our side. We were talking about absolutely everything, we surely did have alot to speak about being 5 months of no conversation. We only went to sleep at nearly 6 in the morning.

Hweeli and Leon

Rao and Jaz

Thomas and Thristhan

Thristhan, Rao, Tiger and Ijan's Burger

Thristhan and Ijan's Burger

Woke up at 9.30am and Thomas parents were already at Church. Rao came by to help Hweeli and myself to our car that was conviniently parked in front of a tyre shop. After fixing the tires, we went over to Rao’s place to meet his wife Letch and son. I did not have a chance to minggle with the little boy the last time we met because he was fast asleep. But this time, I managed to play with him for a few minutes, one gorgeous dude. The smile this boy emits is just adorable.

Cute right?

So adorable

So thank you guys for all the fun we had. Till our next plan (which we all believe it’s going to be a night out at Avilion Port Dickson) have a great day and keep in touch.

Not many know that Cherating can be a great Holiday Destination, it has evolved to a great tourist location and there are many interesting things that can be done there. I had the opportunity to stay at Cherating Holiday Villa Hotels & Resort late last year for a work assignment as they were upgrading their property mangement system. During my 1 month stay, the Hotel GM and also a few colleague managed to take me around Cherating. Below are some of the interesting places.

Cherating Beach

The main reason to come to cherating is the beautiful beach, they are one of the cleanest beach you can find around this area. The cherating beach is quite long, and with the windy weather, it’s quite nice to stroll along the beach. The beach are also popular for Surfers, but this is usually during the Monsoon season (end of the year). The Cherating Holiday Villa was not that full during my stay, so not many hit the beach. There are also activities like Beach Volley ball and beach football that can be organised by the hotel itself. One can also have a picnic along the cherating beach.

Cherating Beach Volley Ball

Batik Paintings

You will realise as you reach the cherating area, just before passing by Holiday Villa Cherating and Legend Hotel, there are a few shops who sell batik printings. The Batiks are done with hand and not machine printed. Batik is one of Malaysia’s unique traditional fabric. One need to go through a series of repeated process of designing, waxing, dyeing, drying and boiling the cloth until you get the finished Batik cloth.  The process is quite delicate, so alot of patience is required but you will be amazed at the outcome. You can also try your skills at the Batik at one of the shops along Cherating Village.

Batik at Cherating

Take A River Trip & Firefly

This is one of the things that you should consider doing when visiting Cherating. Taking the boat trip along Cherating river can be amazing and a great experience, the price is quite affordable too. During this boat trip, one will be able to see many wildlife including monkeys, snakes, lizards, and many sorts of birds.

At night, the river trip is also available, this is when they take you to see the Firefly along Cherating river. The view is spectacular, it only cost RM20 for the 1 hour trip.

Cherating River Boat Trip

Tea at Hai Peng Kemaman

Heading north to Terengganu, you will pass a town called Kemaman. Here at the Hai Peng Kemaman is where you can have a cup of strong coffee brew, with a couple of kaya buns. It is one of the oldest coffee making company in the region. A must go for coffee lovers. I recommend the Vietnamese coffee, warning you may not be able to sleep for 2 or 3 days after it :).

Hai Peng Kemaman

Watch Turtle Hatch

This I did not actually get a change to see it, because it was not the season at that time. You will have to check with the local tourist information for more details. But cherating host one of the turtle sanctuary, a better one would be at Kuala Terengganu area. You will be lucky if there is any turtle at the first place, if you have a car travel on your own, but if yo are lazy to go around inform your hotel they will arrange for you if there is any turtle on that specfic day normally most of the cases tutle watching is only after 12 am.

Cherating Turtle Sanctuary

You will probably need 3 or 4 days at cherating to experience all of the above. Also recommended is their seafood. May not be very cheap, but you surely get fresh seafood there.