Happy New Year 2011

Happy new year 2011 to everyone & I wish you & your family all prosperity, happiness & health for the new year.

Quick update of development in East Ledang

Pictures taken today on East Ledang development (Apartment & Phase II - I think). Good to see many people are still busy building stuff in this area.



Phase II near showhouses:



Ujana apartment development:



Latest View on Phase II

S'pore, M'sia discuss ways to ease CIQ clearance with rapid transit link | Iskandar Malaysia

When the Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link between Singapore and Iskandar Malaysia gets underway by 2018, commuters would need to clear immigration only once for each way of travel.

S'pore, M'sia discuss ways to ease CIQ clearance with rapid transit link | Iskandar Malaysia

Danga Bay

Danga Bay: Malaysia’s Premier Waterfront City, this is what we've read and heard about. The area is directly across the water from Singapore and is apparently set to be a premier waterfront development which includes upscale waterfront residential, retail and restaurants complex (something like Clarke Quay + Sentosa I imagine). It covers an area of approximately 450-acres. We visited the Danga Bay Marina & harbour and a small amusement park which was filled with families and their children in the weekend.



From what I have read, the government has a very ambitious plan for this area. We've also spoken to an Australian company who's developing high end luxury waterfront residential complex (a house unit will cost. est. SGD1.2M).

These are the under-construction developments listed in the Danga Bay official site:
1. Danga Island - 152 units of villas
2. Iskandar & Oakwood Residence (Apartments & Service residences)
3. Phase 1A - an area which will include 5 star hotel, International Convention Centre
Office Blocks & more apartments and a Water Theme Park.

I'd say that it's still quite a long way to go to reach the vision of this area but there are a lot of constructions in the area (construction of a highway for example - picture on the left) so let's hope that the vision is being carried out and will be completed soon in the near future.


More information can be found in: www.dangabay.com

There's also a news article recently on latest project in Danga Bay by a Singaporean company: http://www.btimes.com.my/articles/20101206184346/Article/

Food we've tried in Danga Bay area:

J.T.L Ikan Bakar

Our first trip to Danga Bay. We found this "hawker" style Ikan Bakar (Grilled fish) eatery in the Danga Bay area (apologies I cannot remember the exact location). We ordered ayam penyet, ikan bakar, fried prawns and kangkong belacan. The food was quite good but the price was not reasonable. We paid about RM110. A local couple heard about our bill and told us that we were overcharged. I confronted the lady boss who replied that was their usual pricing. I wouldn't recommend going there as I felt quite ripped off. I'm sure there are many other more reasonably priced ikan bakar stalls out there in Johor.



Lazio Italian Restaurant & Cafe

We wanted to try Rosmarino Italian Restaurant at Jalan Damai, Taman Sri Setia, but after trying to find this restaurant for 2 hours (thanks to our not very realiable Garmin GPS system), we gave up and headed to Danga Bay instead. We tried the Italian restaurant, Lazio located at Danga Bay Marina.

We chose to sit outside (alfresco) next to the harbour. Though not the most authentic Italian restaurant, the food was quite good and the price was quite reasonable.



It usually takes us around 40 minutes to drive from East Ledang to Danga Bay.

My favourite place in Johor - a giant home decor shop

This place is truly awesome. I love love love this showroom shop. The place is like a giant candy store for home decor enthusiasts/renovators/interior designers.

There are several branches, but one of the largest branch (which I visited - thanks to Fiona) is the Johor Bahru Showroom. It's located at:

No. 1, Jalan Johor Jaya,
Taman Perindustrian Plentong,
81750 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia.
Tel : 07-351 4681
Fax: 07-351 4682

The place is quite hidden amongst car repairs/car showrooms. Google maps of the place can be found on their site:
http://www.ssfhome.com/locations/locations.cfm?storeid=4

I could spend hours in this shop. You can find things from furniture to cutleries to disco balls to garden statues to wedding accessories to DIY decor kits to curtains to flowers to giant decor cage...basically anything you'll ever need for living ideas, as rightly described on their website:

"SSF is the largest concept living company in Malaysia. SSF is engaged in the business of enriching homes through our home décor, furniture, curtains, carpets, lightings, kitchenware, artificial flowers, wedding décor and many other creative concept living products. Most importantly, SSF believe ideas are the currency of the future and that nurturing it creates wealth for the soul"

You're not allowed to take photos in the shop and I managed to take just 1 photo (the first photo on this article), so I've taken some pictures from their website (courtesy of http://www.ssfhome.com) to give some ideas of the products they carry.



The Johor branch is opened from 10.30am to 8.00pm.

More information can be found on their site: www.SSFHOME.com

Happy Shopping!

Transport Woes No More | eNewsletter@ Nusajaya

It's always great to see improvements and development being done for this area.

Upgrade of transportation system which also enabled greater accessibility for locals and visitors to key emerging areas within Iskandar Malaysia such as Nusajaya, Danga Bay and even Kampung Pendas Laut, which is famous for the seafood restaurants.

Read more at: Transport Woes No More | eNewsletter@ Nusajaya

Pet boarding in Johor

I am back from holiday, sorry for being M.I.A again for a while :)

While we were away, we left our Chihuahua, Mocha in a pet boarding place called Global Pets. Global Pets seems to be quite a large chain of pet shops which was established back in 2004.

This pet boarding is located at 16, Jalan Jati 1, Taman Nusa Bestari Jaya. It's a one stop shop with vet 24 hour clinic, pets grooming, boarding & day care and more. The pet boarding area is on level 3 (if I remember correctly) and is sectioned into 3 types of sub-areas (small, medium & large VIP areas/boxes).

We chose the small box area as Mocha's a chihuahua and paid Rm20/day including grooming. Though the facility is quite noisy (most of the dogs will bark when you step into the area), but it looks clean and safe which are the 2 most important factors for us. To board Mocha, we had to provide her vaccination record. I'm happy to see that they follow safety procedure.

Mocha is back at home safe and happy, she lost a bit of weight as she's a very timid dog, so she takes a long time to adjust to any new environment.

So far, I'm fine with GlobalPets' service (I also tend to call everyday to check up on my doggy). If you'd like to keep a close eye on your doggy during boarding, you can board your doggy at the VIP area which includes webcam for you to monitor your doggy online. Pretty good!

The only downside I must say is communicating in English is a bit of a challenge with the staff.

Here's the website for Global Pets: http://www.globalpets.com.my

2 cute sleeping puppies we saw in Global Pets:

Lightning strike

It's been raining a lot in this part of the world. There's heavy thunderstorm every 3 days. We even experienced lightning which struck near our current house. The strike caused a very very loud noise, the house smelt of burnt circuit and our poor Chihuahua almost had a heart attack due to the shock. The lightning strike damaged a couple of electronic items. Lessons learnt: make sure your house content is covered by insurance and always use surge protectors for important electronic items.

Food - Chapter I

I promised to write about some of the eating places that we've tried in the surrounding area. I'm still yet to explore a lot more places, so stay tuned. In the meantime, here are a few that I took note of

Old Town White Coffee

This place was my first outing for lunch with our neighbours and the chain is one of the largest kopitiams chain shops in Malaysia. They're very famous for their white coffees. I don't drink coffee so I'm not sure how good the coffee is but I've been told that the coffee drinks they serve are pretty good.

I ate a couple of times at the Nusa Bestari branch which is located at No 2 Jalan Bestari 7/5, No 1 Jln Bestari 6/5, Taman Nusa Bestari.

The menu is quite diverse, but I've only tried:
- Oldtown Ipoh Chicken Hor Fun
- Oldtown Nasi Lemak Special

Both are quite good. I can't remember the prices but the meals are very reasonable (cheap by Singapore standard).

Overall experience & feedback: Not a fancy place, but easy place for quick meals, cheap pricing. 3 spoons out of 5 from me.


Pictures courtesy from www.oldtown.com.my:


Hawker Centre (next to Old Town White Coffee @ Nusa Bestari)

There are more than 10 stalls clustered in this hawker eating place. At night, the place is quite crowded with locals who come to drink beer and eat cheap local food.

It's pretty much the same as hawker centre in Singapore, you can find quite a variety of food ranging from local laksa to carrot cake.

I've tried the fried kue tiao a couple of times and I quite like it. It cost RM4 per plate. The serving is quite generous and will surely fill you up. The "chef" puts his heart in frying each plate of kue tiaow. If you watch him fry the kue tiao, he seems to be conducting a symphony of orchestra :)





Overall experience & feedback: Good for cheap local meal, the fried kue tiao is good and cheap. 3 spoons from me.


Chef Wah

This Chinese restaurant is tucked away near Jalan Persiaran Perling 2. Unfortunately I do not have the exact address of the restaurant and Google Maps is showing a very outdated map of the area (the road doesn't exist in Google Maps). From memory, you'll be driving from Bukit Indah area, past Tesco (Jalan Indah, Bandar Nusajay) on your left, go straight and turn right to go into the smaller lane along Jalan Persisiran Perling 2. You'll see Ali Cafe (with it's white circles decor on the building) and a Muslim curry eatery, continue til the end of that lane and you'll see Chef Wah at the corner. The restaurant is quite packed with local Chinese. To me, it looks like the local version of Crystal Jade. Looking at the pictures in the menu, the chef seems to be quite reputable (picture below).

We ordered 3 dishes: String beans, E Fu mien (I can't remember how this is spelled - crispy noodle with gravy and seafood) and soup (fish bone brew).




Total cost of the meal was around RM50.

Overall experience & feedback: In Johor standard, the meal was slightly more expensive but I enjoyed the meal very much and would definitely go back again. I especially like the soup and the noodle. Afterall, the meal it's still cheaper than Singapore's :)


Ayukama Japanese Buffet Restaurant

Located in Sutera, this is one of the few Japanese restaurants in the area. This buffet restaurant offers sashimi, sushi, teppanyaki, ramen, udon, basically pretty much everything that you'd normally order in a Japanese restaurant.



The buffet costs around RM50 per person. You can eat as much as you like, but for me the food was just OK.

Overall experience & feedback: Quite expensive in Johor terms, the sashimi was just OK, overall it didn't blow me away.


Nyonya Joy Restaurant

Small peranakan restaurant located at 2, 4G, Jalan Bestari 5/2, Johor Bahru, 81300, Taman Nusa Bestari.



We ordered Fried chicken wings, ikan assam pedas, cincalok Eggs and Steamed lady fingers with sambal paste. The cincalok eggs is rather standard, but I quite like the ikan assam pedas and steamed lady fingers with sambal paste. Both taste quite salty sour and a little bit spicy (would have preferred it to be a lot spicier). I didn't like the chicken wings though, it was too dry and oily for me.



The meal cost 59.40RM.

Overall experience & feedback: I think I'll go back again to try other dishes. The restaurant staff were all very friendly.


Hai Wan Restaurant

Seafood restaurant located at No 2, Jalan Indah 16/7, Taman Bukit Indah, Nusajaya Johor.

There are quite a no of seafood restaurants in the area. We just randomly picked this restaurant. We had broccoli with scallops, cereal prawns and butter fried chicken. The chicken was the tastiest out of the 3 meals, the other 2 are quite nice too. The meal cost 50RM.



Overall experience & feedback: We will go back again and try other dishes and/or order the butter fried chicken again.