Interview Series: Columbia Asia Hospital-Nusajaya | eNewsletter @Nusajaya

Insights on Columbia Asia Hospital

Q: Columbia Asia Hospital – Nusajaya (CAHN) is the first of the CAH chain of hospitals set up in the South Malaysia region. Was there a specific reason why Nusajaya was the preferred location as compared to other parts of Johor?

A: Nusajaya will be Asia's foremost fully integrated city with a world-class environment for business, living and leisure, while Afiat Healthpark is envisioned to be the one-stop modern day medical hub. With this, we believe that the location of Nusajaya is the most suitable for us to set our footprint in the south Malaysia region.

Interview Series: Columbia Asia Hospital-Nusajaya | eNewsletter @Nusajaya

Enhanced Cross-Border Travel Convenience | eNewsletter @Nusajaya

YEAY!

Travellers from Malaysia and Singapore will soon have the luxury of requesting their taxi pick-up and drop-off points anywhere within their domestic locations. Currently, taxis plying the Johor – Singapore route were only authorised to pick-up and drop-off passengers at designated stops in Johor and Singapore. With this liberalisation, commuters will no longer be forced to only commute between Johor's Kotaraya terminal and Singapore's Queen Street taxi stop near Rochor Road. The new policies will also see more cross border bus services deployed between the various terminals, for example Larkin Bus Terminal, Johor Bahru and Ban San Street in Singapore.

Enhanced Cross-Border Travel Convenience | eNewsletter @Nusajaya

School Holidays Causing Jam on 2nd Link Causeway

Yesterday I was stuck on the 2nd link Causeway for 2.5 hours. What was supposed to be a quick trip to pick up a friend at Joo Koon MRT turned into 2.5 hours sauna trip (my car's aircon stopped working too) along the causeway. There were many many Singaporean families taking short vacations and driving to/through Johor. Hundreds of cars were lined up from 1 KM to Johor checkpoint. It took us over 2 hours to clear the 1 KM distance. I reached the causeway at 12 noon and only managed to arrive home at East Ledang at 2.35 pm. Our neighbour was also caught in the jam and it took them over 2 hours to clear the causeway jam as well. Lesson learnt: Be aware of school holidays schedule and not just public holidays. I found this site which is quite useful, hopefully you would not experience a 2 hours jam like we did :)

Happy Sunday!

Kittens to Give Away

Good morning everyone,

I'm helping Uncle David to post this msg:

Looking for home for 5 kittens which are 3 months old. Parents are Ragdoll (father) and a Domestic (mother). Else they have to be send to a Sanctuary in Malaysia. The kittens' mom is pregnant again and would need help to look after the kittens.

More from Uncle David here.

Hot Hot Hot Temperature

I'm not sure about everyone else, but I myself certainly feel that the world is getting warmer. When we were in Paris, the days were very warm. Back in Johor and Singapore, the heat is also really strong. There are quite a lot of people around me at work & at home (dear husband) who have fallen sick due to this weather. I hope this will go away soon.

When I read that this region is experiencing a heat wave. Temperatures this month across Malaysia and Singapore reached a high of 36.2ºC. This heat wave may apparently last until end of September.

Looking at the weather forecast for the next few days, it looks like we can expect thundershowers everyday.

I hope the temperature cools down a little bit. Drink plenty of water everyone, stay out of the heat. Take care of yourself.

Education in Malaysia, A reverse brain drain Ambitious plans to become an Asian hub for Western education

“Educity”, as the Johor complex is called, reflects Malaysia’s grand strategy to become a centre for Western education. The country wants to meet strong demand among Asia’s new middle classes for English-language schooling. It also worries about its brain drain (over 300,000 university-educated Malays work abroad). Having watched Asian children flock west to spend a lot of money on British and American schools, the government decided a few years ago to try to reverse the trend. It has campaigned to persuade Western schools and colleges to come and set up branch campuses. The Malaysian proposition to Asian parents is simple and beguiling: come to these famous schools and universities in our country and get the same degrees and qualifications as in Britain or America for half the price.

Education in Malaysia, A reverse brain drain Ambitious plans to become an Asian hub for Western education

Prices surge in Iskandar

KGV-Lambert Smith Hampton (Johor) Sdn Bhd executive director Samuel Tan says that property prices have appreciated by between 45% and 160%, depending on the type of property and location, compared with prices five years ago.

“The year 2012 will be the tipping point, when projects such as Johor Premium Outlet in Indahpura and Legoland Theme Park in Nusajaya are up and running,” says Tan.

Prices surge in Iskandar

At Long Last, We've Kick-started Our Interior Fit Out

Sorry for being M.I.A again :) We've been super busy with work and at long last, renovating & fitting out our house (+ a small holiday in France 3 weeks ago).

After months of searching, reviewing & negotiating prices, we finally signed off on our interior design plan and started work in our house.

It's still very early stage as you can see from the pictures below. We have divided work into 3 phases. In phase I, we will only focus on hacking, structural changes and a few main rooms (Master bed and bathroom, study room and kitchen).

The theme of our house will be Balinese, so we are also off to Bali soon to source furniture such as dining table, bath tub and more.

We also spent a lot of time in the past 2 weekends sourcing for tap fittings, basins, cooktop and range hood.

Here is a few shops which we found interesting (and bought items from):

Sim Siang Choon Hardware (S) Pte Ltd
Phone: 62666632
Address: SIM SIANG CHOON BUILDING, 21 Changi South Avenue 2, Singapore 486630

We have visited above 20 bathroom products shops both in Johor and Singapore. I found this shop through internet. It is almost like an IKEA for bathroom and kitchen products. This place carries the largest low-mid range bathroom and kitchen products. Some items were surprisingly cheap as compared to the Hansgrohe range (though similar material and similar looking).



SaniQuo Pte Ltd
568 Sims Avenue Singapore 387598

We bought some Hansgrohe taps and bath mixer from this shop. All except the bath mixer has been delivered. I'm a bit disappointed with this shop as we were told that there is stock for the item we wanted and it would be delivered on Monday, but now we have to wait for another week as the item's actually out of stock.



Best Light Electrical Sdn Bhd

No: 15-17 Jalan Ros Merah 2/10, Taman Johor Jaya, 81100 Johor Bahru, Johor.

We also visited lots of shops when we were looking for cooktop and range hood (from Harvey Norman, Best Denki & more in Singapore to lots of local shops). We narrowed our selection on the Electrolux Ultra Clean Hood and Gas Hob with 3 Burners. Best Light shop had the best price offer, so that's where we bought these items from.



Brilliant Supplies Sdn Bhd
No 6, Jalan Indah 1, Taman Bukit Indah, 79100 Bandar Nusajaya Johor

This place had the best price offer for stone sinks which we were looking for our bathroom.



There's still a longgggg way to go before Phase I renovation is complete, but I cannot wait to get things done and to be able to move into our own house. I will continue posting updates and learnings from this renovation, so please stay tuned.

Have a great Sunday!

Little Western Food Corner - Thamara Cafe

This has been our favourite joint to get some simple good western dishes so far (thanks to Fiona).

Thamara cafe is an Indian Western restaurant which serves local cuisine (I've tried mee goreng and ikan bilis fried rice) and western dishes such as lamb chops, spaghetti, chicken chops, burgers and more.

In our last trip, we ordered Lamp chops and the lassi drinks. The whole meal cost about slightly above 30 Ringgit. The lamp chops were very tasty and drinks were very nice.

Here are some pictures we took from our last visit:



Thamara cafe is located at 14, Jalan Indah 16/7, Taman Bukit Indah, Johor


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I also found this blog which has posted more pictures and reviews about this cafe.

This place is definitely worth visiting and we'll be going back there regularly.