It is sometimes a hassle to travel in a group because of accommodation. If you are a family with 2 young kids, a family room will do just fine but if you are a group of friends or family with young teenage children, staying in one big room can be somewhat uncomfortable especially if its a long trip.

I recently took a group trip to Malacca and when i browse through the internet there were so many apartments made out to be, not what they actually look it.. Some are outdated and are not in operation anymore.

Garden City Hotel was my second choice after my first choice just left be baffled. Luckily i had back up and the back up turned out to be something worth blogging about. For a fee of RM300/night and RM50 deposit, i booked a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment in the heart of Malacca town, just behind the Bandar Hilir Police Sation, good location if you have a car.

The apartment itself looked a little run down from outside, but it had good security, ample parking, the reception staff were friendly and it came with a HUGE pool. When i say huge, i mean HUGE.

All your basic amenities are provided in the apartment - vanity set, clean sheets, tea cups, cutlery, kettle, fridge, stove, TV and so forth. The was no internet/WiFi though.. But clean and well maintained, i can say..

Most of the units here belong to private owners who rent out their units to vacationers so do not expect a fancy furnishing, however i would say for the price we paid, the apartment was more than perfect. Definitely recommended for a huge group or family vacation.

For more information, visit: http://www.gardencity.com.my/

Hey travel birds! How yall doin? Good i hope! You might wonder why i have not been updating and going travelling so often now.. well.... i'm working now.. bummer i know! but hey.. gotta make the money to travel to more exotic places right? Haha.. see, there's always a positive in everything :D

Anyways, this was around Christmas year 2009. My family went for  short trip. We wanted to go somewhere near, affordable and nice. First bet was Port Dickson.. I didn't mind since i haven't been there in a while.. but i was in the mood for something different! Plus, i just got fairer from the beautiful breeze in Singapore, didn't wanna get all tanned up again :P Such a girl, i Know..

Anyway, this was only like 40mins away from where i live. The hotels at Bukit Tinggi itself were damned expensive so we booked an apartment 10 minutes away called Selesa Resort.

It wasn't bad.. If you have a car to drive up to Bukit Tinggi, Selesa is definitely the affordable solution. The apartment had 2 rooms, 1 kitchen, 1 balcony and a huge living room! Other activities at the hotel include swimming, golfing, camping, snooker and ping pong.. Simple family activity i would say..

Bukti Tinggi itself was quite good.. French and Italian restaurants, beautiful scenery, carnivals and so forth. Perfect place for the family and a bunch of friends looking for a simple weekend holiday..

One thing though, the Japanese Spa costs like RM500 per treatment and its never open! So if you wanna go there just to experience the spa, please look elsewhere.. The Japanese botanical garden is OK to me.. nothing really great considering all the uphill walking we had to do, but hey, got some good pictures!.. But given a choice, i would visit Cafe Del Mar rather than the Japanese botanical..

Enjoy the slideshow!

I was totally amazed that such a hotel was at Bukti Bintang at such a cheap price.. the hotel was nice, clean and STRATEGIC!! Imagine just 3 mins walk away to Bintang Walk..

If you wanna make a trip to KL, Bukit Bintang especially, get a room at Replica Inn..

Park your car next to the hotel and walk along the strips of clubs and pubs, bars and cafe and have your nights of fun! i know i wanna do something like this sometime soon!

This was my first trip to Cameron highlands about 3 years ago.. after lots of planning, we had found 2 good hotels, one of which was Father's Guest House and another, Daniel's Lodge.. Initially we wanted to stay at Father's Guest House because of all the lovely comments we read about the place in many forums, true enough, it was famous as they were fully booked for the whole month.. so we decided to go with Daniel's Lodge which is just walking distance from the Tanah Rata bus stop..

When we arrived, we were a little sceptical about the place as it looked a little run down.. my main concern was if they had maintained the rooms and toilets.. when the receptionist pointed us to our room, i was glad as everything looked clean and nice.. for RM60, it was good enough..

We were informed by the receptionist that they have tour services from as low as RM25.. so as soon as we got settled, we booked a tour and waited for our van.. The itinerary on the tour included 4 places; a flower farm, a bee farm, a Chinese temple and the tea plantation.

First stop, Chinese temple.



Second stop, Flower Farm. We were happy that the flower farm not only had flowers, but strawberries, insects, reptiles and a butterfly farm too. The weather there permits the flowers to grow so wonderfully beautiful and healthy that some flowers are so big and tall, you feel like for a second they can take over the human race!


After our stop at the bee farm, we went to the tea plantation and got a tour on how tea was made from start to finish. There was even a special tea museum and speciality shop where you can buy all sorts of tea! and the view.. breathe taking!



As it was a short weekend trip, we decided to spend the night in so we paid a visit to Daniel's lodge jungle bar which was cool.. they had a bon fire and all.. the next afternoon we watched 2 movies in their mini cinema.. all in all it was a holiday to remember.. especially since i had to wash my face in icy cold water..

Don't forget to stop at the Tanah Rata market.. things to buy/try: natural honey, honey with it honeycomb, tomato jam, fresh strawberries and vegetables, key chains and other small gifts of that sort.

You may wanna buy plants but unless you are really good at looking after them, i suggest you don't. The weather in KL is just not sufficient for them to survive so let them live in Cameron, rather than die in KL. Let the fern i bought be the only plant that had die a dreadful death..

Daniel's Lodge. Recommended 5 stars!
http://www.daniels.cameronhighlands.com/

All my years studying in Malacca, I've never set foot to this hotel. But i bless the day i did because, although small, its my #1 choice now if i were to holiday at my fav 2 hours away destination..



Upon arrival we were greeted by friendly staff who precessed our check-in very fast. Heading up to the room, i was excited, not knowing what to expect. Frankly i thought it would be just like those normal looking, typical hotel rooms which over populate our country but no! Here's what we saw...



The highlight for me at any hotel, would be the bathroom. Don't ask me why but all my family members know that its the first thing I'll check, followed by the water heater. A clean, well maintain bathroom and hot water is key. But i think i kinda forgot about the hot water when i saw that our room had a JACUZZI!




Everything about this hotel rubbed me the right way that even after the we found out the jacuzzi for the first room was not working, i was still cool and calm. Otherwise i would have thrown a fit. Also i was excited to see the other room! I thought at first that it might be just as similar to the previous one given to us but.. hehehe.. i love this hotel!




There could be other, more expensive hotels that are better decorated but for my budget, this is so far the best. It really embodies the whole earthy atmosphere and the whole essence of Malacca being a traditional and historically diverse state. Did i mention that there was a computer in the room? Yes. A computer.

It amazed me too that such a small hotel, as you can see from the pictures above, had this..


The food from the coffee house was tasty. The pool was clean and well maintained. The only thing that bothered me was the kitchen staff from Equatorial Hotel. As the pool was directly behind EQ, there were so many "watch-birds" who couldn't just mind their own business.

Besides this, i give Malacca Straits Hotel, 10 Stars!! For more information on the hotel, view the pic below! Website address & contact number is also available in the pic :D



Stay at the hotel, you will not regret it! :)