Bukit Tinggi

Bukit Tinggi Resort (in Malay means high hill) is located in Bentong, Pahang State, about 2 hours drive from Kuala Lumpur, and around 30 minutes drive from Genting Highland (I think most of you are more familiar with that place). We know the resort can be accessed through special arrangement by travel agents or by taxi or charterred car. We are not sure about the availability of shutter bus service from KL to the resort.

Bukit Tinggi Resort is divided into few parts, namely the Forest Park, Japanese Garden, French Park "Colmar Tropicale", Rabbit Park and the Golf Resort. Again, we have to admit that golfing is out of our interest, so we visited all the gardens except the golf. We went to Bukit Tinggi twice, with friends in 2003 and with family in 2004 respectively. One thing that we want to mention, the resort was well landscaped and perfectly maintained (even became better in 2004).

Forest Park (lower right) and Japanese Garden. Photo taken with Ling Shing's family (2004).

Forest Park, a park filled with a lot of tropical plants, from high canopical trees, shrubs, parasitic plants, grass, to moss, with the chirping birds and buzzing insects, we like them very much. By the way, there was no mosquito in the garden (maybe caused by regular fogging). Japanese Garden, a place with good landscape of waterfalls, streams, ponds with Japanese Cod Fishes, bamboos... indisputably Japanese styled.

Photo taken at the entrance of Japanese Garden with Sarawakian friends.

French Park consists a row of French themed shops, offering French styled food and souvenirs. There was a hotel there, but we didn't stay overnight there. We found most of the stuffs in the French Park were attractive, except the workers, they were locals without knowing a single French word. The food at the French Park was very expensive (compared to KL), as well as the souvenirs. However, that park drew our attraction a lot.

The "main street" of French Park.

The entrance of French Park "Colmar Tropicale". Photo taken with Ling Shing's family.

The last park, the Rabbit Park, contained hundreds of different species of rabbits, tamed with no fear of human. It was a great park for family with kids, we saw most of the children enjoy playing, chasing, patting the rabbits.

Overall, we put a high recommendation over Bukit Tinggi- ideal for a whole day or a 2 days 1 night trip. Early departure is required for one day tour. Visit Forest Park, follow by Japanese Garden. Both of the parks will take you 2 to 3 hours of relaxing tour. Then, proceed to French Park for lunch and little bit of shopping. You can stay there until 3 pm before move to Rabbit Park. The park is situated near to the entrance. You can travel back home from there after the visit.

Rabbits at Rabbit Park.

The cool environment, fresh air, quite surrounding were what we liked the most. The least- the price for the food, of course. How about a 50% discount? Or, you can bring your own lunch box and picnic basket (outside food was allowed).

More information about Bukit Tinggi, please visit The official site and Malaysia Vacation guide website.


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A' Famosa Resort

Well, we visited A' Famosa Resort for a few times, especially Ling Shing, as he visited the resort almost every year starting 1999-2002. We visited Water World, Safari, and Wild Wild West Park, all of them a few times. We had a great time there, on the first few visits. However, the poor maintenance was a big issue there. The parks looked old and dirty for the last few times of our visit (the most recent were 2005 and 2007).

A' Famosa Resort is 30 minutes away from the City of Malacca and Seremban, by car or bus of course (not within walking distance). The shutter bus service was available from the resort to all the theme parks (within 5 minutes of ride).

Photo taken in Wild Wild West Theme Park (2007). The park had a nice-looking outside but a little bit "unmaintained" inside. Anyway, the animal parade and fireworks at the end of the show were something worth the RM35 (per person at 2007) entrance ticket for.

Safari (animal world) was a place that both of us loved a lot, as we could see (and touch) a lot of animals inside. Safari was complemented with a few stage shows, such as "wild-wild West" and the "Bird Show". Wild-wild West staged the battle between a drunken cowboy with Red Indians, while the "Bird Show", ha, self-explained show, right?

Photo taken outside the Animal World, trucks that took us moving around the safari, and the "bird Show".

Animal feeding- primates, peacock, chicks, and ferry transferring us to the animal island in the safari.

A' Farmosa Resort, although we found it was not as attractive as it used to be, you still can visit it if you haven't being there before. 3 days 2 nights is more than enough for you to cover all the parks (in fact, 2 days 1 night is what we recommended). Call the resort, book you room first before your trip, and expect a big crowd of students and visitors during public holidays.

More information, visit A' Famosa Resort official website here. For our experiece in Malacca, click here.

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Pangkor and Lumut

Pangkor Island, located in Perak. To go to the ferry point at Lumut, Perak, we took 2 and a half hours of bus from Kuala Lumpur. After we arrived at Pangkor, we were told that's a airport with a single flight a day as well.

Lumut (in Malay means moss) is small town at the west coast of Perak. During our visits (2003 and 2004), most of the people gathered around the ferry point with few rows of shops around the area. There were a wide guarded parking space for the visitors with their own transports as well (just 100 m away from the ferry point). A ferry trip to Pangkor took around 25 minutes (if not mistaken). Along the way was the Malaysian Royal Navy base on the left, which can be easily indicated by battleships and service depots. Again I noticed that the ferries were made in Sibu, my home town in Sarawak.

Betty and I at Esplanade Lumut, around 2 pm.

Photo taken at Esplanade Lumut, while waiting for the ferry.

We took a 3 days 2 nights visit to the island on our first visit. Together with our Sarawakian friends, we rented motorbikes for cruising (RM 10 per day, each bike carries 2 person). We stayed in Khoo's Holiday Resort, just beside Pasir Bogak Beach. The resort was quite a good place to stay, cheap, clean, and friendly staffs. With only RM 65 per room (for 4) per night at that time, we were quite satisfied.

Photo taken around 6:30 am at Pasir Bogak Beach, in front of Khoo Holiday Resort.

First evening, we visited the Dutch Fort and the rock with ancient written on it on the south. Then we went to the Nipah Bay. There, we took a boat trip (to Monkey Beach), played with the waves, snorkeling and had a lot of fun there.

Next morning, we took a trans-island trip with our bike, following the main road to the north at east bank, crossing the Pinang Rivers (with bridges) and went right into the forest reservation at Pangkor Hill. Then, we headed south at west bank, passing by Pangkor Island Beach Resort, Pangkor Airport, Coral Beach, Nipah Bay, and all the way back to our resort.

Dutch Fort and "The Rock".

From above: Photo taken a beach side somewhere around Teluk Baru, bike "gang" at Pangkor airport, and boat trip at Nipah Bay. We went for snorkeling after the boat trip.

Ling Shing went to Pangkor for the 2nd time with his family (2004), stayed in the same resort. Photo taken at Fok-Lin Temple, the miniature of The Great Wall (behind the temple), and the Ducth Fort.

We, indeed heard a lot of good things about the island. Anyway, we found that the island was not as good as it sounded. It was more likely a small fisherman island than a holiday resort. Anyway, the island is still worth at least a 3 days 2 nights trip (without snorkeling and golfing).

For more information about Pangkor, you can visit Pangkor Island.com and Official site for Pangkor.

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