"Welcome To Malaysia" chiabh's Profile

For a choice of things Malaysian, there are a number of local hotel chains that have hotels within the country as well as overseas... The listing here is not to be taken as a comprehensive listings...

Cititel Hotel Management (CHM) Group Its current stable includes the Cititel MidValley, Boulevard Hotel, Micasa All Suite Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Cititel Penang, Pangkor Island Beach Resort in Pangkor Island and the Micasa Hotel Apartments in Yangon (Myanmar)...

D Palma Group of Hotels The groups operates four 3* hotels in Sepang, Ampang (Kuala Lumpur), Kuala Selangor and Shah Alam...

Genting Group The Genting Group manages the Genting Hotel, Highlands Hotel, Resort Hotel, Theme Park Hotel and First World Hotel at its City of Entertainment Theme Park in Genting Highlands... Other resorts include Awana Genting Highlands Golf & Country Resort, Awana Kijal Golf, Beach & Spa Resort in Kijal (Trengganu) and Awana Porto Malai Resort in Pulau Langkawi...

Grand Hotels International (GHI) Chain The GHI group includes the Grand Continental Hotels in Malaysia and the Grand Chancellor in Australia and New Zealand... It manages 11 (mainly 3*) hotels in the major towns in Malaysia...

Mutiara Hotels & Resorts The Mutiara group manages the Mutiara Hotel in Johor Bahru, Mutiara Burau Bay Beach Resort in Pulau Langkawi, Mutiara Pedu Lake Golf & Lake Resort in Pedu Lake and Mutiara Taman Negara National Park Resort in Taman Negara...

Selesa Hotels & Resorts The group has hotels and resorts in Johor Bahru, Pasir Gudang port near Johor Bahru and Port Dickson...

Seri Malaysia Hotels The Seri Malaysia hotel chain has a total of 18 medium range hotels throughout the country...

beijing - no prizes for guessing this landmark....

Travelling has always been my first love..... I was lucky to be able to travel in my vocation... I travel for business and pleasure and for family vacations...

I have travel extensively across both East & Peninsular Malaysia... transversing from Bukit Kayu Hitam (in the north, bordering Thailand) to Johor Baru (in the south, bordering Singapore), and Sabah and Sarawak... I have probably been to most towns in Peninsular Malaysia as I love to drive around the country... of the states, I must say my favourite is Sabah, which has something for everyone.... land, sea mountain etc.....

My favourite destination has to be Australia... I use to drive around in Australia... I have been to all the state capitals of Australia (with the exception of Darwin)... and I always like my trips to Perth, which tops the list of the Australian capital cities... I always enjoy my trips to Europe, London being my favourite as Londoners "speaks the right language and drives on the correct side of the road". The exotic East has its attractions and beauty... To sum it up, the world is out there for you to explore... go for it...

I will try to write some of my travel stories in the months to come... Watch out for it!!!!

the concorde...

The fastest way to get to any country is to fly.... and then the best way to see the places will be land transport....

After all these years, I can still vividly remember my first flight... a Malaysia-Singapore Airlines (MSA) Boeing B737 from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore.... MSA was subsequently split into the present day Malaysia Airlines (MAS) and Singapore Airlines (SIA).... It was May 1, 1971 (May Day)... Since that fateful day, i was smittened by the travel bug.... To-date, I have travelled on Alitalia, All-Nippon Airlines (ANA), British Airways (BA), British Midlands, Cathay Pacific, China Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Delta Airlines. Garuda, Korean Air, Malaysia Airlines (MAS), Qantas, Royal Brunei, Singapore Airlines (SIA), Thai International and Vietnam Air,...

Airliners travelled include the Airbus series (A300, A310, A320, A330 and A340) Boeing series (includes 707, 727, 737, 747, 757, 767 and 777)... DCs (DC8, DC9 and DC10)... Lockheed Tristar... Fokker (F35 and F50) and the Convour....

The only regret is not having travelled on the Concorde... and now it is too late...

the (wo)man with the golden gun...

I am, by nature, of friendly disposition... i do not choose my friend as anyone who values my friendship will be accepted as my friend... It is a universal truth that for long lasting friendship, there must to similar interest to bind the friendship... something common to talk about and share... some common interest....In VirtualTourist, that something is the passion for travelling, discovering the world... For others, it may the mutual interest in the pursuit of good food, good wine, great golfing, mountaineering and list goes on....

You will know me better as the ensuring chapters will show you some of my interest..... and my beliefs....

vt meeting in singapore...

We are here because of a common love.... the love for travelling, seeing new places, making and meeting new fellow travellers, partaking of good wine and food... the list goes on... VT has given me a whole new persective to travelling....

I love travelling... and meeting people, learning about their country, their culture and lifestyle.... I love to sit down and talk about travelling, about life, about golf and about "anything and everything" that you care to talk with me over a cup or two of coffee.... Through this intereaction, we learn to be more tolerant... to see the world thru the eyes of the "locals" so to say.... All this is done thru VT meetings... a great way to meet and know fellow travellers... I hope to be able to attend many more VT meetings in places that I may be visiting...

Write-ups on VT meetings that I attended will be in the respective travelogues viz Bangkok ChiangRai Kuala Lumpur (KLumpur-1 KLumpur-2 KLumpur-latest) Melaka Penang Singapore (Spore-1 Spore-latest) Yangon.... Check on them and see what you have missed....

masjid jamek...

Malaysia is a mulit-religious country...Although Islam is the official religion, everyone is free to practice his own religion... The tolerance to each other's religious belief is one of the greatest strength of the country...

I have studied the greatest religions of the world... It should be noted that all great religions of the world teach the same basic principle.... it teaches its believers to be morally good... Religion is very very personal to the believer and one should never belittle a person's belief nor talk badly of his (or any) religion.... It is a great force when unleased and uncontrolled...

I believe that for peace and goodwill in the world, one should study and understand each others religious beliefs and be sensitive of it... This will result in a much better world for the generations that will take over from us....

my favourites...

One of my hobbies is reading.... I read all type of books, magazines, newspapers, comics... I read in the bedroom, in airport lounges, in aeroplanes, in trains and even in the toilets...

On books, I read all type of books....My favourite (yes, you got it right this time) is travel books... My favourite is still Paul Theroux... Anyone who love train adventures should read his "Riding the Iron Rooster" and "The Great Railway Bazaar"... I read autobiographies... my favourite has to be Han Suyin...although I did read the 2 volumes of the Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew... On political thoughts.. i have read Ho Chi Minh, Mao Zedong, Charles de Gualle, Jawaharlal Nehru etc...

My favourite philospher is Bertrand Russell.... having read Pluto and Rabindranath Tagore.... Whether it is the "5 Pillars of Islam" or the "4 Noble Truth" of Buddhism, I have read extensively on religion... and of course Poetry... my favourite poet is Alexander Pope, William Wordsworth and other British poets being educated in the English language...

My only regret is that I have no time to learn to read Mandarin... but I have read the translated version of the Chinese legendary 4 Books and 5 Classics viz "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Western Journey" etc...

Comic strip favourites include Modesty Blaise (by Peter O'Donnell) and other light reading Blondie (Dean Young & Denis Lebrun) with sterner stuff like Charles Schultz's Peanuts...

The most boring book that I have laid my hands on is perhaps "The Rules Of Golf" of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews...hehehe

That is a mouthful.... however to those who do share this hobby of mine, do drop me a line and advise me what other good authors and/or books that I should read.... it would be most appreciated...