Damai Laut to build 300 floating villas in Lumut

IPOH: Damai Laut Golf Resort Sdn Bhd will be investing about RM200 million over the next three years to develop environmentally-friendly floating villas in Lumut, near here.

A total of 300 Sea Villas will be built on a 20ha site fronting the Swiss Garden Golf Resort and Spa in Damai Laut.

The site is on lease to the company for a period of 99 years.

Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir said the environment friendly floating villas will be built based on the "palm" concept.
"This Sea Villa development project is set to be another of the state's tourism icon.

"It is our hope that this project will place Perak as a premier tourism destination for both the domestic and foreign markets," he said after a signing ceremony between the state government and Damai laut Golf Resort here recently.

The state government was represented by state secretary Datuk Abdul Puhat Mat Nayan while the company was represented by PJ Deve-lopment Holdings Bhd deputy managing director Andrew Wong.

Zambry said the State Secretary Incorporated would have some form of equity in the project.

Meanwhile, Zambry said the projects will result in job creation for locals and serve as a catalyst to the development of other related industries in Manjung district.

The multi-million ringgit project is expected to be completed in 2016.

Damai Laut Golf Resort is under the patron of the Swiss Garden International Hotels, Resorts and Inns, a hotel division of PJD Holdings Bhd.

Irda plans 6 theme parks in Iskandar

KUALA LUMPUR: Iskandar Regional Development Authority (Irda) is eyeing up to six international theme parks in Iskandar Malaysia within the next two or three years.


Its chief executive, Datuk Ismail Ibrahim, said Iskandar Malaysia currently has two theme parks - Legoland Malaysia and Hello Kitty.
"We are in talks with several international theme park companies.
"We are not in the position to reveal the names yet as they are still under intend discussions," he said on the sidelines of the second Global Free Trade & Special Economic Zones Exhibition and Summit, here, yesterday.

Ismail said the launch of Pinewood Iskandar Malaysia studio in Medini Iskandar Malaysia in May was expected to further enhance the economic region's appeal to international investors, especially those in the creative industry.
"Pinewood Iskandar Malaysia Studios will provide full-fledged facilities and support services for film production.
"Apart from the development infrastructure, Irda and Pinewood Iskandar are jointly conducting training for film production professionals to meet the requirements of the studio's clients," he said.

Meanwhile, Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Higher Corp for Specialised Economic Zones also signed a memorandum of understanding on engaging in cooperative activities of common interest and mutual benefit.

The Global Free Trade & Special Economic Zones Exhibition and Summit is the world's leading platform to link foreign direct investments, manufacturers, industry and investors directly with global locations for their business. Bernama

Rock 'n' roll attraction in Malacca

THIRD OUTLET: Hard Rock Cafe Malacca set to become a must-visit for tourists and locals
THE recently-opened Hard Rock Cafe in the heart of Malacca town, within the Unesco World Heritage Site, is poised to become a must-visit for locals and tourists.

Visitors to the cafe will be greeted by memorabilia from Hard Rock's collection as well as items from legendary and contemporary musicians from around the world adorning its walls.

Hard Rock International Asia Pacific franchise director of operations, Matthew Putna, said Ma-lacca's rich history and fascinating architecture embraces the city's cultural diversity.

"For more than 20 years, Hard Rock has been welcoming locals and visitors to Peninsular Malaysia with our franchise partners," he said.
Located next to the river at the entrance of the iconic Jonker Walk, the latest addition is the third Hard Rock Cafe in Malaysia, besides the ones in Kuala Lumpur and Penang.

The 1,372-sq-m cafe has seating for 200 visitors, a vibrantly upscale bar, a spacious outdoor dining area, a live entertainment space that will feature Malacca's unique local music scene, and a Rock Shop.

Hard Rock fans will be able to see items from legendary and contemporary musicians from around the world. These include a Fender Telecaster guitar played and signed by legendary Bruce Springsteen in the 1990s, a Ludwig snare drum used onstage by Alex Van Halen during Van Halen's 2004 world tour and a stylish white dinner jacket worn by the genius of funk, soul, pop and rock, Prince.

There are also a jacket worn by will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas when he was promoting his solo album "Songs About Girls" in 2007, Tom Petty's suede jacket and Rickenbacker guitar, and a vinyl suit worn onstage in the 1990s by Sir Elton John.

Hard Rock was established in 1971 in London and the brand has presence in 177 locations worldwide.

RM1b Harrods Hotel KL to open its doors in 2018

TRADEWINDS Corp Bhd and Qatar Holding LLC will jointly develop the world's first Harrods Hotel in Malaysia, which is estimated to cost around RM1 billion.

Qatar Holding, which owns Harrods Group, also has on the drawing board to build Harrods Hotels in London and Italy.

The seven-star Harrods Hotel Kuala Lumpur, which will have more than 30 floors, will feature 250 to 300 hotel rooms and several floors for serviced apartments and retail space.

Two other luxury hotels under construction or being planned in Kuala Lumpur are St Regis at KL Sentral and the 65-storey Four Seasons Place near the Kuala Lumpur City Centre.
It is understood that the cost to build each Harrods Hotel room is RM2.5 million to RM4 million, depending on the size and finishing.

A six-star hotel room costs an average RM2.5 million to build and for five-star hotel rooms, it will cost about RM1.5 million to RM2 million each.

Qatar Holding vice-chairman Dr Hussain Ali Al-Abdulla said there will be a minimum of 200 rooms and the hotel will be ready in 2018.

The hotel will be owned and operated by Harrods Hotel Management Co, Hussain said.

"I can't reveal the project cost as we are calling for tenders in the third or fourth quarter of this year. We don't want bidders marking up the price," he said.

Hussain was speaking here yesterday, at the hotel's ground-breaking ceremony in Jalan Conlay. Also present was Federal Territories and Urban Wellbeing Minister Datuk Raja Nong Chik Raja Zainal Abidin.

In July last year, Qatar Holding and Jerantas Sdn Bhd signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to develop the hotel.

Jerantas is a joint-venture between PS Trading Sdn Bhd (34 per cent), which is owned by Tradewinds and Gagasan Simfoni Sdn Bhd (66 per cent).

Gagasan Simfoni is a 51:49 joint venture company set up by Pavillion Group and controlled by Malton Bhd's Datuk Desmond Lim, among others, and Qatar Holding, owned by Qatar's sovereign wealth fund.

Harrods Hotel forms part of an integrated development that will feature two serviced residences, an office block and a 400,000 sq ft retail mall.

The entire development will be undertaken by Jerantas on a 2.2ha site currently housing Chulan Square and Sri Melayu Restaurant. The land was acquired by Jerantas from the government for RM1,800 per sq ft, or RM429.68 million.

Hussain said at the signing ceremony that the cost to develop the hotel and the integrated development is about RM2 billion.

He said the hotel component will feature up to 300 hotel rooms, apartments and retail space.

On the pricing of the serviced apartments, he added that it would be higher than Banyan Tree Residences.

The last transacted price for the Banyan Tree was RM2,800 per sq ft.

Business Times understands that the retail mall will be injected into the Pavilion Real Estate Investment Trusts (Pavilion REIT) once it is ready in 2018.

Qatar Holding and Lim are major unit holders of Pavilion REIT.

Malaysia No.1 with Muslim tourists

SINGAPORE: Malaysia has been rated the world’s top Muslim friendly holiday destination in a survey released yesterday.

The study by Singapore-based Muslim travel consultancy Crescentrating ranked countries on how well they cater to the growing number of Muslim holidaymakers seeking halal – or Islam-compliant – food and services.

It used criteria including the level of safety in a country, ease of access to halal food and prayer facilities, and whether hotels cater to the needs of Muslim guests. On a scale of one to 10 in which 10 is the best score, Malaysia came out number one with a grade of 8.3 among 50 nations surveyed.

Egypt was in second place with 6.7, followed by the United Arab Emirates and Turkey both with 6.6. Crescentrating chief executive Fazal Bahardeen said the survey took the traveller’s view, meaning that it measured the ease of access by Muslim tourists to halal food and facilities. “Malaysia is one of the few countries where you can find a prayer place in almost every location – be it a shopping mall or the airport,” Fazal said.

In terms of cities as a shopping destination, Dubai pipped Kuala Lumpur for the number-one spot. Istanbul, Jeddah, Singapore, Cairo, Abu Dhabi, New Delhi, London and Doha completed the top-10 shopping destinations.

Thailand’s Suvarnabhumi Airport and the Kuala Lumpur International Airport were rated among the friendliest to Muslim travellers.

Spending byMuslim tourists is growing faster than the global rate and is forecast to reach $192 billion (RM579 billion) a year by 2020. – AFP

'Sama-Sama' brand name for MAHB hotels

SEPANG: Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) is spending about RM90 million to refurbish its landside and airside hotels under the "Sama-Sama" brand name.
MAHB chief financial officer Faizal Mansor said the company has allocated RM60 million for the refurbishment of Sama-Sama KL International Airport Hotel, which was formerly known as Pan Pacific KLIA Hotel; and RM5 million for the refurbishment of its existing transit hotel located at the satellite building of KLIA, called Sama-Sama Express.

The airport operator will spend between RM20 million and RM25 million for a new transit hotel at the new low-cost carrier terminal, klia2.

"The hotel will be called Sama-Sama Express klia2. It will be opened in conjunction with the official opening of klia2 (scheduled for June 28 this year)," Faizal told reporters prior to the official launch of Sama-Sama brand here, on Thursday night.

Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen represented Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak at the launch, which was also attended by, among others, MAHB chairman Tan Sri Dr Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Abdullah, MAHB managing director Tan Sri Bashir Ahmad Abdul Majid and Sama-Sama Hospitality Management president Hans Winsnes.
The Sama-sama brand, which translates into "togetherness", comprises two distinct airport hotel products, namely Sama-Sama landside airport hotels and Sama-Sama Express airside transit hotels.

Faizal said MAHB expects the three Sama-Sama hotels will help the group increase the contribution from non-aeronautical revenue to 60 per cent by 2014, from the current 52 per cent.

In the last fiscal year, hotel operations - which is part of the non-aeronautical segment - contributed about RM100 million to MAHB's RM2 billion revenue. Other sources of non-aeronautical revenue include retail and rental.

MAHB is optimistic of its hotel business as the hotels cater to air travellers, cabin crews and flight captains as well as those attending motorsports events held at the nearby Sepang International Circuit.

Faizal said the occupancy rate of Sama-Sama KLIA is anticipated to increase to more than 70 per cent, from the current 65 per cent.

The room tariff for the hotel, according to him, is typically among the top 15 hotels in Kuala Lumpur city centre and Klang Valley.

It ranges between RM350 to RM400 per night. During the peak season, such as major motorsports events, the room tariff is expected to be higher.

Faizal said there are plans to open more Sam-Sama hotels in the future, but currently, MAHB will focus on the three hotels at the KLIA and klia2.

Bursa Malaysia-listed MAHB currently manages and operates 39 airports in Malaysia. It also has operations in India and Turkey.

TRAVELLER‘S TALE: Midnight run to Penang

Hitching a ride on a lorry laden with newspapers turned out to be a great learning experience

WHEN I was in my 20s, I would do anything to save a few ringgit. My then-girlfriend was in Penang, so I would make periodic visits there from Kuala Lumpur.

One day, a colleague told me I could save on transport costs by hitching a ride on the company’s lorry which delivered freshly printed newspapers to Penang every night.

The particular lorry which I boarded did not leave until 11.30pm. I rode with the driver and co-driver in the wide front seat.

It was my first time travelling in this manner and I was more than thrilled. In half an hour, we were barreling down the long and winding road in the vicinity of Templer Park to Rawang. The North-South Highway did not exist then.

It was an exhilarating yet frightening experience sitting next to a driver who thought nothing of hitting the pedal in a lorry fully laden with the following day’s newspapers. I kept assuring myself that he knew the route well.

There were numerous times when I envisioned myself flying headlong through the wide windscreen into the darkness beyond the trees and tumbling down a ravine.

I held hard and fast to the sides of the vinyl seat. Courage and fatigue left me. My watch showed it was past midnight.

Somewhere along the journey, when all three of us were reduced to watching the white line in the centre of the trunk road, there was a sudden loud explosion.

A screeching noise followed. The lorry veered. Within seconds, we skidded to an abrupt halt in a ditch in the middle of nowhere. “What happened,” I asked desperately. Now my eyes were wide open.

It turned out to be a puncture in the front right tyre. All three of us got down to assess the situation. It was pitch dark.

“Where are we exactly?” I asked again. “Probably somewhere in Tanjung Malim,” replied the driver.
Naturally, the immediate solution was to fix the punctured tyre. That would be a challenge as the lorry was leaning to one side. Almost immediately, the driver realised that he did not have a hydraulic jack for the job.

The question in my head at that time was “what kind of lorry man does not carry a jack in his vehicle?” Of course, I dared not ask the driver.

The two men managed to wave down a passing lorry. We found out to our dismay that he too did not have a jack. For a few moments, I thought my final destination could turn out to be the edge of the jungle in a secluded part of Tanjung Malim.

But life is full of surprises. Calmly, the driver said he had an idea. He took out a three-foot long iron bar from his tool box. It was about 4cm thick.

When he saw the curious expression on my face, he said: “We can still jack up the lorry with this bar. I have done this before, when I was in the army.”

It was only then that I knew he was a former soldier. What he did next changed my perception of how rugged truck drivers survived on the highway every day.

The co-driver fired up the engine and the driver placed the iron bar at an angle with one end beneath the front bumper. With extreme caution and precision, the lorry moved forward.

The aim was to make the front wheel “sit” on the thick iron rod and make it “stand” so that the punctured tyre would be off the ground. If I had not seen it, I would not have believed that it could be done.

After three attempts, it worked!

Suddenly I spotted some lights floating in the nearby rubber plantation. Ghosts! Who knows what happens after midnight in the jungle-like environment?

When I pointed out the floating lights to the driver, he replied that those “apparitions” were just rubber tappers with lamps attached to their foreheads.

I looked at my watch. It was 4am. Seeing how rubber tappers worked during pre-dawn hours made me realise that not everybody had the privilege of working in air-conditioned offices.

The thought of tigers, snakes and other creepy-crawlies entered and stayed in my mind. Never again would I have any negative thoughts about these rubber tappers.

After the tyre was replaced, we were on our way again but not before I told the driver that I wanted to sleep at the back of the lorry where the newspapers were stacked.

Since the lorry was totally and securely covered by tarpaulin, there was no danger of me falling over.

And so I slept as the lorry made its way to Penang.

The lorry was supposed to be on the island by 6am or at the latest 7am but when we arrived, it was already noon. It had been a really long journey.

I alighted to find myself covered in dust, soot and other particles from the tarpaulin. I looked like a chimney sweep.

That journey was a great learning experience and what’s more important, it didn’t cost me a single sen.