11:38:00

<b>Hotel di kuching</b> - Come Sarawak - Come Sarawak


<b>Hotel di kuching</b> - Come Sarawak - Come Sarawak

Posted: 15 Nov 2013 07:10 PM PST

Flying on an inaugural flight with Malindo Air was great experience. Love all the features inside the aircrafts. And it was more great to be able to revisit Kuching after the first one in 2005.

For your information, Malindo Air flies to Kuching 4 times daily.

7500th Boeing 7377500th Boeing 737 (9M-LNF).

So, what's interesting in Kuching? Plenty, actually. Malindo with collaboration of Sarawak Tourism Board had arranged tours around Sarawak for media who was on the inaugural flight.

Here are some ideas for you to start with if you plan to visit Kuching. This list is crafted based on places I visited only.

1Stay at Riverside Majestic Hotel. Riverside Majestic Hotel is strategically located in the heart of Kuching overlooking the Sarawak River. The hotel commands a panoramic view of the city and the Kuching Waterfront across.

The hotel has 241 comfortable rooms and offers chef's selection of signature dishes and tonic soups. Their kitchens are all certified Halal. For relaxation, you can go to the Borneo Odyssey Spa located on the Lower Ground floor of their sister property the Grand Margherita Hotel, or cool off in the hotel's swimming pool. A bowling centre and cineplex is also available in the adjacent Riverside Shopping Complex.

Riverside Majestic HotelFront view of Riverside Majestic Hotel.

2

Eat, eat and eat. For dinner, everybody is going to Top Spot Food Court. It is basically a hawker centre that sells mostly seafood. It is located on a roof top of a 5 storey car park right in the smack of the city centre. For exotic lunch, you can go to Absolute Tribal Restaurant located at Sarakraf Pavilion. For local kampung style food, you can go to Mount Serapi Corner.

absolute tribalInteresting entrance of AbsoluteTribal Restaurant.

3Go shopping! There are many places you can shop but if you want to look for food, fruits, seafood, go to Medan Niaga Satok. For gift items like pua kumbu, jeweleries and what not go to Main Bazaar. Another place you can go to to buy Kek Lapis is Dayang Salhah Kek Lapis. Another interesting place to buy crafts is Sarakraf Pavilion.

4Visit cat statues around Kuching. The most recognizable cat statue is the one near Kuching Waterfront, just opposite the Riverside Majestic Hotel. You can also find another one in front of the Little China Town along Jalan Padungan. There's another one at Jalan Abell. More if you walk around town.

cat statuesClockwise: A cat family near Riverside Majestic Hotel, Lonely cat in front of Little China Town and four cats at Jalan Abell.

5

See orang-utans at Semenggoh Wildlife Center.  Established in 1975, this center cares for wild animals which have either been found injured in the forest, orphaned, or were previously kept as illegal pets. The center also offers a rare opportunity to view orang-utans in their natural habitat. Although these recently released orang utan spend most of their time in the surrounding forest, they do return to the centre where they are fed twice daily at a "halfway house" feeding station. Over time the orang utan appear less frequently as they start to adjust to life in the forest. During the fruit season they may not appear at all, which is a good sign and shows that they are adapting well to their new surroundings.

orangutanOrang-utan right right above me!

6Experience Sarawak heritage at Sarawak Cultural Village. Situated at the foothills of legendary Mount Santubong, this village, dubbed as Sarawak Living Museum, showcases fascinating   Sarawak's ethnic diversity at a glance. You will have the chance to the heritage of the major racial groups in Sarawak namely their traditional houses, crafts, musics and clothings. Sarawak Cultural Village  is also the venue for the World Harvest Festival and the Rainforest World Music Festival, an internationally renowned festival.

Sarawak Cultural VillageOne of the traditional houses.

7Take the Sarawak River cruise. The best way to see Kuching is from the Sarawak River located in the heart of Kuching. The cruise gives you a view of the city and its surrounding areas. You will see the New Sarawak State Legislative Assembly Building, Astana Building, Kuching Waterfront, colourful villages, villagers doing their daily routines, cargo vessels and many more.

Sarawak river cruiseSarawak River Cruise boarding area at the waterfront.

There you go. I will elaborate more on some of the places above when time permits.

{latestItemTitle} Homestay <b>di kuching</b> - Come Sarawak - Blogger

Posted: 03 Jan 2014 10:05 AM PST

How Taib Family Built Huge Housing Wealth In The Name Of Kuching's Poor

This post is also available in: Iban, Malay

1/2 million ringgit price tags on CMS built homes in Bandar Samariang

1/2 million ringgit price tags on CMS built homes in Bandar Samariang

The Taib family company CMS proudly boasts of its "vast land bank" in its annual reports and has started selling off chunks for tens of millions in Kuching.

Commercial centres and grand housing estates are also being developed in two key areas, Bandar Samariang, where CMS has 5,200 acres, valued around half a billion ringgit, and of course on the Kuching Isthmus, where land is even more expensive.

But, how did CMS acquire all this property and who has benefitted?

Sarawak Report has acquired shocking information about the way Taib and his family members have profited from this land, which was forcibly taken (official term is 'alienated') from local people and state ownership.

We did it to help the poor

The story that the Chief Minister told from the start was that this was land that difficult and expensive to develop, but that his family company was kindly determined to provide housing for poor people.

Back in 2001, he even made out that CMS was doing this supposed favour in Bandar Samariang entirely "for the people's benefit" for "not much profit", because other developers didn't want to get involved in such a loss-making venture!

Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud denied yesterday that the development projects implemented in the state had benefited him personally as alleged by some quarters. Stressing that the projects were for the people's benefit, he urged them to think rationally all allegations of nepotism and cronyism which were levelled at him before making any conclusion….he cited as an example the low-cost housing project in Rampangi, Semariang of which he was accused of benefiting personally. Taib.. said the project did not bring much profit to the developer Cahya Mata Sarawak Bhd due to the peat soil condition. Not many companies wanted to invest in the project because of the high cost involved to prepare the site for the project, he said. But in the interest of the people, the project had to be carried out to provide housing to the low income group, he said. "We do not want them to remain without houses and live far away from the city. That's why we continued with the project," he said.[Bernama Sunday, April 08, 2001]

Such a kind old fellow!

Chief Executive and key shareholder at the time, Taib brother Onn Mahmud

Chief Executive and key shareholder at the time, Taib brother Onn Mahmud

Interestingly no mention has ever been made again of these poor soil conditions by CMS.  This is probably, not least, because in every other country in the world, developing tropical peat soil has been banned, because of the severe environmental consequences.

To gain a sense of the value of this land handed to CMS in the guise of helping the poor, consider the recent news that the company has decided to sell on a parcel of 500 acres for over RM45million to Sentoria Group to build a theme park.

Suddenly, another developer has been found willing not only to take on the job of developing the land, but to pay big money for the plot.

However, this time of course the money has gone to CMS, not the government or the people from whom the area was 'alienated'.

At the time CMS got this land for free it was largely owned and run by Taib's brother Onn Mahmud, who shortly after passed on his shares to Taib's wife, with the remainder being largely in the hands of the Chief Minister's four children.

No nepotism at all then!

Sucking money out of pensions too

Robert Geneid, the Head of CMS Property Development and husband of Taib's sister Raziah Mahmud.

Robert Geneid, the Head of CMS Property Development and husband of Taib's sister Raziah Mahmud.

But, of course, the Taibs didn't really want to invest their own money in this mission to assist the poor with 'quality low cost housing'.

Far better to use their influence to encourage the government controlled Employee Provident Fund (EPF) to put in the money instead.

After all, this fat milk cow has been used to pour vast sums of money into endless pet projects to benefit BN politicians, meaning public employees can look forward to far lower pensions, despite being forced to pay a quarter of their salaries into the obligatory savings fund controlled by the government.

EPF therefore was dragged into a joint venture with CMS and the investment in the "low cost housing" in Bandar Samariang began.

But, in fact, low cost housing was only ever planned to form a small part of the project from the very start.  The original terms of agreement, as explained in CMS's own annual reports, made clear just 1/3 of the area was to be housing for the less well-off.

Housing for the poor?

Housing for the poor?

The rest of the huge site was to be developed as an ambitious commercial enterprise.

CMS's 1997 Annual Report was certainly not bashful about the profit-driven nature of CMS's latest housing project or the ambitions of its new Property Development Division, headed by the new husband of Taib's sister Raziah, the Lebanese Australian, Robert Geneid.

It also reveals that, thanks to Taib's ability to pull the strings, that the State Housing & Development Commission had already been tasked with buying whatever 'quality low cost housing' CMS Property produced on the site, ensuring a guaranteed profit.

1997 Annual Report

Property Development

"This is a new growth area for the Group, and CMS Properties Sdn Bhd has been set up to develop and manage the Group's vast land bank, with the long-term objective of becoming Sarawak's principal property developer and a major player throughout Malaysia and the ASEAN region. The Group's strategy is based on using the natural synergy between the infrastructure, finance and property divisions….

Bandar Baru Samariang is a joint venture with the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and will be the largest low-cost housing project ever undertaken in Sarawak, and the first housing development project undertaken by the Group. 

The 13,500 low cost houses (approximately 36 percent of the project) will be sold to the Housing & Development Commission……The remaining 64 percent of the project will comprise medium-cost homes, commercial centres and ancillary buildings, providing a total of 42,200 housing units on the vast 5,200 acre site just 15 km from Kuching. Phase 1 of the township is currently being implemented, to provide over 4,000 units of low-cost housing, as well as hundreds of other residential and commercial properties."[Ann Rpt 1997]

So, in fact, a mere 4,000 units of the token low cost housing have been included in the first phase of the project, all promoted in the beginning in a blaze of positive publicity, before CMS moved speedily to the much more lucrative "medium cost" housing, where units are currently being sold for the very fancy prices of anything up to half a million ringgit!

Bandar Samariang Phase I Plan

Phase 1 - including 4,000 low cost housing units guaranteed to be purchased by the Housing Committee

Phase 1 – including 4,000 low cost housing units guaranteed to be purchased by the Housing Committee

Of course, the fact that the state has ploughed in major infrastructure, in terms of roads and amenities into the area, has made the development potential of this project ever more lucrative.  Yet, the Chief Minister is still justifying his handing of it all to his family in the name of charity for Kuching's poor!

Presiding over his family's vast profitable land venture.

Presiding over his family's vast profitable land venture.

However, this mother of all land grabs from the Sarawak people is just the start of the story of how the Taib family set about enriching themselves from this project.

In 'Phase 2′ of our investigation we will be looking at how individual members of the Taib inner family circle, set about using the massive housing project to develop profitable businesses for themselves, with disastrous consequences for the very poor people in whose name the Bandar Samariang land grab was executed.

"The new township boasts a myriad of vibrant features such as improved road connectivity between central and South Kuching" Borneo Post

"The new township boasts a myriad of vibrant features such as improved road connectivity between central and South Kuching" Borneo Post

<b>Homestay <b>di kuching</b></b> - Come Sarawak - Come Sarawak

Posted: 02 Dec 2013 07:28 PM PST

How Taib Family Built Huge Housing Wealth In The Name Of Kuching's Poor

This post is also available in: Iban, Malay

1/2 million ringgit price tags on CMS built homes in Bandar Samariang

1/2 million ringgit price tags on CMS built homes in Bandar Samariang

The Taib family company CMS proudly boasts of its "vast land bank" in its annual reports and has started selling off chunks for tens of millions in Kuching.

Commercial centres and grand housing estates are also being developed in two key areas, Bandar Samariang, where CMS has 5,200 acres, valued around half a billion ringgit, and of course on the Kuching Isthmus, where land is even more expensive.

But, how did CMS acquire all this property and who has benefitted?

Sarawak Report has acquired shocking information about the way Taib and his family members have profited from this land, which was forcibly taken (official term is 'alienated') from local people and state ownership.

We did it to help the poor

The story that the Chief Minister told from the start was that this was land that difficult and expensive to develop, but that his family company was kindly determined to provide housing for poor people.

Back in 2001, he even made out that CMS was doing this supposed favour in Bandar Samariang entirely "for the people's benefit" for "not much profit", because other developers didn't want to get involved in such a loss-making venture!

Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud denied yesterday that the development projects implemented in the state had benefited him personally as alleged by some quarters. Stressing that the projects were for the people's benefit, he urged them to think rationally all allegations of nepotism and cronyism which were levelled at him before making any conclusion….he cited as an example the low-cost housing project in Rampangi, Semariang of which he was accused of benefiting personally. Taib.. said the project did not bring much profit to the developer Cahya Mata Sarawak Bhd due to the peat soil condition. Not many companies wanted to invest in the project because of the high cost involved to prepare the site for the project, he said. But in the interest of the people, the project had to be carried out to provide housing to the low income group, he said. "We do not want them to remain without houses and live far away from the city. That's why we continued with the project," he said.[Bernama Sunday, April 08, 2001]

Such a kind old fellow!

Chief Executive and key shareholder at the time, Taib brother Onn Mahmud

Chief Executive and key shareholder at the time, Taib brother Onn Mahmud

Interestingly no mention has ever been made again of these poor soil conditions by CMS.  This is probably, not least, because in every other country in the world, developing tropical peat soil has been banned, because of the severe environmental consequences.

To gain a sense of the value of this land handed to CMS in the guise of helping the poor, consider the recent news that the company has decided to sell on a parcel of 500 acres for over RM45million to Sentoria Group to build a theme park.

Suddenly, another developer has been found willing not only to take on the job of developing the land, but to pay big money for the plot.

However, this time of course the money has gone to CMS, not the government or the people from whom the area was 'alienated'.

At the time CMS got this land for free it was largely owned and run by Taib's brother Onn Mahmud, who shortly after passed on his shares to Taib's wife, with the remainder being largely in the hands of the Chief Minister's four children.

No nepotism at all then!

Sucking money out of pensions too

Robert Geneid, the Head of CMS Property Development and husband of Taib's sister Raziah Mahmud.

Robert Geneid, the Head of CMS Property Development and husband of Taib's sister Raziah Mahmud.

But, of course, the Taibs didn't really want to invest their own money in this mission to assist the poor with 'quality low cost housing'.

Far better to use their influence to encourage the government controlled Employee Provident Fund (EPF) to put in the money instead.

After all, this fat milk cow has been used to pour vast sums of money into endless pet projects to benefit BN politicians, meaning public employees can look forward to far lower pensions, despite being forced to pay a quarter of their salaries into the obligatory savings fund controlled by the government.

EPF therefore was dragged into a joint venture with CMS and the investment in the "low cost housing" in Bandar Samariang began.

But, in fact, low cost housing was only ever planned to form a small part of the project from the very start.  The original terms of agreement, as explained in CMS's own annual reports, made clear just 1/3 of the area was to be housing for the less well-off.

Housing for the poor?

Housing for the poor?

The rest of the huge site was to be developed as an ambitious commercial enterprise.

CMS's 1997 Annual Report was certainly not bashful about the profit-driven nature of CMS's latest housing project or the ambitions of its new Property Development Division, headed by the new husband of Taib's sister Raziah, the Lebanese Australian, Robert Geneid.

It also reveals that, thanks to Taib's ability to pull the strings, that the State Housing & Development Commission had already been tasked with buying whatever 'quality low cost housing' CMS Property produced on the site, ensuring a guaranteed profit.

1997 Annual Report

Property Development

"This is a new growth area for the Group, and CMS Properties Sdn Bhd has been set up to develop and manage the Group's vast land bank, with the long-term objective of becoming Sarawak's principal property developer and a major player throughout Malaysia and the ASEAN region. The Group's strategy is based on using the natural synergy between the infrastructure, finance and property divisions….

Bandar Baru Samariang is a joint venture with the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and will be the largest low-cost housing project ever undertaken in Sarawak, and the first housing development project undertaken by the Group. 

The 13,500 low cost houses (approximately 36 percent of the project) will be sold to the Housing & Development Commission……The remaining 64 percent of the project will comprise medium-cost homes, commercial centres and ancillary buildings, providing a total of 42,200 housing units on the vast 5,200 acre site just 15 km from Kuching. Phase 1 of the township is currently being implemented, to provide over 4,000 units of low-cost housing, as well as hundreds of other residential and commercial properties."[Ann Rpt 1997]

So, in fact, a mere 4,000 units of the token low cost housing have been included in the first phase of the project, all promoted in the beginning in a blaze of positive publicity, before CMS moved speedily to the much more lucrative "medium cost" housing, where units are currently being sold for the very fancy prices of anything up to half a million ringgit!

Bandar Samariang Phase I Plan

Phase 1 - including 4,000 low cost housing units guaranteed to be purchased by the Housing Committee

Phase 1 – including 4,000 low cost housing units guaranteed to be purchased by the Housing Committee

Of course, the fact that the state has ploughed in major infrastructure, in terms of roads and amenities into the area, has made the development potential of this project ever more lucrative.  Yet, the Chief Minister is still justifying his handing of it all to his family in the name of charity for Kuching's poor!

Presiding over his family's vast profitable land venture.

Presiding over his family's vast profitable land venture.

However, this mother of all land grabs from the Sarawak people is just the start of the story of how the Taib family set about enriching themselves from this project.

In 'Phase 2′ of our investigation we will be looking at how individual members of the Taib inner family circle, set about using the massive housing project to develop profitable businesses for themselves, with disastrous consequences for the very poor people in whose name the Bandar Samariang land grab was executed.

"The new township boasts a myriad of vibrant features such as improved road connectivity between central and South Kuching" Borneo Post

"The new township boasts a myriad of vibrant features such as improved road connectivity between central and South Kuching" Borneo Post