Posted: 03 Jan 2015 09:49 AM PST

I am going to take you to a country which is full of islands. Any guess? Yes, you are right. It's Malaysia. There are878 islands in Malaysia. This country is known for its stunning sights and attractions. We are going to explore its astounding natural beauty that magnetizes vacationers/ tourists or visitors attraction. It's a country of exclusive culture and tradition. It's one of the best places on the globe with delicious cuisine and hospitable people. Kuala Lumpur is its capital with charming iconic Petronas Twin Towers. Malaysia has many offshore geographical places. There would be around 510 which include ridges, sandbank and rocks. It's a multicultural state with many festivals and celebrations. Tour to Malaysia, is really a unique and pleasant experience.

There're lots of choices to stay in Malaysia, so it's tough to decide where to stay?

Mid-range hotels and 5 stars hotels with Chinese, Indian or Malaysian traditional cuisine and cozy rooms are easily available for vacationers/visitors anywhere in cities. You can enjoy luxury hotels or resorts located on islands. Accommodation is so cheap in Malaysia, you can easily get a room for $ 3 to $ 9 USD/night. Private rooms are available for $ 11 to $ 20 USD/night. You can camp in Taman Negara and can save lodgings cost.

Anyways, here're some suggestions.

Lone Pine Hotel, located Batu Ferringhi, Penang Island, posses welcoming staff, stunning swimming pool, lip-smacking food, and calm atmosphere with beautiful sea views. You can get a huge variety of cocktails in bar corner.

Golden Sands Resort by Shangri-La, located on Batu Ferringhi beach, Penang Island, is a fantastic family resort, offers services such as water sports, tennis court, delicious food, pools, cozy rooms, hospitable staff and family entertainment center. Its cuisine includes Bar & Grill pizzas and seafood, tea/coffee, snacks, pastries.

Mandarin Oriental, Kuala Lumpur, in Kuala Lumpur City Centre, is a fantastic hotel with superb services. Welcoming staff, comfortable rooms, suspended pool and delicious Malaysian food make it more worthy staying.

Tanjong Jara Resort, located on Batu, Dungun, is one of the top 25 hotels in Malaysia, offers services such as Spa village, Pools, tennis court, delicious dining out, air-conditioned rooms, seafood and bar. You can spend a relaxing morning with coffee and newspaper on the beach.

Berjaya Tioman Resort, located in Pulau Tioman, is a traditional Malay style resort, offers services like pools, golf, tennis court, spa, coffee, snacks, global drinks, tasty food, air-conditioning cozy rooms and water sports including diving, fishing, snorkelling etc.

The Majestic Hotel, Majestic Malacca, Cameron Highlands Resort and Sama-Sama Hotel, in Kuala Lumpur, Holiday Villa Beach Resort & Spa and Four Seasons Resort in Langkawi, Miri Marriot Resort & Spa, Mega Hotel, Grand Palace Hotel and Imperial Palace Hotel in Miri, Seven Terraces, Yeng Keng Hotel, Museum Hotel and Hotel Panega are also wonderful places to stay in Malaysia.

As far as meal is concerned, you can have it in restaurants, western hotels , cooking own when living in camping or as a street meal and just have to pay $1 to $3 USD /head for street meal, $4 to $6 USD/head in restaurants while western food is a bit expensive. Malaysia is a Muslim country that's why drinks are expensive here. Anyways, here are some suggestions of restaurants for you.

Dining in the Dark, located on Changkat Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur, is an amazing restaurant deeply into darkness and offers delicious food including soups, desserts etc.

Black Forest, located on Changkat Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur, offers German cuisine.

Kebaya, located on Stewart Lane, Georgetown, Penang Island, offers good services and food.

Living Room Cafe Bar & Gallery, located on Batu Ferringhi, Penang Island, is a good place for families, lovebirds, special occasion or groups. You can enjoy Bar, Asian and Eclectic cuisine here until late night.

Top Spot Food Court, located Bukit Mata Kuching, Kuching is a family restaurant, offers best seafood and opens until late night.

Jambu Restaurant and Lounge, located on Crookshank Road, Kuching is a restaurant offers best pasta in town. It also deals with Bistro, Bar for cocktails and Tapas etc.

Black bean, The Heritage, Tribal Stove and Bella Italia are also superb restaurants in Kuching with the fantastic setting near river.

La Casa Kuantan, Crocodile Rock Pizza & Grill Restaurant, Satay Zul, and Dallah Restaurant in Kuantan offer great services with superb cuisine.

Malaysia is a country with many attractions or points of interests and more exciting thing is those are quite cheap. Here're some suggestions, and you must visit those places once you are in Malaysia.

Birch Memorial Clock Tower, located in one of the biggest cities of Malaysia named "Ipoh". Here're plenty of attention-grabbing sights such as museums, temples and historical buildings.

Galeria Perdana, Rice Museum, and Padi Langkawi, in Langkawi, are amazing places with precious stuff and collection, to visit. Langkawi is a beautiful island with lovely beaches and plenty of interesting sights. Ave Stella Maris Catholic Chapel is a beautiful church. Langkawi Wildlife Park and Underwater World are educational and exciting places with lots of fun.

The Islamic city "Kota Bharu" is a great city with royal places, museums, and plenty of other eye-catching sights.

Taman Negara National Park is a beautiful park in oldest rainforest Taman Negara. It's a place with lots of activities like trekking, safaris, and canopy walks.

Islamic Art Museum, Petronas Twin Towers, Putrajaya Bridge, Petrosains Science Discovery Centre, Kuala Lumpur Bird Park, Thean Hou Temple, and Lake Garden Parks are some suggested amazing places to visit in Kuala Lumpur.

Mount Kinabalu National Park, is the best choice for hiking, this Park is full of fun and will never disappoint you on your visit.

Malaysia is a land of festivals and celebrations as multicultural people exist here. Tourists or vacationers can enjoy these festivals almost every month of the year. Here are some suggestions for our visitors.

Tamil Community celebrates festival named "Thaipusam". It's a unique festival that is worth seeing. It can be best observed at Batu Caves in Selangor or Penang, in Januanry.

Chinese New Year is celebrated in February and last for 15 days. You can enjoy lion dances, fireworks, and delicious Chinese meal.

In April, Good Friday and Malaysia Water Festival are celebrated.

Wesak Day, and Harvest Festival are celebrated in May.

June is a month with amazing festivals like Hari Gawai and Dragon Boat Festivals.

July and August are the months with festivals such as the Rainforest World Music Festival, Independence day, Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Hungry Ghost Festival.

September becomes more colorful with Malaysia Day and Mid-Autumn Festival.

Hari Raya Haji, Deepavali Festivals of Lights, and Christmas are celebrated in October, November and December.

Malaysia is not less than a heaven for shopaholics. Super international brands have covered Malaysian market and have luxury stores here. Sales at shopping mall attract many tourists every year. Mega Sales held on Christmas and Independence Day and last up to two months.

Utama, BB Plaza, Fahrenheit88, Lot10, Plaza Low Yat, Suria KLCC and Sogo are some remarkable shopping malls in Kuala Lumpur.

ICT@Komtar, Island Plaza, Midlands One Stop, Plaza Gurney, Prangin Mall, Queensbay Mall and Straits Quay are some suggested shopping centers in Penang.

Langkawi Fair is a beautiful place for a shop in Langkawi.

Malaysia is a country with beaches. Therefore, beach holidays can be enjoyed all around the year. Summer season is mild, and usually climate is pleasant in Malaysia so you can visit it in all seasons. Anyhow, December and January are two peak tourists' seasons. From June until August is also a good time to enjoy beaches activities.

I assure you, your vacations to this country holding natural beauty, would be a treasured and unforgettable experience.

Easy Food Hacks: On the hunt for seafood in Kuching

Posted: 19 Jul 2013 10:12 AM PDT

Dinners out with family and friends in Kuching typically revolve around seafood. Kuching is famous for its seafood restaurants where fish, crustaceans and molluscs are displayed for your selection. On this trip, I was taken to two of the excellent but less well-known locations.

I was surprised when CH, her sister Monica and friend Jenny took me to a mall. Seafood restaurants in Kuching are typically open air or at least self-contained. But there is a seafood restaurant on the top floor of One Jaya Mall, this is a sister branch of a seafood restaurant at Top Spot, Jalan Bukit Mata.

We started with an order of hotplate tofu and sambal midin (Sarawak fern shoots). It's getting very difficult to source midin for the home kitchen now as supply is prioritised to the restaurant trade. The midin was cooked with sambal, and is as delicious as I remembered. We also had a seafood tom yum soup.

The salt and pepper prawns were somewhat bland. The star of the meal was the deep-fried soft-shell crabs in salted egg yolk. This was crispy, creamy, sweet, salty and buttery all at the same time. I could feel my arteries clog up, but I didn't care.

Cousin KH and her husband took the extended family to Padungan Bay Seafood. KH stumbled across this eatery during a client visit, and had gotten to know the owners well; we knew we were in for a treat.

The meal began with bittergourd omelette (so tasty) and midin cooked in Foochow red wine (u'ng ziu).

Then the seafood courses started. Some of the meatiest local crabs I'd seen, sautéed with egg. The crabmeat was sweet and succulent, and enhanced by the simple sauté.

Then they brought out some truly gigantic river prawns cooked with butter.

The steamed grouper was tender and sweet. Followed by deep-fried oysters served with a pepper dipping sauce, and some deep-fried squid.

We barely had space for the braised egg tofu, and only just made it out of our seats that evening. What a glorious way to end the makan (eating) session in Kuching.

I miss my relatives, friends and the beautiful, sweet crabs.

Bukit Mata Seafood Restaurant
3rd Floor, One Jaya Lifestyle Mall, Jalan Song, Kuching
Opened 7 days 10am -10pm

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Padungan Bay Seafood Restaurant
Jalan Petanak, Kuching
Mon: 5:30 – 10pm
Tues to Sun: 11am – 1pm, 5:30 – 10pm

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Top seafood restaurants in kuching - Come Sarawak - Come Sarawak

Posted: 18 Nov 2013 10:24 AM PST

It's not hard to see why Sin Lian Shin's Kolo Mee holds a legendary status as one of the best among the Kuching folks. What's not to like about the thin, springy noodles tossed in fragrant lard and garnished with flavorful minced meat? If you like Kolo Mee, this is as good as it gets – albeit the standard is said to have dropped recently.

The only thing that I disagree with is the red coloring char siew. I think it's high time for the Kolo Mee vendors to move away from these horribly dry dyed meat and serve proper barbecued pork instead.
As usual there are two variants of Kolo Mee here, with or without the char siew sauce – both are equally delicious so it boils down to your personal preference. You could order the koay teow version too if you want but I wouldn't recommend it because that's like ripping the soul from this local delicacy.

By the way they have gone high tech (for a coffee shop) too by using PDA to take the orders. For a halal version of Kolo Mee you could try Haji Salleh at Jalan Satok, which is only about 5-10 minutes' drive away.

Sin Lian Shin 新聯成
182 Jalan Green,
93150, Kuching
GPS Coordinates: N1 32.604 E110 19.939

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