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PULAU LANGKAWI

Langkawi, officially known as Langkawi, the Jewel of Kedah is an archipelago of 104 islands in theAndaman Sea, some 30 km off the mainland coast of northwestern Malaysia. The islands are a part of the state of Kedah, which is adjacent to the Thai border. On July 15, 2008, Sultan Abdul Halim of Kedah had consented to the change of name to Langkawi Permata Kedah in conjunction with his Golden Jubilee Celebration. By far the largest of the islands is the eponymous Pulau Langkawi with a population of some 64,792, the only other inhabited island being nearby Pulau Tuba. Langkawi is also an administrative district with the town of Kuah as largest town. Langkawi is a duty-free island.

           Langkawi means reddish brown eagle in colloquial Malay. The Malay word for eagle is helang - which is shortened to "lang". Kawi means the colour reddish brown. It was given the title of "Langkawi, the Jewel of Kedah" in 2008 by Kedah's Sultan Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah as part of his golden jubilee to impress on tourists that it was part of Kedah.

         

A FAMOSA

A Famosa is a Portuguese fortress located in Malacca, Malaysia. It is among the oldest surviving Europians architectural remains in Asia. The Porta de Santiago, a small gate house, is the only remaining part of the fortress still standing.

The name is often mispronounced Famosa, even among Malaysians, as though the Portuguese definite article a were the English letter A. A more authentic pronunciation would be Famosa.

          In 1511, a Portuguese fleet arrived under the command of Afonso de Albuquerque. His forces attacked and defeated the armies of the Malacca Sultanate. Moving quickly to consolidate his gains, Albuquerque had the fortress built around a natural hill near the sea.Albuquerque believed Malacca would become an important port linking Portugal to the Spice Routine in China. At this time other Portuguese were establishing outposts in such places as Macau, China and India in order to create a string of friendly ports for ships heading to China and returning home to Portugal

The fortress once consisted of long ramparts and four major towers One was a four-story keep, while the others held an ammunations storage room, the residence of the captian, and an officers' quarters. Most of the village clustered in town houses inside the fortress walls. As Malacca's population expanded it outgrew the original fort and extensions were added around 1586.

The for changed hands in 1641 when the Dutch drove the Portuguese out of Malacca. The Dutch renovated the gate in 1670, which explains the logo "ANNO 1670" inscribed on the gate's arch. Above the arch is a bas-relief logo of the Dutch East India Company

The fortress changed hands again in the early 19th century when the Dutch handed it over to the British to prevent it from falling into the hands of Napoleon's expansionist France.The English were wary of maintaining the Fortification and ordered its destruction in 1806. The fort was almost totally demolished but for the timely intervention of Sir Stamford Raffles the founder of modern Singapore,who happened to visit Malacca in 1810. Because of his passion for history, this small gate was spared from destruction.

BUKIT BINTANG

Bukit Bintang stylized as Bintang Walk or Starhill, the latter being a translation of the Malay name) is the name of the shopping and entertainment district of Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia It encompasses Jalan Bukit Bintang and its immediate surrounding areas. The area has long been Kuala Lumpur's most prominent retail belt that is home to many landmark shopping centres, al-fresco cafés, swanky bars, night markets, as well as hawker-type eateries. This area is popular among tourists and locals, especially among the youths. A part of Bintang Walk is designated as an "Arab Street".

         Jalan Tong Shin in Bukit Bintang was the focal point of the Malaysia's deadly May 13 race riots Back in the late 1980s, corporate magnate Tan Sri Yeoh Tiong Lay proposed a rejuvenated retail cluster in Kuala Lumpur. He started retail developments in this area through a conglomerate YTL Corporations and branded the area as Bintang Walk. The district has since undergone a transformation to become one of the hippest destinations in the city, though the decentralisation of malls in Kuala Lumpur of late has seen more sophisticated malls sprouting around the fringes of the city proper at an unprecedented rate.

NATIONAL ZOO OF MALAYSIA

The National Zoo  is a zoo in Malaysia located on 110 acres (45 ha) of land in Ulu Klang near Taman Melawati, in north-east Kuala Lumpur, It was officially opened on 14 November 1963. The park is managed by a non-governmental organization known as the Malaysian Zoological Society. For funding, Zoo Negara relies on gate collections and on support from donors and sponsors.

Zoo Negara is home to 5137 animals of 459 different species. Over the years, the zoo has transformed itself to an open concept zoo with over 90% of its animals kept in spacious exhibits with landscape befitting its nature.

Zoo Negara received MS ISO 9001:2008 Certification in July 2007, and is a member of the SEAZA. The President and chairman of the zoo is Y. Bhg. Dato’ Ismail Hutson.

         In 1957, the Malayan Agri-Horticultural Association (MAHA) opened a miniature zoo. After the creation of the mini-zoo, the idea of proper zoo gradually gained momentum, and the federal government chose a spot in Ulu Klang,Selangor next to the border of Kuala Lumpur In the 1960s, Ulu Klang was an undeveloped green area. In 1963, the first Prime Minister of Malaya (now Malaysia) YTM Tunku Abdul Rahman opened the zoo to the public. Zoo Negara was known as the "Zoo in the Jungle" due to the greenery that surrounded the area.

         The zoo welcomed its millionth visitor on February 14, 1966, just three years after opening, and by 1986, the zoo was welcoming over 1 million visitors per year.

          The area surrounding the zoo was covered with thick vegetation until the late 1970s as Kuala Lumpur underwent an eonomic boom. Given Ulu Klang's close proximity with Kuala Lumpur, the area was opened for large scale development as a planned residential area in the 1980s. It has expanded in terms of population ever since. The development has caused the zoo's surrounding areas and also increases the land value where the zoo is located.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, there were plans to move the zoo to other locations in Selangor However, the plans were largely unpopular among the public as it is seen as an effort by some developers to capitalise on the value of the zoo's large land. With the support from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the Selangor State Government, Zoo Negara will not be relocated.

PETRONAS TOWERS

The Petronas Towers, also known as the Petronas Twin Towers are twin skycrapers in Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia According to the CTBUH`s official definition and ranking, they were the tallest building in the worlds from 1998 to 2004 until surpassed by Taipei 101, but they remain the tallest twin building in the world.The buildings are the landmark of Kuala Lumpur with nearby Kuala Lumpur Tower.

          The towers were designed by Argentine architect Caesar Pelli  They chose a distinctive postmodernstyle to create a 21st-century icon for Kuala Lumpur. Planning on the Petronas Towers started on 1 January 1992 and included rigorous tests and simulations of wind and structural loads on the design. Seven years of construction followed, beginning on 1 March 1993 with the excavation, which involved moving 500 truckloads of earth every night to dig down 30 metres (98 ft) below the surface.

The next stage was the single largest and longest concrete pour in Malaysian history. 13,200 cubic metres (470,000 cu ft) of concrete was continuously poured through a period of 54 hours for each tower. This record-breaking slab with 104 piles forms the foundation for each tower.

From this floor rose a 21-metre (69 ft) high retaining wall, with a perimeter length of over 1,000 metres (3,300 ft). This concrete shell and the basement area it enclosed required two years to complete, and up to 40 workers on site 24 hours per day.

The construction of the superstructure commenced on 1 April 1994. Interiors with furniture were completed on 1 January 1996, the spires of Tower 1 and Tower 2 were completed on 1 March 1996, and the first batch of 'PETRONAS’ personnel moved into the building on 1 January 1997. The building was officially opened by the Prime Minister of Malaysia'sTun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohammad on 1 August 1999. The twin towers were built on the site of Kuala Lumpur's race track. Test boreholes found that the original construction site effectively sat on the edge of a cliff. One half of the site was decayed limestone while the other half was soft rock. The entire site was moved 61 metres (200 ft) to allow the buildings to sit entirely on the soft rock. Because of the depth of the bedrock, the buildings were built on the world's deepest foundations. 104 concrete piles, ranging from 60 to 114 metres (200 to 374 ft) deep, were bored into the ground. The concrete raft foundation, comprising 13,200 cubic metres (470,000 cu ft) of concrete was continuously poured through a period of 54 hours for each tower. The raft is 4.6 metres (15 ft) thick, weighs 32,500 tonnes (35,800 tons) and held the world record for the largest concrete pour until 2007. The foundations were completed within 12 months by Bachy Soletanche and required massive amounts of concrete. Its engineering designs on structural framework were contributed by Haitian engineer Domo Obiasse and colleagues Aris Battista and Princess D Battista.

The 88-floor towers are constructed largely of reinforced concrete, with a steel and glass facade designed to resemble motifs found in Islamic Arts, a reflection of Malaysia's Muslim religion.Another Islamic influence on the design is that the cross section of the towers is based on a Rub el Hizb, albeit with circular sectors added to meet office space requirements.

As a result of the Malaysian government specifying that the buildings be completed in six years, two construction consortiums were hired in order to meet the deadline, one for each tower. Tower 1, the west tower (right in the top-right photograph) was built by a Japanese consortium led by theHazama Corporation (JA Jones Construction CO, MMC Engineering Services Sdn Bhd, Ho Hup Construction Co. Bhd and Mitsubishi Corp) while Tower 2, the east tower (left in the top-right photograph) was built by a South Korean consortium led by the Samsung C&T Corporation (Kukdong Engineering & Construction and Syarikat Jasatera Sdn Bhd). Early into construction a batch of concrete failed a routine strength test causing construction to come to a complete halt. All the completed floors were tested but it was found that only one had used a bad batch and it was demolished. As a result of the concrete failure, each new batch would now be tested before being poured. The halt in construction had cost US$700,000 per day and led to three separate concrete plants being set up on the site to ensure that if one produced a bad batch, the other two could continue to supply concrete. The sky bridge contract was completed by Kukdong Engineering & Construction. Tower 2 became the first to reach the world's tallest building at the time because Tower 1 (Hazama) ran into problems when they discovered the structure was leaning 25 millimetres (0.98 in) off from vertical. To correct the lean, the next 16 floors were slanted back 20 millimetres (0.79 in) with specialist surveyors hired to check verticality twice a day until the building's completion.

Due to the huge cost of importing steel, the towers were constructed on a cheaper radical design of super high-strength reinforced concrete.High-strength concrete is a material familiar to Asian contractors and twice as effective as steel in sway reduction; however, it makes the building twice as heavy on its foundation than a comparable steel building. Supported by 23-by-23 metre concrete cores and an outer ring of widely spaced super columns, the towers use a sophisticated structural system that accommodates its slender profile and provides 560,000 square metres of column-free office space. Below the twin towers is Suria KLCC, a shopping mall, and Dewan Filharmonik Petronas, the home of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra.

SUNWAY PYRAMID

Sunway Pyramid is located in the heart of Bandar Sunway, Subang Jaya. It was opened in July 1997.

One of the mall's most easily recognised designs is the Eygiptian-inspired Pyramid with a lion "standing guard" at the entrance. The rest of the building is embellished in the monumental style, complete with pseudo-hieroglyphics decorating facades, along with numerous Pharonic statuaries.

A monorail station connected to the Kuala Lumpur Monorail was originally planned to be built there. Construction began in early 2006, but was stopped and as of 2007 demolition is being considered.

Its gross floor area of are totals 4,276,945 square feet (396,000 m²).

BERJAYA TIMES SQUARE

Berjaya Times Square Kuala Lumpur is a 48-storey, 203 m (666 ft) twin tower, hotel, condominium, and shopping centre complex in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It was opened in October 2003 by the 4th Prime Minister of Malaysia, YAB Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad.

THE BACKGROUND

The development is currently the eighth largest building in the world and has also been tagged as the "world's largest building ever built in a single phase", with 700,000 m² (7,500,000 sq ft) of built up floor area. This building consists of shopping mall, business office and leisure centre with 1000 retail shops, 1200 luxury service suites, 65 food outlets and entertainment attractions such as Berjaya Times Square Theme Park and GSC MAXX (formerly IMAX) 2D & 3D theatre.

In April 2005, Borders Group opened its first franchise store here which was the largest Borders store in the world at the time. However due to the2010 economic downturn it has since been downsized into a smaller operation called Borders Express.

The Kuala Lumpur Monorail's Imbi station is linked to the building by a footbridge.

HISTORY

Originally, the land belonged to the millionaire and philanthropist Cheong Yoke Choy before World War II. His bungalow stood there until the entire parcel of land was purchased by Berjaya Group Tan Sri Vincent Tan for the development of the current Berjaya Times Square Kuala Lumpur.

Sunway Lagoon

SUNYWAY LAGOON

Sunway Lagoon is an amusement park in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. It was officially opened by the Prime Minister Tun Mahathir bin Mohamad on April 29, 1993. It features rides in both the water park and the adjacent dry park. In late 2008, new parks were added and minor improvements were made to the existing park. The park is home to the world's largest wave pool, measuring impressive 139,800 square feet (13,000 square meters).

'Extreme Park' and 'Scream Park' were added to Sunway Lagoon in 2008. Scream Park features horror movies in 3-D. In May 2010, Terminator X: A Laser Battle for Salvation opened at the park.

Genting Highlands

GENTING HIGLANDS

Genting Highlands otherwise known as Resorts World Genting, is a hill resort in Malaysia developed by Genting Group It is nestled on a mountain peak (maximum elevation about 1,860 metres (6,100 ft)) within the Titiwangsa Mountains on the border between the states of Pahang and Selangor of Malaysia Resorts World Genting is operated by Genting Malaysia Berhad (formerly known as Resorts World Bhd), which also operates Awana chain of resorts & hotels. It is accessible by car from Kuala Lumpur in one hour, or also accessible by a cable car called Genting Skyway (3.38 kilometres (2.10 mi) which at its opening used to be the world's fastest and South East Asia`s longest gondola lift.

          The idea of creating a hill resort located in proximity to Kuala Lumpur came up in the late Tan Sri Lim Goh Thong's mind during a business trip to the Cameron Highlands in 1964. He mooted this idea while enjoying the fresh and crisp air from the balcony at his hotel room. A private company called Genting Highlands Berhad was set up on 27 April 1965, with the late Tan Sri Haji Mohammed Noah bin Omar, Tan Sri Lim successfully obtained approval for the alienation of 12,000 acres (4,900 ha) and 2,800 acres (1,100 ha) of land from the Pahang and Selangor State Government respectively between the years 1965 and 1970. An anomaly happened during the obtaining of the land approvals. While the Pahang state government swiftly approved a freehold lease, the Selangor state reluctantly approved a 99-year lease. As a result, Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong met the then Menteri Besar of Selangor, Dato Harun Idris and telling him that a freehold lease will be more feasible than a 99-year lease. Finally, the Selangor state government agreed to grant a freehold lease.

On 18 August 1965, a technical and construction team began the herculean task that would take four years to complete the access road from Genting Sempah to the peak of Gunung Ulu Kali. On 31 March 1969, the late YTM Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia’s first Prime Minister laid the foundation stone for the company’s pioneer hotel, the then Highlands Hotel, marking the completion of the access road to Genting Highlands Resort. The Prime Minister was impressed that the private sector, without the assistance of the Government, could develop a mountain resort for the enjoyment of all Malaysians; subsequently a gaming licence was suggested to help accelerate the development of this remote area.

In 1971, the first hotel at Genting Highlands was successfully completed and was then named Highlands Hotel (now renamed Theme Park Hotel). The Genting Highlands Resort continued to expand since the opening of the first hotel in 1971. Development of the area continued with care taken to ensure the maintenance of the natural beauty of the rainforest of the region.In 1997, Genting Highlands Resort further boosted its facility attraction with Genting Skyway cable car system that provides a 3.38 kilometres (2.10 mi) transport to the hilltop. Genting Skyway is also recognised as the "World's Fastest Mono Cable Car System" with a maximum speed of 21.6 kilometres per hour (13.4 mph) and the "Longest Cable Car in Malaysia and Southeast Asia'.

Pulau Pangkor

PULAU PANGKOR

Pulau Pangkor is an island off the coast of Perak in north-west peninsular Malaysia, reached by ferry either from the old jetty or from Marina Island jetty  both located in Lumut (a small coastal town that links to Ipoh through Sitiawan). It has a land area of only 8 square kilometers, and a population of approximately 25,000 islanders. It is promoted as a low-key tourist destination by the Malaysian government, but fishing, seafood and other fishing-related products remain major industries.

          Historically, Pangkor was a refuge for local fishermen, merchants and pirates. In the 17th century, the Dutch built a fort in an effort to control the Perak tin trade. In 1874, it was the location of a historic treaty between the British government and a contender for the Perak throne (The Pangkor Treaty), which began the British colonial domination of the Malay Peninsula

Pangkor is famous for its fine beaches and a mix of low budget to 5 star accommodations. Teluk Nipah and Coral Bay on the north west of the island is extremely popular with travellers from Europe. The quality of sand in the Pasir Bogak Beach is far superior to that elsewhere on the island. The sand is golden brown, quite similar to most leading prime beaches. There are a few resorts in Teluk Nipah or Nipah Bay.

Since the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami in Indonesia, Thailand and to a lesser extent the West Coast of Malaysia in December 2004, there have been fewer local tourists visiting Pangkor.

In 2006, a biotechnology centre, a joint venture of Global Hi-Q Malaysia S/B and Hi-Q Bio-Tech International (Taiwan) Ltd began operations with initial investments of RM100million (USD30m). Their operations include fish farming and aquaculture, and the first harvest is expected in 2009.

Just next to island of Pangkor, there is a smaller island called Pangkor Laut Island.