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A pose in front of Phoenix Hotel, Forest City, Johore |
As part of lucky draw prize won by my 2nd son Wai
Jen, a 2D1N trip was given to my wife and me to visit Forest City
(碧桂园森林城市), Pulau Satu, Gelang
Patah, Johor from January 25-26, 2018.
The organizer and tour leader was 39-year old Sales & Marketing
Manager Eric Lau. Our group comprised 19
participants and a 30-seater couch was chartered to fetch a total of 20 of us
to and from Johor.
To be honest, I was not particularly excited about this trip
as I have already been to Forest City on a study tour with 3 other colleagues
from Berjaya Land Bhd on 30/03/2017 while I was employed then (for a short
stint from February till June, 2017).
The Forest City developed by China’s Country Garden Pacificview S/B and
built on reclaimed land opposite Singapore is undoubtedly impressive, but one sight-seeing
visit is enough unless for investment purpose.
|
A group photo of some participants (pic left is organizer Eric Lau) |
The trip was to begin from Bandar Utama bus terminal station
from 8.00 am on Thursday, 25/1/2018.
Soh Ai and I left home at 6.00 am and we took a Grab taxi to
Batu 11 Cheras MRT station (fare RM 8.00).
We boarded a MRT train at 6.20am and reached
Bandar Utama MRT station at 7.05 am (my fare was RM 2.10).
|
Batu 11 Cheras MRT station |
I made a mistake in thinking that the bus terminal was nearby
the MRT station. The bus-waiting area
below the MRT station was actually meant for MRT shuttle buses. We waited till 7.45 am and realizing the
mistake and after calling Eric Lau over the handphone, we walked about 15
minutes, crossing bridges and roads, to One Utama Shopping Mall and finally
reached the bus terminal at 8.00 am. It
is a lesson learned that if we were to visit One Utama Shopping Mall by MRT next
time, we should not alight from Bandar Utama MRT station which is quite a
distance from the mall!
|
Bandar Utama MRT station |
Apparently the early morning traffic of the day was very
heavy and most of our group members including our tour leader Eric Lau were
late. The coach set off at 8.25 am.
|
One U Shopping Mall bus terminal station |
|
On the coach going south |
|
20 pax in total on the coach |
We stopped at R&R Dengkil for breakfast from 9.00 am to
9.30 am and reached the Sales Gallery of Forest City in Johor at 1.25 pm.
Upon arrival, we immediately had our buffet lunch at the VIP
Lounge. The food variety and quantity were
not much as we went in late.
After breakfast at 2.30 pm, Eric Lau took us for a tour of all
the exhibits in the Sales Gallery and gave us an introduction of the
development including visiting a few model apartment units. It was interesting to note a robot named
“Siao Bai” (小白) in a show unit which can respond in Mandarin when
approached.
At 4.35 pm, we left the Sales Gallery for the 4-star
(upgradable to 5-star) Country Garden Forest City Phoenix Hotel (碧桂园森林城市凤凰酒店). But the rooms were
not available until 5.55 pm. We walked
around the adjacent duty-free shops to while away the time. Most of the shops deal with liquor and
cigarettes. But Eric Lau cautioned us
that liquor and other alcoholic drinks were to be consumed in the Forest City
and they might be taxable if carried home (a customer checkpoint is set up at
the main road leading to the Forest city.
We checked into our rooms all located on the 5th
floor at 5.55 pm. Our hotel rooms were
very spacious with two king-size beds, long-bath and etc.
It was a bit late for such activities like swimming in the
hotel attached infinity swimming pool though I brought my swimming trunk with
me.
We went for our buffet dinner at about 6.30 pm at the
C&M restaurant on the lobby floor.
Food was okay.
After dinner, a few of us sat at the lobby area listening to
various songs very well performed by a Malay lady singer on stage,
chit-chatting with a couple of new acquaintances, in particular Mr. Soh (苏新福) who is of the same
age as me from Kuala Lipis, Pahang, who operates a sundry shop and currently runs
a micro bus rental business. He is also
an active local MCA grassroots leader in his hometown. A
very talkative financial planner Steven SL Law, vice president (sales & marketing) of AE
Alliances Holdings S.B., spoke at length on various motivational subjects. He must be a very good
toast-master. Earlier, Eric also shared with us his hard-to-come-by 2-year daughter whom he pampers now.
We went back to our room at 9.30 pm and adjourned to bed at
about 11.00 pm after playing with our smartphones.
|
Arrived at the Sales Gallery of Forest City, Johor |
|
Another group photo posed with victory signs |
|
Eric Lau giving his introduction of the Forest City development |
|
Visiting a model apartment unit |
|
The cute robot in the apartment |
|
Robot serving drinks to guests |
|
Entrance to Phoenix Hotel |
|
Reception lobby of Phoenix Hotel |
|
Duty-free shops adjacent to Phoenix Hotel |
|
A glimpse of our spacious room |
|
Swimming pool of the hotel |
|
Overlooking Singapore from our hotel room window |
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Construction of Forest City apartments in progress |
|
Buffet dinner |
|
My first plate of buffet dinner |
|
Second and last plate of my desserts and fruits |
|
Chit-chatting after dinner at the lobby area |
On Friday, 26/1/2018, we woke up at 7.30 am and went for
buffet breakfast at 8.00 am. I walked
around the hotel till 9.30 am.
We checked out from our room at 10.00 am but had to wait for
others till 10.50 am before the group departed from the hotel at 10.50 am.
At 11.30 am, we dropped by Johor Premium Outlets (JPO) in Kulai
which features luxury branded goods, such as Nike, Adidas, GUESS, Burberry, Zegna
Outlet Store, Michael Kors, Armani, Coach, Esprit, Puma, Clarks, Skechers,
Vincci, Geox, Pedro and etc.
Soh Ai and I took our “nasi lemak” lunch at the Food Court
of JPO.
We left JPO at 1.20 pm for KL. We stopped for 15 minutes at R&R
Machap. The homeward-bound journey along
N-S Highway
was badly affected by the heavy traffic and rain, especially as we approached
PJ.
We returned to Bandar Utama at 7.30 pm. As the coach driver Mr. Ho was going back to
Bandar Technologi, Semenyih, Soh Ai and I followed his coach to Bukit Dukung
MRT station where we took a shuttle bus to return to Bandar Sungai Long.
The traffic on the roads was so bad that it took us more
than an hour to reach Bukit Dukung at 9.00 pm.
We finally returned home by MRT shuttle bus at 9.30 pm.
|
Going for buffet breakfast at Phoenix Hotel |
|
My first plate of buffet breakfast |
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My second and last plate of cookies and fruits |
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A facade view of Phoenix Hotel |
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Quiet duty-free shopping area in the morning |
|
A pose with new acquaintance 苏新福 |
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Guests waiting to depart from the hotel |
|
Johor Premium Outlets (JPO) |
|
Glimpse of JPO area |
|
JPO Food Court |
|
My nasi lemak curry daging (RM 10.50) and red bean soup (RM 3.50) for lunch |
|
Soh Ai's nasi lemak ayam (RM 7.00) |
APPENDIX
Prices (before discount) provided by Forest City Sales & Marketing Manager as at 25/01/2018 (Information I obtained from Eric Lau for reference):
Size: 517 sqft (Unit: SB C-1-2006)
* 1+1 Bedroom
* 1 Bathroom
Price RM 737,768.00
Size 635 sqft (Unit SRB 2-E-3905)
* 2 Bedroom
* 1 Bathroom
Price RM 830,568.00
Size 786 sqft (Unit SRB 4-J-509)
* 2 Bedroom
* 1 Bathroom
Price RM 1,233,768.00
Size 904 sqft (Unit SRB 4-J-509)
* 2 Bedroom
* 2 Bathroom
* Price RM 1,329,368.00
Size 1152 sqft (Unit SRB 1-B-3602)
* 3 Bedroom
* 2 Bathroom
Price RM 1604268.00
Size 1378 sqft (unit SRB 1-B-404)
* 3 Bedroom
* 2 Bathroom
Price RM 2,279,068.00
Size 1851 sqft (unit SRB 4-F-2003)
* 3 Bedroom
* 2 Bathroom
Price RM 2,753,868.00
Labels: Travelogue
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