Zenith Hotel

"zephyr" - a soft gentle wind (literary)




Zenith Hotel

While I'm on the subject of hotels ( see here ) I've decided to finish this A-Z challenge with the recently erected, 5-star Zenith Hotel in Kuantan.

History of Zenith Hotel and me

The Zenith Hotel began construction in early 2009. I followed its progress by taking pictures at the various stages of construction. Throughout the year 2010 I witnessed an empty piece of land turn into a prime spot seating a 23-floor, 5-star hotel.

In late 2010 I met Jon Liang. He was taking photos of the hotel, as I was on that evening. We became acquainted and I discovered that he was working on the project, helping with the interior design. So I invited him to see my blog, where I had been posting regular updates of the rise of the Zenith Hotel.

A short while later and I received a facebook message from Jon Liang informing me that the Zenith Hotel General Manager (GM) had come across my blog while searching the internet, and was interested to meet me!

In December 2010 we were invited for a free tour of the Zenith Hotel with then GM Jerina Foong. We were shown around the hotel, up to a room on the 5th floor and also taken around the still-in-progress adjoining Convention Centre.

We attended for a New Years Eve buffet dinner and also received an invite to attend the soft launch opening in January 2011. Jerina Foong extended to us a free one nights stay at the Zenith Hotel. We had a great time there and I blogged all about it right here.

I've not been back to the Zenith Hotel since we stayed there in January. It is currently open and is due for final completion in June 2011.

Then I'd love to stay for a night once more, preferably on a higher floor!

It just goes to show that writing a blog can bring you many rewards! I never imagined I would have received all of this hospitable treatment from the Zenith Hotel, all because I was following its progress on my blog!

Have you gained anything special from writing your blog?

Zenith Hotel Night View

On Monday night I enjoyed some free time away from teaching tuition to have a walk around East Coast Mall with my family. It was my wife who suggested we get out of the freezing air-con food court and go to have a peek at the Zenith Hotel from the 3rd floor car park. So off we went and were greeted by this quite lovely night view of the Zenith Hotel:

A quite spectacular scene of the Zenith Hotel at night

The lettering at the top even illuminates at night!

The Zenith Hotel flanked by the Sultan Ahmad Shah International Convention Centre (SASICC)

The illuminated blue staircase catches the eye on the right of Zenith Hotel

I'm excited for the soft opening tomorrow, very excited! I guess I'll be spending the whole day there as I have a few friends I've met on site for the past few days and also Jon Liang whom I first met around a month ago. I need to make a correction here concerning Jon Liang. I had, in previous posts, described Mr. Liang as the Interior Designer of Zenith Hotel. Regrettably, this description is incorrect. I should clarify that Jon is the Interior Design Project Manager. He coordinates the work between the contractor and the design team.

Zenith Hotel Kuantan Nearing Completion

The Zenith Hotel in Kuantan is on the countdown: 42 days to opening.

It was my pleasure to meet Mr. Jon Liang outside the Zenith Hotel last night:

I'm on the left and Jon is on the right as construction goes on in the background

Jon Liang is an interior designer from Kuala Lumpur (KL). It was very fortunate that we crossed paths as we both were snapping photographs of the Zenith Hotel. I had a pleasant chat with Jon and was able to glean some inside information about the progress of the Zenith Hotel, which is the tallest building in Kuantan and the biggest development on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia.

The Zenith Hotel has 23 floors, 18 of which contain rooms. 8 floors of the 18 have already been completed, and the Zenith Hotel is currently 80% complete. Most of the workers have been drafted in from KL.

It's touch and go whether the Zenith Hotel will be ready to open its doors to the public on December 1st. As such, workers are being expected to work day and night so that everything will be in place for the Zenith Hotel grand opening. In anticipation of the Zenith Hotel's imminent completion, there have already been a number of bookings for rooms.

L-R: East Coast Mall, Zenith Hotel, Sultan Ahmad Shah International Convention Centre, Putra Office block, new shoplots

The development has gone from a heap of dirt to a magnificently iconic, modern structure, rising 23 floors upwards into the blue Kuantan skies, in just 20 months. This rapid rate of construction does lead Jon Liang to wonder whether the Zenith Hotel is as rich in quality as it could have been given a more lengthy time scale for completion.

However, to the ordinary observer, the Zenith Hotel is a marvellous, unique building, changing the face of the Kuantan skyline, signalling the beginning of a great advancement in status of this developing coastal town.