Angelos @ Grand Darulmakmur Hotel, Kuantan

Formerly known as M.S. Garden Hotel, the Grand Darulmakmur Hotel has undergone a renovation and now looks much improved. We stopped by Angelos, the restaurant on the Ground Floor lobby, for a bite to eat for lunch.

Angelos at Grand Darulmakmur Hotel, Kuantan

The sweeping windows allowed a lot of light to burst into the restaurant and provided for a very open and clean atmosphere.

Angelos @ Grand Darulmakmur Hotel, Kuantan

Family picture while waiting for our food at Angelos @ Grand Darulmakmur Hotel, Kuantan

Leah was amazed with her tall milkshake at Angelos @ Grand Darulmakmur Hotel, Kuantan

Lauren tucking in to her fish and chips at Angelos @ Grand Darulmakmur Hotel, Kuantan

Fish and chips, Angelos, Grand Darulmakmur Hotel, Kuantan

My  burger meal at Angelos, Grand Darulmakmur Hotel, Kuantan

Noodles dish, Angelos, Grand Darulmakmur Hotel, Kuantan

A view of the lobby at Grand Darulmakmur Hotel, Kuantan. Angelos is on the left of this picture

Angelos is definitely worth a try. We also like coming here now and again for their great dim sum buffet in the mornings.

Dim Sum lunch at M.S.Garden Hotel, Kuantan

Dim Sum is a Chinese breakfast/lunch, like dumplings and filled with prawns and other meats and seafood. As you will see, they come in cute little baskets where you pay per basket.

Yesterday at M.S.Garden Hotel in Kuantan we enjoyed a dim sum buffet of RM19.90 per person. That is really good value!

Here is a selection of what we ate, and thoroughly enjoyed!

Lauren and her friend Sharmayne on another recent visit . . .

And a dessert table offering various kinds of jelly . . .

The M.S.Garden Hotel dim sum buffet promotion at RM19.90 is open until June 2013.

Berjaya Megamall Kuantan

Berjaya Megamall is located at Jalan Tun Ismail, 25000 Kuantan. It is the 2nd most popular shopping mall in Kuantan after East Coast Mall. Berjaya Megamall is made up of 5 floors: Ground Floor, Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, and a basement floor. Supermarkets, restaurants, electronics, books, stationery, home deco, jewellery, clothing and many others are all available at Berjaya Megamall. 

The third floor also is home to Golden Screen Cinemas, a bowling alley, karaoke and pub, snooker centre and gamezone.

Here are some images of Berjaya Megamall, Kuantan:

Looking across Jalan Tun Ismail to Berjaya Megamall, Kuantan

View of Berjaya Megamall from the west-facing side

M. S. Garden Hotel sits opposite the back entrance of Berjaya Megamall Kuantan

The main entrance view at Berjaya Megamall in Kuantan. The open space in the centre is often filled with various stalls or exhibitions.

Deli Country is my favourite luxury at Berjaya Megamall Kuantan

Pub/Lounge at Berjaya Megamall Kuantan

Roof decoration at Berjaya Megamall Kuantan

100,000 hot, sexy . . .

. . . page views!

Yes, during the last 24 hours *Our home called Kuantan* surpassed 100,000 total page views. That's pretty hot, even for me to discover!

*Our home called Kuantan* began in mid-2009 and has been progressing and growing steadily ever since. We have attracted interest from mydeal.com, The Zenith Hotel, M. S. Garden Hotel and Vistana Hotel, all in Kuantan. We have slowly expanded our friendships with other blogs and bloggers.

We are proud to represent Kuantan, Malaysia to the blogging world and hope that all those 100,000 page-viewers have enjoyed their visits and have come to see and know a little more about this lovely town of Kuantan my wife and I live in.

Here's looking forward to the next 100,000 hot, sexy, page views!

Top Posts of 2011

I accomplished many things in 2011 which I'm delighted with and will continue through 2012.

I don't usually group things according to year, including new year's resolutions, which I strongly believe don't work. (If you're going to start something, do it NOW, don't wait for the new year!)

Anyway, seeing as blogging and posting are done according to calendar dates, I'm going to share with you some of my favourite posts of the year, as I look back on many good times we've had. Today's first part covers September - December 2011.

1. We were greatly looking forward to visiting KL in November of 2011, and I wasn't disappointed by the majesty of the iconic Petronas Twin Towers which I photographed from a number of angles, in the sun, rain, and at night. It has to be said that they look marvellous in every circumstance!

2. I loved sharing the wonderful pictures of a gecko we eventually captured in our kitchen in A Gecko Encounter. The "smiling gecko" has become one of my most favourite photos of all time!

3. In October 2011 we travelled to Kuching with our children to be present at my sister-in-law's wedding reception. We had a great time visiting Kuching for the first time since 2006 when Fidelia and I registered our own marriage. 

4. The Ten Thousand Buddhas Hall is a brilliant attraction in Kuantan. I happened to be there on the most splendid day, bathed in hot sunshine, making it perfect conditions for some beautiful photos. This buddha became a favourite image of a number of my readers:

5. We had a great time staying in the large, spacious rooms of M. S. Garden Hotel in September 2011.

6. We also enjoyed our stay at Vistana Hotel and becoming good friends with Wayne, the HM. Their suite is beautiful and we were given every generous courtesy during our stay there.

7. Meeting Blog Followers was a great post because it was so good to meet those people who read my blog online, in reality!

Tomorrow I'll be featuring posts from May - August 2011 . . .

Our stay at M. S. Garden Hotel, 17th - 18th September, 2011

At the request of M.S. Garden Hotel we enjoyed a free night's stay at their lovely hotel over the last weekend.

The lobby design has changed a lot since I did a brief hotel survey two years ago, in particular the addition of Angelo's cafe, inspired by John Kars.

We checked in at 12 noon on Saturday after having lunch at Angelo's. The fried rice there is heavenly, and comes with prawns and chicken curry. It is just spicy enough to give you a flavour of Asia, but is also acceptable to the European tourist's tongue.

It was a lovely feeling to enter our room and to be greeted with a wide, spacious scene before us. There was a king-sized bed beside a balcony, wardrobe, dressing table and study table, including a small sofa and two more single chairs making up a living area. The wide open space proved to be a great dance floor for Lauren!

We had a nice view of Kuantan town from our 9th floor balcony:

In the daytime:

The South China Sea lies a short distance away on the horizon

When the evening rains were coming:

And at night:

The bathroom was nice, complete with sink, bath tub and shower, a nice large mirror, and a pleasantly funny shaped toilet seat!

We had real fun giving Leah a bath in the sink. However, we couldn't manage to keep the water in the sink! It kept slowly emptying when we thought we had plugged it!

At night we had a lovely dinner on the hotel at the Jade Terrace Chinese Restaurant at the Lower Ground Floor. We were joined by Kathy and Christina, and John and Beverley. The food was absolutely gorgeous and we left fully satisfied.

The back entrance, guarded by two Terracotta soldiers

The view inside the restaurant

Our food

Here are some more pictures of our lovely hotel room:

Guests and visitors are welcomed into the lobby by a large chandelier directly overhead:

Panorama of the lobby from the entrance

The Ground and Lower Ground floors of the M. S. Garden Hotel are connected by beautiful staircases. Here are some examples:

Finally, every good hotel has a good swimming pool. M. S. Garden Hotel is no different as it possesses a large and beautiful pool with some stunning rocks which act as a waterfall dropping into the children's pool.

We enjoyed playing in the pool . . .

We are thankful to the pleasant and helpful staff who served us during our stay at M. S. Garden Hotel. Kathy, Christina and Megat were all very professional and left a very good impression upon us. Also much thanks to our friends John and Beverley for keeping us in lovely company on Saturday night and Sunday morning.

Overall, it was a most delightful stay at M. S. Garden Hotel and we would go back there any time because of the large and spacious rooms, excellent staff, great swimming pool, and vast array of good food.

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