Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Malaysia Vacation – One Week In Kuala Lumpur Day 4

23 Nov – Day 4 – Monday

Palace of the Golden Horses

The fourth day of our Malaysia vacation, we intend to take the water taxi and cruise within the Mines Resort City and take a look at the unique water lift in action. We hope to experience more food of Malaysia as well as continue with our Malaysia shopping and hopefully go for another Malaysia massage and of course, enjoy our time in this resort, Palace of the Golden Horses.

Horse design even on the carpet

Grand Salon Lounge

Before leaving the hotel at 12 noon, we did a short tour of our beautiful resort.


Lovely flowers

And orchids

We caught the 1230 hrs water taxi to Mines Wellness Hotel, previously known as Palace Beach & Spa, the only place where you can find a beach within the city.


Mines Resort City

Cruising within the city

On the water taxi with the Palace of the Golden Horses in the background

The other side of the lake where the golf course is situated

Our accommodation Palace of the Golden Horses

Costing RM8 (USD2.40) per person from The Palace of the Golden Horses to Mines Wellness Hotel, the ride lasted about ten minutes. As it was not the peak period, we were the only passengers on board the short cruise.

During the short ride, we passed the Mines Waterfront Business Park where business meets pleasure. We were dropped off at Mines Wellness Hotel and we did a short tour of the hotel grounds.

Mines Wellness Hotel


Resort style living amidst natural lush greenery, we walked past the herb garden. What was interesting were the explanations for what the various herbs were used for and their therapeutic properties.


Here is the agave plant that we came across. The agave is a plant that grows slowly and flowers only once. Notice the tall and heavy stem with the short tubular flowers.


The agave plant

Note the tall and heavy stem of flowers


The Agave flowers


Here is the ginger plant and some of its therapeutic properties include:-

  • Helping to calm an upset stomach
  • Easing stomach cramps
  • Supporting a healthy cardiovascular system
  • Relieving painful arthritis
  • Minimizing symptoms of respiratory conditions
The Misai Kuching has been proven beneficial in the following:

  • Helps in treating kidney stone disease
  • Inhibits the formation and growth of kidney stones
  • Is a cure for several diseases such as gout, arthritis, rheumatism, inflammatory conditions and even for kidney stones
  • Helps in treating hypertension

The lemon grass plant which is used for culinary and medicinal purposes.

The entire Pandanus plant is used as a diuretic where the Pandanus leaves are used for treating diseases of the skin and the Pandanus roots have anti-diabetic properties. In our culture, we use the Pandanus leaves to add fragrance to our food but have never known it to have any beneficial properties.

We enjoyed walking in the gardens of the Mines Wellness Hotel where you can be one with nature and admire the beauty of the flowers and the natural surroundings.

Beautiful flowers


A beauty to behold...

Looks like a parrot?

Banana plant

Papaya flower forming into a fruit

Papaya tree

Mines TCM Wellness where prevention is always better than cure. They are promoting themselves as the most exclusive Traditional Chinese and Complementary healthcare centre in the region.

Mines TCM Wellness

Care to experience the spa?

The hotel lobby was huge, spacious and breezy. Sitting at the lounge, you have a great view of the lake whilst you enjoy the cool breeze.

The huge and spacious lobby of the Mines Wellness Hotel



In the lobby

The beach in the city

Lots of greenery

Villas

Basking in the sun

Pictures in the restroom depicting the correct way of washing your hands.







Walking from the Mines Wellness Hotel to Mines Shopping Fair, we passed by the Mines Wonderland, one of the Malaysia attractions comprising a premier night theme park.

Mines Wonderland

Without realizing it, we must have walked into the grounds of the theme park and were busily snapping photographs of the larger than life Chinese zodiac, which is a series of 12 animals based on the year, when we were told that the area was closed.

Chinese zodiac year of the rat 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008


Chinese zodiac year of the ox 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009

Chinese zodiac year of the tiger 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010

Chinese zodiac year of the rabbit 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011

Chinese zodiac year of the dragon 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012

Chinese zodiac year of the snake 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013

Chinese zodiac year of the horse 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2014

Chinese zodiac year of the ram 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015

Chinese zodiac year of the monkey 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, 2016

Chinese zodiac year of the rooster 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017

Chinese zodiac year of the dog 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, 2018

Chinese zodiac year of the boar 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019

We also passed by the water lift area and managed to film the water lift at work. As the two main lakes in the Mines Resort City are at different height levels of 7 meters, the unique water lift was developed specially to link the whole lake together through the water transport system. It takes 7 minutes to discharge or refill the water and the volume of water in the lift is 61600 gallons.

See the operation of the unique water lift ...

The water taxi docking in the lift compartment

Notice how the gate comes up

Water in the compartment being discharged

Water taxi being lowered

No more in view in the compartment

Spot the water taxi in the other lake in front


The lake leading into Mines Shopping Fair

Just outside the Mines Shopping Fair

Water taxi cruising into the Mines Shopping Fair

Next was deciding what food to have for lunch. As we were walking to Mines Shopping Fair, we saw some local stalls behind the shopping complex. We decided to have some local Malaysian food and ordered the nasi lemak (coconut rice). The plain nasi lemak cost RM2 (USD0.60) and the one with the fried egg cost RM2.70 (USD0.80). This was accompanied by calamansi lime juice @ RM1.80 (USD0.50).

Kafe Big J

Local Malaysian Food Nasi Lemak

Kafe Big J where we had lunch

Variety of local cooked food

After lunch, we did some shopping in Mines Shopping Fair and had time for a snack during tea time at Ah Yip Herbal Soup.

Red bean soup

Lots of desserts to choose from

As well as herbal soups

At this Chinese herbal restaurant

Next was time for a hair cut. At RM10 (USDxx) this was a steal.

We even went for the Thai massage. Originally, we had gone to The Thai Odyssey on Level 4 where we went to on our first day. However, they were fully booked and no slots available till an hour and a half later. We then made our way to Level 2 and went to Health Beauty Therapy Enterprise and had a 2 hour Full Body Royal Thai Massage @ RM90 (USD26.65).

Health Beauty Therapy Enterprise

Washing of the feet before massage

Massage bed

The massage here is not too bad either. However the ambience is unlike that of The Thai Odyssey where the location is more exclusive and you are able to relax in the solitude rather than having to endure a kid having free run of the place as well as the sounds of the shoppers in the complex.

Seats for foot reflexology

After the massage, we had to decide what to eat. On the way hunting for our dinner venue, we bought half a dozen of Big Apple donuts at RM12.50 (USD3.70) which were awesome!

Some of the donuts we bought

We then went to Pizza San Francisco for dinner. Instead of having pizza, we had their special promotion which was the Black Pepper Beef Steak @12.90 (USD3.80). The steak was done just the way we had requested and it was tender, succulent and juicy. A very good choice!

Pizza San Francisco

The oh so yummy black pepper steak

When dinner was over, we quickly made our way to the shuttle pick up area as we had booked the 2145 hrs complimentary shuttle back to our accommodation. Our watch must have been slightly slow and the shuttle was already there waiting for us. Fortunately the driver did not go off without us.

It is amazing how quickly our fourth day went by. We were fortunate to have tried more local food of Malaysia as well as did quite a bit of shopping during this Kuala Lumpur vacation. Not only that, we also managed to experience a Thai instead of a Malaysia massage and take a look at the unique, one of a kind, water lift in action. This has been a great Malaysia vacation so far especially returning daily to our resort, Palace of the Golden Horses. as well as did some great





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