Trip to Malaysia

It was June 2009 and I was wondering which place to plan for our honeymoon. I could name a score of people who recommended Malaysia as the ideal place for the trip, especially within the budget.

I started off with visiting the websites hosting the places to visit in Malaysia and finding out the hotel rates. Finally, I was able to create a list of billable items and to define my budget and then finalizing the package with my travel agent. We decided to visit Kuala Lumpur, Langkawi & Genting Highlands, whereas dropped Penang and Borneo from our list.

We set off towards the airport during early August for the flight at 11:59 pm for Malaysian Airlines which travels on Thursdays and Mondays only (Karachi-KL or vice versa). From Karachi to Kuala Lumpur is a 6 hour flight and we had our connecting flight towards Langkawi after a short stay at the KL airport.

Once we reached the KL airport we observed a lot of greenery outside the airport, which reminded me of the greenery which Islamabad has, where greenery just needs a reason to grow. After a short stay, we got onto the 1-hour flight for Langkawi. As soon as we reached above Langkawi we noticed the exciting landscape and the shores.

As soon as we landed, we headed towards the taxi stand and reached our hotel in the Pantai Tengah area. Apart from the sandy beaches in Langkawi, which is a nice relaxing way to spend your time, there are a few places worth visiting:

• Underwater World (Aquarium)
  
• Crocodile Farm (Lots of crocodiles)
  
• Eagle Square (a monument representing Langkawi)
  
• Mangroove Forest (resembling Amazon river)
  
• Cable Car (reaches a good height with a suspension bridge between two mountains)
  
• Seven-Wells Waterfalls (very refreshing)
  

After Langkawi, we headed towards the heights of Genting Highlands, which is approx. one and half hour drive from KL. It's a good place with indoor and outdoor theme parks. The indoor theme park is located inside the First World Hotel, the ground floor of which is a city in itself. The outdoor theme park has medium scale thrill rides along with children rides. The overall atmosphere has an aesthetic value as the clouds cover the park almost all of the time, with rains after irregular intervals.

After spending a couple of days, we headed back towards Kuala Lumpur. It's a highly developed city with good transport infrastructure such as hop-on/hop-off tourist bus service, monorail, KL Express (train service to and from airport), etc. The hop-on/hop-off bus service is a good way to visit all the tourist places with a pass for full day. One can hop off the bus to a tourist destination, spend and enjoy some time and get hop back on the next bus. Few of the places we visited or intended to visit are:

• KL tower ( is one of the tallest communicatons tower in the world) with binoculars on the top
  
• Petronas Twin Tower (skywalking on the bridge between the twin towers). There's a science section inside plus an Aquarium as well
  
• Zoo Negara
• Bird Park & Butterfly Park
• Shopping Malls

The information is readily available on different websites as well as the brochures in the hotels and at the airports which help you to plan your trip. Malaysia has all the aspects of a tourism place within the budget and is surely a place which is highly recommended. Although, Thailand has much better entertainment options, but the overall environment of Malaysia is best suited for honeymooners.

Furniture in Karachi

Whether you're going to build up a new home or you need to upgrade your current one, you'll find it hard to get great furniture. People like us who work throughout the week and find time only on the weekends during the daytime, find it hard to know where to go and have very little time for exploration. I have been trying to search for good furniture shops on the internet, the locations and the quality for each vendor, but one way or the other have hard time in locating one and finding quality within budget.

While the quality of furniture in the famous Furniture Markets (Nursery & near Garden) is controversial :), established brands seem a better choice if your budget is above average.

I, for one, didn't even know the names of the places where we can buy good furniture. While the search is still on, here goes my evaluation so far:

• International Interior Designers & Furniture (Tipu Sultan Road)
  Bedroom Furniture. Is very expensive but Teak wood variety is present which is termite-proof). Takes around 2-3 months to delivery based on the quantity.
  Sofa sets and other furniture is also available, not too sure about Kitchen.
  
• Sam Abbas Design Studio (Tuaheed Commercial, DHA, near Gelato Affair/Biryani Center)
  Mainly Sofa sets, is expensive but affordable to people who desire better furniture. Mostly Sheesham
  
• Interwood (Tuaheed Commerical, DHA, besides Mosaajees)
  Kitchens are great but very expensive. Other furniture also available in good ranges
  
• KalamKaar (near Schon Circle, Clifton)
  Bedroom, Sofa Sets & other furniture is available, but again not cheap, but affordable prices. They dealt with us in a very nice manner and the catalogue is very rich.
  
• Habitt (Tipu Sultan & somewhere in Gulshan as well)
  Generally everything is available on less expensive side as compared to the branding. I was not comfortable about the quality of some of the items e.g. the wood being used is not that durable.

I am still short of all the furniture except for the bedroom and looking for options, mainly for affordable Kitchen building and will be visiting Ashrays, ST (or Estee?) and Dreams in DHA area. There's one other shop by the name of Prestige Kitchens which I plan to explore as well.

Once I am over with the whole deal, I'll write on the summarized analysis of the same so that buyers have consolidated knowledge in one place.