Friday 18 November 2011

Review: Courtyard @ Heeren Hotel in Historical Malacca

If you're planning a trip to the historical city of Malacca, consider staying at Courtyard @ Heeren Hotel which is a boutique hotel with reasonable prices.



The hotel's location along Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock (formerly known as Heeren Street) makes it extremely convenient to explore the area. Popular places like Jonker Walk, Stadhuys and St Paul's Hill are all within walking distance.

Finding the hotel is easy on foot, but since we were driving, I could not find the way and had to call up the hotel for directions. The lady who answered the call asked for our licence plate and was waiting in front of the hotel as we approached it. She then hopped into the car and directed us to the car park which is located at the back of the hotel.

When driving along Jalan Tun Tan Cheng lock, watch out for the green vertical signboard on your left. Liam could spot it a mile away despite being in Malaysia for the first time and not familiar with the local names. So I don't think you'd miss it.



Entrance to the hotel.



The smell of lemon grass filled the air as we walked from the car park to the lobby where we were served welcome drinks as we checked-in.


I love the Peranakan interior decoration and furniture in the lobby.



The koi pond in the lobby is probably for feng shui purposes. But the sound of the water adds to the serenity of the hotel.



Our Superior Room weekday rate was RM200 nett for 2 pax including breakfast.

The door on the left leads to our room. With a magnificent door like that, I felt like a queen entering her chambers :-) Sorry no photos of the room to show you cause Liam messed up the bed before I could snap a photo. Anyway, you can check out the hotel website for photos. In fact, I chose to stay at Courtyard @ Heeren Hotel simply because I was attracted to the interior deco in the rooms :-) 



Just outside our room was a lovely courtyard with wall fountain. I could relax here all day.


The next morning we went for breakfast which is served on the first floor from 8.30am - 10.30am. There's a  reasonable spread of Asian and Western food which made me happy :-)




Whilst Liam was tucking into his food, I was busy admiring this lovely staircase:

I was so tempted to climb to the top to see where does the stairs lead to until the staff told me that it's just the storeroom up there. Darn!


Apart from the cockroach in our room (which Liam deftly removed), I enjoyed our stay at Courtyard @ Heeren not only because of its interior decorations, but also its customer service. Staff are extremely friendly and you can see that their smile is genuine and not pretentious like how some service staff or frontliners are trained to be. If I were to open my own hotel, I would pinch staff from Courtyard @ Heeren, hehehe.

It's not a wonder that this hotel is doing extremely well. Apparently the owner has acquired the adjoining building to extend the hotel. A restaurant opposite the hotel will soon be opened too. I'm glad to hear this piece of news as I would definitely stay in this hotel again the next time I'm in Malacca. 

Courtyard @ Heeren
91, Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock
75200 Malacca
MALAYSIA

www.courtyardatheeren.com

Tel: +606 281 00 88
Fax: +606 282 48 88

General enquiries: info@courtyardatheeren.com
Reservations: reservation@courtyardatheeren.com



Saturday 12 November 2011

Preparing for Paris

Been doing lots of reading lately ...

... in preparation for my trip to Paris.

I was also clearing my stuff and found an item of French origin ...


I can't for the life of me remember how I came to own this lovely Evian bottle!


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