The Sky Lounge Of Grand Paragon Hotel, Johor Bahru

The Sky Lounge is situated on 26th Floor of Grand Paragon Hotel, Century Garden - Johor Bahru. The company I attached with was held the Annual Dinner in the lounge on January 2010. That gave me a chance to explore the Highest Lounge in Johor Bahru for the moment!

The entrance of Sky Lounge, Grand Paragon Hotel

The dinner started about 7pm on that day, before that...some of my colleagues already enjoy their ice cold beer in the lounge. Alcohol is serve mostly for the local or foreign company when they celebrates their Annual Dinner. Even the Wine and Liquor were serve in the house, but I'm only enjoyed the Tiger Cold Beer...:)



The beer serve in 'Tower', during the 'Happy Hour', the charges is MYR108.00 and MYR128 after 'Happy Hour'.

And the foods served on that night was pretty delicious, they had Local food, Japanese food and International food...



The foods for the night :-

The local food and fruits

I Love the Japan Sashimi on the left!

I had this Roast Lamb a lot! My favorite! :)

There were Only 3 Lovely Ladies (waitress) serve the party in such a big Lounge on the Top of the Hotel...They did it well!

The Lovely waitress of Sky Lounge

Beside the foods and drinks, there was a Nice Red Piano display on the left of the stage. The performer play some nice song during the performance...

The RED Piano in the lounge

Another advantage of the lounge is...you can take the Johor Bahru city photo from the open air balcony! Because of the height of the Hotel, the vision is from Johor bahru City till Singapore. That was nice! I will share in my next post.



As usual, our colleagues and guests arrived about 8pm. Everyone were enjoy their food very much! Following with performer on the stage and lastly...the lucky draw. The First price was a 32" Sharp LCD TV! But I didn't get it...:)

I was attracted by the lighting in the lounge while others were busy with their foods....

There was a Cigar Bar at the right side of the lounge, if you are cigar lover, you will definitely love the environment!



Overall, we were satisfied with the services provided and also the foods. The dinner party end about 12 midnight and left some colleagues and guests chit-chatting until 3am in the morning! (I'm one of them...)



I'll be back again, not for the alcohol but for the spectacular night view of Johor Bahru!

Qing Ming Festival 2010 at Penang

Origin Of Ching Ming (Qingming)

Qinming Festival originated from Hanshi Day (寒食节, literally, Day with cold food only), a memorial
day for Jie Zitui (介子推, or Jie Zhitui, 介子推). Jie Zitui died in 636 BC in the Spring and Autumn Period. He was
one of many followers of Duke Wen of Jin before he became a duke. Once, during Wen's 19
years of exile, they had no food and Jie prepared some meat soup for
Wen. Wen enjoyed it a lot and wondered where Jie had obtained the soup.
It turned out Jie had cut a piece of meat from his own thigh to make the
soup. Wen was so moved he promised to reward him one day. However, Jie
was not the type of person who sought rewards. Instead, he just wanted
to help Wen to return to Jin
to become duke. Once Wen became duke, Jie resigned and stayed away from
him. Duke Wen rewarded the people who helped him in the decades, but
for some reason he forgot to reward Jie, who by then had moved into the
forest with his mother. Duke Wen went to the forest, but could not find
Jie. Heeding suggestions from his officials, Duke Wen ordered men to set
the forest on fire to force out Jie. However, Jie died in the fire.
Feeling remorseful, Duke Wen ordered three days without fire to honour
Jie's memory. The county where Jie died is still called Jiexiu
(介休, literally "the place Jie rests forever"). Source from Wiki.



My parents ashes were kept at the columbarium (N5 24.790 E100 17.648) between Penang United Hokkien Cemetery and Batu Gantong Crematorium. There are thousand and thousand ashes urn are kept it tidy in the building.

We went to pay respect and the normal ceremony to my parents in the early morning. And the area was packed of peoples, that is normal for every year 5th of April.

Inside the building

I meet one old lady who come every year. She told us that she do the praying for her son...sad stories are everywhere...

Beside the building is the Penang United Hokkien Cemetery

The Qing (Ching) Ming season is meant for the everyone to remember their 'Anchestors', but today...most of the peoples I know, they are mostly mean for themself! Example, you pray and follow the ceremony, you are bless! Or else...you will in troubles! My goodness! Almost nobody remember who are their 'Ancestors' anymore...many of the local youngsters also quite superstitious...



Every time during Qing Ming Festival, it's always make me recall the Chinese poem from Du Mu :-



"清明時節雨紛紛,路上行人欲斷魂,借問酒家何處有,牧童遙指杏花村."



"A drizzling rain falls like tears on the Mourning Day; the mourner's heart is breaking on his way. Where can a winehouse be found to drown his sadness? A cowherd points to Almond Flower (Xing Hua) Village in the distance."



If you wanna read more about Qing Ming Festival, please click here.

The map location for above building

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