June 11, 2008
A peek into the life of the rich — a visit to Leisure Farm, Johor
Last weekend, I was invited to tag along on a visit to Leisure Farm, a resort-style development just across the Causeway in Johor, Malaysia.
As you enter, the guard salutes you! (Obviously, they want to make their residents feel special) And then you drive through a road lined with mansions. Feels like you’re entering an episode of the ‘Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous’.
Right now, they are marketing the Bayou Water Village, a residential plot with homes built near a river, so that was one of the first places we were taken to see. You enter through yet another secured gate. What did I say about the lifestyle of the rich?
We were taken to see the showhomes. They’re like little chalets, really, the most attractive of course being the ones facing the river. How special it would be to live in a home with a balcony that overlooks the river (see the homes under construction in the picture below).
One thing though: I was a bit taken aback to see a brownish river, which was definitely one of my sillier notions. Of course a river in this part of the world looks like that! Guess I expected them to somehow engineer a river that looks prettier. And, actually, they did make a sort of try at that, with a pristine vanishing-edge swimming pool at the clubhouse (yes, there’s a clubhouse just for the Bayou Water Village) which, from a distance, looks like it is joined to the river.
Picture: Vanishing-edge swimming pool at Bayou Water Village, Leisure Farm, Johor.
By the end of the visit, what I really liked about Leisure Farm was that they had taken care to create an ordered environment that still has a lot of natural elements, with forest areas left untouched. The quiet roads, the general cleanliness of the place, and facilities like a large stable and a golf course, combine to make it feel like an exclusive enclave, a place for the elite.
Crooked Turret 