This is a mirage in the tropics - read the title: Colmar TROPICALE. This is a crazy "replica" of the actual old town of Colmar in France and they even got a plaque from the city of Colmar and the Regional Council of Southern Alsace - a thank you for the interest shown on the city of Colmar!
From a distance, it looked promising, with drawbridge et al...up close, the concept doesn't much live up to its "vision" for me. For one, the roofs are made of prefab zinc and painted like tiles. That's a minus for me. The walls are faux stone walls made from concrete and again, painted. If you Google for images on Colmar in France, you'll instantly realise that the colour scheme is actually quite close ( but less gaudy) AND it is not an exact copy but rather an 'inspired' village, which is good because there is nothing worse than a 100% copy! There are even some efforts to present restaurants like actual alsatian ones. We tried the grilled chicken - failure for me because there isn't any authenticity in its presentation but what is worse is the fact that the flavour is worse than a fast food roaster - and more expensive! Otherwise, everything inside the village is tailored for the local taste...
towards the "drawbridge" which serves as the entrance.
Two storks from the French
inside the village
a real carriage but two horse statues painted gaudily and passed off as "art"
a faux armor in the hotel's lobby
gaudily painted windows - kinda Malaysian cliché everywhere these days
the wishing well
view from the viewing tower at the end of the village
like this one better: panoramic view of the surrounding hills
the carpark, a faux chateau
We later boarded the shuttle to the Japanese garden and was utterly disappointed with the state of unkeptness of the whole thing. Worse, the return journey took forever because the shuttle took too long to come pick up the tourists and when it did come, there weren't enough places...wouldn't even upload the pictures on my blog! (except for the nice ones on Nature).
a blue dragonfly on a granite boulder
a Skipper Butterfly sunning itself
panoramic view of the Main Range
a Bush Brown butterfly
probably the best highlight of the whole trip: the shuttle stopped for a moment half-way down the hill slopes for us to look at a pair of Siamangs on the branches of a tree.
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