Forest City, Johor Bahru

We spent a weird and very wonderful few days in Forest City, an almost deserted new city. It was built by a Chinese property developer on an artificial island near Johor Bahru (just across from Singapore).

The town centre and the first phases were opened in 2016 but thanks to the chinese investment crash, geopolitics and Covid, it still only has 6000 residents. We were very happy to join them, and rented a luxury apartment in the landmark tower and enjoyed a few days with a private infinity pool, terrace, gym and club house as our playground.

Until our last couple of days we saw mostly staff - the place is immaculately managed and tended by an army of staff despite the lack of anyone to enjoy it, and even though no one would pick us up in their golf buggy "buses", we enjoyed foot slogging round the island and seeing if we could spot any crocodiles.

We ended up staying for Chinese New Year's Eve and what an amazing experience - suddenly the beach, water park and our terrace was filled with families visiting for the holidays and our neighbours very kindly invited us to their amazing CNY buffet and then for fireworks on the beach, which were unhinged.Les mer