UNIQUE HOTEL: TIME CAPSULE RETREAT

KUANTAN, MALAYSIA: What started as a weird idea from a young entrepreneur to help improve his father's resort in Sungai Lembing has now become viral in the social media.

Kevin Young, 26, said he never expected that the rooms made from concrete culverts could become an instant hit when they were installed at his father's retreat in the small town that was once known for its tin mining industry.

"My father asked for my opinion on how to develop his resort, which is actually a former home of an English doctor who worked for the tin mining company.

"He was sceptical at first when I came up with the idea to build the extra rooms using concrete tubes but agreed when I showed him some of the pictures," he said when met at the resort recently.

Kevin, the eldest of three siblings, said his knowledge in computer-aided design had helped him conceptualise the layout for the eight rooms among the trees and the uneven terrain at the 0.6-hectare orchard near the main building.

"It was a challenging task as the concrete culverts must be well positioned or else they will roll over with the occupants inside," he said before bursting into laughter.

After several improvements made on the drawing board, Kevin and his father Young Yeong Long, 56, finally agreed to install eight units of 2m by 3m concrete culvert in the orchard, to complement the six rooms available at the main building.

"Each culvert was fitted with warm lighting, a queen-size bed and an air conditioner. However, the occupants have to use the shared bathrooms at an open-air jacuzzi nearby," said the graduate in professional design from Limkokwing University.

To reduce claustrophobia, he said a hole was made on the top of each capsule to allow natural lighting to enter the room.

At the same time, he said the capsules also had a full glass door or window, depending on their location.

He said the original pipe hotel concept was believed to have been introduced by a German architect, Andreas Strauss, who created Dasparkhotel in 2006.

"I exploit the social media such as Facebook and Instagram to promote the resort and to my surprise, there are so many locals and foreigners who are interested to stay in our unique rooms when they were opened in May this year," he said adding that each capsule was only priced at RM99 on weekdays and RM118 on weekends.

Apart from the capsules, he said resort guests could also stay in the six rooms at the main building, with each of them has an attached bathroom and priced from RM108 to RM238 each.

He said those who were interested to know about the unique rooms can also visit the resort's website at http://timecapsuleretreat.wix.com/home