Muar is Asean’s cleanest city
The award is expected to boost tourism in the royal town of Johor.
JOHOR BARU: The royal town of Muar in north-western Johor has been declared the cleanest tourist city in Asean.
Muar district officer Onn Jabbar said the Asean Clean Tourist City Standard Award 2017, which they received last month, was expected to boost tourism in the district.
There are many attractions in the town, especially for those interested in pre-war buildings that line the streets in Muar town.
Onn said the buildings, with their British, Chinese, Dutch, Indian, Malay and Peranakan design elements have been preserved to reflect the history of the town.
He said that Muar was also declared one of the five cleanest cities in Malaysia.
He said visitors came to Muar to sample the local cuisine, particularly its take on mee bandung and its famous coffee.
Other delicacies include asam pedas, otak-otak Muar, fried oyster omelettes, grilled fish and chicken rice balls, which differ from Melaka’s version of the Hainanese dish by having larger rice balls.
Muar’s coffee shops and hawker centres also set themselves apart from those in other states by serving satay for breakfast, said Onn, a quirk it shares with another Johor town, Batu Pahat.
Muar was previously known as Bandar Maharani – a name given by Sultan Abu Bakar in 1884 – and Johor Ruler Sultan Ibrahim Ibni Almarhum Sultan Iskandar declared Muar a royal town in 2012.