Perth, Australia Apr 2014

First family road trip. Jointly planned by a few people with extremely high organization skill. Initial plan is to get there, have fun and come home safely. On second thought, the plan should covers much more details which is still work in progress.

So far what's done? Flight, accommodation, car & Visa. 

The few most important things are settled. The remaining nitty-gritty stuff shouldn't be a big problem.
Itinerary is kind of set.


















Highlight of this trip is the volkwagen passat free upgrade hehe 4 days for aud304. Food is not cheap around 20 aud per pax . Drink and sauces is a rip off. But food portion is quite huge with lots of chips. We saw many kangaroo at caversham wildlife park. One of them had a little joey in its pouch. In general the trip is enjoyable with a dim sum lunch at northbridge. Parking is plentiful. Penguin island near rockingham and aqwa is not bad. We went to Swan valley to buy some nougat and macadamia nuts. We didnt have a chance to visit fremantle market. Perth outlet mall located inside the cbd easily driven via gps. The accomodation at Como is quite centrally located if you drive.  I may decide to revisit Perth but this time it will be in may/ june period with malindo. All in all its a relaxing trip that is family friendly. All in we paid RM 800 per pax for a return trip with aax.

Short getaway from Singapore

For a small place like SG, one can go for short trips to places like Batam, Bintan, Desaru, Kukup, Pulau Ubin, St John island and Johor Baru. Who says you can't spend 3 to 5 days using SG as the base to tour around?

This indirectly expand the tourism market of Singapore which is also 1-1.5 hrs flight away from places like Melaka, Penang, Kuching, Kuala Lumpur, Medan, Langkawi, Ipoh, Jakarta, and Ho Chi Minh City. How many people are in this urban centers? Roughly 35 million people.

Further on one could fly to Bangkok, Bali/ Lombok, Kota Kinabalu, Miri, Brunei, Phuket, Danang, Bandung, Siem Reap and Surabaya which are further away but serve as a nearby regional getaway.

Home cook FULL meal is a happy meal

Ever since we bought Tiger Vacuum Pot in Dec 2013, we cooked more often.
1) Rice, fried egg, steam chicken, fried shallots, red bean soup dessert, enough for doggie bag too.

2) ABC soup with tomatoes, potatoes, onion carrot and pork rib. To make up the carbo intake, add some spaghetti. New cooking utensil tiger thermal pot bought in dec

3) old cucumber soup is easy to cook, too. Similar to ABC soup, put in old cucumber instead of potatoes & tomatoes. Other than soup, 1 new dish is added to our boring menu. Steam tofu topped with fried shallot & shrimps. Steam the tofu in the rice cooker while cooking the rice.

2015 ASEAN AEC

Dalat and Danang possibly will have more flight from either KL or Singapore

Perhaps also can try the Thai Lion/ Malindo to SG

Side thought, when will I go Bangkok again since my last visit in 2009. I think it will be around 2015 or 2016 when more mrt and srt lines are open. Perhaps I will go Chiang Mai during this period also.

10 things a smartphone has replaced

1. MP3 player
2. TV/ Radio
3. Calendar
4. Watch
5. PDA
6. Map/ GPS
7. Calculator
8. E-book reader
9. Game console
10. Camera

Epic journey Germany-Denmark-Sweden-Norway 2000km

hamburg - copenhagen - gotheborg - stockholm - oslo

If i fly with finn air to hamburg, I can do a stopover at helsinki and talinn. I think this will be a great adventure. 6 countries at one go.

Good hotel brands

Ascott Group
World hotels
Accor
SPG and Mariott
Carlson
Movenpick
Hilton

Hertz - thrifty - dollar

Avis  - budget

National - alamo - enterprise

Europcar

Sixt - redspot

What am I waiting for 2014-2015?

New Bintan lagoi development

Desaru sheraton and somerset nusajaya completion in jb
Mulu mariott completion
Klia 2 completion and nu sentral open
Brunei and bali airport completion

Ktmb double track

ASEAN aec open skies

How lcc change our travel behaviour since 2005

I was from the pre lcc generation. Before there was no lcc and smart phone. Travelling is mainly by bus. Somewhere in 2005, jetstar and tiger air mushroomed in singapore. Airasia was only flying bkk to singapore back then. Pre 2009 generally we fly via senai to malaysia  and via singapore to places like bangkok and hcmc. From 2009 all our trip were made from siu dou. 2005- 2006 involves heavy travelling Hong Kong, Bangkok, HCMC and cuti cuti malaysia. 2007- 2009 I was in Europe.

Lcc are in a highly competitive industry. Mainly dominated by lion air group, airasia group, jetstar group and tiger air group plus nok air , Cebu air and vietjet in 6 main market Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Philippines and Vietnam. Next revolution will be AEC 2015 liberalization.

First Road Trip in Borneo (Brunei & Miri)

Borneo may not be the first choice for most travelers and our last trip to Miri was 7 years ago. However a road trip with not much planning can be quite exciting, too. Without exceptionally high expectation, we took our first road trip in Borneo.

Before our AK flight, we enjoyed the complimentary lounge service at Changi T1. Courtesy of Krisflyer Amex and SATS. There are lots of food and lots of magazines to kill our time.

Touched down in Miri on a weekday after a 2-hour flight. Got our rented car from the workshop and there began our journey to find kolok Mee, dry curly noodles with little oil and some minced meat. A simple yet delicious noodle dish that Singaporean entrepreneur tried hard to penetrate the foodies' stomach but hardly succeeded. The best is still to be found only in the original place, Sarawak!

We drove around Miri city to familiarize ourselves with the road signs, road condition and drivers behavior etc. Generally they are courteous and not in a hurry. At night, dinner is settled in Bintang Plaza adjacent to Meritz Hotel. This stay-and-shop concept is quite common here. I got my hubby a 小礼物 & he was thrilled.

Day 2 (Miri - BSB)

Buffet breakfast fueled us up & our 150km drive to Bandar Seri Begawan began. We reached the Sarawak-Brunei connecting bridge at Sungai Tujoh and paid a whopping RM10 toll. At Rasau, the toll is only B$3.

Sarawak ICQ is not far from the toll and we cleared Malaysia check point quite smoothly. But after that we were stuck inside a "ruin" and don't know where to go. 

A few cars came from the opposite direction shed lights on our way forward. That ruin is the old checkpoint, which is no longer operational. That explained the extremely rundown state. We drove through a police post and then got our first ever Brunei stamp on our passport.

2-hour journey is not that long but it's still quite tiring. Fortunately Hotel Radisson didn't disappoint us. Things are not expensive in Brunei. No service charge, no GST, B$0.53/ltr petrol and amazingly there is no traffic jam! Malaysian car can only pump petrol at selected stations. There is special lane for Malaysian cars with special price of B$1.10/ltr.
Not forgetting to mention that movie ticket is only B$4 on weekday. We had real good laugh watching The Internship by Owen Wilson and Vince Vaugh.

Vacation is all about food and we had soooo~~~ much food.

We had (D1) Sushi King, (D2) hotel breakfast, pasta, Excapade Sushi (again),

I'm so full

(D3) hotel breakfast, 烧鸭白鸡饭&蒸羊骨, KTM Thai food

Steam lamb ribs. No pork in Brunei.

(D4) hotel breakfast, 明财seafood (Jalan Merbau, very near to Meritz & Imperial Hotel)

(D5) noodles, Dynasty Chinese restaurant, 明财seafood again.

Huge lala RM30/kg

thick Marudi (hand made) Kuey Teow

Day 3

As part of this lawatan sambil belajar (learning trip), we headed to Brunei international Airport for excursion. The main building is currently under major construction. It should ready is another say, 2 years?

Kampong Ayer

Highlight of the whole trip gotta be our stay at The Empire Resort and Country Club. This place is huge. Facilities include a golf club, club house, theater/ cinema, villas and a few blocks of guest rooms. Buildings are far apart and the guests need to take buggy. Upon check in, desserts are readily served in the room for Mr. Dining!?!? Pampered like royals for once. There are also salt and fresh water pools in the resort compound. Impressive!

Surprisingly, Jerudong Park is the exact opposite. B$1 entrance fee. Very few visitors and the place is very badly maintained. One side of the park across the road looks like a jungle full of knee height bushes and infested by mosquitoes. Although some children rides have been added but it can never bring back the charm. 

Day 4 (BSB - Miri)

Back to Miri. A section of Brunei highway is still under expansion works. Judging by the life pace, the road works should be completed by the time we return for the next visit, in 2 years perhaps?

Throughout this trip, we "hotel hopping" almost everyday. At The Imperial Hotel, we changed from room to apartment so Yes, we changed room everyday. I cannot imagine dragging our luggage around in public transport. Because of Hertz (RM180/ day), we managed to cover more places in shorter time such as Luak esplanade, Sea Horse Light House (from afar), Lambir Hill etc.

Day 5

The highly anticipated Borneo Tropical Rainforest Resort cost RM70 per pax so we patah balik to Lambir Hill National Park (RM10 entrance fee). Many locals come here for family outing picnic. We had a good time at the Latak Waterfall. Fun can be as cheap as RM10. 

欢乐的时光过得特别快，又是时候讲bye bye. Once again we are convinced that cuti-cuti Malaysia (or SEA) rox!