New Year Trip to Langkawi & Penang 2014 Jan

This is the second New Year cuti-cuti Malaysia short getaway. Last one was exactly a year ago when a group of us went to Kuching for the first time. As usual air tickets were booked way in advance. This time we flew SIN-LKG-PEN-SIN by AirAsia.

Langkawi (D1)
The car rental booths are inside the arrival hall. Rented a Nissan Latio for RM70/day from an unknown car rental company, Darulaman. Initially we intend to book from Kasina but we just missed the booth right next to us. The car rental in Langkawi is very cheap because it is tax free here.

Unfortunately Resort World Langkawi at Cenang Beach was a bad choice. Like shit. The furniture are old, the resort condition is run down, no free wifi an the breakfast is lousy. I will not return. 

Actually Langkawi is quite relaxing with minimal traffic and natural beaches. It is less touristy compared to Bali. 80% of the passengers in the flight are either PRC, Westerner or Singaporeans. Langkawi in a way is better than Bali depending on your preference.

Along the beach, hawkers are selling coconuts and cooked food. With simple table set up and free sea view can start business already. The further from town, the cheaper the coconut is.

So good that we have to eat there twice...

Highlights of the trip: Westin lunch, tanjung rhu beach, duty free shopping and langkawi cable car ride. First time 1Malaysia gave me a discount that could actually benefit me.
The view from cable was magnificent, similar to Taiwan Sun Moon Lake. This place is cooling and relaxing.

The sky bridge is still closed for maintenance

Moving on to the next destination, Telaga Tujuh (Seven Well) Waterfalls. It was a long and steep uphill walk before reaching the waterfall. Although the place is nice but cannot attract many people. only a few small groups of visitors (both locals and foreigners) were there having picnic. That's the strength and weakness about Malaysia tourism. Not so crowded. But cannot make money.

Finally got some time to Whatapps my mum

Kilim Geopark is for tourist. The fee is exorbitant. No choice but have to detour to Tanjung Rhu beach. The beach is so clean. Boat fee to the Kilim Geopark from here is cheaper than Kilim River Jetty.

The biggest fraud in Langkawi is the pepero biscuit we bought.

Penang (D2&3)
We flew to Penang initially to try out the second bridge and go to Pulau Aman from Batu Musang jetty. Unfortunately the bridge is still not operational. Normally project in Malaysia seldom complete on time. Delay of 1 year from whichever Minister announcement completion date is the norm. So I guess people no need to really listen to what our politicians say since they are most likely than not wrong.

So this time we went to Penang, we drove to Gurney Paragon, Straits Quay, E&O Hotel and Penang National Park at Teluk Bahang. We also went to see the famous mural and ate some street food at Gurney Drive. To summarise Penang, the place is a bit old, traffic is not very smooth due to narrow roads and the food less tasty nowadays but more expensive. But hey who cares as long as it is listed as UNESCO Heritage. It would be better if a tunnel system is constructed to bypass Georgetown since one have no choice of avoiding the town to get to places like Tanjung Bungah.

The Ship Restaurant. Literally

Straits Quay

E&O Hotel

RM10 Char Kuay Teow

Penang prawn noodle!!??

Gurney Paragon

We are gradually changing our travelling habit by moving to self-drive mode. This saved us more time and allowed flexibility in our fast-changing itinerary. How else can we enjoy the opportunity to test drive different cars without actually buying one?

Hyundai Matrix at Miri/ Brunei (#1)

Hyundai Verna at Kuching (#2)

Nissan Latio at Langkawi (#3)

Proton Saga at Penang (#4)

Ford Fiesta at Penang (#5)

KUL and SIN flight per pax price comparison

Cheapest SIN to KUL flight

SQ all in SGD 87

Firefly SGD 52

AA SGD 40 + 4
Jetstar SGD 36

Cheapest KUL to SIN

SQ RM 202

Firefly RM 129

AA RM 55 + 4
Jetstar RM 65/ SGD 27

Note that previously LCCT RM 10.8/ 12.5 by klia transit to bandar tasik/ klsentral one way need to be added to AA. Now is RM 26.50/ RM 35 from klia2 to bandar tasik/ kl sentral for both Jetstar and AA.

Conclusion SIN-KUL cheaper to fly by Jetstar. But Firefly is also very competitive.
KUL to SIN cheaper by airasia. But Subang airport is much nearer.

If you go from klia transit in the main terminal is located outside the immigration.

For klia2 i think both klia expres and klia transit are co-located.

My personal preference is to fly to SG from Subang or take KTMB.
Flight to KUL  would be better via klia2.

Airbus vs Boeing

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.