Cuti-cuti Malaysia @ Kuching

It has been a long while since the last time we went on a group tour. For air ticket as low as $100, 6 of us organized a short 3D2N trip to Kuching. It was a low cost yet high class trip which started with a Bang! To catch our morning flight, we had a complimentary limo taxi ride. Big maxi cab fit for 10 persons. It was kind of funny to tell the driver to drop us at Door 5, where AirAsia counter is.

Limo Taxi ride for fffrrreeeee~~~~

 After check in, Kp joined us for Texas Chicken breakfast. YS chose to eat fried beehoon at Bedok. Later we hang out at Changi Airport and wandered around the priority lounges. Our travel kaki started to appear one by one after we entered into the waiting hall. To our surprise, Joanne came on time. But it took her forever to clear the last road block, a bottle of Perrier. As she stood there and drink, Kp overtook her. Joanne was again the last to arrive.

Flight from Singapore to Kuching was about 1 hour. By mid day, we already checked-in at Pullman Kuching. Pullman is a 2-year old 5-star hotel located near town center. Hilton across the road is totally incomparable.

Spacious room

Huge washroom

City / river view

The Peak Executive Lounge

The nearest riverside shopping area is just a stone throw away. After recce around, we were attracted by a traditional Chinese coffee shop selling kolo mee and roast pork. The kolo mee is not bad but basically dried noodles with lard and minced pork. Whereas the roast pork is heavenly. It is so succulent and gone in 60 seconds. Besides koluomee, another famous must-try is 3-layer milk tea. The drinks is served with distinct 3 layers of liquid, gula Melaka (brown sugar syrup), milk and tea. The gula Melaka gives an aftertaste like drinking chendol. Stir well before drink otherwise may choke on the thick syrup.

Tea time!!!

kolo mee

3-layer milk tea

Khatulistiwa

Furniture shop

Day 1 is basically for R&R and orientation. Not long after the afternoon tea, we had dinner at TOP SPOT, a multi-storey carpark cum food center. It is about 5 minute walk away from Pullman. The obvious competition is between ABC (store #10) and Bukit Mata (store #25). These are the biggest, busiest & most bustling stores compared to the rest. Many Malay and Chinese patrons eating under one roof. We order some prawns, mantis shrimps, bamboo clams, fish etc. RM175 for 6 person. Very affordable. no wonder the place is full house. Unfortunately Kp LS that night. We concluded the culprit should be that glass of coconut juice.

Coming back to hotel, we chilled out at Deja Vu bar and caught a glimpse of a beautiful lady SYT. YS drooling. After much negotiation with the hotel front desk, we shifted room from 14th floor to 10th floor then to 21st Executive floor. At Executive Lounge, drinks and snacks are provided. Cocktail reception every evening between 6pm to 7pm. This is the first and the most exclusive hotel experience for me so far.

Day 2
Shame on Yatim who made money out of his countrymen. He arranged for his friend to bring us around for a day. The price for a full day transport was RM350. It could have been cheaper. Anyway... Ayub drove us to Chong Choon Coffee Shop for breakfast. Generally Kuching food is cheap and comes in big portion. RM9 for a decent breakfast. Then it took us about 45min to Bako National Park. Due to monsoon, we need to take 2 separate boats from the river estuary. We were told the "ombak besar!". Puzzled by their words because we should be riding along river. Where does the ombak come from? As we rode the boat towards the sea, then we realized the wave is really quite strong. Our boat ride was like a roller coaster ride. The experienced boat man avoided the waves. Each time the boat sail over the wave, it dropped onto the sea surface. It caused a jerk and bang on our back side. Pain... What an exciting boat ride. In the Bako National Park, there are multiple trails available for selection. The shortest was only 0.8km but we didn't complete the trail due to excessive baggage.

ombak ombak....

tiny wild boar

Lunch time came sooner than we thought. Ayub brought us to Beach Seafood Restaurant by the Santubong Beach. A full meal cost us RM177 (for 6 pax). We finally tasted the local crispy oyster omelet. This omelet is totally different from Singapore style. It is thin, dry and crispy. Oysters used were small and chewy. The dipping sauce was some lightly salted calamansi sauce or something. Whereas in Singapore the typical oyster omelet is thick, wet and soft. Singapore hawkers brag so much about the huge oysters they offered. But the big oysters actually is soggy. And the worse thing about Singapore oyster omelet is the dipping sauce. Bascially there is no creativity. They simply dip everything in gluey ketchup or chili sauce. One more point to Kuching.

oyster omelette

 At Santubong Beach the sun was scorching hot but the pine tree and misty mountainous background confused our senses. Suddenly we felt like in a cold country.

We also took a stroll along the riverside overseeing the new DUN. In the evening we rushed back to Kuching for massage (RM40) and SPA (RM133) very value for money. To fully utilize our time in Kuching, we sang Karaoke till 1am at Track 7 right next to Pullman. For whatever reason, the counter stuff was mistakenly counted 1 person less and undercharged us. It is already very cheap but now it's even cheaper. RM104 for 6 pax to sing for 3 hours.

  

buying Ramli burgers

Old Town Coffee Shop

Hotel spa

Day 3 (Last day)
Extended our check out timing to 2pm. Enjoyed the sauna, steam bath and Jacuzzi for one last time. Then we had brunch at Nu Er Hong, in-house Chinese restaurant in Pullman. Surprisingly the pan fried XO sauce you tiao turned out to be the best dish. The rest are normal Chinese food. The environment scored more points. Total bill RM177.

Kuching is a nice and spacious place. Things are cheap and people are friendly. Multi racial live harmoniously. As long as we behave like Malaysia, we won't get cheated. We should come back again.

Our low cost travel rule of thumb

We went to Bali for SGD 120 per pax all in flight return, Hangzhou and Taiwan SGD 230 per pax all in flight return.

Hotel stay for the trip duration shall not exceed SGD 500 for double sharing.

Food and transport for the trip duration shall not exceed SGD 500.

However, there are exception for flight more than 5 hours. Example when we go to Japan, total hotel cost is SGD 900 and food and transport cost another SGD 900 .

To conclude for two pax lowest possible achievement with maximum utility. (Note all the below has been achieved before with 4* hotel, good food and economy class tickets, trip days min 4, max 7)

Cuti-cuti malaysia = total expense should not exceed 500 SGD (F- 200, H-150, FT 150)
Less than 2.5 hr trip overseas = total expense should not exceed 800 SGD (F- 250, H-300, FT- 250)
2.5-5 hrs trip = total expense should not exceed  1500 SGD (F- 500, H- 500, FT- 500)
5-9 hrs trip =  total expense should not exceed 3000 SGD (F-1000,H- 1000, FT- 1000)
9-18 hrs trip =  total expense should not exceed 4000 SGD (F-2000,H- 1000, FT- 1000)

Example destination

2 hrs trip = Bangkok, Bali, HCMC
2.5-5 hrs trip = Hanoi, Hangzhou, HK, Taiwan
5-9 hrs = Australia, NZ, Japan, Korea
9-18 hrs = Europe, USA

铁路绕岛七日游 - Taiwan (Part 2)

Kaohsiung - Hualien
THSR is not available on the East side of Taiwan. To travel from Kaohsiung to Hualien, TRA is the only option and the shortest travelling time is 4 hours. We managed to catch the 8am Express train (NT$707). Journey that long is unbearable without food. We planned well ahead and doggie bagged some tepanyaki from SOGO last night.

The long waited SLOW train finally pulled into the platform. It sounds like KTMB looks like KTMB and feels like KTMB. This is probably the most crazy ride in the whole trip. Half way through it started to drizzle and the scenery started to transform from bustling city view to ulu kampung scene. The train travelled very slowly because the track is not electrified yet. The train is still powered by diesel. No wonder it feels like KTMB.

Hualien gave us a whole new feeling about Taiwan. It is much laid back and less accessible by public transport. To take a cab, we must call. The flag down rate is NT$100 instead of NT$85 in the other part of Taiwan. After checking into our second Chateau de Chine, we took a stroll towards the sea and it turned out to be a huge mistake. Moving away from city is unwise because Hualien is less touristy with less cab around. We were lucky to get one when the driver needed some KFC, just like us.

Quite empty

From KFC, we walked a long way to train station / tourist info centre to find out about Taroko day tour. Set our plan but the day is still early.

From the bus station, we learned that there are only a few bus routes. Unless you live in Hualien, there is no way to decipher the bus schedule or the bus route. Not a friendly place for ang moh. The locals chop carrot on them. Later that night, we wandered around the town centre and called it a night around 8pm. The good thing about Taiwan hotel is the great variety of free-to-air tv channels. Nothing to do just watch tv. Even you missed a funny episode, it repeats many times a day.

Taroko day tour
Early in the morning, we rushed to the pick up point to buy a day-pass (NT$250). It gives us unlimited ride on Taroko Bus but with a fixed schedule. The Taomikeng lesson taught us not to be greedy. Unable to cover ALL sites won't kill. So we carefully chose the drop off point for photos taking, trekking, sightseeing and rest.

First stop, Taroko National Park main entrance

Shakadang tunnel. Just a tunnel. Should have spent more time around the main entrance
 

The trail is closed

Trail is was constructed by cutting the side of the rock mountain 

We waited long for the next bus

Signature STAR jump

Buluowan

Due to typhoon early in the month, some trekking routes have been closed and caused some time wasted at the Shakadang. Even so, Taroko is still a fantastic place to be. Among others, Shakadang trekking trails were constructed by manual chiselling on the side of giant rock. From Shakadang, we hopped on the next bus to Buluowan. There is a jungle trail by the hill side and lead to the main road downhill.

  

Walking along the main road, we soon arrived at Yanzikou. Yanzikou is a vehicular road turned walking path for great photos taking. I was mesmerised by the magnificent work of God. According to our bus driver, Taroko gorge is "growing" by 0.5cm/year due to the tectonic plate movement and the continuous river flow. I'm not sure how it happened but the result is really awesome.

Suspension footbridge was closed for public

It is very high. I get jelly legs just by looking downward

But the view is perfect for photo taking

Don't look down...

Keep a distance... It is not so scary from here...

The weather was just nice for a romantic alfresco KFC lunch in the park at Tianxiang. We later recuperated at Silk Place Hotel and surf some net. In Taiwan, there is wifi almost everywhere. I really wonder how the invisible wave affect the Taiwanese brain.

A long bus ride finally brought us back to Hualien train station but much earlier than our plan. We had some Starbucks. Since our Shanghai trip early this year, we started to hang out at Starbucks. More so when we found Rochester Starbucks. We go there every other week, chilled out chilled out.

Pizza Hut for dinner coz our fund is running low. Back in hotel, lots of variety shows to fill up free time again.

Hualien to Taipei
The last leg of our trip will be ending in Taipei. We took a 2-hour Taroko Express to Taipei (NT$440). This time round the scenery transformation is even more breathtaking. The train moved northward along the east coast. While huge rock mountain laying on the west, beautiful coast line continues on the east.

All good things come to an end in Taipei. We thought we had a good Ximending hotel deal. To our horror we were told to check in only after 10pm!! 10pm??!! This is the worst promotional condition I ever experienced. We had no choice but lepak around. Strangely, Cashbox karaoke doesn't have wifi.
We had some shopping, some Ding Tai Fung, some MOS burger and long walk.

We didn't know how much we missed out until the very morning. There are many cinemas, many nice restaurant and many shopping around where we stayed. We could have easily killed our time in Ximending. Nothing could be more distressing than knowing the truth.

This trip is like riding roller coaster. We started low in Taichung. Slowly climb through Sun Moon Lake, reach the apex at Taroko and crash to the bottom in Xinmending. In the late morning, we took THSR back to Taoyuan. This concluded our 1-week trip in Taiwan. If I ever come back to Taiwan, Taoyuan airport will be very different.