Why Bali is worth a Revisit - Part 1

Bali 28th - 29th April 2011

If you are thinking "Bali again??" I would answer you "Why not?" Seriously, do you have anything against Bali or do you have anything against me going to Bali again? After all, the Island is only an alphabet away from having the meaning of return i.e. Balik (Indonesian/Malay language). Bali in total is 5,600km² which is approximately 8 times the size of Singapore. It is a place that you can go back again and again but experience different things in each trip! For me, this time round, I am sharing this island together with 3 Hong Kong friends (N, K and M) and we are all in high spirit.

We have booked a Villa in Ubud this time round as we had more people thus bringing down the cost per head for the rental. As our flight arrived in the evening, we agreed that it would not make sense to head to the Villa directly and waste the rental, so we chose to stay the night in a budget hotel in Denpasar, "Pop! Harris Hotel". Overall, I would give the hotel a 4/5 for its cleanliness, bed and room facilities. But the best thing about this hotel is that it only costs us S$41 per room per night and that is S$20 per head! Location wise is not really good but with car rental cum driver at such low price, I am not complaining. Excited? Wanted to know more about this hotel? Go here!

Gem Island for 3 Days 2 Nights

28-30^th May 2010

I am back again to Gem Island or Gemia Island, which is situated in the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia’s Dungun town in the state of Terengganu and if you have read my posting on my first visit to this island in September 2009, you will have most of the details to this island.

The difference between my first trip to this island and the current one is that this time round, we will be heading there on the Malaysian school holiday period, which means crowd. The reason I am heading back to this place is due to 2 reasons. Firstly, to organize a long overdue island trip for my church pastor in Singapore, which eventually became an 18 people group. Secondly, due to the heavy traffic during this school holiday period, all other resorts in other islands are either fully booked or does not have the capacity to house 18 of us. Initially, I was planning to head to Lang Tengah Island where I got married in but as mentioned, due to heavy traffic we have to consider other options. Don’t get me wrong by having the impression that just because we could get an 18 pax group in Gem Island while the others are fully booked means that Gem Island is a crappy place/resort and is not a destination of choice. While your impression might be true in some situations, Gem Island fortunately lives up to its name… Gem and gems are by no means cheap and crappy.

Bali: The Isle of Gods Day 5 & 6

22 – 23^rd March 2010

Brian has feedback to me that for my holiday postings, it is tiring to read it on a day-by-day posting as the initial part will be interesting whereas leaving those days at the end of the holiday dry and boring... Well, its kinda hard to leave out the details in those days as the blog is supposed to be about the LTs and thus to live out the motto of the blog, it got to contain those LTs. OK OK, I will try to shorten my last two days of my Bali trip so hopefully this doesn’t get monotonous.

Most of us (Saved for a few) woke up late for breakfast but none of us felt that there is any need for apologies thanks to the chatting till the wee hours and the oh-so-comfortable bed. We left for a day of blissful massage and spa at Murano Spa for the whole family and I have to repeat myself again, IT IS SUPER CHEAP!!! How cheap??? A 3.5 hours service including Balinese oil massage, body scrub (Choice of Green tea, Milk, Javanese Lulur, Boreh), hot flower bath with fresh ginger tea and a twin combo choice of pedicure, manicure, scalp massage, foot massage or facial wash and all these for a mere IDR290,000 or approximately S$45! Do not miss this for the moon! I know there are many other famous places like “Jari Menari” and “Body Works” but I chose Murano Spa as it is not as crowded as those two, reasonable price, non-religious massage as and most importantly there are both masseurs and masseuses (Jari Menari only has masseurs). Geez, I guess I have gone overboard in recommending the place and that made me sounds just like their agent… Haha!

Gem Island: Paradise in Malaysia

GEM ISLAND, TERENGGANU 26-28 SEPTEMBER 2009

Gem Island or Gemia Island is situated in Terengganu, a state on the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia and is beside the better-known sister, Kapas Island. The island is designated as marine conservation park and there is only one resort on the island itself. Doesn’t it make you wonder the oxymoronic idea of a resort on a marine conservation park? Beats me!

Phuket Island in 3 Days (Day 2)

PHUKET, THAILAND 20 - 23 June 2009
DAY 2

Today is one of the highlights of the trip i.e. Phi Phi Island and everyone is in high spirit! It is very sweet of the ladies to wake up early and prepare breakfast for us and that’s what I called blissfulness. After breakfast, we drive down to the jetty at Au Chalong or Chalong pier. The drive from the hotel to the pier took around 45mins if you know the exact way, otherwise, perhaps 1hr. Usually tour operators would provide pick up service but of course, it is chargeable depending on which side of the island you are staying in. Unfortunately, places like JW Marriott, Marriott Mai Khao and Sheraton commands the highest pick up fees due to its location in the north, which can cost each person up to THB600! Not only that, you are the first to be picked up (Earliest) followed by many others in different locations AND you are the last to be sent back to the hotel, resulting in lots of time wasted in picking/sending others from/to their hotel.

Yours truly behind the wheels.

[Tips 01: Quick calculation – 7 pax x THB600 = THB4,200! That is worth > 2 days rental of our Toyota 3.0CC Fortuner!]

Phuket Island in 3 Days (Day 1)

PHUKET, THAILAND 20 – 23 June 2009

At last, it has been so long since the trip. Finally I've got time to blog about this trip and here goes.

DAY 1
We boarded AirAsia from Singapore Changi T1 air terminal towards Phuket International Airport. There is only one minor hiccup for the flight. One Caucasian jumped our queue and act like nothing wrong about that. My wife was fuming mad and was like mumbling throughout the check in time. Apart from that, all’s well.

We reached Phuket airport around +1400hr and proceeded to meet up with Jeff and Jane (We have earlier made arrangement to meet at Burger Kings).

[Tips 01: There are Burger Kings, Subway, Dunkin’ doughnuts and some other stuffs at the airport but their prices are not cheap cheap… if you know what I mean]

[Tips 02: There are moneychangers both inside and outside the airport but the one inside is not accessible once you have stepped out of the main entrance. No sweat, the one outside offers pretty good rates too]

Preparation for Phuket Island in 3 Days

20 – 23 June 2009

This has been a long awaited trip and much time has been invested to plan for it. There will be a total of 7 persons involved in the trip i.e. William + Jeannie, Jeff + Jane, Pooi See & Dana + yours truly. I have undertook the role of coordinator so in this posting, you will get pretty much of the things that I had gone through and areas that you may want to take note of with plenty of tips along the way.

I have broken down the trip into a few sections as follow:

i) Accommodation;
ii) Transportation/ Logistics;
iii) Program;
iv) Meal; &
v) Budget.

3 Days 2 Nights in Bali

Under my previous employment with United Fiber System Ltd (An SGX listed company dealing with pulp manufacturing for the production of papers), I have to travel to Indonesia quite often to understand the operations of the mills as well as to liaise with the mill's third parties e.g. bankers, auditors, government officials, etc. The 3 usual location is Jakarta, Banjarmasin and Ale Ale (You don't want to be here!). Anyway, my point is that my very first virgin voyage on flight is given to the company and Indonesia is the very first overseas country that I have ever travelled to, thus, I am supposed to be excited BUT due to its much ladened ugly news on the Jakarta riots coupled with gorish photos, I have very bad impression of the place and believe me when I said I had this nauseous feeling when I stepped onto Jakarta's ground.

Bali Here I Come!

Its been quite sometime since I updated my blog due to the shuttling between Singapore and Malaysia to do up my house in Port Dickson. You see, I have decided to DIY most part of my house by applying the scrooge as hell attitude of the founder of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad. It was rumoured that during his younger days, Ingvar was about to buy some furnitures and was totally surprised with the price of the furnitures and ask the store owner why such simple furniture costs so much. In replying the question from Ingvar, the store owner said that the cost to assemble, store and deliver the goods has already made its way into the total price of the goods, thus the high price and some even to the extend of absorbing the after sales support costs. Disgusted, Ingvar told the store owner that he doesn't need all that and quipped that he could assemble and deliver the goods without any need for after sales support and further asked for a discount for the goods he is about to purchase, to which the store owner said "Then you might as well go make one yourself". Ingvar took this seriously and started to think along this line as a business i.e. to strip the goods bare and let the customer choose whether they would like to assemble and deliver their own goods or pay a premium for someone to do that, thus the birth of IKEA. Also, IKEA provides a simple tag/manual so that customers can understand how the goods work, which in effect allow IKEA not to have an after sales support centre, thus cutting cost for the company as well.