Hotel with See-Through Bathrooms

Posted on August 21, 2012 by setiawanphoto

One thing to note when planning a trip to Singapore is that the cost for accommodation is generally higher than other major Asian cities. So you want to budget accordingly, and/or select a place to stay that would fit with your budget and plans during your visit. During our short visit to Singapore, we stayed at a hotel called Aqueen Hotel located in the Lavender area of Singapore, north of the downtown / Central Business District area. We found this hotel on TripAdvisor; it generally had good reviews and the price was reasonable (comparable to the amount I would spend in staying at hotels in the United States). The hotel location is about 10-minute walk from the nearest MRT station. We did not try that however since our stay was too short and we ended up taking taxis instead. The hotel is on a major road, so it’s pretty easy to get a taxi.

Our first impression of the hotel when we arrived was pretty good. It looked pretty new, modern, and clean. Our room was on the fourth floor, and while the room was a little smaller than the other ones we stayed at during this trip, it was clean, well decorated, and looked very modern. There was one quirky interior design choice, however, that may make guests uncomfortable staying there. The bathroom had see-through glass walls, with the bottom part frosted but still somewhat see-through. We only stayed one night and didn’t use the bathroom that much during the stay, so it wasn’t that bothersome. Each of us just looked away from the bathroom when the other person was going to use it.

Overall it was a good stay for the one night we spent there. The bed was comfortable, and I didn’t hear noise from the road even though our room was facing the main road. In the morning they served breakfast at the restaurant at the ground floor of the hotel, though we didn’t try it as we opted to go for breakfast at a Hawker Center instead.

The photo below was taken in our room. You can see the bathroom with the see-through glass walls in the background.

Taxi Ride from Changi

Posted on August 20, 2012 by setiawanphoto

Kristi and I arrived in Singapore after quite a long day traveling from Hanoi that started with spending several hours at the Hanoi Noi Bai Airport due to flight delay. Once we passed the immigration at Changi International Airport, we were ready to head to our hotel in Singapore. We decided to take a taxi ride instead of the MRT as we did not want to deal with walking around and looking for the hotel from the nearest MRT station.

During this trip, we had mixed experiences taking taxi ride in the countries we visited. In Bangkok, we took a taxi that was decorated with disco lights inside and the driver playing Lady Gaga music. In Hanoi, we had bad experience getting overcharged in a couple of rides and in another case getting yelled at for requesting a ride that the driver thought was too close to worth a ride. So I was hoping for a better experience this time in Singapore considering it’s generally an English-speaking country and things seemed to be more orderly and supposedly the taxi drivers were more honest.

We started the experience with waiting at the taxi line at the airport. It was quite a long line; there were probably about 50 people in front of us. I think we waited longer to get a taxi than getting through immigration that day. What made it even a worse experience was the hot and humid weather; we had to adjust back to that kind of weather after spending a week in the cool Northern Vietnam winter weather.

We finally got a taxi cab assigned to us. The driver was an older Chinese gentleman. The taxi car looked like somewhat older, but it was very clean and it was quite modern inside with the taxi meters inside. I told the driver the name and the address of the hotel. He nodded, and off we went.

The ride towards downtown Singapore was pretty smooth; not much traffic until we got close to the Central Business District. I took my camera out of my backpack and took some photos from the back seat. The driver recognized that it was my first visit to the city, so he pointed to some newer parts of the city like the Sands Marina Bay building in the distance.

We arrived at a hotel near downtown, but it didn’t look like the hotel that we were supposed to go to. When I showed the hotel name and the address again, the driver realized that he had taken us to the wrong location. He apologized and we continued our ride until we reached the correct location. When we arrived at the hotel, I was about to pay the driver what was shown on the taxi meter when the driver told us he apologized for taking us to the wrong location, and he refused to be paid full price because obviously the ride should have been shorter than it was. The price for the ride was not that expensive, so I told him it’s okay that he gave us a little sightseeing tour of downtown area Singapore, and I paid him the full amount.

I thought it’s interesting to think back that this could have been another bad experience riding a taxi. But given the honesty and attitude from the driver, I was okay paying extra amount for the unexpected longer ride, in comparison to felling ripped off when the taxi driver in Hanoi told us that he didn’t have change for our large bill and didn’t even attempt to look at his pocket to see if he had any.

The photo below was taken from the back seat of the taxi cab as we’re getting closer to the Central Business District area of Singapore.

One Night in Singapore

Posted on August 19, 2012 by setiawanphoto

The last stop of our Southeast Asia trip was Singapore. We didn’t have much time left on our two-week trip, but we thought since Singapore was on the way home from Vietnam to Indonesia, we would at least include a stopover there.

For westerners coming to visit Southeast Asia for the first time, Singapore is often considered as the ‘Asia 101.’ The city is very modern and structured. Its airport, Changi International Airport, is considered as one of the main hubs in Asia, so you can easily find flights to Singapore from all over the world. You can get around with English easily, and the public transportation is very accessible in the small city-state area. Yet the influence from various cultures that make up Singapore population — Chinese, Malay, Arab, Indian — are still quite strong, so you can get a taste of those cultures during your visit in Singapore.

Given its close proximity to Indonesia, visiting Singapore is similar to Americans visiting the neighboring country of Canada. Many Indonesians would go to Singapore for short vacation. Some of my high school friends now even live and work in Singapore given the availability of job opportunities especially in high tech sector. For Indonesians, the two main attractions of Singapore are shopping and food. For Kristi and me, we didn’t care so much for the shopping part, but the food part definitely was the main draw.

Prior to this trip, I had only been to Singapore (if you could call it a ‘visit’) for few hours during a transit at Changi International Airport. So it’s pretty much all new to me. Kristi had been in Singapore several times before with family and friends. But she had not really spent time exploring the culture there before either. We only had less than one day to spend in Singapore (arriving in an afternoon, leaving again the following afternoon), so it had to be somewhat well-planned to make the best use of our time there.

We decided to use food as our ‘theme’ for the visit, so the goal was to try out several unique Singaporean dishes while we were there. As a guide, we decided to look at some Travel Channel programs covering Singapore: Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, Andrew Zimmern’s Bizarre Foods, and Samantha Brown’s Asia. We found information about some of the places these hosts visited, and decided to follow suit after seeing confirming good reviews about those places. Along the way, I also wanted to visit places that are uniquely Singapore like the downtown area, Raffles Hotel, Chinatown, and Little India. Quite ambitious for less than 24-hour visit, but we would give it a try.

The photo below was taken in an area in downtown Singapore called One Fullerton. You can see the iconic statue of Merlion, which is the mascot of Singapore.

Vietnam Airlines

Posted on August 18, 2012 by setiawanphoto

Vietnam Airlines is the national air carrier of Vietnam. It has Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City as its hubs, and it serves domestic destinations within Vietnam and several international destinations.

During our Southeast Asia trip, we took Vietnam Airlines flights in to and out from Hanoi. Initially we looked for bargain priced flights through low cost carriers like AirAsia and JetStar, but we found that while we could find flights at reasonable price, the route and timing were not ideal for our trip. We were looking for direct flights from Siem Reap to Hanoi and from Hanoi to Singapore that also minimized travel times so we could spend more time at the destination cities. In the end, the best timing and cost balance were with Vietnam Airlines flights.

I booked the tickets directly on Vietnam Airlines website. The bookings were quite straightforward, though there was a catch that you may want to watch for especially if you’re booking using your credit card. The transaction would be billed from Vietnam, so it would be considered as if you’re using your credit card there. For some credit cards, that would mean you need to pay foreign transaction fee that typically amounts to about 3% of the transaction amount. In my case, I did end up paying the fee as I didn’t know this and I used my credit card that did not have foreign transaction fee waiver.

Our first flight with Vietnam Airlines from Siem Reap to Hanoi was in business class. The cost was almost double the amount for economy seat, but it was still pretty reasonable (less than USD 500 per person) and it was the most convenient timing for our schedule (at least on paper). It turned out however that the flight was delayed for almost three hours, and we ended up arriving late in Hanoi that pretty much changed our original plan to go out for dinner in Hanoi. Since we had business class seats, we could wait in the business lounge at the Siem Reap International Airport, so it was more comfortable and nicer than the regular waiting area. The flight itself was pretty nice and uneventful, and the food served was good; pretty much a Vietnamese-western fusion dish.

The second flight with Vietnam Airlines was from Hanoi to Singapore. This time we tried to fly on the earliest flight out from Hanoi to Singapore so we could spend more time in Singapore. However, similar to the the first flight, our flight was again delayed, though thankfully this one was only two hours. We used the time at the Hanoi Noi Bai Airport to look for souvenirs, so all was not lost. But it did mean we had shorter time to spend in Singapore than what we planned. The flight again was nice and uneventful. The economy cabin was still pretty good; I’d say it’s comparable to any airlines you fly here in the United States.

Overall, I think I would consider flying Vietnam Airlines again especially for the domestic flights in Vietnam and when they have good route, time, and price. However, given my previous experience with them, I would at least consider a Plan B on my trip in case the flight gets delayed again.

The photo below was taken at the Hanoi Noi Bai Airport from the terminal that seemed to be exclusively for Vietnam Airlines. You can see the Vietnam Airlines planes at the gates waiting for the passengers to get on board.

Souvenirs from Vietnam

Posted on August 17, 2012 by setiawanphoto

Souvenirs… When traveling somewhere, you often think of bringing something home from the place you visit as a way to remember the experience on the trip or a way to share the experience with someone back home who didn’t go on the trip. Sometimes this aspect of traveling can become a stressful part of the trip in itself, especially if you already have something in mind to get for one or more people, and you have to set aside your precious traveling time to look for the souvenirs.

You can get the souvenirs at the earlier part of your trip to get this out of the way. But then you would have to lug the souvenirs around as part of your traveling baggage — not a good thing if you still have a long journey to go. If you get the souvenirs towards the end of the trip, you won’t have this problem, but then you’d be thinking about this all trip long, and perhaps the last stop of your trip may not be the best place to get the souvenirs. Other considerations to take account are who you will get the souvenirs for, what to get them, and how much you’re willing to spend on souvenirs. The worst possible thing to do is to get an expensive souvenir for someone who doesn’t care or appreciate the gift.

During our Southeast Asia trip, Kristi and I considered this aspect from the beginning. We were going on a two-week trip to four countries, and we had many family members and mutual friends to consider. So what to do?

First of all, Kristi made a smart move to purchase extra luggage weight allowance for the last leg of our trip on AirAsia. Apparently if you don’t do so, you may have to pay more expensive excess baggage fee at the airport given the fairly restrictive luggage weight allowance. Then we thought of who to get the souvenirs for, what to get, and where to get them. There were at least eight families in addition to her family and my family to consider. We decided to get the same thing for all of them (so there is no favoritism), and we thought of something that was unique to the place we visited and most in the family we knew would enjoy… Vietnamese coffee. This would work quite well as Vietnam was close to the end of our trip, and the total cost was quite reasonable.

When we were in Cambodia, we also got silk scarves for a couple of mutual friends in the US. That’s also a unique, local product to Cambodia, and they were quite lightweight and didn’t take much space during the travel. Kristi also purchased a pair of wooden sandals in Hanoi for her mom, as she specifically asked for those. I also got a little wooden statuette to take home for myself from Vietnam. All in all, I think we were able to get things to take home without stressing ourselves or our budget.

We bought the bulk of the souvenirs at the shops at the Hanoi Noi Bai Airport while we were waiting for our flight to Singapore. Not ideal and I’m sure we could’ve found better price outside the airport, but we didn’t have much time to spend to look for these while we were in town. As we perused the available souvenirs, we saw the item on the photo below, a wine bottle with a snake in it. It’s an extreme souvenir and for sure would be memorable, but I’m not sure how practical it would be to get this and carry it around during the trip.