Siem Reap, Cambodia

See the album on Flickr.

We just returned from a 5 day trip to Cambodia. My first trip since New Zealand in November. It was about time! 6 week old Austen was his usual "zen baby" self just cruising along with us.

Pictures are up on Flickr. As always the pics of us are viewable to "friends and family" so make sure you log in and have added me as a friend.

Tour de Bintan year two

Joel is just finishing up the final stage of the Tour de Bintan which has been running for the past two days. We have been staying at the host resort, Nirawana Gardens this year. Not as clean or as comfortable as the Bintan Lagoon Resort we stayed at last year but much easier to deal with all the race stuff staying right at the location of registration etc.

Joel has been riding with his team here and despite the incredible heat, everyone is holding up ok! He was ecstatic about nearly getting the KOM this morning... If only he hadn't dropped his chain at the last second. Ah the lament of cyclists. Anyway, final short race is starting around now. Then we are racing back to Singapore to see how Kopi-o is managing. He didn't spend the whole weekend alone, our helper went over yesterday to feed him but he's sure to put on a good show of displeasure when we get back.

Sailing course

photo credit: Diana 

photo credit: Diana

We finally after YEARS of planning took a sailing course. When we were first looking at moving to Singapore we read all about how "crazy about sailing" Singaporeans are. Of course this article was on some sailing site that was trying to sell yachts to Singapore expats. Since arrival we realized that sailing is really not at all a part of local culture at all! Hardly any wonder, this island is not known for having much wind and of course being a very busy shipping port it's a tricky place to navigate. There are some very small Marinas around the island in various states of disrepair (shockingly Raffles Marina is pretty shabby). The new Keppel Bay Marina is small but brand new and it offers some courses onboard their Beneteau 40s. The competent crew course we took went across to Batam and around the island of Singapore on two weekend overnight excursions.

Happy 5th/11th Anniversary to us

We were long past due for a side trip. 11 weeks had passed since our trip to California ended and I have about a six week time limit before I start to feel desperate to get out of Singapore. We both needed fresh air and some peace and quiet.

I booked us a weekend trip to Krabi for our anniversary. It was the easiest side trip we've ever done actually. I booked the flight with Tiger airways which wasn't quite as annoying as it was when I last used their online booking system and I found Amari Vogue Krabi on Trip adviser when I was searching for quiet boutique places to stay.

Our weekend was pretty incredible. The flight was fast and uneventful. Krabi airport is clean and efficient and we were the only plane at the airport when we arrived so getting out of the departures area took 10 minutes and there was our driver right on time. We had a very clean new car that whisked us at Thai speed out to the resort and literally just a couple of hours from the time we'd left our house we were checked in and sipping tea in Thailand. So easy! It actually took a lot less time and hassle then any of our trips to Malaysia which is technically closer. Everyone assumes you need more time to do a Thailand side trip than Malaysia or Bali but really I'd say exactly the opposite.

So Krabi province is gorgeous and we only saw just a teeny little bit on our car rides and beach walks. This is an area that outdoorsy folks go to because of the climbing and parks. Our resort was right next to a big park so it felt very remote as we only had a neighbour on one side and the other mini resorts along here all seem to be very small.

We had very inclement weather but it was nice and cool the whole time with a fresh breeze. So nice to be somewhere less humid and we had no air conditioning on at all. We read books, napped, ate fruit  and sipped fresh squeezed juice and tea. It was a very chill trip and a great way to spend our anniversary.

Tips on structuring a Singapore trip

I like to keep lots of coconuts on hand for tired guests.

It's so much fun to have guests arrive here. I love the look of shock when they finally make it to our place from the airport after their 24+ hour trip and see us here in our place like it's the most normal thing to be on the other side of the world. We have quite a few more guests planning a trip here and everyone wants to know how long they should come for, what should they do and how long it takes to acclimatize.

Don't expect too much from yourself for the first two to three days. It'll take that long to get your sleep sorted out. You'll probably crash pretty early in the afternoons and be less able to handle outdoor adventures in the heat. Almost everyone tries to do a lot on day one and then gives up and ends up by our pool instead. You probably need a week in Singapore before taking off for your first side trip. Three days to acclimatize and a few extra to do all the things you want to do here.

Bintan Islands Indonesia

Bintan Islands Indonesia, a set on Flickr.

We just got home from spending a weekend on Bintan for the Tour de Bintan stage race and the "go get some sun" part of the Doctor's orders for me. As my fellow Singapore residents already know, this island is not a cultural hot spot, nor is it the most amazing place to hit up a resort but it is a 45 minute ferry ride from Singapore and an opportunity to escape the city noise for a weekend.

We actually happened upon a great spot this trip. We stayed at Bintan Lagoon Resort which is a 700 acre golf resort set back from the water so the beach is quite peaceful with just one beach side restaurant visible from the shore. Given that it's a huge piece of land there's no light pollution at night and we loved just being able to walk around and see stars. It's very quiet and there are no other resorts on this stretch of coast. The cost of this place cuts down on the large families and groups of partiers so most other guests are couples who would prefer to play cards and read in a lounger than scream and listen to loud pop music. Overall the service was quite decent, our room was pretty nice and as clean as things get in this part of the world. Food at the buffet was better than other resort buffets we've seen, a-la-carte was better and the beach bar/restaurant was on par with a Singaporean tapas bar. Not excellent but we weren't suffering a bit. 

Our Bali trip album on flickr

Bali - Sept 2011, a set on Flickr.

I'm getting our pictures up today from the iphone and our camera. What a great weekend!

Mozaic and tales from the back of a scooter

Our first day in Bali we took off down an unpaved 'road' through the rice fields. Joel navigated like a pro handling all the potholes like he was cruising on his mountain bike and sometimes giving me fair warning before diving down a particularly bruising embankment.

Back to Bali

On a whim we booked a couple of tickets to Bali this weekend. Joel hadn't been to Indonesia yet and I couldn't wait to get back to Ubud. We arrived late last night to our guest house which is along the rice patties. A cut through took us right onto Monkey Forest Rd where we spent the evening listening to great live music. The local musicians have quite an astonishing repertoire of alternative rock covers. It sure beats the nauseating Justin Bieber/Celine Dion soundtrack of Singapore. We woke at 9 with the roosters and sat out on our deck overlooking The rice patties. Joel has just secured a scooter and is excitedly planning our day of exploring.

Booking side trips from Singapore

I do tons of research on travel all the time and often end up booking or researching things for friends and family too. Honestly there's no trick! It's just me with usually a bunch of tabs open and some of the following websites running.


FLIGHTS

Skyscanner
I went into a travel agency and watched the agent pull up Skyscanner to find me flights. Then she quoted me an unbelievably high rate (she gave herself a $200 commission on a $500 flight). I left and went home and typed in Skyscanner to discover that she could, in fact, see all the discount flights as well as flights from bigger airlines. Lesson learned, start at Skyscanner at home, don't use an agent and then go to the airline's site to book as not all flights come up on skyscanner.

KLM
Sometimes it's good to just check the KLM site to see what deals might be coming up. They run flights from Holland to Bali via Singapore. This flight is always cheaper than booking on Air Asia for the same trip AND you don't have to throw a tantrum trying to use the Air Asia website.

Berjaya Air
Never heard of it? It's a small Malaysian airline with fairly new planes that go to the various Malaysian islands and they are pretty cheap. They also partner with local resorts and offer deals. This is probably the easiest way to get to Tioman, Redang or Langkawi. They won't come up in any other travel sites. You have to book flights directly through them.

Tiger Airways
They are a royal pain in the arse to deal with but sometimes there are good deals especially in off seasons and to locations that aren't as popular with western visitors.


ACCOMMODATION


Agoda
I often start with using Agoda to look for hotel deals. I always keep Trip Advisor open while I do this so I can check actual experiences and rates. I've had 50% off really neat places on this site but I've also had to cancel a booking when I all of a sudden realized that my quoted rate was not what they put through on my credit card! Just be wary. It's not a scam per say but it can have some tricky wording just before the final check out.

AirBnB
I had no idea AirBnB was in Asia! Seriously I discovered this today. We use this in North America a lot and it's a great way to find reasonable vacation rentals and nightly B&B accommodation. I was just skimming through what's available in Bali for instance and there are some really good deals. Well worth spending some time on here.


TRAVEL APPS

It's no secret that I run everything in my life from my iphone. When I travel it's my most trusted sidekick. Here's what I use:

Tripit
Forget Tripit pro. I had it for a year and it never did anything amazing it was supposed to. Just get the basic, free account, forward your itineraries and voila. Everything neatly ends up compiled in one itinerary. I usually need to type in B&Bs and some obscure modes of transit but generally it's pretty easy. This is where i look to check flight times, confirmation numbers and to share my itinerary with my co-travelers. It works without data/wifi but doesn't refresh so scroll through your itinerary right before you leave home to make sure you have it all loaded.

Trip Advisor
I have to say I'm pretty thrilled with this app. We had wifi in our car in New Zealand and finding a place to eat lunch on our road trips was so easy! We'd pull over, type in the name of the town, tap the highest rated option and then ask it to guide us there with this little compas arrow. So simple.

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