This post is a continuation from Surabaya, Part 1 of our Singapore Short Getaway series. In this series, we will review some of the short getaway places that you can visit from Singapore.

DESTINATION - LANGKAWI

Langkawi, , the Jewel of Kedah is an archipelago of 104 islands in the Andaman Sea, some 30 km off the mainland coast of northwestern Malaysia. The islands are a part of the state of Kedah, which is adjacent to the Thai border. By far the largest of the islands is the eponymous Pulau Langkawi with a population of some 64,792, the only other inhabited island being nearby Pulau Tuba. Langkawi is also an administrative district with the town of Kuah as largest town. Langkawi is a duty-free island. (Credit: Wikipedia).

This photo of Langkawi is courtesy of TripAdvisor.

 

How to Go

By Flight

There are only 1 to 2 flights per day from Singapore to Langkawi International Airport.
- Operated by Silkair and Air Asia.
- Flight time is around 1h 27 mins.

Flight times as follows:

8:40 am    →    10:05 am    SIN-LGK    -    -    -    -    T    -    S    Silkair 362
10:55 am    →    12:25 pm    SIN-LGK    S    M    T    W    T    F    S    AirAsia 1703
6:35 pm    →    8:00 pm    SIN-LGK    S    -    T    -    -    F    -    Silkair 368

Information correct as of 17 May 2013. For latest updates on Flight Schedules, Type Singapore to Langkawi in Google search engine.

We took Air Asia from Singapore to Langkawi for our 4D3N Trip.
Do check out our review of the flight here.

When to Go

Temperature in Langkawi varies slightly throughout the year with temperature ranges from 23°C and 33°C.

Langkawi Weather (Credits: Backpackingasia.com)

The rainy season is from September to November with an average of two hours of rain, usually during the night time. The mornings are usually sunny though, as experienced during our 4D3N trip in September 2009.  For the rest of the year, it is typically hot, like most parts in South East Asia.

Where to Stay

We stayed in Westin Langkawi Resorts & Spa, which offers a great selection of food for their breakfast and dinner buffets. Do read our review of the hotel here. We would highly recommend the hotel after an enjoyable time there.



Other 5 star hotels that ranked highly in Tripadvisor include Casa del Mar Langkawi, The Danna Langkawi, Malaysia, Four Seasons Resort Langkawi, Malaysia, The Datai Langkawi and Tanjung Rhu Resort

For the budget conscious travellers, there are good options like the Azio Hotel, Tropical Resort and Hotel Asia Langkawi.


For more options, check out the list of hotels in Hotels Combined.

What to Do

1. Go on an adventure ride up the Langkawi Cable Car. The ride will bring you all the way up to about 708 meters above sea level. This journey covers a total distance of 2.2 km linking the Base Station at the foothill of Machinchang mountain to Top Station at the mountain summit & to the SkyBridge. Check out our review here.




2. Embark on a thrilling walk on the Langkawi Skybridge. The Langkawi Sky Bridge was completed in October 2004 and is one of the world’s highest single supported bridges.  It is suspended in between Mount Mat Chinchang and its beautiful half moon structure gives its visitors different viewing perspectives from the bridge.  From the bridge, you can catch a magnificent view of the Amdaman Sea and the outlying islands.

3. Have a cool time at the Telega Tujuh Waterfalls. It’s a steep climb up the stairs to get to this waterfall, but you will be rewarded with a peaceful sanctuary with the beauty of cascading waters and cool water to soak your tired feet.





4. Go snorkelling @ Pulau Payar Marine Park where clear turquoise waters await you. After you are done with the snorkelling,  check out the feeding frenzy.  All you need is some bread to attact the fishes.  There are so many of these colourful fishes of various species, it feels like stepping into a giant aquarium!


5. Have a Seafood Feast @ Wonderland Food Store. The restaurant is an open-air outfit located along Persiaran Mutiara 2, an inner lane from Jalan Padang Matsirat. It comes highly recommended with multiple online reviews from visitors who have patronise it. Having tried it, we have also become one of them to recommende Wonderland Food Store!

Interested in Travelling to Langkawi? Read our Reviews!

What Airline? - Air Asia Flight Review
Where We Stay? Westin Langkawi Resorts & Spa Review, Breakfast Buffet Review, Dinner Buffet Review
What We Did? Langkawi Cable Car & Sky Bridge, Snorkelling Paradise @ Langkawi, City Sights, Seafood Fiesta @ Wonderland Food Store

This post is part of our Alaska Pre and Post Cruise Report and follow-up of our popular Alaska cruise series. Do check out our Alaska Cruise story too if this is your first time here! :)

Vancouver is the boarding place for our cruise to Alaska.  For convenience sake, we scouted around for a budget hotel located near to the Canada Place Cruise Ship Terminal where our cruise ship departs for Alaska.




Room rates will sky rocket during the cruising season starting from May – September due to the sheer number of tourists waiting to board their cruise at the Canada Cruise Ship Terminal.   On busy port days, as many as 4 cruise ships can depart from the terminal, each carrying thousands of cruisers, so you can imagine how difficult it would be to secure a room at Vancouver Downtown.

Our stay in Vancouver in mid September was at the end of the cruising season, but we still considered ourselves lucky to be able to get a room at the Days Inn Vancouver Downtown at a fairly reasonable rate of CAD $170  per night. If budget is not an issue, you may want to stay at Pan Pacific Vancouver, which is directly linked  to the Canada Place Cruise Terminal. Other nearby options include Fairmont Waterfront and Fairmont Pacific Rim.

The Location

The Days Inn Vancouver Downtown is a small outfit centrally located at the heart of Vancouver Downtown.   It is within walking distance from the Convention Centre and the Canada Place Cruise Ship Terminal.  As such, meals were never an issue as we had plenty of options at these places.   It is also near the Waterfront Skytrain Station which means easy access from the Airport and to other places of interest such as Chinatown and Gastown.

Waterfront Sky Train Station Entrance (Credits: http://www.barraclou.com/stations/britishcolumbia/vancouver/)

Check In

The check-in area is perpetually busy with many cruising tourists coming and going.  However, service was still fast and efficient, and we got our room keys within a matter of minutes, even though we arrived earlier than the check-in time.

The Surroundings

There’s a small business centre next to the reception area.

The corridors had a strange musky smell as we made our way to our room.

The Room

As the name suggests, this is just an inn and not a luxury hotel.  The room tends to be small with very little walking space around its essential furniture.   However, everything in the room worked fine and the furnishings were all kept clean.  We also enjoyed free wifi connection in the room.  In a nutshell, we were relatively comfortable even within a small space.

The Bathroom

The bathroom is reasonably clean and spacious with amenities such as soap, shampoo and conditioner.  There’s only a shower area and no bath tub.

The Service

Our one night stay at the Days Inn Vancouver Downtown went without a hitch.  The room was kept clean and comfortable, and service staff was generally helpful and polite.
Days Inn provides a shuttle service to the Canada Cruise Ship Terminal, but as it is very popular, you will have to reserve a seat with the front desk in advance.  We tried our luck during check-out and were told that the shuttle was full.  It didn't matter much anyway, for the cruise terminal was right behind the hotel and an approximate 5 mins easy walk away.  Very manageable even with heavy luggage.

Final Verdict

The Days Inn Vancouver Downtown is perfect for a short stay on a budget.  It occupies an excellent location, especially for cruising tourists.  It is also strategically located near the Waterfront train station and offers a convenient way of getting to other parts of the city.   Although its facilities are a little old and worn, it is generally clean and comfortable and comes with reasonable rates.  We would certainly stay here again if we come back to Vancouver!

How to Get There

From Vancouver Ineternational Airport (YVR), take the Skytrain to Waterfront Station on the Canada Line, Vancouver’s new rapid transit rail link connecting the airport to downtown Vancouver in 26 minutes. You can conveniently access trains from both the International and Domestic Terminals.

Canada Line (Credits: http://www.thecanadaline.com/index.tsp)

Days Inn Vancouver Downtown
921 West Pender Street, 
Vancouver, 
BC V6C 1M2 CA 

This post is part of our Alaska Pre and Post Cruise Report and follow-up of our popular Alaska cruise series. Do check out our Alaska Cruise story too if this is your first time here! :)

This post is a follow-up of our popular Alaska cruise series. In this post, we would like to share our pre and post cruise itinerary. Do check out our Alaska Cruise story too if this is your first time here! :)

From tiny little Singapore in Southeast Asia, we found ourselves having to travel across half of the globe to Vancouver where the Diamond Princess departs for our 10-day Gulf of Alaska cruise-tour.  Not that we minded!



Our vacation started with a 19 hour flight to Los Angeles via Singapore Airlines. It was not our first trip to the United States.  In fact, this is our third USA trip in 2 years!  The cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco were not new to us, but since we making the trip across the Pacific, we took the opportunity to re-visit these beautiful cities again.

We also took the opportunity to visit 2 new cities, Vancouver and Seattle.
  
Vancouver, Canada – a land that we had never stepped foot on before this trip.   It holds so much much beauty and culture that we must come back again soon, for the few days that we spent at Vancouver pre-cruise was not sufficient to explore it in greater depths.

Seattle, USA – the place renowned for its great coffee and which was the birth place of the famous Starbucks chain of coffee houses was a stop-over point for us on the way home to Singapore.

The beauty of this trip was that we got to experience the cultures and beauty of a few different cities, had a relaxing and eye-opening cruise to Alaska where we got to see lots of wildlife, did lots of shopping at and out of Alaska, and had great experience with gourmet food and coffee all within a short but exciting period of 18 days. 

Here's a quick preview of our itinerary.  Stay tuned and bookmark this page as we bring you the details in each article.

PRE-CRUISE

Singapore -> Los Angeles via Singapore Airlines

Hotel Review:  Four Points by Sheraton LA International Airport

Los Angeles -> San Francisco via Southwest Airline

Airline Review:  Southwest Airline
Hotel Review: Red Roof Inn
San Francisco Ferry Building Marketplace
Restaurant Review: Blue Bottle Coffee
Restaurant Review: Hollywood Cafe
Pier 39 and Fisherman Wharf
Alcatraz & Golden Gate Bridge

Seals resting on Pier 39 (Credits: staysf.com)

Alcatraz Island (Credits:www.baycityguide.com)

San Francisco -> Vancouver via United Airlines

Airline Review: United Airlines
Hotel Review: Days Inn Vancouver Downtown
Vancouver Chinatown
Restaurant Review:  New Town Bakery and Restaurant
Downtown Vancouver
Vancouver Cruise Terminal
Gastown
Granville Public Market

Vancouver Gastown (Credits: www.flickriver.com)

Gulf of Alaska Cruise on Diamond Princess

Alaska Cruise Trip - Our Full Story

POST-CRUISE

Fairbanks -> Seattle via Alaska Airlines

Airline Review: Alaska Airline
Hotel Review: Hampton Inn Seattle-Airport
Restaurant Review: Pike Place Chowder
Pike Place Market
The First Starbucks Store
Restaurant Review:  PF Chang’s China Bistro
Alweg Monorail and Seattle Space Needle
Restaurant Review:  Jade Garden Restaurant
Seattle Chinatown

Pike Place Market (Credits: seattlephotographs.smugmug.com)

First Starbucks Store (Credits: thekotykreport.blogspot.com)

Seattle -> San Francisco via Alaska Airlines

Hotel Review: Red Roof Inn again!
Downtown San Francisco
San Francisco Chinatown
Restaurant Review: Oriental Pearl Restaurant
Land’s End Hiking Trail

 San Francisco -> Singapore via Singapore Airlines

This post is a follow-up of our popular Alaska cruise series. Do check out our Alaska Cruise story too if this is your first time here! :)

This post is the 1st post of our Singapore Short Getaway series. In this series, we will review some of the short getaway places that you can visit from Singapore.

DESTINATION - SURABAYA

Surabaya is Indonesia's second-largest city with a population of over 3.1 million (5.6 million in the metropolitan area), and the capital of the province of East Java. It is located on the northern shore of eastern Java at the mouth of the Mas River and along the edge of the Madura Strait. (Credit: Wikipedia).

The Legend of Surabaya (Credits: grhapakadit.blogspot.com)

 

How to Go

By Flight

There are 5 to 6 flights per day from Singapore to Surabaya Juanda International Airport.
- Operated by Silkair, Mandala, Jetstar Asia (Valuair), Lion and China Airlines.
- Flight time is around 2h 20 mins.

Flight times as follows:

7:50 am    →    9:10 am    SIN-SUB    S    M    T    W    T    F    S    Silkair 222
11:25 am    →    12:50 pm    SIN-SUB    S    M    T    W    T    F    S    Mandala 881
11:40 am    →    12:55 pm    SIN-SUB    S    M    T    -    T    F    S    Valuair 247
12:10 pm    →    1:30 pm    SIN-SUB    S    M    T    W    T    F    S    Lion 105
4:30 pm    →    5:50 pm    SIN-SUB    S    M    T    W    T    F    S    Silkair 226
9:45 pm    →    11:00 pm    SIN-SUB    S    M    T    W    T    F    S    China Airlines 751

Information correct as of 5 May 2013. For latest updates on Flight Schedules, Type Singapore to Surbaya in Google search engine.

We took Silkair from Singapore to Surabaya for our 4D3N Trip.
Do check out our review of the flight here.

Surabaya Juanda International Airport (Credits: commons.wikimedia.org)

When to Go

Temperature in Surabaya varies slightly throughout the year with temperature ranges from 23°C and 33°C.

Surabaya Weather (Credits: www.weather-and-climate.com)

There are two seasons in Surabaya: the Wet season (November to June) and the Dry season (July to October). The months of December to March have the highest rainfalls with January the wettest month. For Singaporeans, July to September might be the best time to visit as the city has a reduced level of rainfall.

Where to Stay

We stayed in Sheraton Surabaya Hotels & Towers, which is just next to Tunjungan Plaza, a mega shopping mall. Do read our review of the hotel here. We would highly recommend the hotel after an enjoyable time there.



Other 5 star hotels that ranked highly in Tripadvisor include Hotel Majapahit Surabaya, Shangri-La Hotel Surabaya and JW Marriott Hotel Surabaya.

For the budget conscious travellers, there are good options like the Midtown Hotel Surabaya, ELMI Hotel and Hotel Santika Surabaya.


For more options, check out the list of hotels in Hotels Combined here.

What to Do

1. Explore Mount Bromo, the most well-known active volcano and part of the Tengger massif, in East Java, Indonesia.  The volcano belongs to the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park with its name of Bromo derived from Javanese pronunciation of Brahma, the Hindu creator god.

Mount Bromo (Credits: indonesia.gunadarma.ac.id)

2. Visit Museum Sempoerna, rated #1 in Tripadvisor. By the end of your visit, you would be able to relate the story of the founding family after watching a real hand-roll production facility with an unforgettable experience of rolling a stick of Dji Sam Soe cigarette yourself.

Museum Sempoerna (Credits: architectureforthefuture.blogspot.com)

3. Check out the Suramadu National Bridge, the longest bridge in Indonesia. Connected between MADURA and SURABAYA. The beauty of the bridge can be watch along of Kenjeran beach area in Surabaya.

Suramadu National Bridge (Credits: saraung.blogspot.com)

4. Have a fun day with animals @ Taman Safari II. Check out our review of the Safari in a two-part series here.


5. Go shopping at Tunjungan Plaza, the biggest Plaza in Surabaya. The complex is integrated with Sheraton Surabaya Hotels & Towers, 1 Office building, and include 2 mega department stores, SOGO and Matahari. Do remember to buy some batik back as they are considered quite cheap for their good quality.

Interested in Travelling to Surabaya? Read our Reviews!

What Airline? - Silkair Flight Review
Where We Stay? Sheraton Surabaya Hotels & Towers Review, Dining Options @ Hotel
What We Did? Shopping @ Tanjungan Plaza, Fun Day @ Taman Safari II Part 1, 2

We hope you enjoyed reading the 1st post of our Singapore Short Getaway series. Do check out the next post on Langkawi in the series!

This post is a continuation of our previous post on Fun day with animals @ Taman Safari II, Surabaya ( Part 1 of 2).

After visiting the Lion's Den, it was time to have some fun with the orang utans.

The Orang Utan playground.  These playful creatures look like they are performing a  trapeze for us!


Trees are covered with a layer of metal gauze to prevent the animals from chewing on the tree bark and injuring themselves.

 Bambi!!!!!





Lot and lots of Bambi!


Can’t remember the name of this species, but they belong to the deer family as well.


This is a very good example of how animals blend in with their environment either for defence or to catch their prey.  Can you spot what is lurking in the shadows?

 Did you manage to spot the Leopard?





How about this one? Clue: Look closely at the bushes....

This one is more difficult...its the Monitor Lizard!

 Beware of Crocodiles!



We saw some rhinos as well.

And some zebras..

 This Zebra seems to have missed his bus....just joking.. :)


The Eland, a member of either species of the Taurotragus genus of antelope.

The Elephant Habitat.  Most of the elephants here are female, judging from the fact that most of them do not have tusks.


Last look at the Elephants before we leave their habitat..

It was time to look at some humps...the camels!

 Crossing the river.




and we saw a hidden hippo...



This are the tallest feeding huts in the safari, for they are for the giraffes.

Out of the Safari and into the Baby Zoo

Taman Safari consists of not just the safari area, but educational shows, stuntman shows, and a safari elephant tracking ride amongst others.



We dropped by the baby zoo to look at some cuddly animals.  Photo-opportunities are available, but we had to pay for the ticket to do so.



From what we have learnt from the keepers, there are always 2 different baby animals every day for photo-taking.  These animals vary from day to day to give them sufficient rest.   We had a baby orang utan and a baby white tiger on our day!

The baby orang utan is pretty tame and easy to handle!  If you are lucky, he'll also look at you endearingly just like a human!


Kenzo the male white tiger is merely 7 months old, but he already weighs much more than me.

Kenzo became impatient and irritated after a day of photo-taking and I was somewhat apprehensive when it was my turn.  It didn’t help that the keeper kept making noise to wake him up for the photoshoot.  Although the keeper kept reassuring me that it was safe to be near the tiger, it was a pretty scary experience I will never want to do this again.

For those who are interested, Kenzo’s parents are kept in a sanctuary just behind his enclosure.



Overall, we had a GREAT time at Taman Safari II!. So the next time you visit Surabaya, we would recommend that you make a visit to the Safari.

If you had come to this page through a search engine, you might want to read Part 1 of this post for our complete review.

Taman Safari Indonesia II

Opens every day from 08:30 until 17:00.
Ticket Price: Foreign Tourist Rp 100.000
Website:  http://tamansafari2.net/

Guide Map (From Taman Safari II Website)
Click on the map to view a larger image.