Manggar Indonesia Hotel, Bali, Kuta review

On the first day of arrival in Bali, I stayed at the Manggar Indonesia Hotel. The main reason is that they offer a complimentary ride to or from the hotel with every booking. I chose the pick up option since it saves me the hassle and costs of taking a taxi from the airport.

The pick up was successful. The driver was in the arrivals hall as arranged. Then it was a short walk to the multi storey car park where the car was parked. The ride itself was comfortable and short, since the hotel is located in Kuta, near the airport.

There was a welcome drink, then I was given the key to the room.

The room was small but nicely done.

Clean towels are provided

There is a well-appointed balcony, complete with wooden chairs and a table.

The balcony offers views of the other rooms and the pool

My rate included breakfast, which was served on the ground level, beside the reception. Upon seated, a breakfast card was given and I ticked the options that I preferred.

The breakfast area offers direct views of the pool.

The pancakes are great ! 

The hotel entrance, Balinese style

The hotel is located in a residential area, along a small road. It is possible for the taxi to reach the hotel doorstep. The hotel is just a short walk to the main street in Kuta.

Manggar Indonesia is definitely a good, budget choice of accomodation in Kuta, Bali. Its surrounding is quiet yet not far away from the main touristy areas. The complimentary one-way ride to or from the hotel is great !

Tour of Bali part 1

I visited Bali in 2 separate trips. The sole reason being, I booked the Malaysia Airlines return flights from Bali to Kuala Lumpur. Since I originate from Singapore, I would have to be in Bali twice before heading to other countries.

In the first trip, I decided to visit Kuta, the region closest to the Bali's Denpasar airport. I stayed in two different guesthouses in Kuta, which I shall review in subsequent posts. Both of which are walkable to the touristy areas of Kuta.

The main draw of Kuta is Kuta beach, together with a main commercial street.

Balinese architecture

This mall is along the main street in Kuta

This mall is right by Kuta beach.

I'm always excited to see A&W in other countries, while waiting for them to return to SG!

The sunset view on Kuta beach is just so great !

Saw this durian flavoured ice cream and pancake and gave it a try

KLM Singapore to Denpasar (Bali) economy flight

My first flight on this incredible trip is on KLM. And what a great way to embark on my trip !

KLM is a full service airline. And it operates a fifth freedom route from Singapore to Denpasar, gateway to the resort island of Bali. It regularly has promotions of S$200 economy class return tickets on this short sector, as it competes with other airlines. 

Being full service means the flight includes checked-in baggage and complimentary inflight food and drinks.

On my flight, economy class is quite full, with a majority passengers being westerners. Probably connecting in Singapore.

Inflight PTV with usb port

Service begins with a packaged refreshing towel on a foldable tray table

On this short sector, a hot meal and a drink. I had a bottle of red wine to go with it.

KLM features a unique safety video, featuring its animated delft tiles.

Another delicious hot meal on the return sector

In conclusion, a great flight in KLM economy class. I'm also hoping to have a chance to fly its business class, as they are known to give out the nice delft houses to the passengers. Hopefully soon !

Plaza Premium lounge at Singapore Changi Airport terminal 1

My trip begins with the KLM flight from Singapore to Denpasar, gateway to the resort island of Bali. KLM has been operating this daily fifth freedom flight for as long as I can remember. From Amsterdam, it arrives in Singapore and then continues to Bali. The return leg stops in Singapore as well before going back to Amsterdam. After taking up its offer of S$200 return, I finally had the chance to try out this flight.

After checking in, I proceeded to the plaza premium lounge to rest and relax. Entry is using my lounge voucher, which grants me access to some plaza premium lounges worldwide regardless of airline or class of travel.

An impressive display at Changi Airport

In Changi Airport, every terminal has a plaza premium lounge. In terminal 1, it is located towards the end of the walkway, one floor up.

Clean and well-equipped shower rooms

There are on-the-spot food preparation by the chef

As well as local favourites laid out buffet style

This lounge offers unobstructed views of the runway and taxiway, from which I spotted the KLM plane taxiing to the gate.

The plaza premium lounge is perfectly comfortable to wait for the next flight. It is on the small side with limited seating, so not sure whether it will get crowded into the night when there are more departures. 

I used this lounge twice recently, once in the evening for the KLM flight, and the other in the morning for the Norwegian flight. At both instances, there are sufficient seating.

Impressions of my mega trip

I have just returned from my mega trip ! 

This trip has been a great travel experience for me, probably one of the trip of a lifetime. I will detail my adventures in my subsequent posts. But for now, I just want to have an afterthought of this trip.

First, I traveled hand luggage for the most part, so that means I can only bring the essentials. This includes my absolutely necessary winter wear, hand warmer, a minimum set of everyday clothes and toiletries.

I have also decided to leave my laptop behind, which explains the absence of posts during the trip. Though earlier I would have liked to bring it along so I can update my travel blog, but it does add a considerable weight to my hand luggage, so I have to leave it behind.

On this trip, there has been several hiccups, enough to impact on my subsequent travels. 

First is the delay of my Asiana airlines Almaty to Incheon flight due to weather conditions in Almaty. There is a 5 hour delay, which causes me to miss my connecting flight to New York City. I was then transferred to the next day's flight instead.

Now, this impacts on my Norwegian flight from New York City to Shannon, Ireland since I was due to depart the USA on the same day. So I had to book myself a last minute ticket on the next day's Norwegian flight to Shannon. Fortunately, the flight ticket is not too expensive on this budget carrier.

The good thing is that as of that moment I have yet to book my coach USA bus trip from Manhattan to Stewart Airport so that saves me US$20.

The next hiccup? Well, there is a mechanical problem on my Norwegian flight. So end up, I only departed USA the next day bound for Dublin instead, where Norwegian arranged a free bus transfer to Shannon.

Now, I originally planned to arrive in Ireland on the morning of 2nd December, but these two consecutive hiccups caused me to arrive in Ireland on the night of 3rd December instead. Meaning, two days of sightseeing gone.

And according to my plan, I will be leaving from Belfast for Morocco on the night of 4th December.

So now, in Ireland, I need to make a quick decision. I can either proceed with my plan to visit the whole of Ireland, which requires several days and hence giving up Morocco, or, I only visit Ireland for a day and then proceed to Morocco.

Between Ireland and Morocco, I made a decision to tour Ireland. So Morocco would have to be for another day. Having toured Ireland, I must say that Ireland is indeed beautiful and no regrets for my decision.

This also means that I have to book another last minute ticket from Belfast to London on another day. Not exactly cheap but not too costly either since it is a short flight with many options to choose from.

Looking back, I felt fortunate that my USA domestic flights went smoothly without any delay. I realized that I only planned for a couple of hours in between these flights.

This can be risky for me if a flight is delayed for whatever reason. The flights include Honolulu-Seattle, Seattle-San Francisco, San Francisco-Chicago and of course the highlight, Chicago-Incheon on Asiana Airlines. 

Any delay on any of the three domestic flights could really cause me to miss my Asiana airlines. Since these are on separate tickets, I would likely have to book a very costly last minute flight from USA to Asia. Of course, this scenario didn't happen and I was really happy !

Once in Seoul, South Korea, I had to decide on one of two travel routes. One, continue on to Europe as planned and visit Krakow and Jordan. Then buy a ticket to return to Asia. Two, buy a last minute ticket to China, then return to Kuala Lumpur then Singapore.

There is only one deciding factor: my budget. At that point, I felt that my travel budget is quite overwhelmed. And I couldn't find a cheap way from Europe back to Asia. So then I decided to just remain in Asia and forfeit my flight tickets for Europe.

Any regrets? Well, some, I have to say. Jordan is really a country I'm looking forward to visit. But then it will have to be for another day, I guess.

So instead I visited China. Well, at least I get to explore new cities such as Qingdao and Tianjin for the first time. I went to Beijing too, for the sole purpose of utilizing my Amex voucher to stay at the Grand Millenium, Beijing for one complimentary night.

Finally, I booked one last, last minute ticket to get myself from Kuala Lumpur back to Singapore. While in KL, I was still contemplating between taking the long distance coach, a cheaper but much longer option. Or taking a 45-minute flight on a more expensive last minute ticket.

At that moment in KL, being so close to Singapore, I wanted to get back home sooner rather than later, without the hassles of taking a long distance coach. But a last minute search for this flight turns up only expensive options, even for such a short flight.

I decided on a third option. Redeem 7500 krisflyer miles on a one-way economy class ticket on  a Silkair flight, plus S$12 taxes. Though redeeming miles in economy class is not really a good use of miles, at least my out-of-pocket cash is kept to a minimum. Even less than taking the coach.

Fortunately for me, thanks to myself for booking paid flight tickets on Star Alliance airlines such as SQ and Asiana business class this year, I manage to reach Star Alliance krisflyer gold tier just after taking Asiana business class from Chicago to Incheon, South Korea. This status allows me to access the Silverkris lounge in KL airport and priority boarding on my Silkair flight.

Some comfort indeed...

Well, consider this as a Christmas treat for myself haha !

So with all these changes, some of them impromptu, here's my updated travel map:



For a total traveled distance of 82,242 km. Less than my initial predicted distance since I didn't travel to Europe towards the last part of my trip.

This is a Round The World trip, since part of my itinerary involves traveling one round of the earth, beginning and ending in Incheon, South Korea, in an eastward direction, just like my September trip.😀

 
Yup, that's all for a general overview of my mega trip. There are hiccups along the way, but I have since learnt to take it in my stride and to find (sometimes expensive) ways to overcome these obstacles for myself.

Embarking on my mega trip

I have finally embarked on my 2018 year end mega trip ! There's something different this time though. Previously, I will always finalize all my travel plans before travel so that when I begin, I simply follow according to plan without much deviation. 

But this time, I have yet to decide on one leg in this trip, which is immediately after I return to Asia on Asiana airlines flight from the United States. Whether to head to Europe or simply remain in Asia? I've come up with two options for myself. 

First option, I return to Europe, then book a budget flight to the United States, and then redeem a ticket on the world's longest flight from Newark back to Singapore. For this, I'm currently waiting and hoping for a discounted award fare on the date I need to travel. 

If this doesn't work out, then there will be the second option, where I simply remain in Asia. Then I just need to book a short, one-way flight (or ferry!) from South Korea to China.

My decision will likely be made in a week's time, then my entire trip will be finalized.

Anyway, it is a good idea to once again map out my trip using the free online tool great circle mapper. This is following option two of my travel plan, which I thought is the more likely outcome.



From the travel map above, I will be crossing the Atlantic ocean once and the Pacific ocean twice. This trip will also include a round-the-world journey on some consecutive legs of the trip.

The focus of this trip will be Eastern Europe, where I will explore some countries in that region. Below is the map showing part of my trip on Europe and Morroco, Africa (my first time!).



The total distance ? 94,297 km ! Compared to one round of the earth 40,075 km, my trip is more than twice round the earth again! This is slightly less than my trip in June this year. But still, it's a long, long trip.

If I were to follow option one, then the total distance will break my previous record, since I will be traveling from Asia to Europe and then returning to Asia again.

One more thing. Previously I began my travel reviews only after my entire trip is completed. But by then, some of my experiences may have slipped my mind. Thus, this time, I will try to review on the go, so that the experiences remain fresh on my mind and my review will be more detailed for memories' sake. 😀

Using miles to tour the Middle East

I just had an idea on how to redeem my Qatar Airways miles before they expire in 2019. I earned those miles when I purchased tickets for my previous Qatar Airways business class trip from Singapore to Scandinavia during a promotion. On hindsight, I shouldn't have credited the miles to Qatar Airway's program due to the limited ways to use the miles.

After some basic research, I had thought of a great way to maximize the values for those miles for myself. I wanted to put them down in writing before it's forgotten.

Here goes:

1. Frankfurt to Kuwait in Luthansa first class (& the Frankfurt first class terminal for 60,000 krisflyer miles)
2. Kuwait to Doha in Qatar Airways economy class (for just 7000 Qatar Airways miles)
3. Doha to Kuwait in Qatar Airways first class (for 21,000 Qatar Airways miles). For flights within the Middle East, Qatar Airways business class is referred to as first class. With that, I can access Qatar's first class lounge in Doha airport.
4. Kuwait to Dubai in paid flydubai economy class
5. Dubai to Istanbul to London in Turkish airline B77w business class (for 25,000 krisflyer miles)

This itinerary could form part of my European tour, since it requires me to originate in Frankfurt, Germany and end in London, UK. 

Other than enjoying the premium flying experience, I will get to visit Middle Eastern countries such as Qatar, Dubai and Turkey. I will probably not visit Kuwait as it doesn't really feature many tourist attractions.

I intend to book these flights as part of my travels in June 2019. My current 2018 travel plans is almost fixed. As tempting as the ideas are to me, I wouldn't want to disrupt my 2018 plans at this point, not when I'm about to commence my trip !

Bangkok, Diff hostel review

Bangkok is one of the most visited cities in the world. So it follows that there are many different types of accommodation to suit all travelers. 

In my case, I wanted to stay in a budget place, within walking distance to phaya thai station, the terminal station for the Suvarnabhumi airport train.

Diff hostel was my top choice in this case, as it is a 10-minute walk from the train station. at ~S$130 for a triple room for 2 nights, with complimentary breakfast and wifi, it is tough to beat.

Communal area within the hostel

 Main reception

Diff hostel is housed in a narrow building four stories high. Reception is on the ground floor, and the rooms are from the second storey onwards. There is only a unique, easy-to-operate elevator meant for luggages only. Everyone has to climb the stairs up. There is both an indoor and outdoor staircase, with views of the immediate surrounding.

 

The room itself consists of two decks. The lower deck has a single bed and the private bathroom.

A staircase leads up to the second deck

A mattress for two person, some space at the side for personal belongings, and a window with a view.

The reception area has a wall with a tour map of Bangkok

The breakfast area has limited seating, though it was never crowded for the days I was there.

 

Breakfast is served on a tray with unlimited coffee. Food offerings alternate between scrambled eggs and sunny-side up together with sausages. Toast is always served.

Diff hostel is an easy-to-access, small, but cozy accommodation for the budget conscious traveler. It definitely fulfills my travel needs.