Osaka Shell Nell Capsule hotel review

I'm writing this post in the St Christopher Hostel in London. Yes, I have begun my long haul holiday trip to Europe and beyond.

Up to now, I have since stayed at three different capsule accomodations: in Mexico city airport, Osaka and now in London.

In my opinion, I feel that Osaka Shell Nell capsule hotel provided the most comfortable stay. Out of these three, I would rank Osaka first, Mexico City airport second and London third.

All three are convenient locations for me. The Osaka capsule hotel is located about 10 minutes walk away from Namba train station. There is a direct train connection from there to Osaka airport by Nankai line.

A top-rated capsule hotel in Osaka !

Lockers with lock provided

Surprisingly, in the locker, there is an amenity bag containing a towel, slippers and clothes hangers. These items are to be returned end of stay.

I was assigned a lower bunk. The 'door' is actually a pull-down fabric. And there isn't any lock to lock the capsule. It can be opened from both inside and outside.

The space within the capsule. The bed literally takes up the whole capsule. There are adjustable lighting controls and usb ports.

This is certainly within my expectations.

Showers with soap and shampoo are provided. There are a number of shower stalls so there is never a queue.

The wash-up areas are also kept clean with some amenities provided.

Exterior of the hotel. Certainly a pleasant capsule hotel stay !

Osaka surrounds..

In conclusion, Osaka shell nell hotel is indeed a top rated capsule hotel. I believe capsule hotels originate in Japan and have since spread to other countries such as Mexico City and London. I'm currently staying in the first and only one in London. I will review this in a subsequent post.

Scootbiz Singapore to Osaka flight review

My mid-year travels have begun ! I'm very excited to once again travel. I have taken a short trip to Osaka, Japan and returned to Singapore. This is a warm-up to my longer trip. Haha !

I booked a one-way trip to Osaka on Scoot. Some months back, there was a promotional price of S$179 for the cheapest one-way fare. 

My intention was to position for my SQ business class flight from Osaka-Singapore as the SQ flight has to be booked originating from Osaka to take advantage of its promotional price of S$900 on its latest B787-10 aircraft. And that was a fantastic experience in itself ! More on that in a subsequent post.

Anyway, a few days before my scoot flight, I received an email to bid4biz. The lowest possible bid was $90 which I thought was reasonable for a 5 hours 45 minutes flight. I put in the bid and within 24 hours to departure, I received another email on my successful bid.

With Scootbiz, I was able to select seat 1K at the pointy front of the B787 plane in a 2-2-2 biz configuration. It comes with a complimentary meal, although I couldn't select the more premium meals online that comes with ice-cream. That is one negative of this bidding program. Another negative is the pre-departure drink consisting of one small serving of drinking water. 

Another useful feature is the free scootv with limited entertainment options. The access code was presented together with the meal tray.

Previously, I had taken scootbiz once on the Guangzhou to Singapore sector. The recliner seat was similar to a premium economy seat on another airline. It was fairly comfortable. On a medium haul sector to Japan, it is definitely better than seating in the regular economy seat on Scoot and the scootv kept me entertained from an otherwise boring flight.

I believe Scoot currently serves the Singapore to Osaka sector twice on some days. This particular flight that I took, tr700, will continue on from Osaka to Honolulu. Which was why this plane is christened with a hawaiian name. The menu options feature hawaiian cuisine as well, though some are only exclusively available on the Osaka to Honolulu sector while some are available on the longer Singapore to Osaka to Honolulu sector.

Having taken Scoot flights on many occasions on its B787 planes, I felt that this flight was staffed by the most courteous crew.

Scootbiz seat with water as the pre-departure drink

 

My 2018 mid-year travel map

Now that my work has gradually wound down, I have more time to finalize my travel plans in the coming weeks. 

Based on my plan, I have also drawn my personal travel map, again courtesy of the great circle mapper website, a free online tool.



My upcoming travel will span three continents: Asia, Europe and North America. My travels are mainly concentrated in Eastern Europe, where I hope to spend more time exploring. 

I have previously visited countries in central Europe: London, France, etc, the 4 nordic and 3 baltic countries in northern Europe, western Europe: Spain and Portugal.

What surprises me is the total distance that will be covered: a whopping 98,953 km.

"Slightly" more than my previous long trip in december 2017 😀

Nonetheless, still more than 2 rounds of the Earth. This time round, I'm actually travelling for less number of days but cover more ground compared to that trip.

Here's a closer look at the European itinerary:


I have tried to cover as much of Eastern Europe as I can within my limited schedule and of course, within my budget.

Not all segments are flown, as that will have me exceed my travel budget. For example, the Dubrovnik to Split is via daytime ferry, Split to Zagreb is via overnight train.

To keep my budget within control, I have also included more overnight flights and even overnight at the airports in Oslo,  Munich, Copenhagen (twice) and Frankfurt. This is only when I have late night arrival flights and next day early morning departure flights. Will report back on the experience!

With these measures, I can reduce my accommodation budget. So I only need to stay in hotels in Osaka, London, Svalbard, Skopje and Faroe Island for a total of 6 nights!

Naturally, accommodation in Svalbard and Faroe Islands are much higher due to their unique locations and limited options. But I wouldn't give them up for the exotic experience!

To further stretch my budget, instead of opting for direct flights or booking directly on airline's websites, I have, for the first time, booked through expedia, a third party travel website, which lets me book through multiple airlines for a lower cost and for a more creative routing.

I have booked on it twice. After visiting Skopje, I wanted to get to Dubrovnik. If I booked a direct flight or on an airline's website, it is going to cost me a small fortune. 

For the past weeks, I have been monitoring google flights for the cheapest routing. Fortunately, on one day, a creative routing opened up in expedia, via Vienna and Munich. And it is the cheapest option available.

Booking on expedia is quite easy. Once paid, I received the booking reference on Lufthansa and ticket number via email in about 5 minutes. I checked my itinerary details on Lufthansa website and was relieved that the ticket issued and displayed correctly. Here's to hoping that my flights will go smoothly 😁

In my second expedia booking, I wanted to travel from Copenhagen to Ahmedabad or Delhi to position for my SQ business class flight. In this case, Air India's flight showed up as the most direct and cheapest for many days on google flight. 

Finally, one day, expedia's creative routing opened up via SAS to Zurich, then via Oman Air to Muscat and then Delhi. Again, this option proved cheaper and I quickly booked it.

Within 5 minutes again, I received my booking code from both SAS and Oman Air and ticket number via email. I cross-checked on both airlines' website and the ticket showed up correctly, with a generous 2 piece baggage allowance on all 3 segments.

One advantage of this itinerary is that I reach India in the morning and will depart India at night on the same day, thereby saving me a hotel stay. Secondly, I get to re-visit Zurich and tour Muscat for a day!

As this itinerary ends in Delhi, I booked a short one-way route from Delhi to Ahmedabad on Vistara Air premium economy, which is only S$10 more than regular economy.

This brings me to my point of trying out new experiences on many occasions:

New flights:
SQ B787 new regional business class
Norwegian B787
RyanAir
Atlantic Airways (Faroe Island - Copenhagen)
Austrian Airlines
Lufthansa
Oman Air
Swiss Air

New cities:
Svalbard
Longyearbyen
Skopje
Vienna
Munich
Muscat
Ahmedabad (transit only)
Frankfurt
Hainan and Nanchang, China

Yup, I hope this will be a fruitful tour for me !!

Three spectacular, free night performances in Singapore !

While doing research for my upcoming holiday, I came across a website highlighting three spectacular, free night performances in Singapore. In no particular order, they are:

- Crane dance by Resort World Sentosa
- Spectra by Marina Bay Sands
- garden rhapsody by Gardens by the Bay

Though they have been performing for years, I have yet to attend any of them. Recently, my work is starting to wind down and I have leisure time at night, so decided to attend all of them, on three separate nights.

I attended Spectra first. Spectra is hosted by MBS at the event plaza at 8pm every night. It is an outdoor, free for all amphitheatre style  seating. The night I went, it was raining lightly. Yet, it did not hamper the large crowds, mostly tourists, that turn up to watch. Though there are seats available, many stood by the railings to watch the 15 minute performance that began on time. Those who are seating down near the front will have their views blocked by those standing.

Spectra is purely a laser light show without any props or performers. It was an enjoyable performance put up by MBS.

On another night, I went to see the crane dance at Resorts World Sentosa. I walked into Sentosa from the mainland as it is free and the walk is very pleasant along the waterfront. Other means of transport that requires a payment includes cable car, sentosa monorail, or the bus 123 which is a local public bus.

Compared to the spectra, the crane dance set up is more elaborate. There is a floating platform of the two metallic cranes. Prior to the performance, there is even a narration to introduce the cranes, which apparently hold a world record.

Shorter than the Spectra, the crane dance lasted about 7+ minutes. The main actors were the two robotic cranes that keep spraying water out.

Just yesterday night, I went to the Gardens by the Bay via MRT to the bayfront station, followed by a 10 minute walk to the Supergrove trees. You can't miss the trees as they are gigantic and can be seen from a distance.

The light shows are performed at 1945 and 2045 daily. I watched the show at both timings, though at different locations. At 1945, I was watching the performance just outside the train station. There are some outdoor seating for tourists to sit and watch should they want.

After the first show, I went closer this time, right beneath the trees to watch the second show. When the time comes, there are much more tourists crowding under the trees.

As I waited for the second show to start, I noticed each Supertree was given a name. This one nearest to me reminded me of my favourite childhood story book and author.

The show certainly did not disappoint. There was some narration at the start, followed by the lights show created by light bulbs hanging all over the Supertrees.

Amazing Value Malaysian Airlines business class fare DPS-KUL

At the timing of writing this post, Malaysian Airlines has an amazing business class round trip fare from Bali to Kuala Lumpur. This direct flight is offered for ~S$175, fantastic value for a 3 hour flight.

This fare has been available for almost all dates for about a week now, and today I just made a booking for travel in November.

Malaysian Airlines has about 4 direct flights daily on this particular route. And only 1 flight is operated by an A330-200 aircraft, featuring staggered, full flat beds in business class. The remaining flights are operated by B737 aircraft, featuring merely recliner seats. The fares on all flights are the same, so it is worthwhile to select the A330 operated flight for a better business class experience.

Nevertheless, an online check on the flight's past history shows that the B737 aircraft seems to be operating this flight number for the past few days and weeks. So fingers crossed that the A330 don't get substituted on my day of flying !

Malaysian Airlines has been consistently releasing amazing business class fare value on various routes. Looking forward to my intra-Asia flight 😀. This will be my first flight with the five-star airline.

Finalizing my Eastern Europe tour itinerary

The past couple of weeks I have been tied down by work. Now my work is gradually winding down. This leaves me more time to finalize my June travel plans. I took a look at my Wizz Air booking from Oslo to Skopje, Macedonia and realized that the flight timing has been slightly rescheduled to depart at 0945. 

Hopefully I still have enough time to make my way from Osl airport to Trf airport to catch my Wizz Air flight.

Originally, my plan from Skopje was to take a coach or train from Skopje to reach Dubrovnik, Croatia, but after reading some negative online reviews of the train and coach travel in that part of the world, I decided to fly to Dubrovnik instead.

I found a fare by Expedia from Skopje to Dubrovnik via Vienna and Munich, with suitable departure time in the early afternoon and arrival time at the next day morning. 

This is actually my first time booking an air ticket from a third party website. Till now, I have always booked directly through the airline website for ease and convenience and in case of flight changes. Also, I have in the past read online reviews when the tickets are at times not acknowledged by the airlines or hassle when they are flight changes.

Anyway, the fare on the airline website for the same flights are more than double. So I decided to give Expedia flights a try. After making payment on Expedia, I received confirmation of booking number from Lufthansa via email in under 5 minutes. This is surprising as I expected a longer time. All my the flight details also showed up on Lufthansa's website. This gives me a peace of mind.

The only negative is that DBS currently has a promotion with Expedia, offering miles per dollar spent on Expedia, but booking has to be made on an exclusive promotion website. The same exact flights, while can be searched and booked on the normal Expedia website, did not turn up on the promotion website. Meaning, I can't take advantage of this promotion to earn more miles.

Anyway, fingers crossed that my flight bookings will hold. Haha!

With these flights, I'll be able to visit Skopje in Macedonia, Vienna in Austria, Munich in Germany and Dubrovik in Croatia in a span of days!

Hopefully, I can finalize my upcoming Europe trip quickly!

Update on my 2018 travel plans

I have just booked the Asiana business class flights which I mentioned in a previous post 5 days ago. Yup, this is after deliberating for 5 days. Fortunately, the discounted fares are still around. Reason being, I have, not too long ago booked SQ business class flights for a "fortune", for travel in June. After this big expenditure, I wanted to watch my travel budget to prevent myself from overspending. So I was at a dilemma for the past few days.

Now that I have booked the Asiana flights, I guess I have really overspent. Haha! The cons of having the travel bug.

Anyway, I have booked the Asiana flights as open jaw tickets for travel in december 2018. I'll be flying from Almaty, Kazakhstan to New York City and returning from Chicago to Almaty. 

Firstly, this will allow me to visit Chicago in the United States for the first time. Secondly, I get to try out different aircraft configurations. As of booking time, Asiana flies to New York on the A350 and to Chicago on the B777. While Almaty only gets the A330 plane featuring regional business class seats. Originally, the A380 is flying to New York, which gets me excited in the first place. Well, the A350 is not exactly a downgrade since it is a latest generation of aircraft.

The Asiana airline website is able to let me book a multi-city flight, a tool which is not available for every other airline. Fortunately for me, while the december dates are limited, they still work out for me. 

Booking and payment is relatively straightforward on the Asiana airline website. Seat selection is possible as well. I tried to book near the pointy front of the plane. The joys of flying in business class !

I didn't book these new flights in June as that will heavily disrupt my June travel plans. Moreover, I tried to use this to return from New York to Asia but the timing didn't work out for me. I wouldn't want to forgo more flights and especially the exotic destinations that I will be visiting in June. Think Svalbard and Faroe Island in Europe. 😊

Right now, I guess I have more or less planned out my travels for december as well. I have even managed to arrange this flight itinerary to coincide with my earlier booking of turkish airways flight from Gothenburg, Sweden to South Korea since the latter is a common city in both itineraries.

In december, other than visiting Europe and the United States for the umpteenth time, I will be visiting Central Asia for the first time. While in Almaty, I'll probably head out to Uzbekistan and some other 'Stans' as well. In Europe, I'm toying with the idea of visiting Greenland. The only thing stopping me is the high ticket prices as Air Greenland has a monopoly on the route from Denmark.

Ideally, I would have liked to book the flights and travel at the soonest date possible so that I get to enjoy the travel experience. But I have to be realistic with my travels. Well, hopefully I get to enjoy these flights in december then!