Langkawi 2017 – Long Term Car Park & Malindo Airlines

Posted in Everyday Life by Minci 先生

There is always a first time for everything. For this Langkawi 2017 trip – we decided to give the Long Term Car Park (LTCP) KLIA a try and Malindo Airlines a fly (as opposed to our usual Putrajaya Sentral and Air Asia)

LONG TERM CAR PARK (LTCP)

This open air carpark, LTCP is easily navigated with Google Maps.

klia2-long-term-car-park

The rate per hour is RM2.50 and they charge RM 32.00 for overnight parking. The shuttle bus from LTCP to KLIA/KLIA2 however is FREE and is as frequent as 15 minutes. So I think if you’re travelling in a group – this would cost you less as opposed to having to pay for the KLIA Transit ticket from Putrajaya Sentral and what not.

It was still a bit costly for the 3 of us but it was sure convenient. Bag-hauling and waiting times were reduced to 50%, at least. The ride to KLIA was less than 10 mins. Which means we didn’t get to pose a lot of selfies in the shuttle. And it stops at its designated spot at the LG floor of KLIA.

MALINDO AIR

Malindo is infamous for being an airline which has delays. I think they’ve got comfortable with the idea of customers knowing about this that they’ve become experts in managing delays, rescheduling flights and granting compensations. Yup, I experienced a delayed flight back from Langkawi to KL. Malindo informed us via text the day before. They can predict the future but we understood that our plane probably didn’t have that many passengers hence they decide to cram everybody into one flight.

Anyway, going Langkawi was uneventful. We checked in online from home so our baggage drop was pretty simple. They even gave us a complimentary newspaper at the counter. We get to choose our seats for FREE. FREE juice, no meals since its a very short haul flight (1 hour). FREE 15kg luggage allowance per person for domestic flights.

The seats had spacious leg rooms. There was an inflight magazine to read as well. Not bad lah huh. I would even consider using this to go back Kuching – with a Plan B should my flight is delayed.

In Langkawi, we stayed at Hotel Bahagia ( a blog post of its own this one). Went Island Hopping and visited the wonderful Langkawi Geopark which I will elaborate on later. And of course we ate a lot of Laksa Kedah and its weird idea of cendol and bought loads of chocolate to bring back home to family and friends.I even allowed myself to splurge on a new set of china. *gasp at horror of my bank account balance*

28Oct2016

Krabi 2016 Safari Tour

Posted in Everyday Life, Leisure & Travel, Reviews by Minci 先生

PART 3

We’ve done the Island Tour before. Which includes the James Bond Island tour when we were in Phuket. We’ve also been to the Emerald Pool and the Hot Spring. You can click on the links to read about them.

So the few new things we did was the;

elephant show and trekking
lunch at Lung Khai Fruits Garden
Suwannakuha Temple

Elephant Show and Trekking

As interesting as it sounds and looked pretty on the brochure with regards to the activities involving elephants, I think even Ee agreed that it is not something that we would want to do again in the future.

The baby elephants may look cute performing their tricks. The bigger elephants may appear strong and sturdy as they carry us on their backs. All seemed grand and exotic until we noticed the chains at the legs. And that small tear of the skin at the ears. Even Ee seemed uncomfortable when he saw our young guide shouting at the elephant and using his sickle knife to scare the elephant and keep it in line.

Come to think of it, elephants belong to the wild. They are not meant to perform acrobatic stunts. Nor are they supposed to play the harmonica. In short, we felt a bit horrible after the activity.

Suwannakuha Temple

This is the famous temple which has the huge Buddha statue and monkeys in the area. Im not sure how big it is compared to the one we have in Kuching (the white standing Buddha). If you’ve never seen a monkey before – this is the time to get close. Since monkeys are a normal sighting in my housing area (they like to play near the cemetery), it was nothing new.

A small donation of THB 20 is required upon entering the cave to see the Buddha statue. We didn’t go in because Ee was not in the mood. He enjoyed the monkeys (and chickens) more. Aiyo boy.. this is not a zoo. We spent roughly 30 mins at the area before proceeding to the next destination.

Lunch at Lung Khai Fruits Garden

First they gave us this cool, refreshing butterfly pea flower drink. Then it was a huge, generous spread of Thai food. Compared to Indonesian cuisine, I can stomach Thai delicacy on a daily basis. Like no problem. Loved every single bit of Thai food. Plus, they keep offering us stuff to eat. It’s always “more rice?” “more food?” pergh.. moga murah rezeki

We also had a short stop at a waterfall. To be honest, I wasn’t really convinced if it was the particular special waterfall we were looking for. But since the guide said it s what it is, I take his word for it.

A short trip this was but memorable all the same. We are aiming for a 3rd Krabi visit. 😛

28Oct2016

Krabi 2016 The Itinerary

Posted in Everyday Life, Good Things, Leisure & Travel by Minci 先生

Part 1

This is our 2nd time returning to Krabi for a family holiday and Thai hospitality is still at its very best. Mr Husband kept saying Krabi is his 2nd home.It used to be Langkawi – begitu cepat sepah dibuang.

We took advantage of the Air Asia FREE tickets promo and booked our hotel rooms through the AirAsiaGo.Com website. We settled on a 4D3N itinerary for 2 Adults and 1 child (hotel + return flight) at a price of RM 692.22 including tax.

This is our brief itinerary and estimated costs. We skipped on certain island tours as we have done them before.

itinerary-krabi

Other miscellaneous expenses include massage therapy, souvenirs etc. I personally did not go to any massage parlour because I was already exhausted at the end of the day. Mr Husband tried the coconut oil massage with a male masseuse (of course) and loved it. It was only THB 200 per session for 1 hour.

My mini checklist for Krabi 2016

Mr Husband exchanged RM 1000.oo for THB 8300.00 to fund our package trips there. I was to cover our dinner expenses and on anything personal I liked. Which amounted to less than RM 250 on my part 😛 I had to remind myself to get things for myself as well because I always seems to want to get stuff for other people first.

Anyway, my next blog posts will elaborate more on the hotel and the safari tours. I hope somebody will find it useful. He he..

22Jul2016

Kuching : Lime Tree Hotel

Posted in Everyday Life, Food and Drinks, Leisure & Travel by Minci 先生

lime shower, banana fritters and laksa!!

I chose to highlight The LimeTree Hotel strengths through its breakfast selection and their special in-house lime shower gel. For this trip to Kuching, Sarawak I made 2 separate bookings using 2 websites. One is Agoda.Com and the other with AirAsiaGo.Com.

The LimeTree Hotel

Lot 317 Abell Road,
Kuching, Malaysia

I used Agoda.Com for my own booking as my flight tickets were already available. I only needed to sort out my accommodation. Through the Insider’s Deal feature on top of an Early Bird (non refundable) discount I managed to book the Deluxe King with City View room at a total cost of RM807.55 (including tax and fees). Its roughly RM143 per night as opposed to its usual RM190 . I planned to stay for 6D5N , so every penny counts. I paid with my credit card and within minutes I was booked. I only had to print the voucher to be presented to the reception later during check in.

Then, I needed to book my mother’s flight + hotel. she also had the same length for stay. so I turned to our very own local NO 1 Best Low cost airline Air Asia. Searching for one person was a tad costly compared to if you were to book for two people. Naturally the less popular flight hours were cheapest, and finally I got to make a booking for her (flight + hotel) at a cost of RM967.26 (including tax and fees). I then tweaked her flight itinerary a bit and ordered inflight meals at a reasonable cost (range Rm9 – Rm15 per meal). We were good to go.

CHECKING IN

Standard procedure was to have an ID card of the main client at hand. What wasn’t standard was to also register the 2nd adult guest staying in the same room on the system. This was for extra security measures. I had to remind my mother that she can only bring in one of her sisters to accompany her in her room and not bring all the sisters for a slumber party. She cheekily obliged.

Guests were given only one room key and could only access the floors they are staying on. This also meant that my mother (at level 3) cannot freely stop on our floor (level 2) for a chat in the morning on her way down to the G floor for the breakfast buffet.

My mother had her reservation paid in full online – she had to leave an RM50 deposit during check in.

ROOMS

Impeccably clean with that lovely citrus scent. No complaints. The wardrobe was very tiny though but we made do. If only they had an extra drawer at the dressing table. I guess they were going for a minimalist concept. Ha ha. The showers had strong pressure and it was refreshing to use their in-house lime shower/shampoo gels. My son looked forward to his baths every time.

Each room has access to FREE WIFI. They also have their GREEN WAYS in running the hotel which I totally heart!

Daily complimentary beverages and bottled water was very nice. And they also have an inbuilt universal socket adapter which was very very thoughtful.

BREAKFAST

They have a varied selection to choose from – asian, western etc.. but they may not necessarily differ on a daily basis. Meaning you will see laksa everyday. Chicken slices everyday. Banana fritters everyday. So guests must refrain themselves from having everything on that one day. Instead, reserve your appetite for a western breakfast every other day or so. Even so, I chose to enjoy the Laksa Sarawak and Banana Fritters every freaking day!! Whoever you have cooking in the kitchen is a keeper!!

LOCATION

This cute hotel is situated in the city with nearby attractions – what more can I say.

Mr Husband and my mother enjoyed the stay very much.The staff were very helpful. The fact that they want to stay in this hotel again says a lot about its services and facilities. My mother, a very direct 59 year old lady who still loves wearing her leggings even went up to one of the hotel staff (ntah2 owner) and praised the hotel for its very nyaman goreng pisang!

Well Done LimeTree Hotel. keep it up!

30Jun2016

Hotel Tanjong Vista, Terengganu .. a 3 star hotel. Really?

Posted in Everyday Life, Leisure & Travel, Reviews by Minci 先生

Work and leisure can come hand in hand. Especially when the husband is the one doing the work stuff like going to a conference whilst the wifey gets to explore her surroundings. teeeheee.. we did just that last month as we make an 8 hour drive to Terengganu.

Mr Husband chose Tanjong Vista Hotel because it promised a lot of good things. Their selling points included a pool for the kids, a breakfast buffet to ease the early morning hunger pangs, free parking for in house guest and a strategic location to most of the places you need to go.

I have to admit. They delivered these wonderful things without fail.

I too loved that they have an ironing board in each room. And a fresh smelling sejadah (praying mat) because most public prayer mat macam kusam and kepam rite? Most importantly they have a mini fridge which is like awesome for a 3 star hotel. And can we please give them a round of applause for complimentary drinks in the lobby and daily newspaper!!

The location is just great as it is nearby tourist attractions like Pasar Payang and the beach with loads of stalls and eateries. Finding local delicacies is not a problem. there was not a single stall in Terengganu where the food taste awful .Like wow.. kitak urang tok keturunan chef istana dolok marek ka apa? he he..

Even the hotel breakfast buffet was commendable. Such delish nasi dagang for breakfast. And a whole lot more variety befit of a 3 star hotel.

Of course there were minor glitches. For instance;

free but limited parking space. So if you happen to be staying there during a conference or something – be prepared to leave your vehicle outside the hotel premises. You can still see your car from the hotel room window but if something happens – you can only manage an ‘oh nooo’ from your room
customer service information may vary from one personnel to another – to make it simple, be nice and just talk to the most senior person in charge. They have no malicious intent on charging you extra. They just don’t get that you need separate receipts for each room.
Housekeeping may arrive at your room a bit late. Even if you’ve been out for almost the whole day. They were nice to apologize for not being able to make your room on time especially when you have soiled diapers that need to be disposed off. We make do by just allowing the team to get rid of the rubbish and replenish the supplies which include shower gels and bottled water.

Despite the above, it was still a good stay. it was a 3 star hotel on the high side. LOlz..

Minci Moss

Building a life I love

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