Tag Archive for Flight

Extended Holiday in Langkawi, Malaysia

Well after the hard partying during the Indian Wedding, I decided to stay over in Langkawi for another week, so that I can relax, unwind and get some sunshine – rather than think of work again.  It was well needed, and I am so glad I decided to book the extra days off.

In fact with the Hari Raya (end of the Muslim fast) and the Singapore National Day scheduled together – means in total I only had to book 5 days to get 11 days off – nice!

I decided to book a hotel on the west side of Langkawi just south of the airport – this is the main hub of Langkawi Town, and my hotel was actually nicely located.  The hotel was simply but effective – it had a walk-in shower, it was a clean and spacious room, and actually for $50 per night (about £25 / night) – so it actually was exactly the sort of price I wanted to spend on a room – at the end of the day it is a clean air conditioned room with a shower!  Haha!

The Pantai Tengah beach was a short walk behind the resort, and it was separated by a hill at the north end of the beach from the more populous Pantai Cenang, but easy to get from the main road. There are plenty of eateries, drinking holes, mini-marts, and massage/spa places dotted around the area, so in theory, you have everything you need in one place.

I pretty much did the following: sleep, breakfast, beach, walk, lunch, beach, walk, dinner, drink, relax and sleep – and repeat 🙂 Haha…

Anyway, I do feel relaxed and caught up on my sleep – but I doubt that will last when I return back to Singapore.

Tropic Resort Langkawi
Pantai Tengah
07000 Langkawi
+(604) 955 4075
Email: rooms@tropicalresortlangkawi.com
URL: http://www.tropicalresortlangkawi.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tropical-Resort-Langkawi-Malaysia/158282904097

Neha’s and Neel’s Indian Wedding in Langkawi

It has been months in the planning, but we have all been anticipating the wedding of the year – with a good work colleague and her fiancé, inviting a number of her Amex colleagues to the Indian wedding located at the WestIn in Langkawi, Malaysia.

I knew it was a going to be a good, and I also knew it would involve a LOT of drinking and enjoyment, and it didn’t disappoint.

A core group arrived on Thursday 1st August around midday, with another group arriving on the Friday.  The Mehendi was scheduled for the Friday, 2nd August for the ladies, the Sangeet during the evening and the Wedding Ceremony was on the Saturday, 3rd August.  Basically 3 days of “hard work” 🙂

It was such a gracious ceremony, and it was a great location to chill, relax and celebrate a great wedding ceremony.

Congratulations to Neha and Neel – I wish you many years of joy and happiness together…

Krabi Thailand Holiday – Nice!

A group of colleagues for work were planning to do a dive and snorkelling trip over one weekend, and the invite was opened to me.  Not being a strong swimmer or diver, I was definitely keen to do a bit of snorkelling and also relaxing poolside.

One colleague arranged the hotels, I did the flights, and we headed-off to the airport for the 4-day break.  Having rained-heavily since early morning, the taxi didn’t seem to arrive, so I made my way to the MRT to the airport.  I knew I was cutting it fine, so I did have that dreaded ‘will I get to the airport on time’ moments.  My colleague who lived near Farrer Park finally managed to get a taxi and was en route when I got the call to offer to pick-me up – so i decided to get out at Dhoby Ghaut MRT, and the taxi took a slight detour to pick me up from there.  The long and short of it, we made it to the airport, with about 40 minutes spare – but our seats on check-in were the worse – the last row just in front of the rear toilets – grrr.  Hey-ho, at least we were on the flight!

We stayed at the Sofitel Krabi Phokeethra Golf and Spa Hotel – it was a nice place – and certainly made us feel very relaxed.  The breakfast was delightful and the location very quiet and relaxing.  It had quite a nice pool – white sand – and they were able to arrange the tours for us.  It was low season – so we didn’t have the quota for the Dive/Snorkelling trip nor the Kayaking trip – so we had to arrange this directly with the place rather than via the hotel – which actually made it slightly cheaper.  It is amazing how much for a mark-up or ‘cut’ is given by the hotel.

The food was very tasty – and our stomach’s behaved themselves for the whole trip.  This can’t be set for the boat journey during the snorkelling – as it was a bit choppy, and I had a bit of a turn for the worse – which was frustrating to say the least.  Luckily, after a couple of sea-sickness pills, my stomach settled down again – grrr!

All in all – a relaxing, busy, entertaining and great fun trip – and it was actually good to get to know the folks in a more relaxed setting.

Mum returns to Hong Kong

Well it’s time to say good bye to mum for the moment.  She enjoyed her holiday and I think it was good that she was able to help me settle in to my apartment – it was such a task to do on my own, that an extra pair of hands was very helpful.  Even just visiting the dozen or so apartments took it out of me.

So mum now returns to Hong Kong this afternoon before she makes her way back to the UK on 15th January.  Lets see when she returns back out 🙂  Hehe!

Return to Singapore – time to settle into my apartment :)

Well, after a very relaxing trip to Hong Kong, eating, drinking, sightseeing and shopping (repeating this continously!), it was time to say goodbye to the cooler climate (that is “cooler” than Singapore – but “warmer” than the UK) and enjoy the time back in my new location.  I should really start calling Singapore my new “home” location – hehe.

Anyway, having arrived late on Friday, 28th December – the JetStar flight was quite uneventful, although slightly more turbulent than last time.  I decided to book the Hotel Re! at Pearl Hill (in Outram Park district) for the night, as I wasn’t sure I was able to pick-up the key of my new apartment on Friday from my agent.

It was nice being back at the hotel – and we had one final meal in and around China Town, before making it back to the hotel.  On Saturday, we decided to make those final purchases around China Town before returning back to the hotel to collect our luggage to go to the new Condo Apartment.  I think I’m getting there with all of the purchases – but until I move in and unpack, I really don’t know what other things I need to buy (apart from things for the kitchen and lounge area).

Going to definitely be a bit stressful for the next couple of days before I start to prepare my mind for my first day of work in the new team.

Eventful flight to Hong Kong

The flight out was quite “interesting”, as a fight broke out about 3 hours into the flight. I think it started because the passenger in front moved her chair back, and it hit the other passenger behind, who was sleeping forward. Well what do you expect on a cheap airline flight, where the seats pitch isn’t that much between seats. Anyway, the lady in the back threw some punches after lady in the front swore at her (in Cantonese). It was quite amusing, and the it took all 3 of the cabin crew to calm things down. Even the pilot came out at the end of the bout – and I did overhear him say FFS and that he would call the police for our arrival. The passengers were split up with the front ones moved to the back of the plane.

After things returned to normal, we arrived at HK, and we were instructed to remain in our seats whilst a dozen or so police entered the plane, and took off the 4 people involved in the facade! What a flight – talk about creating ones own flight entertainment :). Hahaha…I’ve never quite seen anything like this before.

Holiday in Hong Kong

Having now sorted out my apartment, the last thing to do was to have a relaxing holiday abroad somewhere… Having looked around at the flight and resort prices – the options of Langkawi, Bali, Phuket etc were all starting to go up in the price, so we decided to visit Hong Kong and my mum’s family this year.

The flight prices on Tiger Airways weren’t too bad – about £475 return, and at least we saved a little bit on the cost of the holiday accommodatio, by staying with our family in HK instead. We left on Tuesday, 18th with the intention to spend Christmas in HK and returning back to Singapore on Thursday, 28th December – to allow me to sort out the apartment and make the final purchases, ahead of starting work on 2nd January.

I knew my apartment activities will continue after I departed, mainly the 2-month deposit transfer and the commission payment to the agent. I did make a request for my agent to manage the transfer on 24th December in my absence and pick up the keys – the agent will also sort out all of the utilities – except the telephone/Internet, which I can do when I return. Hopefully, it all goes well.

I don’t mind what we do in HK, I know my cousin and aunt will look after us, and hopefully we will have some good food, see some sights and sounds around HK, relax and re-charge our batteries 🙂

Note: apparently…”Hong Kok” is the new Hong Kong 🙂 Must be an attempt of humour at Tiger Airlines (or just that they are illiterate!) – see photo:
Hong Kok - the New Hong Kong

Singapore Airlines – One Way Ticket

It is very surreal buying a one-way ticket, the first time in my life that I’ve done so – this was when it became real to me that I was embarking on a new chapter of my life in Singapore.

BUT, I am excited about the challenge that awaits me, and I must admit I still enjoyed the Business Class flight out (thanks to the great service on Singapore Airlines).  This time, I made sure I wasn’t over my Baggage allowance, having decided to not ship anything out from the UK (except what I checked-in) – I checked-in two large suitcases (which equated to almost 40kg, which SIA didn’t charge the excess for (30kg is the normal Business Class allowance – phew!).  I also took on board my PS3 in my back-pack, and another cabin-sized suitcase with other bits and bobs…and my mum carried over another suitcase of belongings with hers to HK.  I guess I’d only need to worry about how to get the stuff back when I eventually return to the UK 🙂

Talking about Business Class – it was a nice and relaxing journey, and the 12.5 hours simply flew by (excuse the pun) – the food was excellent, as always…as you can see below 🙂

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