Tag Archive for Tiger Airways

Long Weekend Holiday in Penang

Having always intended to visit Penang, I finally decided to book-up a nice long weekend last weekend. I joined with a work colleague, and the two of us just wanted to enjoy the time away and have a good time eating, walking and drinking 🙂

The good news is that I managed to finally use the S$50 discount that I received from Tiger Airlines after my complaint following my trip to Hong Kong late last year, so it was pretty reasonable 🙂 The total cost of the flight was just over S$150 (so £75) – brilliant, hey? 🙂

We decided to leave late on Friday, 7th September after work, and we arrived in good time before the rush-hour. The flight left at 5pm, so it was a good time to leave. We both decided to use the Priority Pass membership to get into one of the Lounges. It was the Green Market in Terminal 2 – which basically was a loung with a Japanese restaurant. It was okay, wasn’t really what I expected, but at least the food and drinks were free. The flight was largely uneventful, and we arrived just over an hour and 15 minutes in Penang international airport. I booked a taxi pick-up from my hotel, and the taxi was waiting as planned. It cost 45RM (about S$17), which wasn’t too bad. I didn’t realised how far George Town was from the airport, the airport was on the South of Penang island, whilst George Town (hotel was just near to George Town) was towards the North of the island. We arrived in good time, and was welcomed into the hotel.

The hotel was actually very nice – a truly refreshing boutique Museum hotel – located a stone throw from the centre of George Town (just look for the Zurich Office landmark, located nearby to find your way back to the hotel!). It is a fascinating place, built as a colonial home, with plenty of antiques and artifacts on display. The service is excellent, the front desk and the lounge staff are truly pleasant, they certainly help out as much as they can.

While the breakfast choice is limited to 4 dishes, which you are required to order before 10pm the preceding day, it actually is perfect for my needs, although a little limited in terms of choice. They serve it with style and grace and it is top quality indeed, and you eat it in such a nice breakfast room, you just can’t help but chill and relax as you plan your day ahead. The front desk and staff really are very supportive and are keen to help you in any way they can, and are very pleasant, and are always smiling.

The next few days we spent walking around George Street, finding pleasant places to eat, places to relax and chill, and enjoy the sight and sounds of this delightful place. We managed to do quite a bit, and ate most of the key things that we had to eat in Penang, so a bonus! My friend left on the Sunday evening, whilst I took off Monday as well – and managed to do another walk around George street. I actually found a nice tea shop, which I found on Trip Advisor – Huang Chen Hao Tea Art Shop (also known as ‘Wuyi Tea Art Centre’), located on Jalan Campbell (Campbell Street), I ended up talking to the owner for about 2 hours, sipping the tea, and also made a purchase – as I found it sooo refreshing.

I would definitely recommend a visit to Penang – and I think about 3-4 days is just the right amount of time – but overall an enjoyable trip.

Booked a Long W/E Holiday to Penang, Malaysia

I decided that I should try to arrange a few long weekends before the year-end…not too many mind you, as I don’t want to use up all of my holiday too soon.

Anyway, I still haven’t visited Penang, so decided to go and visit there for a long weekend – leave late on Friday, and return Monday evening – so I can spend 3 days and 3 nights there. I think that should be plenty of time to admire the place, I just need to sort out a place to stay.

I decided to go and redeem by $50 voucher I had pending from Tiger Airlines (which expires on 31st July), so I think it was a good cost-effective choice 🙂

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.

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

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