Sipadan Water Village Resort (Day 2)

Upon arrival of Sipadan Water Village Resort, we were welcomed by the resort crews with local music and song plus a cold face towel. Sipadan Water Village is a resort on stilts, constructed with Bajau (local tribe) architectural design. I would say, this is the most luxurious diving accommodation I have ever had…

Each bangolow has one huge “L” shaped bedroom (bed and sitting area), an attached bathroom and a huge balcony that links from the sitting area and the bathroom.

Sipadan Water Village Resort doesn’t have air condition. Unfortunately during our stay, the air at night was mainly in a pause. The room temperature was high. The balcony quickly became my brother PC’s favorite spot at night…

Singamata to Palau Mabul (Day 2)

This morning’s weather is changable. We had bright sunshine early in the morning, then thunder storm came, and then, the rain stopped, sun came back up…

While travelling on speedboat from Singamata to Pulau Mabul, we passed by these villages which built along the Southeast Coast of Sabah… They brought back my childhood memories of people who live by the sea…

Trip to Pulau Mabul – Sipadan (Day 1)

Anxious + anticipated, I am looking forward to the trip to Sipadan, one of the most exciting dive site in Southeast Asia. I was ‘dry’ more than 3 years, since 2006, the last time I was in blue waters of Tioman.

Checking through my dive gears, which had been nicely packed deep in the storage. My BCD is punctured, the rubber of the mask has stiffen, time to upgrade the gears.

Eugene Sim, the Padi course director and also our life saver, is always the first person we think about when it comes to diving. He recommended me to ‘wings’ style BCD rather than my previous ‘jacket’ style, as I can never fit properly with the jacket. Wings BCD has greater customization to my body size. With new BCD, it adds an layer of anxiety to my rusty diving skills – I need to readjust my buoyancy control underwater.

This is a short 4 days 3 nights trip. Out of the blue, my brother PC (who doesn’t even swim) arranges this trip with a big group of friends (with families and kids). First, we take an Air Asia flight from Kota Kinabalu to Tawau, and then overland to Semporna, the closest port to Mabul island. After lunch, we set sail (on speedboat) to Singamata, there we stay for the first night. 

Singamata is not even an island. It’s a water chalet built on a large coral reef 10 minutes boat ride away from Semporna. This chalet provides simple but clean accommodation and some diving/snorkeling activities.

It serves a warm up session for us – city folks – before we dive. Kids and families are having real fun snorkeling in this confined water, 10 meters deep, in the mid of ocean.

Since there is nothing much to do besides swimming and I am not a big fan of it, as well as I didn’t bring a single book, refreshing camera skill is my time passer… capturing natural phenomena…

Cheers
Jing

Greeting from Taiwan

Copy idea from previous greeting:

see post: Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year, 2007

My first step on chinese earth

Wow with a new job comes new responsibility and chances as well…

Due to the new project I am working on i finally got a chance to make a first step on chinese ground. My colleagues and I touch down in Hong Kong for 2 nights  to be part of a facade testing in Chinas Sanxin factory.

This allowed me a small glimpse on Hong Kong.

To be honest business trips are mainly for business and at the end is not much time left. I was happy once it was over.

At least I got to eat my ginger milk… yummy…

Air Asia to Sabah, departs from Singapore

I believe many people know Sabah as a nature wonderland. Located in North Borneo, East Malaysia, Sabah offers various natural sites, with unique floral and fauna. However, many travelers visit Malaysia are missing out Sabah as she is out of the beaten track, and costly. Thanks for Air Asia which help reduces travel cost.

Being a Sabahan, my trip home is always a hassle as the flight from Singapore tends to be a lot more expansive than via Johor Bahru’s Senai airport. It is only 2.5 hours flight, however, going via Senai airport, I used to order a taxi (from JB, cost S$60), he picks me up from my apartment in Singapore and send me to Senai airport. If  my flight departs at 6.30pm, the cab would pick me up at 1.30pm to avoid traffic jam. The whole journey took me up to 9 hours. Once I was waiting at Senai airport from 9am till 8pm, supposed to board an Air Asia plane at 12.30pm but it was delayed for 8 hours. The record was nearly 20 hours journey home.

Recently Air Asia started flying from Changi airport, now I have a direct flight from Singapore. Going home becomes a happy occasion since then. I have been taking Air Asia since it first started. Back then it was a pain in the ass as flight delay was very common. Pleasantly surprise nowadays it has improved its services, including its on flight menu. If you choose to eat on the plane, take Nasi Lemak!!! For vegetarian, I am quite please with its vegetarian Nasi Beriani. 

To date, flights offer trips to Sabah are Silk air, Malaysian airline (MAS), Jetstar and finally now Air Asia. Tiger airway will join the list soon. 

So far, Air Asia is my first pick of the budget airline in Asia…

Jing

Merry Christmas!!!

What color is this Christmas? Black? Gray? White?

A year has passed since we came back. Time flies. 

What had we achieved in this one year? Well, we finally settled down, having a steady job despite the economy rolls from rocking high to rock bottom. We are still facing financial constrain though. Lots of targets, hope to achieve in life. It takes time!

We still miss traveling a lot. This year we are really grounded to rebuilt our social life again. This year, due to the change of job environment, we met lots of new friends, and new stimulants occur.

Hopefully soon we can get back to travel and visit some countries which we have not been before. 

A heartfelt wish to everyone: Merry Christmas!

Choosing budget accommodation

Last night after dinner, Alex, I and two other friends were chit chatting over a coffee table. Our highlight was about our encounters with cockroaches, rats, lizards, bugs, snakes, spiders, frog etc. while putting up with hotels and guess houses overseas.

Over the years with countless experiences in dealing with such situations, in addition to the stress of theft, we naturally developed a rule of thumb when choosing a budget accommodation. We usually make sure we see the room before we take it. Good hotels don’t necessary have all their rooms in good condition. Sometimes we surprisingly find outstanding rooms in the most unexpected condition. I would say, some budget accommodation could have the standard of an expansive hotel, in terms of its basic facilities. 

In an ideal situation, these are what we look for when checking a guesthouse or budget hotel:

1. Reception is friendly and helpful – First impression is essential, though it may not be always accurate. We usually choose a place where its owner or attendee is friendly and helpful.
2. New guess house or budget hotel – New guess house or hotel is usually more clean.
3. Avoid first floor or lower floor – The chances of animal invasion (especially cockroaches and rats, + possible human being) for rooms on the first floor is very high.
4. Good natural light  - We usually prefer the room with good naturally light and air circulation, a plus if it has at least one big window with reasonably good view. 
5. Air circulation – We feel unhealthy sleeping in a room with smell of dampness, though we may be deceived by its interior setting. We usually prefer a room with good odor (means good air circulation).
6. Door lock – It feels safer to have a room with internal door lock. When traveling, we usually carry some locks for locking our room while we are out.
7. Hygiene standard – check bed linen, pillow cases, and the toilet. Carrying one batik sarong is a good idea, for use of bed linen, blanket and bath towel.  When checking the toilet, I pay particular attention at the toilet seat and the floor water trap. 

Ho Chi Minh City

Our home needs some Thai triangular cushion seats. So, I was planning a short trip to someway nearby for shopping, massage as well as sourcing the Thai cushion. Ho Chi Minh City came into picture just because its airfare is cheap – S$4.99 to S$9.99 – so we spent S$350 for a pair of flight tickets.

My first impression of Ho Chi Minh City is the city not as congested and polluted as I imagine. However, she isn’t a great city to visit. For massage, yes! Cheap and nice.

The latest edition of Lonely Planet travel guide book, published one year ago, no longer provide accurate information due to the rapid changing of this city. In term of shopping, sadly said that we couldn’t get anything we wanted. Personally I feel the prices here are rather high, and most of them in US dollars. So far, Luang Brabang (Laos), Bangkok (Thailand) and Katmandu (Nepal) are still remain on our top list for shopping.

It is amazing to see these huge bunch of cables hanging above the streets and they still work. Furthermore, I wonder how do they fix it when power fails.

Vietnamese visa online application

Our decision to visit Ho Chi Minh City came in the last minute. As a German, Alex need to apply for a Vietnamese  visa. For the past 2 days I have been calling the Vietnamese Embassy in Singapore, but no one bothers to pick up the phone. It’s official website didn’t provide any useful information either. While searching on the Internet, I came across a few websites that facilitating on-line application for Vietnamese visa. Most of these websites have rather confusing interface, and I felt quite insecure to go through them. However, time was running short and out of desperation, I took a small step and choose one of them. It turns out to be my life saver!

www.visa-vietnam.org

On this website, I filled in an online application form (it is rather straight forward, with instructions on the website.) Since we need a visa in 2 days, so I choose “rush case” and click send. Soon, I received an automatic mail-reply saying:

Thanks for your concerning with us www.visa-vietnam.org.

1. Your reference # :XXXXXXXXXXXX, This is the rush case you have to confirm as soon as possible

2.1. Please settle the payment through www.Xoom.Com ( Credit card)

Details of recipient Mr. Thang (the agent in Vietnam) is stated, with he Vietnamese address, telephone number and ID card number. Again simple but precise instructions were given. I would receive a Pre-approved letter with code for picking up visa upon arriving Vietnam at the airports of Hanoi capital city, Ho Chi Minh or Saigon city and Danang city. On the email, my payment through www.xoom.com was US$40 due to “rush case” (normally it is US$25) for processing fee. An additional US$25 + two passport photos are needed to process a 30-days visa. BTW, “rush case” is only eligible for 30-days, single entry travel visa.

After making my payment, I called the Vietnamese Embassy again just to make sure things are right. This time finally, a lady picked up the phone. She told me that the Embassy only process normal visa which takes 5 days to 2 weeks. If I want “rush case”, I need to go through an agent who specifically assigned by the Embassy.

I asked if I can bring along the Pre-approval letter from my agent and get the visa stamp from the Embassy. She said it is impossible, and there is no regulation stated that we can enter the country with the so-called Pre-approved letter.

She gave me the official website of the Vietnamese Embassy in Singapore, apparently it has been revamped and the one that I got from the Internet was the old one. Through this site, I found a local agency who can help me process a Pre-approved letter. It costs me SGD130 (USD89) for “rush case”. “If you do it today, SGD130, before 11am. But tomorrow will be a lot more expansive.” The agent said.

I put down the phone and felt furious. I then called Mr. Thang in Vietnam, questioned him about the regulation, and he reassured that they are the real agency and has been around for a while. He said, “At the airport, go to Landing visa counter, with the printed Pre-approved letter and 2 passport size photos (4×6cm). If I have any problem with the custom, please call my number.”

So, we decided to stick with him…

Updated: 28 Sept 2008

When we arrived Ho Chi Minh City, Alex went to the visa counter. She was asked to fill up a form, paid USD25 and handed in 2 passport size photos. She got her Vietnamese visa stamped on her passport smoothly.