Budget Phuket Holiday (Part 1)

Yayyy, this is another traveling post that I've been waiting for! And maybe the last post about my traveling ‘cause next month I will already starting my Japanese language study so intensive (everyday!) that maybe I don’t have time to travel anymore. I’m trying so hard really to enjoy this last week of May to be sloppied off my bed, doing nothing until I’m bored as death for I know maybe I will not be as idle as today starting June.

Alright!

At 12 until 15 May last week, I've finally step on Phuket Island for some another short yet impulsive break with my cousin. My cousin, San-San whose arranging all this stuff since I’m kinda busy with arranging my Sg trip. So in a nutshell I’m just steadily contacted her about the progress of our trip and voila! It went well and EVEN BETTER than the Singapore one.

In Singapore, I arranged my trip manually all by myself! While in here, my cousin had some research around blogs and found this 3 ultimate local tour that can’t be missed: 1 day Trip to Phi Phi Islands, 1 day Trip to James Bond Islands, and Cabaret Show.

My cousin contacted the one called Miss Ladda (a local tour guide service) and she helped us to arrange the trip and calculate all the expenses. And based on my experience, almost all of the tourist use this services (although maybe via different contact person) and have those 3 ultimate destination in Phuket.

You can contact Miss Ladda (and as far as I know this Miss Ladda is trustworthy since I've met other tourists that use her services as well) for all the arrangement of the trip. You can discuss about the trip arrangement, the picked up from and to airport, cabaret, car rent, and everything even somehow she managed to cut trip prices! For example, most of the island tour can costs you as far as 2800 baht/person based on the brochure available but I've only been charged for about 1500 baht/person with the help of Miss Ladda. Isn't that awesome?? You can ask Ms Ladda's contact personally by giving your email on the comment box below. I'll replay as fast as I can :) 

In a nutshell, why my Phuket holiday is better:

• It cost me only around Rp 5.000.000 for 4D3N trip! What an amazing budget holiday! This is the detail expenses (not as detailed as in my Sg post because for the hotel and flight, my cousin arranged that):

• The trip is arranged neatly, we are picked up and went back to hotel really on time based on this local tour travel so no big fuss about schedule.
•  My hotel is in Patong as the centre of tourist attraction (and nightlife!) so it’s very easy to find entertainment here. Everything is reachable by feet.
•   I’m very healthy in this holiday so I enjoy this trip so much!

So, let’s begin with my trip!

Since on the first day we arrived at Phuket around 09.00 p.m, we couldn't do much that day. We were picked up by arrangement (through Miss Ladda) right on the airport to our hotel and checked in immediately  Go out a while to had our dinner on Subway, back to the hotel and rest to prepare for the next trip to Phi Phi Island, the trip that we've been waiting for!

The next day, we were picked up by the driver (which picked up several other tourists too after us) to the gathering point at Chalong Bay Pier. This is the detailed schedule of the trip for Phi-Phi Island:

And these are some photos to show you:

The boat baited alongside the beach.

Some of the tourist were seasick hahaha

Arrived at Maya Bay, where it said that Leonardo Dicaprio once shoot a film here called "The Beach". Crowded as fuck. Trying to take photos without all the people but failed miserably. Anyway, it's indeed so beautiful!

Continued our journey to Viking Cave and feeding monkeys. Even some of the monkeys drank Coca Cola that are given to them..

Finally had our lunch at Phi Phi Island. This is our restaurant and the view outside, including several shops. On 2006 this is one of the island that are washed away by the worst tsunami at that time, but they've managed to build it as fast as possible to keep it available as a tourist spot. Natural disaster is no challenge to natural beauty I guess.

Cat everywhere is the same, always sleeping.

Arrived at our final island of the day, Khainai Island where we can relax and swim. Heaven on earth!! Relaxed and swam and ordered cocktail and screamed "It's so fuckin' beautifullllll!!!!!!!!!" several times.

The water is so clear..

Went back to Chalong Bay, we found that our photo were available to be bought in a cute frame that were hand-maded by local residents! We took all of it it's so cute..

Finishes with those day, we feel so, so so much fucking grateful with all the chances to visit such beautiful places He created for us, human. All I can say was how great is our God thousand times!

After arrived at our hotel and took a bath, we decided to visit Banzaan Market to have our dinner and some shopping to do. Banzaan Market at night is very lively! The main attraction was their hawker food stalls. It tempted me sooo much I wanna try them all. They have something ordinary to somthing strange such as grilled squid, grilled pork, pork skewer, fried chicken, sushis, even fried insects! WHAT THE HELL hahaha (although I’m curious as death I’m not willing to try it. I HATE INSECTS why should I eat it WTF) (please ignore the date on the photo, taken by my cousin didn't realized it was the wrong date!)

The fried insects.. ugh!

We decided to buy grilled squid, fried rice and coconut pancake for our dinner. After dinner we went on a further walk around Banzaan and Bangla Road, a famous road where all the nightlife of Phuket begins. Bangla Road is so lively due to it’s many pub and bar and cafe and STRIPPERS. Yes, each bar had some strippers and pole dancers ready to tempting the tourists enough to make them stare. Even they do it in the front of the bar! They had like this some kind of front pole where all the sexy dancers gather and people can watch them for free. Really ah. Since I was a girl I’m not that interested, just amazed by their performances. What If I am a boy? The show was enough to make you tingle down there!! Hahaha

some shops near Banzaan continued with Bangla Road. Sorry I couldn't take the photo of the strippers hahahah you can't be expecting that do ya

After some further walking, we went back to hotel after satisfied to prepare for another tour trip tomorrow, to James Bond Islands. Had a very deep sleep that night cause the day trip very tiring!

See you guys on the next post! It’s all about day 2 until I went back home :D 

Happy Graduation Day, My Friend!

Last 11 May, went to one of my best friend graduation ceremony in Jakarta Convention Centre Senayan. It was majestic! And cool.

Compared to my university, nah.. the worst. Such a small so-called “great hall” (maybe twice the JCC room up there) for maybe 5 TIMES more graduates when I’m graduating last February. Such a disaster. Very crowded, not to mention the worst rain ever, leaking tent and so on. Shame on you, my university.

Anyway, I can say that the whole environment of her graduation ceremony compared to mine was soooo much different. This is more.. formal. And neat. And everyone suits themself somewhat like they were attending wedding party. While mine was so-so. Looks formal enough but not as lavish as this. The different between public and private university, no? (Her is the private one).

That's it! Enough for my grumbling and mumbling. Congratulation once again Yurianti Hidayat, the Bachelor of Economy. May God leads you in everything you do in the future! Me as your friend proudy prooudddd J J

Impulsive Sunny Singapore! (part 3)

Finally the 3rd post of the Singapore Trip! Getting a little bit bored cause I’m planning to share in only in two posts but somewhat the post got longer and longer aaaand longer and I have to divide it into 3 posts. Don’t worry, this final post will be much more shorter than before.

We spend the last day only in the Orchard Road, since my mom and dad hasn’t go there on the 2nd day and I wanted to go there to, so we prepared the whole day  to sight see Orchard Road. Unfortunately, the weather is not ok and rainy at that day so it gets very crowded inside the buildings or besides the pedestrians. It’s not comfortable at all.

And what’s worst? We barely know that in the weekend (I’ve visited this on Sunday) most of the Singaporean housemaid (from Indonesia, Philippines, and so on) all go shopping and hanging out around this area (especially Lucky Plaza) and it gets very crowded WTF. They sit around the pedestrian, talking snobly and so on makes them looks like some kind of afternoon whore around Orchard Road? Not too mention their fashion, very tight clothes, animal prints, blingy accessories. Worst sight ever. Geez. Really, really breaks down the whole image of high-end Orchard Road.

Anyway, I’m not gonna discuss about that anymore. It brings back bad memories hahaha. Here in Orchard Road we’ve visited mall by mall. Takashimaya, Paragon, Lucky Plaza (duh!), Tangs, and finally Ion Orchard. The best mall I can say is Ion. My bro bought 1 Vans shoes here, I bought 1 Forever21 shirt. This mall is not as high end as the other (sold LV, Chanel and so on which is so fucking expensive) but still is branded yet affordable such as Zara, Forever21, Vans, Uniqlo, and etc. Great place this one.

Didn’t manage to take so much photos. Photos below taken specially in a no-crowded place (which is somewhat a lil bit hard to find haha)

Photos at Ion, eating some kaya toast:

And this! Is one famous $1 dollar ice cream! It’s located before Lucky Plaza. It is very delicious you have to try! The ice somewhat very soft and not too sweet It’s perfect. (sorry for the blur photo alright)

Finished and tired from Orchard, again we had our early dinner at Whampoa, took our bags from the hotel and went straight to the airport. Had a little fun in airport! Taking photos, eat laksa (while waiting) and went to the boarding gate.

Singapore Changi Airport is so great, It looks like mall to me.

Anyway, I’ts a great trip in the end! I can’t say this is my best trip ever. I never like Singapore that much from the start. Besides it’s famous Sentosa Island, USS, Marine Sands and Gardens by the Bay, every tourist spot is quite the same. Hawker food, malls, zoo. There’s nothing much to see here. 4 days is more than enough for me, unless you still want to visit several tourist spot such as Jurong, Sentosa, The Zoo, etc. Somewhat these famous spot isn’t appealing to me hahaha. Not to mention I was in a worst flu ever during my visit to Sg so I got this annoying headache ALL the time, decreasing the enjoyment on my trip *sigh*

So, this is my detailed final total family expense for these Singapore 4 days holiday and notes about it:

I can say my family save MUCH. We ate mostly in Hawker Place, not shopping too much, just a little bit over on transportation fare but I see that is quite normal.

Some tips to travel to Singapore:

• Most of Sg statement Buildings and famous spots eventually better be be at night such as Gardens by the Bay, Merlion Park, Esplanade, Marine Bay Sands, Singapore Flyer, even the Luge Skyride. It will be much more beautiful at night it emanates sparkling light, especially Gardens by the Bay. The Super Tree will shine so beautifully. But since my camera ISO in dark is so bad we decided to visit all of the spot at morning or noon. Too bad I can’t see all the lights. And have no stamina to travel at night (duh!)
•  Almost all places reachable by MRT or bus, don’t worry to get lost here. Sg is a small country. Get lost and you’ll be found in no time.
•  Bought your umbrella! It will be so hot in the noon not to mention a sudden rain can comes along after the hot passed.
• Eat on Hawker stalls. You will find zillions of them! Hawker stalls in Sg is the best: they are mostly indoor, taste very good and clean, and most of Sg foods can be found on the Hawker stalls! Save much money, satisfy the tongue!
• Other suggested traveling spot in Singapore: Singapore Zoo, Jurong Bird Park, All Attraction in Sentosa Island (Marine Park, Songs by the Sea, etc), Singapore Botanical Garden, City Hall/Chijmes, Singapore Flyer, MINT Museum of Toys, Singapore River Cruise, and many other places I don’t know yet J

For overall, the trip was fun, but I think not THAT exciting due to my headache all the time and short travel time thus I couldn’t go to more places than I expected. Maybe will go to Sg again 10 years later or so for traveling in the future. Wait until they have several new travel sites to go and I will be there again, but not at this short time haha!

See you in my next post!

Nb: Oh, and here are some random (mostly food photos) that I’ve manage to take while I’m there. Enjoy!

Fried oyster with egg.

Wanton Mee.

Fishball Noodle.

Impulsive Sunny Singapore! (Part 2)

The next day, me and my brother went to Universal Studios while my mom and dad decided to go on separate schedule from us. My mom said is useless for her to go there since my mom never had enough nerve to play on something extreme such as roller coaster and such WHICH is the main point of the USS, so she decided not to go along with us. So, I recommended my parents several trip route to sight see  look for the itinerary on the last post.

For USS, there are several ways to go there. You can go to the details here

I personally prefer to go by Sentosa Express through MRT because my brother wanted to use the MRT since in Indonesia there is no MRT (which in my opinion is it’s kinda the same like ordinary train in Indonesia, only, it is much more organized and clean. Developed country, duh!).

Once arrived on Harbour Front MRT station, just search for Sentoca Express sign since it’s sign were EVERYWHERE and it’s impossible for you not to notice it. The Sentosa Express station located on the 3rd floor of Vivo City. Buy the ticket from the machine there ($3,5/person, for (bolak-balik) route on the express) and just went straight the gate.

Universal Studios Singapore is on the first stop of the Sentosa Express, called Waterfront Station. Take off from that stop, just follow the crowd there and in no time you’ll see this statement USS globe in the middle of the area and along with several shops around it!

Before that, I suggest you to go to information centre to take some brochures about attractions and the most important is this Sentosa Map Island (contains all the info about island routes and attractions and each of it’s fare, REALLY USEFUL):

In USS, there area is parted to 6 several movie themes with their own attractions. Here are Universal Studio Singapore map complete with its attraction map list (just click to enlarge) :

picture courtesy of www.vendyxiao.com. Big Thanks!

I personally recommend you guys to arrive earlier before opening hours  which is 10.00 (arrive around 09.00) to first take photos as much as you can on the globe (while it’s still quiet and not much person arrived yet) and queued on the front gate after that. It will get very long around 10.00.

Why I suggest that? Because after that I recommend you to run as fast as possible to Transformer The Ride 3D which in my opinion the best attraction so far in USS and if you slow to arrived on this attraction, the queue will be very, very long! *sigh. After that you can go along the routes cause the queue I find for several attractions is quite normal (except in Rapid Adventure which quite long enough).

Here are several photos I managed to take (consecutive from SciFi, Egypt, Jurassic, Far Away, Madagascar, Hollywood and New York)

A jurassic themed restaurant, even they sell the Triceratops tumblr. SO cute!

Gates to Rapid Adventure:

Lots of souvenirs:

Watching the Donkey Show:

Into the Madagascar:

Back to Hollywood and New York:

This is a recommendation on which attraction is a must-ride in USS: 

• Sci Fi City: Transformer The Ride 3D, Battlestar Galactica (both of them and yes I’m an adrenaline junkie) 
• Ancient Egypt: Revenge of the Mummy (the indoor roller coaster IS scarier) 
• The Lost World: Rapids Adventure (I’m fuckin soaked in this!), Canopy Flyer, Waterworld 
• Far far away: Shrek 4D Adventure 
• Madagascar: A Crate Adventure

I found that for young teenagers and adults maybe it’s more exciting to play around SciFi, Ancient Egypt and The Lost World since it’s attraction is more thrilling and adrenaline-pumping while most of the children prefer to go to Far Far Away and Madagascar since their attraction is more mild and cute-type (and quite boring in my opinion).

For Hollywood and New York, nothing much there except tons of souvenir shops (and Carnaval which unfortunately I can’t see them cause I visited USS on weekdays and Carnaval only on weekend or special holiday), several children attraction, eating place and so on. It’s just exciting to take photos there due to it’s unique environment setting.

Bought the statement magnets, bag and a Shrek Hat. Just can’t stand the cuteness.

Personally I find it very hard to take photos with the character which randomly appear from nowhere cause once It’s appear there will be like tons of people start to queue to take photos. Nah, I don’t have enough stamina for that.. Just laughing and walk away. 

Feels like we played on USS enough, my and my bro decided to exit at about 3 p.m and went straight to Luge Skyride via Sentosa Express again, take off at the last stop: Beach Station.

Bought the tickets for 5x ride each for $28 per person, we played this attractions until bored enough haha. It's very easy to ride the Luge and very exciting when you screeching around the route!   

Here are some photos of Luge Skyride, the look from above the skyride and the luge road routes:

Too bad we are too tired to wait until night comes so we decided to play as fast as possible and went back to the hotel. It’s said that Sentosa’s view at night from the skyride is beautiful but blame it on USS, we don’t have much more energy left to wait until night. Not to say to meet up my parents in Newton Food Center!

We finally had dinner at Whampoa again and found out that my mom and dad had dinner there too -____- 

Even later I was told that they didn't follow my trip recommendation! They only went to Chinatown for a while, bought some food there and spend most of the time inside their room. What the hell hahaha my parents stamina is the worst alright.

Other shits I collect from my today trip: Luge tickets, MRT card, and Sentosa Express tickets.

Anyway, an exciting trip for a day! Sleep as fast as I could to recharge more energy for tomorrow another exciting trip: to Gardens by the Bay.

You can go here by simply taxi, or MRT that stops at the Bayfront Station. Just follow the path and you’ll exit right in the middle of the garden J It’s quite amazing!

Here are some photos when I took the Garden Voice Tour:

 The famous Super Tree and Marine Bay Sands:

Recommended route: go straight to the souvenir shops to buy a $1 conservation map here just like this before go to the conservatory (I bought another souvenir, a refrigerator magnet that shows mini Gardens by the Bay map):

Map front and back:

the Mini map! Just click to enlarge:

Take the garden tour ($5/adult, $3/children) which will take you around the garden and at the main ticket booth near the conservation area for the final stop. After that buy the conservation ticket for $28/adult and $15/child (for Singaporeans, it will be cheaper) for 2 conservatory. You HAVE TO BUY THE TICKET because the main attraction and gorgeus things all both on the conservatory area! The Flower Dome (which shows you so much beautiful flowers and gardens) and The Cloud Forest (with it’s cool man-made waterfall and forest wonders).

The conservatories ARE amazing.

Some photos in the Flower Dome:

In the Cloud Forest:

It’s such a wonder why Singaporean can build a conservatory as advance as this hahaha. Anyway, after we had lunch here (there’s food court here so son’t worry) and we went all through the the conservatory, we've decided to go on to see the other side of main tourist spot: Marine Bay Sands.

Then something stupid happened. Gardens by the Bay and Marine Sands Bay (The Hotel) is somewhat connected by a bridge. We tried to walk around the fucking big garden only to find the bridge, but unfortunately we were unsuccessful due to SUPER SUPER HOT weather at noon and after walking and sweating for almost half an hour, we gave up and called taxi. One family ZERO stamina WTF hahahah

We didn't go up to the Sky Park above the Marine Sands Bay Hotel because it’s still so hot at noon, or either we are very lazy and it'll be not useful since it's not night, what's the point not to see those beautiful light sparks from the sky? So we only walked around the mall. The mall is quite amazing you know! There’s waterway in it and we can rent a boat to sway through it!

The casino inside:

Marine Bay Sands Shopping Mall from the front gate:

But still, it’s a mall, and malls everywhere is the same. Almost 4 p.m and already fucking tired (and bored), We went straight to People Park (since it’s near, in Chinatown), bought some food there for dinner, took it to the hotel and eat together!

Somewhat what a great and warm dinner! We had so much fun eating together like this hahahah. 

Sorry for very fucking long post I've just realized it.

(continue to part 3.. Keep on reading guys! The tips, recommendation and total budget trip on next post!)