Planning your first Europe trip - hunting for low fares

To help you guys in planning your Europe trips, here's sharing what I've experienced in planning my own, which hopefully helps!

To get low-fare flights, basically what you need to do is HUNT. Get into hunting mode and start:

1) Use a fare-compare search engine like http://www.skyscanner.net/ to check for lowest fares and airlines available. Google for other fare compare websites (generally those that quote in USD or GBP are more expensive)

2) Know the airlines that fly the destination you are looking at and whenever possible, remember their airport codes
e.g. Kuala Lumpur KUL; Singapore SIN

There are five airports in London - Heathrow LHR, Gatwick LGW, Stansted STN, London City Airport LCY and Luton LTN (Google map below should give you an idea). Not all airlines operate at all these airports so it is important to check whether the ones you are looking at do. Be sure also to check distance and where you need to go from there for convenience.

If you are not picky, the one that's said to be furthest - Stansted - is only an hour bus ride from town and generally plenty of busses and train are available to take you where you need to go.

Here's a list of other airlines connecting KUL London.

http://www.airflights.to/Kuala-Lumpur/flights-to-Kuala-Lumpur/flights-London-Kuala-Lumpur.php5


3) Check individual airline websites for promotional fares - now is the best time to start monitoring - sign up for promotion notifications so you will be notified when they have one

4) Lookout also for travel fairs and always compare prices

5) If you will need hotel stay, explore also sites that offer hotel + flight packages such as Air Asia's goholiday.com

6) Once you are familiar with what the normal fare is, you can be decisive when a promotional fare appears.

Hope this helps, more tips in next post! Happy hunting :)

AirAsia X to London! (Finally :)

Hello hello :)

Yes, for those who know me well enough - my nature to procrastinate, although often exaggerated, has indeed been acting up so now, months after I flew on Air Asia X to London, only am I posting about it.

I've heard (and experienced) many horrors of flying Air Asia as well as Air Asia X but much to my relief (I was never worried to begin with ok, I had faith in whats-his-name) my 13-hour journey was comfortable and very pleasant! This however, is a new aircraft - the Airbus A340, I believe, different from the one that flies 6 hours to Australia.

I had recorded details including seat measurements, leg room etc to share with you but unfortunately in an attempt to keep to my 15kg luggage limit I chucked all my papers - completely forgetting they contain the important details of my journey. I'm terribly upset with myself for this. Anyhoo, I hope to share as much as I can. To give you an idea, my seat was no different from an MAS economy seat.

The inside of the plane


Seats are 2-4-2


Ok first things first - seats. As you can see here, the seat is of standard width so you will not have to suffer 13 hours in cramped budget airline sized seats.


Normal width REALLY!


Sufficient leg room


Not convinced? Ya so I may not be the best judge given my short limbs so here - I snapped a photo of someone of average size - doesn't he look comfortable? :)


The armrests could even be pushed up and since the flight was not full I had two seats to myself :)


I did this too on my return flight and it was sooo comfy! But - if you are not sitting alone. do be mindful of other passengers.


Unfortunately no individual screens


No fret though, media players are available for RM30 each and they let you have it for approx. 8 hours.






Plenty of movies and drama series to fill your time.




Apparently touch screens were available on a different aircraft - not sure whether it was already available or something to look forward to... 


About two hours into the flight they feed you. It is advisable to pre-order your food online not just because it's cheaper but because they may run out of food and you will have to starve. For fear of missing Malaysian food in lieu of two weeks living on bread, my choice was non other than the Malaysian set.

It's RM15 one way and they feed you TWICE - once two hours into the flight and again approx. two hours before you land. The meal came with a 350ml bottle of mineral water, which I was really grateful for. Although not great, the food was still better than the stuff MAS feeds its customers. I have to commend the crew for their wonderful service! My flight back was a little slack but going was really first class :)


Some duty free shopping...


So after you eat and shop it's time for some darkness induced shut eye! You can still read or watch videos la, just turn on your reading light.


I read that to reduce jetlag - if you're flying East to West you should stay awake as much as you can and when flying West to East sleep as much as you can. I slept half my flight there and was so tired practically slept through Phantom of the Opera on my first night in London (it was a great show mind you). Slept half the flight back as well and spent my first night home sleepless so go figure! I think it would be more practical to adjust your sleep based on the time of your arrival both going and returning.

Thats about it on my flight aboard AirAsia X to London, to my friends who are planning Europe trips, hope this puts your mind to rest. My promo ticket was RM1636 return (incl 15kg luggage + insurance), and I later pre-ordered my meals for RM30 two-way. You can't order online once you've confirmed your tix purchase but you can do so by calling the AirAsia call centre (yes someone actually picked up it was amazing) 48 hours before your flight to pre-order at online rates.

So yes it was definitely well worth the moolah! But that said, many airlines have since offered promo tickets to London including Emirates (RM1700+) so my advise is, monitor the promos and prices closely and when you get what you want, go for it! Happy travelling kawan-kawan!

Perhentian Island - gorgeous sun sea sand

According to Wikipedia, the Perhentian Islands lie approximately 10 nautical miles (19 km) offshore the coast of northeastern Malaysia in the state of Terengganu, approximately 40 miles (64 km) south of the Thai border.

The two main islands are Perhentian Besar ("Big Perhentian") and Perhentian Kecil ("Small Perhentian"). The small, uninhabited islands of Susu Dara (Virgin Milk), Seringgi and Rawa lie off Perhentian Kecil. The Perhentians belong to Pulau Redang National Marine Park, which means that fishing, collecting coral and littering are strictly prohibited.

The smaller islands surrounding Perhentian Besar and Kecil.


Along the Flora & Fauna beach. Although still not too commercialised, the beach was not as clean as i'd expected. Walking along the shores, i picked up at least a dozen black plastic bags, half buried in the sand.


The other sad sight is the broken and dead corals surrounding the island! Human acitivity - specifically speedboat engines and snorkelers who step on the corals, are suspected to be one of the major causes.



With tourism a main revenue, pollution becomes one of the major threats of the islands.
Here are what looks to be metal bins I spotted while snorkeling.




All that said, Perhentian is still a beautiful island and I honestly hope the Malaysian government will recognise what jewels its resources are and try to preserve whats left of them. Sights like these (and better than these) are still plentiful on the islands.






Snorkeling is the main activity and the beauty of the ocean is absolutely breathtaking!
Group shot for the album :)

Perhentian Island! - Alu-alu Divers/ Bayu Dive Lodge

Moving on to our next destination, we headed to the jetty that would take us there.

Before we even got to the jetty (we hadn't made any bookings for our boat transfer to the island), we were greeted by a local on a motorcycle, ushering us with "Tickets for last boat of the day, follow me!"

Well, it was almost 4pm and we were starting to panic whether we'd miss the boat, we complied - although not without wondering whether it was one of those tourist traps. Fortunately it was not and so we were well on our way to Perhentian!

The view at the jetty was not so great...




Thankfully, after an exciting speedboat ride, that soon improved...






There were a few stops and ours was the last one - Flora & Fauna beach. It rained on us as soon as we stepped off this jetty.




Here's a better picture taken the next day :)



This is where we stayed - the Bayu Dive Lodge or Alu-alu Divers.
Basic, clean and cosy!


This was our room


Chalets are family or twon sharing. We had an extra mattress as there were three of us.



It was RM170 for a twin-sharing and only RM190 with the extra bed!

The bathrooom




Basic setup, modern amenities.


The room was equipped with a wall fan as well as air conditioning. Since the nights were pretty cool we slept with the windows open and turned on only the fan. No mosquitoes, it was awesome!


The patio




There was even a bean bag for kickboxing!


We were close to the end of the row - very near the staff quarters i think and there was disco music coming from one of the rooms on the two nights we were there - a little noisy but certainly quite interesting.

At night the lodge had barbeque that served beef, chicken, sotong, prawns, fish and etc. Island food is definitely not one of my favourite (past experience in Tioman as well) but the pineapple juice they whipped up was definitely one of the best i've had.


The lodge'd staff will barbeque and you can just take what you want off the grill when they're ready OR you can stand around the pit and grill them yourself.


Later we walked along the beach to the other resorts and collected signatures for our drive. After which we headed back and relaxed amidst sounds of crickets and wave on our patio.


For more on Bayu Dive Lodge/ Alu-alu Divers, go to:
http://www.alualudivers.com/

Next post - more on Perhentian Island!

Volkswagen Beetle classic

After those gut-wrenching stuff, here's moving on to some nicer sights.

As we were traveling in a classic VW Beetle, we were always on the lookout for friends :) and we found one in Kota Bharu town. A gorgeous one if i may add - see for yourself...
p/s the owner caught us gawking and offered to sell it to us hehe...



Could see the engine


Check out the two-tone paint


VW logo


Rims


and classic windows!