Tag: Air Asia

  • Penang Post! – Part 4

    Continued from Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3

    The last day of our vacation. Sigh! We only had one item on the agenda, and no prizes for guessing it involved food – specifically lunch! But before that, we had our standard awesome breakfast at Spice Market cafe. They had an awesome Blueberry Crumble and the banana cakes had been fantastic for a couple of days now!

    We didn’t have a lot of time to digest it, because we had to leave the hotel by 2 and had very minimal time for lunch. We took a cab to the Living Room Cafe (actually walk-able, but 10 MYR away by cab) which served fusion Malaysian. A small cafe on the main road that also sells art. They had quite a few interesting photos around  – Albert Einstein and Charlie Chaplin, Muhammad Ali & the Beatles etc. There was also a band practicing. I ordered a Cider, D an banana juice and we waited for what we had come for – Beef Rendang. We got talking to an American lady who had been in Batu Ferringhi for 1.5 years and planned to stay 2.5 more. We wondered what it must be like. Meanwhile, the beef rendang did prove to be an excellent choice.

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  • Baliday – Days 6,7

    Continued from Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

    Breakfast at Tanaya consisted of a sandwich. They alternated between a muffin + croissant  + roll/ sandwich/ chicken sub as part of the package. Not too heavy, it managed to always set the stage for a more elaborate lunch. The breakfast area overlooked the street and we watched the road get ready for a regular day even as we ate our last breakfast in Bali.

    We had asked the guide to skip the Sukawati Art Market, so we started out a bit late, straight to Sanur beach, which has played a part in Bali history. We found it quite desolate, save a few tourists and boat operators who tried to take us to Lembongan, with its marine walks (saw something about a unique helmet that allowed to walk under water) and other attractions. We skipped that too, and went ahead with our regular lazing on the beach routine. When we got back and asked the driver/guide about the beach being quiet, we were told that it was mostly popular with the locals on weekends and with older tourists.

    Lunch was Babi Guling – suckling pig, whose ads you would see all over Bali. I had this vision of an entire pig brought in front of me and had shared it with D many times. When they said it would be delayed by a few mins, it just seemed to consolidate that vision. D smirked as the dish was brought. It was a normal looking dish – the same rice, sambal, with the pork, fat, and masala replacing the chicken/duck earlier. The best part of the dish was the soup like thing which we weren’t sure whether to drink or mix with the rice. We drank. 🙂 A grease bomb of a dish, but it was tasty too. The other big blunder was Tehbotol, which I had assumed to be local cola! Should’ve guessed tea, and a rosewater flavour added! Ugh. As always, D got lucky with her Fruit Tea! We had now developed a little bit of an aversion for the rice + combo.

     

    We got back to Kuta to explore the Kuta, Seminyak beaches, but diverted ourselves to finish some last minute shopping! A sling bag, a travel bag, and laughing at the non-telecom simPati possibilities later, we stopped at ‘The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf‘ for some thirst quenching. The very friendly staff also gave us a complimentary berry juice which was a competitor at a Barista championship. The beaches, meanwhile,  reminded me of Calangute and Baga for the stretches that just went on and on, and for the fact that these were the tourist favourites, despite incessant hawking of everything from tattoos to pedicure on the beach! The perspective on Starbucks was worth a shot. 😉

      

    Next up was another spa visit, but this one – the Kupu Kupu Mas spa, was extremely good! On the way back, we decided to check the menu of Ketupat, a restaurant that was on our shortlist. Quite an amazing menu – Javan and Sumatran cuisine too, and a wonderful ambiance, but a combination of the rice aversion and distance from our hotel made us decide against it. We got back to the hotel, and walked slowly along Legian, shopping a bit, and gazing for the last time at the Ground Zero monument, a memorial of the 2002 Bali bombing.

    We had thought of returning to Batan Waru for dinner, but as D got into yet another shop to do her last minute purchases, I discovered a restaurant that was on our list. Amazingly, we had been walking in front of it all these days, but thanks to it being inside a tiny lane (next to Made’s Warung) we had completely missed Uns! They had some excellent Ravioli with a Bali twist. We also had some house wine, after they served us a complimentary drink and a cutlet! The Ravioli Uns (with a hint of coconut) and the Ravioli Carousel (six kinds of fillings from across the world) were both awesome. We finished the meal with a subtle and smooth Creme Catalane and a delicious Chocolate Mousse. Serly, the lovely girl who took and brought us our order, reminded us of an adorable cartoon character. 🙂 Uns had a buzz to it that indicated a crowd comfortable with the place. The music, the decor and the ambiance made it seem like a place that had somehow gotten time to stand still. This one is a must visit if you’re in Kuta. (it also has Indonesian food) The perfect last dinner @ Rp.276342 🙂

      

      

      

    The next day dawned early – another 3.30, and Tanaya also gave us a breakfast box – we just had to tell them the night before. Our driver-guide arrived on time and also brought us a farewell gift! The lethargy of early morning travel was rattled by an adventure that D created. A sad and silly ending was averted by our guide who was extremely helpful and went out of the way to make our experience memorable in the right way! In the rush, I also managed to get a chocolate pedicure, thanks to a half filled cup someone dropped on the floor! The sunrise was the perfect backdrop for our departure from the ‘Island of the Gods’.

    A few hours later, we were back at LCCT. This time we got seats and slept in the ‘traditional way’ – legs on the luggage trolley, during a 7 hour wait. Despite some Boost juices, we were massively hungry by lunch and decided to hog at Marry Brown. Fish’n’Chips and Chick-a-Licious with pepper sauce and a Mi Kari Ayam Goreng, that turned out to be slurpy good!

      

    From super cute Japanese babies, we quickly moved to spoiled brats in the boarding area, and had a fair idea of what to expect on the flight. But the kids went even beyond that and several times, I had to give them a piece of my mind as they rattled seats, opened window shutters, and did as much as possible to make everyone around uncomfortable. Air Asia’s tagline is “Now, everyone can fly”. I add “unfortunately” to that, and wish there was a way to transport some kids/people as check-in baggage!

    The airline magazine gave us clues on a potential next holiday. 🙂 Though the flight had taken off close to 5 PM, the sun blazed on and refused to set, as I read Paul Theroux’s consul tales from a geography that used to be part of the empire on which the sun never set. After touching down at Bangalore, as I climbed into the Meru, I mumbled a thanks to Indonesia for maintaining a platonic relationship with us and not screwing us over despite the earthquakes at its other end. We were home!

    For those interested, our tour guide was Astrawan. If you are not into reading about the places beforehand, you should ask him for a driver who will be with you and is able to explain landmarks. We customised our tour as described, and without dinner, it came to Rp 4100000 for 2 people. Tanaya cost us close to Rp 3400000 for 6 nights. Despite the Day 1 a/c disaster, I’d recommend it. A rough estimate for the trip, including everything would be Rs.1.5 lakhs.

  • Baliday – Days 0,1

    Air Asia informed us earlier that the flight to KL had been delayed, and thanks to that, D and I had a small mix up on the time front. Despite this, this was probably the most peaceful start to a vacation that we’ve had. We stood in the queue silently but scornfully commenting on the family in front of us repacking thanks to Air Asia’s luggage prices. “Don’t these people weigh their luggage?” A few minutes later, as we hurriedly took out one plastic cover from the check-in baggage and D stuffed it in her handbag, we ate our first meal of the tour – our own words!

    On the flight, we had a sense of deja vu as Tamilaysia was repeated, this time with more BO. 😐 Meanwhile, the lasagna I had pre-ordered had apparently been taken off the menu. In their infinite wisdom, Air Asia didn’t care to inform me as they handed over the packet, but since even they couldn’t claim that the airline food version of lasagna looked like spaghetti and beef slices, they duly apologised. Since D has no escape routes inside a plane, I choose these occasions to chew her brain. 😀 So, comments on suing Air Asia for outraging the sentiment of a Hindu (though I had ordered a beef lasagna) and cattle class jokes followed for a few minutes. I think she has learned and has her own protective measures, because after a few sips of water, I was out like a light, and when I woke up a few hours later, the bottle had been disposed.

    At around 1 Am on Vishu, the Malayali new year, I awoke to smiling air hostesses announcing that we would soon arrive at LCCT, KL. On landing, we discovered that one of our bags had developed a minor tear. The flight to Denpasar was a few hours away, but that’s not news we’d lose sleep over. So sleep we did, fitfully, on a media tie-up unheard of in India – DNA and Malayala Manorama. We had a mixed neighbourhood. One set had sleeping bags, another trusted the floor cleaner implicitly. After breakfast at McD where Ringgit was given back for $s, and I scalded my tongue with a Milo, we were on our way to Bali by 9, with MM and DNA now fortifying the bag’s torn area.

    The Denpasar arrival was quite awesome, with the airport right on the coast. It almost seemed like we were about to land on water! And what a view! We exchanged USD into Rupiah at the airport (a costly mistake, later we figured out that the exchange rates on the street were way better. 9200 Rp versus Rp 8800 for every $. In our defense, we weren’t warned, and earlier experiences elsewhere were mixed) The documents we carried weren’t needed at all for the visa (on arrival) and only the $25 fees/person mattered. Our tour operator was waiting for us, and thanks to his assistant, our trolley bumped into everything it knew (or didn’t until then) at the airport.

    The streets, the architecture all reminded us of Cambodia, though this was a much more touristy version. As we turned off a busy main road with restaurants and shops into a smallish lane, we worried whether  our choice of hotel was flawed, in terms of location. In a few minutes though, we were on to a snazzier road with seemingly unlimited eateries and shopping options. This was Jalan Legian and  right there was our hotel – Tanaya. They  welcomed us warmly but immediately took care of business too. Swipe 1. 🙂 We loved the room – small, functional and neat. So was the rest of the hotel – the dining area on the terrace and the corridors.

     

    We asked at the reception for lunch suggestions and from the options, selected one that was on top of our list too – Made’s Warung. We quickly made towards it, and realised that the metric system here was different. 100 metres for the Tanaya folk was much much longer than our norm! The snooty waiter at the restaurant disdainfully turned down our request for a table we fancied. We responded meekly with an order for a Banana Honey Juice, a Coconut Milk Shake, a Pork Sate, and a Beef Rendang. The juice was not bad, but the shake’s coconut flavour was the barfi (hindi not english 😉 ) kind. The pork sate was spicy and very tasty, and we couldn’t get enough of the rendang masala. After quickly mourning the desserts we had to give up, we asked for the Blackrice Ice Cream. A very interesting flavour, though the rice part was quite subtle. Damages were at Rp 225000, a little less than our budget. The place seemed like a combo of Koshy’s in Bangalore and India Coffee House. It is a sort of cultural landmark and the waiters, knowing it, think they should be paid for looking in your direction! The sulking waiter did turn on the charm around the tipping point though. Heh. 🙂

     

     

    Back to Tanaya for some sleep before dinner. I woke up from dreams of Raveena in a yellow sari to realise that the AC was leaking! In half an hour we had changed rooms. Dinner was at the nearby Warung Mina. There we sampled the famous Bintang beer for the first and last time. (The name is not a coincidence. It’s probably the Bin Laden among beers! Ack!) D ordered a ‘Love Sense’ mixed juice to accompany the Tutu Gurami and the Fillet Gurami, both fish preparations. Neither did anything great to the palate but the experience was pleasant enough, mostly thanks to the peaceful ambiance, and cover versions of favourite songs being played by a tiny live band. Rp 138500 eaten up.

     

     

    We then tried the ice cream at a nearby gelato and it just worsened an already bad tummy luck. We decided to just sleep away the bad luck. Thankfully, Raveena didn’t reappear.

  • EastforEaster: Day 0, 1- Airports, Siem Reap

    Compared to the adventurous vacation beginnings we have dealt with, this one was calm and moved like clockwork. The visas had been done much in advance (Thai at VFS, Malaysian through a travel agent and Cambodia on the web) and $ reserves were increased too. On Good Friday, the Meru cab arrived on time, we didn’t forget to pack anything, check ins (real and Foursquare) happened without incident with our bags weighing slightly lesser than the pre-booked 20kg, emigration being a breeze (barring D’s belching officer) and the Air Asia flight departing on time. We were traveling to Siem Reap, Cambodia via Kuala Lumpur as part of an elaborate one week flight plan that also included Bangkok and Krabi, and was primarily driven by a focused ‘cheapest tickets possible’ approach. 😀

    It was almost like a Chennai flight and the crowd did make a strong case for renaming the destination Tamilaysia. Air Asia proved to be bright red and cheerful and was helped by a light-haired air hostess who matched it with light-headed giggles which refused to die down during the safety demos. When it came to the seat armrests, it proved to be a cousin of Deccan and on food, a replica of the alpaahaar on Kingfisher, where the focus is on alp – no, not Swiss!

    The in-flight magazine’s event list also showed its standards by considering Bieber and F1  in the same class of entertainment. But hey, the flight arrived on time in KL – around midnight, so no complaints. At the KL airport, I pretended nonchalance despite wanting to be wide-eyed at seeing a Starbucks outlet. We had about 6 hours to wait until our flight to Siem Reap. Thank God for that because Immigration went beyond annoying as our line just refused to move and we saw those who’d arrived much later moving on. The waiting area was quite a mess, and again a mini Tamil Nadu. Towards the end of our rather boring wait, there was some excitement when a foreigner claimed that something was missing  and blamed a Tamil family sleeping nearby, but nothing came of it and I was too tired to provoke either parties into further action. 😐

    Getting out of KL proved to be a much faster affair. Air Asia continued their punctual nature on the Siem Reap flight too, and we landed in Cambodia just before 8. An amazing little airport that looked more like a resort, and where the visa process was comparable to F1 pit stop times. We had $s stocked so no currencyy exchange was required. The tour operators met us at the gate and were ready to go temple trotting right then, but we really wanted a shower. I raised both my arms and the case was settled. Green and humid like Kerala, but a right-driving country, that was my first impression of Cambodia.

    We reached our hotel – The Golden Mango, and were told that there had been no power for the last 12 hours. Though check-in time was noon, we were given a temp room for freshening up. Thanks to the dark, I managed to  dismantle the shower faucet and create a mini flood. The adventure had begun. We asked our guide to take us somewhere nearby for a quick meal and thus arrived at Lily’s. I had a beef breakfast to compensate for the trauma earlier. The coffee with milk turned out to be a strange animal though as the latter had only a cameo.

    We then drove to the Angkor Thom complex. The guide got us the tickets for the next 2 days and we began with the south gate, where we saw the Cambodian version of the samudra manthan in Hindu mythology, the devas on the left and the asuras on the right. After passing through a version of the Bat Cave, we realised the expanse of the place but still underestimated the walkathon to follow!

    Bayon was our first stop, and there, slowly but surely, you begin to realise that all around you people are making faces. Ok, seriously, when you see it for the first time, they are quite amazing to look at, but after a while, you might find them repetitive, unless you’re the kind who can spot minute differences in architectural styles. The language is not really a communication barrier, but I didn’t see many guides adept at story telling, and that really would have made a difference.

    Thankfully, there are apsaras – past and present, and bas reliefs to keep you distracted. It’s also fun to watch people posing at various points. 😀 I tried my hand and the results were disastrous.

    We then w—a—l—k—e—d past minor structures and trees and tiny ponds to Baphuon and the Phimeanakas, and then the Victory Gate with its Elephant and Leper King terraces from where the king watched his armies assembled before they rode for battle.

    Since we were tired of plain walking, we decided to take a break and do some climbing. Presenting the Ta Keo temple, which gives you rewards for negotiating those :O climbs. Don’t me misled by the can/bottle, they’re for storing the oil, water etc for worship, I was only talking about the view. The search for escalator signs yielded no results.

    Up (the operative word usually) next was Ta Prohm, where the restoration work is a collaboration between the Cambodian and Indian governments. Amidst cicada sounds and an eerie ambiance, Ta Prohm proved to be different from the rest because the jungle seemed to be winning the fight against man’s construction. It also helped that among these ruins, Anju mol (Angelina Jolie to you) had become Lara Croft.

    We then set off for lunch to a place suggested by the tour guide, despite our massive eateries-to-check-out preparations, mostly because it was quite past lunchtime. Lunch was decent, washed down with Angkor beer. After the lunch craving was satisfied, we moved to the last tour spot  of the day – Prasat Kravan, made of reddish bricks for a change. We got back to the hotel by about 3.30. Power was still not back but was expected by 5. We warned the tour guide that if it wasn’t back by then, we wanted a change of residence. I needed to charge my camera batteries okay? And than at about 4, an unexpected visitor arrived. Rain! Which was only supposed to arrive in the first week of May!! I remembered Sikkim and thought our luck had run out! But thankfully, by 5, the rain had disappeared and the power was back.But it did mean that our plans to see the sunset were washed out. So we asked the driver to drop us off at Pub Street.

    Before we decided on dinner, we decided to take a walk inside the Night Market nearby. Walking for shopping is complaint-free. 😀 This walk was quite some fun as we window shopped and D bargained for items she had no plans of buying.

    Lured by this sign, I suggested we try out Temple Balcony though it wasn’t featured in our list. Though the apsaras were overdressed (as per Hindu mythology detailing) and slightly different from what I had envisioned, the food was really awesome. The dish shown here is the Amok Fish in Banana leaf, we also had yellow noodles and a Khmer chicken soup. This dinner, watching Pub Street go by, was probably one of the best events of the trip. Yes, there was free Wi fi too.

    And now it was time to sample the Cambodia version of the autorickshaw – the tuk tuk. A tuk tuk ride at night is something you really must do when you’re there. Depending on where you stay and your negotiating skills, it will cost you about $2-3. An early start awaited us the next day.

    until next time, how many roads must a man walk down….

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