Craig and Jeane are off to Malaysia and Singapore
Jul 14th, 2011, 04:21 PM
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Travel is an adventure! You are right about tight connections at ORD. Because int'l flights come into terminal 5, one always has to check into a different terminal after clearing immigration and customs.
Glad you had a nice ride from HKG to ORD. The Hyatt sounds great. Was it by the airport or in the city or on Kowloon? I suppose by the HKG airport, although you do mention taxi fare to get back for your flight.
Hopefully you are back in Hartford soon. Keep smiling!
Carol
(My own flight from SIN to BKK was delayed one hour, but the pilot said it was because of air traffic, not weather)
Glad you had a nice ride from HKG to ORD. The Hyatt sounds great. Was it by the airport or in the city or on Kowloon? I suppose by the HKG airport, although you do mention taxi fare to get back for your flight.
Hopefully you are back in Hartford soon. Keep smiling!
Carol
(My own flight from SIN to BKK was delayed one hour, but the pilot said it was because of air traffic, not weather)
Jul 15th, 2011, 04:35 AM
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Arrived home with all of our bags at about 11:30 pm. United was able to remove our luggage from the other aircraft at the last minute.
United sent us to the Hyatt and provided a bus to get all of the biz and 1st class passengers there.
I'll start work on the "official" trip report this weekend.
United sent us to the Hyatt and provided a bus to get all of the biz and 1st class passengers there.
I'll start work on the "official" trip report this weekend.
Jul 18th, 2011, 04:41 AM
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LANGKAWI, MALAYSIA
Awoke at 4 am to catch our Malaysia Airlines flight to Langkawi via Kuala Lumpur. We had ordered a room service breakfast the night before and while it arrived a little late, we were not charged for it. I was concerned that Malaysia Airlines would hit us with about $200 worth of excess baggage charges. However, the gate agent told us that if we carried on one of our rollies (in addition to our other 2 carry-ons), we would not exceed the 20 kg/person limit. I felt it was necessary to fly Malaysia Airlines for this leg rather than Air Asia so that our bags could be checked through to Langkawi. The extra hassle of retrieving and rechecking bags at KL was not worth the savings we would have had with Air Asia. Both Malaysia Airlines flights were fairly full. We had a free meal on the flight to KL and soft drinks on the flight to Langkawi. Both flights left and arrived on time. At Langkawi, we retrieved our bags and picked up our voucher for the 15 minute taxi ride (MYR 18 or about $6) to the Bon Ton Resort.
We loved the Bon Ton. It was raining a bit when we arrived but that gave us an excuse to relax and explore the resort. For those that have not been there, the Bon Ton consists of 8 reconstructed 60-year-old Malay villas that have been updated with all of the modern amenities plus a rain shower bath that opens to the outdoors, dual sinks (the only place we stayed at on this trip that head them) and an antique wooden bath tub. Our bed and our living space were huge with plenty of nooks and crannies to store things and a safe to store our valuables. The a/c was designed mainly to keep the sleeping area cool and it was very effective at doing this. If we had one complaint though, it would be that our villa could get pretty warm during the daytime, even with the oscillating fan on and the windows open to catch the cross breeze. Just before sunset each evening, our housekeeper would put the next morning’s breakfast in our tiny refrigerator and prepare our room for the evening by shutting all of the windows, pulling down the mosquito netting around the bed and plugging in a couple of electric mosquito zappers. Mosquitos weren’t really a problem though, except on our first day because of the rain.
Our villa was the “Laguna”, so named because it faces a lagoon where we could see water buffalo in the distance and many species of birds. All of the units were strategically placed for privacy but I liked Laguna’s location the best. It was wonderful having breakfast on our covered porch each morning with the lagoon right there in front of us. We were told that the Bon Ton was originally a waterfront property. We weren’t told exactly what changed but we think that the land was reclaimed to build the airport which thus relegated the Bon Ton to the status of an inland resort. Incidentally, while several of the beachfront resorts on Langkawi were hit hard by the 2004 tsunami, the Bon Ton was saved by its location. The location was not a big deal to us though as we are not beach people. For swimming and cooling off, guests can use the uncrowded pools at both the Bon Ton and the Temple Tree, the sister resort next door. There are no televisions in the villas but the Temple Tree has a large flat screen TV in its pool room. Jeane and I spent most of the afternoon playing pool there on our first day while drinking the house New Zealand Chardonnay. For those that crave Internet access two PC’s are located in the gift shop that guests are free to use. There is also free Wi-Fi access throughout the resort.
On our first night we had dinner at Bon Ton’s open-air Nam Restaurant. Smeagol had told us that we had to order both the Nyonya Platter (9 local dishes served on a banana leaf) and the Seared Fillet of Beef with Mashed Potatoes, Mustard Relish and Balsamic Sauce (her boyfriend’s favorite). Jeane and I decided to order both and share. We were glad we did - we thoroughly enjoyed them.
Next up - our next two days on Langkawi. Gotta go to work now...
Awoke at 4 am to catch our Malaysia Airlines flight to Langkawi via Kuala Lumpur. We had ordered a room service breakfast the night before and while it arrived a little late, we were not charged for it. I was concerned that Malaysia Airlines would hit us with about $200 worth of excess baggage charges. However, the gate agent told us that if we carried on one of our rollies (in addition to our other 2 carry-ons), we would not exceed the 20 kg/person limit. I felt it was necessary to fly Malaysia Airlines for this leg rather than Air Asia so that our bags could be checked through to Langkawi. The extra hassle of retrieving and rechecking bags at KL was not worth the savings we would have had with Air Asia. Both Malaysia Airlines flights were fairly full. We had a free meal on the flight to KL and soft drinks on the flight to Langkawi. Both flights left and arrived on time. At Langkawi, we retrieved our bags and picked up our voucher for the 15 minute taxi ride (MYR 18 or about $6) to the Bon Ton Resort.
We loved the Bon Ton. It was raining a bit when we arrived but that gave us an excuse to relax and explore the resort. For those that have not been there, the Bon Ton consists of 8 reconstructed 60-year-old Malay villas that have been updated with all of the modern amenities plus a rain shower bath that opens to the outdoors, dual sinks (the only place we stayed at on this trip that head them) and an antique wooden bath tub. Our bed and our living space were huge with plenty of nooks and crannies to store things and a safe to store our valuables. The a/c was designed mainly to keep the sleeping area cool and it was very effective at doing this. If we had one complaint though, it would be that our villa could get pretty warm during the daytime, even with the oscillating fan on and the windows open to catch the cross breeze. Just before sunset each evening, our housekeeper would put the next morning’s breakfast in our tiny refrigerator and prepare our room for the evening by shutting all of the windows, pulling down the mosquito netting around the bed and plugging in a couple of electric mosquito zappers. Mosquitos weren’t really a problem though, except on our first day because of the rain.
Our villa was the “Laguna”, so named because it faces a lagoon where we could see water buffalo in the distance and many species of birds. All of the units were strategically placed for privacy but I liked Laguna’s location the best. It was wonderful having breakfast on our covered porch each morning with the lagoon right there in front of us. We were told that the Bon Ton was originally a waterfront property. We weren’t told exactly what changed but we think that the land was reclaimed to build the airport which thus relegated the Bon Ton to the status of an inland resort. Incidentally, while several of the beachfront resorts on Langkawi were hit hard by the 2004 tsunami, the Bon Ton was saved by its location. The location was not a big deal to us though as we are not beach people. For swimming and cooling off, guests can use the uncrowded pools at both the Bon Ton and the Temple Tree, the sister resort next door. There are no televisions in the villas but the Temple Tree has a large flat screen TV in its pool room. Jeane and I spent most of the afternoon playing pool there on our first day while drinking the house New Zealand Chardonnay. For those that crave Internet access two PC’s are located in the gift shop that guests are free to use. There is also free Wi-Fi access throughout the resort.
On our first night we had dinner at Bon Ton’s open-air Nam Restaurant. Smeagol had told us that we had to order both the Nyonya Platter (9 local dishes served on a banana leaf) and the Seared Fillet of Beef with Mashed Potatoes, Mustard Relish and Balsamic Sauce (her boyfriend’s favorite). Jeane and I decided to order both and share. We were glad we did - we thoroughly enjoyed them.
Next up - our next two days on Langkawi. Gotta go to work now...
