TRIP REPORT-6 cities in 3 weeks
 

OK so it’s over.... after all the planning, fodor forum perusing, emailing hotels, airlines.......I cannot believe our 25th anniversary trip is over! You know (as I feel a lot of this board does) 40 or maybe 50% of the fun is the planning, eh? But the other 50% is more fun! So here goes...I am a 'hunt and peck' typist so I apologize for my slow postings

#1-JFK to BOROBUDUR
We had Delta FF tickets for first class ( had to book them 331 days in advance, which sort of results in forced early planning). JFK-SLC-LAX was on business class Delta. Requested check in agent to check in bags to LAX since I did not trust Delta to transfer bags to Malaysian for LAX-KUL-Jakarta….agent said no way. Flight uneventful, seat not comfortable , food on flight on par with hospital fare, services so-so but who cares …thinking lemongrass, basil, papaya thoughts !

At LAX Malaysian counter, agent tells me Delta has transferred only 2 of 3 bags! Missing bag might be in SLC………not a good start for a 3 week trip, did not relish clothes shopping in Jogja . This anxiety was largely mitigated by Malaysian flight attendant offering us a glass of Dom as soon as we boarded the plane. And …to our surprise we had the new refurbished first class with sleeper beds.! Just before take off gate agent runs in to tell me Delta has found our bag and delivering it…slight delay in departure thanks to Delta…

Service, food on flight was excellent almost close or on par with Singapore First class. Dom Perignon was poured generously…Large personal monitor with great entertainment system.

We arrived refreshed at KL. 2 hour transit in a very comfortable first class “Golden Lounge” where I took a shower enjoyed a nice hot cup of tea. Met a couple from our flight going to Bangkok to shop…referred them to Fodor Asia forum.. .Smooth 90 min flight on Malaysian to Jakarta.

We got a 3 day visa on arrival at Jakarta airport. We bought tickets for Jakarta-Jogja via email from an agent in Jakarta. She only would accept mail transfer –no plastic, traveler checks, cash….after a flurry of internet activity, I located an agency in WA state that would do it for $15…all other banks wanted $40-50 to send $140 !! These tickets were $350 on expedia and with a US travel agent. She promised to have a courier deliver them at Jakarta airport outside customs . I was a little nervous wondering what it would cost me to buy a last minute ticket incase “courier” did not show.

Two” courier assistants” showed up with my name and told me that my tickets would arrive “just now”…we waited for 5 mins and a busy looking man arrived opened a folder and voila…we had our tickets. I checked them carefully signed a receipt and the two assistants proceeded to take our trolley and “guide” us to our domestic termina l(2 min indoor walk). Welcome to Asia! I figured with $1=10000 Indonesian rupiah. .two dollars for their scam would suffice...they had injured looks on their faces but I gave them a warm smile and sure enough they smiled back at me.

There was a one hour delay because of cargo door that wouldnt close Slight trepidation since we were travelling during Ramadan and a prior post had commented about fasting, irritable pilots and I hope we were not getting a hypoglycemic pilot and flight controller. No problem flight was smooth and captain sounded calm and professional during announcement.

INFO: Jakarta agent—Ms. Marcelin D.W-email [email protected]. She responded promptly to all my emails and her office is outside the airport part of a national travel agency called vayatour.
Jakarta airport is chaotic but functional. Note: No toilets after final security checkpoint.Jakarta-Jogja R/T from $40-80 depending how soon you buy,this ticket is not sold outside Indonesia. At least 6-8 flights a day on Garuda (reliable) and more on other budget airlines(unreliable and often unsafe)

Kishore-Thanks. I was just wondering when you were getting back. Congrats on your 25th. Look forward to more reporting.

BoroBudur/Jogja

We arrived at Jogja airport at 7pm . Took a while to get our luggage, lots of crowds because of upcoming Id holiday but our man with A/C van was waiting outside. It was hot and humid ( as was most of the trip!)We booked at Manohara hotel via email and they arranged a van for $15 O/W. It took one hour to get there. We got a rate of $30 inclusive of taxes breakfast from www.yogyes.com. The only other choice in Borobudur was Amanjiwo at $780 inclusive of taxes but no breakfast.
$30 vs $780 for one night ! Given that ridiculous rate, we decided to thoroughly inspect the room ….it was a plain room with powerful a/c, good water pressure , and a faded carpet with no smells. There was one chirping gecko and one roach that made its appearance from under the bed just as we were looking at the linen. The bell man promptly dove and grabbed it, gave us big smile, and saved me from performing my only act of chivalry of the entire trip . After kicking both beds a few times no other denizens came forth and my wife smiled sweetly and announced that we were staying. The grounds were actually quite nice and the hotel layout was 1-2 unit bungalow rooms strewn around nice well kept gardens right next to Borobudur.
We had dinner at the hotel…. local beer bintang tasted like diluted budweiser.. but food was good…I had satay and fried rice, my wife liked her fried gurumi fish which was the default fish everywhere… bill came to $9.
We slept soundly and were woken up at 4-30am with a hot cup of tea for our sunrise tour of Borobudur,$9 per person included unlimited admission to Borobudur, museum and hotel borobudur movie shown on demand in hotel theater. They arranged for a guide ($6 for two hours )who proved to be extremely knowledgeable about Borobudur history and even Hinduism and Buddhism in general. We were even more impressed do find out he was Muslim and was fasting that day. Only Manohara and Amanjiwo guests are allowed into the monument before sunrise.
Borobudur was just like what the guidebooks describe ….mystical spiritual magical is what comes to mind sitting amidst the fat round comforting stupas watching the dawn mists in the valley framed by tall mountains….we spent 3 hours there and enjoyed it thoroughly. At 9am it started getting hot so we walked down to the hotel for breakfast …it was filling with croissant, omelette baked tomato and passable coffee….the tea was better . We walked back to Borobudur and went to the museum where they have artefacts from the monument, photos of the early excavation work . There is also a large ship on display in its own museum…
We had lunch at Amanjiwo…they sent a car to pick us up…it was a 10 minute ride through pretty villages …I had a carlsberg, my wife had a ginger lime soursop drink. We ordered a fried gurumi fish which arrived grilled with tomato salsa papaya. ..tofu cabbage salad with peanut tamarind dressing folloed by fresh mango juice…it was very delicious…total with service charge came to $49.

Service was excellent and cold towels arrived frequently which helped with the heat. They invited us to visit some of their rooms….no question the architecture, amenities the private plunge pool all for only $1300 a night was spectacular and worth a stay just for r and r…it also cam with a distant view of Borobudur contaminated with 3-4 microwave towers seen a mile to the right
We took a cab to Hyatt Regency in the afternoon we arrived at 3-30pm . By the time we checked in, freshened up and arrived at the lobby to get a taxi to Prambanan….it was too late since the complex closes at 4-30pm. We had a choice to go downtown Jogja or hangout……the Hyatt was a perfect oasis especially since they had a great looking spa.
I got a 90 min Javan massage for $19 and my wife had a 2 hour manicure/pedicure plus that set her back $22. We got out very relaxed and seriously enamored of the hedonistic surroundings.
Dinner at the Hyatt was fabulous…..we had a couple of martinis followed by some excellent local bread with olive oil…grilled pomfret in spicy Balinese sauce and grilled prawns….dessert was crème brulee with cinnamon/clove topping which was the best crème brulee I have ever tasted…the cinnamon in Indonesia is so different from what we get here.
Overall a very memorable stay at a gretat value….we paid $45 inclusive of taxes and breakfast from asiarooms

sorry for the typos...should read great not gretat value!

tt

kishore....so glad the trip went well...anxious to read more when you have time....i can beat you out on typos and mis-spellings....
welcome home...

Sounds great so far Boblax. Looking forward to some more.

bob, great report! At last someone's actually stayed at the Manohara and lived to tell about it. :)

I had to laugh at your comment about mediocre coffee. I fully agree but don't understand why the coffee is generally so bad: this is JAVA for heaven's sake.

Marmot, I had the same thoughts about cofees there, Maybe JAVA is an acronym!?
BTW we found Indonesians in Java to be extremely friendly , helpful and smiling often.....if I did that here in suburban CT,somebody would call social services....
Andy, Bob thanks for your comments

#2 Kuala Lumpur
Nonstop flight from Jogja to KL was a comfortable 2 hours……immigration was fast and we were on the KL Espres to downtown (credit cards accepted). The taxi at KL Central station took us for a longer ride…so it was $6 to hotel instead of $3 despite my waving the general direction of the hotel out to him.

We checked in for 2 nights at the Crowne Plaza Mutiara Grand Deluxe Club Rooms---same amenities as Oriental except for 2 pieces of dry cleaning a day instead of 6—check in was on the 21st floor with huge breakfast, free evening cocktails, free internet etc--$88 per night all inclusive direct from hotel website.

Our room on the nonsmoking 28th floor had a gorgeous view of the upper two thirds of the Petronas towers, the lower portion obscured by the MO hotel which was a 5 min walk…the room was very comfortable with “rain shower” and “open bath” concept which was certainly different…hotel is directly opposite the Raja Chulan monorail station. ….walked 5 min to the KLCC Surya mall….went in…and we were in Long Island! …same designer stores…mall was crowded with hundreds but everybody was at the food courts and all the name brand stores had no shoppers…visited an art gallery on the fourth floor..had a delicious lunch at the mall…walked around the Petronas towers and park …was quite humid. Took a taxi to KL Menara tower and enjoyed the views from the top.

Dinner was at Frangipani with our friend who works in Cyberjaya..it was her birthday…food was Euroasian….extraordinary and expensive… we were the only people there. This place is something….kathie and laurieco are right..it was worth the splurge.

The next day we took a conducted tour of Kl for half a day….their national soldiers memorial…looks like a copy of the Iwo Jima. Monument.

Our friend met us in Cyberjaya and we tooka night tour of Putrajaya all lit up with no one around……manmade lakes and bridges..it was a bit eerie…think of a gigantic Epcot all lit up and empty…we ate delicious Malay food in a new mall that was empty too!

Next day flew to Hanoi……

sounds great....anxious for your hanoi report...

i must return to K/L some day...it was just opening up when we were there and we stayed in a horrible holiday inn...

Kishore, so far the trip sounds great. Anxious to hear more.

#3 HANOI
We flew from KL to Hanoi in business class on Malaysian…plane delayed one hour….service was good but we didn’t need much since it was only a 3 hour flight.
There were long lines for immigration at Hanoi airport and it took us 45 min just to get to baggage claim. Finally bags arrived and we came out and found our taxi, booked thru travel to vietnam along with our hotel in the old quarter….

From the sterile slightly eerie KL to the maddening moped hordes of Hanoi!! Everybody around wore a face mask and the pollution was significant…..what I thought was pleasant evening mist in the distance on route to town turned out to be SMOG! We did not see the sun for the four days we were there. Now it may have been a “thermal inversion” or something similar that I have seen in Mexico city but it was hot humid too. To be fair it did not dampen our enjoyment of a very fascinating city…

We had booked at Lucky hotel one block from Hoan Kiem lake. When we arrived the desk clerk politely told us there was no room and she had booked us at their new sister hotel Lucky 2 just ½ min. away. I waved my confirmation around and she just had this benign smiling look. Since everything had worked out perfectly so far, I got a liitle irritable…in the meantime our taxi driver insisted on unloading our bags and taking off on a another airport run. The hotel staff efficiently hauled our bags to Lucky2, where we inspected a good size room with no view but spotless with all required amenities including slippers. We were too tired to look elsewhere….turns out we found the hotel quite nice…free American bfast, free broadband, cheap laundry…all for a deluxe room for $45. The location was ideal for walking around..

We ate at a local place 3 blocks away where there were only locals..we ordered fish…and asked them what kind they had……”good fish” came the reply, hell we knew that! I ordered good fish and good chicken with salt-that was the name of the dish…it was a fried fish with greens and salt…very tasty along with spring rolls and 2 glasses of wine, ice cream we spent
$12 and were full.

Next morning we got up a 5am and walked 3 min to Hoan Kiem lake..this was our favourite sight in Hanoi…there were hundreds of people…men and women of all ages around the lake. Some jogged ,others performed tai-chi in groups, men fishing..…we saw individuals slapping their faces and butts in a self massage…then there were these ladies doing intricate dance movements with big red fans in hand to the music of a boombox.. others played badminton without a net and then a group practicing the fox trot to “beasme mucho” booming out of a speaker !…it was very entertaining and we repeated our early AM lake perambulation daily.

We came back to the hotel for a filling American Breakfast with passable coffee and walked to the Temple of Literature which was interesting and walked to the Beaux Arts Museum where we spend 2 leisurely hours. Lunch at the museum café was water hyacinth salad with shrimp…sautéed squid followed by passion fruit sorbet…..large portions..bill was $18

It got quite hot so we retreated to the Craft Point handicraft store..this was a treasure trove of great scarves, purses. baskets etc run by NGO’s to promote creations of villages and ethnic tribes outside Hanoi….my wife shopped there for an hour.. Good prices and the staff eagerly pointed a photo of them with the Clintons who visited the store…I was happy just to be in the a/c…..

We took a cyclo back to hotel and walked around the old quarter taking in the colors, sights, food, people and learnt to cross the street like Vietnamese…launch yourself into the street, stay at the same speed, think serene Buddha thoughts, even while mopeds come at you at high speed from all directions.(this is critical) . If you panic..you die, as simple as that.

Dinner was at the Cyclo..more geared to farangs..food was good stuffed crab with chili, chicken with vegs and lemongrass. Dessert with 2 glasses wine came to $24

Next morning after our lake walk, we saw Uncle Ho’s mausoleum-closed. Ho was having his annual physical in Moscow, his house was open as was his museum.. We walked thru the French quarter to the Hanoi Hilton prison . It was very sobering ….to see John McCain’s flightsuit and clothes in a glass case and smiling pictures of him…the presentation made it look like Mr. McCain had checked into a Marriott Spa for four years..

We wanted a break from local food so we ate an excellent filling lunch of South Indian food. at Dakshin 3 blocks from our hotel…2 tiger beers, dosa, uttappa was $9

We went to the womens museum in the afternoon , the evening water puppet show was simply delightful and not to be missed. Shows tend to sell out so we got tickets in the afternoon.

We ate dinner at the Brothers Café.. buffet only with NO chicken/duck items… only foreigners there.. We tried pho there( delicious) and of course we paid 10 times what it costs on the street, but we lacked the courage to eat pho from the street vendors..
They had many different dishes, all good. pricey for Hanoi. $34 for two

Next morning we took a tour of Halong bay booked thru Handspan travel ( their office is in the old quarter, walked in and booked the trip )….$79 per person came with our own boat, guide and lunch. Chi ,our Vietnamese guide was a ball of energy and humor, regaled us with funny Vietnamese jokes and such…a pleasant 3 hour ride in an A/C SUV brought us to Halong bay. After some animated discussion between guide and man with a hat, we were lead to our boat. Turns out this was not the boat Handspan booked….but it was just fine. There was room for 40 and we were only 5 including cook and boatman and his wife. Since we had the boat for ourselves we pretty much told them to hang out where we wanted, avoid the caves…and it was very relaxing to meander among those rock formations.

Lunch was a symphony of fishes! First we were served crab with lime, hot chillis and vinegar followed by plate full of spring rolls, fried potatoes , greens. Then came a whole fried fish and sautéed squid followed by steamed prawns. Dessert was papaya and other fruits. Finally we headed back to harbor and napped on the way back to Hanoi.

Foot massage for 30 mins($5) walked around the lake then had a late dinner at Mediterraneo…good Italian food run by an Italian couple, walked back to hotel and packed for departure in AM to Luang Prabang via BKK

Phew… this is way too much writing…..will keep the next segments short!

Kishore-great writing. While I suspect that you feel required to work after vacation, I remind you that you're higher duty is to tell us everything as quickly as possible. Don't worry about length. It's super.

bag the shortness, kill us with more length...

is the lake in hanoi, the one with the red arched bridge??

yes, bob thats the one

Boblax...Glad you had a great time! Couldn't wait to read your travel report.I've read as far as the end of the Java stay and will read the rest of your report later.I have to read in pieces as I'm very busy. I don't blame you for not trusting Delta with your luggage. They lost mine for 12 days coming home from Ghana-Milan-Atlanta-L.A. in Jan 2005. Ghana and Milan got the luggage to where it was supposed to go with no problem and the new international wing of the airport wasn't even fully functional in Ghana, but they've never lost my luggage. In Atlanta, I picked the luggage up to walk it through customs, and recheck it in personally...well, it didn't make it to L.A. Didn't see it for 12 days.They were clueless as to where it was. Since I'm very good at writing letters to companies, I ended up getting a phone call from some mucky-muck in Delta and a very decent settlement after over about two months of fighting, I think it was. Happy Travels!

.......

4 LUANG PRABANG

Uneventful on time flight with Bangkok Airways…..nice touch with their lounge at BKK serving free GOOD coffee, snacks and internet access.

What can I say about Luang Prabang….lovely little town nestled in hills along the huge serene Mekong. I can close my eyes and see the scene…..unhurried pace of people in the street…women on bicycles holding an umbrella over their head for shade, saffron robed monks, little boys playing marbles on the sidewalk, open air cafes overlooking the Mekong , young farangs with backpacks. Although this is a tourist town,the place was very low key.

Our LP experience was enhanced our accomodation; we stayed at the Residence Phou Vao-----Great recommendation Bob - (rhkkmk). Thanks!
We had the room with the view that you see on their website- room 502. It was just delightful sitting in the balcony in the morning and evening with the infinity pool below us and the distant mountains with Phu Si hill in front and gorgeous abundance of coconut, mango, frangipani. papaya and tamarind trees. The room had a teak floor, comfortable canopy bed and a huge balcony.We arrived to find rose petals strewn on our bed, a fragrant welcome indeed.

The hotel served some of the best breakfast I have ever eaten; we got a great rate on asia rooms for $140 inclusive. We had 2 dinners there and one lunch---the food is excellent. I would definitely stay there again..

Activities included a visit to Kuang Si falls-worth the trip. We rode on an elephant for the last mile or so.The pachyderm appeared quite reluctant and we were sympathetic when they told us he was 50!.

We hired a boat to cruise the Mekong river for an hour or so. We passed people tending their terraced vegetable gardens, fishermen casting with bamboo baskets...it was peaceful and utterly pleasant.

The wats in town, museum are worthwhile and a steep but short climb up the steps to the temple atop Phu Si hill revealed magnificent views of the valley and the Mekong. The nightmarket is fun, my wife picked up some nice silk scarves and skirts. She also saw some good pottery and baskets. I picked up a cheap glass Buddha for $7 bargained down from $15.

Tum Tum Bamboo Garden on the main road downtown had excellent Lao food. Nazim an Indian restaurant had good mutton.

CUTE EXTORTION AT LP AIRPORT:
Beware of this ! This is how it is run……I put my check in bag thru Xray at LP airport. Official tells me he sees a small Buddha. He inspects it and advises us to carry it in our hand bag. OK no problem. I get my boarding pass and come to security to get my handbag checked. Same official comes over quickly and announces” you have a Buddha in your handbag, you need clearance certificate”. I say to him why he did not tell me this initially….of course I begin to see where this is going. I tell him it is worth only $7 and I will sell it to him for $6! I tell you he was not ready for that answer. He again repeated his line wondering why this dumb farang is not offering him mula….I tell him I have time to go into town and get this certificate. I would call La Phou Vao manager to pick me up.
He said “you stay at Phou Vao?” Yes bud. He waved me through…

Next……. Siem Reap

you are so bad....i'm trying that trick next time i see my doctor.....

glad you liked the hotel...i have my fingers crossed that craig's wait list will come through for them at pansea...

so you room was one of those above the dining room?? is it considered a suite?? great price you got also...