Travel secrets

Maldives

Summer Island
Speedboat transfer, open sea, islands, sun, sand, coconuts, cocktails, 'nuff said 
 

posted by Bernzie @ 3:13 AM 0 comments

Hong Kong

Empire Hotel
Loved shopping at Stanley Market and sightseeing around Repulse Bay and Ocean Park. Food is yummy-licious. The nightspots at Lan Kwai Fong were amazing, crowded shoulder to neck with people on Christmas eve. 
 

posted by Bernzie @ 3:05 AM 0 comments

Indonesia

Bali

• Nusa Dua
  Great resort. First class service at VIP deck. World-class spa service in private villas for couples equipped with steam bath, jacuzzi, bathroom, garden and mini-pool. Aside from resort, the town, Kuta is nice. Simple yet bustling with shops, bars, discos, restaurants and life. Great sightseeing eg. volcanos, rice terraces, temples, processions, festivals, cultural, sunsets, etc..

Bintan

• Banyan Tree
  Superb experience of Banyan Tree resort. Private, relaxed, tree tops, jacuzzi villas, cocktails, spa overlooking cliff with waves smashing into rocks below, paradise. 
• Sol-Elite/Nirvana
  Went to the P-29 (Party to-nite) event sponsored by Salem at Sol-Elite, for a disco night ...cheap package. BBQ dinner, buffet breakfast, a night's board, pool, beach, ...for $70 per person.

Jakarta

• Sheraton Media Hotel
  Business trip. Great city ....if you have the money (which shouldn't be a problem, considering the not-so-good economy there). Superb food (check out my favorite places in the above country links) and nightscenes. 
•  Generally, the food here is my type ...mostly fried and with spices...yummy. The common sights are the stalls with the various dishes laid out for customers to pick from, to go with the white rice or flavoured rice. The locals usually add crackers or rice biscuits, to munch with the meal.The common drinks are the local soft drink, cold tea in a bottle (Teh Botol). Desserts are usually various exotic asian fruits, mixed with special dark sauces/salt.The local favorites are the BBQ chicken or the fried batter chicken, which are specialised and sold by some restaurants.
• Local seafood (fusion with thai)
  Pondok Laguna, Jln.Batu Tulis Raya No.45Jakarta Pusat (359991-95)- this is one of the best restaurants I have visited  in the whole of Asia, no joke.- the ambience and surroundings are set in a outdoor nature and huts for group tables, complete with running streams, mini-waterfalls, fishes, bridges, etc.. Cool atmosphere. Looks much bigger from the inside than the outside- must try's are the fried squid (cumi-cumi), fried gurame fish (this is the best....check out the way they serve this...i won't ruin your surprise), petai prawn (udang), chicken panggang, etc.. The list is endless.- the price is the best ... we (about 6-8 adults) ate and drank till we couldn't anymore ... cost us about RP260,000 which is equivalent to SGD10 each.
• North Indian
  Haveli (Indian Cuisine & Bar), Graha Irama Building, 2nd Floor, Jln.H.R.Rasuna Said Block X-1 Kav.1&2, Jakarta 12959 (021-5261165, 5279326)
  - Great tastes and ambience ...comfortable cushion and pillow seats.- superb cheap value for money- excellent food eg. naan, curries, sauces, etc..

 

Kerinchi, Pekan Baru

• Food here is limited and very different from city food. Complacency is necessary to survive. Strange though .... the indian cuisine... MARTABAK is very popular here .... but in a different variation. Instead of a soft flour texture panfried with fillings dipped into curry, this one here is made like a pastry to be eaten plain, maybe dipped in soy sauce of some sort.

posted by Bernzie @ 8:58 PM 0 comments

Thailand

Bangkok
Food
Thai food is quite similar to Vietnamese, due to their liking to sweet and sourish sauces, and mint/spice leaves which tend to be mixed in with soups and food. Don't be surprised if you see people ordering a bowl of noodles, and before they tuck in, they engross in some of their own mixing of sugar (!!!), fish sauce, chilli sauce, leaves and a whole lot of other condiments....whereafter they will start mixing and dig in.
Food are aplenty and of many varieties, catering to the huge tourism statistics which flood the country, almost thruout the year. Even fried insects and worms can be seen on the roadside bicycle/bike stalls....not daring to try them though....URGH!!

Vietnamese (Indochine)
Le Dalat, 14 Sukhumvit 23, Prasarnmitr Bangkok 10110 (Tel/Fax: 661-7967-8)
Magnificient range of vietnamese food I have ever seen before....and I thought I have tasted most of them (in Australia... check out my report there). A huge range of tastes, from sweet to sour to tickles to hot tinglings....all the way right up to dessert. Magnifiq. After the sinful meal, just burn off the calories and inches at the nearby disco, Narcissus around the corner or the take a cab down to the infamous Soi Nana.
 
Beer
Brew House, 4th Floor Terminal 2, Don Muang Airport (Tel: 5356090, 5356860-2)
Was recommended by pals to try this place 'cos of their brewed concoctions .... while waiting for flight, I managed to guzzle down 2 of their popular ones, Mama Bull (malty and very slightly sour) and Twister (honey-ish and sweet). Comes with fresh popcorn ....BURP!!
 
 
ENTERTAINMENT
Now, this is one place which is BIG on entertainment. It is the only country in the world which parties like no other everyday and to the wee hours of the morning, .... I still wonder what these people do in the daytime, if they work or study .... or how they can afford to party like never.
Tauras
Patpong
Route 66 at RCA
Nana
Hollywood
Ratchada
Nana Disco
Sparks
Narcissus 
CM2 
 

SHOPPING
Cheap and simple. Put on your best bargaining skills.
Patpong
Chatuchak weekend market
Pantip Plaza
Floating market
Siam Square
MaBungKong
Sukhumvit 
 
 
ACCOMODATION
Eastin Lakeside, Muan Thong Thani III Business trip. Stayed in a suburb 30mins speedy taxi ride from city. A very busy city with the hottest disco/club scene I have ever seen in an Asian country, even on weekdays or Sunday nights. Superb choices of food here and there.
 



Koh Samui
Tongsai Bay
Excellent resort at par if not better than Banyan Tree. Super private balcony decks with bathtubs, lounge sets, showers, sinks, etc., overlooking the sea. 
 

posted by Bernzie @ 8:54 PM 0 comments

Introduction

Due to my frequent travels, I've decided or try to keep a log of places I've been for future references. Hopefully, I manage to capture the names of foreign places and the details involved in each occasion.


According to Asiaweek in year 2000
The Top Ten

(http://www.pathfinder.com/asiaweek/features/asiacities2000/index.html)
1. Tokyo, Japan
2. Fukuoka, Japan
3. Osaka, Japan
4. Singapore
5. Taipei, Taiwan
6. Georgetown (Penang), Malaysia
7. Hong Kong SAR, China
8. Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei
9. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
10.Beijing, China


The Complete Rankings

11. Kuching
12. Macau
13. Shanghai
14. Cebu City
15. Kaohsiung
16. Metro Manila
17. Pusan
18. Seoul
19. Davao City
20. Chiang Mai
21. Guangzhou
22. Hanoi
23. Ho Chi Minh
24. Colombo
25. Islamabad
26. Bangkok
27. Bangalore
28. Kathmandu
29. Chongqing
30. Yangon
31. Chittagong
32. Delhi
33. Dhaka
34. Karachi
35. Jakarta
36. Phnom Penh
37. Bombay
38. Bandung
39. Surabaya
40. Vientiane


How we did it

There is no absolute yardstick for livability, but criteria usually include such matters as safe streets. In devising ours, Asiaweek looked at 24 indicators which come under such broad factors as transportation. Each carries a different score according to its weighting in the category. A city may lose points for foul air, for example, but gain marks for inexpensive housing. In a year in which the region has been battered by the Crisis, economic prospects or lack of them has been a decisive factor in how cities fared in relation to each other. The survey polled 40 selected cities in Asia, including all the major capitals. For some larger nations, we also ranked additional major centers. The main factors cover economic opportunity (15 possible points), quality of education (15), environment and sanitation (15), health care (15), transportation (10), personal security (10), housing cost (10), and leisure (10).

The indicators:

* average life expectancy
* hospital beds per 1,000 people
* per-capita state expenditure for education
* average class size in primary school
* university-educated people as a percentage of total population
* sulfur dioxide in the air (ppm)
* dust/suspended particles in the air - micrograms per cubic meter (ug/m3)
* average monthly rental per sq meter
* ratio of housing price to income
* sq meter of parks and fields per capita
* vehicles per km of city road
* existence of a mass transit rail system
* number of movie theaters per 100,000
* unemployment rate
* GDP growth
* annual urban inflation rate
* vacation and public holidays per year
* criminal cases for every 10,000 persons
* number of telephones per 1,000 people
* average time taken to commute to work
* number of TV sets per 1,000 people
* percentage of population with sewerage
* percentage of population with piped water
* average income






But in year 2006, another source reveals differently (http://www.citymayors.com/features/quality_survey.html)

Rank City
1 Zurich
2 Geneva
3 Vancouver
4 Vienna
5 Auckland
6 Düsseldorf
7 Frankfurt
8 Munich
9 Bern
9 Sydney
11 Copenhagen
12 Wellington
13 Amsterdam
14 Brussels
15 Toronto
16 Berlin
17 Melbourne
18 Luxembourg
18 Ottawa
20 Stockholm
21 Perth
22 Montreal
23 Nürnberg
24 Dublin
25 Calgary
26 Hamburg
27 Honolulu
28 San Francisco
29 Adelaide
29 Helsinki
31 Brisbane
31 Oslo
33 Paris
34 Singapore
35 Tokyo
36 Boston
37 Lyon
37 Yokohama
39 London
40 Kobe
41 Washington
41 Chicago
43 Portland
44 Barcelona
45 Madrid
46 New York City
47 Seattle
48 Lexington
49 Winston Salem
51 Osaka
51 Milan
51 Milan
53 Lisbon
53 Tsukuba

posted by Bernzie @ 8:53 PM 1 comments