Osaka Airbnb Review: Tom and Meli’s Apartment

We chose to stay at Tom and Meli’s because of the good location, close to subway and it was quite affordable as well! It is a medium size one bedroom apartment although for us (four adults and one infant), it was quite tight. Tom met us at the apartment and went through on how to use the amenities, the safety evacuation route, the nearest hospital and the checkout procedure. They also provided a 3G wifi device what makes navigating around Osaka much easier. There are several eateries around the place and also a large supermarket just a few minutes walk.

Strong wifi is available in the apartment. The kitchen is well equipped with pots and utensils. The bathroom comes with an automatic bathtub filler and a washer AND dryer! It is a miracle how the Japanese makes clever use of space in their apartments. My wife and I slept on the sofa bed in the living room while my sister-in-law’s family were in the bedroom.

WA Road Trip: Pemberton

We stayed in Pemberton for one night in 2011 and decided that we had to go back for a longer stay; all because of this place called Lavendar and Berry Farm. Apart from the peaceful accommodations that the farm has to offer, Pemberton is close to quite a few natural attractions. As it is surrounded by karri forests, so the scenery around is tree-centric.

The Cascades and the Beedelup Falls are a series of rapids. The parking lot was practically empty when we visited and took a short thirty minutes walk through the quiet and beautiful forest. The trails were all properly maintained with restrooms and parking areas. The trails are part of a one thousand km long trail called Bibbulmun Track, marked by their snake signage. How we wished we can afford the time to do a proper fortnights hike.

Big Brook Dam is a lake area which is also a beach, so families could come for a swim or use the BBQ facilities. It is a popular spot in the summer we heard, but the water was too chilly in May when we visited. A picnic here is also highly recommended. Once again, we were the only ones around to enjoy the surrounding tranquilty. Two thumbs up for off-peak travelling!

We visited the Gloucester Tree, a fire lookout tree where you can climb up seventy meters and take in the surrounding scenery over the treetops. From our two visits, only one out of the eight of us climbed all the way to the lookout.

There is also the Pemberton Trams that takes visitors on old train tracks and winds its way through the surrounding forests, over bridges and along rivers and streams. We didn’t ride on the trains but did stop by for some phototaking.

W.A. Road Trip: Busselton Stopover, Yallingup

In 2011, we made a quick stopover at Busselton as we head down south; Busselton Jetty is the longest timber built jetty in the world, the 1.8 km long walk offers fantastic views off Australia’s southwestern coast.

After Busselton, we drove to Yallingup Caravan Park, set up our tents for the night and took a short walk to Yallingup beach. The park had a kitchen and toilets which were quite clean but kitchen utensils are limited so be sure to bring your own. We were able to have a quick simple dinner that night and a hearty breakfast the next morning before moving out.

We visited the Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park which was famous for Canal Rocks and Ngligi Caves, both which were a short drive from the caravan park. Canal Rocks is a patchwork of rocky islands sculpted by the waves of Indian Ocean, the water penetrates the rocks resulting in an unusual pattern of coastal erosion that resemble canals. We were able to climb on to the rock formation to view the waves crashing onto the rocks but perhaps the most significant thing we could remember were the flies. Flies everywhere – in your nostrils, eyelids, mouth; we had to wrap ourselves up to prevent involuntary snacking.

The Ngligi Caves is an underground limestone cave, it maintains a constant temperature of 20°C, a welcome escape from the heat and flies.

Sky Report: SQ213 Singapore to Perth

In May 2014, we flew as a group of seven from Singapore to Perth on SQ213 which is a 7.35am flight. Three of us, including my mother, were flying on business class while my sister’s family of four was traveling in economy. We spent some time checking out the Terminal 3’s Silverkris business class lounge before heading the gate A14 to board. Tip: to save some walking, take the sky train near the T3 Silverkris lounge elevators. It will take you to A15 where you just need to double back a bit to A14.

The flight was operated on the older generation SQ 777-200 variants, featuring the older spacebeds with 2-2-2 configuration. The seats were not the fully flat version but comfortable enough for the daytime five hours flight. We were seated in the last row 19D,19E and 19F. It was my Mum’s first time sitting in SQ business class so naturally she is very impressed by the generous amount of space on her seat. Foodwise, we started off with selections from the bread basket followed by a fruit platter. My mother likes their croissants while my wife and I prefer the well-known SQ garlic bread. Wanton noodles from the menu were too salty while BTCed choices (nasi briyani and waffles) were quite delicious.

We arrived in Perth 15 minutes early. As Singaporeans, we were able to take advantage of the Smartgate that allowed us to clear customs much faster than before. My wife however, had longer hair in her passport photo and Smartgate rejected her ‘face’ and she was directed to another counter to verify her passport. Nevertheless, the entire process was done within 15 minutes and we were in the arrivals area shortly.

Sky Report: SQ861 Hong Kong to Singapore

We took the A380 on SQ861 for the trip back. This time, we were booked in SQ A380 business class which featured fully flat beds in 1-2-1 configuration. Check-in at Hong Kong International Airport Terminal 1 was swift but the customs clearance took quite a while. That left us with very little time for the Silverkris lounge! Tried the dim sum which was average. There’s made to order noodles as well but we opt to reserve the space in stomachs for the food onboard. As this was the pre-renovation days, there weren’t any showers in the lounge unlike now. Incidentally, our boarding gate was just outside the Silverkris lounge which was pretty convenient.

Boarding was done punctually and so we boarded the A380 and found our seats: 18D and 18E which are the bulkheads. 11D/E and 18D/E are the bulkheads on a SQ A380 which gives more legroom as compared to the other business class seats. However, the drawback will be the IFE monitors which are mounted further away on the wall rather than on the seat in front of you, therefore the display angle will be less than optimal. So if watching movies on the IFE is important to you, do not choose the bulkheads!

As this was business class, meal time cannot be fixed and so we were served our meals shortly after reaching cruising altitude. The duck salad was remarkable! We BTCed stir-fried chicken with abalone and butabara shogayaki. Once again, we were not disappointed as the quality of both entrees were great.

Sky Report: SQ856 Singapore to Hong Kong

Given our previous experience in SQ Suites, we decided to give it another try in a short weekend getaway to Hong Kong during the March school holidays. The flight is a morning flight, which departs Singapore at 9.30am and reaches Hong Kong at 1.30pm. We traveled with my wife’s sister, her husband and their baby, who were traveling in economy. As we were departing in SQ First Class, they were able to check-in with us at the First Class check-in area. After collecting our boarding passes, we received our invitation cards to the Private Room while our guests were invited to the First Class Lounge.

The breakfast service at the Private Room was not as extensive as the evening spread. We ordered eggs benedict, dim sum, eggs with sausages, ipoh hor fun and waffles. The eggs and dim sum were fine but the waffles were too hard and the ipoh hor fun lacks the ‘ipoh’ taste. Feeling underwhelmed by the food so far, we adjourned to the First Class Lounge to join our guests to continue our breakfast there. The food there was a self serve buffet with more choices than the menu at the Private Room. We sampled the fried kway tiao and naan, all were quite tasty. Pancakes were ordered from the pancakes station, which was augmented with a tub of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream from the freezer. Now that’s breakfast! With breakfast settled, we then took a buggy ride(arranged when we first entered Silverkris) to our gate.

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Suites class passengers were invited to board the plane first. Our guests piggybacked on the priority too. Seems like the gold boarding passes really gives you some privileges! We settled into our familiar seats, 3C and 3D. The chief steward came along to introduce himself and informed us of the flight time and estimated time of arrival. Some warm nuts and champagne was served before we took off at 9.45am.

After the seat belts signs were turned off, the stewardess came over to confirm our meal choices. I BTCed Japanese wagyu beef for myself and duck risotto for my wife. As we were still full from our breakfast, we requested that our meals be served at 11am. We were served Krug champagne, mocktails and other chips while we watched movies on the IFE. I found the Krisworld IFE to be quite updated with the movies; classics and new blockbusters were available. 11am soon came along and the table was prepared for lunch.

lots of leg space

plug and usb ports

Coke with lots of lemon

our attentive stewardess. Her red kebaya means she’s the chief stewardess

setting of the table

Fruit Platter

confit of duck leg

japanese wagyu beef with rice

cherry parfait with stewed cherry

chendol

earl grey tea

As this is a brunch menu, no caviar was served. The quality of our entre differed greatly. The confit of duck was too dry while the wagyu beef was the most tender beef I ever ate. Best BTC choice I ever made(for the beef). We finished off the meal with earl grey tea. The stewardess kept the drinks flowing after meal service, so we drank plenty of them. Before long, the plane made its approach into HKIA and we landed at 1.15pm, 15 minutes ahead of schedule. Our guests were ushered into the cabin to disembark with us, ahead of economy class.

Sky Report: SQ317 London to Singapore

Our three-week honeymoon in Europe came to an end in early January 2014. The main reason for choosing London as the stopover from Iceland was the decision to ride on the A380 on SQ. SQ has four flights from London to Singapore daily, two of them are on the A380 and the remaining on the B777-300ER. We decided to book the coveted Suites class on SQ317 using our miles. Taxes and fuel surcharges added up to SGD700 per pax, yikes!

The flight departs at 10.30 am and we checked in at a relatively empty Suites counter at 8.30 am and headed to the Silverkris lounge for breakfast. The first class section had a menu for ala carte ordering, however the menu simply describes what is available in the buffet section. We got the usual english breakfast items and sampled some juices. The assortment of soft drinks not found in Singapore was something we would miss very much. 30 minutes before boarding time, we were approached by the lounge attendant that our buggy ride is ready to take us to the plane!

pretty useless menu

breakfast items

breakfast items

breakfast items

yoghurt and stuff

workstations

soft drinks and beer

coffee machine

buggy ride

Boarding the plane took no time at all, as we were shown a separate direct entrance to Suites.

Cabin was spacious, and the seat was comfortable. Each seat has its own enclosed cabin. The middle two seats (2C+2D, 3C+3D) are connected and most suitable for couples, though a screen between the two seats can be lowered if the seats were taken by strangers; our seats are 3C and 3D. During sleep time, the two seats combined to form the famous ‘double-bed in the sky’. Take note that the cabins are not fully enclosed, the doors only go up to about 1.8 metres, someone tip-toeing can definitely see what you are doing; so don’t get tooo comfortable, if you know what I mean. The steward came to introduce himself and gave me a tour of the A380 after I told him that this is our first time in an A380. After learning that this was our honeymoon, he nodded and said “This is certainly the way to honeymoon in style, Sir!”.

Some photos of the seat and cabin. As evident from the poor quality of the pictures, they were taken by my cheap camera. Please ask me if you plan to use any of the photos, thank you!

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We were served snacks and champagne before takeoff. After takeoff, the amenities kit were distributed and the stewardess came around to confirm our meal choices. We used ‘Book the Cook’ to preorder the Lobster Thermidor and Monkfish. The meals were served in the following order: satay canapes, salad, bread, soup,  entree, dessert, cheese plate, tea with pralines. My wife liked the satay so much that she got more of it instead of the salad.
Food verdict: nothing to complain about, we particularly liked the satay and garlic bread. The lobster thermidor tasted cheesy good and the monkfish was moist. We aren’t into cheese and wine so we can’t comment on either.

satay canapes

My wife really liked the Satay

orange cooler cocktail

enjoying our five course meal in the sky

garlic bread, an SQ favourite

chinese soup

prawn salad

lobster thermidor

monkfish with chef potatoes

cheese plate

pancakes and ice cream

I forgot what this is.

praline and tea to finish off.

With the meal finished, the stewardess asked us if we would want to lounge on the bed instead. Of course we said yes! Pardon the poor lighting and quality of the photos.

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We went to bed with about eight hrs left of flight time. It wasn’t comfortable, possibly due to depressurization problems. We were awaken 2 hours later and emergency landed in Baku and this incident was reported internationally. We were safe but extremely tired and how Singaporeans aptly described as ‘sibei sian’. We ended up sleeping on the floors of Baku airport while waiting for a replacement aircraft to bring us and the other 455 passengers back to Singapore. Not the best place to be stranded in due to the strict immigration regulations; we were only allowed out of the airport after our visa was approved after an estimate of 15 to 18 hours. After which, we boarded a bus to crash at a nearby hotel for around 6 hours before returning to the airport. It was another long wait before we were allowed to board the plane.

The replacement flight was coded SQ9317 and timed at 9 hours. Being exhausted from camping at the airport, the suites felt so much more comfortable when we finally re-boarded the plane. Here’s some photos of the first meal.

garlic bread

walnut salad

the other salad

watercress soup

cornish game hen

US beef fillet

quite tasty, red in the middle.

forgot dessert name again. Chocolate something..

We went promptly to sleep after the meal and woke up 7 hours later for breakfast! Had this not been due to the delayed journey, this would have been the best sleep I had on a plane ever. Here are some photos of the breakfast. Being a hastily packed flight, the food choices are limited.

cornflakes

fruit platter

english breakfast set

32 hours after our scheduled arrival, we finally arrived in Singapore. If not for the delay, the flight would have been a most pleasant one. The crew acted professionally in times of the emergency, which I appreciated.

Honeymoon in London (Day 19)

Day 19 was our only full day in London, for the first half of the day we visited the famous Natural History Museum, one of the rare museums that the wife will be enthusiastic about exploring; and admission is free! We were advised to avoid the main entrance along Cromwell Road and entered the museum through an alternative entrance along Exhibition Road which had significantly shorter queues.

We shortlisted some exhibits that we wanted to explore;

• blue zone which housed the dinosaur exhibits, numerous animals skeletons and cast models with the famous life size model of a Blue Whale,

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• green zone where we spent a large amount of time in the vault and the mineral section trying to find Superman’s Achilles heel

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• and finally the red zone where we found kryptonite in Earth’s Treasury.

After a quick lunch, we headed to Trafalgar Square and hopped onto a open bus tour of London’s most famous sights. We took the The Original Tour: Yellow Route, which had a English guide who kept up a running commentary on the various spots we drove by. Tourists can hop on and off at any of the stops throughout the day, but due to time constraints, we decided to just sit along and enjoy the view.

After the tour, we made a quick stop at Oxford Circus for some shopping in the one of the largest H&M stores in London, ending our day with a nice meal at Jamie Oliver’s takeout.

 

 

Honeymoon: London Baby! (Day 18)

We woke up really early on Day 18 to catch our plane to London at 7.40am, our airport transfer was arranged with IGTours for 6am and this time we didn’t experience any delays when they picked us up from the apartment (it was the same driver!). Our flight out to London was on Iceland’s national carrier, Icelandair, the ticket costs about 250 SGD. Check-in was done by self-help terminals which printed out the luggage tags and boarding passes, followed by a long but fast-moving queue to drop off our luggage; very efficient and fuss-free! Among the numerous tax-free shops in the airport, the most eye-catching is 66°NORTH, Iceland’s premier winter wear brand, which still costs an arm and leg even without tax. Boarding was done punctually but takeoff was delayed by forty-five minutes as the plane was waiting for a few transit passengers who were got delayed flying in; from what we know Icelandair has this ‘board all passengers’ policy, so delays are pretty common. Overall we preferred WOW air for the cozy environment and cheaper tickets, but take note that the timing for WOW air flight to London is an hour earlier (6.45am!).

Due to the delayed take-off, we arrived in London Heathrow Airport around 1pm instead of the scheduled 11.45am. The airport is well-connected to the city center by the London Tube and many other types of transport. Our hotel, Millennium Gloucester Hotel London Kensington was located right outside the Gloucester Road station on the Piccadilly Line, it took us about 45 minutes to get there. The front desk upgraded us to a Club Room but didn’t include the club privileges 😦

We were only in London for three days and we were not travelling extensively, so we opt to purchase an Oyster Card which is a much cheaper option than cash, our trip from Heathrow Terminal 1 station to Gloucester Road station only costs £2.20 by Oyster Card as compared to £4.70 by cash.

On our first night in London, we tubed to Piccadilly Circus station and made our way to Queen’s Theater to collect our Les Miserables tickets; watching musicals on the West End was one of the most popular tourist activities.

We had dinner in Chinatown’s many Chinese restaurants that specialized in all-you-can-eat buffets for 7£. We had quite a bit of time left before the musical started, so we also visited the humongous M&M store before heading to the musical.

Honeymoon in Iceland: Horse Riding (Day 17)

On Day 17, we went for our final guided activity for Iceland, a horseback riding tour offered by Islenski Hesturinn. They have raving reviews on TripAdvisor and like other tours we communicated and made our reservations via emails and payment was made at the end of the tour.

We were picked up at 8.30am from our apartment and attended a short briefing by the boss, Begga after we were comfortably seated in the stable. She gave us an introduction to Icelandic horses and went through certain commands and actions for that we would use later; you could really feel her love and passion for the horses as she spoke. We are true novices to horseback riding and there really isn’t any better way to experience it since Icelandic horses are much smaller than regular horses and have good temperaments. They also have a unique fifth gait that makes riding more comfortable. We were then fitted with gloves and helmets before being pair out with our horses. After a short period of walking around the pen, the gates were open and we started on our route! It can get pretty cold along the way and since you have to keep both hands on the reins, bundle up properly before you go!

Begga led the way, stopping when necessary to describe the landscape. She gradually introduced and explained the 5 types of gaits, so we were able to experience all of them. The whole tour lasted about 3 hours and we were riding and moving for about 80% of the route. As beginners I wouldn’t say it was extremely easy, but it would have been much harder on regular horses! We tend to hold on to the reins too tightly and also have problems keeping our legs straightened (the wife blamed it on her short legs). Every now and then, the crew will give us pointers on and encourage us to keep trying; it was well appreciated and needed 🙂 Begga gave us a horseshoe for good luck after learning that we were newly-weds on our honeymoon and they sent us all the pictures that were taken during the tour to our email.

It was around lunch time when we arrive back at Reykjavik so the bus kindly dropped us off at the Old Harbour where we went to The Sea Baron to try the lobster soup that Stefan raved about. Still pretty hungry, we went back to Iceland’s best hot dog stand, Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur. We had it before Stefan introduced it to us and this time we went back for more! The hot dog, made out of lamb and pork with various toppings and condiments is simply the best hot dog we have ever tasted.

Our original plan for the afternoon was supposed to be whale watching but we were ‘all-toured-out’ and decided to take it easy for the remaining day. We took a long walk back to apartment and visited the local swimming pool, Sundhöllin that Siguron recommended. Much of the swimming pools were located indoors with the exception of some outdoor hot tubs and all the water is geothermal-heated! As we later learnt, this was the oldest swimming pool in Iceland and there are other spanking new ones further from town that are fully outdoors and complete with slides, saunas and hot tubs. The Blue Lagoon is touristy and rather overpriced so these pools are a nice alternative and in fact frequently visited by the locals.