World As We See It

Dear Blog Readers,

It has come to my attention from Jason and Tiffany that this blog has been going on now for over a week and not ONE! comment has been left. They’ve received emails and phone calls regarding the blog, but NO COMMENTS! Come on! Don’t be Marcel Marceus! Let them know you’ve been here. Leave us comments, notes, hellos, goodbyes, - something!! Let them know you’re reading…otherwise it’s a bit lonely to write these things wondering if you’re writing for some strange guy living in a bunker near El Paso. So let them know you’ve been here!

That is all,
~Roaming Gnome.

This always happens and I should have known it’d happen this time. It’s never as easy as you want it to be. This trip was supposed to be one of the more simple that we’ve done. Fly to Singapore, take a train to Kuala Lumpur - stay a few days, take a train back, fly home. Done and Done.

Yeah - it was until we realized there was more to explore in Malaysia. So …now we find ourselves looking up places to stay along the Cherating Beach - East coast of Malaysia. About 3 hours east of Kuala Lumpur. This area is hopping with nice beaches, fun activities, and a definite “local touch.”

Typically through the months of April-August the sea turtles come ashore here and lay their eggs - the eggs hatch, and the babies head to the deep blue. There is a large turtle conservatory here that we expect to take in. Whether the turtles decide to visit will be up to them. Rumor has it you can arrange the conservatory to call your hotel and wake you if they happen to come ashore. (usually after midnight mind you.)

There’s also much windsurfing, ocean rafting, and local activities such as batik - Batik is found in several countries of West Africa, such as Nigeria, Cameroon and Mali, and in Asia, such as India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Iran, Malaysia and Thailand. However, it is in Indonesia that it is considered a national art form. Essentially melted wax is applied to a cloth and dipped into dye. We have found a place in a fairly remote part of Malaysia where we can learn to do this and we very well just may. It’s the perfect souvenir.

So Tiff’s in the other room booking hotel rooms for two nights on the coast while I figure out car rentals and work out arrangements with the Elephant Man for the Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary - (see below post) It always starts with “let’s stay here 3 nights and here 3 nights and then we’re done and always ends up with here 2 nights, there 1 night, rent a car over night here, take train here, fly there, sleep on beach there, etc. Never simple - always stretching the limits.

So as I research hotels for Malaysia I get jungle fever. Not like the Stevie Wonder song either, I still love Jay! But these hotels you can stay at look like tropical paradise. Of course we are going to stay somewhere in the city but even then the more expensive hotels have amazing pools and surroundings. Its so fun. Finally a tropical getaway! And that’s not even the best part. I can’t wait to ride elephants, wash elephants, and feed elephants like they are my very own pet. Check out this video!

The baby elephants are my very favorite. I’m going to call them my Riley away from home. They are so cute and playful. Almost like big puppies. This is one of the places we will be visiting and spending alot of our camera time filming every last detail. Its going to be so much fun and an experience to remember forever.

There’s always a haze that settles in over a trip planning that takes you to a place you’ve never been. You think about where, you decide, you buy airline tickets…and then you settle to find accommodations - and that’s when it gets hazy. You know things you want to do and places you want to visit. But you’re not familiar with the terrain…or the good areas, or the bad areas. What’s close, what’s not.

Finding hotels in foreign places is tough. Name recognition (aka Westin, Sheraton, Marriot, etc.) help, but some times you want local flavor. Not only that, but for me…Purchasing a hotel ticket is like throwing away the key to your trip. Once you do that, you’re locked in. Say you get there and find a really cool place, or decide a day- trip out of town makes you wish you were staying away over night…well you have no option but to go back to what you’ve booked. Flexibility in foreign travel is a must. You’ll just always wish you could have stayed one more night, or at the place across the street instead. In previous years, we’ve had nice flexibility. We’d arrange lodging in about 75% of the places we go, but leave enough flexibility to add or lose nights as we go along. Obviously you run the risk of arriving to town and finding everything booked because of some unknown holiday event taking place that weekend. Flexibility can be risky, but if you know what you’re getting in to, you may just be thanking yourself later.

This particular trip, however, is one that we’re going to lock ourselves in - so now is the hardest part - finding accommodations that fit our budget, style, all within reason. We have found some amazing places to stay both in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. While we often split our stay among hostels and hotels in Europe, we may live it up a bit and stay in hotels/resorts while in Asia. There are just too many nice places that are fairly affordable ($50-$120/night) - just finding the locations we want to stay is what is keeping us from locking in right now. I’m sure by the end of the week, we’ll have it figured out.

Some places offer 2 nights, 3rd is free. Good deal. But it just so happens on our third day, we’ll be renting a car and trekking out into the Jungles to the Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary. What if we just want to find a place to stay out there instead of returning to the city that night.  Pesky flexibility again - raising it’s head to say hello-  decisions decisions decisions. The nature of the journey I suppose and with that I return to www.travelocity.com. - Somebody leave the light on for me.

Now that I’m back from Arizona from a fantastically relaxing Easter and birthday celebration with my family, I’m back on the researching trail. My actual birthday was pretty sweet even though I had to work. It was cool though b/c I was greeted by a big pretty sign on my door and an awesome basket of some of my favorite things. This included scratchers, my newest addiction (take note people). 3 out of 10 of those scratchers were winners and I won $25 in all! Fun! That will go towards my trip. It will actually pay for my half of a hotel room for one night in Malaysia believe it or not. That’s why we are going folks! Its one of the few places where we benefit from the exchange with U.S. money. I was also treated to a yummy Italian lunch by my boss which included a birthday tiramisu. Then back at the workplace I had a carrot cake! As if I needed anymore sweets, Jay treated me to dinner. Yes, I got the pizookie at B.J.’s and ate it all by myself! Scrumptious diddly umptious. My birthday was delicious.

Stay tuned for more updates and my scratchers journey to win enough for a down payment on a house!

Typically after our first stage of planning (airline ticket purchase) is complete, the next step is figuring out how to get to and from all the various places we want to see. This trip should be fairly easy. Take the JUNGLE LINE!! train from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. and then return - Supposed to be one of the best train rides in the world which is fitting as last year we did the “Glacier Express” which definitely lived up to it’s top 10 hype.

So I spent the morning shooting off emails to a few of the nature reserves and zoos that we are looking to visit on our trip. - just confirming the dates, reservations, etc.

What we found last year was at least 2 major events we wanted to participate in (Zorbing in England and bobsledding in Austria) were closed because of season/bank holiday on the days we were there. Bummer…

But a sort of strange thing occurred while I planned out our train itenerary. In years past I’ve found train travel to be quite adventerous and easy - but some times difficult to plan - especially in Europe as there are many lines to choose from, different types of coaches…and the often pushed “rail passes” come with all sorts of strings attached. Sometimes you need to book a seat and THEN a reservation - on certain trains. This can lead to a problem if you don’t know something like that. I witnessed a Canadian woman being informed of her mistake while on a trip to southern Switzerland last summer. She refused to admit she was wrong, but I knew deep inside, as much as I wanted to help - Yep, you need a seat ticket and a reservation - all she had was a reservation. I politely informed her of her mistake and how to avoid it next time to which she finally came around.
Anyway - the point is…train travel can be tricky. When do you buy tickets? At station or before you arrive? Should I buy my return fare right away? What times are better? Is it a holiday I’m unaware of that could increase passenger loads? Things like that. Typically a good rule of thumb is buy a round trip ticket as early in advance as you can - especially in England.

But does this rule of thumb come in to play in Malaysia/Singapore? Here’s what I’ve learned so far…

I had read that purchasing train tickets was cheap in Asia. And if your travel takes you to and/or from Malaysia, if you can, buy your tickets IN Malaysia as the cost will be in Malaysian Ringolds as opposed to buying with a Singapore Dollar (which exchanges at less favorable rate with US dollars.) But obviously how (or why?) do you buy a ticket TO Malaysia IN Malaysia? Unless you know somebody there who can mail you a ticket, you pretty much can’t…

So I find the KTMB Rail line website for Malaysia. I need a rountrip ticket for two from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur. I need first class seats going and first class deluxe sleeper coming back. Simple enough? Doing some quick research I found this should be a very cost effective trip.

So after registering online, I punch in all my numbers on the KTMB website. Total: 880 MYR = $275.00

WHAT?!! You must be joking. Almost $300. Trains in Europe can be cheaper. So I punch in again. Same thing…and again…Same results. - oh, well maybe it’s in Singapore Dollars? nope… SO I think I’m stuck.

Then I come up with the idea. Maybe I’ll buy the ticket from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur now online and buy the return when we get there using local MYR currrency. So I punch in the single trip date of travel from Singapore (the more expensive leg) and go to purchase. One way fare- two tickets: 315 MYR. - What? 315? That doesn’t make sense. The total for a return was 880. How could one way be 315? So I punch in just the return trip by itself. $243 MYR. ? so if I purchase the single ticket to Kuala Lumpur at 315 and return at 243 - the total is 558 Malaysian Ringold or $175. A pretty good difference over 880 MYR!

…and that’s exactly what I did. And it worked. I now have two tickets for each leg for $175.00 total. $100USD less!

I have no idea and can not justify why a round trip would be MORE unless they try to make more $$ of unsuspecting tourists who blindly put in return trip info and click “purchase” without research. - speculation of course, but logic defies any other explanation.

So - long story short - I made out great on train fare based on being able to compare what I already know, what I had recently learned with what I felt wasn’t right to begin with…and am all the better for it. Four years ago I don’t make this deal. Four years ago I purchase what’s shown and move on. I’ve been hosed a few times on train travel in the past, but it appears I’m improving with experience. - That is all for today!

We finally purchased the plane tickets for the 2008 Tiffany and Jason travel extravaganza. hee hee. It was a hard decision only b/c we had to pay so much damn taxes and that cuts into our house down payment. But like I told Jay, we realistically won’t be able to buy a house until the summer anyways and between now and then we could win a million dollars or God will bless me with a commercial gig! You only live once and Patrick Swayze is on my mind. I tell you, I saw the guy in July and he looked great now he’s only got a matter of weeks to live. So I say I might as well take what I got and make my life fun! We will get the house when we get back. That’s why we made this trip a little shorter and are going for 10 days instead of our usual 17 to 21 days. We get our travel shoes on early in the year and leave some time for another short trip later in the year. Live it up!!!

What about Macau? What about Hong Kong? Thailand anyone? As we originally planned this trip, it was to be a 17 day trek that took us from Singapore to Malaysia to Thailand - then fly over to Shrenzen, China - to Hong Kong, and Macau - with the highlight being the Macau Tower Jump - 763 feet above the city, jumping out into mid-air and lowered to the ground; complete with certificate and mid-air jump photo!

Why the change? 2008 is already crazy and with many items lined up this year, we just couldn’t get away for that amount of time so we had to can the last leg of the trip for some time later and finish off in Malaysia. It was a tough call, but we think it was the right thing to do.

The GOOD news is…we won’t blow the bank on this one, so the plan is to do another trip some where else later this fall. We’re thinking Europe at the moment - maybe Octoberfest in Germany? Reunions in Scotland? Who knows…but that’s the plan. Two trips each half instead of one big one like years past.

..So we’re sold. We purchased our tickets today to Singapore. We leave in a little under one months time. It was completely unexpected and very much a “let’s do this” type of decision - mix it up a bit , ya know? Gotta do that some times. So we’re locked in. Now we have to ready our gear, get some “jungle” clothes, and make arrangements.

I won’t fill you in too much yet, but follow along our DAILY BLOG!!! and you’ll know exactly what we’re up to…and those with copies of our previous “EUROPE 2007″ DVD can look forward to an even better production with Malaysia/Singapore 2008 — and yes, due to popular demand…more screen time by yours truly. Until tomorrow…

To celebrate our travel adventures, we’ve decided to bring you along - sort of…  What we’ve decided is to open this blog so you can keep up with the Jones’ while we venture forth.  Part of the fun is planning and now you’ll get to go along with us as we locate hotels, trains, fun stuff to do, etc.
I know I plan on updating this as much as I can…hopefully at least once a day, so when you wake up, log in and check up - or before you go to bed even!

ONE THING I want to point out.  This BLOG allows COMMENTS!! WHOO!!     So if you feel the need to comment on a post and/or just communicate with us indirectly…then by all means, just click the COMMENTS button below any post that inspires you… please do!  Do so often!  I wanna hear from ya, k? 

So just sit back, let us type away and enjoy as we gear up for a whirlwind that will likely be the next 45 days!