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.