Our 2010 Jakarta trip so far

This trip is basically for us to spend time with my family while Edmund is off at re-service for his army for a few weeks. I can't remember the last time I spent this long in Jakarta, think maybe after I graduated high school in '97?

We came on Tiger Airways. It was our first time on Tiger and we had expected it to be the same as Air Asia that we took to Bali from Jakarta last time. Boy were we wrong. Firstly Tiger departs from Singapore's Budget Terminal, which in itself isn't too bad at all. There's lots of food and a handful of shops inside and a mini playground to keep the kids occupied. It even has a rather large 7-Eleven inside.

The plane ride wasn't that pleasant and I was very disappointed. Slight turbulence aside the space between the seats on the plane was excruciatingly small! It was horrible - I started to feel claustrophobic! Secondly on AirAsia planes the seats were leather seats. And on checking with my folks they said the flights to Singapore from Jakarta are also leather seats. We got jipped! For some reason I'd assumed the other budget airlines would be just like AirAsia - now I understand why Tiger has the cheapest tickets around. I just 'love' how they say "For the convenience of other passengers please do not consume outside food." So...unless i change my mind in the future....I think I'll pass on taking Tiger Airways again to another destination. I'm not trying to be stuck up, I just think comfort is important. Even my parents said Jetstar was still better.

Edmund and a couple of our friends came for the first week. Now it's so quiet without them and Caelyn misses her Daddy so much, keeps asking for him everyday and cried on the first night when she had to sleep.
Now that everybody's gone, Caelyn suddenly had the stomach flu and we've been stuck at home for almost a week now. Strangely enough I actually don't mind staying at home too much! Just great that we went out already to a lot of places in the first week.
So here are the pics so far...

Awesome Food

Great Company

Daddy and Popo and Uncle WK buying snacks.

Interesting Places

Interesting feature. The liquor bottles are upside down.

Very very long indoor slide. Goes down from 7th storey to the ground floor in 7 seconds.

somebody's going down!

'snow' falling down. Interestingly enough it's not soapy.

'Mobile' food vendors beside our car on the road. Pulled by human power! Back in the days, I would actually buy food from these mobile vendors....now my tummy's not so tough.....

Hand painted mural under a bridge advertising for a rice brand.

Hong Kong Holiday 2009 Review Part 3 - Hong Kong Disneyland

So this review is a little late. I didn't realise that I hadn't blogged about it yet. So here goes..

Hong Kong Disneyland far exceeded our expectation. We hear a lot of ppl putting HK Disneyland down - like how small it is and how expensive it is and how the mainlanders makes the whole park worse.

Well yes the park is smaller than the other Disney parks around the world but that doesn't mean there's nothing to do there and I truly believe those who say there's nothing to do there may have visited the park when it first opened prior to the additions of new rides.

And yes it is expensive to visit the park. But hey it's a theme park, give me one theme park that doesn't over charge for everything. And frankly it's still cheaper than the themeparks at Gold Coast, Australia. Foodwise it's also cheaper than the Gold Coast parks.

Mainlanders...yes there's a lot of them, but I was pleasantly surprised not to see any spitting or squatting. Although that last part is probably cos there's a lot of seats around the park. The only bad thing abt the said mainlanders is that they don't know how to line up. They see an empty spot in front of you and they just push right through like they have some kind of homing device attached to them. Wait till they push or stick out an arm across your chest like you're not even there. That's pretty annoying. Other than that most of the park guests were 'well behaved'.

The Christmas decorations and the lights were beautiful. Especially the castle and the fireworks. It's

definitely a great time to go. Just like the other Disney parks, the It's a Small World ride is jazzed up for the festive season. There are also minor differences in the rides in HK to the ones in the parks I've been to. For example the Winnie the Pooh ride here has bumps and bouncing rather than just a smooth ride. And the Jungle Cruise is bigger and more intense. Lion King show is also different - then again maybe it's just been updated.

The hotel there is perfect. There really isn't anything I can complain about it. The buffets were good and I loved how they left little gifts in the room for you to take home like the animal handkerchief towels and hotel slippers that had the mickey mouse logo on it - in adult size and children's size too! At the time there was a special promotion where guests who stay at the hotel get an extra day at the park for free. Don't forget to make a little time to view the hotel gardens as it's quite pretty. Behind Disney Hollywood Hotel there's also a playground and swimming pool.

If you do go there, I suggest go early to the park and hit Dumbo ride at Fantasyland first or Autopia at Tomorrowland. These two rides always have a 20 minutes wait for them. Winnie the Pooh ride can sometimes have a queue too, so hit that after Dumbo while you're in Fantasyland. Tip number 2, Autopia has two lines which aren't the same. If you have the time, go back in and try them both. If you don't have time then we found the right line is better. Merchandise wise keep your eyes open for purchase with purchase specials. There's also different specials at each store and even the store at the hotel. Also don't miss out on the red HKD100 goodie bags whose values could even exceed HKD300. It's definitely worth it. We got so many good stuff from them.