Ah Kai's Egosphere

Yay! Finally found this information!

Here is a very comprehensive list of Free and Paying parking venues for Motorcyclists:

http://www.sgwiki.com/wiki/Motorcycle_Parking

This is an accumulative post listing the various danger spots on Singapore roads for riders to take note.

The Singapore roads are generally smooth and good for riding, however, due to our never-ending, forever-on-going road works... There can be various humps and bumps and holes left around unnoticed. Some of the following indeed almost made me fly =p

Invisible Humps

1. Nicholl Highway

Middle Lane of Nicholl Highway (towards Kallang Stadium direction) just before the Ophir Road flyover

2. Hougang Ave 3

Middle Lane just after the turn from Lor Ah Soo towards Hougang Ave 3 (towards Airport Road direction)

2. Lavender Street

2nd lane from the left (at junction towards Crawford St)

Pot Holes

1. KPE at Upper Paya Lebar Road Exit

2. Crawford Street. First Lane on the 2-lanes right-turn towards North Bridge Road (see Aqua-coloured circle on image below)
 

There are alot more to note.... let me re-verify their positions... =p

These are the 2 most impressive accommodation we had in Penghu:

23.5蔚藍
http://ph-pescadores.myweb.hinet.net/

We stayed in the 小木屋 (wooden house) and it was sooo comfortable and beautiful. Some afternoon, we would be contented just staying indoors, watching TV in our little house =D The seafood porridge and seafood vermicelle provided for breakfast were also soooo yummilicious!!! *drools* Ahh... I so miss those 2 days...

There are 3 different styles of accommodation provided. The Big House is very suitable for families =) The Glass House ontop of the Big House looks pretty cool, but you'll be a fool to stay there during the summer season lah.... DAMN HOT siah! Plus the sun rises from 4+am.. It was already bright daylight at 5+am =p I so prefers my little wooden house~

Scooter may be rented from the Homestay at NT400. Does not include fuel. You use whatever is leftover from previous user or you'll have to go top up on your own. If I'm not wrong, the rental is cheaper from scooters rental shops in Makung... So if you intend to ride around the whole of Penghu anyway, it might be a good idea to rent from Makung and use throughout your stay. Journey from Makung to Siyu (where the homestay is) is around 20min.. 

Price: NT2800 onwards during high season

邂逅老街民宿
http://www.meet-street.com/

This cosy walk-up homestay is situated in a quaint little street in Makung city. It is a quick walk from the Four-Eye Wells and Watson (they call it "屈臣氏" in Taiwan) is just round the corner. There are also interesting souvenirs shops all around =)

The Lady Boss, Ivy,  was a very friendly and hospitable person~ We were very lucky to meet her on the day we're supposed to check out and catch our flight to Tainan. After a happy chat, she invited us to join her for lunch with her friends from Taipei (arriving that day). Thus we had a sumptous lunch courtesy of Ivy! Hee~

There are 2 young care-takers -- Sasa & 绿岛 -- who works for Ivy (since she seldom go to the homestay these days; she intend to groom the 2 of them to run the place for her in future). Very humble and helpful folks =D

It would be good to start your stay in Penghu here because the folks here are able to provide very good information on where to go and what to do. They made a very useful map of Penghu which include all the activities, sights-seeing spots, makan places etc, all consolidated into 1 map. According to Sasa, this map was commissioned by their homestay and another homestay owner. Thus only accommodation providers provide this map. 

Oh, and because the bosses also own a local delicacies shop (名产店) around the corner, their guests get 10% discount for every purchase =)  

Price: NT2000 onwards during high season

Alternative Very Budget Accommodation:

国军英雄馆
http://ezph.myweb.hinet.net/chinese/play/house-gogn.htm

However, if you're unable to splurge on homestays for the entirety of your stay, there is a pretty decent and super budget alternative. This used to be a hostel for military personnels, but they have since been opened for public as well.

We stayed here for the first 2 nights during our trip to Penghu because the hotel is very strategically situated in the Makung city. The street parallel to it is a well-known breakfast street with super nice beef organs soup, shao bing etc...

Price: NT900/room/night for a double bed with toiletries provided

The cheapest around... but there are also slightly classier hotels from NT1000 - NT1400.

If you're not a fussy traveller, I would recommend that you not pre-book all your stays before hand. That way, you can explore and see first-hand for yourself (instead of from internet pictures) where you would like to stay. For us, we booked this cheap accommodation and the 1st homestay mentioned above (23.5蔚藍) before the trip. 23.5蔚藍 was a must-stay because we wanted a beautiful place to spend our 1st year anniversary. But because we had to spend NT7200 (weekend NT4000 + weekday NT3200) at 23.5蔚藍, we decided to get a cheap accommodation on the first 2 nights. Since we arrived at night, we only needed a place to sleep. And we chose to stay on at 国军英雄馆 because it is very conveniently located in the Makung city anyway. 

While exploring around, we went to recce a few other accommodation options for our 5th night. This was when we found the 2nd homestay mentioned above (邂逅老街民宿). There were cheaper alternatives but taken in by the quaintness and cosiness of the place, we decided to spend a little more for the last night in Penghu. Our double-bed balcony room was NT2500 but Ivy gave us a discount and we only paid NT2300.

Booking was simple and everything that followed were happy memories =) Thus, if you happen to be traveling to Penghu, feel free to check out the above mentioned accommodation options~

Honestly, I was VERY pleasantly surprised when I took the AirAsia X carrier to Taipei from KL.

The aircraft was relatively new~ The seats were pretty, clean and spacious!

However, if you were a easily restless person like me, I would STRONGLY recommend that you bring your own in-flight entertainment =p

I thought I could sleep the whole of the 4 hrs journey.. But I found the 1.5hrs of awake time unbearable =p

Bao Bei and I are gona invest in a netbook.. so we'll be able to watch DVD on the netbook when we fly on low budget long haul flights next time!

Other things you might like to know:

1. In-flight meals cost RM12/set or USD4/set -- taste ok lah.. but the more tasty-looking ones maybe be sold out pretty fast. Apparently they do not bring enough stock to feed the whole plane.. its a LCC =p

2. The in-flight magazine makes for quite a good read. There was this pretty well-written article about "dabbawallas" in Mumbai, amongst other articles, which kept me intrigued on the flight back from Taipei to KL =)

3. The air stewardess wear VERY heavy eye makeup =p

4. AirAsia has got VERY bad post-purchase customer service. We were not able to get through their customer service line depsite calling the entire morning and afternoon. It was as though someone had left the phone off the hook, there wasn't even a dial tone. Even the office line was left unanswered. I gave them my feedback after the trip. Hopefully they will be doing something about it. 

If you are transiting at the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT; otherwise known as the budget terminal of Malaysia) at KLIA and your next flight is not until many hours later, make sure you have extra Ringgit with you.

The airport is located very far away from the city and the nearest villages are also at least 20min drive away from the airport. There are some decent eateries within the airport and probably some shopping places if you bother to venture all the way to the nearby KL International Airport. However, if you arrive on a night flight, like we did, it is quite a pathetic place =p

1. Premiere Taxi Vs Budget Taxi --  It depends on the size of your luggage

The taxis at the airport do not accept cash. You have to purchase the taxi coupon. The counters are situated INSIDE the arrival gates, just before you exit into the public area. If you've already came out, there is another counter INSIDE the first departure gate, before you are to clear customs. Very odd. But you wouldnt have trouble entrying the "Do Not Enter" zone if you just declare that you want to buy taxi coupons.

At the counter, the lady will ask you where you're going and how many pieces of luggage you have. Now, this is where you need to take note.

The regular 4-seater taxis aka budget taxi in Malaysia have very small boot space. This is because half of the boot is being used for the gas tank. Thus, if you have a big luggage, it would not be able to fit inside the boot.

The taxi queue is quite a mess and the taxi coordinators aren't as helpful in providing information as you would like as a tourist. I was told that I needed to buy a coupon. After looking around and asking around, I finally got to the counter. The lady asked me how many luggage I have and I said 2 pieces. She issued me the ticket and the taxi fare from the LCCT to Empress Hotel cost RM50 for us. When I went back to the taxi queue (honestly the layout is so hazardous for tourists lugging luggages), I was told I have to take the 7-seater Premiere Taxi even though there were only 2 of us. And this was because we had 2 pieces of luggage and 2 hand-carry bags.

A budget taxi would have cost RM42. Actually we could have fit into the budget taxi but the coordinator said with a wry smile that we cannot put our luggage on the passenger seat. Excuses lah.... 

The lady at the counter didnt know how big my luggage was but she issued a permiere taxi ticket to me because I said I have 2 pieces of luggage. Thus, if you need to buy taxi tickets and your luggages are small enough to fit into the boot (take a look at the boot when other passengers are loading their luggage) do remember to tell the counter lady that your luggages are small enough for the budget taxi. But if you don't mind paying more for the space and comfort of the premiere cab, go ahead loh~

2. If you just need to spend a night for your early morning flight the next day, a RM200+ hotel is still worth it due to cost savings from taking the free hotel shuttle.. plus you get 20min more sleep

The cheapest budget hotel near the airport -- Tune Hotel --  is a very popular hotel and thus when we wanted to book a room for us to spend the night while waiting for our early morning flight, it was already full house 2 weeks before our intended date. The other hotels that are immediately near the airports are pricier but I would recommend that you op for those options as they provide free shuttle service to and fro the airport.

If you booked "cheaper" hotels that are a distance away, such as the Empress Hotel which we did, the taxi fare would have off-set the cost savings from the room rate. Furthermore, that would also mean 20min lesser sleep if you have to wake up early to catch a 6am flight =p

Our room rate was RM158 nett. But if you were to take a taxi to and fro the hotel, it would cost at least RM258 (more if you need to take midnight or early morning taxi). If your flight were to be at 7.30am, you could stay at Concorde Inn (room rate from RM230) and take their complimentary transfer (starts from 5.30am until midnight, 30min interval).

3. AirAsia provides Hotel/Airport Shuttle Transfer at RM15/pax/trip

Alternatively, AirAsia also provides hotel transfers to and from the airport. It cost RM15/pax and thats what we took for our airport transfer the following morning. We were going to book a taxi since we need to leave early in the morning. Luckily we asked the hotel staff and they told us there is a shuttle service provided for AirAsia passengers, starting from 4.35am. I'm not sure if the shuttle timing follow the departure timing of the first AirAsia flight out from LCCT in the morning.. Well, at least we saved RM45! Early morning cab ride (same for midnight as well) cost RM75 from our hotel to the airport due to the midnight charges.

So yup, that's the lesson learnt from my first time experience at LCCT KL/KLIA =p Another word of advice, don't have too high an expectation of the service and system there...

The self-check-in kiosks did not work for us after queueing all the way for it.. there is no clear signs or explanation for where to go or what to do.. to get to the front of the taxi queue, you have to push your trolley/luggage on this narrow strip of concrete island with pillars in the middle of the path, being careful not to fall off onto the roads on both sides of you... even the hotel staff oso commented that nobody could ever find their shuttle bus bus stand that's why they gave up advising guests on taking shuttle services... well, what to do, this is Malaysia =p 

Yes! This is still my old blog add but I've decided to revamp the contents =)

Was reading through the old posts that I've written over the past few years (well, actually this blog only contains ramblings from the past 3 years of my life) and realized how much I've grown & matured =) Amidst the sprinkling of happy memories, there were alot more angst, frustration and heartache... It's a better life for me now with my precious Bao Bei =) So I've deleted all the old posts.

Now, I would just like to use my blog for a simple purpose: To keep a record of all the silly mistakes I made and valuable lessons learnt. And hopefully others would find the little notes useful for them as well =D

I'll see how long I can keep this blog running.. Hahaha!!!

First post on mistakes made and lessons learnt coming up tomorrow night =p Hee! Zzzz...