Asia - SE Asia Questions (Bali/SIN/Other)

A couple of questions for the board...

1. Going to Bali in April, and based on current flight times, we won't get into DPS until 10pm. We plan on staying at the Ritz in Jimbaran Bay for a couple nights. However, getting in so late, we'd prefer a cheaper (yet nice) place closer to the airport. Any hotel suggestions (are there aurport hotels, or is Kuta the closest hotel area)?

2. Have a couple day stopover in Singapore on the way back to the US. We may want to take a day trip somewhere else, but return to SIN to spend the night. Would KL be a good day-trip option (fly over early in the morning, return in the evening). Any other possibilites? Also, would SIN-KL (or other similar) airfares be cheaper when buying in Asia, or is it better to buy the tickets in the US before leaving?

Thanks.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by dave_261:
2. Have a couple day stopover in Singapore on the way back to the US. We may want to take a day trip somewhere else, but return to SIN to spend the night. Would KL be a good day-trip option (fly over early in the morning, return in the evening). Any other possibilites? Also, would SIN-KL (or other similar) airfares be cheaper when buying in Asia, or is it better to buy the tickets in the US before leaving?

Thanks. </font>

Locally purchased SIN-KL fares are controlled by the evil SQ/MH duopoly and cost a fixed S$160 or so in one direction. The only way to get cheap tickets is to get the leg as a part of an onward ticket, but this is unlikely to be an option for you.

Your other choices would be to take the 5-hour express bus, which is probably the most popular option, or the KTMB overnight sleeper train. You can also fly Air Asia very cheaply from neighboring Johor Bahru, but getting to JHB airport is, quite frankly, a hassle.

If the weather is good, you may want to consider a day trip to the beaches on Bintan in Indonesia, just 45 minutes away. Right now is the monsoon season, so the sea is choppy and the weather rainy, but if you're coming later in the year this would be a very good little escape from SIN city. See http://www.bintan-resorts.com for more.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by jpatokal:
Your other choices would be to take the 5-hour express bus, which is probably the most popular option, or the KTMB overnight sleeper train. You can also fly Air Asia very cheaply from neighboring Johor Bahru, but getting to JHB airport is, quite frankly, a hassle.

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Air Asia was actually mentioned in today's USA Today as a good low fare option. Looks like JHB-KUL fares are really cheap- under US$50 r/t. Also looks like a 1-way cab ride from downtown Singapore to JHB would be about $60 r/t, so a much cheaper option than SIN-KUL.

I remember reading a Singapore newspaper article online several weeks ago (New Paper?) that compared all the above options in terms of comfort/speed from SIN-KUL.
1) Direct flt - fastest but not by much because of check-in time requirements and distance of KUL from city.
2) Express bus. Slightly (maybe one hour tops?) lass total time than flying but with a huge cost savings.
3) AirAsia - traffic between SIN-JHB kills the deal.
4) Train - slow but comfortable with food. May be a good idea if you take the night train and book a sleeping berth.

Maybe someone with better recollection than me will post corrections as the above is strictly IIRC.

I'm going to bali in april as well..I found great information at this site.
http://www.balitravelforum.com/index.html

I think you can get cheap rooms at a hotel called the Aston. I've seen rates for around $50USD on cheaptickets.com.

The price for KUL-SIN is fixed and can be easily purchased from www.singaporeair.com. (http://www.singaporeair.com.) Buy two separate tickets - SIN-KUL (US$110) and KUL-SIN (US$75) - as it would be cheaper than a r/t ticket from SIN (US$220). The flight is 1 hour, immigration/customs will be a breeze (as you would have no bags), hop on the express train to the city (takes 30mins) and jump on the Putra LRT to KLCC/Twin Towers (must do!), Pasar Seni for shopping at Central Market (local crafts), or hop in a cab to KL Tower for an amazing view of the city. It would be a very hectic day-trip but it can be done. Sentosa (nice beaches) is a good option if you don't want to go through passport control but Bintan and KL are definitely more exotic (and adventurous).

For now, KUL-JHB is not really an alternative due to the hassles involved (especially for a day-trip). Stick with KUL-SIN.

Off topic, I was pretty startled to find out that Singapore actually rejected AirAsia's application to (a) start a direct bus from the CBD to Senai/JHB; and (b) fly the KUL-SIN route in competition with MH/SQ.

Compare that to Thailand's open-arms embrace of AirAsia (albeit with some preferential treatment), Singapore looks pretty protectionist which is contrary to their philisophy.

Consequently, AirAsia on BKK-KUL and soon-to-be-launched BKK-SIN is gonna be about US$30 each way while KUL-SIN (which is 1/4 the distance) is stuck at US$75-100 due to the MH/SQ duopoly!

[This message has been edited by blueDC (edited Jan 29, 2004).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by blueDC:
Off topic, I was pretty startled to find out that Singapore actually rejected AirAsia's application to (a) start a direct bus from the CBD to Senai/JHB; and (b) fly the KUL-SIN route in competition with MH/SQ.

Compare that to Thailand's open-arms embrace of AirAsia (albeit with some preferential treatment), Singapore looks pretty protectionist which is contrary to their philisophy.

Consequently, AirAsia on BKK-KUL and soon-to-be-launched BKK-SIN is gonna be about US$30 each way while KUL-SIN (which is 1/4 the distance) is stuck at US$75-100 due to the MH/SQ duopoly!
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(a) yes, the illegitimate spawns of female dogs, but (b) no, not yet -- the government actually went on record to say that they are not going to cannibalize SIN by tolerating JHB, but AK is welcome to fly to SIN. The problem of course is that flying to SIN is way more expensive, and tickets would also be pricier because Malaysia would charge an international departure fee. So they're still haggling. The Garment* is currently considering lengthening Seletar's runway to make it 737-accessible or building a new no-frills terminal at Changi; the second option is looking more likely at the moment, but it won't be ready until 2006 at the earliest.

As for Thailand being less protectionist, true, but routes to BKK were already more heavily competed. Even before AirAsia I could get a SIN-BKK-SIN return on SK/AY/LX for S$180 on a good day; this is barely enough for SIN-KUL one-way on SQ/MH!

* this being Singlish for the Government http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/biggrin.gif

The overnight train is a very comfortable option. It leaves around 10pm and arrives around 7am
www.ktmb.com.my (http://www.ktmb.com.my)

There is also heaps of daily busses, online ticketing available at
http://www.plusliner.com/index2.html
prices from RM60 to RM70 for executive coach

Be prepared for the lines on arrival in Bali-as of Feb 1,there's a $25 visa on arrival charge-not that the amount is the issue-it's the lines-one line to pay,second line to show you payed & get the visa in your passport,& then the third line for immigration.Reports so far say an average of 40 minutes to get out of the airport-but that was with only one plane arriving at a time.