Advice needed: CGK, SIN & KL in a week?
 

Hi,

I am currently considering a trip/MR to Asia which will help me visit some parts of SEA for the first time whilst generating miles for the re-qualification with LH Gold/Senator.

With the easter holiday weekend followed by the royal wedding and a bank holiday monday at the end of April/beginning of May, I am thinking of booking the following trip in either C or F (for the long haul segments):

22.04.2011 LHR - CAI - FRA - CGK
23.04.2011 arr CGK in the evening
24.04.2011 CGK
25.04.2011 CGK
26.04.2011 CGK - SIN (stopover on the return flight)
27.04.2011 SIN
28.04.2011 SIN
29.04.2011 SIN - KUL (either by bus or train)
30.04.2011 KUL
01.05.2011 KUL
02.05.2011 KUL - SIN - FRA - CAI - FRA - LHR

I haven´t yet had the pleasure of visiting this part of the world and I wonder if I am trying to squeeze in too much in a relatively short period of time. Do you think this kind of itinerary is "reasonable" for having a first look visit and trip to CGK, SIN and KL?

Any thoughts or suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

Cheers

DUS

I've never been to CGK but can share my thoughts for SIN and KUL.
2 days in SIN might be a bit too short. It depends on what you'd like to do? Are you in interested in shopping? Sentosa can take a whole day. Then there's the zoo and the night safari, lots of shopping malls, Clarke Quay...
I'd say 3-4 days would be ideal.
Maybe arrive in SIN early morning and depart at night. You'd then have about 4 days :)

KUL: It was an OK trip. Much prefer SIN. I stayed 2 days and it was enough for me.

There's a sleeper train from SIN to KUL.

I lived in SIN for several years, so this might be colored by my time there! I think 2 days in Singapore is plenty of time to get a sense of the place, it's really small.

As for your choices of KUL and CGK, I'd substitute either/both out with Saigon and Bangkok. I never really enjoyed CGK as a tourist destination and I think Bangkok is a bit more fun than KL. If there is one city I try to send my friends to in SE Asia it is Saigon. Also, if you really want to visit Indonesia, try Bali, it's a great place.

Like C-Kay posted earlier, really depends on what you'd like to do in SIN. if it's some heavy duty shopping, then 2 days might be a bit short, but if it's just to stroll around and take in the sights, 2 days should suffice.

CGK also is not really a major tourist destination. Better to head out to Bali to kick back and relax for a few days. Booked in advance, you should be able to snag some cheap tickets on one of the many LCC's.

Well, I've been to all of these (including recently) and plenty of other places. I would personally drop CGK, in fact, I would probably leave anything in Indonesia for a future trip. Most of your mileage will be on the long-haul routes anyway. I think you have 2 conceptual options:

1) The City tour--SIN (2 days), KUL (2 days), BKK (balance) or vice versa, and do as open-jaws routing if you can. Singapore and Kuala Lumpur really don't require more than 2 days each. Bangkok has more things of interest to most tourists in terms of sheer volume.

2) The Country strategy--in which case (a) would be to BKK with 3 days there and the rest in either Thailand north (culture) or south (beach) areas. Or (b) SIN + KUL augmented by things like Melaka or Penang or Cameron Highlands in Malaysia.

If your mileage earning needs are such that you really need to go the extra distance to Indonesia, then I agree with the above poster and would go to Bali for the entire time, and I would route there directly via SIN or KUL rather than through CGK.

I would not advocate going to Vietnam on such a short trip when there are so many other options that don't require visas. And I disagree with the above poster about Saigon: it ain't that great unless you're a single guy looking for... To go to Vietnam for 3 days in Saigon is pretty much not cost-effective--see it as part of a longer Vietnam trip in the future.

Thank you all for your feedback! That´s greatly appreciated!

The reason why I plan to purchase a ticket to CGK is that it seems to be amongst the if not the cheapest destination from CAI if you want to fly in either C or F. There´s really no other reason for me to go there.

Given your opinions on Jakarta itself, I will cut the stay there short. I would arrive at CGK at 5.40pm and will then head straight to the hotel. I would love to start the return flight the following evening, with a long stopover in SIN (see below). However, I guess that regardless of the negative sentiment towards JKT, I should rest one day before embarking on my return flight, even if it would be only a short hop from CGK to SIN. Well, not 100% about this "I need to rest part" but it seems most reasonable to me, for now. :D

Based on your feedback and what I was told by a friend, I have updated the itinerary as follows:

22.04.2011 LHR - FRA - CAI - FRA - CGK
23.04.2011 5.40pm, arriving at CGK
24.04.2011 CGK
25.04.2011 CGK - SIN (dep 7pm)
26.04.2011 SIN
27.04.2011 SIN
28.04.2011 SIN - BKK (AirAsia??)
29.04.2011 BKK
30.04.2011 BKK
01.05.2011 BKK - SIN - Fra - CAI - Fra - LHR
02.05.2011 Arriving at LHR at 10.xx pm

So, I gave up the idea of going to KUL and opted (so far) for BKK instead. Hope this makes sense.

Again, thank you all for providing your thoughts and comments. It´s always great to hear other people´s opinions.

Cheers and best

DUS

Noting that you're allowing two days each in Singapore and Bangkok respectively and assuming the timeframe 25/4 to 1/5 is locked in, I'd suggest that you cut Singapore to one day and add the extra day to Bangkok. This is not ideal but I personally feel there's more to see and do in Bangkok. Of course if you can make it two days in Singapore and three in Bangkok, that would be perfect.

My suggested "fine tuning" and comments in bold:

The 24th is a Sunday, it will be relatively traffic-quiet in central Jakarta city so stay there. You can rest or hit some sightseeing highlights like Old Town, Museum, Square, etc. in a full day. Leave earlier on Monday, it will get you to Singapore by lunch and you'd pick up a more useable 1/2 day in Singapore vs an aggravating one in Jakarta. Change your departure to BKK for evening of the 27th, that's the better part of 2.5 days in SIN which is fine for an intro. I suggest skipping AirAsia for schedule reliability reasons and using SG or TG, might as well get some more miles, even if you need to fly economy. This gives you more useable time in BKK, and your hotel night for the 27th spent in BKK vs SIN will be cheaper for same class of accomm.

Thanks, guys!

I would love to take a morning flight from CGK to SIN, just to win that extra time in SIN and to fly out to BKK a day before my current schedule, however, my ticket would be on LH (CAI - CGK) and there is only 1 evening flight that I could take on my return via SIN; and that´s the flight departing at 19:00. :-(

In this situation, you can either maximize your flight/mileage requirements, or you can maximize your brief time in SE Asia. Sorry I was operating under impression you wanted the latter, when it's actually the former that's the driver. I think now that you have made your very specific airline flight constraints clear, you really didn't need anybody's advice, you should just craft any combination around what's available for you to fly, and see whatever you can manage between flights.

jiejie,

I haven´t booked yet so all your feedback here is valued and appreciated by me. I might even change the flight plan given the feedback in this thread.

Cheers
DUS

The same can be said about Bangkok (the part about being good for "a single guy looking for...")!! Even Singapore is the same-- I lived in Joo Chiat, so had to walk through the girls to get to the market.

But in all seriousness, I completely disagree with your characterization of Saigon. While you are certainly entitled to your opinion, my family (and many of my colleagues and their families) routinely would take weekend trips to Saigon from Singapore. There are some nice hotels, nice restaurants, good shopping, etc. It's simply wrong to suggest that all there is to do here is pick up hookers. Additionally, Saigon is one of the easier places to get in and out quickly, so the notion that you should only see it as part of a larger tour of the country is in my mind really bad advice. In fact, if you want to see the "rest" of Vietnam, my advice is to skip the 2 main cities and just get right on the road to other places., since that transit will really eat up lots of time!

Plus Jetstar has supercheap flights from SIN to SGN, so I'd skip KUL and spend a couple of days in SGN.

I'm not going to get into a debate with you about Saigon, except that it most certainly NOT one of the easier places in SE Asia to get in/out of quickly, compared to what's already on the OP's list of options. Not to mention having to spring for the trouble and cost of a Vietnam visa, all for only a couple days? Seriously?! It's just not a compelling enough destination to warrant the trouble at this time. For a first trip to SE Asia, the OP is better off sticking to what he's got, though I'm not jumping for joy at CGK but if that's the pivot point that makes the trip cost-effective, who am I to judge?

Your or my opinion of Saigon is really beside the point. It simply doesn't make sense on this sort of mileage-run focused type trip of such short duration, for the OP to waste good LH mileage-earning opportunities on flying Jetstar to Saigon, or even to go to Vietnam on this particular trip. I think no matter how his flight selection limitations end up between CGK, SIN and BKK, the OP will certainly be able to hit some highlights in each location, see 3 very different places, and have a rewarding trip, even if it is brief.

I totally agree with jiejie and I've lived in most of the places mentioned.
Jakarta is definitely not a tourist town, although there are numerous places one ought to visit in Indonesia.

I would recommend, in this order, for just sightseeing/shopping/eating:
Bkk first
KL and HCMC - tied for second
Singapore third

And the discussion about single man, hookers, etc. is completely off-topic. Not trying to be a prude but what's been stated is factually just wrong ;)