What does this mean? I don't know what a "lifestyle thing" is.

Can somebody please answer these questions regarding Bali?

MNL cant hold a candle? Not if you are a single man:cool:;)

Does marital status have an effect on finding a hub for SE Asian travel? The OP has already stated they are married with two young children.

Answers to questions about DPS
 

Per Kayak.com, looks like about 6 hours, not including layover time. I checked going through SIN, which is about 2hr from DPS. SIN to HAN is about 3.5 hrs.

Dunno. See www.kayak.com or your favorite travel site/agent.

No idea about the mafia question, nor the cab fare. My suggestion to the OP (and anyone else) is to hire a car for a day if you need to do any significant driving. The car should come with a driver. Strongly suggest you NOT drive yourself there.

Don't really know that much about the public transport in Bali (buses mainly, there are no trains like the MRT in SIN), but if you're staying in Kuta, Sanur or Nusa Dua, or other fairly populated area, its easy to get a cab to/from the airport. Of course, your hotel may also offer a shuttle. Within each area, I think there is enough transport to get you around that area. Nusa Dua for example, has frequent shuttles to and from the hotels the little shopping/dining plaza and the golf course. It's when you want to go from one to the other where I think its best to have your own vehicle.

Don't know anything about BKK, but I think Bali is a little more limited than SIN and KUL. In SIN, you can get just about anything you're looking for - Japanese, Indian, American, Italian, French, etc. etc. - and at many different price points. Bali has a pretty wide variety too, which is obviously driven by the tourists. But, quality is more varied. There are also Russian restaurants there. I mentioned in a previous post that many Javanese do not like local Balinese food - at least, those that I know. I think its relatively bland compared to some of the spicy dishes you can get in Java.

Never had to use them in DPS, so not speaking from experience, but I think they are adequate for minor issues (simple ER cases) and to stabilize a patient in more serious cases prior to flying out to get care from a specialist in say, SIN, DRW, maybe CGK.

Strongly disagree. Maybe for you it is, but a decent case can be made for DPS. See my earlier post about this. At least one other post has mentioned pretty low airfares vs. Oz at least. So there are definitely pluses to DPS.

Airfares need to be compared to BKK, KUL, SIN not Oz. Oz isn't even in the running.

For airfares SIN is definitely the best, as Tiger is more often than not significantly cheaper than Airasia.
One example: HKG/MFM-SIN-SGN is at times half the price of HKG/MFM-BKK-SGN (I live in Hong Kong)
even KUL-SIN-final destination could be an economic option.

OP is going with family.

I think we're all aware there's something to go to MNL for. Food, history, safety are not on that list.

[QUOTE=illinidad;18024909]First, hope this is a fantastic experience for your family, especially the children. What great memories this will make.[quote]

Agreed.

Why? DPS has few direct flights. It's on the edge of SE Asia in the same way the HKG is on the edge - and you outright cut HKG from your list. Getting to BKK, SGN, HAN, VTE, RGN, KUL from DPS is at least as long as HKG or MNL and yet you knocked both of those off your list.

DPS would be a great place for OP to visit in their 3 months, I don't see it as a feasible hub.

KUL isn't a bad choice. I'd rate it second to BKK. :D

Culture shock that a 3 month visit begets is very different from that an expat learns about.

Pronunciation can be problematic, it's why I learned to read Thai. :D

Understandably this is not an option for the normal tourist, but there are many people who have lived in Thailand for years and barely know how to introduce themselves in Thai. For what OP desires to do the language barrier won't be problematic in Thailand.

"'s Hertogenbosch" and "Den Bosch" are interchangeable, unlike, for instance, 's Gravenhage and Den Haag ("The Hague"), where 's Gravenhage is considered antiquated.

But yeah, it's a real bummer the way road signs don't reflect the dual name situation. It must be horrendous to be driving around endlessly trying to find "Den Bosch", which your map says is right there, but meanwhile it's nowhere to be found on any road sign.

This can happen in other places too, including Singapore where New Bridge Road is briefly Eu Tong Sen Street :)

Nope -- it looks like a single ordinary road to us mere mortals, but New Bridge Rd is the southbound lanes, and Eu Tong Sen St is the northbound lanes! :eek:

with a covered canal in the middle?

Yup!

Thought I should give an update. We did make the trip and decided on Kuala Lumpur for our main "hub" as we traveled around SE Asia for 4 months.

From our base, we did trips to Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore and the island of Borneo (Malaysian side).

For our circumstance we felt like we made a great choice. We did Singapore (a lot more expensive - yet nice) and Bangkok (dirty, crazy and a bit cheaper).

KUL had a lot to offer our family and we didn't get bored. We found a furnished condo 100 yards from the Petronas Towers so we were able to walk to shops and restaurants and taxis are very reasonable. English is widely spoken and the variety of cultures kept things interesting. There were a number of different holidays/festivals while we were there.

We used Air Asia (I think we had 10 different RT flights) and they were a great airline. Clean, never once late. I signed up for their email newsletter so I got notified when they were running a sale. For the really cheap tickets you need to book quite a bit in advance. KUL is their hub so it was non-stop flights everywhere we went.

Thanks to everyone who gave meaningful advice which helped us plan our trip.

Thanks for updating. Glad to hear you had a great time!