I’m in Kuala Lumpur right now, relaxing and trying to regroup. This is what I’m trying to figure out right now.
There are two hotels in the KL Sentral, a Hilton and a Le Meridian. The Hilton has a boring lobby and restaurants but awesome rooms with an open bathroom and wood floors. I stayed here last year and blogged it. The Le Meridian has boring smaller rooms, but the lobby and bar is pretty nice, they have a cigar lounge and for US$40, you can purchase access to a lounge that includes free Wi-Fi, free beer, food and beverages and a nice view. The interesting thing is that the Hilton is more expensive for just a room, but if you get a room at the Le Meridian and you purchase lounge access, it’s the same price as the Hilton, sans the benefit of the club floor.
Since the two hotels share the same building, they both share the pool and access to KL Sentral, what’s the verdict? Here it is: If you’re with someone and plan to spend a lot of time in the room, stay at the Hilton. The rooms are bigger and much nicer with flat screen TV, open bathrooms and big wide beds. If you’re looking for a nice place to crash and you’re not going to spend that much time in the room, stay at the Le Meridian. If you don’t buy club level access, it’s cheaper and if you do, you can make up the price of the club level add on by drinking lots of beer, having brekkie and happy hour there and drinking lots of coffee. Those things can add up if you purchase them elsewhere and the view can’t be beat!
Actually, I’m in the lounge right now, having a lunch of Guinness Foreign Extra and nuts. I’m sure FA would approve…
The infamous ANA Pokemon Jet…
Last week, I wound up at Tokyo Haneda (HND) Airport for a short hop to Sapporo via New Chitose Airport (CTS) for a few days. Besides reveling at the fact that HND is a MUCH nicer airport than NRT and that their observation deck has a snack bar, I found this travesty at the gates.
Yes, it’s THAT jet…the ANA Pokemon Jet.
I shouldn’t have said anything because that jet became MY jet for the 1.5 hour flight to CTS. Here’s the obligatory close up of one of the most silliest liveries to grace a Boeing 747-400.
It shows that ANA has a sense of fun, since there is one other Pokemon jet in the fleet as well as a flying panda and a couple of Snoopy based jets as well. You want Kitty-Chan? You’ll have to fly EVA for that one!
Inside, the head rests were covered by Pokemon covers but otherwise, it was standard ANA in the rest of the cabin. No cabin attendants dressed up as Pikachu. Service was pretty good for a short hop. Apparently, the HND/NRT-CTS route is one of the busiest in the world and the loads are so high that they regularly fly jumbos on this route. They also fly itty bitty CRJs on this route as well, which was my return flight into NRT. There’s something not very nice about a plane where you can’t even stand up straight in the aisle!
This route is also hella expensive unless you get the mega discount 8 weeks ahead fare and then it’s close to 30000 yen. I got a round trip with two weeks advance for 22000 yen and got UA MP EQM for the flights on top of it. How? I purchased the ANA Skypass before I left the US. Info here (why should I type it when I can link it)?
Something Useful when visiting the PRC…
I found a blog with useful tidbits about mainland China and Hong Kong travel.
http://annatam.com/
She also has a handful of entries on how to get from Hong Kong to SZX to take advantage of the MUCH lower flight prices to other parts of the PRC. For some goofy reason, Hong Kong is considered “international” when flying into the PRC. Tickets are hella expensive. However, when you cross the border into Shenzhen and fly out of SZX, flights are considered “domestic” and are at LEAST half the price. Think of it as taking public transit from my house in San Francisco to OAK. About the same amount of time involved.
If you’ve got some time, best to save some RMB, huh?
Why do I deal with Comcast?
This is why!
Generally, it works more often than it doesn’t. Also, unlike Dish, I can use my TiVo!
Apple? Dull? Netbooks?
Flying, generally, isn’t a completely bad thing, if done properly. One of the things that has to be done “properly” is learning how to pack. Baggage should be light, as well as the non-clothing things that are now travel essentals.
I’ve been a MacHead for close to two decades now. I’m of the opinion that the MacOS is the best operating system for end user use and general headache avoidance. However, after spending the past couple of years lugging a MacBrickBook around the world, I’ve come to a realization about what I really use a comp for when I’m traveling.
Email, websurfing, blogging, booking travel, photo dumping (from the camera’s memory card) and Skype.
Many of the netbooks out there can do all these things AND are a lot easier to lug around airports and the like. The problem is that the wizards at Infinite Loop refuse to build a netbook. Period. Which is a pain, considering the last true portable Apple made was the 12″ aluminum that, if you ignore the warped cases, the G4 that generated enough heat to make shabu shabu and the squishy keyboard, was the perfect size for flashpacking. So, since Apple won’t make one, guess it’s time to make one myself. Kinda.
I held my nose and ordered a Dell Inspiron Mini 9 netbook. Since it’s bad enough to order a Dell Dull, and worse off to have to pay for windoze, I ordered the bare bones stock model with Unbuntu on a 4 GB SSD, 512K RAM, a webcam and bluetooth since it’s MUCH cheaper to order the upgrade bits through third party vendors. 32 GB SSD and 2 GB RAM for under US$100.
Now, why have I sullied my credit card to a company that makes crap pee cees that only IT geeks and people that don’t know any better worship? Because, they got it right with the Mini 9. It’s a good form factor, the screen is not too big or too small and you can actually do real work with it. Did I mention that you can install OSX on it? Yes you can!
Now here’s the question. Are these netbooks made of precious metals? Made by hand by skilled artesians? Nope. Then why does it take a MONTH?? I’ll update when and if it ever gets here…
Asia Beckons
Now that I’m used to spending at least 10 hours on a plane again, it’s time to plan my return to Asia…
Vietnam via Top Gear
I just finished watching Top Gear’s Vietnam special, where the challenge was to ride clunker bikes from Saigon to Halong Bay with no support, along with the usual TG silliness. You’ve got an hour fifteen? Watch these.
Top+Gear+Vietnam+Special+-+Part+1
Part 1
Top+Gear+Vietnam+Special+-+Part+2
Part 2
It reminded me of my trip to Hanoi a few years back, especially with all the bikes and traffic. Also how terrific looking the countryside and coast looks too. Riding the coast from South to North has been on my list of “stuff to do” for a long time now and although I’d love to do it on my V-Strom or even a BMW GS (R or F), I’ll probably wind up doing it on one of the locally available bikes, which would be the right thing to do, both for fitting in and for ease of repair. Yeah, nothing like travel shows to whet the appetite of the wanderlust monster inside all of us…
The world famous BMW Museum Featuring cars, motorcycles and engines (marine and aircraft). Part 2
I chose to break this up into two parts because there’s a lot of photos.
The 507 gets a special nod here. Not only because it’s probably one of, if not the most beatutiful BMW ever made, it was a car that helped put BMW on the map in the 1950s. This model was also imported to the USA in small quantities which helped establish the brand there.
And here’s the Z8, the modern interpretation of the 507.
The 02 series was BMW’s first mass market seller and put them on the map. It saved the company and as befitting such an important model, it gets its own space.
There’s so much more to see here…need to return.
BMW Museum
Am Olympiapark 2
80809 Munich
The world famous BMW Museum Featuring cars, motorcycles and engines (marine and aircraft). Part 1
The draw here, for those of us not collecting a car for European Delivery, is the Museum.
When you enter, there is this mobile of every model that BMW has made over the years. The museum consists of two main parts, motorcycles and cars, with a small Motorsport section.
Although I like motorrad, the draw for me are the cars. Every iconic BMW is here in mint condition as well as their recent cars.
More in Part 2
M! The most powerful letter!
Here’s a teaser from my recent visit to the BMW Museum in Munich. This was one of my favourite parts of the museum.
What’s the most powerful letter in the alphabet? M!
This traffic jam consists of ALL the M class cars ever produced. I learned that the M635csi is a true collector’s piece because it’s just a good looking car, the first generation M5 came in other colors besides black, and the first M3 (E30) is still a good looking car and the previous M3 (E46) looks pretty damn good too!
To get a feel on just how motorhead the museum is, here’s the engine exhibit; every M engine that was made for the cars you just saw. Artsy!
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