It took me couple of hours surfing online to get to what I really wanted to do and to keep my family occupied. I personally wanted city tours to have a quick good glimpse of the city, some activities for our teenage girl and an aquarium tour for my water-loving husband including night safari, caves/temples tour, and cultural tours. Beach holiday was not an option since there are plenty resorts and beaches near our vicinity. For Christmas 2014, we initially thought of going to South Africa but with Ebola scare in the African region, we opted out. Asian destination was the second choice and so we thought of going back to Singapore since my daughter and I haven't really explored the city in our 4 days stay last September 2014 since it was mainly intended for the volleyball competition hosted by a prestigious international school.
Firstly, I compared the airfare and destinations. Budget airlines chosen where Cebu Pacific and Air Asia. I found out that flying from Clark (CRK) to KUL is way more expensive than flying out from CRK-SG. So, I decided to do the CRK-SG route and secured our seats with Cebu Pacific. Then I checked what else could be done from SG. I thought of Tri-City Tour (SG-Batam-KL). Batam, Indonesia could be accessed from SG via ferry but we would need more days to stay in Singapore. There are so many things to do in SG and 4 days is not enough for us---Resorts World in Sentosa Island, City Tour, Gardens By the Bay, The Eye, and a lot more. Final decision was, Indonesia could be done some other time. Afterwards, I finally secured the return seats to Philippines via KUL-CRK using Air Asia's service to grab the last seat on promo in time for the Christmas season.
Singapore (SG) is not new to us but it's our first time in KL City although we have been in the airport a few times on transit trips to Europe. I would like to explore the city and the neighboring cities if possible. Sentosa in SG and Legoland in Malaysia were definitely on the card. I happen to read about Malacca/Melaka being a UNESCO World Heritage Site and it tickled my curiosity especially with its fascinating history with the Portuguese, the Dutch & the British conquistadors so I decided to include it in our tour. But my biggest ordeal was the transportation issues. Never been outside SG and also the airport in KL, so I don't know how the bus and train system works, in Malaysia how worse the traffic is and how trustworthy the taxi drivers are. I seldom take the taxis in Manila because of the negative publicity against taxi drivers, so can I trust the drivers in KL? I had good encounters among the taxi drivers in SG, would that apply to KL too? So many questions in my mind which were partially answered by various forums online.
In my search for ways on how to travel from Legoland, Malaysia to Malacca/Melaka, I found out how cheap a flight is from Johor Bahru (JHB) to anywhere in Malaysia like Malacca City, Kota Kinabalu, George Town, KL, etc, that I ended up booking JHB to KL instead of travelling by land for approximately 5 hours. Availed Air Asia flight rather than Firefly for I never heard of Firefly in Philippines yet.... no offense intended. Travelling by bus from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, passing by Johor Bahru and Malacca could be done and is cheap but it's a hassle with luggage for three to tag along. The overnight in Malacca was designed to cut the long travel to KL but getting to the World Heritage Site is another issue. I also thought of taxi, transfer, or car rental but it was just a lot to worry. One-way transfer service using Economy Toyota MPV or car rental for 12 hours with driver was my option but it was so expensive. From SG to Legoland was quoted at S$178, Legoland to Malacca transfer could fetch up to S$340 while SG-Legoland-Malacca rental starts at S$600, excluding toll fee and extension fee of S$35 per hour after 12 hours. Imagine my delight paying one-way airfare from JHB-KUL for three persons for only S$150! I would like our tour to be as comfortable as possible and to go smoothly. I may be the control freak in this aspect but I have a family to protect and to keep safe in an unknown place, so it should be well-planned. Flying was not the cheapest but definitely the quickest option from JHB to KUL. More stories regarding the attractions and accommodations on different posts.
After the airline bookings were sorted, hotels were booked. Had 4-star hotels in both city centers to be near the attractions. I wanted to spoil ourselves a bit since this was a Christmas holiday. Hotel bookings were done via Agoda using a link from HSBC to avail the extra 5% discount. That was a good deal. With regards to the attractions in both cities, I used Asia Travel thru HSBC which had good tour selections and very affordable. I could have booked the hotels as well with Asia Travel (thru HSBC) for this website offers lower rate but the website presentation was better in Agoda. I needed extra bed for my teenage girl which could be easily seen in the latter hotel but was sometimes not offered in the former. Besides, the extra 5% discount compensated for the difference.... nice. :)
All in all, the D-I-Y tour from SG to KL saved me approximately US$1600 from the travel agency's price quote. That gave me enough spending money for KL shopping! Bukit Bintang, Suria Mall, 1Utama, here I come! Sweet! :)
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