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East/South-East Asia Trip Suggestions



 
 
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  #21  
Old March 8th, 2009, 09:23 PM posted to alt.travel,rec.travel.air,rec.travel.asia,rec.travel.cruises
Steve[_20_]
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Posts: 11
Default East/South-East Asia Trip Suggestions

"Alfred Molon" wrote in message
...
Also the time is quite tight, if you want to visit all these four
cities. Skip Beijing, because it is not a nice city. Instead of Hong
Kong visit Seoul, which is more interesting. Tokyo is very nice, but
you'll need at least 4-5 days, better one week.


Based on the feedback here, I think I would cut it down to three cities.
Probably HK, Tokyo and Singapore.

Quite fancy Seoul though. I would maybe do Seoul and Beijing on another
trip.

There are nice beaches not too far from Singapore, so you could spend
the beach time there. Tioman island for instance has direct flight
connections with Singapore.


Good idea. Bintan is supposed to be 45 minutes away by ferry and have nice
beaches and water.


  #22  
Old March 8th, 2009, 09:24 PM posted to alt.travel,rec.travel.air,rec.travel.asia,rec.travel.cruises
Alfred Molon[_6_]
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Posts: 996
Default East/South-East Asia Trip Suggestions

In article , MC says...

Did not the OP want to visit the cities? I believe 2 or 3 days is plenty in
Singapore and thus I think you are very wrong in you conclusions but
everyone to their own tastes and opinions I suppose.


The OP mentioned that he wants to spend a few days on a beach if there
is sufficient time:

Quoting:
"I would like to visit some cities - plus potentially some historic
sites and possibly have some time on a beach."

As a historic site he could visit Angkor.
--

Alfred Molon
http://www.molon.de - Photos of Asia, Africa and Europe
  #23  
Old March 8th, 2009, 10:04 PM posted to alt.travel,rec.travel.air,rec.travel.asia,rec.travel.cruises
Steve Cain
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Posts: 246
Default East/South-East Asia Trip Suggestions


"Steve" wrote in message
...
"Alfred Molon" wrote in message
...
Also the time is quite tight, if you want to visit all these four
cities. Skip Beijing, because it is not a nice city. Instead of Hong
Kong visit Seoul, which is more interesting. Tokyo is very nice, but
you'll need at least 4-5 days, better one week.


Based on the feedback here, I think I would cut it down to three cities.
Probably HK, Tokyo and Singapore.

Quite fancy Seoul though. I would maybe do Seoul and Beijing on another
trip.

There are nice beaches not too far from Singapore, so you could spend
the beach time there. Tioman island for instance has direct flight
connections with Singapore.


Good idea. Bintan is supposed to be 45 minutes away by ferry and have nice
beaches and water.

Give your taxi commute plenty of time via taxi to the Tanah Merah Ferry
Terminal.

Check with a reliable source as to the time to allow. You don't want a 2
hour interim
if you just miss a ferry. s


  #24  
Old March 8th, 2009, 10:58 PM posted to alt.travel,rec.travel.air,rec.travel.asia,rec.travel.cruises
Chris Blunt[_2_]
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Posts: 171
Default East/South-East Asia Trip Suggestions

On Sun, 8 Mar 2009 17:12:04 -0000, "MC" wrote:

"Alfred Molon" wrote in message
...
In article , Bob Myers says...


If you want to make a comparison, compare Hong Kong with Kuala Lumpur.
Both will keep you busy for a couple of days, but not much more than
that.


How many times have you been to HK? Not many and not for long if you think
this. I have been many, many times and each time I find something new to
do, see or experience. Kuala Lumpur is not half as good IMO and not even in
the same league as HK so cannot be compared as such.


I lived in Hong Kong for almost 15 years, and even now when I go back
I can find something new to discover that I had never got around to
seeing before. There are so many outlying islands and country parks
where you can lose yourself for hours, and where you would never
believe you were such a short a distance away from a modern developed
city. There is actually an awful lot of history to discover if you
take the time to get hold of the right reference materials and do some
research in advance.

Chris
  #25  
Old March 8th, 2009, 10:58 PM posted to alt.travel,rec.travel.air,rec.travel.asia,rec.travel.cruises
Chris Blunt[_2_]
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Posts: 171
Default East/South-East Asia Trip Suggestions

On Sun, 8 Mar 2009 10:03:02 +0100, Alfred Molon
wrote:

In article , Markku Grönroos says...

"Alfred Molon" kirjoitti
s.com...
In article , Chris Blunt
says...

I have to agree with Bob. If there was only one city in Asia he could
visit, it should be Hong Kong.

You are joking, right? There are zillions of cities in Asia which are
orders of magnitude more interesting than Hong Kong.
--

The beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. I recall when it was most
fashionable to describe Singapore as "sterile" and "dull". In my opinion
neither of the two attributes were prevalent in town


There are 47 UNESCO world heritage sites in China alone:
http://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/cn

Hong Kong is not one of them. Even Macau is listed.


Indeed, but those sites are distributed all over China and are often
quite remote. If you were to go to any one of those places, in most
cases, there would be little else of interest in that particular area.

What we are trying to do here is to identify individual locations that
have a wide variety of things to see in as short a time as possible.
The original poster has only a limited amount of time available and
would want to spend as little of it as possible moving from one
location to another. One of the reasons I suggested Hong Kong is
because distances are short and local transport is efficient. You can
pack a lot of different activities into a single day there.

Chris
  #26  
Old March 8th, 2009, 10:58 PM posted to alt.travel,rec.travel.air,rec.travel.asia,rec.travel.cruises
Chris Blunt[_2_]
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Posts: 171
Default East/South-East Asia Trip Suggestions

On Sun, 8 Mar 2009 20:18:23 -0000, "Steve" wrote:

"MC" wrote in message
.. .
"Steve" wrote in message
...
I'm based in the UK and I fancy a trip to East and/or South-East Asia. My
budget is around £2000 for the trip (plus spending money), I have up to 3
weeks holiday available and I'll be going sometime between August and
December.

I would like to visit some cities - plus potentially some historic sites
and possibly have some time on a beach. I would however be happy just
visiting interesting cities. The cities that interest me are Hong Kong,
Tokyo, Singapore and Beijing.


OK. Having experienced all these places I would suggest the following:

1. Fly to Hong Kong and spend about 5 days - Less of an immediate culture
shock and a place to definately experience. A wonderful, colourful and
vibrant (always busy) place and I think everyone should experience Hong
Kong at least once. Treat yourself to a new camera or something while
there )

2. Fly on to Beijing and spend 7 days - A fascinating place only just
getting to grips with western ways. Loads of places to visit if you want
to experience the old chinese culture and way of life.

3. Fly onto Tokyo and spend 7 days - Well, Japan is Japan and can be a
great mix of ultra modern and ultra old. Would not stay in Tokyo though I
would use it as a base, maybe, for other trips in and around Japan.


Sounds good.

Forget Singapore. A good transit city on your way to other places but only
good for 2 or 3 day stopovers IMO.


I think Singapore is a must because the wife will want to visit at least one
beach.


If you're including Singapore mainly for the beach then you could
probably choose a better destination than that. Cities and beaches
don't normally go well together, so it may be better to schedule a
side-trip to somewhere like Phuket or one of the Malaysian resorts.
There are direct flights to Phuket from many cities in the region and
you can be on a good beach within a couple of hours of landing. I'm
not so familiar with Malaysia, so perhaps someone else will make some
suggestions.

Chris
  #27  
Old March 9th, 2009, 02:30 AM posted to alt.travel,rec.travel.air,rec.travel.asia,rec.travel.cruises
Bob Myers
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Posts: 204
Default East/South-East Asia Trip Suggestions

Alfred Molon wrote:

I've been two times in Hong Kong.


This explains much. How long, each time? Where did you
go, and what did you see? I have a suspicion - well, more like
a certainty - that you've missed a LOT of what HK has to
offer.

Bob M.


  #28  
Old March 9th, 2009, 02:32 AM posted to alt.travel,rec.travel.air,rec.travel.asia,rec.travel.cruises
Bob Myers
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Posts: 204
Default East/South-East Asia Trip Suggestions

Alfred Molon wrote:
In article , Bob Myers says...

I guess Alfred judges a city solely on its "historical" content,


No, I never said so.

But it is also true that HK is essentially a jungle of skyscrapers. It
has a breathtaking skyline, but everything else is very mediocre.


HK island itself, around Central, certainly. But Hong Kong is
so much more than just Central.


Hong Kong is not in the same league as Tokyio. Two or max. three days
are sufficient for Hong Kong, while after one week in Tokyo you have
barely scratched the surface.


Actually, for most people a week spent in Tokyo would be
more than enough - especially if that's the only time they've
got to spend in Japan. There's certainly more for the dedicated
Tokyophile to see and do after a week, but I would never
recommend that the first-time visitor to Japan spend a week
there if that was all the time they had. Three days, perhaps,
and then move on. Would you really have someone spend a
week in Tokyo if it meant they wouldn't get to see, say, Kyoto
or even Kamakura, Hakone, and the rest of the Fuji area? (Or
are you considering that latter to still be part of "Tokyo"?)

And I could certainly put together an itinerary for more than
just 2-3 days in Hong Kong which would have the visitor
seeing something new and interesting each and every day...

Bob M.


  #29  
Old March 9th, 2009, 02:39 AM posted to alt.travel,rec.travel.air,rec.travel.asia,rec.travel.cruises
Bob Myers
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Posts: 204
Default East/South-East Asia Trip Suggestions

Steve wrote:
"Alfred Molon" wrote in message
...
Also the time is quite tight, if you want to visit all these four
cities. Skip Beijing, because it is not a nice city. Instead of Hong
Kong visit Seoul, which is more interesting. Tokyo is very nice, but
you'll need at least 4-5 days, better one week.


Based on the feedback here, I think I would cut it down to three
cities. Probably HK, Tokyo and Singapore.


Sounds like a good plan. JUST Tokyo, though, or are you
planning on getting some other cities in Japan covered as well?
I forget how much time you were planning on spending there.
If you're looking for historical sites, for instance, it's rather slim
pickings in Tokyo proper compared to some other popular tourist
destinations (Kyoto especially). I love Tokyo, but that whole
area suffers greatly from having been bombed pretty much into
oblivion in the Second World War - whereas Kyoto and a couple
of other historically significant sites in Japan were left untouched.
Tokyo is an amazing, modern, vibrant city, but you really need to
emphasize that word "modern." Very little of what you'll see
will date back much earlier than the 1960s.

Quite fancy Seoul though. I would maybe do Seoul and Beijing on
another trip.


If you do that, don't forget to look into Shanghai; a good deal more
"accessible" for the average Western tourist than Beijing. I wouldn't
miss either, if at all possible.

Bob M.


  #30  
Old March 9th, 2009, 05:11 AM posted to alt.travel,rec.travel.air,rec.travel.asia,rec.travel.cruises
MC
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Posts: 31
Default East/South-East Asia Trip Suggestions

"Bob Myers" wrote in message
...
Steve wrote:
"Alfred Molon" wrote in message
...
Also the time is quite tight, if you want to visit all these four
cities. Skip Beijing, because it is not a nice city. Instead of Hong
Kong visit Seoul, which is more interesting. Tokyo is very nice, but
you'll need at least 4-5 days, better one week.


Based on the feedback here, I think I would cut it down to three
cities. Probably HK, Tokyo and Singapore.


Sounds like a good plan. JUST Tokyo, though, or are you
planning on getting some other cities in Japan covered as well?
I forget how much time you were planning on spending there.
If you're looking for historical sites, for instance, it's rather slim
pickings in Tokyo proper compared to some other popular tourist
destinations (Kyoto especially). I love Tokyo, but that whole
area suffers greatly from having been bombed pretty much into
oblivion in the Second World War - whereas Kyoto and a couple
of other historically significant sites in Japan were left untouched.
Tokyo is an amazing, modern, vibrant city, but you really need to
emphasize that word "modern." Very little of what you'll see
will date back much earlier than the 1960s.

Quite fancy Seoul though. I would maybe do Seoul and Beijing on
another trip.


If you do that, don't forget to look into Shanghai; a good deal more
"accessible" for the average Western tourist than Beijing. I wouldn't
miss either, if at all possible.


Another interesting place. In some ways you could be forgiven in thinking
Shanghai is similar to the early days of modern Hong Kong. In fact I think
Shanghai is definately trying to be the new Hong Kong and in many ways is,
IMO, succeeding but it still has an awful long way to go (well at least it
did when I was there 4 years ago).

MC


 




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