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#21
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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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