3 days at The Westin Langkawi

We were all excited to get to Langkawi because we had heard it was beautiful and the girls were looking forward to doing something they would like. These four plane tickets and baggage fees were the most expensive intra-Asia flights and all in were $438.

The flight to Langkawi was uneventful but as was the case with most of our transfers, we managed to pick the worst line for immigration. We were just about the last people through, but at least our luggage was ready to go. We had a bit of confusion about where to find a cab, but eventually found the cab stand.

They have a nice system where you go to the cab stand, tell them where you are going, and there is a fixed price. You pay the people at the counter and they give you a slip you take out to the cab line. The hotel was about 30 minutes away and the cab was only $11. While Joe was getting cash from the ATM and setting up the cab, I got some snacks from a Starbucks in the terminal.

The cab was quick and easy and the drive reminded us a lot of Bali, only a bit nicer. We arrived at the Westin Langkawi at about 2:00pm but our room wasn’t ready yet so they gave us a coupon for 50% off lunch. We went to one of the restaurants and Joe said to order whatever we wanted, probably for the first time since I have known him. He ordered a filet mignon for lunch (possibly the only meal he ordered entirely for himself on the entire trip) that was only $16 after the discount and the cheap Malaysia food prices.

It was a good start to our time at the resort, and the room was ready when we finished.

Where are the pools?

10 seconds of calm

50% off tastes good

As we mentioned before, we were focusing our stays primarily with Starwood and Hyatt on this trip, so we ended up picking the Westin over the Andaman, both Starwood properties. This was a fairly expensive redemption at 16,000 points per night, for a total of 48,000 for the 3 night stay, but it was supposed to be nice and we felt there would be a good chance at an upgrade. We applied three of our Suite Night Awards to this stay and they cleared five days before check-in and booked us into the One Bedroom Suite. It has a separate living and sleeping area, big patio overlooking the Andaman Sea and nice bathroom. It was on the first floor and very close to the pools.

Welcome amenity.  They traded out the wine for 2 cans of Diet Coke!

The resort had four pools and a beach area. It was not a great beach but to our surprise, the girls LOVED being at the beach. Despite some initial fear of the waves, both wanted to be at the beach as much as possible. They loved looking for shells, playing in the sand and wading in the water. This was a complete change from their previous beach experiences which they did not like at all.

We spent most of the afternoon at the pools and beach and then came back to the room for dinner. Room service at most of the places was quite affordable (compared to US room service prices) and the kids’ meals here were especially great. For about $4 the girls could get a great meal and big glass of milk. The adult meals were also quite good and reasonably priced, so we did room for all of our non-breakfast meals.

Main pool.  Our room was to the left of the picutre

Kids pool.  Played lots of "Randall" here

The Andaman Sea was very pretty

The best part of a suite with separate living and sleeping areas is being able to put the girls down and still be able to do things without the fear of waking them up. We got a crib for Lizzy and made the couch into a bed for Annie, which she loved. We stayed in our room, ordered dinner and started watching the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. We quickly noted that Lizzy does many things that remind us of Gollum.

Gollum

The girls slept great throughout the entire trip. While Annie woke up a couple of nights, Lizzy slept straight through every single night. 

Getting too big for hotel cribs!

The next morning, as we did every morning of the trip, we went to the complimentary breakfast. The Asian breakfast buffets are known to be very extensive, but we found ourselves not loving them. Joe hates buffets of all types, and with the girls, it is a bit of a chore to find something they will eat, get them going, and then go back to find something for us. It’s not that they are bad, but it would have been nice to just order the one or two things we wanted and not have to go to the buffet and fight the crowds.

We spent the morning at the pools, had lunch in the room, and then napped with the girls. After lunch we went and found the kids club and playground. Our girls were too young to be left, but we were allowed to use the facilities, which they loved. The kids club was indoors near the fitness center and had coloring, cars and bikes, balls, bubbles and lots of other toys. It was great and a nice way to keep them happy and give them a break from the sun.

My coverup looks super weird and unflattering

Ball pit at the kids club

We headed to the beach on the way back to the room and let them play there for about an hour right around sunset as they filled up buckets of water and poured it on the sand for most of the time. It was a really gorgeous setting and a very different view from the beach than we had ever experienced. The multiple islands shortly across the way made for some very beautiful scenery. We swam a bit in the pools to get the sand off us and then went back to the room for dinner, some Little Mermaid, baths and bedtime. Perhaps the best part of the trip was that each night, they were so tired from the day of activities that they were oftentimes asleep within a minute of being in bed. Lizzy even fell asleep sitting at the table one night. We continued watching Lord of the Rings and called it a night pretty early.



The third day was similar and the highlight was seeing a monkey walking around near the playground area.

The next morning it was already time to start packing up and getting ready for the flight to Kuala Lumpur. It was at this point that we realized we had planned in too many changes of location and were spending too much time packing, taking airport transfers, waiting in the airport, flying, and getting through customs. We looked at trying to remove one of the upcoming legs, but since we were trying to do this trip pretty cheaply, it was going to cost too much to make the changes. We decided to leave it as is, learn from our mistakes and make our plans less ambitious in the future.

We played at the pool for a few hours before heading back to the room and getting things ready for the next adventure.

Nerd alert

Sisters

Best friends

The cab was cheap and quick to the airport and we got there with plenty of time to spare. They had a local fast food chicken restaurant in the terminal, which somehow was completely out of chicken. We got the girls some curly fries, a giant Hersey’s Symphony Bar with Toffee and went through security. In the gate area, the Westin had a lounge for guests of the hotel. This was the first time I had seen a hotel have an airport lounge anywhere but the Maldives. We checked in there and found out that because we are Platinum with Starwood, all food and drinks were complimentary, which was nice because we had not really had lunch. We had some sandwiches and drinks, grabbed some waters and boarded the cheapest flight we have ever taken.

Bye bye Langkawi.  Hope to see you again soon!

Singapore, Round 2

When we visited Singapore in November of 2012, we never in a million years would have guessed we would be back just over a year later.  It was nice to land in Singapore and know a little bit of what to expect this time.  It was even more incredible to be here and not be jet lagged!

The cabs are efficient and one of the only things in Singapore that are cheap.  Our 25 minute ride to the hotel from the airport was under $25.  We checked into The Westin Singapore before 6pm and since it was still crowded for New Year’s we did not get a suite upgrade but had a nice room with big bathroom and closet area where Lizzy slept.

Picking a hotel in Singapore is always difficult because there are so many and none are inexpensive.  Last year we tried The St. Regis, The Grand Hyatt, The W Singapore - Sentosa Cove, the Marina Bay Sands Singapore and the Crowne Plaza Changi Airport.  While we strongly considered the W again since we liked the breakfast so much, it was just too expensive on the dates we were in town and the Westin was only a few months old and it is always fun to try something new.

We ended up using 12,000 Starwood points per night, for a total of 24,000 points for the stay.  We checked out with a $0 bill, which is always nice, but that was only a so-so use of Starwood points since the cash rate was around $335/night before taxes.   When we were booking this trip, we did want to start using up our significant point balances and not just wait for the perfect redemption.  However, in the future we will likely be a bit more discerning with our redemptions as we have found other good uses for these hard to come by Starwood points.

The hotel is in the financial district west of the marina area and about a 10-15 minute walk from the Marina Bay Sands complex.  For a downtown business hotel, the Westin had a surprisingly nice pool area with a beautiful infinity pool on the 32nd floor.  Overall, we thought the design was very nice and quite a beautiful business hotel.

The girls were starting to melt down shortly after we arrived (the reason we don't have any room pictures), and consequently Joe wasn’t in the best of moods, so we tried to grab dinner at the lounge and get the girls to bed.  It wasn’t a great night, but it is hard to blame the girls too much for their behavior.  Joe, on the other hand…

Annie slept with us in the king bed and she is a very mobile sleeper so we didn’t get a great night of sleep.  I woke up before the sun (which is easy to do anywhere but Tokyo) and worked out before the girls woke up. We went to the lounge for breakfast and the girls saw the pool just off the lounge so that meant nothing else would happen until we took them swimming.  Annie had a bit of a scare in the pool but recovered by the next day and had no problem getting back in.

The first of 14 days of restaurant breakfasts

Fruit shooters were a big hit

Joe and Annie with the cargo ships in the background

We walked for 15 minutes to the Marina Bay Sands hotel, casino and shopping complex where we stayed for a night during our 2012 Singapore trip.  We had lunch at Pizzeria Mozza and ordered two pizzas (Margarita and Spicy Salami) and the girls weren’t too interested in them.  Despite living 15 minutes from the original Pizzeria Mozza in Hollywood, the Singapore location is the only one I have been able to convince Joe to go to.  Since living in Tokyo, we've only been eating Dominoes and mediocre pizza from the American Club so Mozza was AMAZING.  At $52.15 for the four of us, it was also by far the most expensive meal we had on the entire trip.  

We walked around the giant, gorgeous mall and the girls really wanted to go on the gondola rides but Joe was too cheap to spend $30 to go on a 6 minute ride.  The girls found a mini “playground” on the way back to the hotel and played on the see-saw and swing for about 30 minutes.  There were some other tourists there who couldn't get enough of Annie and Lizzy and asked if it would be ok to take some pictures with them.  While this is a normal occurrence for us in Tokyo, I started to notice on our vacation that in addition to posing with the girls, these people weren't too shy to hug them, hold their hands and pick them up, which made me a tad bit squeamish. 

This woman took a ton of pictures (and some videos?) of our entire family. And of our family posing with her family. Bizarre

Marina Bay Sands in the background

It was hot and sunny!

After a pathetic excuse for a nap and a failed dinner in the lounge, we headed over to an indoor food garden right next door to our hotel.  The girls ate a salad from subway (meat and cheese for Lizzy, veggies for Annie).  To our delight there was also an Ippudo Express, which is a branch of our favorite Ramen shop in Tokyo!  Lizzy and I then shared a frozen yogurt from Red Mango, which brought back good memories of Pinkberry (tear).  With full bellies we walked back over to the marina area for a night light show on the water which the girls loved and another walk around the shopping area.

Our favorite Tokyo food!

Singapore Skyline

Light show at the marina -  used some of the same effects as World of Color at California Adventure

Lizzy's curls agreed with Singapore humidity

We got up the next morning, had breakfast and grabbed a cab to the airport.  This transfer was even cheaper at $18 and we headed to the Air Asia check-in area, got rid of our bags, and headed to our gate.  Luckily, we found a great indoor playground on the way to the gate where the girls played for about 30 minutes. It was by far the most fun they had during our time in Singapore.  In hindsight, it was also the turning point in their behavior.   From this point forward, they were pretty good for the most part.  We couldn't really blame them for their poor behavior on this leg or the trip, as they had just endured a long day of travel from Tokyo not to mention the skipped naps, restless nights, poor eating and lack of kid centered activities.

The most fun part of the girls' trip

Singapore bear had lots of fun on the trip as well

We lost track of time a bit and had to rush to the gate, complicated a bit by Lizzy deciding to fill her diaper on the way.  After a quick change we boarded the Air Asia flight for the hour long flight to Langkawi.

January 2014 Trip Planning

January 2014 Trip Planning

We began planning our trip in July or August, at the height of the brutal Tokyo summer, with somewhere in Southeast Asia as the goal.  Since we had not previously traveled through the area much, we could pick just about anywhere and it would be new and exciting.  We decided to try to get down towards Singapore and Kuala Lumpur to take advantage of some affordable intra-Asia flights on the low cost carriers there.  We also decided to go in 2014 because it would help Joe start re-qualifying for hotel status with Starwood and Hyatt since we were already set for 2013.  As we have said previously, we feel we get significant value from the benefits of hotel status so it is something we will try to maintain.

After much thought, we ended up with the following itinerary:

Singapore for 2 nights

Langkawi, Malaysia for 3 nights

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for 2 nights

Krabi, Thailand for 3 nights

Koh Samui, Thailand for 4 nights

Bangkok for 1 night

We visited Singapore over our 2012 Thanksgiving trip, had a great time, and were excited to go back for a short stay.  A starting point in Singapore also allowed us to fly on the Singapore A380 from NRT – SIN which is about as good as an 8 hour flight in coach can get.

Langkawi is a beautiful beach destination and was picked largely because it had $11 (before fees) flights to Kuala Lumpur.  The flights to get to Langkawi were a bit more expensive than we would have liked, but the flight times were convenient and still under $100 per person. 

We wanted to stay at the Grand Hyatt in Kuala Lumpur because we had heard great things about it, had a Hyatt Diamond suite upgrade certificate we could apply to our paid cash rate, and for an upscale city hotel, it was very reasonably priced.  We had also wanted to see the Petronas Towers and the hotel was said to have amazing views of them.

We picked Krabi because there was a reasonably priced Sheraton there with a lounge, a nice beach and a continuing direct flight to Koh Samui.  There are also numerous direct flights from Tokyo to some of the other more famous Thailand beach locations, so this place made sense since we were already close.

Koh Samui inspired much of the vacation because we had two free weekend nights from a Hilton credit card sign up to use at any Hilton property in the world.  The Conrad Koh Samui is one of the most expensive resorts in the Hilton portfolio, so we were hoping to be able to use our nights there.  Unfortunately, there was only Saturday night available (on our second of the four nights in Koh Samui) so we were forced to book 1 night before and 2 nights after, leading to lots of transfers.  Still, we wanted to see the Conrad so we decided to forge ahead.

Due to the political turmoil going on in Bangkok, we decided it would be smart to avoid heading into the city, so we changed our flight from Bangkok to Tokyo so we would just have a layover in the airport.  Heading home through Thailand also gave us the opportunity to fly on Thai Airways’ A380 which is always exciting.

Overall, we had an incredible trip and a handful of changes, mostly for the better, throughout.  The girls were pretty good considering how many hotel transfers and flights we made them go through.  They were awful in Singapore, but were mostly well behaved for the rest of the time.  We learned a great deal about what makes sense and what doesn’t for us when it comes to traveling and vacation, and will likely make a number of changes for our future trips.