The Beginning

It all began when a close friend of mine from County Tyrone, Northern Ireland decided to travel thousands of miles to the Orient and assigned me the role of unofficial trip organiser. Like any other task, getting started was a challenge. I suggested a total of 5 weeks would suffice to wet his traveling taste buds and in this period, we would cover North Borneo, Thailand, China and Taiwan (in chronological order). As expected, this required extensive planning, considering the fact that we were traveling independent of profit-seeking tour guides.

Seeking Cheap Long-Haul Flights

The acclaimed World’s Best Low-Cost Airlines, Air Asia (www.airasia.com) offers cheap direct flights from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Low-Cost Carrier Terminal, LCCT) to Stansted London, although this is highly dependent on how in advance you obtain your tickets (I heard news that Air Asia X flights from KL-London will land at Gatwick Airport, effective 24th October 2011). If you are certain of your journey, it’s in your favour to purchase these tickets 6 months before your intended traveling period as ticket prices can go as low as 400 pounds. However, do take note that ticket prices can sky-rocket to as high as 700 pounds if you obtain them at the eleventh hour.

If DVT concerns you, I suggest transit flights with Emirates or Qatar Airways – Friends of mine have gotten tickets for Emirates for as low as 375 pounds (all inclusive), of course with some serious dedication. Also, Emirates includes complimentary buffet meals for transit periods exceeding 4 hours (don’t expect too much of its quality, though)!

www.kayak.com provides good comparisons for prices between a range of airlines.

There are many other gateways to Asia such as Hong Kong (Cathay Pacific), Bangkok (Thai Airways) and Singapore (Singapore Airlines), although these flights are usually more costly, as you’d expect of mainstream airlines. Nevertheless, there are cheap inter-Asia budget airlines serving these airports to China, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Australia. These include Tiger Airways, Jetstar Airways, Silk Air, Firefly, Kingfisher and Mihin Lanka (the latter two primarily serve South Asia). This website: http://www.attitudetravel.com/lowcostairlines/asia/index/ provides a summary of the available budget airlines in Asia and its connections.

Stepping Foot on Malaysian (or Asian, in his case) Soil

For the first time ever, he has traveled beyond the boundaries of the European Union into the hustle-bustle, vibrant, organised chaos of Asia. One has to admit it is rather daunting to first arrive in foreign land and be frightened by its mannerism, alien systems and worst of all, TRAFFIC. Hence, I recommended the ERL (despite its connection with YTL Corporation, yes), just for trauma-minimalisation sake. RM35 for the convenience and comfort really isn’t too much to fork out, considering the exchange rate and the fact that it’s an airport transit.

As I was scheduled to arrive 11 hours after he did, my friend decided to make a trip out to the Twin Towers to first meet my mum, and then to explore the superlative in its entirety. I am yet to hear his review of the 88-floor building thus I shall not comment. More importantly, upon arrival, my family and I, with our distinguished guest headed to House of Tang, a Chinese restaurant clustered with other international eateries at One Bangsar. All dishes we have ordered here have been of tiptop quality, but I especially enjoy their lovely ‘drunken chicken’ with yellow wine. The waitresses pointed out that the restaurant manager personally selects yellow wine from Shaoxing and travels exclusively to that region of the Zhejiang province for this.

The Chinese cooking method is quite different from that of the North American beer-can chicken. Unlike the Americans that barbecue or grill an upright chicken with a half-full can of beer, the Chinese soak steamed chicken in a mixture of yellow glutinous rice wine, white rice wine and other herbs such as ‘dong guai’, wolfberries and red dates for two whole days. Although usually prepared for women in confinement, I’m dubious of its medicinal value.

It really is a pity that the owner has decided to end his food chain business. Such talented chefs put to waste. And such lovely waiters/waitresses with burning desires to master their spoken English, left jobless. Oh well, at least we had the privilege to show our appreciation. First on the list, Sabah! =)