25 Sep - 26 Sep 2012 Kuala Lumpur

Southeast Asia
Flawed-Democratic Federation of Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur

KLIA Sepang

Tune Hotel +60379625888 enquiry@tunehotels.com

Small and overpriced standard double room for a stiff MYR 103.24 or US$ 32.80 per night (booked over the internet, long ago); very bad value, but this is the only hotel near the airport’s LCCT. Friendly staff.

Beer: 320-ml cans of non-halal but cold, smooth Anchor Strong Beer (8.8 % alc./vol.) for MYR 7.40 or US$ 2.45 from the 7-Eleven convenience store in front of the Tune Hotel.

Click below for an interactive road map of the Tune Hotel near Kuala Lumpur's KLIA Low-cost Carrier Terminal and for directions:

N 02° 44.09' E 101° 43.33'

 
Overnighting in the airport's prosaic Tune Hotel, making use of the convenient amenities and facilities (e.g. the still reliable and friendly but slowly deteriorating airport staff canteen Food Garden with its cheap, delicious but fattening Malay food and with 3-hour long free access to wifi) in this otherwise bleak neighbourhood, and hunkering over the laptop computers in order to plan our upcoming return appearance at our favourite snorkel-and-dive spot on Central Sulawesi, the friendly and well-run Prince John Dive Resort (managed with Teutonic thoroughness and insularity); Indonesian Germans and German Indonesians, here we come again, hooray!

 

Flying with Air Asia Indonesia (“Now Everyone Can Fly”) in a delayed, well-worn Airbus A 320-200 from Kuala Lumpur’s KLIA-LCCT to Makassar’s flashy and ultra-modern Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport for only US$ 36.- per person, one way and all inclusive, buying a non-extendable 30-day visitor visa (“Visa on Arrival”) for Indonesia (cost: US$ 25.- per person, payable in crisp banknotes, collectable on the spot, friendly and efficient  service), thereafter connecting with low-cost carrier Lion Air (“We Make People Fly”), an airline with one of the worst safety records known to man, in a jam-packed, brand-new Boeing B 737-900ER from Makassar to Palu’s somewhat agricultural Mutiara Airport for IDR 395,500.- or US$ 41.-, one way and all inclusive, plus IDR 40,000.- or US$ 4.20 per person for the compulsory domestic airport tax, and, all's well that ends well, being picked up by Prince John Dive Resort’s +6245771710 punctual Kijang shuttle (c. 35 km from the airport to the resort, 1 hour, IDR 150,000.- or US$ 15.60 for the ride); many thanks, Alex, for your reliable support.

“When a flight is proceeding incredibly well, something was forgotten.”

(Robert E. Livingston) 

 

 

Click below for more blog posts about scuba diving in Sulawesi
26 Sep - 24 Oct 2012 Tanjung Karang
05 Sep - 15 Sep 2011 Tanjung Karang
04 Sep - 05 Sep 2011 Lebo
16 Aug - 15 Sep 2011 Tanjung Karang

Click below for a summary of this year's travels
2012 Map Konni & Matt

Visit the Konni & Matt Online Albums and order high-res travel photos

Konni & Matt Travel Photos

Recommended books - click below for your Amazon order from the United States:

For Amazon schnaeppchens from Germany, please click here

For Amazon bargains from Canada, please click here

For Amazon bargains from the United Kingdom, please click here

 

Facing Sulawesi
© Konni & Matt

23 Sep - 25 Sep 2012 Taipei

East Asia

Taiwan aka Republic of China

Taipei City

2 Lane 56, Zhongshan N Road, Sec 1

Happy Family Hostel +886225810716 happyfamily_2@yahoo.com
Clean and comfy double room with unrestricted wifi and shared bathroom, for TWD 750.- or US$ 25.60 per night. Long-term rates are available. Excellent staff and a great atmosphere - the best hostel atmosphere in downtown Taipei. 15% discount for members of the Konni & Matt Travel Blog.

Beer: 600-ml bottles of cold Taiwan Beer Classic (4.5 % alc./vol.) for TWD 49.- or US$ 1.68 from the reliable FamilyMart convenience store next to the hostel.

Click below for an interactive road map of John's Happy Family Hostel in Taipei, which we would highly recommend, and for directions:

N 25° 02.91' E 121° 31.23'

 

Enjoying tremendously our short sojourn in Taipei, temporary second home away from home and one of our top five Asian metropolises, meeting up with other longstanding members of our Happy Family (a warm thanks to Naoko, Mark and John), swapping memories and latest news, catching up on overdue admin work (answering emails, editing photos and planning our upcoming scuba-dive trip to Sulawesi) and, last but not least, pigging into the yummiest vegetarian food (both fresh veggies and superb “mock meat” dishes made from tofu or gluten on which veritable miracles had been performed) at the unparalleled Breeze Minder Vegetarian food court +886282187858 (hidden on the 2nd floor of Taipei’s cosmopolitan Main Station), xie-xie and zaijian, friendly and beautiful Ilha Formosa!

“If slaughterhouses had glass walls, we would all be vegetarian.” 
(Paul McCartney)

"...many 'mainlanders' cannot understand that the Chinese diaspora in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore and elsewhere look down upon them because the essential cultural characteristics of being Chinese have been destroyed in the 'mainland' by Mao. Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist ethics, filial piety, justice, and the belief in education, meritocracy and traditions was nearly wiped out in China, leaving the generations that lived through that cultural revolution period ideologically dogmatic, under-educated or completely disillusioned. Compile that with 150 years of chaos, the result is a dog-eat-dog mentality that communism was supposed to eliminate. The traditional Chinese values continued and evolved in Taiwan and elsewhere and only now that 'mainlanders' have the means to expose their kids to the wider world that they are slowly regaining their heritage. It might take another 20 to 30 years, for China to be truly 'Chinese' again, and only then will others see them as equals..." 

(Dan Yeo, a friend from Taipei)

Taking the efficient Kuo Guang bus +886800010138 (25 km, ¾ hours, TWD 125.- or US$ 4.30 per person, single fare) from Taipei’s well-run West Bus Station straight to terminal no. 2 of Taipei’s Taoyuan International Airport and noticing fleets of tour buses crammed full of package tourists from China on the oncoming lane of the expressway, flying uneventfully with Air Asia X (“Now Everyone Can Fly Xtra Long”) in a clean Airbus A 330-300 from Taipei’s Taoyuan International Airport to Kuala Lumpur’s KLIA-LCCT Sepang for US$ 140.- per person, one way, all inclusive, and being issued with another 90-day-visit pass for a “social visit” (in our case: a short stopover of less than 24 hours) to Malaysia on arrival, free of charge. 

Click below for more blog posts about our visits to Taiwan
08 Feb 2014 Fo Guang Shan
 07 Feb 2014 Meinong
27 Nov - 31 Dec 2013 Kaohsiung
17 Sep - 23 Sep 2012 Kinmen
05 May - 01 Jun 2012 Taipei

Click below for a summary of this year's travels

2012 Map Konni & Matt

Recommended books – click below for your Amazon book order from Germany:

For Amazon deals from the United States, please click here

For Amazon deals from Canada, please click here

For Amazon deals from the United Kingdom, please click here

Facing Taiwan
© Konni & Matt

17 Sep - 23 Sep 2012 Kinmen

East Asia

Taiwan aka Republic of China 
Kinmen Island aka Quemoy
Kincheng Township
Mínquán Road 67
Hai-Jing Hotel +88682324126
Clean and spacious double room with unrestricted wifi and private bathroom for TWD 900.- or US$ 30.70 per night. Indifferent staff. 10% discount for members of the Konni & Matt Travel Blog.
Beer: 600-ml bottles of ice-cold Taiwan Beer Classic +886800231422 (4.5 % alc./vol.) for TWD 49.- or US$ 1.70 per large bottle from the reliable 7-Eleven convenience store right next to our hotel.

Click below for an interactive road map of the Hai-Jing Hotel in Kincheng and for directions:

N 24° 25.96' E 118° 18.85'

 

Exploring the island’s peaceful main settlement Kincheng, meaning Golden City, a pleasant and well-organised one-horse town with friendly and civilised locals whose manners are worlds apart from those of their communist/fascist neighbours on the so-called "mainland" (Kinmen: no spitting, no hawking, no shouting, no burping, no farting, no swindling, no begging), quite visibly a strong, intelligent and democratic community, and marvelling at the architectural harmony of the clean, well maintained and regularly frequented temples all over the township (our favourite: the superb and atmospheric City God Temple aka Cheng-huang Miao).

Wining and dining in Kinmen’s cheap but excellent down-to-earth eateries: (i) wolfing down steaming bowls of Cantonese-style fish/seafood rice porridge aka congee for breakfast, (ii) slurping pots of delicious oyster noodles with ginger for lunch and, last but not least, (iii) checking regularly the western horizon for incoming Dong Feng missiles through raised glasses of fierce kaoliang, the very potent Taiwanese 58-proof rocket fuel made from fermented choice sorghum - ganbei!

Foraging for the history of the Cold War which turned tiny and vulnerable Kinmen into a frontline battlefield between the Chinese communists and Chinese nationalists, touring the military-historical sites of the island by means of Kinmen Tour Bus +88682332814 (half-day trip for TWD 160.- or US$ 5.50 per person) and learning about the ferocious and decisive 1949 CE Battle of Guningtou where the commies were defeated and which laid down a stable foundation for the very successful social and economic development of democratic Taiwan aka Republic of China (R.O.C.).
 

"Nobody's got the gun
Nobody's trying to get the drop on anyone
Nobody's standing out on main street
With the sun blazing down
Saying 'There's only room for one of us
In this here town'
Nobody's got to be the number one
Nobody's got the gun..."

(Mark Knopfler) 

Village-hopping the 20-km long and roughly bow-tie shaped island of Kinmen by means of convenient public bus and trekking our way through huge irrigated sorghum fields and well-laid-out little parks, spotting en-route many of Kinmen’s unique Wind Lions aka fongshihye, totems said to have the power to control the winds and keep the land fertile, and visiting ancient dwellings with lovingly restored Fujian-style houses which retain all of their original feng-shui-beholden layout and traditional clan structure (our favourites: the beautiful villages of Shanshou, Shuitou and Beishan).

Crossing the Taiwan Strait aka Formosa Strait, formerly known as the Black Ditch, with Mandarin Airlines in a modern Embraer ERJ-190AR from Kinmen’s spic-and-span Shang Yi Airport +88682322381 to Taipei’s Song Shan Airport +886287703460 for a stiff US$ 84.- per person, all inclusive, reading in midair that the bullying Goliath China had just practised/simulated another missile attack against the independent David Taiwan (Taipei Times of 23 Sep 2012: “The tests included multiple firings of short and medium-range ballistic missiles as well as land-attack cruise missiles.”) and keeping a sharp lookout…

Click below for more blog posts about interesting islands
04 Jun - 07 Jun 2013 Jeju (South Korea)
05 May - 10 May 2013 Phuket (Thailand
22 Feb - 10 Mar 2013 Tioman (Malaysia)
20 Mar - 07 Apr 2012 Sabang (Indonesia)
04 Mar - 23 Mar 2011 Havelock (Andamans)

Click below for a summary of this year's travels
2012 Map Konni & Matt

Visit the Konni & Matt Online Albums and order high-res travel photos
Konni & Matt Travel Photos

 Recommended books - click below for your Amazon order from the United Kingdom:

For Amazon schnaeppchens from Germany, please click here

For Amazon deals from the United States, please click here

For Amazon deals from Canada, please click here