NSun's 2025 Adventures in Asia

[AIRwin]

Then took the train to the lounge which is at the satellite pier.

Luckily the Aerotrain didn't break down!

 

[NSun]

Luckily the Aerotrain didn't break down!

Imagine that - I would've had to settle for the regional lounge at the main pier.

 

[NSun]

The aircraft was 9M-MLV in a retro livery. Wasn't the first time I'd gotten a retro livery on a oneworld carrier, I flew BA's retro A320 in 2022 from London to Dublin but took far longer to fly on Qantas' Retro Roos. Like in Singapore, all security is done at the gate. It was a decent 1 hour flight - I declined a meal but had water. I was greeted as a OWE but put in a row with 2 other people with a spare row on the other side of the aisle - so moved there.





I spent the flight just looking out the window - was only a 70 minute flight.







NokAir - the strangest name for an airline I'd seen so far.



It took an hour to get through passport control as there was quite a queue. Then was an hour drive in a Grab for ~$25 to get to the hotel which was the Bhukitta Boutique Hotel in Old Town coughet. Was about A$80 a night and did the job especially for what I paid, although it was several separate buildings and I was a few flights of stairs upward. This is the entrance and you might see they have both stairs and a very steep ramp at the entrance.







This was my room - quite a big bed. But if you look closely, you'll see it had an even bigger 'mattress holder'.





But didn't have much of a view. Saw a wall right if I looked straight out on my balcony and saw this if I turned right.

 

[NSun]

Next day was a quiet day with a big day booked for the day after. So I went on two walks, the first at dawn and the second in the late afternoon.















The view from the top.

 

[AIRwin]

NokAir - the strangest name for an airline I'd seen so far.

As long as it's not NoCare

 

[moa999]

Or try the new electric train between JB and KL?

Now 4hrs 20min on the Platinum (Express) services - I think four a day from JB Sentral to KL Sentral and vv.

I did the old diesel train over a decade a go and it wasn't a fun journey with barely working AC and squat toilets.

 

[NSun]

Now 4hrs 20min on the Platinum (Express) services - I think four a day from JB Sentral to KL Sentral and vv.

I did the old diesel train over a decade a go and it wasn't a fun journey with barely working AC and squat toilets.

I saw that opened just days after my trip and might give it a try if it was cost effective. Then again, flights from Johor to KL are quite cheap given there's a tonne of competition.

 

[NSun]

I ended up having room service (tomato macaroni) for lunch. Was cheap by the standards of room service generally but not Thailand-cheap (A$10).



Then went out for an afternoon walk around coughet town. This was the view from the hallway of my room.



Sights from the walk.











It's roughly A$1 = THB 22.









For dinner, I settled on butter chicken at a sit down restaurant a block from my hotel.

 

[NSun]

The next day, I went to check out the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary which lies roughly halfway between Old coughet and Patong where I went afterwards. It took 30 minutes to get to the sanctuary but was only A$5 to get there by Grab. I booked a 'slot' at 11.30am and it consisted of a 5 minute briefing, then about an hour 'out the back' where the elephants were. We were given plants to give as food and then offered to take photos with them. I chose to adore them.

First, some of the things (i.e. statistics and information) we saw in the briefing room.

 

[NSun]

Then out the back...











And here they are.









We were told to be safe just don't go out of your way to scare them and don't try to take their food. There actually wasn't a lot of food left so after I took a few pictures just adored them. I'd seen them a lot of times in zoos and on safari, but seeing them up close and calm was another experience altogether. Highlight was seeing one sneak a drink through the hose (I saw no one else watch this).

 

[NSun]

After this I went to Patong for a look around. It was another 20 minute drive through mountainous terrain and then down a long hill.







Got dropped off right at the beach.







Went for a bite to eat as I hadn't had anything since breakfast. I settled for The Coffee Club. But unlike in the West, there's more than just pies and sausage rolls. Think this was pork - was spicy.



This place was very touristy, but one noise outdid everything else...this vehicle going by promoting matches at the boxing stadium.

 

[NSun]

More of Patong.





There was a David Jones-like shopping mall. I was hot by this time so went in just for airconditioning. It cooled me down but made me thirsty so I went to Starbucks and got a peppermint mocha.









Would it be Thailand without the low, highly interconnected powerlines?



It was tough to book a Grab back to my hotel as a couple 'made me cancel' by saying they couldn't take me that far and made me figure out how to cancel my own ride. When I got one it took an hour. At least the car was airconditioned and I paid less than I'd pay to travel just one tenth of that distance in Australia.

This was the shopping mall where I used the wifi to book.

 

[NSun]

Next day's agenda was coughet to Singapore. My hotel was 2 minutes walk from the bus depot so I caught it. It was only about 100 baht which is less than A$2.50. It was a nice drive...until we got close to the airport.









Then when we got 5 minutes away from the airport, we got caught in a traffic jam, and just sat there and sat there. I eventually got out of the bus and walked there. It turned out the traffic was stopped so that a motorcade could leave. I couldn't even walk until the motorcade had gotten out. But once it was gone, the traffic started and I got into the airport fine. Security took 2 minutes but immigration took 20 minutes. I only had enough time to grab a quick coffee then go to the gate which was a remote one.



Some random Russian airline.





I chose Singapore Airlines for the flight back to Singapore. I last flew SQ 15 years ago where we got an operational upgrade to the upper deck of a 747. Even as someone who hadn't flown SQ in so long, it was weird seeing a narrowbody in the livery.







Breakfast this was called - but more like lunch for me.



Was an uneventful hour flight and made it back to Singapore.

 

[NSun]

I had a day to spare in Singapore before flying in the evening. I first chose to walk around T3 where we parked as I don't often get to walk through it.















I caught a train into the city. Trackwork meant that the train only went 1 stop to Expo, then everyone changed there. I changed onto the Blue line and got off at Clarke Quay.

This was my 11th time entering Singapore (not counting another 4 times I transited Changi). But my first time where there was legitimate rain. I settled at a bar by the River and was lucky enough to get there at a Happy Hour where I got a Singapore Sling for S$20 and refill for free! Between this and potentially paying S$50 for one at the Raffles, better value for money given I'd 'been there and done that' on a previous trip.

 

[NSun]

Singapore walks continued. This walk sign was one where if you tapped a senior's card, the buzzer would stay green for longer. Good idea in my view.

 

[NSun]

Continued on to Marina Bay Sands.

 

[NSun]

Then it was back to the Airport. It was only natural I would go to the QF First lounge, but I went on a walk around the airport first.



















The Queen

 

[NSun]

By now I'd walked 30k steps in the day so had to sit down and was hungry.



As soon as I sat down I was offered water and olives. I got 2 starters - the squid and some buffalo starter that I don't know what was because the only photo I got of the menu didn't take the top part of it clear enough. Was good though.



Beef short rib



Coconut and mango sorbet.



I ended up ordering a QF2 coughtail. Third coughtail that day - oops.



Had a shower in the bathrooms with artificial skylights.



Then back on my feet for more walking.



On this trip I would end up on QF36 going back to Melbourne - had to settle for that in order to use points but it was seamless to transfer. Had VH-EBM for the 6th time and managed to get 6 hours sleep - fell asleep 5 minutes after takeoff then awoke to cluttering of knives and forks at 1:02 to go.





Sunrise over Adelaide.





Bendigo.

 

[NSun]

Now let's skip back to August when I went to Japan to see a friend. He worked in a government job in the prefecture of Tottori which is 3 hours train ride from Osaka and had few people that had gone to visit him. I went JQ from Brisbane to Osaka, trained it to Tottori the next day, then flew to Tokyo, spend a couple of days there, then went home on QF26.

Beautiful day in Brisbane before we took off.



VH-VKF for the flight up.



Was an uneventful flight. Crossed near the Mariana Trench, the deepest point in the ocean.





The airport seemed quiet until I got to immigration and it took 30 minutes to get through. Being a cheapskate careful with money, I was an Uber would be over A$100 to the hotel, so settled for the airport train. Did the job.







Caught the train to Nambia, went on a bit of a walk, then got back on the subway to the stop nearest to my hotel.

 

[NSun]

My hotel was called 'The Rise'. For only A$100 a night, I shouldn't be complaining although I probably would've paid a bit more had I known it was going to be as cramped as it was. I have stayed in capsule hotels before but perhaps it was a case then of knowing what I was getting into.







A$1 was 96 yen at the time of travelling, so perhaps seeing a glass of wine for under $5 was a giveaway.



Was keen to stretch the next morning and I did, going for a walk around the river and the surrounding suburbia.

Just as a side note, I realised the photos were taken without tilting my phone to the side as I did on the Singapore trip. I experimented with cropping the first few photos but they came out worse quality so I think maintaining them as they were will be the lesser of two evils.