singapore hotel: Where to from Hong Kong?

‘; var fr = document.getElementById(adID); setHash(fr, hash); fr.body = body; var doc = getFrameDocument(fr); doc.open(); doc.write(body); setTimeout(function() {closeDoc(getFrameDocument(document.getElementById(adID)))}, 2000); } function renderJIFAdWithInterim(holderID, adID, srcUrl, width, height, hash, bodyAttributes) { setHash(document.getElementById(holderID), hash); document.dcdAdsR.push(adID); document.write(”); } function renderIJAd(holderID, adID, srcUrl, hash) { document.dcdAdsAA.push(holderID); setHash(document.getElementById(holderID), hash); document.write(” + ‘ript’); } function renderJAd(holderID, adID, srcUrl, hash) { document.dcdAdsAA.push(holderID); setHash(document.getElementById(holderID), hash); document.dcdAdsH.push(holderID); document.dcdAdsI.push(adID); document.dcdAdsU.push(srcUrl); } function er_showAd() { var regex = new RegExp(“externalReferrer=(.*?)(; |$)”, “gi”); var value = regex.exec(document.cookie); if (value value.length == 3) { var externalReferrer = value[1]; return (!FD.isInternalReferrer() || ((externalReferrer) (externalReferrer 0))); } return false; } function isHome() { var loc = “” + window.location; loc = loc.replace(“//”, “”); var tokens = loc.split(“/”); if (tokens.length == 1) { return true; } else if (tokens.length == 2) { if (tokens[1].trim().length == 0) { return true; } } return false; } function checkAds(checkStrings) { var cs = checkStrings.split(‘,’); for (var i = 0; i 0 cAd.innerHTML.indexOf(c) 0) { document.dcdAdsAI.push(cAd.hash); cAd.style.display =’none’; } } } if (!ie) { for (var i = 0; i 0 doc.body.innerHTML.indexOf(c) 0) { document.dcdAdsAI.push(fr.hash); fr.style.display =’none’; } } } } } if (document.dcdAdsAI.length 0 || document.dcdAdsAG.length 0) { var pingServerParams = “i=”; var sep = “”; for (var i=0;i 0) { var pingServerUrl = “/action/pingServerAction?” + document.pingServerAdParams; var xmlHttp = null; try { xmlHttp = new XMLHttpRequest(); } catch(e) { try { xmlHttp = new ActiveXObject(“Microsoft.XMLHttp”); } catch(e) { xmlHttp = null; } } if (xmlHttp != null) { xmlHttp.open( “GET”, pingServerUrl, true); xmlHttp.send( null ); } } } function initAds(log) { for (var i=0;i 0) { doc.removeChild(doc.childNodes[0]); } doc.open(); var newBody = fr.body; if (getCurrentOrd(newBody) != “” ) { newBody = newBody.replace(“;ord=”+getCurrentOrd(newBody), “;ord=” + Math.floor(100000000*Math.random())); } else { newBody = newBody.replace(“;ord=”, “;ord=” + Math.floor(100000000*Math.random())); } doc.write(newBody); document.dcdsAdsToClose.push(fr.id); } } else { var newSrc = fr.src; if (getCurrentOrd(newSrc) != “” ) { newSrc = newSrc.replace(“;ord=”+getCurrentOrd(newSrc), “;ord=” + Math.floor(100000000*Math.random())); } else { newSrc = newSrc.replace(“;ord=”, “;ord=” + Math.floor(100000000*Math.random())); } fr.src = newSrc; } } } if (document.dcdsAdsToClose.length 0) { setTimeout(function() {closeOpenDocuments(document.dcdsAdsToClose)}, 500); } } }; var ie = isIE(); if(ie typeof String.prototype.trim !== ‘function’) { String.prototype.trim = function() { return this.replace(/^s+|s+$/g, ”); }; } document.dcdAdsH = new Array(); document.dcdAdsI = new Array(); document.dcdAdsU = new Array(); document.dcdAdsR = new Array(); document.dcdAdsEH = new Array(); document.dcdAdsE = new Array(); document.dcdAdsEC = new Array(); document.dcdAdsAA = new Array(); document.dcdAdsAI = new Array(); document.dcdAdsAG = new Array(); document.dcdAdsToClose = new Array(); document.igCount = 0; document.tCount = 0; var dcOrd = Math.floor(100000000*Math.random()); document.dcAdsCParams = “”; var savValue = getAdCookie(“sav”); if (savValue != null savValue.length 2) { document.dcAdsCParams = savValue + “;”; } document.dcAdsCParams += “csub={csub};”; var aamCookie=function(e,t){var i=document.cookie,n=”";return i.indexOf(e)-1(n=”u=”+i.split(e+”=”)[1].split(“;”)[0]+”;”),i.indexOf(t)-1(n=n+decodeURIComponent(i.split(t+”=”)[1].split(“;”)[0])+”;”),n}(“aam_did”,”aam_dest_dfp_legacy”);

Brisbane Times

Traveller

Travel

Date

December 1, 2013

The Tripologist

If you have travel questions, the Tripologist would love to hear from you. Email the Tripologist at tripologist@fairfaxmedia.com.au. (Personal correspondence cannot be entered into)

View more articles from The Tripologist

Pin It

submit to reddit

Email article

The Tripologist

Liquid landscape: a village in Guilin, China.

MY HUSBAND AND I ARE CRUISING FROM SINGAPORE TO HONG KONG IN FEBRUARY. WE WILL HAVE ABOUT FIVE DAYS FREE IN HONG KONG BEFORE FLYING HOME. BESIDES SIGHTSEEING, WE WOULD LIKE TO GET OUT OF THE CITY, AND ARE PLANNING A DAY TRIP TO SHENZEN, BUT ARE LOOKING FOR OTHER IDEAS. CAN YOU MAKE SOME SUGGESTIONS, EITHER IN DAY TRIPS OR OVERNIGHT. ALSO, WHERE IS THE BEST SHOPPING TO BE FOUND?

J.CROWE, KAMBAH, ACT

Macau is an easy trip and it has a different flavour from Hong Kong, making it well worth an overnight stay. Take the regular ferry one way, rather than the hydrofoil. It’s a great way to see the sights of the harbour. If you want a slightly longer excursion, you might consider a 90-minute flight to Guilin. The liquid landscapes here are some of the most heart-melting in China and, although they won’t be at their best in February, you should be ahead of the adoring crowds.

Splashdown: the Metropolitan Hotel Bangkok.

The giant Harbour City complex on Kowloon’s waterfront has just about every fashionable label you could wish for, but my favourite shopping street is Hong Kong’s Hollywood Road, and not for fashions or electronic wizardry, but for Chinese art works, antiques and curios. Start at Lyndhurst Terrace, walk west until you get to Man Mo Temple and take the stairs opposite down to Upper Lascar Row. This is also known as Cat Street, Hong Kong’s original thieves’ market. It’s a trash and treasure market, with Mao-era memorabilia the specialty.

HOW MUCH PERFUME AND ALCOHOL CAN I PURCHASE FROM THE COLOMBO (SRI LANKA) AIRPORT ON MY RETURN FLIGHT TO SYDNEY VIA KL, MALAYSIA? CAN I TAKE IT ON BOARD?

I. GUNASEKARA, RYDE

For travellers aged 18 or over, the duty-free allowance as stipulated by Australian Customs is 2.25 litres of alcohol and up to $900 worth of general goods, a category that includes perfume. However, there is a trap in your case and you need to take care. If you intend to buy your alcohol and perfume duty-free in Colombo and transport them to Australia as hand luggage, you will most likely find the alcohol at least will be confiscated before you board your flight to Australia in Kuala Lumpur. The reason is Australian government regulations do not allow you to board the final leg of an Australia-bound aircraft carrying containers in excess of 100ml each of liquids, aerosols and gels. The way around this is either to carry these items in your checked luggage, buy them at a duty-free shop at Kuala Lumpur airport, on-board the aircraft between KL and Sydney or at the duty-free shop for incoming passengers at Sydney’s international airport.

I’VE BEEN OFFERED A WEEK OFF WORK IN EARLY JANUARY. SERENITY IS REQUIRED, WITH MASSAGES, SPA TREATMENTS AND GREAT FOOD TOP OF THE WISH LIST. PARTNER IS COMING ALONG FOR THE RIDE AND THE BUDGET IS $5000 MAXIMUM. WHERE IN ASIA WOULD YOU SUGGEST?

R. BROWNING, MANLY

This suggests a moderately priced Asian resort but in early January families will be abundant and serenity might not be. My pick is Bangkok. While the Thai capital is not exactly known for calm, it has a stellar collection of hotels at brilliant prices. The Metropolitan by Como (comohotels.com) is a sculpted, modernist hotel set in a quiet enclave at the end of a palm-lined driveway. Go for one of the enormous Metropolitan rooms. There are daily yoga classes, a gym, 25-metre pool and the spa comes from the same elevated domain as the Como Shambhala in Ubud. This is also the home of Nahm, David Thompson’s distinguished Thai restaurant, rated one of the world’s finest, but book a table now. Return airfare will cost about $1400 each, the room will be about $1450 for six nights, leaving about $100 a day spending money. This is workable but tight. Throw in another $50 a day for those spa treatments and that magic food.

CONVERSATION

OVER TO YOU . . .

‘‘Do you have a clever way of beating the extortionate parking fees at Sydney Airport’s terminal carparks?’’ ‘‘Coming up from Wollongong, we just hire a car,’’ according to B. Stevenson. ‘‘Low cost, best parking spot, express check-in and no parking fees.’’ C. Thompson writes: ‘‘If collecting someone inbound I drive to The Grounds for a coffee in Alexandria and wait for a text message, then collect them from the free parking areas.

‘‘We travel overseas every year for 42 days,’’ writes T. Buckmaster, ‘‘so we leave our cars in the garage, pick up a rental car from our home town, drive ourselves to the airport and hand in the keys at the counter. Cost is usually $90, couldn’t imagine how expensive parking would cost.’’ ‘‘When picking people up from Sydney International Airport I park in a side street off West Botany Street and wait for them to send me a text message,’’ according to L. Doel.

The Tripologist cadges a lift to Summer Hill station in Sydney’s inner-west and takes the train, a mere $16.70, and it’s fast.

Next question: Any suggestions for an alternative to the 28 Degrees MasterCard, which will soon introduce fees that will bite into your foreign exchange transactions? Send a response or your travel question to tripologist@fairfaxmedia.com.au. The best response will win a Lonely Planet guidebook.