Imran's Kifli.net

I had a 3 weeks holiday for my Christmas break. Knowing this, I started planning my holiday back in October. After considering both Paris and Rome, I decided to go with Rome. I have always wanted to visit the Eternal City and see for myself the marvels of Roman architecture. The basic details of my trip are below:

• Duration: 5 days 4 nights (19th Dec to 23rd Dec 2011)
• Accommodation: Hotel Madrid, GBP242 per person for 4 nights
• Flight: Easyjet, GBP157 (return flight from Bristol to Rome)
• Season/Temperature: Winter, average 0 to 2 degrees Celsius

Note: click on images to enlarge and click on links for further info.

DK Eyewitness Rome

Prior to coming to Rome, I bought the DK Eyewitness Travel book for Rome (~£12 on Amazon). I used it to plan my trip to maximise our stay there. I highly recommend it. One of its unique features is the “suggested itinerary” which I modified to meet our interest. Our planned itinerary is listed below.

For further details on what we did, please continue reading (this post is separated by days below)

Day 1 – 19 December 2011 (available below)

1. Spanish Steps – evening view
2. Trevi Fountain – evening view

Day 2 – 20 December 2011 (available below)

1. Colosseum
2. Palatine Hill
3. Roman Forum
4. Capitol Hill
5. Pantheon
6. Piazza Navona & Christmas Market

Day 3 – 21 December 2011 (to be published soon)

1. Vatican City
2. St Peter’s Basilica
3. Vatican Musems & Sistine Chapel

Day 4 – 22 December 2011 (to be published soon)

1. Trevi Fountain – day view
2. Spanish Steps – day view
3. Shopping at Via dei Condotti
4. Villa Borghese
5. Circus Maximus
6. Baths of Caracalla
7. Piazza del Popolo – evening view

Day 5 – 23 December 2011 (to be published soon)

1. Mausoleum of Augustus
2. Palace of Justice
3. Hadrian’s Mausoleum
4. Piazza del Popolo – day view
5. Fly back to UK

If you’re interested in seeing the photos I took in Rome, it is available in my Flickr page here.

Day 1 (19 December 2011)

Leonardo Express

We arrived in Rome Fiumicino airport around 4PM. From there, we took the Leonardo Express train to Termini (the central train station in the city). The Leonardo Express was €16 and the trip took us 30 minutes. From Termini, we took the Metro to Spagna, the district where our hotel is located. I was quite shocked to see the sad state of these Metro stations. Although it provides efficient and timely service, in general the Metro stations looks very old and dirty. Wires dangling, trash, vandalisms etc.

When we arrived in Spagna, we exited right next to the Spanish Steps. I was quite pleased to know that our hotel, Hotel Madrid, was very near the Spanish Steps and the famous shopping district, Via dei Condotti. As for the hotel, I find the guy at the counter quite friendly. In terms of facilities, it’s your average Rome hotel. I find the small old lift amusing. The rooms were OK, but the bathroom really surprised us. It’s obvious they had put some effort into upgrading the bathrooms. It was very nice. Our room had a very nice view of the small streets beneath (we were on the 3rd floor).

Hotel Madrid

After settling in, it was around 6PM (sunset is around 5PM). We took out our map and went out exploring the city. We went to the famous Via dei Condotti where all the fancy brands are located. From there, we walked south towards Trevi Fountain. I was surprised to find the distances between locations were quite near (I guess things tend to look far from each other on a map).

Trevi Fountain

The Trevi fountain was absolutely gorgeous. The lightings under the water and around the scultures made everything looked surreal. We sat beside the fountain for a while, admiring the designs. After taking photos, we had dinner at a nice cosy Italian restaurant nearby. After that, we walked back along the small alleys in the city to explore the shops.

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I was in Tanzania from 1st July to 10th July 2011 to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and to experience the Safari. Below is a detailed account of my trip.

Note: click on images to enlarge and click on links for further info.

Mount Kilimanjaro

Basic facts on Mount Kilimanjaro

• 5,895 meters (19,341 ft)
• Highest mountain in Tanzania
• Highest mountain in Africa
• One of the 7 Summits of the World
• World’s highest free-standing mountain

Mountain Operator
After much research, we decided to go with Team Kilimanjaro, a London based mountain operator. Details of the climb are below:

• Operator: Team Kilimanjaro
• Website: http://www.teamkilimanjaro.com
• Route: TK Rongai 7 days
• Mode: Full Camping
• Cost: USD2016 (per person for a group of 4)

Earlier in our discussion, we were considering Marangu (a route with huts, no camping required) and Machame (a very famous route that offers excellent scenery). However, given that we wanted a route that offers the best acclimatisation and the best summit rates, the mountain operator suggested their own version of Rongai, dubbed “TK Rongai”.

Kilimanjaro route map

TK, which stands for Team Kilimanjaro, has developed their own version of Rongai which is by far one of the most unique on the market due to its excellent acclamatisation and high success rate. This is a full camping route that starts at the north of the mountain (in red in the map above) and ends at the south-east of the mountain (down the Marangu route, marked in light green in the map), hence you get to see both sides of the mountain.

Our decision to go with Team Kilimanjaro and to choose their specially tailored TK Rongai route was the best decision we made that guaranteed us a trouble-free trip and first class service by TK’s team members.

Flight

KL > Doha > Dar Es Salaam > Kilimanjaro

My flight to Tanzania was from Kuala Lumpur. I was quite concerned with baggage loss/delays, hence I flew into Tanzania with Qatar Airways, a highly respectable airline. Our route and transit:

Kuala Lumpur > Doha > Dar Es Salaam > Kilimanjaro

The flight from Kuala Lumpur to Dar Es Salaam was on Qatar Airways. The flight cost was RM4,333 (US$1,443). I bought this ticket directly from Qatar Airways’ website.

Precision Air

The flight from Dar Es Salaam to Kilimanjaro was on Precision Air, a local airline. The flight cost was RM1,008 (US$336). I bought this ticket from Vayama.com.

Total Flight: RM4,333 (US$1,443) + RM1,008 (US$336) = RM5,341 (US$1,779)

For Malaysian travelers, we do not need to obtain Visa into Tanzania. The immigration officer will greet you with a friendly “karibu” at the airport. Most non-African nationalities are requested to obtain visa on arrival.

Upon arrival in Kilimanjaro airport, TK picked us up and transferred us to Arusha, where we would be spending 2 nights before the climb. The journey from Kilimanjaro airport to Arusha took around 45 mins.

Arusha
Refer to my Arusha blog post here: http://imran.kifli.net/2011/07/tanzania-arusha/

Safari
Refer to my Safari blog post here: http://imran.kifli.net/2011/07/tanzania-safari/

Kilimanjaro – Video summary
My Kilimanjaro trip is summarized in the video below. If you do not have time to read the full details, please enjoy the video below:

Expedition summary:

• Day 1: Trek from Rongai Gate (1997m) to Simba Camp (2635m) – 3 hours, 7KM
• Day 2: Trek from Simba Camp to Kikelelwa Camp (3675m) – 9 hours, 12KM
• Day 3: Trek from Kikelelwa Camp to Mawenzi Camp (4302m) – 5 hours, 4KM
• Day 4: Trek from Mawenzi Camp to School Hut (4717m) – 6 hours, 8KM
• Day 5: Trek from School Hut to summit (5895m). From summit trek to Kibo Hut (4714m)
• Day 6: Trek from Kibo Hut (4714m) to Mandara Hut (2723m) – 9 hours, 22KM
• Day 7: Trek from Mandara Hut to Marangu Gate (1905m) – 3 hours, 8KM

The full set of photos from this expedition is available on my Flickr here: Kilimanjaro Album

If you’re interested in the details of our adventure, please continue reading: Read more…

Main article: Mount Kilimanjaro Expedition

Note: click on images to enlarge and click on links for further info.

I was in Tanzania from 1st July to 10th July 2011. The purpose of this trip was to climb Mount Kilimanjaro (refer to main article above) and to experience the Safari. During our trip, we stayed for 3 nights in Arusha (2 nights before the climb and 1 night after).

Street views of Arusha

Arusha, as most bloggers put it, is your average African town. It’s small, with lots of people walking around during the day. Albeit its modest infrastructure, it is able to meet your basic needs. They have a supermarket selling all sorts of local and imported goods, a “cinema” mall, a number of African and other western/asian restaurants, and is reasonably safe for a foreigner to travel around.

The Outpost Lodge

Our Mountain Operator, Team Kilimanjaro (website here), arranged our accommodation to be at The Outpost Lodge (website here). It is located on Serengeti Road, away from the normal noise of traffic and touts. It has it’s own laundry service, room with TVs, internet room (with PCs), lounge, and a small swimming pool to chill by. It even serves good coffee such as cafe latte or cappuccino at the restaurant (around ~US$3).

Outpost Lodge - rooms

Outpost Lodge - swimming pool

We paid US$128 per night (that’s US$32 per person per night as we had 4 people in our group). I highly recommended The Outpost Lodge to travelers with a “medium budget”. If you’re on a “high budget”, you might want to consider The African Tulip Hotel (website: http://www.theafricantulip.com). The African Tulip was quite near to our place.

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We were in Tanzania from 1st July to 10th July 2011. We had 1 free day before our Kilimanjaro climb began on 3rd July 2011. So, on 2nd July, we went for Safari (‘safari’ in Swahili means journey).

To read about our Kilimanjaro climb, click here: http://imran.kifli.net/2011/08/tanzania-mount-kilimanjaro/

We went for safari with our mountain operator, Team Kilimanjaro (website here), as they offered us a discount since we were climbing with them. We choose Tarangire National Park and it was USD169 per person (for a group of 4).

Initially we thought of going to the nearby Arusha National Park, but a Malaysian friend working in Arusha said that Arusha National Park doesn’t have that much animals, and he recommended either Lake Manyara or Tarangire. I did some additional research and 1 day before we left I emailed our safari operator to inform them that I would like to go to Tarangire instead.

Tarangire map from Arusha

Arusha National Park is a mere 45 mins away from Arusha town, compared to Tarangire which is  a 2 hour drive. But since it offers more wildlife, we didn’t mind the travelling. On the way to Tarangire we saw a number of Masai villages. Check out the video below that shows our key photos and videos from our safari:

We saw the following animals at Tarangire:

1. Warthog (“pumba” from Lion King)
2. Zebras
3. Wildebeests
4. Impalas
5. Waterbucks
6. Elephants
7. Ostricth
8. Lion
9. Giraffe
10. Baboons

All in all I was very pleased with my safari experience. The number of wildlife I saw at Tarangire exceeded my expectations and I am very impressed with the hospitality and friendliness of the Tanzanian people.

I plan to return to Tanzania in the future for a pure safari trip, to visit the Serengeti. They had a 4 days 3 night safari which includes the Serengeti but the price was around USD 1300 and that was too expensive for us as our priority was Kilimanjaro.

Hakuna matata (no worries), I’ll visit this wonderful country again in the future!

To view all our safari photos, check out my Flickr page here.

Day 4 (Wednesday, 30th December 2010)

Related posts: Hong Kong Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4 (Day 5 & 6 coming soon)

Note: click on images to enlarge and click on links for further info.

Today we planned to meet up with Aliaa’s old university friend from ANU for brunch. In the morning, we went to Sheung Wan district to visit Man Mo temple and a nearby market.

On the way to Sheung Wan district, I took a few snapshots of Hong Kong’s world class MTR to share with you guys.

MTR - Train

MTR - Map

I was immensely impressed with the MTR system. The trains were spacious, clean, fully air-conditioned, fast and on time. The map provided inside the train were really helpful. It has a blinking dot to indicate which station you’re currently at, and an arrow to show to point the direction you’re moving. It also has a door indicator to indicate which door you’ll be exiting. Pure brilliance.

MTR Station - Area Map

Apart from the train itself, the MTR stations were really well designed. All of them are passenger and tourist friendly. At each station, there’s a map of the surrounding area with all of it’s major attraction. There is even a picture of the attraction so that you know what to expect and how it looks like when you get there.

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Day 3 (Wednesday, 29th December 2010)

Related posts: Hong Kong Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 (Day 4 to 6 coming soon)

Note: click on images to enlarge and click on links for further info.

Pacific Coffee

On day 3, as planned, we went to Macau. We stopped by Pacific Coffee, which is located within the same block as our apartment. Pacific Coffee is a famous coffee outlet in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong - Macau Ferry Terminal

We took the Macau Jet Ferry at Hong Kong Macau Ferry Terminal. The ferry was big, modern, and comfortable. In fact, it feels much comfortable than a low cost airline. The trip took about 2 hours.

Macau Ferry Terminal

Macau Immigration counter

We arrived at Macau’s Ferry Terminal. The immigration was jam packed with Chinese nationals. My Hong Kong friend mentioned previously that with Hong Kong & Macau becoming part of China, it makes it easy for mainland Chinese to travel to Hong Kong & Macau. Over the recent years Macau has seen a massive increase in local tourism, mainly due to the gambling culture from China.

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Day 2 (Tuesday, 28th December 2010)

Related posts: Hong Kong Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 (Day 4 to 6 coming soon)

On the second day, our sole plan was to go to Disneyland. We planned this trip by purchasing the Disneyland tickets online a few weeks back.

We woke up quite early in the morning and I needed a good breakfast. After searching online, I found out there’s a famous western diner that offers excellent breakfast (this was what the online review said). What was even more surprising was that the shop, called The Flying Pan, was located in Wan Chai.

Note: click on images to enlarge

Wanchai Street Market

On the way to the The Flying Plan, we walked through the daily market located in between the streets in Wan Chai. It’s interesting to see the shops (despite being a market) maintains a very clean environment. You would also observe a police officer walking around to ensure everything is safe and in order.

The Flying Pan - Entrance

It took us around 15-20 minutes to get to the The Flying Pan, which was located on the 3rd floor of a building on Lockhart Road. True to the reviews, their breakfast lived up to our expectations.

The Flying Pan

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I’ve been meaning to write about my Hong Kong trip for months now. It’s been postponed for nearly 5 months. Oh well, better late than never.

I was in Hong Kong from 27 December 2010 till 1st January 2011. A good 6 days and 5 nights I must say. Initially before I went there, I didn’t know what to expect. I know Hong Kong is one of the Asian tigers and I imagined it to be very developed; similar to Singapore. Boy, was I in for a surprise.

Day 1 (Monday, 27th December 2010)

Related posts: Hong Kong Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 (Day 4 to 6 coming soon)

We arrived in Hong Kong Airport around 9AM. The airport is, as I expected it to be, massive and modern. From there, we took the Airport Express Line to Hong Kong Station, which is on Hong Kong Island.

Note: click on images to enlarge

Hong Kong MTR map

I was shocked to discover the Airport Express Line made us cross 3 islands under water! From Lantau Island (this is where the airport is located), to Tsing Yi Island, to Kowloon, and then finally Hong Kong Island. From Hong Kong station, we took a cab to Wan Chai. We could have taken the MTR but we had large bags to carry around.

Over the next few hours of exploring the city, I got the shock of my life to see how advanced Hong Kong really is. Their skycrapers, their public infrastructures, the amazing MTR, the public transport system, how systematic the people are, everything is just mind-blowing. They are definitely way ahead of Singapore in terms of development (which is my initial benchmark of an advanced South East Asian country).  It’s a good thing I stayed there for 6 days as the shock really took a while to settle in.

View from the apartment

We stayed in Wan Chai (one of the districts in Hong Kong), at one of our friend’s apartment. The friend had a nice cozy place on Queen’s Road. The unit was on the 27th floor, which is very high by Malaysian standards. From the apartment’s balcony, I could see other buildings around us were much taller. It’s amazing to see tall buildings being quite near to each other and each of them are about 30-40 stories high (photo below)

Tall apartments close to each other

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Day 3 (Sunday, 27th March 2011)

Related posts: Siem Reap Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

Part of the tour package we signed up with Seagul Tourist was a half-day visit to Tonlé Sap. In Khmer, Tonlé Sap means “Large Fresh Water River” but it is popularly translated as “The Great Lake”. Tonlé Sap is the largest freshwater lake in South East Asia, 2^nd largest in the world.

Note: click on images to enlarge

Tonle Sap Map

The Tonlé Sap is a major attraction for two reasons: the lake expands and shrinks dramatically based on the monsoon season. From November to May, Cambodia’s dry season, the Tonlé Sap drains into the Mekong River at Phnom Penh (2,700 square km). However, when the year’s heavy rains begin in June, the Tonlé Sap backs up to form an enormous lake of nearly 16,000 square km! That’s with 8 meters gained in depth! (check out the map above for the difference between dry season and wet season)

On the way to the Tonlé Sap jetty we passed by a few villages. It was interesting to note that the traditional village house in Cambodia looks exactly the same as the one in Malaysia. Even the sarong and the top that their women wear looks similar!

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Day 2 (Saturday, 26^th March 2011)

Related posts: Siem Reap Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

Today is our 1 day Angkor tour. Soknin (our tour guide) picked us up around 8AM. We headed straight to the Angkor registration counter. There were different counters for different ticket types.

• 1 day pass: USD20
• 3 day pass: USD40
• 7 day pass: USD60

Since we signed up for the 1 day tour, Soknin went to the counter to pay and collect our tickets. We also had to line up to take a photo ID for our 1 day pass. The photo ID is used to enter the various temples that we’ll be going on later.

Angkor registration

Our first stop was Angkor Wat. OK, for those who are not familiar with the Angkor temples, refer to the map below.

Angkor Temple Map

Angkor Wat is only 1 of the many temple complexes in the whole area. The Angkor Wat complex is 1.5KM by 1.5KM. And other complexes are way bigger than that. It was after I visited Angkor Wat that I realized I should have taken either the 3 day or 5 day tour. I’m a big ancient history buff and there were other temples complexes that I wanted to see that are just too far and couldn’t be covered within the 1 day trip.

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