The Gal Travels

The fantastic plus point of staying at KSL Resorts Johor Bahru is that it is only a 10 minute drive away from Johor immigration. This means an almost instant overseas trip for a Singaporean. I have been to KSL Resorts on two occasions for church camps, and it is the perfect home away from home. We use to travel to Kuala Lumpur for such camps, now with KSL Resorts, it being relatively new with decent hotel food and conference venue, we don't have to travel that far anymore. This saves time, and to a Singaporean, time is everything - well, almost. View of Johor Bahru from KSL Resorts

When you travel to the US and Europe yearly for work, you begin to appreciate taking shorter flights, and taking time to explore each destination in detail. That was my situation when I finally took time to have a holiday, and it was to Penang - a place I wanted to visit for more than 10 years, but never really found the time. And it was because an ex-colleague who just like myself, travels so much for work, it was nice just to be in one place, and take time to enjoy doing nothing. So we chose Penang - just because it was the nearest unexplored town for the both of us, and just a couple hours out of Singapore. We booked ourselves into Parkroyal Penang Resort at Batu Ferringhi Beach . The only lovely thing about the hotel is that we could have a leisurely breakfast with a great view of the beach. Which was indeed a luxurious way to start the day. The disadvantage of staying so far away from Georgetown (where all the great food and historic sites are) is the amount of money you need ...

Malacca (Melaka)  is a perfect trip for a short getaway from Singapore and great for those who do not wish to take the plane. With just about a 4-5 hour bus ride you literally land in a town that is completely seeped in old history and sample delicious traditional Nonya cuisines. There are a couple of ways to travel to Malacca on public transport. The adventurous sort and those on a tight budget could go to Queens Street bus station and take a bus to Larkin Sentral and from there purchase a bus ticket to Malacca. This could take longer as you may need to wait an additional 2 hours for the next bus. Alternatively you could take a return trip on a premium bus service that brings you direct to Malacca. The best would be to choose the bus service that stops right at the hotel you have booked. For example Luxury Tours & Travel bus stops at hotel Equatorial Melaka. With that you don't have to pay additional transfer to your hotel destination. Personally I like to stay at Holid...