pumpkinlou

Hi

After much searching I took the advice on here, and have booked me, Oh and two kiddies (will be 4 and 2) with Singapore Airlines in October. We have booked into the transit hotel- followed a link from their webpage. It is for about 8 hours, really cheap, and I have been told you can leave the airport and do some sightseeing if you wish??

I am in the process of buying new cheap little toys for the girls to open whilst on the flight to try and prevent boredom. Things that havent got little bits, or wont roll under someones seat!! Another great tip from this site!!

Lou

Margaret Parkinson

Hi Lou

I am sure you will be pleased with the transit hotel and glad you took my advice. You should land at terminal 3 and it is brilliant. It opened in January this year. There are 3 free sightseeing tours which you can book on arrival. They are about 2 hours long. Word of warning when you land it is a long walk to the transit hotel but there is a sky train so please make use of it. Most people set off walking not knowing how far it is. The trains are every few minutes.

June

pumpkinlou

Hi June!

I'm not sure if we land at terminal 3, but we do take off from their later in the night (does that mean we must land their?? it doesn't say on my e mail)
But thanks for the advice, the 2 hour tour sounds ideal. It will be just lovely to stretch our legs, have a shower etc etc, and let the girls run about a bit.

Cheers

Lou
x

Margaret Parkinson

You will land at terminal 3 if you are taking off from there. The only thing is its a bit confusing when you get on the sky train it does not say its going to terminal 3 that's because you are already there. Hope you understand what I mean!!!

pumpkinlou

Well it doesn't take much to confuse me, so that is a good piece of advice, thanks! i would have been panicking!! Really looking forwward to going now, will be great to see Singapore!

Margaret Parkinson

I am getting exited for you. I have put some pictures on under a Singapore Airport.

June

Yotty

I stopped at Tahiti and Fiji ..about a day each

Andrew Cross

I flew on Virgin to Hong Kong for three nights then to Sydney for four nights. It made the jetlag easier and it was also a nice holiday on the way as wouldn't get one for awhile once in Nz. It was great for the kids too, one big exciting trip with a new life at the end!!

pleccy2000

Yes we stopped - it's a fantastic oppurtunity to do so IMO.

Thailand - backpacked for a few months. Then Sydney. Hired a car in Auckland and drove round NZ.

MrCFD

Any time teebrown

MrCFD

Nice! I love Cambodia and Vietnam - lived there for a while.

MrCFD

If we didn't have the kids, we would have driven our landrover from UK to Singapore and then had it shipped to Darwin, driven to Brisbane and shipped to AKL (or maybe just stayed in Southeast Asia!)

Happy Wanderer

Hi Bevs

Brunei is on the Northern coast of Borneo, it's very safe and peaceful. It's only the size of Norfolk, but there's enough to do for a couple of days with boat trips into the Temburong National Park and into the mangroves to see the Proboscis monkeys. There are a couple of nice walks into the jungle which are safe and beautiful, but you need to be out of the heat by about 9am latest.

It's a muslim country, but very moderate. The people are lovely and the food is fab, there's a real mix of Japanese/chinese/malay and European. You can't get booze though, so it's a 'dry' stop over. There's a nice hotel on the coast called the Empire, great for the children and next to some fab stables if there are any riders in the family. They have some top class horses and the instructors are lovely. Shopping isn't great in Brunei, but everything else is cheap as chips. it's the South China Sea and the beaches are lovely, but you have to be a little careful in the water. There are some nasties around, the box jelly fish being the ones we worry about most. Our boys go out in boats etc, but we don't let them play in the sea.

Across the border to the south (but still along the coast) is Sarawak, it's not a muslim country so is a little more relaxed. You can fly into the capital Kuching, and it's a lovely place. On the river with great places to eat and get coffee, great places to shop and barter, you can take a trip out to the cultural village which is lovely, lots of info about the head hunters and different long houses built in the styles of different tribes - it takes about half a day and the kids love it because there are shrunken heads and scalps hanging in the buildings and they get to have a go with blow pipes. (they fought the Japanese with blowpipes in the 2nd world war and took their scalps!)

1/2 an hour the other side of Kuching is the National Park where you take a short walk into the forest/jungle and you can see Orangutans in the wild. Apart from Singapore, I think it's the only place left in the world where they still live wild so it's a lovely experience.

North of Brunei but still on the coast is Sabah, it's a little less developed but that adds to it's charm! Lots of paddy fields and water buffalo on the roads. When you drive through the Kampongs/villages, the children all run out to see you. On the coast is a lovely place called Kota Kinabalu, lots to do and beautiful snorkeling. You can fly in. Further north but a couple of hrs drive from Kota Kinabalu is Mount Kinabalu and the national park. Cooler, and stunning. At the base of the mountain there are thermal springs, caves and also a canopy walk through the jungle. I haven't done the caves or canopy walk though so it's not a direct recommendation.

Borneo is a lovely place, the proboscis monkeys can only be found here, then the orangutans, there are also varieties of pitcher plant and flowers that can't be found anywhere else. It's also amazingly safe for children, the biggest worry you have is them falling over or getting sun burn.

Downside, the loos are not for the weak hearted. Holes in the ground you squat over with hose pipes instead of loo roll You only get caught out once wearing long trousers and no wellies!!! If you come to Brunei I'll send you a list of designated toilet stops, we have one in every suburb!!

If you've got some time to kill, it's definitely worth a look.

We're moving back to UK in August but just to 'tidy up' loose ends and begin the NZ process We're dreading the move all the same, especially with a 12 old boy who's a big softie and isn't street wise at all.

I guess it's a good way to make sure we won't have second thoughts after the final move.

If you want any more local info, then just PM me and I can post you some tourist leaflets etc. and give you the contact details of a fab travel agent here who can get the best deals.

teebrown

Hey Happy Wanderer, Are you in the Military?
We currently have friends in Brunei who too are also moving back in August.
They too rave about the place and are very sad to leave.

Tee

BEVS

Thank you so much Happy Wanderer. Ain't forums great places sometimes.
I've bunged you a PM.

At least it'll be a UK summer. Hopefully you won't have to be in the UK for too long if your heart is set to come to NZ.