If you have read Lonely Planet guidebook, most of their guidebooks are written by travelers visiting, or staying long enough at a destination - than locals. Well, I might be wrong.

I was at Dataran Merdeka last week, the place where Malaysia was born. Hardly see a local here and I start to worry if our writer might miss this out? kidding!

National flower of Malaysia

Dataran Merdeka

1. Internet has no short of useful content when come to trip planning. Thanks to the spirit of sharing, the amount of information grow dramatically and no longer an easy-to-digest type. Smart tools such as Wego and TripIT was introduced to crawl the content for you and present only useful & related information. Again, when there are many tools around, choosing a best one and not missing important trip information will soon become another set of problem!

2. How to plan, and what is the best plan? How many time you will change your keywords search in Google from Penang Youth Hostel to Penang Dorm, or Penang guesthouse, or Penang guest house, etc. How about for those speaking different languages? How about for those who call a guesthouse a homestay, like in Bali, Indonesia? What if your plan changed last minutes and you lost the leisure of booking online, but to try your luck by calling each guesthouse over the phone, in a full-booked season?

3. When you think you have every single piece of important information, but you accidentally left it at home and find no way to access it during your trip? Someone’s research in the past might help you start faster. But, how are you going to share across travelers when everyone is keeping it as notepad file or in a Microsoft Excel format?

Most of us, enjoying planning our trip. I remembered, I have kept a list of what to buy before going for my one month Taiwan trip. I have asked Lina couples of question on Visa and she is kind enough to share with me two not-off-the-beaten-path but not-to-miss places - 九份 & 成品书局.

I jolted down quick notes on a piece of paper, how about you?

“I have seen many publications gulung tikar because they are too glossy and only interested in splashing the pages with hotel and tour adverts. Not enough content. Publishers pulak are old gits who use Queen’s English and spend most of their time dreaming in the office. They are not travellers. Writers wise, worst. Many are green horns who can’t find proper jobs and ended up writing just to make ends meet. There’s no passion. Nowadays, guidebooks buyers are very educated”

I was talking to Casey Ng, Take The Path Less Ordinary. Casey is right. Many of them create a guidebook for the sake of having one, not to help. Earlier, we have collected a lot of guidebooks both printed and online version, many of them are flashy guides which provide little information but only putting up more weight to your backpack. I even came across one from Tourism Board of Malaysia with 200 over pages, glossy and full of advertisement and expecting travelers to bring it on their trip… OMG!

Casey’s Blog has a collection of what they see and experience during their community work. Check it out.

The hidden Hotel Puri found at last!

The story begins on our brainstorming today. Lately, we tried to figure out how we can help writers to perform more accurate research. Each writers have their own way to do their travel research. Yet, a slight change in terms of keywords such as homestay and guesthouse can yield completely different result.

Lately, we are using Malacca as for one of our example to explore how we can turn the research better. Surprisingly, we stumbled into this nice little hotel in a baba nyonya style, only today! The name is Hotel Puri. We completely missed it because of only playing around with keyword ‘guesthouse’. Looks like it is another good option for Mid Range, recommended by many travelers.

Our customers are, budget travelers who download and print out our guidebook, read it offline. Our current guidebook has a comprehensive listing of information, such as where to stay or eat. Yet, they are not particularly useful. Just imagine Google search result without ranking. The top-most website listed on Google is not the most related one, I doubt!

Instead of just the listing, why not we shortlist the best. I know some of you will ask, everyone has different preference when come to where to stay. Just like how you trust Google, travelers trust us to make the best decision for them, one of the reason they spend the 3 dollars to buy a guidebook from us. Good thing is, when we limit the amount of information to be included in our guidebook, we will make it even more concise.

Need a chance!

Q: I’m planning a trip to KK with my gf and her family (6pax). We will be going on the 11th Dec -14th Dec. We’ll be staying at marina court apartments for the 1st & 3rd night. We planned to stay at kundasang or at mesilau on the 2nd night. Do you have any suggestions or tips to recommend? I’m looking for 1 day trip packages to walk around Mt kinabalu park.

Answer by a4trip Kota Kinabalu Travel Guide writer:

Thank you for your email. There are a lot of accommodations in Kundasang, i.e. Zen Garden, Kinabalu Pine, Kinabalu Rose Cabin and even Perkasa Hotel. You can get their information from around the net as they are all quite established. For Mesilau, you only have Mesialu Nature Resort which is run by Sutera Sanctuary Lodges, and it is further away from Kundasang and the altitude is also higher.

I would suggest that you stay in Kundasang as it is nearby Kinabalu Park HQ, if you plan to spend a day trip there, walking the jungle trail. There are a lot of things to see.

Check out the trail map here

Q: Thank you all for all your advice & tips. We have decided to stay at D’villa Dina Lodge for one night. We are for tour groups that can transfer us (6pax) from Marina Court Apartments to D’villa Dina Lodge and have a day tour around Kundasang town, Kinabalu Park, Poring Hot Springs, Rose Garden, Sabah Tea Plantations. I’m not sure whether this plan is possible to complete in one day.

Answer by a4trip Kota Kinabalu Travel Guide writer:

All those places in one day? It is possible if you spend about 15 minutes on each place, as traveling from one place to the other will take some time. It will also be tiring for you to rush to get to all the places in one day. With feedbacks from around travel forum, Poring Hot Spring can be a disappointment. Kinabalu Park HQ is the best place for nature lovers, Kundasang War memorial is best for history lovers and Sabah Tea Garden & Rose garden if you love the flora.

Have a nice journey.

Transportation, accommodation, visiting, dining and shopping can be costly if you don’t plan wisely. In total, we have spent USD 330 per person for our 6 days Cambodia trip and this is excluding the airline tickets. In average, we spent USD 50 per day and following are our itemized expenses to be shared:

The price of our guesthouses:
Room rate of Mandalay Inn in Siem Reap:
$20 USD per night for family room (3 persons),
$18 USD per night (2 persons)

Room rate of Golden Mekong hotel in Phnom Penh:
$15 per room per night for all room types

Day 1 – Siem Reap:
Transportation from airport to hotel:
- It’s Free! Mandalay Inn provided us free pick-up from airport to its guesthouse.
Walk from hotel to Old Market, Central Market, Royal Garden and National Museum
- It’s Free! But it took us more than 40 minutes.
Entrance Fee to Angkor Museum
- USD 12, trust me it is worthy! A place you must visit before trekking the Angkor Archeological Park.
Tuk-tuk fee back to hotel
- Usually USD 1 per destination, however we had paid usd 3 on that day.

Total: Around USD 40 spent on day 1 including guesthouse, meals and mineral water purchase.

Day 2 - Siem Reap:
Transportation for Angkor Archeological Park day tour:
- We hired 5 tuk tuk to Angkor Wat from the manager at Mandalay Inn during our trip. Usually each Tuk Tuk will cost $14 USD per day (normal hours starts from 9am), but since we departed on 5am for sunrise, they charged us $17 USD per tuk tuk. Note that 1 tuk tuk can fit 4 persons. Tuk Tuk for 3 persons will cost $14 USD per day.
Entrance Fee to Angkor Archeological Park day tour:
- USD 20

Total: Around USD 60 spent on day2 including guesthouse, meals and mineral water purchase.

Day 3 - Siem Reap:
Tour to Floating Village
- USD8 per person, not really recommended taking this tour.
Visit to Artisan d’angkor
- Free and introduced by a friendly tour guide.
Shopping and meals
USD 30

Total: Around USD 50 spent on day3 including guesthouse, meals and mineral water purchase.

Day 4 – Phnom Penh:
Bus Fare from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh
We ordered from the manager at Mandalay Inn.
Mekong Express Limousine from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh will cost $11.75 USD per person. This includes shuttle service from Mandalay Inn to bus station. However, this only applies to big group for our case.
If you buy directly from the Mekong Express Limousine Sales Office at the Central Market in Siem Reap, it is $8 per person for the locals (or if you ask a local to buy it for you) but usually they will charge tourist $10 per person. However, shuttle service from guesthouse to bus station is not included.

Price of tuk-tuk to Killing Field and S21:
We managed to bargain from $25 USD to $15 USD per tuk-tuk. One tuk tuk is good for 4 persons.

Entrance fee to Killing Field
Normal price USD 3, there was a discount as we went there late evening.
Entrance fee to S21:
Normal price USD 2, there was a discount as we went there late evening.

Total: Around USD 60 spent on day4 including guesthouse, meals and mineral water purchase.

Day 5 – Phnom Penh:
Walking tour around Phnom Penh includes, Wat Phnom, Central Market, Sorya Shopping Center, Royal Garden.
- Wat Phnom will charge USD 1 for foreign visit.
Motodup to night market
- USD 1 per person
Tuk tuk from night market back to hotel
- USD 2 per 4 person, after several attempts of haggling.
Entrance fee to National Museum
- USD 3
Shopping:
- USD 1 for sewing Cambodia name to shirt
- USD 3 for face sketching in night market

Total: Around USD 50 spent on day 5 including guesthouse, meals and mineral water purchase.

Day 6 – Phnom Penh:
Entrance fee to Royal Palace:and Silver Pagoda
USD 6.50 per person
From Hotel to Russian market, Cambodia Daily Office and Airport:
We manage to get a help from Mr. Neou Ty from Cambodia Daily to hire a van at USD 50, which is good for 10 persons each.
Shoping in Russian Market:
USD 20 for picture, karma and miscellaneous
Airport Tax:
USD 25
Total: Around USD 70 spent on day 6 including meals.

9 Oct 2008 Evening Banteay Kdei– Siem Reap
Shopping Rule of Thumb from Lily: Keep pretending not interested.
We were sitting along the lakeside opposite Banteay Kdei in Angkor Archeological Park. The golden sunset reflected from the lake surface and the windy breeze were comforting our exhausted body. Wherever we were in the Angkor Archeological Park, there are children and adults selling souvenirs or books. We used to say “No, Thanks you” with a wagging palm and walked away. However, we are too weary to walk this time. Our conventional way of “No Thanks and palm wagging” didn’t seem to work anymore.

There was our best seller I have ever met in Cambodia. At her age of 8 to 10 year olds, her ability and sincerity to sell out her souvenirs had impressed me.
“Buy something, Mr. Blue? “ She smiled to Wei Kiat in blue t-shirt, holding some postcards in her hands.
“No, thanks” Wei Kiat grinned.
“Mr. White?” She looked at me.
I didn’t say anything. Wearing a sun glasses, I acted a serious face and rejected.
“Where are you from?”
“Malaysia” I replied.
“Ok lah, Buy Something lah….”
We busted into laughter instantly after hearing our own English slang spoken by the little Cambodian girl.

“How about you, Mr Blue” She was looking at Nicholas who was in blue too.
“How much?”
“1 postcard, 1 usd”
“….”
“Ok, 1 usd, 2 postcard.”
The conversation goes on and it was a successful deal as I saw Nicholas has paid the little girl a few bucks for the postcards.

Meanwhile, Lily at the other corner was telling us that the quality of the t-shirt was actually good. She managed to bargain until one t-shirt at 1USD. However she insisted to pretend that she had not interest on the t-shirts to any sale-girls.

It’s almost time to leave. After getting into the tuk-tuk, we noticed that Lily and her hubby were not following and were inside one of the stalls. We waited patiently for few minutes and she came back cheerfully. She winked and pointed seven fingers out and continued with six fingers, gesturing that she managed to buy seven t-shirts with six USD only.

10 Oct 2008 Evening Old Market – Siem Reap
Shopping Rule of Thumb from Elaine: Bulk Purchase
Elaine planned to buy Karma – Cambodian Silk Scarf, as souvenirs for her family and friends. After asking all of us on the number to be bought, she planned to use bulk purchase for bargaining tartic.

Pointing to pieces of colorful Karma, she asked the lady owner of a stall in Old Market, “How much are these?”

The lady owner was a bit panic when seeing more than fifteen of us gathered in her stall. Since she heard we are speaking Chinese, she asked her favorable daughter, Ah Hua, to entertain us. Ah Hua has a fair complexion and is unique comparing to most of the Cambodian we had met. With her sharp-pointed nose and oval shaped face, she managed to speak a fluent Mandarin as a Chinese. Hence, our bargain sessions were in Mandarin.

“USD 3 per piece” Ah Hua replied.
“If we buy likes 20 pieces, any discount?”Elaine continued.
“Aiyooo… USD 2.50 per piece, I didn’t earn anything, didn’t cheat you.” Ah Hua insisted.
“We buy so many, give more discount, USD 2?”, Elaine gestured her disagreement on the price.
“These are USD2, those are USD 2.50”, Ah Hua directed us on two different quality of Karma. “USD 0.5 to you is like so cheap back in Malaysia, please have sympathy for us.”
“USD 2 per piece” Elaine insisted and intended to leave if her piece is not met.
“Deal, deal…” Ah Hua replied, “USD 2 then.”

Ah Hua started to grin and busy putting the all the selected Karmas to plastic bag for us.
“You speak Mandarin so well, where do you learn it from?” I asked.
“It’s from local language center”
“Do you have magnets?”
“Yes, certainly, come over here…”
After paying all the souvenirs, I joked with Ah Hua “You have an awesome earnings today!”
“Aiyooo.. I didn’t earn anything, didn’t cheat you” Ah Hua grinned while patting on my right arm.
We left Ah Hua stall after Daniel taking photo for Ah Hua and me.

10 Sep 2008 Night Market – Siem Reap
Shopping Rule of Thumb: Check out the better bargain in night market
It was our last night in Siem Reap before traveling to Phnom Penh next morning. After surveying around, it was found that the night market offers a better bargain than the Old Market. The better quality of Karma is selling USD2 in night market. Some of the adult and baby t-shirt are selling cheaper.

12 Oct 2008 Sorya Shopping Center – Phnom Penh
Shopping Rule of Thumb: Buy groceries in shopping center as locals do
Strolling along the grocery market of Sorya Shopping Center, I was looking for mineral water for drinking and Coke cans for collection. Since the market is visited by locals mostly and the price is fixed, I managed to purchase some groceries with a fair price as a local did. Normally, Cambodians intended to sell some products to tourists starting from 1 USD. The locals used to get a lower price.

13 Oct 2008 Evening Russian Market – Phnom Penh
Shopping Rule of Thumb from Siew Ling: Ask for the half of price given
It was our last market visit in Cambodia. Daniel and Siew Ling had planned to grab the last chance to purchase some pictures in Russian Market for their house decorations.

“This Angkor Wat picture is USD 20” the stall owner informed on the price.
“USD 10, USD 10” Siew Ling replied boldly.
“No, no, USD 18.”
“Ten, Ten” Pointing out all of her fingers, Siew Ling repeated.
“No, no…” the stalls owner declined the price, and lowered the price.

The final deal of the purchase didn’t go to USD 10 though, however, the price has been marked down much lower than the original price.

Gear you should pack - Medical Mask

As you travelling around Cambodia with a motordup or a tuk tuk or walking, especially to the floating village in Siem Reap, and the Killing Field in Phnom Penh, the journey will be very dusty. You are advised to wear a medical mask during the journey. Most of the locals are doing so.

Food you shouldn’t miss - (Kuyteav) Chicken rice noodle soup (5000 Riels, 1.25 USD)

You should try this yummy rice noodle early in the morning at the Soup Dragon, inside Old Market Area of Siem Reap. Take a slurp on the hot rice noodles in the morning with a sip of local brewed coffee.

Budgetary place to eat- Chao Praya Cafe/Restaurant

Situated opposite of the Angkor National Musuem in Siem Reap, the Chao Praya Cafe is the best place for you to chill out after a lengthy walk in the museum. Enjoy the air-conditioned and Wifi (USD3 per hour) access cafe, with comfortable sofa. You must try the cold Frappe (Ice Blended Mocha and Chocolate) and the stir fried basil with chicken (USD 2.50) in this restaurant.

Riverfront of Phnom Penh

There is an on-going project for flood protection and drainage improvement at the Riverfront of Phnom Penh. This project is planned to be completed at year 2010. Riverside walking pathway are expected to be constructed by then too!

Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda opens at 8am to 11am and 2pm to 5pm everyday.

There is a Night Market inside the Old Market Area of Phnom Penh at night during Saturday and Sunday. It is visited mostly by locals. Experience the lifestyle of Cambodians while shopping in the night market.

If you would like to experience the city view of Phnom Penh, you are suggested to go to the top floor of Sorya Shopping Center. Grab a Grilled Chicken Burger at the Mc Grill and enjoy the city view of Phnom Penh. It is a great hang out place for teenagers who like roller skating.

If you like the calligraphy of Cambodian, you are suggested to walk along the Street 53 south of Sorya Shopping Center. Along this street, you will see a lot of locals sewing Cambodian names with a sewing machine. Students in Cambodia are required to wear uniform with their name sewed at the top of the right pocket of their shirt. Hence, if you would like to get your name sewed, you can ask the local to get your name translated and sewed on your shirt at USD 1. Their dexterity in handicraft can get your name done in minutes.

a4trip in Angkor WatWhat? Yes, we did.

Recently, a4trip’s crews were in Siem Reap. We planned our itineraries by referring to our own guide. We stay, we eat, we drink, we walk around…to collect new information to be updated in our guide.

It so happended that we drop by at Angkor What? in Siem Reap bar street. There was a white board behind the bartender saying “This is not a tourist information centre. So shut up and drink”. We all agreed with that statement. Perhaps, you should refer to a4trip Siem Reap guidebook if you need Siem Reap travel information

A4tripians are always trying their best to provide a comprehensive and yet affordable guide and of course other than that, we are trying hard to break the language barrier. After few weeks time of translation, we are happy to announce that Phnom Penh guide now is available in French Version.

Big credit goes to Chinseng, Lina, Marie Claude, and Nicholas. *clap clap*

Pssst…. Phnom Penh in Simplified Chinese is coming up too!

Buy & Download Phnom Penh Guidebook here!

Assam Laksa
Assam Laksa is food should not miss at Penang. Thick rice noodles served in fish flakes soup and garnish with fresh mint, onions, shredded p