Sometimes, things just fall into place. Today I’m working on booking airfare and what did I find? Somehow, I became convinced that I could get a direct flight from Kolkata, India to Yangon, Myanmar without having to go through Bangkok, Thailand. This was a mistake and after I figured out what my error was I realized that I could get a flight that basically stopped in Bangkok with a 6 hour layover. Yes, I do need to spend some more time at Soi Cowboy and Khao San Road but I’ve been there before. Bangkok is a major transportation hub in Asia. It’s hard not to get there, sooner or later. So now I’ve decided to only make one multi-day stop in Bangkok instead of two, I’m thinking that I would like to spend that extra time I now have taking the train from Kuala Lumpur to Hat Yai, Thailand to visit a friend who lives in Songkhla, Thailand.  Songkhla is about 18 miles away from the train station in Hat Yai. The train that I would take to get there is a section of the train that goes from Singapore to Bangkok. It’s a train ride that I’ve wanted to experience ever since I started going to Asia. The Kuala Lumpur to Hat Yai section is a 6 to 7 hour sample of the longer journey. I think I’m going to forego spending some time in Bangkok to do something I’ve had an itch to do for awhile and to see someone I’d like to spend some time with in the process. If he’s not a available I may have to opt for a couple of days in Singapore or Phuket. How sad would that be?

is one of those places that can be a problem for me. Why? Because it’s located in a very rural location on an island in a country where the household annual disposable income income is about 70 million rupiah. While 70 million of anything represents what seems like a lot, 70 million of the local currency translates into an annual income for the average household of about $7,000 U.S. dollars. This means there’s not a lot of infrastructure in place and what infrastructure there is is very, very local. I also have to bang my head against the wall for saying that I’m going to a very rural place as the island of Java, where Borobudur is located, has a population of about 140 million people. Java is one of the most densely-populated geographic locations on the planet. Imagine 140 million people living on an island the size of the state of Mississippi and you can get a better of what it’s like. Now imagine those same 140 million people living in Mississippi and having an annual household income that’s about 20% the current household annual disposable income of a household in Mississippi. Plus 87% of them are Muslim. If you think Mississippi is rural, think about the picture I just painted. It boggles my mind when I think about Java in that context.

So what’s my biggest issue with Borobudur? It’s getting there. If I want to get get from the Yogyakarta airport, where I plan to land, to Borobudur, a distance of about 24 miles, I can take a local bus, rent a car, or hire a taxi. The rental car is out. I’ve driven vehicles in some fairly interesting locales, but this is Java. A taxi seems the next obvious choice, but the cost of a taxi compared to local transportation is, relatively, astronomical. I’m missionary in my zeal to get as close as possible to having a “local experience”, at least as far as transportation is concerned. The problem with local buses, as far as I’m concerned is not that the aren’t manufactured by Prevost, it’s that the probability of the driver speaking English is slim and none. I know it’s only 24 miles. But…

I’ve been to Java before. I know what it’s like. I even know what it’s like in the monsoon season. But I’ve never been to the most rural parts of Java, if you can call any area of Java rural. But I have been to the urban areas of the country and I can tell you that English is not a language that’s widely spoken in the country. Today, I’m going to work on my plan to get to Borobudur. It’s going to require a little research.

References: Yogyakarta Hostels; Borobudur Transportation; Wikitravel Borobudur; Trip Report – Yogyakarta, Wonosobo, Borobudur; yogyes; Yogyakarta > Borobudur > Mt. Bromo > Surabaya; The Borobudur area and more.

It’s time I got busy on the Asia 2017 trip. I’m doing airfare checks. Taking a flight 3 days from today that returns on the same day costs $157 on Jetcost. Taking a flight 30 days from today that returns on the same day costs $85 on Jetcost. Taking a flight 60 days from today that returns on the same day costs $91 on Jetcost. I got a slightly better deal at Cheapflights, especially for the 30 day window. Melbourne to Cairns was $146 for 3 days out, $112 for 30 days out and $100 for 60 days out at Cheapflights. Jetstar had prices Melbourne to Cairnes @ $109 but with 7 Kg of luggage. Tigerair has it for $99 w/7Kg luggage. All prices were in Austrailian $$$. To get U.S. dollars multiply by 75%. All Melbourne flights were out of Tullamarine.

My experience with booking complicated airfare combinations for moving around Indonesia taught one great lesson – different booking websites can mean a huge difference in terms of whether booking is easy or hard. I wondered if I might have the same experience booking other flights. My current issue is booking airfare in booking airfare in Australia. I decided to experiment a little to see if some sights were clearly superior to others. My findings:

Jetcost: Found a lower price than Skyscanner or any other website by about 4%. It searched a variety of websites and showed them. It transferred me to eDreams for the booking. No service charge or fees. BETTER.

Cheapflights: Did a good job searching other websites. Returned best price with eDreams as the website that I needed to go to to book. BETTER.

Skyscanner: Found best options and price. Took me to airline’s website. GOOD.

BookingBuddy: Just opens up windows for other booking sites. It does, however, make it really easy to check a lot of sites relatively quickly. Unfortunately, most of them just return bad prices. Useful, but not for really booking.

Justfly. Found even worse prices than OneTravel. EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY BAD.

OneTravel: Did not find anything that was anywhere near the lowest price. EXTREMELY BAD.

Kayak: Easy to use. Found the same prices as Webjet. Had a Travelfusion Service Fee of $13.33 AUD. BAD.

Webjet: Does multi-city. Good presentation. Easy to understand. Has a Webjet Booking Price Guarantee $12.95 AUD and a Webjet Servicing Fee $ 21.95 AUD. VERY, VERY BAD.

Flight Centre: The presentation and the information were quite good. Some prices were higher and there was a $9.95 AUD booking fee as well. BAD.

Wotif: Incredibly bad prices.

CheapOair: Incredibly bad prices.

MakeMyTrip: Could not find any flights.

Zuji: Sporadic service. Long wait times. Found OK prices when it worked but had a $20 AUD Service fee. Good for finding flights when it worked but not good when it did not. BAD, BAD, BAD.

InsanelyCheapFlights: Just another site with not good, not terrible prices. BAD.

Vayama: Ridiculously bad prices.

Strategy: Sorong will just be a transit location. Note that 13,000.00 IDR = 0.996752 USD.

Airfare: Route maps for Garuda, Lion Air and Sriwijaya Air show routes into and out of Sorong. on Sunday, Oct 1, 2016 I’m looking at booking a flight at Traveloka to see what the current fare for tomorrow’s flight would be. What I’m trying to find out is whether the flights that will take me from Bali to Makassar to Ambon to Sorong to Yogyakarta are hard to book at the last minute. Inititally, I check the next day’s flight from Sorong to Yogyakarta. There were 21 flights available on five airlines - Garuda, Lion Air, Sriwijaya Air, Batik Air and Wings Air. Many of the flights involved more than one airline. Prices ranged from about $150 to $350. There were no direct flights. The number of stops ranged from one to three. Next I looked at booking one week away from the current date and found that there were 52 total flights. That’s because may of them were of code shares or they used a variety of airlines to form different combinations of changes for transit times from layover stops. Transit times ranged from 5:30 hours to 32 hours. Prices ranged from $144 up. Going over 30 days out got about the same results as going one week out. The prices were actually a bit higher. The best route was using Sriwijaya and changing to Garuda at Makassar. This route took 13 hours and cost $144. The 5.5 hour flight cost $203 and went through Makassar using Garuda only. This caused me to wonder of I could get  a flight from Bali to Ambon, picking up Makassar on the return this completing my trifecata of the “countries” of  Sulawesi, Moluka and Papua (Irian Jaya) . I could and it would cost $70 and I would not have to stay overnight. I could also go from I could also go from Bali to Makassar to Ambon to Sorong in 15.5 hours for $150 on Lion Air, Wings and Garuda. Note there are lots of options and it appears that they get cheaper to closer they get to the actual travel date. Cheapest time appeared to be about a week out. It appears that the booking website Traveloka may be my Indonesian airfare salvation.

Strategy: Makassar will just be a transit location. Note that 13,000.00 IDR = 0.996752 USD.

Airfare: Route maps for Garuda, Lion Air and Sriwijaya Air show routes into and out of Makassar. As of today. Sep 30, 2016,  a flight from DPS (Bali) to UPG (Makassar) leaving in less than a week costs about $30 USD on Lion Air. It costs $49 on Garuda and $38 on Sriwijaya. Flights from UPG to AMQ (Ambon) during that same perido cost $42 on Lion Air and  $57 on Garuda. The flight is not available on Sriwijaya as it appears all the flights that close in are booked. Later flights on Sriwijaya cost $79. It seems that the UPG to AMQ route is more popular. The AMQ to SOQ (Sorong) cost $52 on Lion Air and $45 on Garuda and $113 on Sriwijaya. This means that there may be a good reason to book at least a month out. Think Traveloka for tickets.

Strategy: Kyoto is even more of a Japanese attraction than Tokyo. Fly into Osaka from Seoul and take a train to Kyoto. It saves a trip from Tokyo and you can spend a day in Osaka if you want. Plus, you’ll miss the transportation problems of Golden week by spending your last 4 days in Tokyo.

Weather: Temperature averages for lows/highs is 52/70 with about 6 inches of rain in April. Oklahoma City gets about 3 inches of rain in April.

Airfare: Fly from Seoul to Osaka for $103 on Jeju Air. I could not find any direct flights to Kyoto from Seoul because there is no airport in Kyoto. The one in Osaka is closest.

Transfers: There is an airport shuttle bus from Oksa airport to Kyoto Station for $13 USD. This same shuttle also goes to Osaka Station if you want to stay in Osaka for a day or two. Think seat61 for train transportation from Kyoto to Tokyo.

Hostels: HostelWorld. Hostelbookers. Kyoto Hostels. Lonely Planet. Capsule Ryokan Kyoto.

Attractions:  Map – Japan Wonders. Google. TripAdvisor. VirtualTourist. Lonely Planet. Planetware.

Food: Article. Article II. Article III. Article IV. Article V. Article VI.

Strategy: Get to know Tokyo.

Weather:  Temperature averages for lows/highs is 50/71 with less than 1/8th inch of rain in April. Oklahoma City gets about 3 inches of rain in April.

Airfare: Think less than $90 USD from Seoul. Lots of flights and interest. Note that you might want to fly into Osaka and then on to Kyoto and then on to Tokyo. Save one trip from Tokyo to Kyoto.

Transfers: 100.00 JPY = 0.989756 USD. I leave to come home from NRT. Transportation is expensive in Japan. Narita Express ($25?) is the high speed train. Tokyo Shuttle and The Access Narita are the bus services ($10?) to NRT. Good bus article is here. Keisei Limited Express ($10).

Hostels: HostelWorld. Hostelbookers. Lonely Planet. airbnb.

Attractions: Map – Japan Wonders. Google. TripAdvisor. VirtualTourist. Lonely Planet. PlanetWare.

Food: Article. Article II. Article III. Article IV. Article V. Article VI.

Strategy: It’s a new country and I’d like to spend a little time there. Visas: U.S. citizens receive a 90-day entry permit on arrival. Jeju Island stays are visa free for 5 days. Jeju Island get me another country.  Note the flights to Jeju and back.

Weather: Temperature averages for lows/highs is 46/65 with less than 1/8th inch of rain in April. Oklahoma City gets about 3 inches of rain in April.

Airfare: Inchon is a good place to sleep. Seoul flights from Okinawa look to be $85 USD on Jeju Air. I checked Jetstar Japan and found there were no flights listed from Okinawa to Tokyo in April but there were flights listed in March for $85 USD. I’m thinking that it’s too early (09/2016) to book flights out in this area for April.

Transfers: 1,000.00 KRW = 0.906110 USD. Lots of ways to get to Seoul. Excellent guide is here.

Hostels: HostelWorld. Hostelbookers. Over 100 hostels listed in Seoul. Prices in the teens.

Attractions: TripAdvisor. VirtualTourist. Google. Lonely Planet. The Hillman Wonders of South Korea are the Bulguksa Temple (blue) and 8 reds: Changdeokgung Palace & Secret Garden Seoul), Jongmyo Royal Shrine (Seoul), Haeinsa Temple, Gyeongbokgung Palace (Seoul), Kyongju Tombs & Museum, Mt Sorak Hiking Trails, Beopjusa Temple and Sokkuram Grotto. Think N Seoul Tower, Namdaemun Market, Myeong-dong, Fortress Wall of Seoul, Lotte World, Insadong,  Cheonggyecheon Stream, The War Memorial of Korea, Bukchon, Noryangjin Fish Market,  Gwangjang Market, 63 City,

Food: Tosokchon Samgyetang, See this article for more. And here. and here.