Thorn Tree travel forum

South-East Asia Islands & Peninsula FAQ

Inside this thread you'll find a collection of links to TT threads and websites about attractions, activities, travel practicalities and news about Brunei, East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, & Singapore.

Before you get reading (and posting), here's some advice from the TT team to help you find the info you need:

1. Do a TT search! At least five posters a week ask the same questions. The road is well travelled. Find those threads, add a reply (which brings the topic to the top, restarting the conversation), and then see #2.

2. Be specific. How much do you have to spend? How long is your trip? What are your interests (i.e. local culture and art, or sport, or food and drink, or none of the above). The details will help the community tailor your advice and answers.

3. Please use the right branch. This branch is intended for travel questions and resources... more »

looking for a family to travel with - Malaysia July

Hi,

We are looking to travel to Malaysia (or Vietnam) this July for a rounttrip of approx 3 weeks with our daughter.

For kids it is also more pleasant to travel in company, so we were wondering if there's any other families looking to go to the corner with kids that want to join us for some company.

We are living in Belgium, but do speak English, French and Dutch.

Looking forward for your reactions
J-)

help with planning trip to Sumba

hi all!
we (my husband, my 9-year old son and i) will arrive to jakarta December 19th. after spending 3-4 days in central java, we would like to fly to Sumba and spend 7-10 days there. then we would like to fly to flores (maumere) and travel through the island to LB. i have searched the forum trying to come up with some tentative itinerary in sumba, but didn't find much. please i need some help! we are not surfers. on sumba we are mostly interested in seeing traditional villages, traditional way of life, seeing and meeting people. if there are some nice beaches with good snorkelling, we wouldn't mind to spend 3-4 days there. my questions:
1. can you fly to sumba from central java? if not, then what would be our best bets in terms of flying to sumba? should we for this matter first go to flores, tour flores, and then fly to sumba from flores (or kutang)?
2. we don't speak any bah... more »

6 month Indian tourist visa in Jakarta - possible??

I am a UK citizen. Currently in Indonesia and heading to India in January.

Has any non-Indonesian national obtained a 6 month Indian visa at the Indian embassy in Jakarta? If so could you provide nay details

• paperwork required
• payment
• time required
• other requirements (in/out flights etc)

Diving Mabul and Sipadan

Hi, i was diving in Mabul and Sipadan in 2007 and had such a great time that i will go back this February. I am trying to find out some up to date information:

Prices of dive shops (preferably their email addresses or phone numbers so i can speak with them directly to make a reservation - if you have a link to one of their websites, great!) How much is it to dive Sipadan on average? What about Mabul? Last time i stayed on Mabul at Uncle Changs and i think it was 50MYR per day for accommodation and food. Diving was only $50 for 3 dives on Mabul - but i did dive a fair bit. Is this still the going rate? Sipadan was about $100 a day i think.

Any info on dive shops, accommodation, prices, your experiences both good and bad etc etc would be fantastic. Thanks in advance

Need to pre-book bus from KL to Singapore on 20th February??

We want to travel by bus from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore on 20th February. Is it generally necessary to book these long distance buses in advance (and how far in advance?). This is just 1 week after Chinese New Year so will this have any effect on the availability of buses (will people be travelling back to where they work at this time)?

Thanks

Information about Jakarta and Bali in December

Hello all,

A friend and I are traveling together for the first time to Indonesia and are very excited about trip. We have been reading lots of posts but would like you with some more information about places to stay in some places we are going and things we have to do.

First we will be arriving in Jakarta past midnight and need to have our hostel ready. Any suggestions for a good hostel, kind of in a central area, budget to spend a couple of days before we start moving around? How easy and expensive is to get to the hotel from the airport at this time of the night?
We want to spend New year's in Bali but have found some hostels that are already booked there.Any suggestioms for places to stay there too and is it necessary to book in advance at this time of the year?
Any information you can give us will be appreciated

Happy holidays

Yum cha &high Tea

So we are in KL for Dec 21-23 .... can anyone suggest a good Yum cha or High tea
now both of these are better with more than two people .... so if snyone wants to join us and tell travel stories........