Updates and Fun Part!

I saw my last update and it was 10 months ago. Wow, that was unexpected. There is always some stories to tell but had little time to tell. A lot had happen since then such as, Hadi, Malaysia solo rider travelling with kapcai had reached London on 24th October 2010 and reached home on 15th December 2010.

I had also deleted some personal stuff in the blog and dedicate it for what it was meant to be at the beginning of it's creation, a travel blog, food and something in between.

I had yet to change the blog template.

And, for the fun part, we had another trip coming up.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia --> Berlin, Germany --> Poznan, Poland --> Paris, France --> Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

I know that you might be wondering, Europe again? Same country, again? Yes but however, we're going on this trip for a few reasons:

1. Hubby's sister, Adik is finishing her last year there and hopefully with our visit, she'll be one less lonely girl (pun attended for JB fan) and more dedicated to finish her study (fingers crossed).
2. Attending to a friend's wedding reception, Chris which we met during our couch surfing to his place, Cologne and he visiting us in our place in Malaysia. See full trip story here and here. Also, his trip to our place at here.
3. We're going to take advantage of Adik's house and save a whole week worth of accommodation.
4. Visit our work counterpart office (another support centre) at Poznan since it is very near to Berlin and see live in person, colleagues that I spoke to/messaging to at the very least once a week.
5. Experience Ramadhan and Eid in totally different environment (yikes!). This is coincidently happen on the same date that we plan the trip.

One major difference of this trip with previous trip is that we have a toddler now!

So, this trip will be slower pace, with limited countries or sites visited, limited pictures due to someone had to take care of the kid and "kid-friendly" attractions/shops/restaurant. I'm hoping to share some costing that we have just for you to have an idea on the cost if you want to partake the same trip. The first or second question  friends always ask me is usually how much you spend on the trip or how much is the flight tickets and so forth.

The Outer Layer

Flight Tickets:

Air Jordanian - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Berlin, Germany (transit in Amman, Jordan) = RM5,298 (2 adults and a child) 

= RM1,489 (+RM401 for tax) for 1 adult.

Air Asia - Paris, France to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia = Euro 807 (2 adults and a child)

= Euro 212 (+Euro 171 for tax and fee) for 1 adult

Air Berlin - Berlin, Germany to Paris, France = Euro 342.39 (3 adults and a child)

= Euro 28.99 (+Euro 59 for tax and fee) for 1 adult

Car Rental:

Avis - Berlin to Poznan to Berlin = Euro 191.59 (7 days) (+Euro 45 for car seat)

That's the outer layer of our trip. Basically, it covers the going and return between each places. We missed Air Berlin promotion flight for the date that we want at Euro 44.99 per person. Price per person above have to be added the value in (bracket) to get the total price. Famous questions that might come up from this: 

Question 1: Why we didn't buy return tickets; even if we're doing "open jaw" trip?

Question 2: Is it cheaper to buy one-way trip than return trip?

Answer 1: It's cheaper. Provided that you return using Air Asia, of course. There are not many flights that stops at Berlin, a different case from Frankfurt. Therefore, you only have a skeleton of flights to choose from. Another option is to arrive at Frankfurt and took another flight/train to Berlin. We calculated that this option will be more expansive and we can't be bother with changing flights with our toddler in tow.

Answer 2: It's always cheaper to buy return tickets because the price with one way ticket will always follow the departure country currency and airport tax or fees. After converting the difference value, it will always more expansive than buying return tickets.

Later on, the middle layer which is accommodation cost which will be updated once confirmed and inside layer which are food, entertainment, entrance fee and others which will be updated after the trip.

For now, enjoy some entries that I haven't published yet and see V Keong costing on his Europe trip last year for another reference. He was using train as the Europe hopping transportation on each countries while we are mostly relying on low-cost flight.