Bargain Travel: Cash is King

Reproduced (and tidied) from my TripAdvisor Post.  Here I talk about the merits of using local cash-less solutions for public transport.

Cash is King!

Except when it’s not. As I’ve outlined previously I don’t like carrying heaps of cash, I hate coins even more. So those machines that convert coins and notes into train or bus tickets, well I really really dislike those.

Public transport is a conundrum of  you can save heaps by using the local rail and bus services, compared to taxis or Uber.  If, like me, you’re always converting notes into coins which then stay in a pile in the hotel until it gets way to out-of-control and then I’m forced into counting out tiny coins at the Starbucks when I’ve not had enough caffeine to count effectively and well it just gets out-of-hand. I once left all my loose change in a hotel room upon checking out just because it was too much effort to deal with. I was even more surprised when I got a call from the hotel telling me I’d left a considerable amount of cash in the room. The coins had exceeded a decent two handful and counted out exceeded one nights (cheap) accommodation. So yes I hate coins.

The best way to get around if only for the convenience factor of unfamiliar coins, getting off at the wrong stop or not knowing what the wrong stop is ends up being using some kind of Touch’n’Go wavy card type system. In Hong Kong its an Octopus Card, In Malaysia a MyPass card will work throughout Kuala Lumper, in Sweden there’s something else. My point is they exist and there’s always a tourist friendly version available.

The Malaysian “MyPass” comes with a few discount vouchers, and a SIM Card for a local telco. I whacked 100RM on mine when I got it at the airport and touch’n’go’d my way around for 10 days last trip, Monorail from the central railway station, train to another suburb, train to an attraction, no worries. No pesky coins, no “oops wrong token moments”. In Hong Kong I’ve used my Octopus card to buy coffee, train trips, hotdogs and well just about anything, I love Hong Kong if only because coins are optional!

I met up with fellow Aussies last trip, parents of a friend of mine actually, they’re cash travellers, they bring over Aussie $$, exchange for local $$ and don’t use cards. Yeah, in a simple day of sightseeing I spent about no time counting money, queuing for the ticket machine or wandering if I had enough cash to enjoy a beer with lunch. Yeah if you can swing it, get on the cash-free transit option.

Sometimes the bargain isn’t in the price it’s in the time saving, or not breaking notes before you want to buy something more than an 3RM bus-ride. We all know a broken note is as good as gone!

Bargain Travel: The Money Problem

Reproduced (and tidied) from my TripAdvisor Post

Here I’ll try to explain my approach to Bargain travel at the destination. It’s not my strong point and I’d say I’m still finding my mojo with it.

The Money Problem:

Reality is once I step off the plane in Malaysia (or any other destination) my Australian dollars are worthless except at currency exchanges, and airports have some of the worst exchange rates because you’re stuck needing a local currency and a bathroom and a coffee and usual a good nights sleep.

My money Tips:

Know and understand your exchange rate for your destination country. Use an app on your smartphone, understand the cycles of exchange rates, know what your should get, roughly, on any currency exchange. If you don’t arm yourself with this knowledge you will lose money.

If you are going to exchange your normal currency into the local currency of your destination don’t do it at the airport. Utilise the experience of hundreds of Tripadvisor members and ask about currency exchange in the appropriate destination forum. At the Airport only exchange enough more for some food, a taxi or transport ticket to your hotel and not much else. It’s pretty much a certainty the exchange rate will be worst at the airport, and worse still at the arrivals area.

My preference is to carry as little Aussie cash as possible and upon arrival head for the nearest group of ATMs. I use a Citibank Plus VISA Debit card (not a credit card) specifically because it has no international currency fees, NONE, no fee for using it, no percentage fee on the amount withdrawn or spent, and it’s spending my money not borrowing money. At this first ATM I’ll withdraw enough cash for a day or so, in Malaysia this may be 500RM, it’s enough to by some food, get a local SIM card set up, pay for a taxi to the city, handle incidentals the following morning and yet not so much that I’m walking around the airport half asleep dropping a fortune everywhere. Thanks to the Citibank Plus VISA debit card I pay basically spot on the market rate shown on www.xe.com/ucc

I’m making a big deal of the fee-free international transactions and cash advances because these fees add together really really fast.

Imagine using a card where there was a 3% surcharge on the currency exchange, and perhaps a AUD5.00 on every foreign cash withdrawal (excluding any local ATM fee). It adds up. If you’re on a long trip or spending bigger amounts you could be giving your bank hundreds!

Lets face it, the less cash you carry, the less you’ll lose if you’re the victim of crime OR just get careless and lose your wallet.

Local ATM fees can suck, but not all banks charge the same fee. My Citibank Plus VISA Debit card attracted a fee in some ATMs, when I was told of the fee I’d cancel the transaction and try another banks ATM. Turns out if I avoided ATMs from one bank only I was completely fee free! So yes it can look silly but don’t just accept fees as a fait accompli. Test out the competition.

The more you rush, the more you spend

I’m also a big fan of avoiding cash altogether. It’s amazing how easy it is to buy Starbucks when you want one and don’t have to run around trying to exchange another lump of Aussie $$ in Ringgits and probably pay less in the process! In short if you can use your fee-free card for “every day” transactions do it. Your bank statements will become another part of your travel memorabilia!

For me my happy medium of cash withdrawals is around AUD200 chunks. Seems to be enough money to get by anywhere for a day or two without overstuffing your wallet. Naturally if you’re anticipating needing to pay for long taxi trips or theme park food pack a bit more….

Malaysia 2015: The Plans are complete!

After scoring the deal of the century on flights and the Formula1 dates being announced I’d waited for Sepang Circuit to put them on-sale and taken the time to plan some Side Trips.

This left me with one last accommodation puzzle to complete.  Where to stay in Kuala Lumpur for the 4 nights over the F1, and how to ensure the total expenditure fell in under AUD1500.

About the planning Process

Trip Advisor Badges
Trip Advisor Badges

As a reasonably active member of the TripAdvisor community I have started taking a few steps to post things actually related to Bargain Travel in the Bargain Travel forum.  So to open with I created a thread that largely talked about the planning for this years F1 trip and some of the methods I’ve used.

It’s spread over a few posts in a single thread

Back to my accommodation choice

I switched back to using Hotels.com because there was simply no difference in price using any other site, and this way with the exception of the Tune Hotel at Danga Bay I’ve got all my bookings in one place.   So we shall see how the oddly named 12fly works out.

Where to now for revenue creation?

Making money online is everyones dream isn’t it?  Turning a website in a revenue stream is something I’ve tried and not succeeded at for years!

I’ve raved and ranted enough to friends over the years about how people somehow can create a passive income sufficient to support living in some of the most exotic places in the world.  Jealous?  Certainly, I won’t deny that, but I’m also curious how one steps from obscurity to “success”.

But enough of my green eyed monster, after my debacle with Adsense and discussions with colleagues and friends I’m hitting out on a new path.  It’s almost certainly more interesting talking about the mechanics and how well the idea performs than actually “doing it”.

 

Welcome to TheBookingSpot

Back in October I took a punt and registered a couple of domain names through my usual GoDaddy account and bound them to the basic GoDaddy Hosting.  TheBookingSpot.com and the back-end domain ReservationDestination.com are to be my little foothold into the multi billion dollar business that is Travel, and more specifically Whitelabel and Affiliate based Travel searching.  The potential here is pretty obvious.  I like travel, I like a good deal, and I have some ability to string together lumps of code into websites.

This way to revenue (Where to start)?

The first challenge was to work out a gimmick, an idea that would give me an enthusiasm for the project, and somewhat touch into my personal experiences.

I settled on a combination of trip-planning resources and Motorsport events around the world.  The idea is to utilise the motorsports draw-cards and help fans find flight and accommodation deals to get there by bringing the information they need into one place.  By pre-loading destination information, setting reasonable date ranges prospective travellers are able to quickly work out starting costs and go on from there.

My “experience” as a TripAdvisor user and Senior Contributor has taught me that more often than not people want to have their hands held when planning travel, they need to have dates suggested so they arrive in time, they need to be told where and when to go.  Condescending? Yes.  Fact? Yes.  So I’m trying to combine those elements.  Maybe I should sell reviews?  According to site sites there’s significant revenue opportunities (about USD20-40) per review by a Senior Contributor.  It’s probably a better paying option than this!

Whats it built on?

I’m a fan of WordPress, so I’m using that as the backend and linking together various tweaks and plug-ins to create a more specific experience.  Underpinning the revenue collection aspects will be “Whitelabel” arrangements and regular “Affiliate” programs.  To mop up other potential links etc I’ll continue to use Skimlinks as a catch-all engine to bolster income.

The second phase of the project is build a bit of a Community engine, a reason for people to come and stick to using the tools.  The recurring traffic and word-of-text promotion that will eventually reduce a dependency on paid advertising.

Why don’t you try a search right now 🙂

Malaysia 2015: Formula1 Tickets Onsale Now

After scoring the deal of the century on flights and the Formula1 dates being announced I’ve been waiting for Sepang Circuit to put them on-sale.

logo_sepang_landing

 So how are those Formula1 plans?

When Sepang Circuit slipped the tickets on-sale last Monday I quickly secured some Topaz (Upper level, back straight) Grandstand tickets at an exceptionally good value 50% discount.  For me this was an essential part of the trip plan as my travel insurance includes event cancellation and changes in its cover.  Now if the Formula1 race is cancelled, postponed or moved I have some insurance to deal with it.

This has also meant that I’ve started feeling more comfortable about locking in the side-trips to LegoLand (yes I know I’ve been before) and for something different a couple of nights in Penang.

LegoLand Side Trip

LegoLand is located down in Southern Peninsular Malaysia and a short distance from Singapore.  So after a few days in Kuala Lumpur I’ll board my flight to Johor Bahru and spend 4-nights checking things out in a bit more detail.  Flights were cheap, I initially tried searching using a few different engines like Zuji, Bravofly, Expedia and the trusty Skyscanner only to realise that sometimes making an effort to check directly with airlines pays off.  Onto the Malaysia Airlines website I went!

So for 120RM I had return flights from KUL to JHB, including checked and carry on luggage.  Even the normally competitive AirAsia couldn’t match that!

Welcome to LegoLand
Welcome to LegoLand

I’ve yet to book the accommodation for this side-trip.  Naturally I’ll be resorting to my favoured standby of Hotels.com but this time will also add LastMinute, Expedia and a few others into the mix.  Heck it may be time to forget my aversion to bad spelling at check out Otel.com!

Penang Side Trip

The planning for my trip to Penang was a little different.  With only a couple of nights “spare” in the itinerary and a desire to go somewhere different I hit up the usual suspects (ZujiBravoflyExpediaSkyscanner)  and once again settled on going direct with a twist.

Yes readers, I booked a flight on a smart phone via an airlines app!  It was with Malaysia Airline again, and amazingly for the same 120RM Return that I was already paying to fly KUL to JHB.  The MHMobile App worked very well right down to scanning my Credit Card!

MHMobile App
Flights to Penang via MHMobile App

A small “glitch” was having to populate all of my details into the App, I would have thought these would be imported from the profile I have with Malaysia Airlines Enrich Frequent Flyer Program.  Still it’s not too hard to set put details in and make bookings.

To push the boat out in experience even further I used the Hotels.com App to book corresponding accommodation in Penang!

All done while enjoying a coffee with a work colleague!

Where or rather what next?

The world of travel has come a long way in just a few short years and as I’ve now locked in some 6 nights outside of Kuala Lumpur it’s time to hit TripAdvisor and start to get some more ideas on what to do with the remaining 4 nights in KL.

 

 

 

 

Review: Legoland Malaysia; A day trip from Kuala Lumpur

As part of my trip to the Malaysian round of the Formula1 this year (2014) I took a side-trip from Kuala Lumpur to Legoland Malaysia.

See interestingly enough while the Malaysian capital city is where you’d expect to find an international theme park Legoland Malaysia is actually located in the south of peninsular Malaysia in Johor Bahru – a mere skip across from Singapore.  That’s where things start to make sense as here the park can leverage the attractions of Singapore and it’s Asia “Hub” status while enjoying the benefits of being in Malaysia.

Getting There:

I started my journey early, very early as I was booked on the first flight from the Low-Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and getting to the airport involved either throwing myself at the mercy of the local taxis for the whole journey or making use of the RM12.50 KLIA Ekspress/Bus combination to get from KL Sentral station to LCCT.   As KLIA2 is now open this journey has increased in cost (to RM35) but is now a direct sub-30 minute ride.

As I said it was early, so I ended up catching a taxi from near my hotel using the MyTeksi App to estimate the fare before haggling with the driver over the “actual” fare to be charged.  We settled on a price and within 15 minutes I was at KL Sentral buying my ticket through to LCCT.

Once I’d negotiated the mayhem that was LCCT I was on my AirAsia flight to Johor Bahru, Senai  International Airport.

Welcome to Legoland!

I arrived after a reasonably long Taxi ride with a driver who was more than happy to talk MH370 conspiracy theories, social and political development news and provide some good tour-guide style information about the Iskander state.  Back home in Australia Taxi conversation is always something I never go much for however I find Malaysian Taxi drivers to be very interesting and the issues after a lot more real than the “first world problems” that plague Australia.

LegoLand_Entry

After having my pre-purchased ticket scanned at the gate the park was mine – at least it felt that way, the first Tuesday in April 2014 wasn’t a big day for the guest count and I think at any one time I ended up seeing maybe 20 people.

The Attractions

Legoland Malaysia has a combination of child-friendly rides, Lego themed curiosities and of course the Mini-Lands which highlight the creativity and skills of the builders and the versatility of the blocks.

My first stop was the LegoLand Boating School ride.  To be fair this is not a ride targeted at thrill seekers, yet unlike some many rides of this type it actually has a very real level of “control”.  Yes you really do drive the boat and you can actually set your own course!

It’s a relaxing sort of ride and set the tone for the day where I’d just escape from adult reality and immerse myself in Lego.

After the nautical interlude I moved onto the Mini-Lands – here the Lego builders have created scenes from throughout Asia with some amazing detail.

From walking loops through the Mini-Lands I relaxed on-board the Legoland Express to get a “train tour” of the park.  The Express is not a full loop of the park, it mostly circles the Mini-land zone and while it was nice to sit down for around 10 minutes it wouldn’t be worth queuing up for the loop on a busy day.  Watch the video to see what I mean:

I did do a few more of the rides, in fact every ride where I didn’t need to borrow a small child OR where my 185cm put my outside the rides acceptable height parameters.  As the park was quiet it was actually possible to re-ride some of the coasters etc multiple times without leaving my seat!  Although, on one I had to get out, join the end of the queue and get back into a different car – no big deal and both the ride attendants seemed to see the funny side of it.

So was it really worth it?

Legoland Malaysia isn’t the largest theme park, nor is it the best for adult entertainment, however it is 100% successful at bringing the whimsy and fun to all comers.  As an adult I was able to enjoy the rides, take in the breathtaking skill of the parks builders and appreciate the cleanliness and professionalism of the parks attendants.  The park my have been virtually empty but everyone was doing there best to ensure the patrons had a great experience.

I didn’t see any unhappy children around the park, instead they were caught in that magic world of creativity and wonder.  The babbling of voices and excited squeals told the story at the rides and games throughout the park.

I’m not sure I’d want to whirlwind trip from KL like I did with a child or two, but it is entirely doable and by midnight I was back in my hotel in KL with photos and a silly grin on my face!

LegoLand_Character

 

Living the Blogger Dream on 7c a day!

Back in January I wrote about how I was so happy to be making 2.4c a day between this blog and Youtube content.

Well a solid 6 months has passed and it’s time to review the situation.  I’ve not pumped this site full of content nor have I piled on the Youtube content so I guess in part it’s been a failure.  As it turns out making interesting content is hard work!

As it turns out making interesting content is hard work!

What I can say is that typically my income is now much higher than 2.4c per day and peaked (after my March-April trip to Malaysia) at a massive 12.8c per day – a 500% increase in income!

So what have I “earned”?

Jul 1, 2014 – Jul 31, 2014 $2.43
Jun 1, 2014 – Jun 30, 2014 $1.73
May 1, 2014 – May 31, 2014 $3.93
Apr 1, 2014 – Apr 30, 2014 $2.75
Mar 1, 2014 – Mar 31, 2014 $1.12
Feb 1, 2014 – Feb 28, 2014 $2.97
Jan 1, 2014 – Jan 31, 2014 $0.88
Total: $15.81
Daily (211 Days) $0.07

 

I think that says it all, AUD0.07 per day on average for the 211 days through until the end of July 2014.

As you can see the income is sporadic and based heavily on how much effort I put into content and also into promotion.  The Renault information certainly boosts the Google rankings and generates traffic but it’s also complex research to generate.  Travel writing doesn’t generate much traffic, but I haven’t written much yet, and honestly really would need to start pushing it harder.

income is sporadic and based heavily on how much effort I put into content and also into promotion

What I do know and understand is that to build revenue I need to start pushing better content related advertisements. Perhaps Google Adsense isn’t the cash vehicle it’s cracked up to be?  I presume using better targeted programs would work, or having a greater level of hits would drive up traffic?  Maybe infusing some Airline ticket search engines would work, they can generate a decent return, assuming someone uses it to buy themselves tickets!

No matter what the outcomes are for me what I can definitely say is that unless a person has a lot of time on their hands and a fairly sizeable chunk of cash to spend on promoting their travel blog they’re not going to be living high on the proceeds of their words!

I’m also very happy to say that the experiment continues with my 7 cents per day almost 300% more than when I started!

Thanks for the Clicks on the ads and thanks for the page views.

F1 on a Shoestring – Making it happen

In my last post I outlined the plan – attend the 2014 Malaysian Formula1 for an all-in cost of AUD 1500 from my home in Canberra Australia.

Key to this was getting some killer airfares – I needed to book 4 legs at least, either in a single booking or a cluster of bookings linked together by myself.

Turning to any of the regular travel aggregators gets some decent joined rates; Helloworld (formerly Bestflights) shows pricing of around AUD1000 and that’s pretty good, but I knew I could do better.

In the end I settled on using AirAsia and making a booking with my choice of service level, carry-on luggage only to KL, 20kg Return luggage, a seat in the Quiet Zone of my choice and so on.  Total spent including all fees – AUD425.  The problem is this flight left from Sydney meaning either two 3 hour drives from Canberra or a linking flight.

Turning to Virgin Australia and lining up matching flight times put me a further AUD247.70 down but I now had dates of travel locked in.

Its all getting very real now

With flights locked in on the cheapest virtually non-refundable, non-changeable fares this trip was going to happen.  I’d previously sketched out a rough budget while looking at airfares and now it was getting tight…

Description Estimate
Flights (SYD – KUL) $ 368.00
Flights (CBR – SYD) $ 240.00
Accomodation $ 650.00
Travel Insurance $ 90.00
F1 Ticket $ 250.00
Totals: $ 1,598.00

OK in reality the budget crept a bit when I added in the base cost of the AirAsia flights and the real (no discount) internal flights.  But at this point I was still allowing myself a generous 3 star accommodation budget and a pretty good range of ticket options for the F1.

Working a bit backwards I contacted our usual travel insurer for a quote – it came back a bit higher than expected, but not much, and a chunk of the increase was selecting the “no excess” option.  Always worthwhile when travelling and while my Credit Card offers complimentary insurance a dedicated policy is always much more generous.

Time to get serious and book some more stuff, with the flights already over budget I was hoping to downgrade costs a bit, so hitting the Sepang Circuit website I started the arduous choice of selecting my F1 tickets.

Sepang Circuit ticket prices are some of the better prices – and buying direct from the circuit online cut out some of the costs that other ticket sellers impose including mandatory postage of tickets.  Not to mention it’s not like the racetrack is a fraudulent operator!

In the end I’ve settled for a covered grandstand on the back straight – it was basically the best combination of allocated seat – I’ve grabbed one right on the railing so should have a great clear view.  It was cheap, at a smidge over AUD195 for the three days.

There is a bonus with booking through Sepang Circuit – that is the inclusion of tickets to the post-race party (Calvin Harris in 2014) and other things.

So now I had flights, insurance, and an F1 ticket and nowhere to sleep!

There’s about AUD600 to spend