We usually hunt for flights and only later on decide what we’re going to see specifically. Fly4free is usually a huge help and that was the case this time as well. We have spotted cheap flights to Singapore and given we have never been to Asia before, we had to take it!

Now, Michał is into cities, I’m more into nature, far-from-all-the-people experiences so we ended up drafting a trip that would please both. We spent a day and a half in Singapore and on the third morning we headed to Malaysian part of Borneo, landing in the city of Kuching. From the capital of Sarawak region we went inland to experience a bit of the Borneo’s famous rainforest in Batang Ai. After two days there and experiencing true remoteness, we came back to the city and went for some one day trips around to witness more of Borneo’s wildlife, read all about our Bornean experience here. Travelling long distances across this third biggest island in the world is no piece of cake; the roads are scarce and in bad shape and the flights are usually not direct, forcing the traveller to take an illogical layover in Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur (KL). Our three weeks vacations were already a stretch at work, so we didn’t want to waste time on unnecessary layovers and were forced to skip an apparently beautiful Sabah region (this time!). After six days in Borneo we took off to KL just for a day.

From KL we took a flight to the third country of the trip, Indonesia. It is way poorer than Malaysia and, in consequence, much more affordable. It's also much more touristic so be prepared to suffer some serious besetting in most popular places, such as the airport. We first arrived to Lombok, just a month after a series of earthquakes shook the northern part of the island. Our accommodation in the north was cancelled so we stayed all four days in the south, in a little fisherman’s village heaven. We travelled around mostly on scooter which is affordable and quite safe if you don’t use the main roads. Our next stop, just 25min flight from Lombok, was Bali where we picked Ubud for our base for 4 nights. You can easily travel to any part of the island from there, we hired a driver for a day and a half and managed to see plenty of the noth and east and then the south. After four, the most touristic, days of the trip in Bali we headed back to Singapore for two more days and to catch our flight back to Europe.

We used services of multiple airlines to get around. Polish airlines LOT took us to Singapore and back and except for a 17h delay on the return flight caused by a tech issue, we didn’t have any complaints and we got to fly a Dreamliner :) From Singapore to Kuching we took Scoot, a low cost branch of Singapore Airlines. We used their services to come back from Denpasar (Bali) to Singapore, too. Between Kuching and KL we travelled with infamous Malaysia Airlines but arrived safe and sound and enjoyed a really nice service. From KL we took Air Asia direct flight to Lombok. Finally, between Lombok an Bali we took a flight operated by the local national airline - Garuda Indonesia. We didn’t experience any major issues with any and it’s safe to say the price can be your main driver.

In Malaysia and Singapore, the best way to travel short distances is Grab - an Asian equivalent of Uber (which was actually acquired by them) - really cheap and convenient when you have internet access. On the other hand, do NOT count on it in Indonesia; we tried to use it both in Lombok and Bali’s airports and we were stood up twice, ending up without transportation in a very taxi mafia-ruled environment. Fortunately, we managed to get our money back, even though the customer support was responding to our claims in Indonesian.. In Bali give the BlueBird taxi a try, there are plenty circling around the airport that are safe to catch.
A really common way of travelling around is to rent a scooter. Depending on how adventurous and pro you feel, you can try it in each of the places we visited. We personally think you need to feel crazy too to do it in Bali :)
All the places we have visited are quite close to the equator, hence you can expect high humidity and generally hot weather with some intense precipitation. Coming from Barcelona, we definitely suffer more during the summer here than we did in South-East Asia. Obviously, you should use sun protection and being outside during mid-day hours can be exhausting, especially if you´re being active, but it’s definitely bearable. Personally, we found Malaysians’ and Singaporeans’ love for LOW temperatures way more dangerous. When entering a hotel or a mall, you can expect the temperature to drop by around 20-30 degrees.


Related blog posts:
Singapore
Borneo
Kuala Lumpur in less than 24h