Choosing a Last Minute Weekend Getaway (Spoiler Alert: Singapore)
This is going to be a bit of a preview post with more content to arrive in the coming weeks. This past weekend, we decided to take an extended weekend getaway somewhere in Southeast Asia. Here I'm going to outline a few of the considerations we had to make in order to facilitate such a vacation on short notice.
Visas
The most significant consideration when flying to another country in SE Asia on short notice is the visa and arrival situation. I was looking for us to fly on Friday and was investigating options on a Wednesday. Most countries require 3 business days to get a visa submitted online and approved. From memory, we're talking Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, and a few others. While we MIGHT have been able to squeak in under the wire, booking a ticket and not having the proper documentation upon arrival is a recipe for disappointment. Solution? Singapore! Singapore only requires you to fill out an "arrival card" within 3 days of your arrival; the opposite situation of most places. Even better, this arrival card is free whereas most visas require some sort of payment. Even better, once we were in the immaculate Changi Airport (how many ponds and gardens can 1 airport have?!) it was an automated line to go through immigration and took about 3 minutes. Didn't get a cool stamp in our passports, but the amount of tech Singapore uses to facilitate speedy entry is commendable.
Flight Cost
Of course, the next consideration is how much this whole shebang is going to cost. Unfortunately, Singapore skews on the more expensive end of this spectrum. It's well worth it, as you'll see in future posts, but you won't be staying in 5 star accommodations for $100 USD per night like some other places. As always, there's concern that a short turnaround flight will be insanely expensive, as they often are in the US. Thankfully that was not the case and we ended up on the lovely Thai Airways with solid seats for our 2 hour flight. About $225 each. There were cheaper options on Asian airlines more akin to Spirit or Frontier, but no GD way. 28 inches of legroom? Miss me.
Flight Length
This metric is pretty simple. For a 4-5 day trip, we're not trying to spend a ton of time in the air. Bangkok is pretty centrally located in SE Asia, so we had plenty of options to consider. Singapore is only 2 hours away. We were able to fly at a decent time both to and from while also having time to enjoy ourselves on our travel days. Stay tuned for more weekend trips to other cities like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Ho Chi Minh City, Luang Prabang, Bali, and Macau. With a little more time for a trip, we're also talking places like Japan, India, and perhaps even Australia.
Things to Do
This was actually one of the trickier parts of traveling. We've been in Bangkok for about 3 months now; its such a huge city there's so much still unexplored (could probably argue that about our last home in Chicago too!) It felt odd to be visiting another major city in Southeast Asia with tropical weather and diverse food when we already live in such a place. Singapore has it all (aside from chewing gum, drugs, and vandalism-which all carry large fines, caning, or death.) It was a big change of pace, but for reasons you wouldn't necessarily expect. With 3 1/2-ish days to spend it was imperative to do some pre-pro and booking beforehand. More detail to come here, but our journey involved fireworks for National Day, a food tour, street art, 40 miles of walking, hawker centers, and more plants and flowers than you can imagine. Stay tuned!