Malaysia (13th-24th January 2026)

Packing for a long trip is normally tiring, even more so if you're in your 60s. After all the years of travelling and with hubby's master list at hand, I think we finally got it to a hilt. But as you get older, the types of medication take priority over what types of clothing to pack. We were aware of the humid temperatures in Malaysia and packed lightly. Our chosen destinations were Georgetown) Penang and KL. We flew with Qatar, as they were the cheapest quote (R15 800 pp) received from Save Travel. There were two stops along the way: Maputo and Phuket, and we had to disembark at the latter stop. Only 9 of us were enroute to Penang, and only 9 of us boarded that huge plane. It was the first time that the stewards outnumbered the passengers 😄. We were told that we could sit anywhere but alas it was only a 45 minutes flight to Penang. I had prebooked a taxi to pick us from the airport (obtained from a Malaysia FB page), but the assigned driver arranged for his father to pick us up, and there was panic and confusion when we arrived as we couldn't locate the driver. We expected the driver to be waiting for us at the arrival gate, but the driver was waiting outside, and we didn't know the car or the driver. We received the pickup details after he picked us up. Hubby phoned the driver at the airport on Whatsapp and received some details that were not clear due to a bad connection (thank goodness for airport wifi). The driver eventually arrived and proved to be very friendly and informative.

The empty plane from Phuket

We stayed at the Cititel Penang in Georgetown, which was a very comfortable hotel, and one of the best hotels that we ever stayed in. There was always cold juices in the foyer, a much needed respite after being in the hot sun. A water filter was outside our door, so we could fill up whenever we needed to do so. The concierge was brilliant and advised us on the shortest routes to the laundry place and to eating places. The free hop on and hop off shuttle bus was in front of the hotel. We soon got the hang of how to use the shuttle bus and travelled to all the hotspots in Georgetown. This saved us a lot of money. Places we visited were the Chew Jetty, Little India and Chinatown, and the esplanade (with lots of locals). We did get lost and once jumped off at the wrong stop, but the locals were very friendly when asking for directions. We walked past the Chulia Street Hawker stalls and the Kimberley Street Food Night Market, but didn't grab anything to eat here. We ate along the food courts outside Komtar and Prangin malls and also found some good supermarkets here. 

Cititel Penang

I developed a taste for a dish called Char kway teow (a smoky stir-fried noodle dish made with flat rice noodles, bean sprouts, eggs, and chives, and chicken or prawns) and the best one I had was at New World Park Food City. The amusing thing is that when we asked for directions at the front desk to this eating place, we were told that this place was very far and that we should take Grab (their version of Uber). We waited for our favourite concierge to arrive, and he explained the shortest route to getting there. 

My favourite food

On our last night we ate at the Red Garden Food Paradise, which was right opposite our hotel, if only we knew this, we could have eaten here every night. As usual there was a big variety of food, and the food was cheap. I believe that my idol Anthony Bourdain ate here, and this made this place extra special 😊

Red Garden Food Paradise

Georgetown was very relaxed and some places closed early. It didn't have a vibe that KL our next stop had. 

To get to KL, I had booked a train ticket in advance (the ETS ticket). We boarded the free shuttle to the ferry station and took a ferry to Butterworth and then the ETS train to KL. On arrival things got very confusing. We thought we will get a taxi to the hotel. But we didn't, we had to take the monorail. The attendants were not very helpful in showing us how to use the machines to obtain the tickets. Luckily a young Chinese couple assisted us. Also lugging the heavy suitcase up and down the narrow escalators was not funny. There were no lifts in sight 😕. The hotel was close to the Berjaya Times Square mall and we assumed that our hotel CitizenM was close, but we soon realised that it wasn't 😟. We arrived at a hotel within this mall and asked for assistance. Luckily this lady at reception called a Grab for us. 

This trip made us realise that having a local sim and data is priority. Google maps would have taken us everywhere, without having to ask for directions, etc, and we could have organised our own Grab rides. We would have needed it more so in KL as the free hop on and hop off schedules were only available online. When we wanted to go back to Berjaya Times Square mall, we found our way there but could not find our way back, and landed ourselves in a residential building. Luckily a security guard there called a Grab for us. The same evening we were determined to retrace our steps to and back to the mall by taking photos of the places along the route 😕

We were staying along what is called the downtown area. The hotel was a bit poky, wifi kept on dropping, and there was no tea making facilities. We only realised the day we were leaving that there was cold lemon water at the reception area. The main hub and where all the action is supposed to be, is  the area of the Pavilion mall (this area is easily compared to Times Square). We only decided to go here as we wanted to know where the shuttle stop was. To get to this mall, one had to pass through the Jalan Alor food street night market. We chanced upon a visit here the night we arrived. To say that it was bustling with people is an understatement. Furthermore I think KL has the most malls I have ever seen. The Pavilion mall has two food courts as well as other eating places 😀. Next to this mall are other malls 😀

The beautifully decorated Pavilion mall getting ready for the Chinese new year

We did a lot of walking, and I could feel it in my knees. We did take the shuttle bus but did not get off. The kind driver allowed us to stay in the bus and we jumped off at the Pavilion mall. Luckily there are under cover linked bridges that lead from one attraction to another, like the linked bridge that leads from Pavilion mall to the twin towers, and the national museum to the botanical gardens. For other trips we used the subway. Chinatown is a must see. I wasn't that impressed with Little India. We walked one evening via the linked bridge to see the lights in front of the Twin Towers. What a magnificent sight it was. It was very safe to walk at night, and we didn't feel threatened in any way, except of getting lost. This is a bit of a culture shock for us as we would not dare walk any where at night. The taxi driver in Penang explained to us that he parked his taxi on the street at night, when we told him we would not do that back home, he was shocked to hear this.

The iconic Twin Towers

Entrance to Chinatown

It was soon time to head back home. The hotel organised a Grab for us. All in all it was an amazing but tiring journey 😍

Travelling with Qatar vs Emirates

Fare classes

Qatar has these fare classes that is difficult to understand. Also their flight tickets are not very user friendly to read compared with Emirates.

Seating

The seating arrangement on Qatar is 3-3-3, while on Emirates it is 3-4-3. 

Comfort

I felt that there was more legroom on the Qatar planes. The Boeing 787-8 is more smaller in size though.

The Airbus A350-900 has more legroom and is much more colder. 

The Qatar planes that we flew on were new. The seats were a bit hard. The seat recliner part was better than on Emirates. The planes that we flew on Emirates were older.

Food

I ordered the Asian vegetarian meal on my flight to the Philippines, and the food was good. With Emirates you get more variety which includes nuts, biscuits, cheese and chocolates. I wasn't too impressed with Emirates food. But what I liked about Qatar was the food tray did not fit the whole tray table, so there was place to manoeuvre your food portions. 

Entertainment

There is much more variety on Emirates.

Security

Security is stricter on arrival in Dohar, where there is a separate conveyor belt for bags to be screened. On our trip to the Philippines, and on our return journey, we were asked to open our carry on luggage, but because the combination lock could not open, we were given the go ahead to go. 

Hamad International Airport vs Dubai International Airport

The interior of Hamad is darker, which is a bit disconcerting. But it had a lovely garden. 

Gardens at Hamad

Finding the transfer desk was very daunting, as we kept going around in circles. I feel Dubai is more easier to manoeuvre through and is more airier.

Philippines (6th-3th February 2025)

Planning for a holiday can be stressful. You invest so much money into the flights etc, and hope that nothing goes wrong in the days leading up to your travels. There were three things that added to my stress levels: firstly, Qatar was giving us a run around with regards to our 23-hour long layover in Dohar. We were told that because we had chosen the cheap tickets, we had to pay 75 dollars per person for a hotel. If you are an economy seat passenger you are not informed which hotel you will be assigned to. We were lucky in that we were allocated an expensive airport hotel in Dohar, but finding the transfer desk proved to be quite a mission. Secondly, Philippines is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, where most of the world's earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur. Lastly, I was a member of the Travel to the Philippines Facebook group and they advised me that I should have spent an extra night in Cebu City on the day of my departure, as I was taking a ferry across from Panglao and a taxi to the airport. I was warned that things do not go according to plan in the Philippines. I tried to change the hotel bookings on the booking.com website but could not do so. The original plan was to spend 3 nights in Cebu City and 4 nights in Panglao, Bohol.  But things did go according to plan, as we left Panglao Island at around 7.30am. We bought the 9.30 ferry tickets, when the ferry arrived hubby intercepted a taxi driver who drove us to the airport at maximum speed. We arrived well before our 7.25pm departure time.

The flights were R17 950  per person. With Qatar there are different classes of tickets. The class of the ticket determines whether you get a free paid transit accommodation and  whether you can book your seats well in advance. We bought the tickets from One Stop Travel & Tours. Because we did an electronic transfer for the flights, it took a day or two to reflect in their accounts. Flight prices are valid for the day only, and this caused my stress levels to rise a bit. I think in future I would rather pay by credit card. The ferry tickets were 800 pesos per person. We paid 25 pesos for the terminal fee in Cebu City. From Tagbilaran we had to pay an extra 150 pesos for the baggage as we had 1 piece of main luggage and 1 carry on, and 30 pesos for the terminal fee.

Do not forget 72 hours before you enter the Philippines you have to do your etravel application. Thank you to the Travel to the Philippines Facebook group for this.  

I booked the transfer from the airport to the hotel with HRI Tours. We arrived to a rainy Cebu City. We stayed at the Hop Inn, a very basic and clean hotel. Hop Inn was R2 057 for 3 nights. The rooms did not have a kettle or fridge, but water dispensaries were found on every floor. The hotel was real value for money and was in a perfect location. We spent a day at the Ayala Mall, which is literally a maze, and is very difficult to navigate through, as it had many entrances and the shops were not well marked. We were grateful that there was a mall close by where we could do our shopping. I loved Metro supermarket, the DIY shop, the Daiso and No Brand store. We felt safe walking from the mall to our hotel at around 8pm.

Hop Inn

We visited Tops as it was one of the recommended things to do in Cebu City. We took a taxi to IT Park, that cost 150 pesos and explored the surroundings, thereafter waited for the bus to take us up to Tops which cost 200 pesos for the round trip and which also included the entrance fee to Tops. Apart from the view from the top, there was nothing much to do here. In hindsight the drive up there was the best part of the trip. 

Bus to Tops

In less than an hour we took the bus back to IT Park, and thereafter took the local bus to Ayala Mall.

Ayala Terraces

Soon it was time to pack and head off to Panglao. We took the ferry to Tagbilaran, then a taxi to Hotel Renate where we were to spend 4 nights. Hotel Renate was R3 228 for 4 nights. 

Taking the ferry from Cebu City to Tagbilaran

The initial taxi fare was 800 pesos, we brought it down to 700 pesos. The drive to the hotel took 45 minutes. The driver told us he will drop us off on the highway, much to our surprise, but he later explained that the hotel was only 2 seconds away from the highway. The highway is not what one conjures it up to be. The hotel was close to Alona Beach, and the walk to the beach especially at night proved to be quite hectic. This stretch of road is extremely busy, as it is part of the highway. Walking down this path proved to be very tricky as the pavements were either not smooth, or there was a complete lack of paving.

We took the joiner tour to the countryside, which included the Chocolate Hills, a visit to the Tarsier Sanctuary and the Loboc River cruise, which included a scrumptious lunch. We found this travel agent UGO Travel Services Office by chance and they were very efficient, as they helped us with the countryside tour and the transfer to the port, furthermore they were reasonably priced. 

Chocolate Hills, Tarsiers and the Loboc river cruise

The following day we visited the South Farm, where we had a delicious lunch. we took a tuk-tuk there and we told the tuk-tuk driver to fetch us back at 2pm and he did. 

South Farm

The only problem in Panglao were the money-changers who refused to change an even slightly defaced dollar. As a result, we could not exchange 60 dollars. I was told I could do this at the bank. When I entered the bank, I was asked to produce an ID and passport, luckily, I carried my driver’s license. But then I was told that SA was grey listed.

For our long layover in Dohar, we were lucky to be assigned the Oryx Airport Hotel, which was close to our boarding gate. We paid 75 dollars each for the paid transit accommodation in Dohar.

Oryx Airport Hotel

We spent 5 days of the 11 days travelling to and from our destination, and with the time difference, and the cold planes, this took a toll on me. I developed a cold in the Philippines. When I arrived back home it took me a week to recover. In addition, I developed a terrible back ache. I suppose this comes with age. Also, on the flight to Cebu and on the flight back to Durban there were those annoying children who never stopped crying.

But it was a wonderful experience. Next time I will choose a destination closer to home.