Welcome to JakartaPotato’s second live trip report, The Maritime Silk Road (Southeast Asia Edition)! After the completion of our previous live trip report, A Summer in Shanghai, we are excited to share the details of our next journey. This time, we’ll be going on a completely unplanned and frankly chaotic trip that has not been planned in advance. As always, I’ll be sharing each review as quickly as possible.

Planning the Journey (or not)

Singapore

Like any of my Singapore trips, this was planned at the very last minute. Deciding to change up my routine of flying Garuda to Singapore, I decided to fly TransNusa’s newish Airbus A321 instead. After adding ancillaries, this funnily ended up costing nearly the same as a Garuda flight. On the island, I booked a stay at the overpriced voco Singapore Orchard, which felt like the most American hotel I’ve stayed at in Asia.

I’ve also added a review of Garuda Indonesia’s regional Business Class on their Boeing 737-800, as well as a couple of other hotel stays in Singapore from this year that I haven’t yet published, for good measure. This includes the exceptional Capitol Kempinski Singapore, as well as the strategically located Andaz Singapore.

China

Several days after leaving Singapore, I flew back to the island on transit to China! Whereas I went to Shanghai a couple of months prior to this trip, this would be my first time visiting the southern megacities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen. This time around, I flew on Singapore Airlines on a simple itinerary between Jakarta and Guangzhou via Singapore.

Over the course of my three week trip, I tried maximising the number of hotels I would be staying at, with each stay ranging between two or three nights. While this wasn’t very convenient on my part, it made the trip a lot more interesting, at least on the blogging front. This included stays at the St. Regis Shenzhen, housed on the top floors of one of China’s tallest skyscrapers.

As I have reviewed all seven Singapore Airlines lounges at Changi Airport in the past, I won’t be reviewing them again on this trip. Additionally, I won’t be reviewing the Premium Lounge at Guangzhou Baiyun Airport (CAN) due to how crowded it was during my visit. In fairness, there’s not much to be said about the lounge to begin with, considering how bad it is.

Bali

I don’t typically include trips to Bali as part of a trip report, but this time it is different. While I usually visit on personal business, this time I’m on the island for the wedding of dear friends! Having not planned this in advance and with this trip coinciding with a long weekend, I was left with limited flight and hotel options. To bring some added uncertainty, the Bali floods occurred during this trip, requiring me to make sudden changes to my itinerary.

Let’s fly

Here is what my final itinerary looked like, which shows a relatively simple trip in terms of airlines flown.

As always, I’ll be updating the list below as soon as they are written. Occasionally, some reviews may not be published in chronological order.

• TransNusa A321 Pro Seat (CGK-SIN)
• voco Orchard Singapore
• Amara Singapore
• Garuda Indonesia 737 Business Class (CGK-SIN)
• Andaz Singapore
• Capitol Kempinski Singapore
• Singapore Airlines Airbus A350-900 Business Class (MH) (CGK-SIN)
• Singapore Airlines Boeing 787-10 Business Class (SIN-CAN)
• Kempinski Residences Guangzhou
• Park Hyatt Guangzhou
• Renaissance Shenzhen
• The St. Regis Shenzhen
• Mandarin Oriental Guangzhou
• Singapore Airlines Boeing 737-8 Business Class (CAN-SIN)
• Singapore Airlines Airbus A350-900 Business Class (LH) (SIN-CGK)
• Pelita Air Premier Class (CGK-DPS)
• Hard Rock Hotel Bali
• Homm Saranam Baturiti
• InterContinental Bali Resort
• Conrad Bali
• Pelita Air Economy Class (DPS-CGK)