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8D Avia Japan Trip: Hida Plaza Hotel Review, Takayama

Tatami room of Hida Plaza Hotel Takayama Japan

Western bedroom in Hida Plaza Hotel Takayama

Complimentary Japanese sweets from Hida Plaza Hotel Takayama

Dinner set served at Hida Plaza Hotel Takayama Japan

Sarubobo dolls at Hida Plaza Hotel store

Hello Kitty Sarubobo at Hida Plaza Hotel Takayama

The best hotel that I stayed during my 8D tour to Japan with Avia Tour is definitely Hida Plaza Hotel Takayama. I was quite surprised actually cause I don’t really have any expectation of the hotel to be so nice. We reached the hotel around 5-ish and we are given either tatami or normal Western bedroom. Tatami bedroom does not come cheap in Japan so I was kinda excited to find out that we had been assigned the tatami room. However, the funny thing is since there are three of us, my mum, my bro and I, it seems that we have a combination of Western bed and futon bed. So they only did the futon for one person hahaha. I suppose we would have to draw a lot to decide who’s the lucky person then.

There are complimentary snacks given on the top of the tea table in front of the TV. The snacks are traditional Japanese sweets made from red bean. They taste so good and they make a good pairing to green tea. Since we still had time to spare until dinner time around 6, my mum and I just lazed around in front of the TV while my bro took a nap since he didn’t feel well. You can go to onsen too but I prefer to go to onsen a bit later because I bet before dinner is considered peak hour for onsen.

The dinner that they give to per person is a set dinner and oh boy, it includes the locally famous Hida beef. Japanese dinner set always look so pretty and it usually consists of sashimi, tofu, miso soup, meat and rice. Hida Plaza Hotel Takayama gives us both Hida beef and grilled salmon and I was pretty happy about this meal.

After dinner, we took a quick walk to the souvenir shop located near the hotel lobby and we saw so many Sarubobo dolls. Sarubobo is the mascot of Takayama and Gifu area so you will see them a lot in this area. They even sell collaboration of Hello Kitty and Sarubobo. If you are a Hello Kitty fan, you should get it here because you won’t see it so often outside this area.

While the meal is good and the bedroom is fancy, what I like the most about Hida Plaza Hotel is their onsen. They have indoor and outdoor onsen although the outdoor one is not big and you can’t really see sky full of stars. The common shower area have divider so if you are uncomfortable sitting side-by-side to stranger openly while washing your body and hair, you probably won’t feel so self-conscious here because there’s divider between you and your next-door. You don’t have to carry your toiletries to the onsen because Hida Plaza Hotel put a lot of Shiseido products such as shampoo, soap, cleanser, and moisturizer in the bathing and hairdrying area. Thankfully, my first onsen experience with my mom was quite fun here at Hida Plaza Hotel Takayama. Yeay~

We officially started our weekend trip by taking MRT to Changi Airport at 7AM in the morning. Our flight to Penang was scheduled around 9AM-ish with Tiger Airways so we still had ample time to eat breakfast, especially knowing that budget airline does not provide free meal one board. I don't really eat fast food breakfast often because I am simply too lazy to use up energy in the morning to walk to any fast food chain (there's none on the way to office) before work. So airport breakfast at Changi Airport is usually the chance for me to eat McD's brekkie. Yumz.

Penang Weekend Trip: Where to say in Georgetown?

I used to go for the McMuffins or McGriddle but now there is breakfast wrap available. My friend ordered the chicken + egg + cheese wrap for me completed with iced milo while I was busy finding seats. The size of the wrap looks just nice, not too big and yet not too tiny. Iced milo obviously tastes so good despite its supposedly 500kcal based on calorie counter (I still wish it's not accurate though).

Breakfast at Changi Airport's McDonald's

But the best of them all is gotta be the hash brown. Yum yum!

Okay if you are taking any budget airlines, you should have been prepared that delay is sometimes unavoidable. And our flight got delayed for an extra two hours. I did not really complain though because this is the risk of taking budget airline really. The plane had some electrical problem so the operator has to replace it with another aircraft. Oh wow, okay, better be safe than sorry then.

One and a half hour later we have finally reached Penang International Airport and took the cab from there to our hotel for check in.

Penang International Airport in Malaysia

If you are taking cab from the airport, you can go to the taxi counter and after paying, you just need to take the voucher and give it to the taxi driver.

Taxi voucher from Penang International Airport Malaysia

30 minutes away from the airport, we have finally reached our accommodation for the weekend trip, Merchant Hotel. The hotel is located right in the midst of Georgetown area, a popular tourist spot in Penang with a lot of street food and wall mural. Despite its pretty central location, the price of one night stay at Merchant Hotel is very affordable. It's probably because of the currency as well but our twin bedroom only costs us SGD 50 in total. That's effectively SGD 25 per pax. O_0!

I got pretty curious on what other people wrote about this hotel on the post its. Overall, I read mostly good feedback given about the location and the help given by the counter staff.

Post-it notes at Merchant Hotel in Georgetown Penang

Our humble twin bedroom at Merchant Hotel. The room is pretty oldish but at least it is clean. The bathroom is okay too and thankfully there are no nasty surprises there. However, the air-con does not really cool down the room and Penang has such a hot weather like Singapore so I was having difficulty sleeping at night. Haizz. Typical summer accommodation issue for me. My travel buddy is used to my moan though. Hahaha.

Twin bedroom at Merchant Hotel in Georgetown Penang

I hope the other bedrooms do not have the same issue though. Location wise, there are many 24hours mini markets in the vicinity and the famous street food are located within walking distance. So yeah, the location is the prime selling factor of Merchant Hotel I suppose. If you decide to stay here, hope you get the room with better air-con.

"If I lay here, if I just lay here, would you lie with me and just forget the world?"

After wandering around for few hours in the city, it is time to take a rest at our booked hotel. Since we went with a tour group from Indonesia, it is a given that the hotel is usually revolving around Novotel, Holiday Inn, and other hotels belong to this category. In Krakow, we stayed at Novotel Krakow City West (which I suppose located on the Western part of Krakow?).

4D3N Poland Trip: Novotel Krakow City West Hotel Review

While the hotel does not really have the latest TV in the room (oh my gawd, that tv is ancient but it's not like we had time to watch any TV programme since most of the channels are broadcasted in Polish anyway), the bedroom is pretty clean and these days, we are happy enough with a clean bedroom. Hahaha.

Novotel Krakow City West Hotel amenities

Here is our twin bedroom. No spare pillow provided I see. If you have the luck with the not-so-soft pillow, you have to make peace with it and pray hard that you can sleep on it.

Twin bedroom at Novotel Krakow City West Hotel

The bathroom is equipped with a bath tub instead of shower cubicle. Not sure why but my cousin claimed that her bathroom is haunted by a none other than a naked male ghost somemore. I suppose supernatural power to interact with horny ghost may have run in certain family member, thankfully not my power. I would not know how to deal with that. Some kind of exorcism maybe?

Bathroom at Novotel Krakow City West Hotel

Anyway, I can guarantee that our stay at Novotel Krakow City West hotel is pretty much peaceful without any disturbance from human and non-human. My cousin is just...unlucky (or lucky?) I guess. Hahaha. Oh right, toiletries are pretty basic and I did not recall that toothbrush is provided in the bathroom so bear in mind that you may need to bring your travel toothbrush everywhere since not all hotels provide complimentary toothbrush nowadays.

Toiletries at Novotel Krakow City West Hotel

The view from outside our twin bedroom. Hmm, nothing special I suppose.

Morning view from Novotel Krakow City West hotel

Breakfast. Picture's kinda blurred because I think my soul has not been fully awaken yet and hence, the shaky shot of my simple breakfast which taste good with Nutella. In fact, everything taste good with Nutella. Hazelnuts, we need you.

Breakfast at Novotel Krakow City West Hotel

Cured ham, pork pate and smoked fish. Hmm, not my usual kind of breakfast but it is always interesting to try out something different from your usual breakfast. Hehehe. #adventurous

Saw KPMG (one of the Big 4 accountancy firms) on the way out from hotel. I suppose Novotel Krakow City West is located in an industrial area where big names corporation are stationed. IBM is located in the same building as KPMG so yeah, most likely. Not that I really care though.