Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - February 2010

Just a few notes of our KL trip last Feb. 2010

Cebu Pacific tix - can't remember how much and can't open the mdi file for the ticket

Stayed at Legend Hotel for 3 nights:
ROOM 1
Room Type: Superior-Room
Type of bed: Twin x 2
Number of adults: 3
Arrival Date: February 19, 2010, 8 pm
Departure Date: February 22, 2010
Stay: 3 Night
non smoking room

Pricing per night
1 Night: 313 MYR
2 Night: 313 MYR
3 Night: 313 MYR

There's a buffet breakfast with our room! Yay!

Went to Genting Highlands with the following directions:
1. Hotel, to RapidKL (station adjacent to the hotel was the PWTC station)
2. PWTC to Titiwangsa Station (make sure train is going towards Sentul Timur)
3. After getting off the train, head towards the exit then instead of going down the stairs, go up the bridge and descend on the other side.
4. From there you'll see a yellow bus with a big sign "Genting".

This bus will take you directly to the Genting Highlands Themepark

Hopped on and off on a city bus tour as well.

And a trip to Sunway Pyramid and Sunway Lagoon.

How to get to Sunway:


1. RapidKL from PWTC to Masjid Jamek
2. Change trains to Kelana Jaya line
3. RapidKL to Kelana Jaya station, the last station of the line.
4. From the station, get on bus number 623 (not sure about the bus number but there are signs in the bus terminal)

For more info: http://amaterasu08.livejournal.com/tag/malaysia

Labor Day Weekend outing

I and a bunch of people coordinated with Travel Factor to arrange a Cagayan de oro-Camiguin trip last May 1-4, 2009.

Day 1

Flight to Cagayan de Oro at 8:30am. Landed at CDO airport around 10am. Took a 2hours drive to port Benino in Misamis Oriental to take a roro to Camiguin port. Then another 45 mins jeepney ride to Golden Sunset Beach Resort.

We were at the resort around 3pm. Off we go to White Island for some beach bumming and photo op.





Day 2

Camiguin day tour.

1st stop is the Vjandep main shop near the parola.

Next is the Katibawasan Falls. The water was too cold for the girls to take a dip.






Lunch and snorkeling were at Mantigue Island. This is a great snorkeling site if it weren't for the fact that we had only a short time to snorkel, our life vests were horrendous, it was cloudy, and the waves were big!



We enjoyed the most the Ardent water spring with one of the spring having a temp of 39 degrees Celsius!

Some picture taking in the old church and sunken cemetery to cap our day trip.

And dinner at Pizza Luna.

Day 3

Back to Cagayan de Oro for our white water rafting and zipline activities. Winner ang rafting! It was the highlight of the whole trip!








Day 4

Ikot ikot sa Limketkai mall for pasalubong and lunch at Kagayanon. Had ostrich (yum yum!) for lunch and sizzling bulalo!

We were back at NAIA Terminal 3 by 6pm.

Blog update

Melbourne trip

I was in Melbourne again last Jan. 26 to Feb. 7. I was sent there for a database encryption project. Had time to travel to new places but didn't have much pictures since I toured the place alone.

Highlights of my tours were the Yarra River cruise and the trip to Melbourne Zoo.

For the river cruise, I took the Combined tour package, it was a tour up and down the Yarra river. There were a lot of beautiful sites and bridges that we passed during the trip.

Since the Australian Open was on-going while I was there, I was able to watch the Women's final match between Serena Williams and Dinara Safina. The match was pretty boring since Serena bulldozed her way to the championship. The match didn't even took an hour to finish. But the experience was worth it and I did not regret taking the opportunity to watch it. I was hesitant at first to pay AUS $ 25 when I will be watching it outside the arena, in the nearby park, with just a big screen. Fortunately, I still enjoyed it because it's a new experience.

Pagudpud trip



My sis have a blog post about this already and since she's a better writer than me, go to her blog post for the tour details.

Some more info though. The room we had in Ella's Cottages was a bit pricey but it was worth it. It costs us Php 4,500 a night and had 3 double beds, air con, and en-suite bathroom.

Our trike tour guide, Bong Malata, was very nice and accommodating. Original price for each tour was Php 600 per trike but even before I can try to bargain, he already offered a discount to us! So the 2 days tour which should have cost us Php 2,400 we got for Php 2,000 only. And he was like our personal trike driver there because when we had to go somewhere, i.e. market or bus station, he wass just a text away! He would pick us up from wherever we are and deliver us to where we wanted to go! Nice di ba?

We took the Florida bus to Pagudpud. It costs Php 550 per way. Their trip schedule is always at night, you leave Manila at night and arrive in Pagudpud in the morning or you leave Pagudpud at night and arrive in Manila in the morning. There's a bus going to Laoag during th day and from there you can take a bus to Manila if you prefer traveling during the day. Since most of us sleeps like the dead anyway, the night trip was ok with us. We just slept through the 11 hours of travel.

Cebu-Bohol Holy Week Trip



Again, please read dear sister's blog post for more info. :D

For the financial details, our tickets to Cebu took around Php 4,200 each. This excludes the Php 200 terminal fee at NAIA terminal 3 and Cebu airport. The SuperCat round-trip ticket we bought at a discounted price of Php 500 from the GO2 ticket outlet in People Support building in Makati.

We stayed at the Citadel Inn in Panglao, Bohol. We rented a room with 3 double beds at Php 1,800 per night. That's pretty cheap for a tourist spot! It had air con but we had to share 2 bathrooms (1 male and 1 female) with another room. There were no en-suite bathrooms in the Inn. Here's their email address and mobile number for inquiries and reservations:

email: citadelalona@yahoo.com
Mobile number: 09182411763

Citadel Inn was not a beach front place but it was quite near the beach. We only had to walk 5 to 8 minutes to reach Alona Beach.

On our 2nd day of the trip, we rented a boat early in the morning to chase dolphins. On the 3rd day, we had a Chocolate hills tour. We bargained with the organizer to have a discount on the tours and service back to the Tagbilaran port. This is what she offered:

Dolphin watching tour
Original cost was Php 1,800. She offered it to us for Php 1,600 with 2 free snorkel set rental. The tour includes about 1 hour of dolphin chasing and a trip to Balicasag Island for snorkeling fun.

Chocolate Hills tour
Original cost was Php 3,000 but we got it for Php 2,500.

Trans-out or service back to Tagbilaran port
When we arrived in Tagbilaran port, we managed to bargain with a van driver to take us to Citadel Inn for Php 600. Original price was Php 800.

For the trip back, we got a discounted price of Php 500 from the original quote of Php 700.


In Cebu, we booked 2 rooms at Westpoint Inn. The standard room was Php 750 and the Deluxe room was Php 950 per night. We again rented a van for a city tour for Php 2,500. The tour is for 8 hours and Kuya Rolly Estopace (Mobile #: 09164283017) was very nice and friendly. He was not only our driver but also our tour guide for the trip.

Ilocandia 2008

Visited Ilocos on Oct. 18-19. It was a short but fun trip. Our group consisted of me, Carl, Marlon, Carl's officemates and their friends. Our bus to Pagudpud was 4 hours delayed and so our schedule went bust! But we still had a lot of fun.

We stayed at the popular Polaris beach resort in Saud. We also rented the van for our trips on that resort.

We visited the following places during the trip:

Patapat bridge



Blue Lagoon




Kabigan falls




Cape Bojeador



Bangui Windmills




And Vigan!



Total budget was around 3,500 per person.

Singapore 2008: Day 5 and 6 - Ikot ikot

On day 5, we visited the Esplanade, Fountain of Wealth, Chinatown again, and the Merlion park.







We wen't home on the 6th day.

Blue Coral outing with long time friends

After much planning, Carl, Marlon, Abi and I were able to finally settle to go to Blue Coral for our summer getaway this year.

We had several options since there are a lot of summer resorts along Laiya, San Juan, Batangas but we chose Blue Coral since it has beach front property and swimming pools.

Our trip started with a bus ride from the bus terminal in Buendia. We rode a Lucena bound bus at Php 108 each. We alighted at the Candelaria town and took a jeepney ride to San Juan at Php 18 each. Another jeepney ride after that to Barrio Hugom at Php 30. The jeepney passes through the gates of Blue Coral.

We availed of the day tour buffet offered by the resort. It costs us Php 800 each. The buffet included lunch and merienda. The lunch was ok, not great but ok. The merienda was a disappointment. They served just sandwiches. I liked the food in La Luz, another beach long Laiya, better.

On our way home, we had some trouble getting a jeepney ride from Blue Coral. We rode a tricycle instead. The tricycle ride costs us Php 150! Highway robbery indeed! And this is not even up to San Juan town. This is just to the nearest jeepney terminal that will take us to San Juan town. After that, we took a van to Lipa City. This costs us Php 60 each. There were a lot of people in the Lipa bus terminal and we had to shove our way in a bus back to Buendia.

Here are some of our pictures.

Labor day outing 2008

For our annual Labor Day outing, we went to Poracay!

Poracay lies amidst the remains of the ash fall and lahar flows of the Mt. Pinatubo eruption more than a decade ago. Going there means driving through the mega dike created to contain the lahar flow and through the various constructions they are making there right now. No public transportation passes through Poracay.

The water in their 3 pools was very refreshing. It seems that the water comes from a nearby stream. The water in the pool was not chlorinated and was cool to the skin even if the sun was at it's hottest. There was also a mini lake where we did some "boating". It was a good place to spend one hot day.

We rented a bahay kubo (nipa hut) for 1,500. This nipa hut had it's own toilet with shower, small kitchen and dining area, 1 double size bed, and 1 electric fan. Food can be brought in and there's a grill outside every nipa hut.

Here are some pictures of our day.

Summer 2008: Puerto Galera

My friend Carl was jealous of her officemates who had been touring the country for the past months that she invited us to go to Puerto Galera as soon as she cam home from Japan. And so we were in Galera from April 5 to 7.

We stayed at the Buenalynne's Beach Resort along the White Beach stretch. We stayed there for 2 nights and it was pretty good considering the location and the price. It's a beach front resort and our 2 nights stay costs us Php 3,500 per night. It had 2 double size beds with a/c and a private toilet. We rented an extra mattress for 500 for the 2 nights for 2 of my cousins who came with us. Our party was Carl, Marlon (Carl's hubby), Dianne, Emond, Kuya Dondel, and of course me!








We rode the banana boat at Php 200 per person and we rented a motorized boat for our snorkeling at Php 2,000. The kuyas withe motorized boat made the trip more fun for us! They were a riot! They told us stories of the places we went to and they were funny guys who kidded with us during the trip. They even had a blue starfish that they asked us to have our pictures taken with. We were lucky to have hired them instead of the cheaper kuyas because not only did they brought us to the Coral Gardens where not most of the bankeros go to but they also made sure that we enjoyed our trip. Thanks kuyas!

We also tried the night life at Galera. The place was hopping at night! There were a lot of people in the bars and in the beach itself since the bars cannot accommodate all of the party goers. We tried the Mindoro Sling of Galera and it really has a punch (pun intended)! On our 2nd night, we opted to stay in our room and order the famous cocktail drink and play cards instead.






And of course, Puerto Galera trip is not complete without our tatoos!

Hong Kong Trip: Day 3 (Ocean Park)

We woke up early in the morning to go to Ocean Park. I think it was the first time for me and Dianne to ride a double decker bus. Mom used to ride one when she was younger along Luneta Park.







The line for the tickets was not as efficient as it was in Disneyland. Even though I have already bought the tickets online, I had to queue in line with guests who still need to buy tickets on site. The line was quite long since it was a holiday in Hong Kong. While waiting in line, my sister saw this amazing kid that was climbing up the statues in front of the Ocean Park gate.



The only ride we were able to go to in Ocean Park was the Ocean Park Tower and the Cable Car. All of the other rides were too much for my sister and my mother. So we spent all day visiting the many aquariums. We visited some of the aquariums more than once because we were so fascinated with how they have setup the habitat. Ocean Park's aquariums are by far better than the Melbourne Aquarium.












Unfortunately, we weren't able to see the dolphin show. The auditorium was already jam packed when we got there. But we saw the sea lion show and it was great! Both the sea lions and the trainors were showcasing their acting talents!

We weren't able to see the panda's also because of the renovation. We made a vow that we will return to see the shows/rides we've missed and to see the pandas!

We proceeded to the Harbour to watch the Lights Symphony show. The sky was a bit foggy and so we were not able to see the lights show in their full splendor but it was still great!