BAGUIO FEB 2012

With Emman and his family

Stayed at Teacher's Camp. Goverment employees can avail of discounts here. We stayed in a 4 rooms house. Master's bedroom had 1 en-suite CR. Another common CR shared by the rest of the rooms with 3 single beds in each room. With a large kitchen and living room.

Went to Botanical Garden, Mansion House, Mines View Park, The Cathedral, SM Baguio (!), Burnham Park.

CDO, Bukidnon, Camiguin, Iligan - FEB 2012

With Carl, Marlon, and April

Bukidnon tour c/o a local tour company. Zipline at Dahilayan Adventure Park in Bukidnon

Passed through Del Monte farms in Bukidnon.

Iligan day tour was, again, from a local tour company. A van fetched us from the hotel and took us on a road trip to Iligan. Tour included Ms. Cristina Falls, Sacred Heart of Jesus, Tinago Falls.

CDO food trip included dinner at Bigby's Cafe and Restaurant (nice decor and good food), Kagay-anon restaurant (ordered an ostrich dish) . Attendad mass at Cagayan De Oro Cathedral. Stayed at Victoria Suites, no elevator but has free wifi and is at city center.

White Water Rafting at CDO

Rode on an Oceanjet to Camiguin. Stayed at Bahay Bakasyunan.

Went to Ardent Hot Spring, White Island, Mantigue Island Nature Park, Katibawasan Falls, Guiob Church Ruins, Sunken Cemetery, Soda Swimming Pool. Bought lunch at J&A Fishpen.

Snorkeling at Mantigue Island

Summer MAY 2011 : Singapore and Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Enjoyed a cross-country trip with Dianne, Apple, Kath, Fred, Hazel, Stan, and Pam.

Met Hazel and Fred at Kota Kinabalu on May 6. We stayed at King Park hotel.

Itinerary included white water rafting at Kiulu River, located in the Tampuruli district and Kinabalu Park and Poring Hot Spring tour at Mt. Kinabalu. The tour was with EXOTIC ADVENTURE . Frankly, it was fun because of the company and not the actual tours. The rafting was tamer compared to our CDO rafting and the hot spring was a disappointment. Poring Hot Spring had small tiled pools with faucets. Not the nature-like pools we were expecting.

It was the island hopping tour that redeemed the Kota Kinabalu trip. Manukan island had lots of activities to offer, including a costly underwater "scuba diving" activity.

And the beach was very nice, with it's white sand and calm waters. Boracay sand is still whiter and finer, though.

A short flight afterwards and we were in Singapore! Stayed at Traveller's Inn which had a common restroom but was clean and nice enough for our short stay. Being near Lavender's MRT station was a plus as well.

Universal Studio's The Mummy Returns ride was so fun that we had to take the ride twice.

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

Dublin, Ireland Trip

Things to do and Places to visit

Haven't been able to transfer my pictures from my laptop at work to our desktop here at home so will use pictures from the Net.





Guinness Brewery, Dublin

Went here with Sheila Pascual and Mags Magalona. Forgot how much the entrance was but the place is something new to me and the free pint of Guinness in the 360 Bar is a bonus. Guinness isn't the usual SML here in Pinas but I still wasn't able to finish the whole pint.





Trinity College, Dublin

Did not take the guided tour inside the college because I felt it wasn't worth it. Not that the tour was by the students but because it's not on my high list of expenses while I was there. I just took some pictures.




St. Stephens Green

Went around the park and took some pics. Wasn't able to tour the whole place because it's too big and I didn't have enough time. It's a big place and I understand why it's popular to the locals. Families will have a good time here.





Temple Bar

During one of our trek to city center, we went to the famous Temple Bar area to see some of the local restaurants and bars.





Malahide Castle

The castle was well preserved and there are lots of relics with a nice tour of the whole castle. But the castle was smaller than I was expecting. In the books I read, the castles have large rooms for parties and bedrooms that could fit my whole house. I was told that for castles of that size, I should go to England.





Dalkey Castle

Dalkey Castle was another castle that didn't meet my expectation of what a castle should look like in real life but the actors that played as medieval tour guides were a delight. They had the accent and looks down pat minus the smell. :D


SeaLife, Bray

SeaLife was probably the most disappointing aquarium I have ever visited. It was quite small and the fish we're not as exotic or varied than what I have visited before. BUT, they have a fair sized octopus and it's my first time to see one.






Outside of Dublin




Glendalough


There's a Bus Éireann (Ireland's national bus line) trip to Glendalough that Sheila and I should have taken but I was late so we had to look for another bus. I forgot the name of the bus but this one only brought us to Glendalough where we stayed for about 3-4 hours roaming the 2 lakes and the ruins of an old monastery.




Cliffs of Moher


Even if I wasn't able to convince my other friends to go to this trip with me, I decided to go ahead and avail of the Cliffs of Moher tour by Barratt Tours. It was the cheapest tour I could find in the Net and in the tons of brochures I collected. I had to take the train from Dublin to Limerick but it was Barratt who arranged the train ticket. I just had to pick it up from the train station on the day of the tour.



It was another experience for me while in Dublin so I grabbed the chance. I did not have a seatmate so I was able to take pictures and explore the area near my seat to my heart's content. Although I have not tried riding the train here in the Philippines, the train from Dublin to Limerick was nice. The seat was roomy and comfortable and there were only few passengers. There are even mini tables for the passenger's convenience. You even get your name printed out above your seat if you have reservations! :D

Some other sights included in the tour are:

Leamenagh Castle



Poulnabrone Tomb



Powerscourt Estate

Ross McConnell, the head honcho in Dublin office, invited us to a tour of Wicklow mountains and Powerscourt garden. According to him, this garden is in the top ten gardens of all Europe. And it has earned that right with it's beautiful flower arrangements, towering sculptures, and more! THIS is the Victorian gardens I have read for years now. I can imagine the characters of my favorite historical romances in this place.





TIPS:
For someone who's used to the tropical heat of the Philippines, Ireland's summer is still a bit cold. I always wore a jacket, even a thin one, whenever I am outside.

Need to know the DART schedule so that you won't have to wait in the cold for a long time.

Be prepared to have coins because sometimes some of the DART stations doesn't have a teller and the ticket machines only accepts small denominations.

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.

Singapore 2008: Day 4 - Wet and Wild at Singapore Zoo

To save some money, we opted to buy the Park Hopper tickets that the 3 parks in Singapore were offering. For SGD 40, one can visit the Singapore Zoo, Night Safari, and Jurong Bird Park. The Park Hopper tickets savings amounted to SGD 18 per person.

We decided to try the Singapore Zoo first. The trip to the Zoo was quite long, about 1 to 1.5 hours. We had to take an MRT and a bus to go there. We followed the instructions on the travel brochures we collected on our trip to Orchard Road.

Unfortunately, it was raining hard when we got there. We had to buy raincoats at SGD 5 or SGD 10 each (I forgot exactly how much) because it was really pouring that day. In retrospect, we shouldn't have bothered with the raincoats because we rode the tram on our whole stay there! As if we stayed long! We were there for just about 2 hours I think. I was a bit annoyed with my mother then because there we were with our raincoats and she didn't want to explore the Zoo because it was raining. I argued that we were wearing raincoats anyway and it was a waste of our time and money if we didn't even try to visit some parts of the Zoo outside of the Tram. But she was adamant that we should try to stay as dry as we can. Oh well ... at least I have an excuse to go back to the Zoo if I get the opportunity to go back to Singapore.

The Night Safari was just adjacent to the Singapore Zoo. Well, at least the entrance was. I am not sure if the Night Safari was the same zoo just covering different parts of the place since we also just rode the Tram during our visit there. But that is another story for another day.

Here are some pics.

Singapore Trip: Preps

Cebu Pacific had a promo last May. They offered zero fare seats for international flights! Yay! So my tour plans for this year was whacked! I planned to have just one out of the country trip for my family this year. We went to Hong Kong last March already so my plan before was to take my family to a local destination later this year and continue with our out of the country trips next year. But the zero fare promo was too good to resist! I have friends in Singapore and I figured we could save a bit more if we crashed in their condo for our stay. My friends were very nice and agreed.

Originally, it was only me and Dianne who were supposed to go to Singapore this month. Our trip will be on Aug. 21-27. I asked Nanay if she wanted to go with us but she told me she can't get off from work for that long. My sis and my round trip tickets cost us only Php 11,586.00. This excludes the airport tax and terminal fee. But then Nanay decided to go with us! She felt that there might not be a next time when we can go as a family to Singapore. Her flight will be later than ours, she will be leaving on the 23rd, but she'll go home with us. Unfortunately, there were no more zero fares!!! And so her round trip ticket costs us Php 12,632.00!!! Hayyy!!!! Oh well, at least we will be able to enjoy SG with her.

I'm now planning our itinerary for our trip. There's a lot of things to do in Singapore but I'm not sure if the costs are really worth the experience. We don't plan to do a lot of shopping in SG since we don't have the money for it but we would like to visit as many tourist traps as we can! Hehehe.

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!

Hong Kong Trip: Day 2 (Disneyland)

Day 2 was reserved for Disneyland!

We were told that Hong Kong Disneyland wasn't really that good since it's only like Enchanted Kingdom back home. But contrary to what we were expecting, we had a blast in Disneyland! Maybe it's because Dianne and I are long time Disney fans and so really enjoyed most of the shows in the park.

We rode Space Mountain, the Buzz Lightyear ride, and the Mad Hatter ride. Mom had fun in the Buzz Lightyear ride. At first, it was only me and Dianne who were blasting the enemies but after a few minutes, my Mom took the blaster from me and started firing away! Hehehe.



We had our pics taken with Stitch and Buzz Lightyear. The line for the pics with the other Disney characters, particularly with Mickey and Minnie, was too long!!!

We rode the Disney train but the views were less than I was expecting. It wasn't the exciting ride I thought it was.

The Jungle River Cruise was cool! The same with the Raft ride to Tarzan's house. There was a cute guy in the River Cruise crew but he was suplado. Hehehe.

We also saw the parade but weren't able to stay until the fireworks display. Mother and Dianne wanted to go to the Ladies Market at Mongkok.

Next post will be about our Ocean Park adventures! Will try to post it tomorrow since I am too sleepy right now. Till next post!

Hong Kong Trip: Day 1 (Departure)

The Cebu Pacific flight to Hong Kong was delayed for 2 freaking hours! The crew told us that the plane will be coming from a domestic flight and since there was a power problem in the domestic airport, all domestic flights were delayed. Sigh! And to top it off, I forgot that Cebu Pacific flights do not include the departure tax in their tickets yet. We had to pay for Php 1,620 per person for the travel tax. All of my previous travels have already included the travel tax in the ticket price. Good thing we had extra money in peso that day.

We arrived at Yesinn at about 11pm. We took the A11 bus from the Hong Kong airport to King's Road in Fortress Hill. The cost of the ride was HKD 40 per person. This was the cheapest transpo since the Airport service via MTR costs HKD 100 per person and taxi from airport to Fortress Hill costs HKD 350.

The room was quite small, 1 double bed deck and the toilet was also quite small. But we liked it since the small space was really maximized and it has all the amenities you might need. There's a water heater shower in the toilet, microwave oven, ref, aircon, and water heater.

The small lobby of the hostel even had 1 computer terminal where guests can access the internet for 15mins if there's someone else who will use the computer. This was very useful for us since we had to backup twice the 2 1GB SD card that we brought for our digicam.

The receptionist of the hostel was a very friendly Filipina named Lee who gave us useful tips on how to go around Hong Kong.

Holy Week 2008: Day 4 (Easter Sunday)

We attended mass in Vigan Cathedral on Easter Sunday. The mass was in Ilocano so we did not understand much of the mass. Afterwards, we walked along Calle Crisologo, this is where most of the preserved old houses are located. This is also where most of the souvenir markets are.



We also went back to Baluarte to visit the animals there in broad daylight. The kids had fun riding the small pony kalesa,



the butterfly garden,



and the tigers.



We then continued on our way home. The End.