Archive for April, 2012

Sweet Saigon and Conquering the Cu Chi Tunnels

Posted: April 29, 2012 in Ho Chi Minh, Lakwatsa, Vietnam
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We took the red-eye flight (and only flight) of Cebu Pacific to Ho Chi Minh and arrived at around 1am in Saigon. The good thing about Vietnam is that they do not require any immigration forms to be filled out, unlike the other countries I’ve been to (including the Philippines). Immigration was a breeze. No questions. Just stamped it, and off you go. Before we went out of the airport, we decided to exchange some dollars to their local currency, the Vietnamese dong. Note: Always make sure to count your money properly when you do this. It’s a little confusing since they have a whole lot of zeros on their bills. P200 is for 400,000 Dong! I was literally a millionnaire in Vietnam haha. At least they have commas to separate the figures (the Indonesian rupiah have no commas at all. Very much more confusing).

Our taxi was waiting for us outside and drove us to our hotel, which was closed! So our taxi driver rang the buzzer and the hotel receptionist opened it for us. It’s actually a rule for hotels in the backpackers area to close the hotel after 11pm at night. Bummer. I feel sorry for the guy who waited for us until 1am to open the hotel for us once we arrived. He was literally sleeping at the lobby that time. The hotel is not your usual hotel since it’s in the backpackers area, it only has a few rooms and it is actually being ran by the owners. We had to leave our shoes downstairs before we went up to our rooms (I was loving it already). Then we retreated to our beds since we only have a few hours to sleep and wake up for our Cu Chi Tunnel trip the next day, wait… the next 5 hours! Craaazy.

A few hours later, we all got ready for breakfast. The hotel was like a homestay, wherein the owners actually cooked for us and served us breakfast. I really love the homey feel of the hotel, unlike the other hotels I’ve been staying in Singapore and Hong Kong. Though it was small, it was really cozy and really relaxing. Definitely a change of atmosphere for me. A few minutes later, our tour bus finally arrived to bring us to Cao Dai Temple, it was a 3 hour bus ride to that place. Once we arrived there, I felt like I was in a cult. I guess Cao Dai is a new religion in Vietnam, I don’t know. I didn’t really like it. I just went inside, took some pictures of the ceremonies, I think they were having mass or something. Seriously, I felt like I was in a cult. And it was scorching hot as well. I shouldn’t have included this in the itinerary and should’ve gotten the Cu Chi Tunnel tour for half day instead. I don’t recommend this place. So if you are planning on a trip to Saigon, skip Cao Dai and do the half day Cu Chi Tour instead. We would’ve enough time to shop and roam around Saigon if we skipped that Cao Dai thing.

In the afternoon, we finally arrived at Cu Chi. And all the little frustrations I had with Cao Dai finally went away as I was really super excited with this tour! Our tour guide, who was actually a soldier during the Vietnam War, told us about some stories during that time and on how they defeated the Americans. He showed us some of the trapdoors, the entrance and the exits to the tunnels, their meeting areas, etc. The Cu Chi Tunnels were a big part to their victory since they actually created it as a hideout to surprise their enemies during the battle. We took some shots climbing up some tanks and also tried some firing shots as well. I would’ve loved to use the armalite but oh well haha. I did not! I do not even know how to use that rifle at first!

There were these little mini-exits scattered everywhere in the jungle that we decided to take turns jumping inside and to take shots of ourselves getting out from underneath. The most unforgettable part was when my friend, Desiree, tried to get in but when she was about to get out, she got stuck! It literally took us about 15 minutes to finally pull and drag her out of that tiny hole! That was probably the most stressful part of that trip. I was already thinking how can I explain to her parents that Des can’t go home coz she’s already overstaying in Vietnam stucked in one of those tunnels? LOL!

Then the most awaited part finally arrived. After walking around that mini-jungle, we were now about to get inside and crawl the Cu Chi Tunnels! Naina decided to pass since she already did this before and it’s her second time in Saigon, while Desiree decided she’ve had enough of these tunnels after her traumatizing experience being stucked in one of them a few minutes ago. So me, Audrey and Jeany decided to do it. I was the most determined one since this is the only reason why I even booked a flight to Saigon in the first place. So down we crawled inside and it was seriously hot! If you have claustrophobia, I suggest you skip this. I was sweating so hard, I felt like I was playing a championship game for basketball. Good thing about the tunnels is that, though there is only one way for you to crawl straight at towards the main exit, you can always exit from the sides as well. There were also torches there to give you some lighting in case you cannot see due to the darkness below. It was definitely one of the most exciting experiences I’ve had even though I was literally showering with sweat! The tunnels are also not of the same size. It gets bigger but most of the time, it was getting smaller and smaller. They were basically made for the built of the Vietnamese soldiers that time. Thank God I am short, it was very easy for me to fit in and crawl inside there. After a few minutes of crawling, Audrey and Jeany had to exit because they needed to catch their breath and they cannot tolerate the heat anymore. I was a little disappointed coz I wanted to finish crawling the entire tunnels with them, which I actually did, together with a few other foreigners. Once I arrived at the exit, I was relieved to feel the actual air around me and I was able to breathe a little better. To be honest, I was a little disappointed, coz I wanted the tunnel to be a little longer! I love crawling down there, I felt like a kid exploring a new playground, irregardless of the sweat, the dirt and the little insects I’ve seen inside. I also had an extra shirt since I know I would definitely need it after all that crawling. So after I changed my shirts and got freshened up somehow, we all went back to the bus to be brought back to our hotel in Saigon.

We decided to have the driver drop us at the Ben Tanh Market area. We decided to grab a bite to eat since we were so hungry from all that driving and crawling. We had dinner at Pho 2000, a restaurant that became very popular as the only restaurant in Vietnam that comes highly recommended by former US President Bill Clinton. I’ve heard about it from the net, and now that I was here, I was pretty excited to taste their popular pho noodles. The restaurant was okay. It has this canteen-feel to it, it was like you were just eating from the office pantry. Pictures of Bill Clinton, together with the restaurant crew, were everywhere as well. The noodles were not that special, in my opinion. I guess living in an Asian country myself, I’ve tasted way too many noodles from other countries that this one doesn’t seem to be any different from our local Philippine miswa, or the Thai and Korean noodles we eat at the convenient stores.

After dinner, we decided to shop a little at the nearby Ben Tanh Market. Unfortunately, it was already around 9pm and the actual market was closed, so we had to do our shopping at the street night markets outside Ben Tanh. It was our very first shopping experience in Saigon and I was amazed with the stuff that they were selling. From their very famous Vietnamese coffee (I got a pack for myself), to the popular Vietcong hats, to cobra wines. Yes, they were selling cobra wines. With the actual snakes and cobras inside the bottle. I separated myself from the other guys so that I can focus with my own shopping. Shopping and haggling on these street markets has always been a favorite thing for me when I travel. I got myself some t-shirts priced at around 50,000 Dong (that’s around P100 each). The red Vietnam shirt with the star in the middle is a must-buy since it actually is the flag of Vietnam. After an hour of shopping, we got ourselves into a taxi to bring us back to our hotel at the backpacker’s area.

Once we arrived at the hotel, we all took a quick shower and decided to explore Saigon one last time. We strolled down the streets and came to this popular hangout (which I forgot the name), and was actually just the street itself. There were small tables everywhere and everyone was seated together side by side. The next table was actually placed a step from the next one. So you would probably end up sitting to somebody that you do not know from the next table. We decided to take a spot from one corner of the street, ordered some Saigon beer and ate some dried squid. The ambiance was crazy. It was very noisy and very fun! The way the people were seated, all the lights, all the noise, the sound of so many foreigh languages everywhere gave me such an euphoric high that made me enjoy that moment. One thing I really like about these locals was about how frank they were. When my friends decided to change tables since another group in front of us left, the owner, who was this middle-aged woman, probably in her 40s, said NO. I guess she was not in the mood to clean up our table again in case we decide to move to another one. I had to laugh inside while my friends, especially Audrey was mumbling her little complaints when that lady did not allow us to move to another table.

After a few minutes, we decided to call it a night since the hotels at the backpackers area have a curfew at around 11pm. We have to go back to the hotel to repack and prepare everything for our flight the next morning to Hanoi.

Holy Week 2012 in Vietnam!

Posted: April 29, 2012 in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh, Lakwatsa, Vietnam
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So this Holy Week, I’m spending my vacation in Vietnam! Everyone’s talking about Boracay and the beaches, and I was like, it’s probably gonna be crowded anyway. Good thing my friend, Audrey, invited me to go somewhere this long Holy Week vacation. We wanted to go someplace we’ve never been to yet so we decided Vietnam. We were supposed to book our ticket for this Holy Week trip around late January for P12K roundtrip (Manila – Ho Chi Minh). I don’t know what made us not book it yet, but good for us, a week later, Cebu Pacific had a promo fare for Vietnam. The original roundtrip ticket of P12K turned out to be around P6K instead. That’s literally half of the original price we were supposed to pay!

We were just communicating via Twitter (just like we did with our Bali trip), and we invited our other high school friends Desiree and Naina. After too much convincing, Des agreed. It took about a month later for Naina to finally agree after seeing how excited we were on Twitter about the Vietnam escapade hehe. I was in charge of the itinerary, as always, mainly because I was the one who loves to research alot about blogs, forums and feedbacks about travelling, or maybe simply because I was the most OC of them all. While doing my travel research about Vietnam, I stumbled upon Ha Long Bay, Sapa and the Cu Chi Tunnels. And I knew then and there that I need to go to those places during this trip. But the problem is, Cu Chi is located in Ho Chi Minh, while Ha Long Bay is located in the Hanoi area. It would’ve been fine if not for the fact that Hanoi is a 2-hour plane ride from Saigon (the other name for Ho Chi Minh). So I had to plan out the itinerary again and suggested to the rest of the guys to include Hanoi. We already bought our RT ticket to Ho Chi Minh, so we decided to buy another roundtrip ticket to Hanoi via Jetstar. That domestic ticket cost us around P5,000. Audrey was scared of flying Vietair, though we could’ve gotten a much cheaper fare there. Boo!!!

So now that we had the Hanoi tickets, it’s time for me to really plan out the itinerary. We have literally five whole days in Vietnam, so we definitely need to maximize our time there and at the same time get to relax from time to time. I had to let go of Sapa coz it would take about 3 days of our trip to be consumed if we did decide to go there. That means I will be going to Vietnam again to visit Sapa the next time around :) Sleeping inside the night train is definitely one of my goals as well.

We will be staying one whole day in Saigon (only for the Cu Chi Tunnels), then off to spend the rest of the trip in Hanoi. After seeing the pics on Google about Ha Long Bay, I knew I need to go there whatever happens. It was definitely a blessing as well that it didn’t rain at all during our entire stay in Vietnam, despite the fact that the weather forecasted it to be rainy and with some thunderstorms to be expected. Naina and her friend Jeany will be flying from Singapore to meet us there in Saigon, and to join us on our Hanoi trip. I contacted the hotels via email and was able to negotiate a good price for all of us.

I first contacted Bich Duyen Hotel in Ho Chi Minh, and they gave us $27US for our one night stay there for one room (3 pax), with pick-up from the airport. (Note: I always have the hotel guys pick me up at the airport. I don’t want to be ripped off by those taxi drivers and their schemes I’ve been reading all over the net, not just in Vietnam, but in every country I’ve been and plan to go to). I had the hotel arrange the Cu Chi trip for us as well, which will take us about an entire day to enjoy. I then contacted Prince Hanoi hotel in Hanoi and arranged for the tours and for our airport pickup as well. We paid $35 per night on Prince Hanoi for one room (3 pax). The rest of the tours (Ha Long Bay, Hoa Lu, Tam Coc River) would cost us around P6,000 each all in all, free lunch included. These guys were very quick to respond to my query and they didn’t ask for any down payment. They said I just need to settle it at the hotel once I check out. Ain’t that cool? I’m loving these Vietnam peeps already!

So that’s it, that’s how I planned our amazing Vietnam vacation, which I am about to write about in the next few seconds…

Chatuchak Weekend Market and Damnoen Saduak Floating Market

Posted: April 29, 2012 in Bangkok, Lakwatsa, Thailand
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Our fourth day in Bangkok was all about hitting Chatuchak. Chatuchak is a popular market in Thailand and it’s only open during weekends. The first time I was in Thailand, we arrived Sunday afternoon, so that didn’t give us enough time to go to this place. So when another opportunity to visit Thailand came, I knew I had to go to Chatuchak no matter what.

We woke up around 9am to get ready and go to Chatuchak. I wanted to try the skytrain but reading the maps got me really confused, so we opted to go ride the popular tuk-tuk instead. Had to negotiate with the drivers since these guys are well known for overpricing especially with tourists. Chatuchak was kinda far from the area where we are staying but it was an awesome experience speeding through other vehicles on the highway.

Once we arrived, we took a map at the entrance and I got started with my picture taking. Chatuchak is a mecca filled with knick-knacks. They were basically selling everything from souvenirs, shirts, bags, handicrafts to animals. They even had snakes and scorpions for sale here. It was literally HUGE. I don’t think we even covered the entire area. They had 8,000 stalls per Google, and I think we only got to less than 10% of it. I got me a really cool slingbag which I really, really love since these are the kind of stuff that can’t be found here in the Philippines.

After walking around for hours, Jim surrendered and asked if we can go back to the hotel. I was a little tired too but I would’ve wanted to roam around and explore the place some more. The area got really confusing though since there are a bunch of entrances and exits around. When we came back to the hotel, we rested for a while and decided to go to the MBK Mall, one of the most popular shopping centers in Bangkok. I was able to find some really shirts there and some more souvenirs to take home. We went home via tuk-tuk and decided to have dinner at KFC, just across our hotel at the Pantip Plaza.

The next day, we were off to the Floating Market in Damnoen Saduak. It was a half day tour but before that, our tour guide dropped us off at the Elephant Village to have some of our pics taken with the elephants there. I love having my picture taken with the elephants. It was a little scary at first but I got used to it. We then went ahead to the floating market, which was an absolute delight for the eyes. We walked around the are and took pictures here and there. We didn’t ride the actual boats in the market coz of too much water traffic, which was a good idea, since it gave us a chance to really explore the area on our own.

At the end of the tour, we all rode the boat to explore the village itself. We got to see these Thai people and their houses in the actual river and had a great time taking it all in. It was a truly rewarding cultural experience, seeing their way of living, which was way too different from what we are all used to back home.

We went back to our hotel and did a little more shopping, then we decided to take a few hours of sleep. I woke up around 9pm and had to really wake Jim and Keith up since I wanted to try some food hawking. I really wanted to experience eating on the streets of Bangkok itself. They had these hawker stalls on the sidewalks of the city, where they were serving meals just like it were inside a restaurant, but this time, they were on the streets! We walked towards one of the areas and had our last dinner there. I just pointed at the menu and had a great time with the other guys there. Some of the other customers near our table were also very friendly and had a little chat with them as well. This experience is definitely one of the best vacations I’ve ever had. Though it’s my second time around Thailand, it felt so good and so rewarding that I was able to share it with my friends and to let them experience the area and the culture as well. Money come and go, but it’s the experience that really lasts forever.

Amazing Ayutthaya and Chao Phraya River Cruise

Posted: April 18, 2012 in Bangkok, Lakwatsa, Thailand
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For our second day here in Bangkok, I have booked us a tour for Ayutthaya. Known as the second capital of Thailand, it is also known to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I have this thing about visiting all the UNESCO World Heritage sites all over the world (dreams will come true!).

We woke up early since our bus is picking us up around 7am for a 2 to 3-hour long bus ride towards Ayutthaya. Our first stop was the Bang Pa-In Palace, which is in the province of Ayutthaya itself. These Thai guys were pretty strict and sensitive with the clothes you’re wearing. They had Jim wear a sarong before going inside since he was wearing some distressed jeans. I didn’t know that wearing that was a no-no. I thought all the while, as long as you got them covered, it was okay. We stayed there for almost an hour, took some pictures (as always) and basically just struggled with the oh-so-burning heat! Good thing I brought with me another shirt since I looked like I just finished playing a basketball championship game with all the sweat covering my body. I was prepared though. Got my tiny umbrella, a BIG hand fan and covered myself with a whole lotta sunblock. Seriously, sunblock is a traveler’s best friend!

After Bang Pa-In, we all went straight to the main island of Ayutthaya where the action is! Ayutthaya has always been a dream destination for me after checking all the amazing pics from Google. The first time I was here in Thailand, I skipped this place in favor of shopping, shopping and shopping. So it was an absolute must for me to return here and visit this beatufiul place.

Our tour guide was actually telling us about the history of the place but I really wasn’t paying attention. I was more concerned of circling around the place and getting the most for my pictures. Keith was the only one paying attention to almost every word, like there was a History exam the next hour or so. Ayutthaya was HUGE. I had to separate myself from the pack since I really wanted to get every scenic nook and cranny as possible. It’s amazing how they were able to preserve this place. I have to tell every one reading this. You MUST go to Ayutthaya. Despite of the scorching heat and the long travel time, it was all worth it. It was definitely an unforgettable postcard experience!

It was such a tiring experience that the rest of my friends, except Keith, who was tagging along, had to return back to the air-conditioned bus because of the unbearable heat, add that to the lack of sleep and there you go. We then went to the Chinese temple right across the scenic ruins where they had the tallest Buddha in Thailand. I did some little Buddhist type of praying in order for me to get my lucky number. I think it was 27. Hmmmm. Yeah, think so.

After all the picture-taking’s done, we all drove to the Chao Phraya Basin to return back to Bangkok via the Chao Phraya River. The cruise was part of the package I took and they had one of the most sumptuous buffet lunch ever. I felt I was about to explode after that. The cruise lasted for about 4 hours and it gave us all a magnificent view of the temples and the sights as we return back to the city. The side effect = we all got burned by the afternoon sun! LOL

Once we returned back to our hotel, despite of the unbelievably overcrowded Bangkok street traffic, we immediately took a shower to prepare us to another cruise! It was actually a dinner cruise this time, in the same place! At the Chao Phraya River! Haha! I really didn’t care. Though it was the same route and back, the views of the temples at night were very beautiful. Inside our traditional Thai junk boat, some of the waiters were actually Filipinos. It was a surprise for me to know that there were so many Filipinos working in Bangkok. While having dinner, they had this cultural Thai presentation relaying a love story or something that I had no idea about. I was more amazed with their costumes hehe. Keith was actually invited by one of the dancing girls to join them on the dance and we had so much fun taking pictures with them and just enjoying that moment while cruising down the Chao Phraya River back to Bangkok.

We arrived back at our hotel around 10pm and got ready for our next planned itinerary, which was to spend the day roaming around the popular weekend market, Chatuchak.

Back in Bangkok!

Posted: April 15, 2012 in Bangkok, Lakwatsa, Thailand
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Last month after my birthday was the start of my planned monthly travel getaway. I have booked with some friends a trip to Bangkok last December via Cebu Pacific for round trip tickets of around P8,000. It’s about to be my second time already to this wonderful place and I was really raving about it to the rest of my friends that I told them I wanted to go to Bangkok this March. Not April, May, or any other month, but March. Mainly because I have other plans for the months to come and at the same time my friend Kimchi (who went with us in Singapore), also booked a flight to be in Bangkok for a week here during this time (we ended up meeting on their last day, by the way).

It was an experience for me since I was acting as a mini-tour guide for the rest of the guys I was with and at the same time it was their first time, not only to visit Bangkok, but it was their first out of the country trip as well. So imagine their excitement with this trip. I know, I was so unbelievably excited when I had my first trip out of the country a few years back in Hong Kong as well. :)

Prior to the said trip, I made all the reservations myself, from the hotel to the pickup to the tour packages available. The first time I was in Bangkok, which was around June 2010, all I did was shop, shop and shop. Bangkok is indeed a shopping heaven since you wouldn’t resist the really low prices they are offering and at the same time the more you buy, the bigger the discounts would be. They seriously have malls that does this. I booked us to stay at the Four Seasons International House, which was located at the Rajthevee area, near Pratunam. I chose that hotel mainly for its location, which was very convenient. Right in front of our hotel was the dawn market, a 7-Eleven convenient store, a McDonald’s and it’s just a minute walk to the popular Platinum Fashion Mall (my favorite mall in BKK) and the Pantip Plaza (the popular IT mall in BKK). We paid around P1000 per night per person for the rooms, buffet breakfast included. I also made the itinerary for this myself to include a tour to Ayutthaya, a river cruise, a visit to the popular Chatuchak Market and the Floating Market.

Our flight arrived in Bangkok around 1am and when we arrived we immediately exchanged our money to some baht, where we made a big mistake of bringing in pesos instead of dollars. The conversion was really low and that’s when we found out we should’ve exchanged our pesos to dollars while we were still here in the Philippines. It was almost half of what we expected. :( I usually don’t pay attention to currency exchanges when I travel. So even though it’s my second time in Thailand already, I still felt I was a newbie. Our pickup was waiting for us when we arrived to bring us to the hotel. I then confirmed with our tour guide the scheduled tours we have, negotiated, and then paid the upcoming tours for the next few days. After preparing all our luggages, we then went to bed to prepare us for our first activity, which was to shop around the Platinum Fashion Mall on the same day. So we had about 8 hours of sleep before we woke up, had breakfast and roamed around the mall.

The first time I was here inside the Platinum Fashion Mall, I was amazed with what I have seen. There were people shopping, carrying with them big bags of stuff, some people even have big luggage bags and trolleys to stuff all the things they have bought for that day. I actually ended up buying one for myself the first time I was here, since I felt like my shoulders were about to give out on me from all the stuff I have been carrying from too much shopping. It’s a fashion mall, so it was mainly all about shirts, dresses, shoes, pants, etc. They do sell some souvenirs here but not that much. Since there were 5 of us, everytime I bought something, we had to negotiate to the vendors to give us a really big discount, which was a good thing. During lunch time, we decided to eat in their food court, where Kimchi met up with us and joined us, since they were already leaving that night.

After lunch, we decided to walk back to our hotel, drop all the stuff we’ve bought and decided to just walk around the city. And walk around we did. We took pictures here and there, we had a map with us but we didn’t really use it since I was already a little familiar of the place. Walking around Bangkok is one of my favorite things to do. You’d get to see a lot of stuff, from street foods to their colorful taxis to the ever popular tuk-tuks circling around the place, to the hawker stalls they have lined up in their sidewalks. We retreated back to our hotel at around 5 or 6pm since we needed to rest for an early trip to Ayutthaya the next day.

I was pretty sleepy then so I decided to take a nap. I woke up a few hours to see Keith carrying with him a white plastic bag and he was grinning like crazy. I asked him what it was and he said he bought some insects for us to eat. I was still a little groggy so I didn’t believe him at first and when I stood up I did see the insects there! I had to wake Jim up, who was also sleeping on the other bed, to show him what Keith bought from the streets outside at 10 o’clock in the evening! We dared each other to try and eat it, since the insects were all fried anyway. Ugh. The crickets tasted okay, but the freaky part was when I was looking in the eyes of that insect before I ate it. LOL. We didn’t know we had to remove the legs before eating so we had some stuck on our teeth afterwards. There were some worms there but I didn’t dare eat it anymore. Blech. So after that Fear Factor experience and after some chit-chat, we decided to go back to sleep again to prepare for the next day.

Thanksgiving 2011 in Singapore

Posted: April 15, 2012 in Lakwatsa, Singapore
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It’s always been a tradition for me to plan a vacation every year for Thanksgiving. Since I deal with American clients and work US hours, the third week of November usually would end up to be a long weekend for me. So when Airphil announced a seat sale for this schedule, I had to book it. Me and my friends paid around P6,000 each for a roundtrip ticket from Manila to Singapore. But this vacation was not free from any flaws. A week before our flight, Airphil, which for me has officially become a horror airline, told us that our return flight was moved one more day from our original return date. And they did not even inform us about it, not even via email or thru text at all! I only found out about it when I actually called in their support center confirming our flights for the next week. So if I hadn’t done that, we would’ve been stuck in Singapore during our return flight, not knowing that these freaks rescheduled our flights one more day instead! I seriously hate, hate, hate that airline. My advice to everyone: NEVER fly Airphil Express and book with Cebu Pacific instead, especially for international flights. Airphil is notorious for flight delays, cancellations, and all types of flight screwups. But enough about that, let’s talk about our Singapore vacation last November 2011.

Our flight for Singapore arrived at around 8pm. We have booked our hotel at the YWCA Fort Canning Lodge (YWCA stands for Young Women’s Christian Association). Every time I visit Singapura, I always book at this hotel. Mainly because of the location, since it’s about a 30-second walk from the MTR station and about a minute walk from the popular Orchard Road (my favorite shopping place in Singapore). This is already my 5th time in this country and this will always remain to be my favorite place in Asia. I always told myself that if I had to live my life again, I’d wish to be born in Singapore. The place is very modern, beautiful, safe, and the people are very friendly and accommodating. When we arrived at our hotel, we decided to go grab a bite and walked our way to the nearest Kopi Tiam, my favorite food center, that serves a variety of dishes from Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai to Indian menus. We just walked around the area before we decided to return to the hotel to get some much needed rest before the next day.

We never really had any itinerary during this trip. Like what I’ve said, I’ve been here 4 times already, and I felt like I know the place by heart. It was Joyjoy and Kimchi’s first time there so I was their little tour guide there somehow. Riding the MTR is one of my favorite things to do in Singapore. We each bought ourselves an EZ-Link Card for the MTR and our first stop was Bugis. Joyjoy is such a fan of knick-knacks or as we call them, “borloloys”, so I thought Bugis was the perfect place for that. We shopped a little, crossed Bugis Junction for more stuff and souvenirs, then decided that we return back to the hotel to go shop around Orchard Road. Singapore is for me, the shopping capital of Asia. Seriously, my credit cards exploded from all the bills I got from this trip!

I always love walking around Orchard Road. Christmas is in the air already and the entire Orchard Road was covered and lit up with lights, lights and lights! It was such a grandiose scene for me, even though I have been here so many times already, to take all the sights in. We really didn’t shop that much there since our main goal was to walk around Orchard Road (which was really, really long) and walk back to our hotel once we’re done.

The day after, we decided to visit Suntec Mall and do a little shopping there. Nothing that exciting, except we went to the Fountain Of Wealth, located at the top of the mall. Hey, I’m part Chinese and any form of good feng shui for me when it comes to money, I needed that! Haha! At around 6pm, we returned back to our hotel to meet up with our friend Katherene, who was based there in Singapore. She was our tour guide for that night and we wanted to experience Singapore night life, so she brought us to the Esplanade, took some pics with the Merlion, and walked our way to Clarke Quay. The views were awesome, so I was clicking my camera away the whole time there.

The next day, we decided to go to Chinatown. It was also my first time there, so using the map, we just rode the MTR and went there. We didn’t end up at the heart of Chinatown first, so it took us some time to find the little stores for us to buy some more souvenirs and the usual knick-knacks. We decided to have lunch at this Hawker Center, which got some good reviews from the other blogs I have visited and took some pictures inside the Chinese and Indian temples in the area.

The following day was theme park day as we planned to spend the entire day at the Universal Studios Singapore. It’s the counterpart of Hong Kong Disneyland, which is actually much more better than the latter. The main attractions there were the rides. We tried Revenge Of The Mummy first, and it was exactly similar to the Space Mountain ride we had back in HK Disneyland. It’s also an indoor rollercoaster, but was a little bit scarier because of one thing: we had to fall backwards one time, when we all thought the rollercoaster was moving forward! Since we were already there, we challenged each other to try out the scariest ride of them all: The Battlestar Galactica! And it was not just one, but two separate rollercoaster rides! We tried the first one, which was called Human and the other one was Cyclon. Human features a seated roller coaster and travels on the red track. This one has some footing while you sit down but your upper body is only secured by just one seatbelt and nothing else! Typical roller coasters would usually have some protection against your chest, but this has none! It was absolutely one of the scariest rides I’ve been in. I had to hold hands with Kimchi all this time since I do not know where to place my hands anymore all the time it was spinning. Joyjoy literally cried once this ride was over. Haha! The other one called Cylon is a suspended roller coaster and travels on an inverted blue track, which means this will turn you 360 degrees and with no footing! Literally, we had our feet dangling all this time while we were being thrown from one side to the other. But at least we have something to hold on to against our chest, unlike the Human one. Once it was over, I felt so relieved that I wanted to celebrate with the feeling that we were so brave to conquer those crazy rides. LOL.

After that, we rode the best ride there is on Universal Studios: The Transformers! It’s a 4D ride and it’s the newest attraction there. I am telling you, it was the coolest thing ever. I actually felt like I was inside a Transformer! We had to repeat it again because yes, it was that goooooood! It was actually just a soft opening and they were advertising it that it will open on December. Lucky us, we were able to try it before any one actually knew about it. At around 6pm, we decided to go back to our hotel and to get ready for some city strolling and visit the Marina Bay Sands. Funny coz we arrived there at around 11pm and most of the shops were already closed, but we were still able to take some snapshots of the beautiful Marina Bay Sands and the amazing views from on top of it.

Our flight was scheduled in the afternoon the next day, so we just did a little strolling and some shopping down Orchard Road again before we left to the airport. Singapore will always be my favorite place in Asia. It’s the perfect place to just relax and destress. Part of me always thinks that I was born and raised there and I am actually just assigned here in the Philippines to work! Haha!

Bali 2011 : Mount Batur, Thirta Empul Temple & Thana Lot

Posted: April 15, 2012 in Bali, Indonesia, Lakwatsa
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It’s our last full day in Bali and we wanted to get the most of it. The night before, we contacted a travel agency and hired a driver who’s going to drive us around Bali from 9am to 5pm the next day. Always remember to negotiate and ask for a discount. It never hurts to do so.

We woke up early and decided we’re just gonna chillout on this day. My body was literally aching from all failed wakeboarding attempts we had the previous day. Seriously, I cannot even bring myself to put a shirt on! Before our driver picked us up, we already planned out what we’re gonna do. We pulled out the Bali map and pinpointed the places we wanted to go to. Basically, we created our own little roadtrip. So when our driver arrived, we explained to him the route we want to take and if it’s feasible for us to return back into our hotel at 5pm because we have a scheduled pickup to go to a spa at around 7pm.

We really didn’t know how long the drive would be from one place to another but I just know for a fact that I wanna go to Thana Lot. I’ve seen it in pictures and it was majestic, so whatever happens, I will not leave Bali unless I am able to get a pic of myself with Thana Lot in the background. We visited some batik factory first, which I thought was just boring, so instead of staying there, we didn’t waste another minute and drove to our next destination. Our driver suggested we go to Mount Batur, an active volcano, which was about 2 or 3 hrs from Kuta. We thought, what the heck, let’s go, as long as we hit Thana Lot at around 3 or 4pm, I’m fine with it. So we drove for a few more hours, and I even managed to sleep inside the van, with the latest Indonesian pop music playing in the background. We arrived at the Mount Batur area, actually it was just a road across the volcano, not the volcano itself. The driver dropped us off at the Sari Restaurant, it was around 11am, and we decided to have lunch there. When we went inside the restaurant, our eyes literally opened wide with the amaaaazing view in front of us. We didn’t expect it to be like that. Right there, in front of us, was an open view of Mount Batur, it was so close, I felt like I can almost grab it. I wanted to sit and eat in front of Mount Batur that we waited for some diners to finish their lunch and get up and we took their seats even before the waitress was able to clean up their leftovers.

Once we were seated, I felt like I was in heaven. Haha! The view was just amazingly stunning I did not want it to end. Definitely one of the best eating experiences I’ve had in my life. I didn’t care how the food tasted, I was just loving the view from where I sat. The food actually was really good, but I was transfixed all the time to the volcano in front of me. It was also a little scary since the restaurant was situated on top of the other side of the mountain and I can feel little tremors from time to time because it was soooo windy from where we were.

After we had our share of snapshots and pictures, and after we finished eating, we drove for another hour or so to the Thirta Empul Temple, or Pura Tirtha Empul in Indonesian, a Hindu temple situated in the heart of Bali. Audrey and Naina had to pickup and wear the sarongs at the entrance of the gate, while me, they just told me to go inside. I was wearing these crazy pair of shorts that I got from Thailand, that could also pass itself out as a man-skirt or something. This was by the way, my most favorite travelwear ever. You can see from all my travel pics that I am always wearing this most of the time. And it saves me the burden of being banned from the temples or being forced to put a sarong over, which was really cool.

Once we entered the temple, I had goosebumps. They were playing some Hindu music, I guess, which gave me a really strange but good feeling. At that point, I really felt a different sense of culture and religion and I was very thankful I was able to experience that. When we entered into the Purifying Pool area, I was really amazed by the rituals and ceremonies that every person inside the pool was doing. They were basically inside this pool, and showering themselves with the water coming out of the cemented pipes on top, with fishes inside the pool as well. For me, it looked really strange but eye-opening. It’s nice to see how other people celebrate and practice their religion, no matter how different it would be from how we practice and celebrate ours.

It was around 3:30pm already and our last destination was Thana Lot. This was definitely one of the highlights of our trip. I really, really recommend everyone visiting Bali to go here. The place was just simply beautiful. I will probably run out of words describing it, but I literally felt I was in heaven (again!). The waves blasting to the rocks where we stood and the cold winds blowing around us, I didn’t want to go home. We were going everywhere trying to capture the amazing views from our cameras. We went up and down the rocks, to the edge of the cliff, we even saw some surfers there. The waves were really, really strong here. After we had enough shots of ourselves, we then went back to our van for another long drive back to our hotel in Kuta. Once we arrived, we went ahead and took a quick shower and waited for the van from the spa to pick us up since we seriously needed a traditional Balinese massage to end our wonderful Bali adventure.

We left 3am for our AirAsia flight back to Singapore where we spent one more night to enjoy Universal Studios before we left for Manila the next day.

Uluwatu Monkey Temple & Jimbaran Beach

Posted: April 14, 2012 in Bali, Indonesia, Lakwatsa
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At around 1pm, we had our driver waiting for us to tour us around the area. We asked where we can get the cheapest souvenirs to shop at and he brought us to this wholesale store called Krisna in the Kuta area. And yeah, they were selling really cheap stuff there. I bought a lot of souvenirs, from bracelets, to shirts, to some toiletries (Bali has the best lotions ever). After that, we went to the Uluwatu Monkey Temple to explore the mini-forest filled with monkeys everywhere. Literally, they were everywhere. Our guide told us to be careful with our belongings, and not to use any sunglasses, since these monkeys are very naughty and will probably steal them when they see you walking around wearing those glasses and bright necklaces. We went up and up and after some time, we decided that these monkeys seem to be harmless. Audrey and I wore our sunglasses and as we were walking up the temple stairs, I heard her scream! One of the monkeys actually took her sunglasses and decided to chew on it. I was so scared and immediately placed my glasses inside my bag. (I had the guts to wear my Lacoste shades here! Craaazy!).

So we had to let go of Audrey’s shades and continue on walking up the temple stairs and finally we arrived at the cliff. That cliff had one of the most amazing views in Bali! Breathtaking would be an understatement. The only scary thing was that there were no railings and no fences, and one misstep and you will find yourself falling into the Indian Ocean. But what the hell, I’m already here, so I instructed my friends that we take pictures of each other with that majestic view behind us, while my feet was actually shaking so hard from the fear of the open cliff behind me. I really wanted a perfect shot so I was very determined not leave that place until I had one.

Once I was satisfied with that shot with the Indian Ocean as my background, I immediately walked away from the cliff and called my friends to go down to the temple area and out of that mini-forest, monkeys still everywhere. We then went back to our van and decided to have dinner by the beach in Jimbaran. The sunset was amazing, by the way. We ordered some seafoods and chowed down like dogs. The ambiance was just perfect and there were Indonesian guys seranading every table while we were just relaxing and chilling on the beach, enjoying our sumptuous dinner. After dinner, we had our driver bring us back to our hotel where we ended up loungin’ on the infinity pool with its poolside bar, enjoying the night away and definitely having one of the most amazing and most relaxing nights of our lives. :)

Nusa Dua: The Scuba and Wakeboarding Adventure

Posted: April 14, 2012 in Bali, Indonesia, Lakwatsa
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So we woke up on the second day of our Bali trip, preparing ourselves for the next hour or so to do one thing we have never done in our lives before: go wakeboarding and scuba diving in Nusa Dua! As I was trying to figure out what to bring, I got my boardshorts ready, all sunblocked and excited, inside, my heart was pumping so fast. I have never done anything like this before. Though I know that there will be life vests available, I panic every time I am in the water and I am not stepping on anything. That’s what worries me the most. That I will panic in the middle of the sea!

So we went on a 30-minute ride from our hotel to Nusa Dua. When we arrived there, we had to negotiate with the one in-charge of giving us a good deal to include the underwater-camera for them to take pictures of us while we were scuba diving. Silly me I forgot to bring an extra shirt. Duh.

So once we have agreed with the price, we went ahead and changed into our wetsuits. I really felt like a penguin while trying to figure out how to wear this thing. Haha! I asked the Indonesian guy who was in charge of taking us to the sea if we will have some training as well since this is our first time to do something like this. He said yes, there is. So I felt a little relieved when I heard that. Some friends on Facebook were telling me during that time that in Boracay, they will bring you to a separate area or island to do some scuba training in a pool to get used with the breathing techniques, etc. (Thank you, Blackberry Internet Service for keeping me in touch with my Facebook friends while I was about to have a whole new life experience haha).

So off we jumped into the speedboat, getting ready to go to this place to do some training before we venture into the actual Nusa Dua sea. A few minutes later, I was already seeing huge ships, not just boats, but ships. Oil ships, tankers, similar huge vessels. And I got a little scared. I asked the Indonesian guy carrying the scuba gear where we are going and he just pointed somewhere in the ocean. I am not even sure if that was just a sea or if it was the Indian Ocean already! My insides were really about to explode from all the fright and I was trying so hard not to panic. He then called me and placed the scuba tank behind my back, asking me to wear it or something. And then that’s when I heard the scariest words I’ve ever heard in the last few days: “YOU JUMP”. I was like WTF?!?!? Jump??? I thought you’re going to train us? He said “Yes, training here. Jump.” I have no choice. I basically had to rely on this guy, who’s probably even younger than me, to take care of my life! So I jumped on the water, all scuba-geared and freaked out. He taught us the basic breathing techniques while scuba diving. We had this mask on and he said the only way to breathe would be to breathe out, never breathe in, since the water will get inside the mask and into our nostrils. So I did just that. Believe me, no matter how naughty and crazy I can be, I will always be an obedient person. Haha! I told myself, I can do this. So I tried to breathe underwater, and followed his instructions. And yes, I did not panic. After a few tries, I told myself, I am so good to go! The rest of my friends were also ready, I assumed. The Indonesian guys gave us some last minute tips with regards to hand signals, etc.

So when we were all ready— down, down, down we went! And it was EFFING A-MA-ZING! The feeling of finally conquering my fear of the oceans all gone, the sights down there were truly beautiful. I was actually touching the fishes! I think I even saw a seahorse down there. The Indonesian guys were busy taking our pictures and was instructing us where to go and where to pose and I was having the time of my life. After a few minutes, I felt a tap on my back and they were already signaling me to go up. I was like nooooooooooooo I wanna stay here!!! Dammmmn. So we had to go up back to the speedboat since our time is up. We were underwater I think for about 20 minutes. That was definitely one of the most amazing and fear-conquering 20 minutes of my life. I was so happy, seriously.

After that they told us we are going back to shore to change to our shirts and boardshorts coz we’re gonna do some wakeboarding. Sounds like fun and easy, right? Ugh. So we went ahead, changed and went back to sea again. The Indonesian guys demonstrated how to do it. Looks kinda easy. But I was seriously wrong. We all tried it and we can hardly stand for even a second! Audrey probably stayed up the longest, for like 4 seconds or so. Haha. Hey it was an experience! These Indonesian beach guys have been doing this for years. Their skin’s all dark brown from staying under the sun for so long. After a few failed attempts, we just decided to head back to shore since my skin’s burning already and it’s getting really, really hot already. After we’re all done, they gave us the CD with our camera shots and brought us back to our hotel.

Memories Of Bali – The Arrival

Posted: April 14, 2012 in Bali, Indonesia, Lakwatsa
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It all started in Twitter. We were probably bored with Facebook that we decided to connect with each other on this other social networking site. The main reason I was loving Twitter was that it was more direct and the approach compared to Facebook was more private, maybe because only a few people were using it then.

Me and the rest of my other high school friends, whom I haven’t seen for so many years decided to go on a trip. Somewhere.  Audrey who’s also here with me in Iloilo, and Naina who’s based in Singapore, came up with a whole lot of suggestions. We wanted to go to India, Australia, Korea, etc. We were at that point trying to find the best vacation place to splurge and spoil ourselves after working so hard individually that we really think a much needed break should be given to us. We wanted someplace easy to go to, well, the one that wouldn’t require a visa, basically. That’s when we decided to go to Bali.

We’ve all heard about great stories about Bali and how amazing the place is. So we were pretty excited about this trip.  Audrey did some research as to the best flights possible. During that time, there were no direct flights from Manila to Bali, so we had to do a stop-over in Singapore, also to pick up Naina as well. I totally forgot the total money spent for the preparation for this trip. I think it was around P20,000 each for the roundtrip tickets (Manila-SG-Bali) via Jetstar and AirAsia.

I took care of the hotel reservations and booked us at the most amazing hotel in Kuta Beach: The Discovery Kartika. I figured out, this rarely happens for us to get together and to actually be in Bali, so why not splurge a little? Though Audrey wanted a budget of P1,000 per night for the hotel, I told her, forget it, this is not Boracay. We’re booking this grandiose hotel priced at *toooot* haha. You can just go ahead and imagine how much per night was at that hotel or go ahead and check out their website instead. The infinity pool was the best part of it! Once the reservations have been prepared and it’s all done, we just had to wait a few more months till October arrives for us to come visit that paradise of islands.

We got a little scared when, a week before our trip, a magnitude 8 earthquake rocked Bali, of all places! And at the same time we were arriving during the 10-year anniversary of the Bali bombings. But what the heck, we already booked a big fee for the tickets and the hotel and there’s no stopping us anymore.

Audrey and I flew to Singapore on the first day of our trip via Jetstar to stay there overnight for the rest of the day before we leave for Bali with Naina at around 7am via AirAsia. Once we arrived in Bali at around 10am, I was pretty excited. Bali has always been one of my dream destinations and this really was a dream come true for me. The heat of the early morning sun felt so good and I can’t wait to explore this wonderful place. Immigration was a breeze but I got a little scared when one of the guards there pulled me aside to double-check my luggage. I felt a little scared, wait, really scared, since I was the only one from my friends who was pulled aside and I had to open my luggage in the middle of the security area. Anyway, I was able to pass through that scan and we went ahead to the money-changer for some Indonesian rupiah.

We had the hotel arrange for us to be picked up at the airport, and as we exit the gates, our pickup was there, all clad in his own Balinese costume. Cute! Haha. Once we arrived at the hotel, man it was sooooo huge! I felt like I was at the Malacanang Palace or something. The hotel itself is worth exploring on its own! We decided to change our clothes that would make it more suitable with the hot weather there. Yeah, very hot! We went ahead and roamed around the streets of Kuta and explored it a little, did some shopping and yeah, took a whole lot of pictures. This is the trip that we did not plan at all. We had no itinerary, we just decided to book the hotel and to explore the place once we arrived. Good thing there were tourist information booths almost everywhere in the area. We booked for our travel itinerary for the next day. And the guys decided on scuba diving and wakeboarding (things I have never done in my entire life!). I was just nodding but inside, there were knots inside my stomach. I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO SWIM! I’m scared of the water and here I am in a foreign place about to scuba dive a number of feet in the middle of the sea the next day! Kuhhraazy!

There were tourists everywhere. Much more than what we can see in Boracay. And there’s a different vibe there, I guess, more of a cultural thing, since we get to see them on their temples and how they pray and worship as well. We retreated back to the hotel to have dinner and enjoyed this cultural dance presentation from the local Balinese people while we were eating. We explored the area some more and went to sleep to prepare ourselves with our water adventure the day after.

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