DIY: Boracay

It's March! 

Let's go to the beach, beach, beach!

White sand. Sun. Beach. Perfection!

One of the gateways of Boracay is Kalibo airport. The flights are way cheaper than that of Caticlan's. So we booked a flight to Kalibo and hopped on a 2 hrs road trip to Caticlan port.

**Van fare is Php 250/person - one way

The fare is inclusive of the ferry fare in Caticlan but exclusive of environmental fee and terminal fee.

Terminal fee is Php 100/person

Environmental fee is Php 75/person

It was a a long drive. You are literally driving on a mountain with the sea on your side. The view is amazeballs! 

I am a sucker of nature; and scenes like this brings out my inner peace.

There, we arrived at the port and shell out a few more bucks (terminal and environmental fee) to reach Boracay Island.

The trip was rather short, 10 minutes I think? And we set foot on the infamous island.

Upon arrival, tricycle drivers will approach you and ask you which hotel you've booked. As for us, we do not have a hotel yet and twas peak season and we are left with a few bucks so we decided to stay in Station 3.

Station 3 is the peaceful side of the island as all party goers are mostly in Station 1 and 2. Station 3 is perfect for RnR.

There are cheap beach front hotels in Station 3 ranging from Php 500 to Php 2000 a night but most of them are full when we arrived. As we are feeling stingy and we wanted to experience the beach (and not the accomodation) in the first place, we haggled for the price of our room (with tb and tv) from Php 1000 for our first night and moved to the Php 500 room for our second night.

It's an apartment looking type of a house - full of cottages and rooms and yeah I forgot the name but it was at the back of the TreeHouse. The place is just a 30 second walk to the beach! 

We arrived before sunset so we just unpacked, change clothes, stroll to Station 1 and watch the sun as it sets on the horizon.

After checking out the entire stretch of stations 1 to 3, we grabbed some dinner and went back to our accomodation and called it a night.

I am usually an early riser when we are out on vacation, so I woke up at around 5am on our second day. We changed clothes and head out for an early stroll on the beach, waiting for the sun to rise. 

Twas cold and it's low tide so we had fun walking barefoot while thinking of the activities we will do for the day.

We arrived at the infamous Grotto and settled in. Sitting on the sand, people watching, just relaxing.

A few locals approached us asking if we wanted to try out some of the beach's activites i.e. island hopping, atv, helmet diving, parasailing and the likes. We declined and stroll back to Station 3.

We went to the Tourist Center in Station 3 to get some cash from my plastic card. (Yes, they will swipe your credit card and give you the cash!) As we exited the center, a local guide offered Helmet Diving for just Php 400 per person; and as we have nothing to do and we felt bored already, we eventually gave in.

We rode a speedboat to the Helmet Diving facility.

There is a short briefing of the dos and don'ts of the activity as well as hand signals once under water. 

We were underwater for 10-15 minutes watching the divers feed the fishes. Lol. But twas a great experience. 

We head back to the island and strolled, took a dip in the sea, ate, bought from Jonah's infamous shake, looked for chori burger, and people watched.

           

We ate dinner at a cheap ihaw ihaw in Station 3 and went to Station 1 to experience Boracay's night life.

We head back to our accomodation before midnight as our vacay was cut short for we were asked by a friend to go to Sablayan, Mindoro.

Mindoro here we come!

TTFN.

DIY: Hongkong - Macau

Gong Xi Fa Cai!!!

Yes! We celebrated Chinese New Year last year (2013) on a Chinese territory with Chinese people eating Chinese food. lol

We scored the 13 peso base fare of AirAsia to Hongkong and because we were so caught up in the moment we did not have the time to check that our travel dates fall on the celebration of Chinese New Year - thus first hand "authentic" Chinese new year experience.

The country is still winter-y during February so make sure to bring bubble jackets. If not, layers of clothes will do. 

Hongkong has a HUGE airport, one can get lost for hours there, so make sure to ask for directions as their signage are a bit confusing. Before we got out, we bought ourselves OCTOPUS CARDS, these are like the EZ link of Singapore. The adult card costs HKD 100 ($50 deposit, $50 consumable).

We rode a bus to Tung Chung MTR Station where the Cable Car is located. We waited in line for, I guess, an hour - as it is a holiday tourists and locals flock the line for Ngong Ping 360. Round Trip Cable Car ticket price is HKD 150.

Lantau Island is home to Tian Tan Giant Buddha and the Po Lin Monastery.We were greeted by a dragon dance when we reached the other side of the island. 

The place is actually huge; full of restaurants, souvenir shops and cool structures. This is also where you start your trek to the mountain range above the cable car ride earlier.

After exploring Ngong Ping 360, we rode the cable car and head back to Tung Chung MTR. We took the train to Tsim Shah Tsui (where our hotel was) dropped our things in our room and head towards the Avenue of Stars which was just a block away.

It's a must to eat the Grilled Squid!!

When you are facing the city, walk towards your right. At the far right is the ferry terminal which will cross you to the city - from there, you can ride a bus to the Peak. 

   

   

The Peak is home to Madam Tussaud and the Sky Terrace 428. The place is jam-packed with people during holidays so make sure to bring a lot of "patience" with you. We rode the tram back, and walked towards the nearest MTR Station for it was already super late and we only saw few buses on the road. We ate in one of the restos in Tsim Shai Tsui food strip and called it a night.

Day 2.

We got a discounted voucher for a roundtrip ferry to-from Macau courtesy of our hotel. We got up early hoping to get on the earliest trip to explore Asia's sin city. 

We needed a heavy breakfast for the day's adventure so we end up at Tsui Wah Restaurant. 

Big serving at a cheap price!

*toast and egg, noodles, coffee

After the heavy brekky, we rode the MTR to Central Station and walked towards the ferry station. Unfortunately, the next available trip is around lunch time so we decided to go to Times Square first.

We stayed for sometime in Causeway bay to check out the place and experience Times Square. After which, we head back to ferry terminal to catch our ferry to Macau.

Macau, Asia's sin city.

We reached Macau after a one hour ferry ride. We filled out the embarkation slip and faced the immigration officers. 

Upon exiting the terminal, we were clueless on where to go and whether we need to have our hkd changed to Macau's currency. Good grief as Pinoys are everywhere, we saw a group of pinays waiting for their ferry, they told us to hop on any casino bus for it will bring us to the country's casino strip and it is FREE of charge - so we did. 

We need to go to Macau Panda fast as we might not be able to view the fluffy things so we took a cab and asked the driver to bring us there.

Sadly, we arrived 10 minutes late for the panda viewing time and the fluffy black and white 'bear' were ushered to their cage to rest so we just settled with the huge Panda statue installment in the park and their mini zoo.

We took a bus, and head back to Venetian Macau to witness Italian people singing in their gondollas in the casino's man made canals.

 

At 7pm, a lightshow is held at the facade pf Venetian Macau - it runs for about 30minutes.

After the light show, we rushed back to the ferry terminal to go back to Hongkong. We ate and went back to our hotel.

Day 3.

We woke for an early start! It's Disneyland day! *happykid*

We packed our things and checked out of our hotel. My friends bought souvenirs from the souvenir shop next door and I think we ate breakfast at McDonald's. 

We rode the MTR to Sunny Bay and changed trains to the Disney train. 

Disneyland, FINALLY!

The happiest place on earth!!!

P.S. dont dare go to disneyland during holiday. Wait time for a ride can get up to 3 hrs.

If you bought tickets online, dont forget to bring the card you used in purchasing.

The machine needs to read the card to produce your park tickets.

So let the magic begin!!!

We head towards the locker area and left our luggage there. Our flight back to Manila is at 11pm so we brought our things with us for the airport is just a change of MTR station away from the park.

Did I not tell you there was a looooooooong wait line for EVERY ride in the park? What we did was get a fast pass ticket for the attraction we want and show up during the indicated time.

We roam around the park and tried attractions with less line and watched the Disney Parade.

The perks of being petite! I was able to squeeze my way in the front row. Haha!

After the parade, it was lunch time! There were several restaurants inside the park so you will not go hungry but of course the price is more expensive.

After we rode the RC racer and experienced Philharmagic, we took the Disney train to head back to the park's entrance to meet Mickey and Minnie!!!

Tourist posing with Mickey and Minnie

We head back to Space Mountain and used our Fast pass. 

Some more strolling and we end up to Grizzly mountain.

As the sun sets, it's time to leave the happy place. 

We hurried to our locker, get our things and walked back to the park gates.

We rode the Disney Train and changed stations and rode the MTR to Tung Chung Station. From there, we rode a bus to the airport.

You need to be super early at the airport because it is humonguous! Haha! We got lost for about 30 minutes? And we needed to go to the other terminal.

It was a fun experience and we'll definitely go back!

TTFN!