Category Archives: Personal

Hopping Around KL

09 Sunday Oct 2011

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When my sister, Arman, and I decided to go to Kuala Lumpur, we only had one tourist spot in mind – the Petronas Towers. We didn’t really have any idea about the other tourist spots in the Malaysian capital so it was a blessing that we stumbled upon the KL Hop-on Hop-off website during our last minute research.

The KL Hop-On Hop-Off is a city tour wherein you ride a double-deck bus that goes around the city and stops by the major tourist attractions. There is a recorded commentary that guides the tourists as well as a real tour guide that directs our attention to noteworthy sights in KL. A 24-hour KL Hop-On Hop-Off City Tour pass costs 38 MR, roughly around 520 PhP. The tour starts at 8:30 AM and ends 8:30 PM.

We woke up pretty early at around 7:30 AM. When we were getting ready to go out and explore KL, I suggested that we wear the ‘I ❤ MY‘ shirts from Giordano while touring KL rather than on our way back to Manila. Why? So that we looked like proper tourists. Haha, okaaay.

Rather than having breakfast in our hotel, we went to Bintang Walk and scouted for a place where we can grab a quick breakfast. We saw a KFC branch and went inside without hesitations. They were serving breakfast meals and I ordered their Sunriser meal which costs 8.80 MR.

KFC Sunriser. Cheese bun, chicken fillet, hash brown, scrambled egg, and juice. Really yummy!

Just a friendly advice, avoid KFC Bukit Bintang’s washrooms! I just couldn’t describe how horrendous the smell was. I thought it was just in the men’s room but my sister said the ladies washroom was gross as well. Continue reading →

Selamat Datang Ke Kuala Lumpur

30 Friday Sep 2011

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… or Welcome to Kuala Lumpur in English.

My sister purchased Cebu Pacific promo tickets way back in February and after months of waiting, my sister, her boyfriend Arman, and I finally flew to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. I’ve been wanting to visit Malaysia ever since I saw their Malaysia, Truly Asia tourism campaign which, in my opinion, is at par with our WOW Philippines campaign. It made me curious as to why they claim that their country is Truly Asia.

We arrived in Kuala Lumpur half an hour past 1 in the afternoon, 20 minutes ahead of our scheduled arrival. I knew that we’d be going through the Low-Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport so I didn’t expect much from the terminal.

5J 499 at the KLIA LCCT

No jet bridges here given that it's an LCC Terminal. We could emulate the LCCT concept given the rising popularity of LCCs here in the Philippines.

Covered walkway leading to the terminal building

Cebu Pacific and Air Asia X airplanes.

A random thought that popped into my head was the time zone Kuala Lumpur was in. When we landed in KL, the flight attendant announced the time and told us that there is no time difference between it and Manila. If you check the map of the world, KL is farther than Jakarta from Metro Manila and yet the time in Jakarta is an hour behind. I wonder why… Continue reading →

Camping at Nagsasa

16 Saturday Jul 2011

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One of the things that I could not imagine myself doing is camping. Not that I’m a person who’s used to luxury, I’m quite far from that. It’s just that I’m not the type of person you’d expect to engage in ‘roughing-it-up‘ activities.

Well, surprise, I actually went camping in Nagsasa, Zambales! It was one of those adventures that my best friends from college planned so I went along with it. The idea of being one with nature (naks!)  and being able to capture its beauty excited me a lot. Also, it would be our last outing with Ino who would be going to the United States to pursue his graduate studies.

Random photo in Nagsasa. Nagsasa's perfect for clearing your mind of all the stresses in the world.

Inah looked for a tour company that has packages for Nagsasa and we went for the most affordable one. The package we got costs 1100 per head and it is inclusive of the boat ride to and from Nagsasa with stopovers at Camara and Capones islands as well as Anawangin, tables at a resort in Nagsasa, as well as tents. Each of us pitched in for the food while Ino was the one who brought a car. Continue reading →

Have a Fun Flight Everyone

27 Monday Jun 2011

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Well, that is when you finally do fly.

This is the last entry about our brief vacation in Beijing.

We left Novotel for Beijing Capital International Airport at around 10:30 PM. Our flight was scheduled to depart at 1 AM the next day and we didn’t want a repeat of our photo finish experience in NAIA two days ago. A hotel personnel hailed a cab for us and helped us with our luggage. As usual, I was seated in front since I was the one who knew a little Mandarin. I told the driver to bring us to the airport.

It was pretty silent on our way to the airport. I looked at Ate and Arman, thinking that they were asleep. Apparently, they were just tired that’s why they weren’t talking. The driver noticed the dead air so he tried to start a conversation… in Mandarin. First, he asked which terminal he should bring us to. I told him that our flight was leaving from BCIA Terminal 2. Next, he asked what time was our flight scheduled to depart. I answered 1 AM. After that, silence filled the air again.

It took us less than 30 minutes to get to the airport. We had a lot of time in our hands so we weren’t in a hurry.

Even though it is already old, the Beijing Capital International Airport T2 still looks nice. I wish I could say the same about NAIA T1.

Ate and Arman walking inside BCIA T2.

Some of the departures in BCIA that evening/early morning. Our flight's ETD was delayed by 45 minutes.

We went inside to the check-in counters and looked for Cebu Pacific’s counters. There were quite a lot of people in line so I guess we weren’t the only early birds there. I wasn’t worried of exceeding the weight limit since I didn’t buy anything. As I have mentioned in my previous posts, I was a poor man in Beijing so I couldn’t buy any souvenirs. Continue reading →

Exploring Beijing – Day 2

26 Sunday Jun 2011

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This is the continuation of my two journal entries last week on my our adventure in the amazing Chinese capital, Beijing. Even though that the highlight of our trip is our Great Wall experience, I consider our second day more fun. Read on to find out…

DAY 2 – 第二天

After an extremely exhausting first day in Beijing, I was pretty surprised that my body wasn’t aching when I woke up on our second day. Right after I took a shower, Deng, my Chinese project mate from IBM China, called. He asked me if I am available for dinner that night. We agreed to meet up at around 7:30 PM at the lobby of Novotel.

Arman, ate, and I went down to Novotel’s cafe and ate our breakfast. As I have mentioned in my previous posts, I was a little short on cash so I was very thankful that my sister treated me to breakfast that day. We didn’t have anything planned for our second day aside from going to the Tiananmen Square (天安门广场). Fun right? I tried to stealthily persuade my sister and Arman to seeing other historical sites by squeezing them in our conversations during breakfast but I failed miserably.

After breakfast, we headed to the Chongwenmen Station of the Beijing Subway which is right in front of Novotel. My sister and Arman trusted me in taking them to Tiananmen Square so with a map of Beijing at hand, I did a Dora the Explorer and headed to the ticketing machine.

Chongwenmen Station - our gateway to the rest of Beijing 😛

I was a little confused at first with the subway’s ticketing machine. I wasn’t able to take a photo of it but it’s like LRT’s ticketing machine with a touch panel for choosing your destination. Initially, it was all in Chinese so I really had no clue as to what I was doing. Good thing that I noticed a button with “English” written on it so I pressed that one. The ticketing machine presents you a map of the entire Beijing Subway and you can choose to show only a certain Subway Line. I pressed Line 2 since the Qianmen Station, the station nearest the Tiananmen Square, was in that line. Each ticket, or piao (票), only costs 2 RMB (~14 PhP) regardless of destination. Seriously, you can go to any station along any line and you’d only have to pay 2 RMB. I’ll rave a little bit more about their subway system later in this post. Continue reading →

Exploring Beijing – Day 1

12 Sunday Jun 2011

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After 4 months of waiting, I’ve finally arrived in Beijing. We only had two whole days to explore the Chinese capital so we really had to maximize our time there. This entry will be about our first day in Beijing so here goes…

DAY 1 – 第一天

Since we arrived in the early morning of our first day in Beijing, we only had little time to sleep before going to our first destination – the Great Wall. I have already told Arman and Ate beforehand that we should go to the Mutianyu (慕田峪) section of the Great Wall rather than the more popular Badaling (八达岭) section. Why? Because according to my ‘research’, the Badaling section is overcrowded and over developed to the point that it loses its historical appeal. During peak seasons, it becomes the Great Wall of Tourists. Mutianyu, on the other hand, is also restored but not overly so. It also offers better views though it is a bit farther than Badaling.

I woke up at around 6 AM. I barely had 5 hours of sleep but I was full of energy because of the excitement brought about by the sheer thought of me being on the Great Wall in a few hours. I sprang up from my bed and took a shower while my sister and Arman were still asleep. They were sleeping oh-so-soundly and I have this thing against waking people up.

At around 7:30 AM, ate and Arman woke up already and they started preparing. Arman told us that there’s a buffet breakfast downstairs but it costs an extra 113 RMB which is roughly 700 PhP. Since we were in a hurry, we decided to eat there rather than go scavenger hunting for a nearby restaurant. Before going to the breakfast buffet, we booked a guided tour to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. The tour is handled by Gray Line Tours. It costs 420 RMB (~3000 PhP) inclusive of the English speaking tour guide as well as the tour bus ride to Mutianyu. It also includes a side trip to a Cloisonne Factory and a government-owned tea house. Oh, there goes my 445 RMB pocket money. I initially told my sister and Arman that we should go for a do-it-yourself tour but they were afraid that we might get lost. According to the people on PinoyExchange, it would only cost around 120 RMB to go to Mutianyu if we rode the public bus.

Power Breakfast! I needed to eat a lot since it was a long day ahead.

After our breakfast at Novotel’s Citrus Cafe, we waited for our tour bus to arrive. The tour desk at Novotel told us that the bus would arrive at around 9:20 AM but it was late by a few minutes because of the traffic in Beijing. Anyway, I thought we plus two other guests from Novotel were the only ones on the tour. Apparently, there are other people from other hotels as well.

Gray Line Tours corporation. Their tour was actually good although it was a bit pricey.

That's Liu, our super funny and well-articulated English-speaking Chinese tourguide. He knows quite a lot about China (and the rest of the world).

After picking us up, we went to another hotel to pick up two other tourists. If I remember correctly, they were Spanish tourists.  Our bus headed for the expressway once we were complete. Continue reading →

Flying to Beijing

12 Sunday Jun 2011

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After 4 months of waiting, I was finally able to set foot in the country that I wanted to visit the most.

Thanks to Cebu Pacific Air, I was able to experience the culturally rich Chinese capital of Beijing. Also, thanks to them, I was able to experience a 19-hour delay in flight and my sister was able to experience having her luggage lost. Anyway, I’ll discuss that later at the end of this post.

We rushed to Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 at around 5:50 in the afternoon. Our flight was supposed to leave by 7:30 PM. Early birds we’re definitely not. Thank goodness that traffic going to the airport was light. By 6:20 PM, we were already in NAIA.

Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3. I'm hoping that the government solves the problems of this terminal soon.

My sister and Arman told me that we have to pay a travel tax, something that I didn’t have to do when I went to Jakarta. That’s weird. I guess Cebu Pacific removes that from their fares to make it seem like their fares are cheaper. I wasn’t too happy about the travel tax since I only have 6,000 PhP in pocket money. After paying the travel tax, we headed to the check-in counters. The line there was pretty long and it was moving quite slowly. We then paid the airport tax and passed through immigration. Continue reading →