Category Archives: Travel

First Night in Bangkok

09 Saturday Jun 2012

Posted by in Photographic Pursuits, Thoughts, Travel, Work

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On my first night in Bangkok, I was very eager to sample some authentic Thai cuisine. I walked to CentralWorld, a mall near Four Seasons Hotel and Resort Bangkok, hoping to have dinner in a Thai restaurant. Walking around the mall, I saw many Japanese, Korean, and Italian restaurants but no Thai. After an hour of searching, I gave up and headed straight to McDonald’s.

Big Mac, something that I always try when on foreign shores.

McDonald’s in Bangkok is pretty expensive. The Big Mac meal with medium fries and drink costs 147 Thai Baht, roughly in 196 in Philippine Pesos. To be fair though, their Big Mac had very juicy patties. Continue reading →

Sawatdee, Krung Thep!

03 Sunday Jun 2012

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Hello, Bangkok!

So here I am, back in the country where everything is said to be more fun. I spent a week in Bangkok for a training on one of our company’s latest acquisitions — Netezza. It was my first time in the Thai capital and it was just a-ma-zing.

Since our company only allows us to book the lowest logical airfare, I flew to Bangkok via Thai Airways. I was pleasantly surprised since Philippine Airlines usually comes out more inexpensive than the rest. It would be my first time to try a foreign carrier.

Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1

With the exception of All Nippon Airways, all foreign carriers dock at Terminal 1. It was my first time there. At last, I saw what the negative buzz around the Manila International Airport T1 is all about. Continue reading →

Torture

28 Monday May 2012

Posted by in Quick Press, Travel, Work

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So here I am, staying in the Four Seasons Hotel and Resort Bangkok. The hotel’s considered one of the best in Bangkok and it’s hard not to see why. But rather than fully enjoying the services this wonderful place offers, here I am in my room, reviewing the pre-work courses needed for my training.

Inviting bed, isn’t it? Seeing it is torture… I couldn’t slumber long since I have to finish many things. After today, I’ll reward myself with a well-deserved rest.

Impromptu Ilocos Norte

25 Saturday Feb 2012

Posted by in Personal, Travel

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Last September, I wrote a journal entry about Cebu Pacific giving us a free round trip flight to Laoag. We scheduled our trip early this month and here’s a gist of our  experience in the beautiful capital of Ilocos Norte.

Unlike in our previous adventures, we weren’t really prepared for our trip to Laoag. First of all, we didn’t do much research on what to see up north. As long as I get even just a glimpse of the windmills in Bangui, I’m happy. Also, we didn’t make any hotel reservation. I was pretty much worried on our way to Laoag since we might end up sleeping on the streets if the hotels are full.

On the day of our trip to Laoag, we went to the Manila International Airport pretty early, pretty unusual given that most of our trips were photo-finish. We checked-in our luggage then grabbed something to eat at Kenny Roger’s.

I guess we enjoyed eating too much, we didn’t notice that it was already boarding time. We heard our names being called already when we were on our way to the boarding gate. Good thing we rushed because apparently, passengers of turbo-prop planes have to be transported from the gate to the area where the planes were parked. Sorry, no jet bridges for small planes. Continue reading →

The Rest of our KL Trip

14 Friday Oct 2011

Posted by in Personal, Thoughts, Travel

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After the KL Hop-On Hop-Off experience, we couldn’t think of anything else to do in Kuala Lumpur. Genting Highlands? Too far. Batu Caves? Slipped our minds. Wander around the city? Righty-o!

We didn’t do a lot of activities on our third day, we simply went around the city. The fact that it was raining was also a factor for us not venturing off to the two tourist spots I’ve mentioned above. We did visit different malls in KL. On our fourth day, it was pretty much the same story before we headed to the airport. Here are some of the photos from our last two days in KL…

Pappa Rich Cafe along Jalan Bukit Bintang. It has a really nice ambiance, I found it relaxing to just sit there.

Steamed bread with kaya jam and orange juice. Absolutely perfect, I fell in love with coco jam (kaya) again because of this.

Continue reading →

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

Posted by in Food, Personal, Travel

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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 →