This is what you get when you give a one week unlimited MRT/LRT flash pass in Manila to a camera wielding travel junkie:
Browsing the archives for the Manila tag
I’m still hung over my travelling spree in October and now, I’m going out of the house again for my next trip to Roxas City, Capiz on December 4-6 for the Western Visayas Tourism Assembly and Sinadya sa Halaran. I still have a lot of backlog travel posts to do and I’m currently finding ways to manage posting them before my planned trips this December.
After arriving in Hong Kong and claiming our MTR Airport Express Travel Pass, we boarded the Airport Express Train with the Wing Sing Hotel in Yau Ma Tei as our next destination. The airport express is the fastest way to get from the Hong Kong International Airport to Downtown Hong Kong taking only less than 30 minutes. We bought the MTR Travel Pass with only one ride on the airport express since we will be going back to the Philippines (after our 3 day trip) via the Macau International Airport.
If you’re traveling to Hong Kong and Macau anytime soon or just thinking of visiting Hong Kong and Macau in the future, you might find this useful. Here’s a summary of expenses we spent during our 3 days and 2 nights Trip to Hong Kong and Macau. Our trip was relatively cheap and I guess most can classify it as budget traveling or backpacking.
Leftover Bills and Coins from our Hong Kong and Macau Trip
With just four hours of sleep after the 2009 Philippine Blog Awards Night, me and my siblings were already awake at around 2:00 AM preparing for our 3 days and 2 nights trip to Hong Kong and Macau.
Aerial view of Hong Kong International Airport
Here is the detailed 3 days and two nights itinerary we had during our recent trip to Hong Kong and Macau:
Day 1 – Hong Kong (Lantau Island Tour, Hong Kong Disneyland)
- 3:40 AM – Check-in at Ninoy Aquino International Airport – Terminal 3
- Breakfast at the terminal
- 5:40 AM - Manila to Hong Kong Flight via Cebu Pacific (5J108)
Sunrise during the Early Morning Flight to Kong Kong
Last month, the day after attending the Philippine Blog Awards, me and my siblings (four of us) travelled to Hong Kong and Macau for 3 days and 2 nights. It was our first trip abroad and it took months of planning because we wanted to personalize our itinerary and did not want to be part of a constrictive tour group. Planning for the trip was quite easy because there are a lot of information available online about Hong Kong and Macau but we just wanted it to be flawless and cram as much sights during our short visit. We actually flew in to Hong Kong and stayed there for two days, visited Macau on the third day, and then flew back to Manila via Macau later that day.
Photo-op at fountains in Tung Chung town center
We originally just planned to visit Hong Kong for our trip but Macau was too tempting to pass off. It’s just one hour away by ferry … much like crossing the strait from Iloilo to Bacolod, *heh*. I was the one who convinced them to include Macau in the trip given that I was responsible for planning the Macau leg of our itinerary.
Now that my October travelling spree is over, I’m finally back home … back to blogging. You’ll probably notice my online activity rising because I’ve cleared up my schedule for the next month so that I can do some major work on my blogs (actually, it’s more like I wont be going anywhere because I’ve got no more money left to spend). During the first week of October, I spent a week in Manila to take some pictures for a new blog I’m developing named “Pueblo Philippines (more about this later).” While I was there, I bought a one week MRT/LRT unlimited flash pass (for P250) and visited many spots in Metro Manila. Though, the highlight (and main agenda) of my trip was actually attending the 2009 Philippine Blog Awards, in which Explore Iloilo was nominated under the Best Travel Blog category.
I was excited to go to Fort Bonifacio Global City (FBGC) for the first time. It’s one the newest and most expensive bloc in Manila. I was so shocked to see the level of development there in just a short span of time. I liked Market! Market! because I really did feel like it was a market not just a rip-off name for just another mall. High Street is O-K, the place looks really beautiful but it feels very synthetic there, I prefer the organic urban feeling I get in Makati.
Back when I was in high school, I was a Sim City 4 addict. I used to spend my nights slaving over making the biggest city my measly computer can handle. There was of course the attempt of making a city that had a road layout of Iloilo City, at the time high quality road maps of Iloilo City was not available (Google Earth, I think wasn’t released yet or it didn’t have hi-res images of Iloilo City) so I started to look for road maps of other cities in the Philippines. One google search led to another and I ended up in Skyscrapercity.com. I visited the Philippine sub forum and searched through the threads.
Photo from Wikipedia (I have yet to take a nightshot of Makati)
In the Philippine Ilonggo dialect, ambot ah literally means "I don't know." After graduating in college, I decided to hold off pursuing my profession and embarked on a free spirited journey of adventure and self-discovery. My travels have led me to many places across the Philippine Islands and South East Asia. I don't know where this path will take me but I'm certain I'll get a lifetime of stories out of it.
