hongkong – soloflightEd

Cebu to Hong Kong Flight Courtesy of Airphil Express

Note: This post was drafted and the blog owner is already in Hong Kong for the second time around. In an unexpected turn of events, I suddenly had to go through a pile of maps inside a brown envelope I kept and familiarize myself with the MTR. I’ll be going on a sponsored trip for … Read more

How to Travel to Four Countries Within Four Months

…and still maintain your full-time job.

No, I didn’t take my job with me when traveling in those months but I filed for vacation leaves in between. From October of last year to January of this year, I visited four countries within four months; all of which happened in different times. It was no easy feat considering that I have a day job in a BPO industry. I was apprehensive too, if all my plans would push through considering the number of vacation leaves that I had.

Hong Kong, Macau (Ok, Macau is not a country but just a region of China along with HK, but my passport was still stamped), Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand. I visited these five places which makes me wonder if what I did was a rare opportunity to achieve or if everybody can do it as well.

Friends would ask me if I’m still working in my current company due to my constant travelling. I tell them I’m just lucky to also have a boss that understands my needs to get away from the office environment once in a while. Sure, you may not be able to choose your manager but there are other circumstances that you can control.

KL Monorail, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Here are four basic tips that you can take note of so you can travel while keeping your job.

Book Ahead – Check out budget airline websites for dirt-cheap promotions which they hold regularly. You’ll be able to save a ton of money because of booking in advance at ridiculously low prices.

My trip to Hong Kong cost me 1200 Php and those are round trip tickets already. (Cebu to Hongkong)
My trip to Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia cost me 850 Php; and that’s riding four planes! (Cebu to Clark to Kuala Lumpur and back)
My trip to Bangkok cost me 6000 Php; actually it’s 5200 bucks more because of a huge mistake of being late at the airport but you understand the point of booking during promo fares.

Suggested websites are CebuPacificAirlines.com and AirAsia.com once in a while to what they’re offering. Better yet, subscribe to their feeds to notify you on their next big airline ticket sales.

Venetian Hotel, Macau

The last day of our trip. Our flight wouldn’t be until 12:45am the next day so that meant we had to be at the airport before that time. Since this was our last day, we did some more shopping on items that a couple of colleagues requested for us to buy. Check out time at … Read more

Hong Kong Trip: Citygate Outlets and Disneyland

September 5, 2010
Hong Kong Trip Day 4: City Gate Outlets and Disney Land

We woke up late because of our trip yesterday in Macau. We covered a lot of areas and despite having to walk for four days straight already, we still had a couple more tourist spots in Hong Kong to check out.

Mickeys – not hidden

Disneyland in Hong Kong

The weather was way better now so it was good to go to a theme park. We already purchased our tickets from Ate Yolly (of the Tai San Guesthouse) so we planned on dropping by Hong Kong Disneyland. However by this time, we already needed to shop as we didn’t have any extra clothes left and I was reusing my shirt. We decided to head first to City Gate Outlets first.

Had breakfast at Maxim’s (not the male mag) Restaurant as it was one of the recommended places to eat in Hong Kong according to PinoyExchange.com. I ate a sandwich because I didn’t want to spend on food knowing that I can always eat in hordes back in the Philippines.

inside Maxims restaurant in Hong Kong

Had a bit of a difficulty locating the food shop because we were looking for the word ‘Maxim’ around town, only then did we realize that Maxim’s restaurant is displayed with the initials MX on their store.

12 HKD – Ham & Egg Sandwich for me
24 HKD – Fish Fillet Sausage Breakfast with drinks for Logan
24 HKD – Bacon & Egg Breakfast with drinks for Cindy

We rode the MTR from Tsim Sha Tsui to Central Station; and then Central to Tung Chung which led us directly to the Citygate Outlet mall.

Places Mentioned:
Maxim’s Restaurant
Citygate Outlets Shopping Center
Food Republic
Disneyland Resort
Modern Toilet

September 4, 2010
Macau Side Trip: Bungy Jump at Macau Tower and Fisherman’s Wharf

This is the last part of our side trip to Macau when we traveled to Hong Kong for a vacation. Definitely this was the highlight of the whole event because of the opportunity to bungy jump from the world’s highest bungee! We also dropped by the Fisherman’s Wharf which was a scenic view, reminiscent of Rome.

Macau Fisherman’s Wharf

dome

After watching the free shows at the Wynn Hotel, we rode a taxi proceeding to the Macau Tower. We didn’t wait for a shuttle bus ride because we would have to stop over another hotel in order to get to the tower which would take more time. I didn’t want to miss out on the tower because there might have been a long queue due to the number of tourists around.

Macau Tower
Fisherman’s Wharf
Sands Hotel

September 3, 2010
Hong Kong Trip Day 2: World Trade Center and Times Square in Causeway Bay, Wan Chai

It rained on our second day in Hong Kong and it was declared as Storm Signal Number 1 which was such a bummer since we were raring to go out.

Designer Tram at Causeway Bay

Although we slept late in the morning, I woke up early to find some food for breakfast. From our hostel at the Tai San Guesthouse, I went to iSQUARE which is just a couple of blocks away. Initially, I thought iSQUARE was an office owned by Apple; later did I found that it is one of Hongkong’s skyrise malls.

I went there because I was looking for a supermarket to buy some grocery items: water bottles and chips; as well as some hair gel because we realized we weren’t in our best look when we saw our pictures the previous day. hehe.

Marketplace by Jasons at iSquare mall

Places we visited:
iSquare Mall
World Trade Center and Times Square in Causeway Bay
Wan Chai Computer Center
The Spaghetti House

September 2, 2010
Hongkong Trip Day 1: Tsim Sha Tsui and Mongkok Computer Center

It was a good thing Cindy, the ever-reliable researcher, read through a lot of information online especially on PinoyExchange.com (PEX). She told me that all the necessary details on what to do, where to go and how to get there is already laid out so there was no need for us to hire a travel agency to create an Itinerary for us.

shops and streets at 10pm!

I woke up and saw my friends, Cindy and Logan, still surfing the net with their laptops. I slept for a couple of hours at the Hong Kong International Airport which was a good thing as I had more energy to stroll around the place when we got to our hostel.

Train Tickets to purchase Octopus cards

6am, at the airport; we went to the center where we could buy some Octopus cards for our MTR (Mass Transit Railway) fares. This proved to be a wise choice as it’s a very convenient way to travel and pay for your fare when going to different towns.

Octopus cards – check out wikipedia for more information about it: Wikipedia – Octopus Card

Places we visited:
Tsim Sha Tsui
Tai San Guesthouse
Avenue of the Stars
1881 Heritage
Mongkok Computer Center

This will be a series of blog entries on how we got to Hong Kong from Cebu. Because of the information we got online was so helpful, this is my way of giving back to the community in sharing my experience for those people who might also need the information.

Hongkong Trip: Going From Cebu to Hong Kong
September 1-2, 2010

This was my first time to go abroad so I was apprehensive because I didn’t know how many issues we would be facing that would prevent us from setting foot onto foreign soil.

There were three of us (Cindy, Logan and I) and we were all first-timers so this was something we’ve looked forward to ever since we booked tickets about a year ago. We paid only 1200 Php each for the round-trip ticket from Cebu to Hong Kong using Cebu Pacific’s Piso Fare.

Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

I’m back to work. I want another vacation though, just to catch up on a lot of pending posts.

First, there was Bohol; then my first trip abroad in Hongkong-Macau. Lastly was the free trip to Boracay courtesy of Seair and Microtel Hotels Resort. I don’t even have enough time to update my sites one by one. I’m cramming myself up into making sure that I get to post at least one entry each but I don’t know where to start.

I should probably stay calm cause I might end up getting no productivity at all.

Hongkong International Airport

Somehow, it seems that I’m just starting these trips and I have a lot more that are going to be available for me in the upcoming months. But I don’t want to jinx it. Will be talking more about my trips to these three places (two rural areas and one urban location).

For now, here are just a few pictures of the retreat from work.

“Has anybody died from bungy jumping here?” – I had to bluntly ask the attendant at the lobby of the Macau Tower.
“No sir, if there had been an accident, all of our AJ Hackett locations would’ve closed down.” – I liked the frank response.

It’s been 10 days after I bungy jumped from the Macau Tower, but the incident is still fresh in my mind. All the way from Cebu to Hong Kong to Macau, I never imagined I could do this, well I did; but I didn’t think it would come too soon.

Check out my video of bungy jumping from the world’s highest bungy. I initially planned on editing it in order to save whatever dignity I had left but I changed my mind. What the heck, right?

September 04, 2010
Bungy Jumping from the Macau Tower

I have arrived in Hongkong. I have stepped on foreign soil, finally!

I got lost in the process and I’m still tired from all the walking. We went to the Mongkok Computer Center today and was amazed at the electronics and other gadgets that were available. I bought a Wireless router for myself – that’s the only thing I bought for this day. I paid only 158 HKD (around 900 Php) for it!

standing still in a sea of moving people in Hongkong!

I haven’t packed for Hongkong

I have one more day left and I still haven’t packed my things! I’ll be leaving for Hongkong (yes, you heard it right) and no matter how hot the topic is for the place is right now, I don’t think any turning back will happen. But then I don’t want to speak too soon.

Anyway, I’ll be away for a week but I haven’t even sorted out the things I need to bring. So much for cramming.

clothes good for a week – maybe I’ll just bring around 3 sets of clothes and I’ll wash the rest when I get to the hostel/hotel.
toiletries – deodorants, soap, shampoo, toothbrush, paste – nuff said.
gadgets – I’m not sure if I should carry around my tripod but definitely I’ll bring my laptop and camera, I still need to blog since I can’t be away for a week without my HP540.
passport & ticket – My friend said that I should have copies of my passport and place them in my bag, wallet and another place for security just in case my real passport gets lost.
money – I should not forget this, can’t really move around if you don’t have cash.

I will be going on a trip to Hongkong from September 1 to 8 – that’s next week. Just my luck that the hostage crisis took place last week. Because of the recent activities that happened, I’m now apprehensive to push through with the trip for fear of safety and discrimination.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still going through with the travel as this will be my first time to step foot on foreign ground. Like everyone, I am saddened by the result of the hostage negotiation that led to the death of 8 people.

I feel ashamed of myself knowing that we’ve caused this distress to other nationalities. What made me upset were the pictures that were shown of the incident and bystanders who even had the guts to have their shots taken as though the place were a tourist destination.

Cebu to Hong Kong Flight Courtesy of Airphil Express

How to Travel to Four Countries Within Four Months

Hong Kong Trip: Hong Kong to Cebu

Hong Kong Trip: Citygate Outlets and Disneyland

Macau Side Trip: Macau Tower and Fisherman’s Wharf

Hong Kong Trip: World Trade Center & Times Square in Causeway Bay, Wan Chai

Hongkong Trip: Tsim Sha Tsui and Mongkok Computer Center

Hongkong Trip: From Cebu to Hong Kong

After a 13-day Vacation…

Update from Mongkok, Hongkong

I haven’t packed for Hongkong

Apprehensive to go to Hongkong