Hong Kong – soloflighted.com

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

One Vacation after Another

You just came from a long vacation and now you’re leaving again?

The expression on his face was priceless. There was no need to answer as I understood that it was a rhetorical question. I just had to smile to eliminate the moment of silence between his eyes and my smirk.

Hong Kong – Macau – Cebu – Boracay

After a trip to Hong Kong and Macau, I spent one day working at the office, and then headed to the airport to catch a flight to Boracay.

September 1-8, 2010 – Hong Kong-Macau
September 9, 2010 – Cebu (working at the office)
September 10-12, 2010 – Boracay

Thailand – Cambodia – Cebu – Davao

After a trip to Thailand and Cambodia, I spent one day working at the office, and then headed to the airport to catch a flight to Davao.

January 18-26, 2011 – Thailand-Cambodia
January 27, 2011 – Cebu (working at the office)
January 28-31, 2011 – Davao

Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong | Fisherman’s Wharf, Macau | Station 2, Boracay

Khao San Road, Bangkok | South Angkor Thom Gate, Siem Reap | Isla Reta, Samal

History repeated itself and recalling these two scenarios crack me up. It’s such a crazy situation that even my manager asked me if I was alright.

…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

I wanted to write some entries on my thoughts and tips of a particular destination I’ve been. I’m starting it off with Macau as we only spent a day there; which means I have lesser thoughts, hehe. I can’t really call this a Guide, but you may pick up some notes and tidbits that you might find useful if ever you drop by this area of the globe.

Spending some time in Macau made me wonder where the people get the money to bet and gamble. It also made me see how buildings were carefully put up in order to form stunning structures with great entertainment to included.

This was a great way for me to check out what the place has to offer as I didn’t really expect a lot except for the bungee jumping experience at the Macau tower. Here are a few thoughts and tips about Macau that you can use for reference. Hope this post helps!

Thoughts and Tips on My Trip to Macau

macau
Travel to Macau

Free Bus Transport

free buses
buses to casinos

bus macau
at the City of Dreams lobby

September 06, 2010
Hong Kong Trip Day 5: Victoria Peak

Part two of our Day 5 in Hong Kong, we went to Victoria Peak and I wasn’t really sure what’s there as we just relied on Cindy to tell us that it’s a great tourist attraction especially at night. Boy was I foolish to just shrug this destination.

view from the Victoria Peak

After our Ocean Park adventure, we proceeded to Admiralty and took the 12A bus to Victoria Peak. Cindy told me that we needed to get down after one stop alone. However, we didn’t get to because we were so preoccupied with the scenes outside our bus window — so many buildings and pubs and establishments around. We stepped down after the next stop and we were figuring out how we could go back to the previous station in order to start over.

bus and at the stop for the peak Tram

September 06, 2010
Hong Kong Trip Day 5: Ocean Park

This was our second to the last day in Hong Kong and we planned on going to Ocean Park for it. We already bought tickets ahead through Ate Yolly the other day. It was convenient for us because we didn’t have to wait in line or scout through other booths in order to get an entrance pass. What’s also nice is that we got a discount since we purchased it from her.

clownfishes

Woke up and then headed to the Marketplace by Jasons in iSQUARE (a mall near our hostel) in order to buy some snacks which already served as our breakfast for the day. I bought a sandwich and some cranberry juice and ate along the way.

juice and sandwich (13 HKD)

We took the MTR from Tsim Sha Tsui to Admiralty and rode a bus (629 route) that went directly to Ocean Park. It took us some time to locate the bus since we didn’t know which side we had to take. After a couple of questions from the people nearby, we were able to settle in. I think the ride took about 45 minutes so I still had some time to rest and take a nap. I was tired from the activities we did the previous day in Hong Kong Disneyland.

bus terminal and 629 bus

We arrived at Ocean Park and one of their staff took my camera and told us to pose. I was surprised by how intrusive the staff was of our space but he said that he only wanted to take our picture using my camera. He also took a picture using his camera and gave us tickets to claim it at the booth near the entrance.

When we got to the booth, another staff offered us key chains with our pictures on it. We were amazed at how fast the processing of the key chain and pictures were. But we didn’t bother asking for the price because we knew how theme parks are when it comes to prices of their souvenir items.

Ocean Park!

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 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.

Cebu to Hong Kong Flight Courtesy of Airphil Express

One Vacation after Another

You just came from a long vacation and now you’re leaving again?

Hong Kong – Macau – Cebu – Boracay

Thailand – Cambodia – Cebu – Davao

How to Travel to Four Countries Within Four Months

Thoughts and Tips on My Trip to Macau

Thoughts and Tips on My Trip to Macau

Free Bus Transport

Hong Kong Trip: Victoria Peak

Hong Kong Trip: Ocean Park

Hong Kong Trip: Citygate Outlets and Disneyland

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…