Saturday, 27th October 2012 The drive from our hotel to downtown Cebu City took about 40 minutes in heavy traffic this morning. We asked the taxi driver to drop us at Fort San Pedro - one of the chief sites in the city. These days, the fort no longer served its intended function. It is one of the last pockets of greenery left within busy Cebu. Fort San Pedro wasn't huge but it was nonetheless a peaceful spot amidst the downtown chaos of Cebu City. We took a walk through Osmena Boulevard which would lead us to Basilica Minore del Santo Niño, an impressive church that was built in the 16th Century. This is Philippines oldest church and certainly a site that all visitors - believers or non-believers should visit while in the city. The facade ... read more

Thursday, 25th October 2012 As luck would have it, our day trip to Corrigedor Island was cancelled due to the looming storm, Ofel this morning. According to the news reports, Ofel had already claimed some casualities in southern Philippines. In Manila, the weather was relatively stable even though the skies were raining non-stop since the previous evening. With the whole day to burn in Manila, we decided to walk, in fact a long walk from where we were at Sun Cruise Terminal. The long walk passed through some notable sites within the CCP grounds - the Coconut Palace, the Manila Film Center as well as the Cultural Center of the Philipppines. The buildings were sitted on prime land facing Manila Bay. We turned left and followed our steps along Roxas Boulevard - the road that we ... read more

Wednesday, 24th October 2012 For the Singapore-Manila (SIN-MNL) leg, we chose Jetstar as it was offering the lowest fares for the timing we desired. However, due to a plane fault, our journey was delayed at Changi Airport for 2 hours before given the greenlight to take off. Eventually at 1240hrs, we finally landed safely at Terminal 1 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport - an aging structure that had seen better days. Mabuhay - Welcome to the Philippines as I collected my "19th visited countries chop" from the friendly customs. My friendly encounter with the customs officer was certainly a perfect start for our 5 days vacation in the Philippines. The roads were gridlocked with heavy traffic as we made our way from the airport to the Bayleaf Hotel in Intramuros, Manila's Spanish Quarter. This was ... read more

Saturday, 25th August 2012 Before I knew it, four of us were on our way to the industrial island of Batam for our weekend getaway. url=http://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/ShowUserReviews-g297717-d2295860-r138395373-Harris_Hotel_Batam_Center-Batam_Riau_Archipelago_Riau_Islands_Province.htmlHarris Batam Centre was chosen as it was recommended by a close friend. They had just returned from their company retreat together with some nice reviews of the place. Our bookings were done through asiatravel.com, an online portal that I had been dealing with for my Batam trips all these years. For me, I remained skeptical of those "coupon" websites given all the fine prints, surcharges and the liquidity of the kucing kurap agents as a whole. Prices quoted remained competitive for our 2 Day Getaway Programme complete with return ferries, 1 night accomodation and 2 meals. We too... read more

Monday, 20th August 2012 I loved to see the sunset over Danshui River again. That's why we decided to time our visit in the late afternoon on our final day hoping that it will provide a sweet ending for our trip in Taipei. Danshui Old Streets never failed to fascinate us even though the shops had remained more or less the same over the years. It was crowded even on a weekday afternoon. I liked that there were many street snacks vendors around where I could find my favourite fried mushrooms and papaya milk. Also, this was the best place to stock up on the fish crackers and try the town's specialty, Ah Gei. Just behind the old streets was the Gold Coast of Danshui. It provided a vantage point to catch a glimpse of the ... read more