port80
Cheche Uy-Visitacion Joined: September 25th 2005
Logged in: November 25th 2011
Logged in: November 25th 2011
He knows not where he's going
For the Ocean will decide
It's not the DESTINATION...
... It's the glory of THE RIDE.
Travel Blog Posts
surfing road trips!
Been very lazy writing blogs lately - I haven’t even started on my Bangkok blog, the last leg of our Asian trip last June! Oh but anyway, since Kim discovered surfing this summer (yes, our Christmases down under are hot and Santa is in board shorts), we have gone on quite a few surfing road trips. This blog is actually for two of those road trips. Our first trip to Lancelin was about a month ago. Lancelin is an excellent surf spot less than two hours away from Perth. It is also known for its sand dunes (hence the “foggy” photos of the beach). We have only been to the surfing beach of Lancelin but there is a huge area there exclusively for sandboarding and all those adventure stuff crazy people do on massive sand dunes. ... read more
xmas down south 09
Having two days off for Christmas, we decided to go out-of-town and be tourists in our own Western Australia. I booked a room at the Abbey Beach Resort in Busselton and for once, did not prepare any itinerary. I just wanted to relax and go wherever our car takes us Busselton is 220kms south of Perth and takes about three hours by car. We headed out early in the morning of the 24th and after a stop-over at a petrol station, arrived at Busselton before lunch. The roads going to Busselton are very good but boring - just long stretches of road with lots of warning signs such as “Can you still read this?” or “Don’t drive tired. Bunbury cares for you.” or “We want YOU back.”. It was interesting to find a lot of galleries, ... read more
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Our entrance to the communist country of Vietnam was not as smooth nor as grand as our other entrances. First-off, the bus ride from Siem Reap took the entire day. Secondly, the Vietnamese Immigration is corruption in action! Crossing the border was easy enough - bus conductor got all our passports, Cambodian immigration officer stamps it and off we go. A few minutes away and we all get down, this time for Vietnam Immigration and all hell broke loose. Apparently, the system is not to have a system. Everyone just brings his/her passport (preferably with cash stuck in between) to the Immigration officer’s booth, wait for his/her name to be called, disregard the queue and just stand within hearing distance, jump the queue when you are called, exit, fill-up or submit something at the Customs’ booth ... read more
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Flying in from Kuala Lumpur via Air Asia, we arrived at Siem Reap at 8AM (minus 1 hour from Perth / Singapore / KL / Manila time). The airport is small but very charming. As pre-arranged, we were picked from the airport by the tour guide I booked - Saron. But apparently, we were also picked up by the hotel so Saron said he was surprised to see 2 placards bearing my name In the end, he just sent away the hotel driver and waited for us. We got lost for a while looking for our hotel as it is new and Saron and his driver friend were not familiar with it but after a couple of phone calls, we found it ACCOMMODATIONS I found the Kool Hotel through tripadvisor.com where it got a lot of ... read more
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Flying in from Langkawi via Air Asia, we arrived at the KL LCCT (Low-Cost Carrier Terminal) past lunch time. Having found out that the cheapest way to get to our hotel was through the Star Shuttle, we immediately looked for their counter as soon as we got our bags. For RM15 per person, the Star Shuttle takes you from KLIA or LCCT to a select list of hotels in the city (check out their website for the listing). The airport is about an hour away from the city center and as our hotel was the second to the last stop, we arrived at Hotel Istana a little before 2PM already. Kuala Lumpur is just like the Philippines - the traffic, the busyness, the shanties hidden along the stretch of the expressway, the coconut trees, the vendors, ... read more
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Flying in from Singapore via Air Asia, we arrived in Langkawi tired and sleepless from our night sessions with friends. At the airport, we changed enough money to last us for the Langkawi and Kuala Lumpur legs of our trip. In Singapore and Malaysia, we found out it is always best to change money at the airport as the rates are so much better. For a small airport, there are a lot of shops at Langkawi International, probably because the whole archipelago is duty-free! We also came right smack in the middle of the Malaysia Grand Sale so we were very excited about the prospect of some good shopping. Taxis are not metered in Langkawi but trips in between popular places are fixed rate so there is no stress over haggling over fares. There is a ... read more
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On a cold winter night, we flew in from Perth, Australia to Singapore via Jetstar Airways. It was our first time to fly Jetstar and we were curious on how it was going to be. Aside from the 1-hour flight delay, the trip was comfortable and uneventful. You do have to pay for everything aboard, including food (there was one complimentary bottle of water though), entertainment, and blankets/comfort pack. You have to pay in the currency of your departure OR arrival country. Hot meals go for AUD15, softdrinks and juices for AUD3 and alcoholic drinks for AUD6+. Since we had an early dinner, we went for sandwiches (AUD6) and a small can of Pringles (AUD3). The sandwich tasted like cardboard We arrived in Singapore before 7AM, changed some money, took a couple of maps from the ... read more
freo arts festival
On Easter Sunday, we hied off to Fremantle to see the annual Street Arts Festival. The day was scorching but we managed about 3 hours of walking around, watching the various shows and just people-watching :D I'm pretty sure more interesting stuff turned up later that day but we were just too sunburned to stay :)... read more
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Check out Scarborough at night -- to see Scarborough during the day, check out my other blog on Scarborough Just wanted to post some pics here taken from an impromptu visit to the beach a couple of nights' ago. I had to jump out of the car to catch the sunset on time, took some photos of the emptying beach, watched people dance like fools in the rave party, took a long walk on the sand, then had seafood dinner at Jimmy Dean's overlooking the beach .... read more
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We're trying to make the rounds of the famous beaches in Perth and here is the 2nd one -- Cottesloe Beach. We started out in fine weather, with a bit of a chill but with plenty of sun but unfortunately, it was already bleak and windy when we got to Cottesloe. Cottesloe is much shorter than Scarborough Beach and with a lot less people. It's sort of a neighborhood beach and I actually like it better than Scarborough. There's a breakwater so the waves aren't that big and surfing is not allowed here. Maybe that's why Cottesloe gets all the mommies and kids and even the pets (there's a Dog Beach) and Scarborough gets all the hot babes and the surfer dudes We didn't stay long because it was getting cold and instead headed out to ... read more
