Blogs from Philippines, Asia - page 315

Philippines: Definitely the most underrated Southeast Asian country. I myself did not have a burning desire to go to the Philippines. But last January Lisa said "Let's go to the Philippines for Golden Week." I thought, sure...beach, sand, fun....let's book it! So for Golden Week this year (I guess you could say the Japanese Spring Break. There are three national holidays in one week so many people take the time to travel travel travel = expensive prices!) Lisa and I, with two late additions Misha and Ryan, headed out to the Philippines! What an incredible, beautiful, and wonderful country. I hope that my entries about our trip and the photos can do it justice. I seriously can't wait to return someday, and I hope it is in the near future. Fukuoka: Never a Dull Moment! So ... read more

i was never an adventurer and had never loved travelling new places until i went to bohol... such beauty is so unsurpassable... the land.. the water.. everything.. i never thought that such beauty exists... we got to tagbilaran via philippine airlines, we have friends from bohol who had booked us at the Wregent Hotel, nice simple hotel and affordable, we paid 900/ night for a twin room - w/out breakfast - on our first day we just stayed in the hotel and had our dinner outside in a seafood restaurant w/c serves iced tea in a... should i say gigantic glass :), they do. on our second day we rented a van to tour us in the land adventure. we left the hotel by 6am and traveled more than an hour for sagbayan peak, then ... read more

This year for Golden Week (basically a week of national holidays in Japan) we decided to travel to the Philippines. Originally it was just going to be Casey and I, but we ended up travelling with two of Casey's friends from Berkley, Mischa and Ryan. DAY 1: Our adventure started early Saturday morning with a trip to the Fukuoka airport where we barely made our plane. Luckily, China Air was nice enough to come and pick us out of the customs line-up and rush us to our gate. After that was settled we were on our way to Manila (after a quick stopover in Taipai, Taiwan)! Upon arrival in Manila we were hit with the kind of air that is hard to breathe due to a combination of heat and pollution... it was just what we ... read more

In late April 2006, I had some days off work on our national holiday. The rice terraces in Banaue, which are a world heritage site, attracted me to go there and see them in reality. However, after searching information, I realized that there was only night bus traveling between Manila and Banaue. If I got that bus, I would be back in Manila at 2:00am. Leng, a Filipina friend, said that she was willing to go the bus station and pick me up at night. I was very touched by her kindness, but for the safety reason, I decided to stay in Manila. Also, I didn't want my holiday to be a mission, running around from A to B. Through a Chinese friend, I got the address of Friendly Guest House in Manila and booked my ... read more

Tuesday Michael was supposed to leave for Australia, we had to be at the airport by 6.40pm so left the house at around 5.50pm. When we arrived at the airport we were told that his Qantas flight (QF20) had been cancelled, to make matters worse there wasn't one Qantas representative at the airport to provide details. We had no choice but to leave, in any case cousin Junee had invited us to dinner at a Vietnamese reataurant in Quezon City. After a tasty meal we went to a bar called Ratsky to listen to some live music and consume a few San Mig drafts. The band playing had a real showman as the main singer, he also had lot's of jokes though some were in Tagalog. There were quite a few people from other countries in ... read more