WW: Relax, Have a break, Take a Kayak

Monday Daydream: HK Disneyland

We'd definitely come back to HK Disneyland. I don't have any idea yet as to when. :p When we went to HK Disneyland last December 2008, all that DS shouted was "At-dah!" while pointing excitedly to Mickey Mouse. Well, it meant hotdog, the song that the Mickey and his gang always sing at the end of their Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show at Playhouse Disney. We had fun in our stay at Disney but since DS was only 20 months when we went there, we weren't able to try all the rides. So hopefully when DS gets a bit older (and demanding that he goes back to Disney :p), we could definitely plan another family holiday in Hong Kong. Maybe then we could stay for 3D2N at HK Disneyland Hotel instead of the Hollywood Hotel. Oh, wishful thinking. :)

HK 2008 Day 1 - Ocean Park

HK Day 1 - Ocean Park: December 12, 2008 - I booked the first flight of Cebu Pacific from Manila to Hong Kong so we arrived at around 10AM in the HK International Airport. After going through the usual long line at the immigration, we picked up our luggage (amazingly we didn't have to wait that long!), bought our Airport Express Travel passes and headed straight to the city. After around 30 minutes of ride at the train and roughly another 30 minutes bus ride from the Kowloon MTR station (where we got off from the airport express train), we reached BPI International. We checked-in at the hotel, dropped off our luggage in our room (which, as far as I could remember, is at the highest floor of the building), and then got ready for Ocean Park. It was already lunch time by then. As soon as we got out of the hotel, we checked out the nearby money changer. I realized the exchange rate was steep and I'd rather make my banks back at the Philippines get richer so I just used my BDO and BPI ATMs to get some HK dollars. We walked all the way from Jordan to Tsim Sha Tsui to look for ATMs bearing the Maestro and Visa logos. After making ATM withdrawals, we walked a bit more to go to the Yoshinoya restaurant where DH and I ate with our friends when we went to HK in July 2007. We found a Crocs store beside Yoshinoya's entrance so DH and I promised we'd definitely go back there. :D We looked for a 7-11 store so we could load up some money in our Octopus cards (the airport express travel pass doubles as an Octopus card). Then we took the MTR from the TST train station and got off at Admiralty station, where CityBus 629 is. We paid HK$10.6 each for the bus ride (DS is still free) using our Octopus cards and off we go to Ocean Park!

We got off CityBus 629 at the Tai Shue Wan entrance park of Ocean Park. Tae Shue Wan connects to the Headland through the super long Tai Shue Wan escalators. Afaik, you had to pass 4 long escalators to get to Headland. Of course, our first stop was to take some pictures with the Ocean Park signage. Yeah, I know the guy beside DH and DS above was a nuisance in the picture. But you see, he's part of the experience: a picture beside an authentic Chinese guy at Ocean Park Hong Kong! LOL.

So we took a ride on that uber long escalator and of course, took some pictures! Smile!!!

I think we stopped after two long escalators when we posed in front of the Mine Train. You know what, I've been to Ocean Park four times already but I was never ever able to take any of their rides. I don't usually chicken out in park rides. I thought I just don't want to die in a foreign land. :p

After climbing up with the long escalators, we reached Pacific Pier. Here, DS had a close encounter with a real and not so real seals (or sea lions? darn, I still don't know the difference! LOL).

After DS enjoyed watching and laughing at the seals (or sea lions, whatever!) at the Pacific Pier, we headed straight to the Ocean Park Tower. Our first ride in that trip! Oh, that is if we don't consider the 4 long elevators as a separate ride. :p After so many shots, we got this nice shot wherein we have the Headland rides as our background.

When we got out of the Ocean Park Tower, we headed to Headland to have some snacks at McDonald's. On our way to Headland, we saw the Ocean Park's mascot! So DH ran ahead of the mascot while DS and I tried to catch up. So we got this nice shot here. I was all smiles here although I was catching my breathe. LOL.

Apparently, it was the mascot's meet and greet time. We learned his schedule was around 4-4:15PM. We were so damn lucky! So lucky that we were one of the first people who lined up. :p

One, two, three, smile! :D

Rides at Headland were all for adults. Since DS was with us, we just checked out the Chinese Sturgeon Aquarium and Atoll Reef. DS was so happy shouting "Isshh! Isshh!". :p

After checking out all the aquariums, we finally went to McDonald's and had one Big Mac Meal (with Large Fries and Large Coke) shared. We also almost finished up one tumbler of Oreo (we brought all the way from Manila). Since it was December, at 5PM it was already getting dark. Ocean Park is open only until 6pm so we hurried to the Cable Car queue, hoping that we could still check out the rides at Lowland for DS. The line was not that long compared when we were at Ocean Park summertime of 2007. But we still spent some good 30mins at the queue before we finally got our ride.

I had to use the camera's flash here because it was already dark inside the cable car.

Of course, we didn't forget to take a family pic before we got off the cable car. :p

To our disappointment (which later on I had to thank as well since we came in late), the whole Lowland was under renovation. So we just contented ourselves taking DS's pictures with this coin-driven car. He cried when we took him out of it so that justified our wants to buy him a big remote-controlled car for Christmas.

Since Madagascar 2 was on cinemas that time, they also had some standees of the animals from that movie. Smile! Although DS was already crying here. He was cranky and sleepy. :p

December, I believe, is a good time to visit Ocean Park. It was way better than the time we visited Ocean Park on July 2007. The weather was good and the park was not crowded. The queue waiting time was reasonable and tolerable. Even if we already arrived at the park at around 2PM and it closed 6PM, we really enjoyed our stay there. Not so tiring. And since December means Christmas time, we also got to take some pictures with the park's Christmas decors like this sugar house here. :)

Here's a poinsettia-looking flower arrangement. Yeah, DS was still crying here. :D

And here's a reindeer (at the back of DH and DS) surrounded with BIG gifts! Yes, my son was still crying out loud here. LOL. Apparently, DS was already full of poop! :p

We took again CityBus 629 to get back to Admiralty and then MTR back to Kowloon. We were sleeping the whole time at the bus. The traffic was so heavy then because it was a Friday. I think it took us more than an hour to get back to the city. It was ok though since all of us were able to sleep and rest the whole time we were stuck in the heavy traffic.

As soon as we reached the hotel, we just stayed a bit and then took off to Harbour City, the biggest mall I've ever seen in my life. We went to Toys R' Us and checked out if we could buy DS's big remote-controlled car there. But it turned out the car models at the toy stores back in Manila were much better. So we just bought a few gifts and took more pictures with the Christmas decors around the mall.

As you can see, I was no longer in the pictures at the end because I was so tired and harassed. DS had been picking me to carry him. :p So then we called it a day. ;)

Up next: HK 2008 Day 2 at Macau. =)

McDonald's Everywhere

Whenever you travel abroad, make sure to eat at McDonald's. Here are three good reasons why:

1. It's one of the cheapest place where you could eat. When I say cheap, it's relative to the restaurants in the country you're visiting, and NOT to the country where you're coming from. So if you're from the Philippines, forget about exchange rates and doing conversion at the top of your head (for heaven's sake, your mobile phone could do that! LOL). More often than not, the value meal is around 2x to 3x even up to 5x of what you usually pay for. But still, it's cheaper if you compare it with other restaurants.
2. It's fast food. So if you're starving to death from walking and walking and more endless walking trying to do amazing race finishing off all the tourist spots on your list, McDonald's is the way to go. In just a few minutes (or even seconds), you get your food. Forget about the cholesterol and all the yucky stuff your meaning friend has been bugging you about eating on fast food restaurants, you'll burn them anyway once you get back on that endless walking again.
3. It's where you could have a taste of the country's culture. How? When I first traveled to Paris, I was so looking forward to eating a Quarter Pounder (juicy beef patty, tasty cheese, yummy!). Much to my disappointment, there was no Quarter Pounder in McDonald's France. Could it be they despise the word 'pounder' since it's more of an Old English thing and it's not so French? I had no idea. I got myself a chicken sandwich instead. :p In Netherlands, they have croquette (not the game!), pay-to-use toilet and if you're lucky like me, a free marijuana because another chick is having some Mary Janes at the other cubicle. Just smell it from the other cubicle and get stoned in no time =p. In Finland, they have salads and some other chicken sandwiches. And only in the Philippines: spaghetti, chicken and gravy, and free extra BBQ for your nuggets. ;)
   

Monday Daydream: Macau

For today's Monday Daydream, I'm featuring Macau. This is another been-there-place but since the trip wasn't well planned and we were not able to fully maximize our stay there (we only toured Macau for 4 hours or so), I'm really so looking forward visiting this country again. Maybe when DS is already a bit older. Or maybe when I already have a DD to tag along with. That's probably a lot more difficult to do. LOL. Btw, the picture was taken in the plaza area of the Venetian hotel. This was sort of entrance to the Canal shoppes. Happy daydreaming on a Monday! :)

Acuatico Beach Resort

DH, DS and I went on a family holiday in Acuatico Beach Resort. The resort is located in the 7-km long shoreline of the Laiya stretch in San Juan, Batangas. We stayed in that resort for 3D2N last January 2009. It was a triple celebration for us: DH's 31st birthday, our 3rd year wedding anniversary, my 1st year anniversary at work. DS tagged along, of course. Besides this R&R vacation was also our bonding moment with him. here are some of our pics when we arrived the resort.

As you can see it was a bit dark already when we got to the resort. We got lost in Lipa! LOL. We missed the Mercury drugstore at the corner of P.Gomez St. Imagine I was even using the getting to Laiya guide and the road map. We only realized we were on the wrong way when we couldn't see any signs of the drugstore in the suburbs. That was after 30mins of driving so we had to endure another 30mins to get back to Lipa. One good hour wasted there. :p Apparently the Mercury drugstore is really just a drugstore right at the corner. It's not the usual grocery store-like Mercury drugstore you see in Manila. And remember, the drugstore is still in Lipa downtown. Lipa city, especially the bayan (downtown) is quite busy like Manila. The local government there tends to do rerouting so you can easily get lost if the map you're using doesn't even tell you the nearby streets and the other landmarks beyond what you should expect. Oh well. What should have been a 3-hour drive became a 5-hour drive (excluding our one-hour lunch break over at one of the gasoline stations along SLEX). But overall it was one well-spent road trip with DH and DS (slept 30mins only during the entire trip). We only had to endure a barely 500m rough road at the end of the Laiya road. It was such a long and tiring drive that all of us were already asleep before 10pm. Normally we sleep at 12mn and beyond. :p Next morning (Sunday) was a different story.

We took a plunge at the resort's amazing infinity pool. The water was terribly cold then especially if you get near the fountain. DS didn't want to get out of the pool though even if he was already trembling. LOL. We also went out to the beach and had fun playing on the sands and walking down the shores.

Sunday evening was Chinese New Year's eve so DS was wearing a cheongsam. We had dinner near the infinity pool with DS as our Chinese New Year symbol. LOL.

Acuatico is more beautiful at night since the lighting and the infinity pool give that much drama and effect to the whole resort. You need to have a camera with a good night mode to take a shot of the romantic beauty of the resort at night. Otherwise, just be lucky to have a DSLR and get amazing un-photoshopped pictures like these ones:

Next day we didn't waste our time and enjoyed our last day at the resort. The water was still terribly cold but that didn't stop us from getting into the waters again, especially DS.

And of course, more pictures before we finally left the resort.

Review:

• Hotel Room - PhP5k/night, inclusive of buffet breakfast (unfortunately the same menu for two days). The room is just enough for a couple or a small family like us. But if you're true blue claustrophobic (I foundthe room so small), better get a bigger room, which would cost around Php7k-10k per room per night.
• Food - Buffet dinner was at PhP500/pax. DH didn't appreciate it and I agreed with him. We liked it better when we had the ala-carte lunch which only costed us PhP 500 or less (for the three of us). The food is so-so. And I must mention (again) that breakfast for two days was just the same. We didn't avail of their merienda since we brought a lot of snacks: cookies, biscuits, chips, etc.
• Service, Amenities - Service and amenities were commendable. They have free kayak but since the sea waves were not that cooperative when we were there, we opted not to avail the free kayak. All of the resort crew were helpful, attentive, friendly and courteous. And yeah, they even have 24x7 security guards at the gate and inside the resort.
• Transportation - Not really a review for Acuatico. But for this one, you need to gas up for a 140km drive from Manila to Batangas. So that's a total of 280km for a round-trip drive. If your car is at its best efficiency (and you didn't get lost! LOL), you'd probably spend just PhP300-500 per one-way. For us, we probably spent at least PhP1000 of gas for the whole trip. Still ok because had we pushed through with the Bora trip, we would have spent at least PhP8k of airfare for the three of us. Pricey!
  

2009 Philippine Holidays

i copied this post in my other blog...

for travel and holiday addicts like me, here's the rundown of the 2009 holidays:
Q1
jan 1 - new year (DONE!)
jan 2 - special non working holiday (DONE!)
Q2
apr 6 - araw ng kagitingan (day of valor, should really be apr 9 but moved to nearest monday since it fell on maundy thursday); after this, we have 2 days of work then holy week starts
apr 9 to 12 - holy week
may 1 - labor day
jun 12 - independence day
Q3
jul 2 - pasig day (sorry guys, for ortigas-working peeps only =p)
aug 21 - ninoy aquino day
aug 31 - national heroes day
Q4
nov 1 - all saint's day (SUNDAY)
nov 2 - all souls day
nov 30 - bonifacio day
dec 24 - Christmas eve (special non-working)
dec 25 - Christmas
dec 30 - rizal day
dec 31 - new year's eve (special non-working)

to sum up, long weekends shall be the following:
Q2
apr 4 to 6 - araw ng kagitingan
apr 9 to 12 - holy week (better file apr 7 and 8 as VLs so you could have 9 days off from work)
may 1 to 3 - labor day
jun 12 to 14 - independence day
Q3
jul 2 to 5 - pasig day; however, file july 3 first as VL so you could enjoy 4-day weekend. i'd definitely file my BL then =p
aug 21 to 23 - ninoy aquino day
aug 29 to 31 - national heroes day
Q4
oct 31 to nov 2 - all souls day
nov 28 to 30 - bonifacio day
dec 24 to jan 3 - Christmas and New Year; file dec 28 and 29 as VLs so you could enjoy this uber long holiday. better yet, file dec 21, 22 and 23 as VLs as well so you could enjoy 16 days off from work. imagine?! lol

we still have to wait for the government's announcement on when the eidl fitr celebration would be declared as holiday. for now, enjoy planning the rest of your year (read: travel plans hehe). cheers everyone! and tgif. ;)

reference : PGMA lays out holiday schedule for 2009 thru Proclamation 1699

Monday Daydream: Paris

I had been to Paris twice. The first one was a solo flight. Yeah, it was so pathetic so bless me! LOL. The second one was with girlfriend LMDDG. This is the first Monday daydream in this blog. Why? Because I'm daydreaming of going back to Paris with DH. I was hoping to bring the dear husband and the dear son there this coming spring. If not, just visit the dear sister MVW and the rest of the gang in Amsterdam. And I'm still dreaming of spending DS's 2nd birthday in Europe. Hmm, too much of daydreaming. LOL.