It's more fun in the Philippines ( travex2012 part2)

At the recent Phil. Travel & Tour Expo 2012, zestfully flagged was the newest slogan of our tourism : -
"It's more fun in the Philippines" .
True.
So still here at PTTE 2012  let me take you back to our old : -
" Wag maging dayuhan sa sarili mong bayan" (don't be a stranger in your own country).

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It's easy, with all those cheap tour packages being offered left to right, all you have to do is start somewhere in our 7,107 islands you haven't been yet

Lots and lots of booths offering local tour packages  at the travex. Personally thu', pre packaged tour doesn't work for me. I'm more of free spirited backpacker traveler who needs more leeway on pocket and time. I hate to be boxed with limited time and places to see. More so, I don't have much on my wallet to afford some expensive tour packages. So the trips you see here in my blog are 99% DIY (do-it-yourself).

Travel expo  for me is more of availing on promo accommodations. I didn't have the chance to avail promo airfare  there. I grabbed super cheap airfares on the internet. But I preferred to avail accommodations at the expo rather than on line. Cos in the past, I had experienced buying promo deals (accommodations) on line and some of them were wasted unused. Usually, these promos are limited to book outside blockout dates/weekends/holidays which exactly the time I needed these places for my family off school and work. Here at the expo they let me book on the spot, on the dates I prefer including blockout dates. Aside from the fact that expo's special promo rates are much more lower than promo on line. I'm not even talking about regular published rates here. I'm cheap. I love promo deals. haha.

This time, I was particularly scouting on Boracay accommodations. For this year, I have airfare tickets already booked. One with my brother for his birthday and another set with my husband for our anniversary. This is to say, you'll get to see more of  Bora here in my blog this year.

Well, if you're going to Bora before me this year and you need some places to stay suggestions, I could refer you to my latest Bora, and from there you could browse back to other hotels at Boracay I've been to.

A flyer was handed to me from 2Go booth. Offered were reasonable passenger ship fares to Boracay and other Visayas and Mindanao destinations. hmmm, that's new. .maybe. .

There were numbers of Coron, Palawan booths but I don't have plans of revisiting that paradise this year so I didn't step- in to anyone of them. Anyway, again if you're into Coron this year, you could visit lots of Coron posts I have here and from there be linked to places I visited in Coron

I thought this was an icecream outlet. Same name of a popular Swiss ice cream brand. I wonder if this resort is Swiss owned too?

Heading to Cebu? Don't ask me, cos the last time I went there, I didn't bother to avail any accommodation. I left Manila on an earliest flight, day toured Cebu and got back home before midnight. Yep => here

No airfare needed. Road trip to the north. Been there at Zoobic also - Tiger Safari, Close Encounter, Croco Loco, and lots of other adventure activities to indulge in Subic.

Extend your road trip to further north => Baguio City. Hotel Elizabeth , I haven't stayed here yet. Maybe next time. The promo rates were catchy thu'. Wish I had availed one. But didn't. 

Lots of  beautiful booths displays. . I only had limited time to take photos. I just enjoyed myself  looking at the the creativity of each booth.

But I had more fun of availing cheap promo rates according to my family calendar. Next.next. will be the international booths offering tour packages. I know, this was Phil. Travel Expo. Let's just be happy that quite a lot of foreign countries participated cos after our own country we could now fly to our global neighbors, right? 

see ya,

North Bintan Tour (part1)

My recent trip was such a combination_ of boring tours and amazing experiences. Well, for now let me begin to share with the mediocre ones. This is only because, until this time ( it has been almost a week since I got home) I'm pretty much still on a holiday mode and my blogging enthusiasm seems to be on vacation mode too.



Can you spot me there? This was in a ferry terminal at Bintan, Indonesia. Already looks like one of our local domestic airports, right? Anyways, we kindah arrived earlier, so much earlier for our resort's booking and had to look for things to do to fill-up the hours.

Brother suggested to avail a  tour package, to more or less have a glimpse of the culture of the island. He was very keen on seeing an actual "kampong" (an Indonesian hamlet or village). Bestfriend agreed quickly and in a jiffy we availed the North Bintan Tour from one of the booths in the terminal, not by choice but it was the only one available matching our free time. So for about S$55 per head, our itinerary said : * vegetable farm and fisheries, * Chinese Temple, * Tanjung Uban (second town), *small Malay fishing village, * local beach (Sebong Pereh) and * a shopping center at POO. The package also included a lunch or dinner (Kelong sea food) and fresh coconut water.

Our driver / tour guide had given us the leeway to decide which place would come first. We thought we all needed an early lunch so we headed to our first stop _ Aneka Seafood, a restaurant by the sea. Hmmm, I wasn't feeling it on the first sight as we entered the establishment, I saw household going on in the restaurant. with laundry, baby sitting and the kitchen (yes it was very visible at the entrance) was not a sight to behold. Blame me not, as usual my entry point before this was the sophisticated Singapore and so far no Malaysia nor Indonesia ( and sure may I include my beloved country- Philippines) could come close to the perfectly neat SG.




Aside from the busy entrance, in fairness, the restaurant was airy and clean. The food?_wella, later you could visit my food blog .

Underneath the restaurant was a very clean sea and outside the windows a bonus of an idyllic scenery which was very refreshing.

Brother had this captured by his lens.




Lunch was done and we had our first aroma of the island.

Outside, I noticed an altar_ Buddhist? not sure.




Onwards to our next stop. . may I take a pause here?. .promise just for a short while. .maybe I'll be back as soon as  tomorrow. . see you on my next post.
For now, go check the food here please.