Bangkok for Dummies

Bangkok's a pretty straight forward place, and it looks a lot like the Philippines (Manila-ish). 

It's a shopping mecca and a foodie heaven. *enough said* Everything is insanely affordable (especially food). 

Trip Happiness: ★★★★★

Verdict: 

Booking Site: Hotels2Thailand ★★★★★

Site: http://www.hotels2thailand.com/

Good hotel prices, you can customize your tours and airport transfers, plus they have online chat support (that really supports you), so yeah, I love Hotels2Thailand. They were accommodating, clear, and precise. 

Accommodations: Grand Diamond Hotel ★★★★★

We loved Grand Diamond Hotel for 3 major reason:(3) It's a mall + hotel (2) It's walking distance from another mall and (1) it's right across the street from another mall. SO YEAH, pretty much it was mall central. 

The rooms are all fully equipped suites very roomy, clean, and cozy. The breakfast buffet was awesome. Crispy fatty bacon, croissants, churros, smoked salmon, sushi, and a selection of thai/asian food. Also, there's a fast food in the mall area of the hotel, where you can eat really affordable (and good) thai food. 

Personally, If i go back to bangkok, i'll probably book a room here again. Love the location, and the convenience of the mall below the hotel.

Shopping: ★★★★★

Obviously we went there to shop. So before going there we already had a list of malls to go to and food to try (see below image). Most of the must-go-to malls are there complete with mall hours and Thai translations. I'll have a next post detailing ok Bangkok Malls. #StayTuned 

Warning: there are some taxi drivers that cannot speak english (from experience) so it's very helpful to know where exactly you're going (ie: street name / popular name place) and thai-translation of the places you're going to. 

Tour: ??? ★★★

Okay. So I forgot where we got our tour but I think it was just near the Hotel Lobby-- we canvassed from tour to tour, I think-- the prices in the hotel lobby was already fair, so that's where we got it.

The tour was just so-so since the tour guide really didn't explain much of the cultural and historical significance of each temple and site. I was expecting a lot more discussion regarding Bangkok but with our tour guide it was an ask and answer type of thing. It was a day of rushing and taking pictures in different temples. It made for a good photo-opp since the temples were really beautiful. But again, I was hoping for more in-depth information about Thailand, the temples, Budha and I didn't really get it. 

I got a nice PDF book after so, that solved that. 

Other Tips:

1. Plan out your trip - "Google before you Go"

It's a lot better to know the places you want to hit before you actually get there. Not only do you save time in THINKING, DECIDING, but also you save time and effort in GETTING LOST. : )) 

Given that Control Freak is too harsh a work, I like to coin myself as an 'in-control-traveler.' Because, yes, I will always try to plan-out 'controllable' factors. I hate feeling like a lost tourist. I'm already a tourist, worst is if I get myself naively lost. hahahaha. And by doing so, it's always been smooth sailing, no bad trip on my rap sheet and no trip-mishap or whatnots to account for. :)) 

2. Get a good hotel 

the hotel prices in BK are insane (good type of crazy). You can get a 4-5 star hotel for USD 100 a night. Pretty fair since you can't even see those prices here in Manila. 

3. Know what you want to buy

I know it's hard but when you get there if you know what you're going to buy (ie: clothes, shoes, gadgets, etc) you'll have a good direction of where you'll go. There's A LOT of things to buy there so it's always nice coming out of a trip with things you WANTED and things you could use rather that a lot of random things that you neither wanted or could use but you just thought "ooh cool" and throw away. : ))

4. HAGGLE 

Of course you can't haggle in the malls but street vendors negotiate very well. I got a good pair of shades, bags, and pouches at 20-40% off the posted price. Usually closing time folks are a lot more forgiving in giving good prices. ;-) 

5. Know the Mall Hours

Night markets are the latests, some malls are only up to 8PM while some are up to 10 PM -- so note the mall hours so you call go-mall-crazy efficiently, hitting the earlier closing places first and staying late at places that close late.

Below is my guide from google maps and customized by (moi). It's supposed to be lost-proof / dumb-proof. Ideally it's going to be printed back to back. The Roaming thing is for non-Tech folks who can't config their phone to save their lives (ahem parents). Hope it's of some use. 

*enjoy*

Yum Yum Pad Thai 

 Floating Market Finds 

note: prices aren't the best in the floating market you can find some stuff in the mall for a lesser price BUT it's nice to support the folks from the market. :) 

 Floating Market Finds 
note: so my sister loved the pad thai there. I think we tried 14 different types of padthai and she claims that this was the best. 

Other pix below. :) 

Coron: Chillin' Cruisin' and Crazy fun

This was 6 months in the making for 16 people and NO they didn't all confirm at the same time regardless of the ultimatums and deadlines we made. haha. 

My good friend and I were the ones coordinating the trip for the entire group. And let me tell you, planning a trip for 16 ain't a laughing matter. But thanks to online collaboration tools ( I love you google ) everything was smooth sailing from booking to billing to packing and reminders. 

For the tour, meals, and transfers: we got a good coupon from MetroDeal and booked with shore2shore Travel. For Airfare, some one us flew Cebu Pacific and some Zest Air to Busuanga. 


Trip Happiness: ★★★★★
Rating: 2 Thumbs Up for Divelink and Shore2Shore Travel!

Verdict: 


Coupon: MetroDeal ☹☹☹
I'm not a big fan of MetroDeal not of their interface and feedback response time when you have an issue. I'm just grateful that we go this great deal there but this is probably the last deal i'll get from them

Agency: Shore2Shore Travel ★★★★★
I love Shore2Shore and how accommodating and fast they were to responding to us. We had a lot of requests and specifications and follow ups but they didn't fail to deliver and response on time, always. I'll definitely book with them again.

We got to Coron, Divelink, and tours without a hitch. Considering that my group of friends are a very vocal and blunt sort of group, I didn't hear a bad feedback during our stay. 

Accommodations: DiveLink Resort  ★★★★★

General: Divelink is a small island resort off the coast of busuanga main island. It's your own island overlooking the coron horizon. It's not the Shangri-La but for provincial accommodations, it's good, clean, and deadly-bugs and insects free. Also, the view was very serene since it had a hill-ish deck that you can see the ocean and island. 

People: WE LOVE THE STAFF. Everyone was so nice, friendly and most importantly: honest. They'll give you tips in getting pasalubong minus the tourist price and they'll go the extra effort in making sure your stay is enjoyable. They were also really very polite and kind, so that was appreciated.

Food: The Resort had Good food, generous serving too. I think most of my guy friends splurged for food. For me, and the girls, most of us just shared rice and food and we were already full. 

X-Factor: 
1. I love that they granted us our room requests and they were very generous about it. We were a group of 16 and my concern was that I didn't want us to be cramped up in small rooms. So, we ended up having almost a floor and the accommodations booked for us were good for 20. 

2. We also appreciated the UNLI-boat transfers (form morning to 6PM) from Divelink to Busuanga main island that was part of the package. I think, any traveler hates those hassle hidden charges-- so that 'convenience' perk was really nice.

3. They had a bar with karaoke in the middle of the sea. You had to cross a small bridge to get there. It was a small rock formation that they made into a bar, so that was cool. Our group pretty much had that 'rock' to ourselves so that was fun. 

4. They had their own hill. We were already too lazy to go hiking in mainland busuanga but since the resort was its own mountain-ish island, my friends got to hike without having to go to the mainland. 

5. Resort Activities were part of the package. Aside from going island hopping, if we wanted to go snorkeling there were already corals in front of our doorstep. We also borrowed the resort's Kayak to get to the next island (not me though). 




2012 Coron Getaway: Our Awesome Coron Trip in 4 minutes from Moochie on Vimeo.

Two Takeaways from Hemingway

Randomly bumped into Hemingway this week and we had a short chat about the last days of his life. 

But seriously, I stumbled upon reading a short article about Ernest Hemingway's life and became deeply intrigued about his last days and work. So I googled for a copy of A Moveable Feast where he narrates the story of his life in Paris. 

And I guess, my two key take-aways from it are:

2. I have to experience living in Paris. 
I have to live in Paris, eat good food, walk, talk, write, and bask in the beauty of that fair city.

It's one thing to remember a place fondly but another to keep taking that experience with you throughout your life. Hemingway's depiction of Paris was that it was the best time and part of his life, for one reason or another. He loved his life and experience in Paris enough to keep that image (a moveable feast) with him until the end of his days. 

1. Forgive & Let Go
To me, most heart-wrenching things I find about Hemingway's story is his lost but lingered fondness and love for his first wife.

Some biographers believe that it was because his first love rejected him that caused him to leave wife, after wife, after wife. While some other biographers believe that when Hemingway's first wife lost his briefcase of works, he just never really forgave her for it. But which ever reason could be the cause, one thing, I know is for sure to live a good life you have to: Forgive and Let Go. 

So one day, when we become old men and women, we won't look a the life we lived with regret and remorse but instead we'll cherish every memory with fondness and joy.

Online readable copy of A Moveable Feast can be found here: 
http://www.scribd.com/doc/6765457/A-Moveable-Feast-by-Earnest-Hemingway

DiCapac is a Beach Bum's Best Friend

If you’re a DSLR Owner and you like to beach bum, then definitely you need to invest in a good water-proof case. ` Buying mine, was the best investment I made.


For Three simple reasons: 

3. AVOID WATER DAMAGE: 
DSLRs are prone to water damage, when water gets into the SLRs nooks and crannies. Worst water damage I saw was my old SLR’s when it got drizzled with salt water from the boat-splashes when I was in Bohol. 
Now, I get to bring my DLSR in the boat w/o worrying it sinking, getting wet, and getting water damage.

2. ENSURE SAND PROTECTION:
Even if I’m just in the beach, and not really going boating or island hopping, having the DLSR Case is pretty useful since it protects your precious DLSR from getting sand in sensitive areas and water damage, since when you go to the beach everything pretty much gets damp and wet.   

1. GET UNDERWATER SHOTS: 
I find the most peace when I'm underwater. Whether it's just a pool or sea or even just the tub, I love just being silently submersed.  

So yea, I pretty much, I love the ocean, more so, I love snorkeling and seeing corals, fishes, ships and other underwater things, and when I got my DLSR Case-- that was really a good buy, since (of course) I get to take the experience of being underwater with me even if I'm in dry land. 

A Picture of my case is below, and some sample shots too: 

Bora Break: Short, Sweet, & Sulit!

For my first time trip in Boracay, Philippines-- I went with my good friends. It was last-minute so we really didn't get the best out of any piso-fare or discounts we booked 2 weeks before we planned to go so we had to get a Travel Agency's help. 

Early on, this trip was near the verge of failure. Aside from deciding late whether we were going to book or not we also booked with vendors that were less than recommended since we needed to stay within budget.

We booked late, didn't have an itinerary, and needed to work within a budget. But surprisingly: everything went without a hitch. Lucky us. 

Our ZestAir flight was just 45 minutes delayed but was understandable since, there was bad weather during our trip. Note that there was a storm in the Visayas 1 day after we left. Also, we got a Executive Deluxe room, a lot bigger than the Standard that we expected. And! the vendor we booked with for our trip to Ariel's Point, gave us a good price and hooked us up with the main Ariel's Point Folks. 

AGENCY: We booked with TravelOnline.ph and they gave us a pretty good deal since I already produced a couple of personal quotes to canvas the trip cost-- and TravelOnline's price offer was within the price range. They also had a bunch of freebies that came with the booking so-- that was great. AND-- they had guides along the commute from Kalibo to Caticlan to Boracay that guided you across those 'fees' you have to pay through out-- so that's one less trip hassle you have to worry about.

ACCOMMODATIONS: We stayed in La Carmela De Boracay, which is a budget traveler friendly beach front hotel. Fun thing was that-- we luckily got booked in an Executive Deluxe which is a lot bigger than the standard rooms people usually rant about when talking about La Carmela. 

Anyways, for the budget, the timing, the spur-of-the-moment, and no planning whatsoever of the trip-- It was a project planning nightmare but I'm surprised and proud to say that it's one of my best trip for the year. 


It was a short trip, and we just stayed for 3 days and 2 nights-- but my top three best picks of the trip would be: 

3. FOOD: to your heart's content 

The Good: we ate in this Mexican resto in D'Mall, which I wasn't able to note since I was ow so sleepy but-- it was good. I love their make of Chimichanga. Just note, the servers may be as sleepy as me, so be patient with them, the mexican food was great just don't try the pastas. 

The Bad: I didn't become a fan of the raved about food in boracay like: Jonah's Milkshake and Chori Burger-- but the other bloggers are right, you can't go to Boracay and not have them. It wasn't bad-- but it wasn't as good as it was raved to be.  

2. RIDE: ATV via Zetro ATV

The Good: instead of ATV-ing in the roads of Bora and getting stuck in traffic, we went with Zetro. They had their own ATV fleet, terrain and track-- which made it a lot more fun (if you're the type who craves for rough roads). The best thing about Zetro was we didn't get stuck in traffic and there was no need to stop for cars or pedestrians. So it was just ATVing all the way which was fun. :) 

The Bad: this won't be your thing if you want to sight see the province or if you're not into driving in rough roads. You will get tired and your hands will get some cramps from holding the gas and breaks of the ATV, but it's way fun. 


1. JUMP: Go Cliff Diving in Ariel's Point. I'll blog separately about Ariel's Point. (yep. it's that awesome)

The Good: Let me just say that I LOVE ARIEL'S POINT. I have nothing but LOVE for Ariel's Point. Funny story is that some competitor bad mouthed Ariel's Point saying that-- the trip was cancelled but we found another vendor saying that the trip wasn't cancelled. So yeah, good thing WE FOUND HIM (kuya Norman) and he seemed kinda shady at first, but he gave us a good price and ensured that we got to the REAL Ariel's Point Place. 

The Bad: Nothing's bad in Ariel's Point. It's was the highlight of our trip. The only bad thing could be if you go to Bora and not visit Ariel's Point. haha 

Photos below, enjoy! :) 

2012 Boracay: Good Fun, Good Friends, Awesome Trip from Moochie on Vimeo.

Kuya Norman "we found him"