PNR adventure from makati to tutuban

last saturday, my friends and i were finally able to take the PNR train from pasay road in makati to tutuban.

i was able to find schedules online at the philippine railways blog. we were supposed to catch the 932am from the buendia station, but since we woke up late, we aimed for the 1030am train instead. we were running on the road behind waltermart and cityland at about 1028am, thinking we were going to miss the train. luckily, all our watches were set in advance, and we made it with a couple minutes to spare.

fare from pasay road to tutuban is a very affordable P10.00 each, and the ride took about 35 minutes--hard to beat if we had driven to binondo instead. the trains resembled the LRT2 trains, were air conditioned, and looked sturdy. there were a lot of people inside, but since the trains were pretty spacious, we all fit quite comfortably.

i was very, very happy to see that a lot of people were using the train, which means it will be in use for a long time. i hope they can add more schedules to it, because at the moment, trains arrive at hourly intervals.

i'm currently perusing the philippine railways blog, and i am pleasantly surprised to read that we will soon be having sleeper trains for long journeys. there is also one entry about a trial timeline to naga, which is exciting news, as this means we can get to the bicol region via the railway.

hobbes & landes trivia night: brains vs. brawns

sounds fun, no?

hotels.com offers half-price rooms!

hotels.com is having a 48-hour sale, offering rooms for half the price! so if you're planning to go to europe from now until june 9, you may want to check hotels.com and grab a great hotel deal. :)

for more details, read hotels.com launches 48-hour sale with half-price rooms, which i stumbled upon at etravel.org.

you can also go to hotels.com's 48-hour sale.

airline fees to watch out for

i don't know if you guys heard of this yet, but florida-based spirit airlines is now charging USD 20-45 for carry-on luggage.

yep, that's carry-on, and not checked baggage, which means for passengers of spirit, gone are the days when you can exercise your mad packing skillz to fit everything in a tiny bag just so you don't have to pay for luggage when you travel.

the airline says they are charging this fee to improve safety and inefficiency, and in a way, i do see their point. bob thompson here echoes my sentiments, albeit in a more intense manner than i could ever muster:

while i wouldn't say it in the same way he did, i see his point. i've seen just how disruptive those "morons" are, and they are present in every flight i've ever gone on, and probably every flight you've been on as well. they get away with bringing a lot of stuff on board, while you, the diligent passenger, did your best to make all your things fit in your tiny bag. spirit airlines' reaction may be a tad too extreme, but i'm sure it will improve boarding efficiency, and will definitely lessen the load onboard.

however, i think they could have gone through a few other measures before settling for charging passengers a carry-on fee. i liked easyJet's way of measuring whether your carry-on can be brought on board or not: they have a little stand at the end of check-in counters with a container that has the correct dimensions for carry-ons. all you need to do is place your bag there, and if it fits, you can take it. doesn't matter how heavy it is, all they need to know is that it will fit in the overhead compartment.

another budget airline is setting the stage for yet another outrageous charging scheme. that oh-so-famous european budget airline ryanair is contemplating charging passengers for use of the lavatory for flights lasting an hour or less.

i can't resist quoting the following lines from the article:

The carrier said it is working with Boeing to develop a coin-operated door release so that when nature calls, passengers would need to deposit the change before being able to use the facilities.

The idea is to encourage people to use restrooms in airport terminals before boarding, Ryanair said. If the airline were to proceed, the changes would be at least 12 to 18 months away.

As part of the plan, the airline is also considering removing two of the three lavatories on some of its planes so it could squeeze in up to six extra seats. The move would help reduce fares by at least 5 percent, Ryanair said.

i, for one, find the lavatory fee a little too extreme. i actually shouldn't be that bothered, because i don't go to the restroom a lot, much less on board planes, but let's not take budget traveling to the extreme and charge "natural urges" a standard fee as well.

i'm updating you on these because these airline fees might reach our shores as well. at the moment, budget airlines have only taken out inflight meals and have retained standard services such as seating assignments. i wonder if any of our budget airlines will implement any of these schemes, and how pinoy travelers will react to these airline fees.

pila, laguna now has walking tours!

a couple years ago, susie and i drove to pila, laguna to see just what the vigan of the south had to offer. we ended up being enamored by a small, tranquil town that boasts beautiful old world architecture.

today, my friend pi sent me a link to ancestral house in pila is showcase of a vanished era, where i found out that pila now has its own historical society, thanks to cora relova. in may 2000, the national historical institute declared that the town (specifically the plaza and the ancestral homes) is a national historical landmark.

what excited me about the article, though, was the last line:

For guided walking tours, e-mail lacoring@gmail.com

this means we can explore and rediscover the town of pila and find out more about this lovely, lovely town. :) (photo is of the st. anthony de padua church in pila)

see more photos of our trip to pila, laguna.

competitours: travel, complete, win big!

have you always dreamed of joining and winning the amazing race? now, you can live out your fantasy of racing through your dream destinations with competitours!

competitours pits you against 16 other teams as you breeze through four european countries in a span of nine days. during the day, you will have a choice between 8-10 challenges, which will earn you points upon completion. at night, you get to interact and party with your "tour mates."

unlike amazing race, though, there are no eliminations in this race, and you even get a chance to research. assignments are received every night in the form of a virtual mission packet, where you get to choose 2-5 challenges out of the 8-10 given. the packet indicates whether your challenge is in the city center or the outskirts, so you get to customize the tour to your own liking.

what's the prize? this being a contest, there IS a prize, of course, and it's pretty sweet. first placers win USD 5,500, second prize is USD 2,500, and third prize is USD 1,000. the competitours dynamic way of scoring levels the playing field and makes the competition even more exciting: you never know who will win until the very last day.

for this much excitement, there IS a price to pay: the tour costs USD 2,675 per person, to be paid after finishing the tour. a USD 100 deposit is required to join the nine-day tour. the fee includes roundtrip airfare, lodging for seven nights, intercity transport (eurail tickets), two days of admissions for group challenge sessions, welcome and awarding parties, up to 70 challenges, and of course, the chance to win USD 5,500.

it won't cover the fee you'll pay for the whole tour, but i'm sure the experience will be worth it. if i had the moolah, i totally would. :)

tour information

competitours

price: USD 2,675 per person

duration: 9 days

destination: 4 european countries (you won't know where until you get there)

email address: info@competitours.com

ptaa travel and tour expo this weekend!

okay, it kinda sucks that i'm not going to be here this weekend for the ptaa travel and tour expo, but i'm not selfish enough to keep the information all to myself.

from february 19 to 21, travel and tourism trade practitioners will be at the SMX convention center halls 2, 3, and 4 to offer us wanderlusting folk pretty good deals on our desired destinations.

make sure that you bring enough moolah, because the deals, packages, and promo rates will only be available at the venue. at the same time, though, it's also a good place to scout around for possible places to visit next, and to look for a trusted travel agent (it comes in handy, too, despite the wealth of budget options the internet offers).

general admission tickets to the travel and tour expo are at Php 50/day, while senior citizens only pay Php 20.

for those who want to take advantage of the deals, do your research on your destination ahead of time. :)

be there this weekend, and tell me about it!

event details
17th ptaa travel and tour expo
what: travel deals galore
when: february 19 (10am-9pm), 20 (10am-9pm), and 21 (10am-7pm)
where: SMX convention center halls 2, 3, and 4, seashell drive, mall of asia complex, pasay city
how much: Php 50 (general admission), Php 20 (senior citizen)

also check out the philippine travel agencies association website.

globe introduces airline roaming

finally, i have some time to blog about this. i received a message from globe a while back (as in april of this year) about airline roaming.

with airline roaming, you no longer need to turn your phone off while on a flight. you can text and call as you please while you're flying to your destination.

for now, globe airline roaming is only available on select flights in air france and emirates, and can only be used by postpaid users. maybe once the service takes off, they will think of extending it to prepaid users.

personally, i'm not too happy about this, as i really treasure the few precious hours i have to disconnect from the world. but for people who need to be connected 24/7, this is great news.

for more information, you may text AIRLINE to 2222.

oasis hongkong airlines folds

i've been saving up and planning for a possible trip to europe next year. i thought i'd finally see ireland, spend time with friends in madrid, and visit an aunt in portugal.

we all know going to europe is hell on the wallet, which is why i've been planning and saving up in advance. consulting kat mascardo, a budget travel guru (will post something about her soon), the plan was to take oasis hongkong airlines from hong kong and land in london gatwick, since it was a budget carrier. from there, i can just take a plane to madrid or ireland, depending on my itinerary.

but that plan has just dissolved before my very eyes when i read the news that oasis hongkong has gone into liquidation:

Oasis was well known for offering low-cost tickets from Hong Kong to London for as little as £65 (before tax), undercutting Cathay by around 20 per cent in its early days. The company had been operating daily on this route as well as serving Hong Kong-Vancouver six times a week. But judging by this experience it would seem that the budget concept may not be viable on long-haul flights.

rising oil prices is acting like Death on a lot of businesses, mostly airlines, and more and more carriers are getting the scythe. to confirm everything, i decided to check out the oasis hongkong website, and true enough, this message was up:

It is with regret that Oasis Hong Kong Airlines announces that the airline has applied to the High Court of Hong Kong Special Administration Region to appoint provisional liquidators on 9 April 2008. The Court has appointed Edward Middleton and Patrick Cowley of KPMG as the provisional liquidators, and they have assumed control of the airline with effect from 1400h the same day Hong Kong time.

for those of us who aren't familiar with the term, "going into liquidation" means:

Liquidation is a formal procedure whereby a liquidator is appointed to ‘wind-up’ the affairs of a limited company, which involves selling the company’s assets and paying creditors. When all the assets have been sold and the money distributed, the company is dissolved, which means that it no longer exists. (taken from CEL Reference Guide: General Liquidation Theories)

the phrase "no longer exists" just keeps echoing in my mind, but this is not over. my airline of choice may have closed down on me, but i am determined to push through with this trip. i have 14 or so months to go, and a lot can still happen.

renew philippine passports through passport direct!

is it time to renew your passport already?

for philippine passport holders, renewing your passports, and even applying for a new passport, is made easier with online applications through passport direct!

while this service doesn't eliminate personal appearance at the department of foreign affairs, as you have to go there for thumbprinting, it does make things less of a hassle, as they will be picking up your passport at the address you indicate, and send the renewed passport, and your old one, to your address as well.

what's more, you can alter the date of your personal appearance, as well as the pickup date of your old passport, to suit the time that's convenient for you.

another perk in renewing your passport through passport direct is that you have a priority lane when you get to the DFA for your personal appearance. according to the site, this lane reduces your time down to just 30 minutes.

the website provides an online application form and a tracking feature so you can check on the status of your application. new applications and passport renewals are accepted.

the catch? the passport direct service costs P1,300, up P800 from the P500 regular processing fee. but do realize that this already includes pickup and delivery costs. it's up to you to weigh whether the perks are worth it. i personally think it is, considering you only have to find time to go to the DFA for one day, and stay there for just 30 minutes or so.

link: requirements for new application and passport renewal.

information:
passport direct - online passport renewal service
website: http://www.passport.com.ph
24-hour hotline: (02) 737-1000

oslob church destroyed by fire

oslob church was one of the churches susie and i visited during our trip to cebu last year.

we were both pretty impressed to find that such an old structure is still left standing, and in good condition at that, hundreds of years later.

but today, i saw an email from ivan henares, saying that the oslob church had been gutted by fire. most of the 178-year-old structure was lost in the flames.

a news story on the inquirer says that even though the church was just 50 meters from the fire station, firefighters couldn't do much to stop the flames, because "they could not respond because their two fire trucks were defective." they even had to "ask some residents to help them push one of the fire trucks to the church, so they could hose the fire down."

this is such a big loss in our heritage treasures. and restoration would be difficult, because, as ivan pointed out, there was no documentation made on the church. there are no diagrams to refer to should anyone want to put the church back as it was.

*sigh*

cebu pacific offers P888 to international destinations

as i've written in a previous post, it's really going to be hard to ignore cebu pacific and their seat sales despite the bad quality of their service.

so here i am, letting you know of their latest seat sale: P888 seats for international destinations. i booked for a flight to bangkok for november, and it came out to about P6,400 for a roundtrip ticket. singapore f1 weekend is out of P888 tickets, but a roundtrip ticket costs P7,500. still not bad, eh?

just log on to the cebu pacific website if you want to book tickets even with the horror stories.

official philippine holidays for 2008

here's something we travelers are always happy to read about. thanks to republic act 9492, we can now enjoy more long weekends than usual, because holidays that fall on weekdays will be observed on the nearest monday.

taken from this page, here's a partial list of holidays for 2008, so we can start planning our trips and take advantage of promo fares:

february 25, monday, edsa revolution day (though some are saying this might not be declared)
march 20 to 23, thursday to sunday, holy week
april 7, monday, araw ng kagitingan (in lieu of april 9)
may 5, monday, labor day (in lieu of may 1)
june 16, monday, independence day (in lieu of june 12)
august 25, monday, ninoy aquino day (in lieu of august 21)
december 1, monday, bonifacio day (in lieu of november 30. sana wala nang coup attempts this time)
december 24, wednesday, christmas eve (and official last-minute shopping holiday daw)
december 25, thursday, christmas day
december 29, monday, rizal day (in lieu of december 30)
december 31, wednesday, new year's eve (and last day of the year holiday daw)

the official date of eid'l fitr, or the end of ramadan, was still not posted, but my googlefu says ramadan begins september 2 (usually not an official holiday here) and ends on october 2 (a holiday), which is a thursday. let's wait and see what happens.

although i'm happy with the number of long weekends, i feel a little strange about observing holidays on dates that i'm not used to, such as june 16 instead of june 12 for independence day. i'm just going to have to get used to it, i guess. :D

on connected flights

this article on msnbc tells us it won't be long before we can log on to the internet or send sms during flights. while being connected is a good thing, i can't help but feel that it's kind of encroaching on one of the only times that i can shut off my phone and feel detached from the world.

as harriet baskas put it in the article:

However, those who have come to view an airplane trip as a rare chance to “close the door” and be electronically unavailable for a few hours may be understandably worried. If you can send and receive text messages and e-mails during a flight, then bosses, clients, friends and family members might expect you to use your flying time to stay in touch with them instead of sleeping, reading, dreaming, doing crossword puzzles, chatting up an interesting seatmate or figuring out how to pad your expense reports.

and that's what worries me, really. that i now have the option of staying connected all the time when i travel. while of course, having the internet and cellular networks available in-flight are definite advantages, it fills me with dread when i think of how noisy the flights are going to be now that people can call, watch videos, and surf for porn while in the air.

i've always been one to "chat up an interesting seatmate," making use of my disconnected time on the flight to meet someone new. but now that i have competition on people's attention, i may have to say goodbye to that. and i revel in the absence of cellphone signals, forcing me to while away the time by writing or reading on the plane.

the good news is, this technology probably won't reach us that fast, and we can still enjoy "disconnected" flights on local airlines. our days of happy, detached traveling are numbered, but i'm going to take full advantage of them.

how about you? how do you feel about connected flights?

air philippines offers P8 fares!

it's the battle of el cheapo fares as air philippines fights back with P8 fares to welcome the auspicious year of 2008!

you can buy your tickets from the air philippines website from january 8 to 18, for travel anytime between february 1 to march 12, 2008. you can also call their hotline at 855-9000.

i called air philippines's reservations line to check how much fares would cost. a roundtrip ticket from manila to caticlan (yes, they have caticlan flights! yay!) costs P2,545.00. almost the same as cebu pac's P1 fares. so if you weren't able to get tickets from cebu pac, now you have an option, and the promo runs till a few days past payday!

air philippines destinations are:

bacolod
cagayan de oro
boracay (caticlan)
cebu
davao
dumaguete
general santos
iloilo
manila
naga
ozamiz
puerto princesa
tacloban
tuguegarao
zamboanga

so pick a place and fly off on the cheap, thanks to air philippines!

*update (010908): a friend attempted to book air phils tickets online and through the phone, but was told that this promo is not valid for online or phone transactions. when i read the newsletter, it said that it was available for "book and buy transactions," which i took to mean as online purchases. did any of you experience the same thing? if you were able to book tickets through this promo, do let us know how it went. i find it absurd that online purchases aren't allowed, because that's how airlines get to save--by saving on paper used for printing tickets and lessening overhead expenses by processing reservations outside of their ticketing offices.

piso fares at the start of 2008!

cebu pacific greets the new year by offering piso fares to all its domestic destinations! avail of low airfares to the following places:

bacolod
boracay (kalibo; caticlan flights start in february)
butuan
cagayan de oro
cebu
clark
cotabato
davao
dipolog
dumaguete
general santos
iloilo
laoag
legaspi
manila
puerto princesa
roxas
tacloban
tagbilaran (for bohol)
zamboanga

prices are exclusive of tax and surcharges. promo runs from january 3 to 6, 2008, for travel between january 22 to 31, 2008.

susie and i were able to score tickets to puerto princesa for his birthday in march. we logged on to the cebu pacific website at 1230am, but the piso flights going to puerto princesa on our preferred date were already sold out! and i thought we were being too eager for logging on at that hour. it means a lot of people are traveling, though, which is a very good thing!

i also noticed that the cebu pacific website is performing so much better than in past piso fare promos, which means they have taken the necessary measures to improve the handling of traffic to their site. gone are the days when one would stay up until 4am just to book tickets.

so now that the site's even better, and the prices are much lower, why not get yourself a roundtrip ticket to somewhere and enjoy the start of the year? come on!

if you want to be updated on cebu pacific promos, click here to subscribe to their online newsletter.

i don't care; i want one!

i started the year with a thirst for my own laptop. prior to this, i never had a desire to own one, but with the amount of traveling i do, i thought it would be nice to stay connected, or at least have a chance to be.

my first idea was to get a simple and cheap one, because i had a desktop at home i could use for heavier computing. but then i decided to go full on, to get a laptop that i can use for all my pc needs. i kept hunting for inexpensive ultraportables, but couldn't find one. they were all in the P80,000 and above range, which was out of the question with my current social status. :p

i ended up buying this:

it's a neo empriva 572svb. even with its built-in windows vista interface, i've grown to love it because of its 12-inch monitor. and i like the way it looks, too.

but when i saw this:

photo from www.slashgear.com

i was filled with both anger and excitement. i felt betrayed by technology for doling out this gem this late in the game. just when i've bought my laptop, just when i've shelled out my moolah for other things, they do this.

come on, how can a vagabond like me not want one? display is a mere seven-incher, which means the tiny thing can fit in any of my bags. it weighs less than a kilo, so i can pretty much lug it around without getting tired. batteries can last up to 3.5 hours (depending on use, of course).

of course, with those features, it's only but natural that the storage size is at 8gb at most. if you want something in the 80gb range, be ready to fork over P100,000 for an ultraportable.

but that's just what i love about the asus eee. it's a very straightforward machine. it says, "all i can do is let you use the computer, upload your photos, listen to some tunes while you're on the go. but hey, i'm cheap at P19,000." which is really what i want. i want to stay connected when i'm away, without having to put all my files in danger.

so the plan is, when the price of the asus eee goes down next year, i purchase one. never mind if you think it's capricious, i myself believe i need it. i won't be selling my neo, because that will be my main computer, where all my files will be stored. the eee, on the other hand, shall be my travel companion, because it features a solid-state disk that can withstand bumps that other laptops cannot. i can choose to pack it inside my check-in luggage, or even carry it with me on the plane.

or maybe this is just my way of telling you guys of this travel must-have of every traveling technophile out there. if you're tired of dragging your heavy laptop around, maybe this is the answer.

plan your outfit for your flight

while most of the trouble we hear about airlines in the philippines involve delays, there's no telling if they suddenly make like southwest airlines and enforce a random dress code on passengers.

throughout the year, i've been hearing all sorts of news about members of flight crew asking passengers to leave the plane for the strangest reasons.

there was kate penland who flew aboard continental express with her son. as their plane started taxiing down the runway, penland's son said, "bye, bye plane," which apparently ticked off a flight attendant: "it's not funny anymore, you need to shut your baby up." as a consequence of penland's baby's babbling, they were asked to get off the plane in houston. full story here.

another child-related incident happened on a freedom airlines flight, when emily gillette was asked to "cover up" while breastfeeding her baby. apparently, you don't get much freedom on a freedom airlines flight. this caused a furor among mothers everywhere. full story here.

and then there are the clothing-related incidents. one of the more popular incidents is that of kyla ebbert's, who was escorted off a southwest airlines flight for wearing this:

i see nothing wrong with her outfit, and her case was actually televised on the today show. southwest apologized to ebbert publicly on the dr. phil show, and offered her free travel tickets, which she declined. southwest actually had the gall to turn the incident into a fare sale. and what's more, this case came from an airline which had their flight attendants wearing this in 1972:

jetblue airways joins the airline dress code hoopla with raed jarrar's case. jarrar was wearing a shirt that said, "we will not be silent," in english and arabic script. he was asked to change his shirt or turn it inside out, which he refused. he was then later given a shirt to put over his own, which jarrar then gave in to, lest he miss his flight. what's more, an airline official actually told him that, "going to an airport with a T-shirt in Arabic script is like going to a bank and wearing a T-shirt that says, ‘I’m a robber.” jaw-dropping, ain't it? full story here.

but southwest will not be outdone. they score another bad point in airline service with joe winiecki, who was wearing a t-shirt that said, "master baiter." he was approached by a flight attendant, asked to change his shirt, turn it inside out, or get out. not wanting to miss his flight, winiecki changed his shirt. and yet southwest still maintains they don't have a dress code. full story here.

i'm hoping these incidents won't make their way over here. imagine flying to caticlan in jeans and having to change into shorts before you get on the pumpboat. we can also consider taking masking tape to cover our and children's mouths to make sure nobody says the wrong thing while on board.

all of a sudden, my cebu trip comes to mind. i was in the pre-departure area of the cebu airport, waiting to board our plane. i notice that there's a tv in the lounge, but had to do a double take when i saw what was on. they were actually showing air crash investigations, followed by seconds to disaster. imagine how people who have a fear of flying would have felt. thankfully, no such people were on my flight, and no protests were made. still, such callousness should not be tolerated.

if we passengers can't say "bye bye plane," or "hi, jack!" or "you're da bomb!" then you airline and airport folk should not be allowed to scare us out of our wits before we fly.

cebu pacific china seat sale

thinking of visiting china? i know i am. and cebu pacific is making it very difficult for me to stay away from the country where part of my heritage is from.

so if you want to avoid the china rush during the 2008 olympics, i suggest you take advantage of this seat sale!

fares to guangzhou, macau, shanghai, and xiamen are priced at just P1!

i tested a flight booking, and chose a roundtrip manila-guangzhou-manila flight, and it came out at P4,518.00. that's just like flying to boracay!

sale runs from october 9 to 15, valid for travel dates between november 1, 2007 to january 31, 2008.

cebu pacific also offers 3-day, 2-night packages to macau or xiamen for P4,745, shanghai or guangzhou at P5,788. that already includes airfare (but not tax and surcharges).

pelikula pelicula: spanish films at greenbelt 3

great news for film buffs! from october 2 to october 14, instituto cervantes will be holding its 6th spanish film festival at greenbelt 3, cinema 2. admission is P65 per film, so it's really a steal! :)

i thoroughly enjoyed two of last year's films, elsa y fred and seres queridos. i'm hoping this year's lineup will be as interesting.

screening schedules may be viewed here. links to the synopsis of each film are also provided in the said page.

see you there!

event details:
pelikula pelicula: 6th spanish film festival
oct. 2 to 14, 2007
greenbelt 3, cinema 2
admission: P65