Bangkok Valentine's Weekend: Arrival

My bestfriend and I have been wanting to go to Bangkok. However, the cheapest air fare that we used to find was around Php 12,000. But luckily, we stumbled upon a seat sale via Cebu Pacific late last year. We immediately booked a roundtrip flight, which cost around Php 7,000.

After booking a flight, I informed a Thai friend of mine (whom I met in a conference here in the Philippines in 2009) that we're coming on February 2013. My friend offered to give us free accommodation in Bangkok. He's a CEO of a land valuation company in Bangkok, so he booked us at a hotel near his office. And other than him, I also met the daughter of his bestfriend at the same conference. She is around 4-5 years older than me, but she's now about to graduate on her PhD, and a director (but acting CEO since her CEO father is sick) of their land valuation company. They really impressed me because they're very down to earth and really kind and very accommodating.

Anyway, if you're going to Thailand, have your peso changed into baht here in Manila before leaving. In our case, we had some of our peso changed into baht via BPI (thank God for a friend who's working there and was able to endorse us to the right person) because Czarina didn't have baht. During our previous travels, we got our money changed into won, HKD, and RMB/yuan there, given that we had them reserved. Unfortunately, not in the case of baht. 

We had our traditional BFF Valentine's dinner at the airport because our flight was at around 9pm. Then we finally boarded the plane for a 4-hour ride!:) Our flight was on Feb. 14, but we arrived in Bangkok at around 12am of Feb. 15; and we were there until the night of Feb. 17, 'cause our flight was past midnight of Feb. 18.

Upon arriving at Suvarnabhumi International Airport, we took a cab to Nararam Suite 3 (88/15 Narathiwas Soi 28, 30 Nonsi Road, Chongnonsi, Yannawa, Silom / Sathorn, Bangkok, Thailand 10120). It's important to bring a map with the address written in Thai and be sure to have the hotel's contact number ready. In our case, we printed out the address and map but it wasn't written in Thai. Just when we thought the dispatcher (can speak and understand English but not so much) was able to relay our destination to the taxi driver well, we got a bit lost. I was forced to turn on my data roaming because we badly needed Internet and GPS. Apparently, we were brought to condo nearby our hotel; it's just that we can't get through because the road is being closed every night. We had to go the longer route to get to the hotel. Good thing the cab driver was nice enough to ask people for directions, and thank God, he's not an irate driver.

pink taxi

We paid him 400 baht even if our meter was only 350 baht because we were really grateful of him. But actually if we didn't get lost, our meter would only be less than 300 baht haha! Also, other than the cab fare, we also paid for 2 toll fees from the airport. One was 25 baht and the other was 45 baht. The airport is kinda far from the city proper. So upon arriving at the boutique hotel, we just told our host's name and we were given our room key. We're happy with our accommodation because besides the fact that it's free, it's actually a nice suite. I really recommend it because it's in a peaceful neighborhood and the room rates are affordable. It just costs an average of Php 1,200 per night for 2 pax; however, it's not that close to downtown where the malls and party places are.

Here's what we have initially spent:

Manila

1. Airfare (via Cebu Pacific) - PhP 7,000
2. Accommodation (3 nights) - FREE
3. Terminal Fee - PhP 1,620
4. Travel Tax - PhP 550

TOTAL: PhP 9,170 each

Bangkok

1. Toll Fee 1: ThB 25

2. Toll Fee 2: ThB 45

3. Cab Fare: ThB 400

TOTAL: ThB 470 or PhP 655 (PhP 328 each)

Exchange rate: ThB 1.39 = PhP 1.00

TOTAL: PhP 9,825


xoxo,

city girl

A Perfect Saturday :)

This is indeed one of my happiest Saturdays ever! :)

Woke up at 7am and had breakfast and kulitan with the people at home.

I had my P&G exam in Makati; and fortunately, I passed!

sorry, it was harassed inside my bag haha =P

Then my bestfriend and I went to Trinoma for our tradition. What tradition? Well, we are obliged to treat each other out every time we get our first salary from our new job. Haha! It's her third time already since it's her third job. But since I'm about to leave my current job already, I think she's getting a treat from me again haha!=))

Late lunch at Holy Cow. Food was yummy!=)

 Grilled Beef Brochette

Watched "Paano na Kaya?" haha! We're not fans ok? We're just curious. hahaha! Well, the movie's nice anyway.=P

Had yogurts at Red Mango. Yummy!

   Blueberries!

We can't find nice flats, so we decided to  get clothes instead. Good thing Maldita was on sale!=) We both got dresses originally worth P1099 and P1200 but were already on 50% off haha!

On my way home I realized that one of my favorite local RNB bands will be playing at Taboo Room by night. So I texted some friends and invited them to come with me, and they agreed! yey!

So, while waiting for my cellphones' batteries to get charged up, my college friend texted me that they're in our college event somewhere in Kalayaan, QC. Then I realized that I promised my other college friends that I'll be attending that party too. So I hurriedly left the house to go to the party.

Outrage 2010. It's where I got ultimately drunk last year. And this time, even if unlimited booze were still available, I didn't drink much 'coz I've got some friends waiting for me in Ortigas. haha! But I enjoyed the party a lot after seeing a lot of people I missed.=)

orgmates and our applicants

Thursday Club reunited!=)

While I was tipsy, I took a cab to Ortigas Home Depot to watch K24/7 at Taboo Room.=) I texted the Magic 7, but only 6 of us were able to come. Well to think that it's unplanned, it's really great that we're closer to being complete haha. I think the first and only photo that we're all complete was that of our New Year Champagne Party haha!

K24/7!!!

 Magic 7 (minus 1) =p

 huge Red Horse at the Muziklaban

  

Then we went to Musicmatch, just right beside Taboo. They sang the karaoke while I slept. hahaha! =)) I was home by 4am.

This is Why I Love CEBU...

The first day of my first time ever Cebu visit was already elaborated in my previous post. Now let's get down to the other activities I did while I was there.

Of course I wouldn't try Skywalking and riding the Edge Coaster at Crowne Plaza 'coz I've got fear of heights haha! I think, 80% of the things I did in Cebu was EATING!!!! hahaha!=))

Being a city girl, I can't live away from the city for a very long time. I really like Cebu City 'coz it just looks and feels like Manila. haha!=))  From malls to the streets, to its hangout places...it doesn't really look far from Manila. I'm not talking about all that's positive here ok? Because just like Manila, they also got cab drivers who were acting as if they're driving a Golden Taxi haha.=)) I think I spent more than a thousand bucks in taxi rides (even if most of my cab rides were shared with friends).

My favorite mall now is The Terraces, an Ayala Mall in Cebu. Yes I like it more than Mall of Asia and other Ayala Malls here in Manila. It's like a fusion of Trinoma, Glorietta, Greenbelt, Mall of Asia, and Alabang Town Center. haha!

inside the mall

garden outside

Every single day of my 3-day stay there, I never failed to go to this mall. haha! It's where I had really good lunches! First was at the food court (i forgot the name of the stall) where I have tasted yummy Bopis and Kinilaw. My meal costed me less than a hundred bucks.

Next day's lunch was at Hukad, which means "hain". We ordered Bicol Express, Grilled Pusit, and Sinigang na Hipon. The best part: UNLIMITED RICE!=)) The place looked posh but actually, it's very affordable. It only costed us P554, and we were three who shared.

The third lunch I had there was at Casa Verde. It actually had a main branch but we only tried the one at the mall. It's known for its sumptuous yet very affordable Ribs and Steak. Imagine, Bryan's Ribs only costs P188 and The Dax (Steak) only costs P250 when each serving is good for two already. It was actually the longest longest lunch I ever had haha! Oh yeah, overeating at its best haha!=))

Bryan's Ribs

The Dax

Casa Verde's cozy interior

I also had good finds for dinner. First night's dinner was at Manila Foodshoppe, which looked like North Park. Three of us shared in a single order of Buttered Chicken (12pcs) which costs P115. Really affordable.

menu

buttered chicken

black vinegar

For the second night's dinner, a friend of mine from Manila who moved in to Cebu brought us to a place of Ihaw-Ihaw called Larshan. It had a series of stalls of grilled meats and fishes. What's very unique about this place was people eating using their hands wrapped in plastic. But in my case, since I found it hard to eat using hands wrapped in plastic and since I am eco-friendly, I just used my bare hands to eat. Another must-try there was their rice called "puso". It's actually rice cooked inside a woven pouch made from young coconut leaves. Each "puso" costs around P2.50 or P3.00. We were served a basket of "puso" wherein we could get as much as we want to. They wouldn't lose count of how much "puso" we've eaten 'coz they already knew how many pieces they put in the basket they served us. To open it, just find the sliced part and pull the wrapper away. Not to mention, I had 5 servings of "puso" hahaha!=))

Larshan

"puso"

this is how you do it!=)) 

models are over-eaters haha!=)) 

For the third night, we just had late dinner and a few drinks at Pier One in Park Mall.

shrimp sinigang and baked oysters

my favorite: weng-weng!=P

We actually did a lot of hanging out there. We bought some stuff at Robinson's Place, (I didn't like the place actually), we had coffee and wifi at Gloria Jeans  along Escario St. (looks like Buendia hehe), strolled around Terraces and Park Mall. We saw SM City Cebu but we've never been there haha. We didn't go to Magellan's Cross and Plantation Bay 'coz my friend has already been there before. But I was glad to have heard an English Mass at a church there, which I dunno the name.=p

billiards at Pipeline

Of course we wouldn't leave Cebu without buying Danggit, so we went to Tabo-an Dried Fish Market where I bought Danggit, Dilis, and Dried Mangoes.

Just for the sake of taking photos at the beach, we went to Maribago in Mactan Island where there were a lot of beach resorts. Actually, the original plan was to go to Bantayan Island, but we didn't have much time to take a 4-hour travel just to get there. And so we ended up at Maribago White Sands Resort, even if it costed us P500 just to get there.  Yeah I knew that the cab driver's overcharging but we didn't have a choice 'coz were in a hurry trying to catch the sunset. Day swim there costs P500 (P300 for swimming and P200 consumable food & drinks). Swimming time was until 6pm, but for in-house guests, they can swim 'til 9pm at the pool. It's already 5pm when we got there so we begged that they allow us to swim 'til 9pm too. And fortunately, they agreed! haha! Unfortunately, it rained!!! It's too cold to swim so we never attempted to haha! We just took a lot of photos to compensate haha!=P

So that's my super unplanned visit to Cebu in a nutshell. Three days was quite short. There were a lot of places there which I haven't visited yet so I think I really need to go back! haha! Next time, I'll stay longer. I hope my pocket would be cooperative by then haha!=))

Fun Finds Online

came across these interesting stuff while surfing the internet...just wanna share...

Ambigram Generator

http://www.wowtattoos.com

Looks great as a tattoo!=)

Virtual Webcam

http://www.manycam.com

Cool webcam effects!=P

Palm Reading

http://palmreading.chineseastrologyonline.com

My latest addiction! haha! Really interesting!

Yahoo Status Check

http://www.yahoostatuschecker.com/ 

I've been using this since 2008 haha.=P

Asian Films & Series 

http://aznv.tv

Addictive...I love!=) 

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Basketball Love

It's been a long time since I last played basketball at Timezone. Hmm I think I did better before. But given that I had no practice for the longest time, I think this score wasn't that bad at all.

Why missed a lot of shots? Well, my arms got weaker after my 1st try, wherein I only scored 55 points. What's surprising was that I got tired easily, like I found it hard breathing after my 2nd game. I remembered that I usually get tired that much only after my 3rd game.

I just realized it's a good exercise so I'll be playing more often now. haha! =P