Manila – Apr 29 to May 4, 2010
It’s been six months since I’ve left Beijing for more than a day trip and it was wrecking havoc to my mental health. Work has been stressful and I’m at the point where I want to look for a new job or be transferred to a new location.
This trip to Manila was even a question mark in the beginning as prices went up towards the middle of April. In any case, when I planned for this trip, my goal was to meet my 8 month old niece, get the stuff my sister sent me, spend time with my dad and do some shopping. It was a good coincidence to have celebrated my Uncle’s 51st birthday. However, the trip ended in a sad note with my uncle passing away on the day before my flight back to Beijing.
If you care to read on, I’ll be writing a daily diary of my trip:
One Day in Seoul
During the May holidays last year, my travel buddy and I decided to go on a soul-searching trip to Seoul. It was a relaxing trip compared to our previous whirlwind tours. Seoul is a beautiful place with four distinct seasons. When we went there, it was spring and the weather was cool with vibrant colors surrounding us. A day is enough to visit several tourist spots and what I’ll be writing are what we visited in one day.
Changdeokgung Palace
Changdeokgung Palace was built as a secondary palace in 1405, under King Taejong’s reign. During the Japanese invasion of 1592, the palace was totally destroyed. It was restored in 1610 and served as a main palace for 258 years. It was inscribed on the Unesco World Cultural Heritage list in 1997.
Except for Thursdays during April through November, guided tours are only allowed while visiting this place. The Palace is closed on Mondays. Guided tours last for one hour and twenty minutes with specific time schedule for the languages it supports (Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean). English schedule is 1130am, 130pm, 330pm only. Chinese schedule is 1100am and 300pm. If you miss the tour, then join the other tours but just admire the beauty of the place.
Love From Seoul!!!
Hello everyone! I’m here at an internet cafe, relaxing and waiting for my friend to come back from his date. In any case, Korea is pretty nice. Well, I haven’t been to all places yet. We went to Dongdaemun twice already and spent a lot of money. I’m quite happy with the pieces I’ve bought and I’m pretty sure I’ll be wearing it for quite some time. It’s not really cheap if you compare it to China but the quality and the design is much better.
Our hotel is located at Itaewon which is a tourist district with a lot of foreigners. Just outside the hotel, we have Coldstone Creamery! Sweet! It’s even cheaper than in the US. We also have two Starbucks coffee shop (Don & Gold got your Seoul & Korea Tumblers!), KFC, Mcdonalds, shopping area and bars. We’re in a pretty good location as both the airport bus and subway stop is just in front of the hotel. I haven’t seen any stars yet but we haven’t been to their Rodeo Drive.
We didn’t go to Lotte World yet as it’s quite far and pretty pricey. Also, we need the whole day there which we don’t have as we prefer to shop. Tomorrow, we’ll be going to Myaeong-dong, a palace, Seoul Tower and a Korean village. We haven’t had the chance to eat at a good Korean place so it’s a shame. Well.. I’m off for now. I’ll be writing from Beijing next time.
Philippine Airlines “The Real Deal”
Manila outbound travellers are in for a treat as Philippine Airlines introduced a new promo which slash their prices by more than half. Tickets must be purchased online and issued on April 27 and 28, 2009 and travel to be started and completed between June 1, 2009 to October 15, 2009.
In any case, I’m based in Beijing and the only fares I can avail right now is the Econolight. So, last night after confirming with my friend that she really was planning to go home, I tried to purchase the ticket. After several error messages, I reached the payment page. My only problem was I forgot my securecode password and the credit card agent can’t speak English! Argghh.. I tried purchasing it this morning but got frustrated with the slow processing pace and the neverending request for the passenger details.
I tried again this afternoon as my friend wants to purchase tickets for her children and sister, after clicking the “Book the Itinerary” several times, I was able to reach the payment page. However, when they processed the payment, there was a “Payment Flow Page” error. AAAAHHHHH!!!! What is wrong with PAL’s website!
My friend who works for PAL here said the best option now is go to the ticket office but cautioned me that the line is as long as the line auditioning for American Idol. hahahahaa! oh well.. I washed my hands on this.
PS. As of 11pm tonight, my friend’s sister is still in the queue waiting for their turn. Apparently, the airport’s system’s ticket office went down. She said there were 2000+ people waiting.