Travelogue

Air asia is offering 1Million free seats and since the start of the promo, Peter and Amor have been asking us to go to Bali. This got me thinking about our travel adventures, Ive blogged about our travel misfortunes, so why not write about all our travels for the past 5 years? Wow! My fiance and I have been travelling a lot be it together on a vacation or on business trips..

March 2003 Boracay: First trip together. Was so scared to take the small plane to Aklan!I remember I brought so much stuff that we had to bring one big luggage. (check on my previous blog for another story about the luggage).Since it was our first time, I didnt know what to bring! I had been pigging out on seafoods everyday that when we arrive Manila to join the company's outing, I had seafood allergy!Spent 5 days in the hospital!Argh!

Sept 2003- HongKong: Since it was my bday and my fiance had to go to Hongkong to present in one of Trend's conference, he decided to bring me along. Due to his hectic sched, we were not able to go around the city though. But it was ok, since at least I celebrated my bday with him in Hongkong, beat that!

Nov 2003- Sydney, Australia: Its one of those conferences that my fiance had to attend to and since he promised to take me wherever he can to those events, I packed some clothes and took the long, tortorous plane ride to Sydney with him.We went to Darling Harbour and I met Nemo, Dory and the rest of the gang. I remember standing on the same spot where they shot one of the scenes of I- dont- remember -which Matrix movie was that.. Passed by the Opera House during the Tour of the city courtesy of the conference and met with Geejay and his wife ( gosh,,i forgot her name).Shopping was expensive though!

Dec 2003- Jan 2004- Boracay: We had so much fun the last time we were at Boracay so we decided to celebrate New Year in the beach! This started our out of town trips for New Years! Boracay was jammed pack with party goers!

Pattaya, Thailand June 2004: Since my fiance had to go to EU on his bday for a business meeting, we postponed his bday celebration to June. We visited Pattaya, Thailand. After one week of staying in Pattaya, we got tired of looking at different animals, insects,plants, flowers and watching those Extravaganza shows ( transvestites shows)!Not much of a tour though. We spent our time mostly in our hotel room, sleeping!

July 2004 Singapore- Malaysia: Ive been handling events for these Business Units and they said everytime they visit Manila, they always had a great time. So to reward me of my good work, they invited me over, all expenses paid to Singapore and malaysia with pocket money, i mean per diem as how they call it, since it was supposed to be a business trip for me(hehhe!). Aside from the fact that they know that me and my fiance are inseparable, you see, they requested for him to talk to the Singapore and malaysian press and being the PR person of TrendLabs, I had to tag along!First time Ive been to Singapore, I fell in love with the city. Not just because of shopping! Everything is so near. Nice people, crime rate so low. I even took a bus alone in one of my Havaiannas hunting spree! We had dinner with my fiance's bestfriend. Went to the famous Orchard road, toured Sentosa park and met kiki (hehhe, google Kiki, if you want to meet her).Shopping, shopping and more shopping! Then we left for a two day trip to Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia. While my fiance is busy working, Im out looking around shops near our hotel. Too bad though we didnt have time to go to Petronas nor tour the whole city.

October 2004: US trip:
First leg: Manila to Chicago via SFO- we took the PAL flight to SFO and from SFO we took our connecting flights to Chicago. As mentioned on my previous posting, en route to SFO, 5 hrs on air, Pilot decided to go back to manila since one of the passengers had trouble breathing. Anyway, in Chicago, we stayed at the Crown Hotel, I tell you, they had the softest bed ever! Ive stayed at a lot of hotels for the past how many years but nothing compares to their bed not even the bed at the Presidential suite of Discovery Suites ( yep,, stayed at their Presidential suite for a night... thats one story worth telling, a review on hotels.. soon)! So aside from the gala dinner that we had to attend and that trip to the famous Deep Dish pizza place, hooters and uh I forgot the name of that park, I spent this leg of our trip sleeping, well mostly.

Second Leg: Chicago to Seattle: There's nothing much to see in Seattle aside from the Needle.Since my fiance had meetings to attend to and I cant go with him so Im just at the hotel, the nice Woodmark Hotel.. So yeah, I spent this trip sleeping again and relaxing and working!I was coordinating an event while on vacation!

Last Leg: San Francisco: 2 Day visit to SFO, meetings mostly.Hours before our flight, we went to see Atty Tess. Went to the pier with her and had dinner there. Then headed to the airport! We got lost on the way to the airport by the way.

Nov 2004 Taiwan: This was my very first trip alone. I was requested to assist in one of Trend's big events. I wasnt able to go around though, since its Taipei, most of them doesnt know how to speak conversational english. I remember, having a nice one bedroom suite at the Mandarina Crown Hotel all to myself and dining at the Friday's resto beside the hotel all alone for three days! Huhuhuh.. I tried shopping but most items are expensive..

Dec 2004 - Jan 2005: Singapore. We were supposed to go to Bali, Indonesia but due to the Tsunami we ended up celebrating New Year at Singapore instead. Aside from the usual shopping routine, we went partying at the CHJMES ( pronounced as CHIMES) with Ai Ling and her guy. On our way back to Manila, most of the flights are full, just our luck we were upgraded to Business class for free!! What a way to travel!Nice!

March 2005: Cebu: Ive been to Cebu when I was still a baby, so we decided to go back and see the sights. We stayed at Maribago with Mica and Mervin. Went around the city but was not able to do the tour since most of the time, my fiance and I had to be online!We both have deadlines to meet even if we were on vacation, not to mention the fact that we are both on call. Imagine, my assistant called while Im on the boat to a snorkling trip!Oh well.


Dec 2005- Jan 2006: Los Angeles, CA:My fiance will be relocating to the US and I had the same offer so we decided to celebrate New Year in LA and to look for an apartment. Before the year ended, my fiance's dad died. He was so down, and so to cheer him up a bit, we decided to drive to Disney to celebrate New Year there too. But en route to Anaheim, someone hit our car ( check my previous blog entry). So we ended up celebrating New Year at the hotel instead. To conquer our fear, a week after, we drove back to Anaheim, this time avoiding highways! We made it and spent the whole day trying all the rides!!

March 2006- Penang, Malaysia and Singapore:

We promised to go back to Malaysia and so we went back for our usual bday celebration travel.Amor and Peter went with us. It was quite an adventure from the very beginning. Since we took Tiger Airways from Clark to Singapore and then we took the bus from Singapore to Malaysia. Thats an 8 hour bus ride! But it was fun however tiring it was. We went to Langkawi to snorkle, visited various kinds of temples and toured the whole city. Then were off to Singapore for a day of shopping! I know.. I just couldnt help it.. My fiance ended up buying three pairs of rubber shoes! Lacoste is so cheap in Singapore..


May 2006- June 2006: Los Angeles, CA: Since my relocation didnt push through I decided to leave Trend plus I got a better offer. I moved to another company and one of the perks was a one month training in LA. That means, I get to stay at my fiance's apartment for a month! Since my fiance lives alone, I arrived to an empty apartment. No sofa, no furnitures, just bed, tv, sound system,fridge, microwave! Oh my. So first thing we did was shop for furnitures.He's in LA for how many months already and with the help of his GPS, we were able to go around town. Aside from the frequent travel to Ikea branches around town, we drove to the Outlet Stores! Spent a day at the Universal Studios, had lunch at Promenade, Santa Monica , then watched movie at the Chinese Movie Theater in Hollywood. Fun! and of course lots of shopping!Yeah, I arrive LA with only one luggage, but on my way back i had two huge luggages! Mostly pasalubongs, since the clothes i brought with me, I left it in the apartment coz Im going back soon...


August 2006:Toronto, Canada: This is a one week training for another program. I left with my boss. Since we only have a week, we made sure to take a one day tour to downtown Toronto. We had to take two buses and change trains on our way to downtown Toronto since we are staying at Mississauga. It was my boss' first time to travel abroad, so most of the time Im doing the map reading. Thankfully, my fiance taught me how to read maps!As soon as we arrived downtown, we took the hippo tours.You know one of them buses that can both be in the water and land! Yeah, they have the same thing in Singapore. We toured the city inside that Hippo! But before that we had lunch at Hooters Toronto.Then went shopping at the nearby Toys R Us. Second day, we went to the CN towers, On top of the highest free standing building in the world!


2007? Europe perhaps?? We'll see. We have plans to go on EU tour anyway..