First International Trip: The Super Excited Duo

Last October 27, we embarked on a new journey to explore a new land. We've conquered some of the Philippines' beautiful spots before, like Palawan, Baguio, Cebu, Hundred Islands, Majayjay, Tagaytay, Villa Escudero in San Pablo Laguna, Laiya Batangas, Pagsanjan and Boracay. This time, we decided to venture outside the country together to meet the world of Mickey, the Great Buddha and the lazy Panda.

Our day started out early. We were excited to wake up at 6:30AM even though our flight was scheduled at 7:15PM. We agreed that it is better early.

According to our source, it will be a three hour drive from Manila to Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Clark (traffic included). We don't want to risk getting late and missing our flight. Since we'll be coming from Laguna, thirty to one hour drive going to Manila, we decided to leave at 10:30AM from Jessiline's house. We expected to be at the terminal two hours before our flight. 

So we fixed ourselves, ate breakfast, bid our farewells to our parents and went straight to Jessiline's house.

Minutes later, we hit the road. 

11AM. We were entering EDSA already. I never expected that there was no traffic jam in SLEX. 

12PM. We were in NLEX already. I was starting to worry because we were too early. 

12:30PM. We were getting hungry and decided to stop in the next gasoline station. We ended up in Razon's somewhere in Mexico, Pampanga, few kilometers from our exit. Edel and I ate Sisig with rice. Ninang Lilian bought us Razon's special Halo halo. 

At around 1:00PM. We went back on the road. 

At 1:30PM. We were already in Subic! We were really early! 

I realized that I miscalculated our travel time. Adding four hours to 10:30AM means being at the Clark at around 2:30PM. That was 3 hours early! My mind was set to catch the 11:30AM or 1PM bus in Philtranco. Oh, well. 

Nayong Pilipino sa Clark (aka Expo Pilipino): Abandoned?

Good thing along the way to the airport, we saw Nayong Pilipino sa Clark (aka Expo Pilipino). We decided to visit it first before going to the airport to make the best out of our time. By the way, Ninang Lilian paid for our entrance fees which is P50 each.

Upon entering Nayong Pilipino sa Clark, I had high expectations. I have never been to Nayong Pilipino even in Manila, so I was excited to be there. However, my expectations were not met. Nayong Pilipino sa Clark does not look good anymore. There were only few visitors, lots of closed stalls, cracked paint walls, etc. I felt I was entering a ghost town. Edel felt the same thing. While walking, we kept on discussing about the place's history and my previous visit when I was still in high school.

Anyway, the list of our frustrations about the place grew. To add more, the scorching heat of the sun immobilized us from exploring the place. We just sat down at one spot and decided to play Monopoly. 

Seven houses and almost hundred dice throws later (2:15PM), we decided to go to the airport since Ninang Lilian needed to go back to Manila before 7PM. 

At about 3PM, we arrived at Diosdado Macapagal International Airport. We learned that we cannot check in yet because it was still early. I also learned that Tiger Airways is under the umbrella of SEAIR. So our plane has the SEAIR logo on it and not Tiger Airways. 

First Panoramic shot of Diosdado Macapagal International Airport

At 5PM, we started to fall in line at the check in counter. I noticed that our flight was the only one scheduled that night. The next one was scheduled at 12 midnight. It is safe to say that DMIA is a not-so-busy international airport. 

After depositing our baggage, I was surprised that we needed to pay travel tax amounting to P1,620 each on top of the P200 terminal fee. Oh, well.

We waited for one and a half hour more before our plane left the country.

.. to be continued...

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First International Trip Together: The Preparation

I am excited for tomorrow because it will be our first international trip! I will be going to Hong Kong together with my wife and her best friend. Definitely, it will be a blast!

Actually, this trip was initially scheduled on December. In fact, we already paid for our airfare tickets from Cebu Pacific months before our wedding. We got the tickets priced at P3000 for the both of us; sadly it was a one way ticket. It took us months to look for super affordable plane tickets back to Philippines but there were none. We attended a travel and tour convention and the people we have talked to advised us that based on their experience, the fares which are priced less than P3000 from Hong Kong (for two) was impossible. We almost lost hope. And there was a time that we decided not to pursue the trip anymore. Good thing, an angel came our way. On one fateful day, my wife, Edel was seeking advice from Atty. Tina (our friend from IMG). During that meeting, Edel blurted out that we planned to go to Hong Kong this year (December). Atty. Tina suggested that we join her this October. That night, when I got home, Edel told me this and we agreed.

Finding our way there.

The next day, we looked for the cheapest flight possible (that's where we're good at). We found one via Tiger Airways. However there was a challenge. Tiger Airways is stationed in Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Clark Pampanga. We didn't know how to get there via public transportation. In fact, we haven't been there but we thought that it will be an exciting adventure and Google surely helped us find our way. 

After a few minutes of Googling, we found a possible option. We can go to Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) via Philtranco bus line. They have a direct line from Pasay to DMIA daily. From that point, we already have our plane tickets (round trip) and we already knew how to get to the airport. 

Excited to take a photo of this view

Next, we planned for our itinerary. We planned to visit the Great Buddha in Ngong Ping 360 on the first day and Hong Kong Disneyland, the next day. After a couple of hours researching (Google again), we learned how to get there either from Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) or from Kowloon. 

We discussed our planned itinerary with Atty Tina and she suggested that we go to Ocean Park instead of Hong Kong Disneyland. Her reason? The rides in Ocean Park are a lot more exciting as compared to Disneyland. We looked and compared their websites and we found out that Atty. Tina was right. 

Letting go of a dream?

Since I was a child, it was my dream to go to Disneyland. I wanted to see Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and the rest of the gang in real life. Of course, Edel wanted this too. In fact, Edel and I once dreamt of having our wedding there. 

With this dream in mind, Edel and I discussed the implications of going to Ocean Park instead of Disneyland. 

After researching, reflecting and sharing our thoughts, we decided that we should visit both attractions. We decided to go to Ocean Park to witness what it has to offer and visit Hong Kong Disneyland to fulfill our dream. We agreed to compress our day 1 itinerary to include Hong Kong Disneyland in the afternoon. 

More Blessings!

I forgot to mention that Edel's best friend (Jess) was also part of the thinking process. We met her, texted her and called her up regularly to update her regarding our trip. Two weeks ago, we finalized everything. We researched and visualized everything starting from our place to Hong Kong and back. Aside from visualizing, we also thought of the things that we should bring. We were surprised to know how Jess packed her things during her previous trips which prompted us to rethink the things we ought to bring.

Sidetrack: Just this morning, Edel found out a website about the universal packing list online. We'll be using this on our future trips. 

Back to Jess, we received a phone call from her telling us that her parents will accompany us to Diosdado Macapagal International Airport. Wow! That was good news! Imagine we will not commute from Laguna to Clark anymore. She also shared that we can have discounted tickets in Ocean Park courtesy of her aunt. Yehey! 

… to be continued..

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