Always Ready for Adventure..

Posted by Lui on Apr 18th, 2010 | 0 comments

Yesterday, Hi-ace was asking me where I want to go for the next long holiday in May. Don’t I just love Cambodia? Lots of holidays, we just had one week holiday this April, then in May we’ll have another set of four day straight no work day from May 13-16 for the King’s birthday.

Anyway, he asked if I wanted to go to the beach again, but nah! I love beaches, I grew up very near one. But maddening crowds on the beach kinda drives me crazy. I prefer almost deserted places, places where we could hike, camp, or simply just enjoy nature.

What I do when I travel really depends on my mood. There are times I just wanna lie down on a hammock and read the latest chick lit. But oftentimes I like it jam packed with activities, unplanned, spur of the moment walks. Hi-ace sometimes complains that he’d probably get a bad case of joint pain if he keeps keeping up with me. Hmm, really I think its great for him to have that exercise and besides I think he secretly enjoys it and he could just as easily check www.reliefjointpain.net so he’d know what to do..

We’ve settled on a compromise trip then, we’d be bringing my sister Ouwie to see Angkor Wat and also a visit to the Siem Reap’s floating village. Now, that definitely has the hiking and adventure I’m looking for!  He’s now asking me to think up and plan an itinerary but hmm I wanna just go with the flow. Maybe the first day going around the Archeological Park, the next on to the floating village or maybe temples further from Siem Reap and the next day just relaxing and eating. That’s the general plan..

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Air Asia’s Big Sale is ON!

Posted by Lui on Mar 5th, 2010 | 4 comments

Time to score more travel deals with Air Asia’s Big Sale. Booking period is March 3-7 2010 for travel period September 25, 2010 to February 13, 2011. Flight fares are as usual at all time low.. Read more about the Big Sale..

Living in Phnom Penh: Scatterbrained Days

Posted by Lui on Feb 24th, 2010 | 3 comments

I’ve been so absent minded these past few days. A lot of my work (blogging and website building) activities had been at rest for a few days already. Organizing my computer files had also been forgotten now I don’t exactly know where to resume hehe.

This is so not me! But a few days ago I had been planning our trips for the year, at least for the next six months. Hi-ace schedules are as usual very difficult to pin down. I’ve already booked tickets for our month-long Bicol, Phlippines vacation on July. I know its too early but I wanted to have the tickets already so I won’t have reason to back out. It’s just me and Chinks going because Hi-ace still have loads of classes that time as well as office work. His break will be on August 8 and our return date is on Aug 11..So, he really has no choice but to stay put.

He’s been acting morose, I know coz he loves going to the Philippines and he prefers shopping there plus I guess he just misses the place. He has already given me a long list of what he wants to be bought and I seriously think I won’t be doing much shopping for myself since he has quite a long list and I hate having too much baggage when I travel.

He’s constantly murmuring and asking me what is he going to do when were not around. I suggested going to the gym (he says no..), doing some gardening (he says maybe!), going on a short trip (he says maybe not, its boring without me and Chinks ), or maybe go play some sports (other than soccer he doesn’t play other sports) – tennis, swimming or maybe golf. But I could just imagine him swearing at the expense (he’s incredibly frugal unlike me haha!) and he’ll probably be using used golf balls just to be happy.

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Koh Kong Trip Part I: Tatai Waterfalls

Posted by Lui on Dec 14th, 2009 | 4 comments

Part 1 – On to Tatai Waterfalls, Koh Kong Cambodia

Tatai Waterfalls, Koh Kong Cambodia

Better late than never. That’s my motto. Hahaha! For this post anyway. I keep forgetting to schedule posting this.. Forgive the memory gaps.Anyway, this is all about our trip to Koh Kong, Cambodia last August? Seriously, I even forgot the date already .

We were looking at another boring weekend that time and Hi-ace suggested we go over to Kompong Som (Sihanoukville) so we could roast ourselves a bit (I really mean we could have a good rest at the beach). So that was the plan, till my sister-in-law heard we were going and pretty soon there were about 10 more people wanting to join us. I so appreciate my Cambodian family, they are almost always having itchy feet. You know, they are what my father usually calls ‘layas’ that’s a Bicolano word meaning ‘wanderlust’.

Instead of taking a bus, we all just decided to rent a van. Then we just realized all of us had been to Sihanoukville several times already, and since we had a van at our disposal, why not go someplace else we all haven’t been to. We picked out Koh Kong, mainly because it has beaches too, less touristy, plus we all wanted to see the Mangrove forests. Koh Kong was IT then. Our Mondulkiri travel was a superlative for me, so I was really excited too about this Koh Kong Trip since well a lot of people had been raving about the place.

Koh Kong is at the southern part of Cambodia, and the city is about 8 km from the Thai border. Krong Koh Kong has also been dubbed before as Cambodia’s Wild West. This province is just so vast, with little houses around, sparse population, lots of beaches, rainforests, mountains etc. Simply a great place to explore (I just wish we had more time, but we could always go back )

Traveling with my Khmer relatives was fun and educating as well. Well, educating for me anyway, in terms of their culture and made me realize more how Cambodians are really into picnicing. Anyway, we took off early morning, the van was all packed, lol! we were almost bursting full (not with people!) but with the goodies and foodies my mother-in-law insisted we take. You know, she knows how much we love eating and what if we get stranded or something, in any case, lets just say if we get stranded in the middle of nowhere, we had enough food and water to last 10 of us for 2 days with more to spare.

My nieces and nephews were also lugging in luggages and I did wonder what’s in there coz we were only going for two days. I know, this kinda weirded me out, since I usually travel light, with just the essentials. Another thing I noticed, most of them were dressed to the nines and for a minute I felt left out. I mean, two of them were wearing heels and dresses, others were wearing pants and long sleeved shirts like they were going for a job interview or something, and Hi-ace, Chinks, me and another niece, well were the only ones wearing shorts, shirt, and slip-ons. Ok, so I thought maybe that’s just how they like to travel.. No sweat.

One good thing about going to Koh Kong is that the road condition is excellent. I could still remember how numb my butt was when we went to Mondulkiri so this was a great thing for me. And once you get past the intersection between National Highway 4 (going to Sihanoukville) and National Highway 48 (going to Koh Kong) the views are just stunning! Everything is all green and there are a couple of bridges you have to pass through and the water is all clear and reflecting all green colors of surrounding lush mountains. The road is mostly winding, carved from mountains, with very little houses almost all the way.

A few kilometers before we reached Koh Kong, around 10 am, the driver said were stopping for a swim at Tatai Waterfalls. The van traveled on something like a dirt path away from the main highway for something like half kilometer, then we came upon a small er and really steep path and the driver told us we just had to go on by foot. Okay, I’m a total klutz and I just keep imagining myself simply tripping and rolling over and just finding myself plunging on the waterfalls.

None of that happened though, thankfully Hi-ace had the good sense to order me to remove my slippers so I could go down barefooot. God! Even Chinks got there ahead of me. It was really that steep and I wasn’t even carrying anything. You could guess how amazed I was when I saw my nieces carting their luggages (which they told me has their clothes so they could change after swimming), and they were going down the steep hill like it was nothing.

And was it worth climbing down? Totally! The water levels were not so high so the river was gently flowing. We had to climb down a couple more rock formations, and wow! just wow! something like 4 meters of thundering water and it was awesome! The water was crystal clear, you can actually see little fishes swimming all over.. The kids had a great time swimming and of course, we adults had a picnic! I think any Cambodian outing is incomplete without this… I know my description won’t do justice to Tatai Waterfall, so here are the photos..

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Cambodia – Philippines Finally Signs Air Flight Deal

Posted by Lui on Sep 29th, 2009 | 6 comments

This is an update to my previous post – Direct Flights Phnom Penh To Manila. I’ve been waiting for developments and updates about this and I must have missed this(:P allow me some slack hehe I was on a ‘Pchum Ben‘ holiday hangover).

Anyway, its finally confirmed that the much anticipated (it’s probably just me haha!) signing of Memorandum of Understanding between Cambodia and the Philippines allowing direct flights between the two countries happened last September 16, 2009. I got this update from my fave Cambodian news portal – Phnom Penh Post. Yahoo! So that’s one step along the way.

The Philippines’ proposal to open seven weekly flights from Manila to Phnom Penh, 14 flights a week from Clark to Phnom Penh, plus 14 weekly flights to the capital from elsewhere in the Philippines is currently being reviewed by the Cambodian government.

SSCA Cabinet Chief Long Chheng is optimistic that both the Philippines and Cambodia will reach an Air Service Agreement by the end of this year.

Great news right?  The number of Pinoys working here and vacationing here in Cambodia are increasing in numbers so this would definitely be a big help for us. Shorter travel time and cheaper air fares. Now, hubby is worried if this pushes through I might decide to go on a weekly Phnom Penh-Manila jaunts Haha come to think of it, isn’t that a fab idea?

Latest Update here – Update to Direct Flights: Manila – Phnom Penh

Cambodia Angkor Airline (CAA), all set to be launched

Posted by Lui on Jul 4th, 2009 | 4 comments

Cambodia had a slew of airlines all coming and going for the past years. For some reason airlines established here have a history of having financial troubles as well as safety concerns. I’m hoping this would really make a change.

The Secretary of State Mao Havannal have just recently announced that Cambodia plans to begin operations of Cambodia Angkor Airline or the CAA and also to inagurate Preah Sihanouk International Airport (formerly Kang Keng Airport), located in Sihanoukville, on July 27.

The said airline would be operating flights between Siem Reap and Preah Sihanouk province with an ATR-72 plane. This national airline is a joint venture between the Cambodian government and Vietnam Airlines. The government and Vietnam Airlines have also signed an agreement to purchase Airbus 320 and 321 in late 2009 -2010 so the airlines could also serve routes to other countries, including South Korea.

This is definitely a good news specially since more and more tourist are discovering the Cambodia. I am also hoping that this airline would stick to the safety standards so the past airline accidents would not be repeated and it would not suffer the same fate as the other airlines that operated here. Having its own national carrier would definitely boost Cambodia’s tourism sector and its economy.

***UPDATE 8/7/09*** Cambodia Angkor Air’s website is now up. Click here to visit. They also have ongoing fare promos so check out the website.

These are also their offices and contact numbers:

Phnompenh:

Address 1:

1-2/294 Boulevard Mao Tse Toung, Phnom Penh 2 – Cambodia

Tel:  +855 23 6666786

+855 23 6666787

+855 23 6666788

+855 23 6666789

Vietnam Airlines Branch Office in Phnom Penh, Cambodia:

No. 41, 214 Str., Samdech Pan, Phnom Penh

Tel : +855 23 990 840/ 215 998

Fax : +855 23 213 499

Siem Riep:

Telephone:

+855 63 964488

Ho Chi Minh city:

Telephone:

+848 38 320320

Cool Savings! AirAsia takes off its Admin Fees

Posted by Lui on Jun 30th, 2009 | 0 comments

Tight budget? But your feet is itching to go somewhere to explore, or relax and de-stress? I love traveling and I just love budget airlines. Recently, Asia has seen a boom in local travel and I think one of the biggest factors in the entry of several budget airlines to ease our fare burdens.

AirAsia is one of those airlines offering budget friendly flights and is making waves. In fact, they have been recently named the World’s Best Low-Cost Airline. And now its getting even better, AirAsia have abolished its administration fees from its fare structure. Passengers now only have to shell out the seat fare and airport tax. How cool is that?

The ‘no admin fee’ system is effective for bookings made for all AirAsia and AirAsia X flights from June 24. From this date, AirAsia.com will display all-in fares (fare plus airport tax) throughout the booking process.

The Malaysian airline is also launching a regional promo fare with greatly discounted tickets. Check out the AirAsia Promo Fare. Bookings under the campaign can be made via AirAsia.com until June 28 for travel between October 1 and April 30 on a first-come, first-serve basis.

I’ve traveled AirAsia a couple of times already and I must say they are a real good value plus I like their website which makes booking online a breeze. Hmmn, makes me wanna go somewhere again…

Travel Saving Tip – Get Free Hotel Stays

Posted by Lui on Mar 27th, 2009 | 0 comments

I love to travel! At times, some friends would admonish us coz we keep moving around and having a kid doesn’t stop us from traveling and seeing new places. I’ve mastered the art of traveling with a child in tow and I think being exposed to different cultures is great for our child.

Since we travel often, we are very conscious about out travel budget. If you travel alone of course, the expenses are less compared to traveling as a family. I am always on the lookout for travel deals and packages. I have a lot of websites bookmarked because of their value packages and regular promotions.

One such site is www.choicehotels.com where you can get really good value and just recently  I came across their free hotel stay promotion. Now that is worth taking note of. Choice hotels offers a lot of choice, affordable hotel room. If you’re planning your next trip and looking for value rooms and excellent service, check out their site.

For us, you don’t need to wait till you’re rich before you start traveling. In fact, I think traveling will enrich your life. Add to your widening perspectives and could offer new opportunities. There are ways and means to lower down your travel budget, just do a bit of research beforehand. Travel now..