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Palawan, Phillippines
Posted on November 21st, 2010 No comments
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After Beijing, we went straight to the Philippines. I lived here for 12 years but there are still so many places here that I haven’t been to. One place that I’ve always wanted to visit is the island of Palawan.
I did this trip by myself because no one else could go. I stayed in Puerto Princesa, which is the capital of Palawan, for 3 days/2 nights. I just booked an entire package which includes airfare, hotel, and 2 tours since that seemed to be the cheapest option and it was a last minute trip (booked everything the day before). If you have more than 4 people it would probably make more sense to rent a van and driver (1500 pesos a day, about $35) and split the cost instead of booking a tour. Not sure how much the boat rides cost but I’m assuming it will be a lot cheaper and you can probably fit up to 8 people comfortably on one (though in some areas they may only allow up to 6 people on the boat).
Honda Bay Island Hopping
I arrived at my hotel around 10AM in the morning and pretty much did this tour right away. This tour costs 1300 pesos (around $30) and pretty much includes everything: transportation, lunch, boat rides, snorkeling equipment, tour guide.
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Beijing, China
Posted on November 21st, 2010 No comments Print
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This is just to summarize my experiences from my recent trip to Beijing before I forget them
.We arrived at the Beijing International Airport on Thursday night, October 21. First thing I noticed was the air quality as we were approaching the exit, you can smell the pollution. Once outside, you’ll see taxis lined up and you just pick the one in front, we had to take two taxis because our luggage wouldn’t fit in one. Minimum fare for the ride is 10 yuan (about $1.54). We stayed at Xinhai Jinjiang Hotel which I think was about 20 minutes away from the airport and our fare ended up to be around 100 yuan per taxi which isn’t bad at all.
The hotel we stayed at was a 4-star hotel and the rooms and the hotel itself were really nice. For $60 a night I’d say it was a very good deal! The hotel staff were very friendly and helpful and they seem to all speak or understand English, though I’d recommend to at least know how to say “hello” and “thank you” in Mandarin. They also provide currency exchange with no service charge (I believe they use Bank of China so the rate would be the same as the bank’s) which we found out a few days later, it could have saved us a trip to the bank earlier if we knew about it. It’s also a good idea to have someone at the hotel write down the name of the places you wish to visit in Chinese so if you can show it to the taxi driver if you decide to take a taxi to get there. You should have the name of your hotel written down in Chinese as well just in case you get lost
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Great Wall of China
This is what I came to Beijing for! The sun finally came out on Monday with clear skies. Great day to visit the Great Wall!
We decided to visit the part of the Wall in Mutianyu as it’s supposed to be less crowded. We just went to the bus station and took bus 936 from there instead of booking a tour to save money. Bus fare was 17 yuan total one way (13 at the bus station and another 4 near Mutianyu after they switched bus drivers), which is roughly $2.60. Bus ride was about 2.5 to 3 hours.
Once you’re there, you’ll need to pay 45 yuan ($7) to enter and if you want to take the cable car it’s an extra 65 yuan round-trip ($10). I’d also recommend to bring foods and drinks with you as it can be pretty expensive to buy them there.
The view from the Wall is simply stunning! It gets better as you get further down and higher up. Nice view of the surrounding mountains and from high up it looks like it was built in the middle of nowhere and really makes you think on how they were able to build this thousands of years ago. It was also pretty cold that day so some spots were icy, we had to be careful when walking on the shaded areas. We stopped about 2-3 miles down and walked back, but it looks like you can keep going much further.
Also make sure that you know the bus schedule if taking the public bus and estimate the time it will take you to get back to the parking lot. In our case, bus 936 leaves at 2:00PM and 4:00PM so we had to make sure we didn’t miss it.
More pics below!
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