Taiwan 2012

With my travel buddies Jensen and Riva

We lit up a floating lantern to symbolize our goals for 2013

Taipei 101 from below

I met a friend!

Dogs will always be man's best friends anywhere.

Milk tea!

Hot Star fried chicken. Nomnomnom

Overlooking Taipei 101

CKS Memorial

Riva and Joanne being prettier than the CKS Memorial

Photographers doing their thing

Cambodia

After a long and grueling bus ride to costing us 70USD, we arrive to Cambodia at 1230am. From there we were to ride a Tuktuk, costing us 10USD. Way, WAY overpriced since our hotel was so near.

The bus got into this barge to get to Siem Reap.

Didn't take a photo of the Tuktuk, so I just got this from flickr.

Salina Hotel-- 32.5USD. If you're feeling adventurous, we saw hotels costing around 10USD per night, but there might not be online reservations. We didn't really stay much in this hotel, just 9 hours, so I don't really have much to say about this other than, breakfast buffet was amazing, and the staff were really friendly. There were a lot of rooms and halls!

Our room in Salina Hotel

Arriving to Angkor Wat -- We were pretty much rich tourists in Cambodia. To get to Angkor Wat, you could easily rent a Tuktuk for 15-20USD. Our hotel was offering it for 20USD. But we also found out that we could rent a car with a driver for 30USD. 10USD difference for airconditioning for the whole day? We were sold!

Now, I can't exactly remember which temple was which in the photos. So I'm just gonna display a few photos of the Temples of Angkor.

One of the ignored temples make for great photos with no tourists!

Details of a temple

Abandoned Pathway

Temple under construction. Tilt your head to the left to see a smiling face. :)

A temple head

For 15USD, you can take an elephant to go around the temples. Memorable moment: I was tickled by an elephant. His nose touched me! :))

Spot the difference.

Looking Far

There's a bird in the sky.

Monkey Head. There were so many people going up, but apparently you can't go in if you're wearing shorts :(

Another Detail

The Angkor Wat

Kazna Hotel-- After the long day in Angkor Wat, we stayed at Kazna Hotel for 26.4USD. The room was beautiful, and the hosts were all very welcoming. We even had a hotel dinner for just 8USD. We could have gone out but we were unfamiliar with the place and it was already dark out. Sad to say, we weren't able to try their buffet breakfast. And to think they serve it in your rooms!

Our room in Kazna Hotel

To end our trip, we went back to the bus station for 3USD using their Tuktuk. And thus another 15hr bus ride back to Saigon, to catch our flight back to Manila.

Getting ready for another great adventure soon! :)

Vietnam

Things to know:

1. Vietnam and Cambodia's in a timezone that's an hour later than the Philippines.

2. As of travel date: 1 USD - 46.8 PHP = 18500 Vietnam Dong = 4000 Cambodian Riel

3. On normal circumstances, Siem Reap is 12 hours away from Ho Chi Minh. But since we're travelling cheap, don't expect efficiency.

4. You can go as cheap as you want!

5. All computations in this blog is for 2 people. I was with my sister the whole trip.

6. All hotel reservations were booked from hotels.com.

7. Tours and bus was booked by Tuan Travel. Would probably have been cheaper to look for tours on our own, but since it was the New Year, there weren't much travel agencies open.

Vietnam

The Liberty 3 Hotel - For 45USD a night, we got to stay at a 3 star hotel with full breakfast buffet. Service was amazing. The beds were comfortable, we got REALLY STRONG wifi, which gave it a big thumbs up, cable tv with Star World, another thumbs up, plus the hosts were all welcoming. The booked all our trips around Saigon, plus the bus to Cambodia. The hosts gave a more personal approach to our stay, and even offered a few freebies along the way such as phone calls and printing. Nothing big but anything free's good. They also picked us up from the airport for 18USD. Quite expensive actually but it's nice to be assured of your safety especially if you're arriving to a foreign country at 1230am.

Our beds

Sights around District 1. For 2 days, we would just walk around Saigon (when it's not too hot) and take shots of the famous buildings in the city. We didn't go too far from our district because we were too cowardly to cross the deadly streets of Vietnam. Every book or website's saying that you just have to keep forward, but no thanks. Haha.

Notre Dame Cathedral

The Parliament

Post Office

Opera House

Because it was the Lunar New Year, there weren't much people in the city. Most of the people we encountered were foreigners because of this, and most of the things we did were price inflated. But on the up side, there were a lot of interesting flower displays and new year ceremonies we got to witness.

Decors at our hotel's lobby. They say that all houses in Vietnam have these plants to bring in luck for the new year.

Golden Tigers at the center to welcome the year of the tiger.

Sunflowers everywhere!

Cu Chi Tunnels - Built during the Vietnam War. Disturbing weaponry, small tunnels, everything underground. 9USD for two. 20USD was paid to the travel agency for both Cu Chi Tunnels and the Cao Dai Temple tour.

This isn't the tunnel yet. Hahaha! But it's on the way there!

One of the traps. Step on it, and you're dead :-S

One of the entrance to the tunnel.

Miniature model of the tunnel

Cao Dai Temple

"Indigenous to Vietnam, Cao Dai, is in fact a fusion of the teachings from Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism, with elements of Christianity and Islam. Founded in the 1920’s, Cai Daism was seen as the answer to the ideal religion and they also worship western icons with the like of Victor Hugo, William Shakespeare and even Joan of Arc. The religion has about three million followers, all in Southern Vietnam and there are several Cao Dai temples in the Mekong Delta too but none as grand as this."

- travel Vietnam info

In front of the temple.

Inside the temple

Was able to catch one of their services.

Mekong Delta - Beautiful tourist attraction. Loved the sceneries. Paid 20USD for a whole day trip! With lunch and everything!

Quality of photo isn't really that nice, but they were friendly tourists on the other boat, how could I not post!

Didn't have the guts to do it myself, so just kept myself busy taking pictures of them having snakes on their neck :-S

How they make Coconut Rice

Going back to the big boat, with a small boat, with our Vietnamese Hats.

Bridge to the boats

Can't get over the craziness of the motorcycles in Vietnam.

Night View from our hotel. Look at those swerves!

So many motorcycles!

Since I was afraid to bring out my camera at night for dinner, we use my sister's camera for food shots. Overall, food was average. But they say that sadly, we haven't tried the really good restaurants. Although I took pictures of our meal for New Year's Day. And, we tried the Saigon beer on New Year's Eve. We spend around 5-10USD on meals. But we usually order too much as well. :| They say you can find the best meals for cheap price. But we weren't that much adventurous, and it would have been sad to just eat Pho for 8 days! As long as we were able to try the Pho!

Saigon Beer!

"Morning Glory" - Don't be fooled if you see this in the menu. It's just Kangkong. Haha!!

Pineapple Rice. I actually like the one in Old Chinatown Kopitiam better. This one had too much stuff in it.

Fish in Clay Pot - Had this for two days straight! Both were amazing! :D