Rowena Wendy's posts with tag: travel
 We went to Manila Ocean Park yesterday and the kids liked it a lot, and they've been to Ocean Park in Hong Kong, Underwater World in Singapore, and Sea World in the United States. What I'm saying is that Manila Ocean Park is a nice place in its own right, and can make children oooh and aaah at all the marine life just as they would if you took them abroad. For 350-400 bucks per head, it's very much worth the experience especially if your kids have never been to such a place. The place is clean and spacious. Even the bathrooms are nice. There are food stands and restaurants in the complex so you don't have to worry about going hungry. They also have glass bottom boat rides for an additional fee. I was surprised by the presence of a Fish Spa, where you dip your feet in a shallow pool while little fishies nibble on your dead skin. It costs P100 for 20 minutes. We saw something like this in Singapore and Singaporeans swear by it. Well worth a visit, especially for families with kids. Much better than malling the weekend away. More pics HERE. 
| | Joined Skycable Fun Club's Manila Ocean Park Learning Tour. Got four free tickets, food stubs (from Krispy Kreme, Waffle Time, Jimini Pizza, and Zagu), and a loot bag. The best part was we got to tour at 8am, when the park normally opens at 9am so our group had the place to ourselves. It wasn't crowded or hot. Skycable had some activities and sponsor games after the tour too. Kei won a National Bookstore backpack with a planner inside. The kids had a good time.
I was surprised that Manila Ocean Park had a Fish Spa like the one in Singapore's Underwater World. For P100, you get to dip your feet in a pool while little fishies nibble on your dead skin for 20 minutes. Singaporeans swear by it. |
| | We flew to Boracay via Air Philippines last April 22 and stayed there till the 25th. I was disappointed because after 4 days and 3 nights there, I came to the conclusion that Boracay is NOT the place to be during the height of summer.
First of all, stations 1-3 were infested with algae. The waters were green. It was not inviting and if you attempt to swim you would get entangled in all the green mossy things.The only time we got to swim in crystal clear waters was when we went island hopping to Puka Beach. I read somewhere this is due to pollution. It was such a sorry sight. It didn't help that cigarette butts were all over the powder fine white sands. I saw the Nestea team clean up the beachfront one morning and they filled up a plastic bag with cigarette butts in no time... aside from the assorted plastic wrappers and caps. Boracay has become such a party place it's really getting trashed. We couldn't even sleep peacefully at night because the noise coming from the outside parties can be heard loud and clear in our room.
It was so hard for us to breathe fresh air there. Everyone and their uncle were smoking like there was no tomorrow. Wherever we chose to eat, sit, or hang out, we would soon be inhaling second-hand smoke. Food and drinks are so expensive too.
Peddlers would also badger you EVERY step of the way, offering you sunglasses, wooden idols, jewelry, massage, water sports... everything but the kitchen sink. Some girls went so far as to follow Keirra and I to the water and offer to braid our hair for a price.
My friends tell me that it's vastly different during non-peak months, that it's best to go during the last quarter of the year (Oct and November specifically)... during those times Boracay is supposedly clean and peaceful.
The kids loved the sand and sea though. |
We're off to Boracay on April 22, but I'm really not all that excited about it since I hate the sun. The trip is non-transferable and non-convertible to cash so we have no choice... as in I'm super napipilitan. Anyways gotta make the most of whatever is there. I remember having the same unenthusiastic sentiments when we went to Sabangan Beach Resort last December, and look where that got us... our family picture taken at Sabangan won us a trip to Singapore!!! It's just so hard to get hyped up when you're a non-outdoorsy sun-hater... 
| | Mostly our pictures with family while eating in various places... |
| | Our Disney experience was less-than-perfect due to the Spring Break crowd, but the kids loved it all the same. The average queue times for the attractions ranged from 40 to 90 mins, albeit there were a few 5-20 min lines and we got to use a Fast Pass once. Kei and I concentrated more on the Disney Princess attractions (interactive storytelling, enchanted walkway, coronation ceremony, etc) while hubby and Ken went off to Tomorrowland. We got to watch the Parade of Dreams wherein Giselle from "Enchanted" was the first to come out. Unfortunately I was not able to take a picture of Giselle on her stagecoach because I had to carry Kei so she could wave to Giselle. |
I think there is such a thing as being over-vacationed. Star World called sometime last week and told us we're scheduled to be in Boracay from April 22-25, for the trip we won last January from their "Beyond the Break" TV promo. We haven't even recovered our normal time from our US trip. I'm not all that gung-ho because I'm not really a beach person. In fact if possible I would like to live in a cold country and stay away from the sun for the rest of my life. But my kids just love the beach and so this would be a good opportunity for them to experience a darned good beach. I would be more enthusiastic but then this is our third trip for the year in a span of almost 3 months and I really do think we're somewhat over-vacationed.
| Start: | Apr 22, '08 | | End: | Apr 25, '08 | | Location: | Boracay |
Will be in Boracay during this time.
| | The first theme park we went to in the US was Universal Studios. Keirra was scared of all the mascots, even Dora the Explorer. Ken in the meantime loved the Studio Backlot Tour. There were several new additions from the last time I went. Peter and I went as solo riders on The Revenge of the Mummy coaster ride. |
| | Since we had to queue up for one hour just to buy tickets, we got in Sea World around lunchtime already. Darned spring break, all the theme parks and zoos were so full and we had to wait for everything. We waited one whole hour on the bleachers under the blazing sun just to see the Shamu show. Luckily the other aquariums and attractions were much more relaxed. We also queued up for Sea World's latest attraction, the Sesame Street 4D show, unfortunately no pictures because it was indoors in a movie theater. |
| | Keirra loved the Hello Kitty Lounge at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. Our stopovers at Taiwan have been pleasant because of their lovely airport. Aside from the Hello Kitty Lounge there's an indoor orchid garden, duty-free shops, restaurants, and free internet terminals. |
 We were shopping at DSW Shoes today when someone suddenly called out "Ro???"... wow, it was my college schoolmate Roy who I haven't seen for several years now! He's based here in the US but he'll be coming back home a couple of months from now. Haha thank goodness I wasn't in my pajamas... I have actually gone to the supermarket in my pajamas here since people don't care anyway.
We're currently here in Taipei waiting to board our connecting flight to Los Angeles. We have a little over an hour to kill and I found a free internet terminal hehe... It's our first time to fly EVA Air and I must say it's pretty good! More on that when I get back... we booked the tickets last January and got a promotional rate of US$870 per adult. The normal rate is US$990 so I'd say it was a pretty good deal.
Sometime late last January, I saw a TV ad on the Discovery Channel which was plugging the chance to win a free trip to Singapore. It said log on to http://www.discoveruniquelysingapore.com/ to find out how. It also said that the deadline was on February 17, 2008. I didn't think much of it. One slow Saturday during the first week of February, I was at the office with nothing much to do. I remembered that commercial and logged on the site out of curiosity. There were three categories for the contest: Family Funseeker (family of four consisting of 2 adults and 2 children aged under 12), Jetsetter (2 adults), and ASEAN Explorer (2 adults). Each category winner would get an all-expense paid trip to Singapore for 5 days and 4 nights, 5-star hotel accomodations, a vacation itinerary custom-made by the Singapore Tourism Board, and US$150 allowance daily for each adult. The winners would also spend 2 days shooting a commercial for the Singapore Tourism Board. The contest was open to the whole of Southeast Asia including Australia and New Zealand. I thought wow, no chance in hell but I was so bored that day I took a look at the contest. I went for the Family Funseeker category. Step 1: Upload a photo or video of your family doing what you love to do best.
I thought hmm... for sure all the other interested parties would be uploading videos and stuff but since we don't even have a handycam all I had to upload were photos. I chose our most recent family picture taken at the Sabangan Beach Resort and thought bahala na.
Step 2: Write why you would like to go to Singapore in not more than 50 words.
Okay... I wrote this one in like five minutes, I simply said that we are Chinese living in the Philippines and I just want my kids to experience the Chinese culture first-hand. I also said that I want them to see for themselves the clean and green environment of Singapore so they will learn to appreciate nature and take care of what we have in the Philippines.
The next steps were the obligatory form-filling stuff. Our family members' names, birthdays, contact numbers, etc. After which I clicked "finish". They promised a Singapore history DVD set for those who will join, so that was really all I was after since I felt it was such a big contest and malabo naman na we'll win.
Anyhow, around a week after I submitted our entry, my husband received an overseas call from the Discovery Channel on his cellphone. He was shell-shocked and immediately asked me what it was about. I explained as quickly and briefly as I could and he got "interviewed". He was told that our family was short-listed for the Family Funseeker category and he was asked all sorts of questions about what we like to do, eat, etc. Then he was told we were going to be informed next week if we win, and that we would need to send three more family pictures before Friday. That was last week. Yesterday I received a call from Singapore, from Discovery Channel again. I was interviewed like my hubby was, and informed that if selected, we would be flown in SIngapore on Feb. 28 and flown back to Manila on Mar. 3. I was told they were down to three families for the Family Funseeker category, and we were one of them. Only one family would be chosen and after our conversation they said everything would be submitted to the Singapore Tourism Board for the final selection. If we are chosen I would know by later today. I don't want to get my hopes up, in fact I didn't even want to blog about it for fear of jinxing it but the excitement is too much for me to keep bottled up and hubby is in Hong Kong at the moment for a short trip... I wonder what will happen next. I guess I'll know by today... rather I hope I am informed even if we don't win.
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