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Less than a Day Stop in Hong Kong
I recently traveled to Israel and, on my way there, had around 14 hours to kill during my stop in Hong Kong. I’ve been to Hong Kong before so I didn’t feel the need to go far from the airport. Here are things I did and considered for my recent stop in Hong Kong. What will I do with my luggage? I used two different airlines – Cebu Pacific Air for Manila-Hong Kong and Cathay Pacific Airlines for Hong Kong-Tel Aviv. This meant that my luggage was not checked all the way to my final destination. When faced with this kind of situation, I usually look for a…
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Three Weeks in the Philippines: 4 Nights in El Nido
After enjoying the beauty of Coron, our next stop was El Nido. In this post, I’ll talk about our trip to El Nido plus a few things we didn’t do but might help you in planning your own trip. I will also include some photos from my trip with Igal this 2018 plus some photos from my trip with friends last 2015. Getting to El Nido We came from Coron and went to El Nido using a fastcraft ferry. I’ve talked about ferry options between Coron and El Nido in my Coron post. Here’s a link to the Coron piece if you’d like to read about it. If you’re…
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Three-Week Vacation in the Philippines
Igal and I just finished our almost 3-week trip around the Philippines. We’ve been planning it since December last year. Number 1 on Igal’s things-to-do list was diving. I let him decide on where he wanted to do the dive and he chose Coron. I then started working on other places we could visit from Coron. We have finalized our target destinations by January and and we’ve decided on exploring the following places: Masungi Georeserve Coron (Busuanga) Palawan El Nido Palawan Puerto Princesa Palawan Siargao Island Here’s how we went around: From To Transport Duration Makati Masungi Georeserve Car 2 hours Manila Coron (Busuanga) Airplane 70 mins Coron (Busuanga) El…
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Seven-Day Vacation in Taiwan: Taroko National Park Day Trip
Our third day in Taiwan was dedicated to Taroko National Park. This is a huge park with numerous trails, some of which requires permit from authorities for access. We didn’t have much time in Taiwan to explore this place to the fullest so we decided to do just a day trip, which was also good enough of an experience. Getting from Taipei to Taroko NP Using public transportation, our option was to reach Hualien first. Based on my research, there are two ways to get from Taipei to Hualien: 1. Direct Train: Taipei to Hualien Our group was focused on getting there via a direct train. We were based in…
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Taipei to Hualien Using a Combo Ticket (Bus and Local Train)
Booking the express train from Taipei to Hualien isn’t always a walk in the park. Worst case scenario that tickets are sold-out, the other option is the combo – bus + train. The combo ticket is not available online. Reservation or advance booking is not possible. It has to be bought in person at the bus ticketing counter on the day of travel. The bus company will provide you with tickets for the two legs of the trip: Bus from Taipei to Luodong Local train from Luodong to Hualien Based on my research, there are two bus companies that offer the combo ticket. Your choice will most likely depend on where…
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Seven-Day Vacation in Taiwan: 2 Days in Taipei
As I’ve mentioned in my introductory post about my seven-day vacation with friends in Taiwan, two days were allotted for Taipei. Since I’ve already explored parts of Taipei before, I had to come up with something else to do. Getting to Taipei City from Taoyuan Airport Our flight’s ETD from Manila was 23:40 of January 31 with ETA of 2:05 February 1 at Taoyuan Airport Terminal 1. With this arrival time, our options to reach Taipei City is to take either a taxi or a public bus. We opted to take the Kuo Kuang Bus 1819. This bus has a stop at both terminals 1 and 2 of Taoyuan…
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My Experience with Booking a Train between Taipei and Hualien
If you’re planning a visit to the Taroko National Park, your adventure will probably start with booking a train ticket between Taipei and Hualien. The ideal ride to take is either the Puyuma Express or Taroko Express which goes for, more or less, two hours of travel time. Booking opens 14 days in advance. But, if the opening of ticket sales for your travel date falls on a Saturday or Sunday, it will already be up for grabs by Friday. I learned that the hard way. My friends and I scheduled a day trip in Taroko for February 3. With the 14-day rule in mind, I was expecting ticket…
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25 Days in Central Europe: Hows and Whys
You can find here questions we received from friends regarding our trip to central Europe.
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Sleeper Train from Budapest to Prague
After exploring Hungary, our next destination was Czech Republic! We took a sleeper train from Budapest to the city of a hundred spires. We believe saving one night on accommodation is a good deal so we booked a night train which takes 10 hours and 34 minutes of travel, leaving Budapest Keleti at 20:05 and arriving in Prague hl.n at 06:39. The cheapest early-bird rate, called SparNight, for the sleeper train is 59 euro per person in a 2-bed private compartment. I booked our tickets 11 weeks ahead and got it for 69 euro per pax. Out of curiosity, I tried searching for a 2-bed private compartment again…
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Booking Budapest-Prague Sleeper Train Using Hungarian Railways Website
Igal and I took the sleeper train from Budapest, Hungary to Prague, Czech Republic. If you’ve decided to travel the same way between these two cities/countries, below is a guide on booking a private compartment for 2 people using the Hungarian Railways Website. 1. Go to https://www.mavcsoport.hu/en 2. Fill-up the search fields with the following details: FROM: Budapest Keleti TO: Praha hl.n. DATE: <your trip date> 3. Unless you are entitled to a discount, retain FULL FARE in the drop down option then click the Search button 4. In the outward journey Select sleeping car Select own compartment Select 2 in number of passengers Input date of birth and gender…
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