• Asia,  Philippines,  Travel

    Temporarily Disconnecting a Globe Telecom Postpaid Line

    Everytime that I travel abroad, I stay connected by getting a local sim from the country I’m visiting since it’s more economical than using (very expensive) roaming services. My last international trip was to Israel and it was for almost 6 weeks. Prior to departure, I tried to see if I could temporary disconnect my postpaid line given that I could save a month on bill.   I found a step-by-step guide in Globe Telecom’s website about temporary line disconnection. The guide is a bit outdated since Globe already changed their account interface; but, the general idea is there. I’m providing below an updated guide with Globe’s current interface.   Step 1.…

  • Israel,  Middle East,  Travel

    A Day of Walking in Jerusalem

    I visited Israel for the first time in 2017 and I had the chance to visit Jerusalem twice. The first one was when when I went on a group tour organized by Tourist Israel. The second was when Igal and I joined the tip-based walking tour organized by New Sandeman.   Holy Sepulchre Church was included in both of those tours. However, we only stayed outside the church on the New Sandeman tour (the one with Igal) where the tour guide talked about its history. On the way home from the tour, I told Igal that I also got to see the inside of the church in my Tourist Israel…

  • Asia,  Hong Kong,  Transportation,  Travel

    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…

  • Asia,  Philippines,  Transportation,  Travel

    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…

  • Asia,  Philippines,  Travel

    Hiking Mount Ugo

    It all started with this kind of conversation one day last year   Me: You’re going on a hike? Friend: Yeah. Wanna join? Me: Will I be able to do it? Friend: Yeah. Me: Okay.   And that’s how I got myself into a two-day hike of Mount Ugo. It was my first hike and people in our group were surprised to learn that I was doing this one as my first. Apparently, my friend has a reputation of taking first timers to major hikes 😂   We started the traverse from Kayapa, Nueva Vizcaya and finished at Brgy. Tinongdan, Itogon, Benguet. Here is the general timeline of our weekend hike:…

  • Asia,  Philippines,  Travel

    Three Weeks in the Philippines: 5 Nights in Coron

    Our island escapade started in Coron (Busuanga), Palawan. Igal wanted to dive in the Philippines and he picked Coron as the main dive site because the wrecks piqued his interest. Below are details about and photos from our recent trip to Coron. I’ve asked Igal to provide inputs regarding his advanced open water dives. I also mentioned a few bits from my previous trip to Coron six years ago 🙂   Flights from Manila to Coron (Busuanga) There are four airlines that fly from Manila to Coron (Busuanga) Air Asia Cebu Pacific Air Philippine Airlines Skyjet Airlines The flight takes a little more than an hour. I booked our flight…

  • Asia,  Philippines,  Transportation,  Travel

    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…

  • Asia,  Taiwan,  Travel

    Seven-day Vacation in Taiwan: 2 Nights in Taichung

    After spending time in Taroko National Park and Taipei, our next destination was Taichung. We took the high-speed train to Taichung coming from Taipei.   Taiwan High Speed Rail THSR offers early bird rate with discount of up to 35% for bookings made 5 to 28 days ahead. Discounted rate offered is of limited quantity and is subject to seat availability and time slot. The earlier you book, the higher the chance to get a discount. Bookings are done in their website.   We booked 27 days ahead and got the tickets at 20% discount (NT$ 560 instead of NT$ 700). I noticed during booking that trains scheduled to leave…

  • Croatia,  Europe,  Travel

    Croatia on a Motorbike: Day 1 – A Taste of Zagreb

    Croatia is the second country in our Europe trip. We had an early flight from Berlin to Zagreb on the 10th of September. Our flight landed on Zračna Luka Franjo Tuđman Airport at around 08:00. We took the public bus in order to get to the city. The bus can be found on the right side upon exiting the airport building. It will take you to Zagreb’s main bus station (Autobusni Kolodvor Zagreb), where you can then hop on a tram to your booked accommodation. We paid 30 kunas each for the bus ride to the driver.   The local currency is Croatian Kuna. The money we had with us were Euros. We…

  • Asia,  Taiwan,  Transportation,  Travel

    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…