Thursday, February 10, 2011

Travel Tips 101: PART 1

A little part 1 peak at my trip to the Philippines with Nicole :)
This post is filled with very handy Travel tips, so i suggest you pay attention.
____________________

It started off leaving South Korea in the freezing cold and catching a 4 and bit hour flight to Cebu International airport. 

We landed at Cebu International at approximately 2am...
and our connecting flight to Caticlan, Boracay was only leaving at 10am the following day.

This is an 8 hour layover.

We realise this.

However, we also thought... "hey... it's an international airport.. I'm sure there'll be some cool stuff to do.
no. 

There is NO cool stuff to do at Cebu international airport.
since it was 2am with nothing to do, we decided maybe we should try get a little sleep.


(this is Cebu airport floor, in case that wasn't clear)


it's true.
everyone was doing it:
also, just beyond those stairs, were a WHOLE gang-bang of people all taking a snooze.
we happened to check-in to the upper class section.




Turns out, I should have listened to Nicole.

After 12 minutes, I woke up with pins-and-needles in half my face and no control over anything on the right side of my head.

(still strapped into bag)
Apart from the dead-face thing and the floor, which really is very hard. There is also the issue of "stay alert, stay alive". Sleeping on the airport floor in Cebu International airport may be likened to trying to catch a few zzz's in a prison cell when you have the last cigarette and all the inmates are suffering from Nicotine withdrawal.

Bearing in mind, that it is now about 3:42am and we have not had a shower, we are on the airport floor, my face has been dead on the one side and at every tiny noise springing up in Fierce Ninja pose - backpacks still attached to our heads. This is kind of the vibe we are at right now:

be classy. 
it's the fancy way to travel.

At about 5am we wake up, and all our sleeping friends have vanished, leaving us as the only two dumb-dumbs napping on the 'Cebu airport-floor 1/2-star hotel'.



(we did not realise that there was a perfectly good hotel right across the street from the airport which probably cost around 2 dollars.)

We still had about 5 hours to kill before our flight.
(Did you know? it is totally possible to extend the eating of a single sandwich from a single coffee shop to 2 hours.) also we got massages and mango smoothies which we were very happily enjoying when we heard our names being announced on the intercom. 

yip.

that's right

for having been in the airport approximately 8 hours early, we still managed to almost miss our flight. (we are a special pair.) and being a small plane - with an entrance at the tail-end and us having the very front row seats... we had to walk all the way down the plane whilst everyone stared at us, the hobos from the airport floor who had somehow managed to sabotage this flight... "i'm sorry....  i'm sorry.... i'm sorry..."

finally we made it to Caticlan, took a 5 minute ride to the ferry and then got on a 10min ferry to Boracay.  In Boracay we caught a little three-wheel tuk-tuk to the beach to find a place to stay.




Alice in Wonderland was a perfect little bungalow hideaway and we had our own little deck and hammock :)

Unfortunately the weather on the first few days was really not great, but we were determined to get a tan:






WEATHER FAIL.

anyway we eventually retired to our bungalow since the rain started washing off my tan.
Coming from Korea and it's lack of most things 'normal' being cozied up in the Bungalow was also a great experience...

Me: COLES!!! COME OVER HERE YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS!!
Nicole: WHAT!?! what is it?!
Me: The TV!!! We have like 7 channels! and they are all in ENGLISH!
Nicole: No WAY!
Me: Woweee!! 
*does happy dance*
Me: wow look at this program! its all about these chicks who have babies without knowing they are pregnant!
Nicole: No WAY!

* we watched the entire show of I didn't know I was pregnant and at the end we saw a woman who literally 'had a baby in her pants'. it was very funny. for us. not for her.
This channel was very wonderful since whenever it rained and was miserable weather (which was the the first stash of days... we could come back and watch our beloved programs in ENGLISH! what a vacation treat!!)

and the adventures continued....

    - More Travel Tips 101, cartoons and photos to follow...

6 comments :

sarah g said...

Ha ha ha - I've missed you, indieberries :)

Unknown said...

lol!! ..sleep shifts work better - 1 person sleeps while the other plays guard dog, and then you swap.. :P

Kerry said...

5 o'clock shadow - hahaha!
I look forward to the story of the rest of your hols.
Oh, and I also get excited by English tv. I have the cheap package - only two English channels! (CNN & BBC)

Anonymous said...

lol, classic!

Megan said...

Love the drawings, you are very funny!
"She had her baby in her pants!" hahah

We pretty much had the same experience in Phuket, with the sleeping situation and the tv channels. We just slept on the airport seats though.

Natascha Strauss said...

Wow, I laughed so hard now! Thanks :)