The National T-Shirt

Now these are tourist shirts I wouldn’t mind wearing.

Out with the tacky “My xxx went to xxx and all I got was this lousy shirt” shirts!

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Here’s a great article for all of us budget travelers (or independent travelers; whatever floats your boat): 51 Ways to Cut Vacation Costs from National Geographic Traveler.

I find myself agreeing with most of the list, but this one comes as a surprise:

2. Trash your “cookies,” small files (stored in your Internet browser) that record the websites you surf—and the transactions you make. Say you go online and purchase a $200 plane ticket from Chicago to Omaha. The next time you visit that site, you could be quoted a higher rate than what’s actually available because of your spending history. Avoid this problem by deleting these files each time you log on; detailed instructions can be found under the “Help” option in your browser menu.

Well I’ll be darned.

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Cebu Pacific’s website and booking facilities now includes Singapore! I tried booking to see how much the fare would cost.

The promo fare (buy from July 20 – 26, travel from Aug 31 – Oct 19) amounts to PHP 6,327.00.

The non-promo fare amounts to Php 8,327.00 roundtrip.

Not bad, eh? It comes out higher than Tiger Airway’s roundtrip fares, but at least you get to fly from (the pitiful) NAIA Terminal 1. The question now is, how will their service fare compared to their competitors’?

One downside to Cebu Pacific’s new route is the time. Though they will be flying to and from Singapore daily, the timing is a bit off:

Departure from Manila is at 8:30pm, arrive in Singapore at 11:55pm
Departure from Singapore is at 12:40am, arrive in Manila at 4:05am

I suppose it’s great if you need to be in Singapore or Manila for a meeting the following day, hahaha. It’d suck if you’re paying for accommodations in Singapore because you’d be paying for a whole night when you’d only be staying for only half of it. I’m so glad I have relatives in Singapore.
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I have to admit that I’m being a bit of a hypocrite for making a widget when I hardly use any of the widgets I installed. But hey, it’s leopard print. It’s cute.

It’s basically a RSS feed reader. Run this widget and presto! You can check and read any updates on justwandering.org.

The catch: You have to switch to Opera 9. Sneaky, eh?

</shameless plug>

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It seems so. I found this startling message in one of the forums I frequent:

Introducing Cebu Pacific’s newest destination. . . SINGAPORE!

Fly from MANILA to SINGAPORE (vice versa) for only 1,499 pesos!

HURRY, catch the SINGAPORE SEAT SALE from July 20 – 26, 2006 only! Travel period is from August 31, 2006 to October 19, 2006.

Fare is exclusive of applicable fees, taxes and surcharges. Book online now at cebupacificair.com or call 70-20-888 or visit the travel agent nearest you. CLICK HERE: For more details about our Singapore service.
Fly Cebu Pacific to SingaFOR only 1,499 pesos.

There’s no announcement in their website yet, so I was having doubts whether it’s true (though the poster claims he received the announcement via e-mail & sms from Cebu Pacific).

In another forum, I found out that it is true.
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Tigerairways is having one of their SG$9.98 fare promos again!

Christmas has arrived early this year. With fares starting from S$9.98 one way, you’ll have more in your pocket to spend on the holiday you really want. Shop till you drop in Bangkok or soak in the views of Hanoi and Darwin. Whatever you want to do during these winter holidays, Tiger Airways makes sure you get the real deal.

So if you’re planning a trip home or a holiday abroad, book now!

[Edit] I think Tigerairways made a boo-boo. I tried looking for flight and lo and behold — no flights available for November 2006 onwards! Tsk.

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If there’s one word to describe Hostel Thailand, it’s “narrow.”

The second word would be “tall” (the building), the third would be “clean,” and the fourth would be “friendly.”

Narrow
Upon arriving at the Hostel’s doorstep, you are faced with a glass door and a small landing leading up to a staircase going up to the 2nd floor where the “lobby” is. I doubt if the width of each floor would go over 4 meters.

In each floor, there are 3 rooms: 6-bed dorm, 4-bed dorm, and single/private room. There were only bunk beds in all the rooms, leaving you with just enough space to turn around.

On each floor, there are two toilet and baths, which are really just cubicles. Outside the cubicles, there’s a sink, a mirror and a clothes rack to hang and dry your wet towels and laundry

Tall
Since the space was narrow, it’s only logical that the building is tall. So on the first floor, we have the small landing and stairs and the lobby, office and computer terminals on the second floor. The rooms are on the 3rd, 4th and 5th floors.

Going up four flights of stairs may not be the greatest thing to encounter after a long day of travelling, but it pushes you closer to sleep. Which is good, because their mattress and pillows aren’t great sleep-inducers.

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In front of one of the houses inside Jim Thompson’s compound is a huge clay pot that is filled with water and inhabited by this fish.

With tours around the house every 20 minutes, I think he has learned to pose when people get near and not dive and hide. He was facing the house when I came, toting my camera, and when he noticed me, he swam around and posed.

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