Traveling is sadly, an expensive hobby. Unless you’re filthy rich, if you want to pursue this, you need to save up a lot of money to sustain this lifestyle. Though airfare has gone down dramatically over the years, and more budget-friendly transport and accommodation has sprung up, traveling can still take a chunk of your savings. Weekend trips can be as low as Php 2,000, but do it every weekend for a month, that adds up to Php 8,000 per month! The figure goes up dramatically if you plan on traveling overseas, and even more so if you plan to travel for a long time.

But as I, along with thousands of Filipinos who’s been bitten by the travel bug, it is possible, even on a third-world salary. Here’s some tips that I personally practiced to keep me traveling:
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Popularity: 18% [?]

I’ve put off writing this last installment to my three-day Hong Kong post series simply because there’s really nothing interesting to write about.

Back at my Couchsurfing host’s flat, we spent hours chatting about a lot of things, looking at our photos taken during the trip and drinking Belgian beer (well, them at least). We finally ended at 1am, and since I plan on leaving the flat early to explore Hong Kong Island on my own, I bade them goodbye.

Sayuri and her new friends. The small plush toys were the Belgian’s travel gnome. The bear has a backpack that a friend of theirs hand made for them, which has the logo of Antwerp, their home city.

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Oh my, how three years have passed! This travel blog has been with me on many firsts: my first solo backpacking trip to Thailand, my first trip to Australia, my first trip to Tagaytay (undocumented, though), my first hike up a mountain, my first festival, my first trip to Mindanao and my first trip to Batanes.

Along the national road in Sabtang, Batanes

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MTV Asia and the Department of Tourism recently launched Awesome Philippines, a one-of-a-kind national tourism campaign for the country. Part of the MTV Revelations, the campaign will feature a series of video vignettes and new media, aimed at promoting the Philippines as a tourist destination to the youth travelers in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore.

DOT Secretary Ace Durano answering Gail’s question

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This coming Friday and Saturday, the Aliwan Fiesta is in town once again, featuring the festivals from around the Philippines. What can you expect from this festival? Colorful costumes, heart-thumping beats and performances fueled by passion and Lipovitan.

Aliwan Fiesta 2008

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While everyone went out of town for Lent, I opted to stay in Manila for Holy Week. Unlike most, I don’t have Thursday and Friday off, so I really had to stay in the city to work. Besides, the usual places will be full of people, so I thought it’s better to stay in Manila and just go out of town on another weekend.

Manila Chinese Cemetery

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Enchanted Kingdom invited us once more last weekend to try out their latest offerings: Cenakulo Rock, SRR:X, and Journey to the Center of the Earth in 4D.

Cenakulo Rock at Enchanted Kingdom

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Due to insistent public demand, SEAIR extends its anniversary promo by giving additional discounts of up to P70,000,000. All online ticket purchases from April 1 to May 31, 2009 get P1,400 discount per roundtrip, for all fare classes, for all seats, for all routes, and for all flights from June 15, 2009 to October 15, 2009. Just type iflyseair14 in the promo code field when booking online in www.flyseair.com.

Are you thinking of heading to Boracay this Holy Week? Seair just added more flight from Manila to Boracay between April 6 to 13 to accommodate last minute travelers who want to spend their summer holiday in Boracay. For booking, please call (02)8490100 or you can book online at www.flyseair.com.

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