Subic Daco

It’s now the beginning of the summer season in the Philippines, and despite the threat of a typhoon coming this way, we were blessed with really good weather. Subic Daco really blew us away.

Subic Beach, as it’s sometimes called, is in the island of Calintaan, just off the town of Matnog, the southernmost tip of the island of Luzon. It’s about 30 minutes away by banca (with a brief stop at Juag Fish Sanctuary).

Matnog can be reached by bus from Cubao or Pasay in Metro Manila (approximately 14 hours), or you can fly to Legazpi and take a combination of van/bus and jeepney to reach the port.

Fish scrambling for food at the Juag Sanctuary

Head to the Tourism Office, which is a small hut directly in front of the Municipal Hall. All visitors to the islands must register with them, and pay the corresponding fee, plus an environmental fee. They can also arrange for a banca to take you island hopping at a fixed price. No reservations needed, you can just walk in. But if you’re worried about not getting a boat, you can contact the tourism office ahead of time (contact details given below).

You can visit up to four sites: Tikling Island, Juag Sanctuary, Subic Beach, and the rock formations/Calintaan caves. However, depending on the weather, they might not allow you to visit certain sites. Personally, I’m happy staying for hours at Subic Beach.

Can’t get enough of Subic Daco

Subic Daco has a long stretch of fine white sand beach. There are plenty of corals washed up on the beach though, so in some parts, it’s kinda hard to walk barefoot. The waves here are pretty strong, so the shoreline is quite narrow. The water’s also pretty deep, so be sure to bring floaters and life vests for the kids and non-swimmers. The water feels really great, and at times cold when you get near the corals.

There are several coral reef that you can swim to from the shore, and my cousin said they’re teeming with life. However, only one resort lends out snorkels, and they only have two, so it’s best to bring your own. The boats have life jackets, so you can borrow from your boatman.

All in all, it’s a really nice beach, and it’s a relatively cheap destination. It’s not as crowded as well, but that could be the effect of the warnings about the coming typhoon.

The other end of Subic Daco

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Traveling for almost 12 hours from my house to Sta. Fe is quite taxing, but that place was worth traveling by air, land, and sea. The weather is still quite cool in the Philippines this time of the year, and most of the locals are either recovering from the Christmas season or traveling to the Sto. Niño festivals in Kalibo, Iloilo, or Cebu. It’s mostly foreign tourists we saw in Bantayan, and there’s not a lot of them either.

We pretty much had the beach to ourselves at times, which was fantastic. Unfortunately, this meant that whenever we’re outside, we always get approached by vendors selling their wares or pedicab drivers asking if we want a ride.

Sta. Fe is quite small, and we were able to walk anywhere. The only time a ride was required was on trips to the Bantayan town proper, and to the Sta. Fe Port. What’s great about Sta. Fe is that you have easy access to fine white sand beaches that is not crowded, have access to restaurants with good pizza, yet it still remaining a small sleepy town.

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Bantayan Travel Notes

• If you take the 3am flight from Manila to Cebu, you’ll be able to catch the first bus to Hagnaya, which leaves at 5am.
• There is actually a Ceres bus that can take you from the Cebu North Bus Terminal all the way to Bantayan. It leaves Cebu at 00:30, 3:30, 10:30, and 12:30. These buses would also be making the return trip to Cebu. I don’t have the schedule, but there is one that leaves Bantayan town at 1:45 pm. The bus is parked in the town plaza, near the Bantayan Multi-purpose Center.
• To go to Bantayan town proper from Sta. Fe, walk to the main road (F. Roska St, C. Batiancila St., Bantayan-Sta. Fe Road), and hail a big tricycle. These are the ones that has a wider body and can seat up to 10 passengers. The fare is Php 25, and takes about 20 minutes.
• There is a market in Sta. Fe, but if you want cheaper prices, it’s better to buy from the public market in town.
• Caffe del Mar has really good pizza.
• On the way back to Cebu, a Ceres bus meets the ferry docking, so you can board a bus as soon as you get off the boat. It leaves as soon as the last ferry passenger has disembarked, but it will pick up passengers along the way.
• The bus ride between Cebu and Hagnaya takes about 3 hours.
• If you are flying out immediately after getting back to Cebu City, you can ask the conductor to let you off at Pacific Mall, Bridges Town Center, or Park Mall, to avoid the traffic in the area near SM and the North Bus Terminal.
• If you get off at Park Mall, do try Cebu’s Original Boneless Lechon Belly. SO GOOD. It’s just a small kiosk at the outdoor dining area.

Sayuri at Matsumoto with Mon-mon and Ron-ron

Maybe the cost can be attributed to a weaker yen (or a better performing peso), but I like to think I maintained better control of my personal spendings this time around. I indulged in a bit of shopping, but the most extravagant thing I bought was a ceramic knife. No more toys for me this time around. No Kit Kats either.

It definitely helped that I shared the cost of most of my accommodation with friends, and the fact that I relented to going back to the dorms. Hostel dorms in Japan (at least the ones I’ve been to) are really nice. What savings we had there though, were put towards more upscale accommodations in Magome and Iwami. We stayed at a minshuku in Magome, and a huge suite in Iwami (probably given to us when they found out Khursten went there all the way from Australia just to fangirl), both with inclusive dinner and breakfast.

Japan is still not the cheapest destination, but with careful budgeting (and some saving up), it’s definitely doable!

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Great hotel deals in Tokyo via Agoda

It helped that I wasn’t traveling solo: I was with two friends, so some costs were divided between us three. Aside from that, according to my two companions who both have been to Europe before, Greece is cheaper than the countries in the western regions. Where a 500ml bottle of water can cost you €1 in Paris, you can buy a 1.5 liter bottle for €0.23 at a supermarket in Chania.

We also managed to save some on transportation costs by booking places right in the city center, which cost a little bit more, but it gave us the freedom to explore on foot and make more discoveries. We also saved by cooking and preparing some meals, specially in Mykonos. Only two of our hostels provide breakfast, so for the rest, we just ate packaged croissant (or fresh bread in Myokonos and home made panini in Santorini), fresh fruits, and juice or coffee. We ate out a maximum of two times in one day, but we have ice cream, gelato, or frozen yoghurt at least once a day.

Save for our tour to Gramvousa Island and Balos Lagoon, most of our activities centered around the ruins: the Acropolis, Knossos, Delos.

Overall, it’s not a bad deal for a two-week trip. It’s not super cheap, but not a complete splurge either – a good mix of budget and midrange options.

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Beautiful Hobart

On this trip, however, my sisters and I were on our own, and I was able to see just how much a trip to Hobart would cost. Note that this is not a super budget trip: we stayed in a serviced apartment where we were able to cook most of our meals. Our main activity was a trip to the Museum of Old and New Art and the Salamanca Market. We walked everywhere, since our accommodation was centrally located. Also note that this covers the travel expenses for the three of us, excluding our personal shopping.

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Huts at the beach

Taking a cue from Chyng and Reda, who both contracted the services of Mang Johnny (mobile numbers +639202224687, +639275743315, or message him on Facebook), I quickly fired off a series of text messages, inquiring about his rates and the things he can provide for us. I’m not an outdoorsy person, so I only camp when I know there’s someone else doing the grunt work for me. We were lucky because Mang Johnny basically did everything: from providing the boat that would take us from San Miguel to Anawangin, Nagsasa and Capones island, buy ingredients from the local market and cook it at the camp site, provide and pitch tents for us. He even let us take a shower in their house when we got back to San Miguel, so we can wash off the salt from our body before heading back to Manila.

Nagsasa in the morning

So did Nagsasa live up to my expectations? It certainly did. Though it’s quite secluded, tourists are now flocking to the coves, which meant finding empty bottles of beer at the beach, lines at the communal toilet, and noisy neighbors when you’re being lola and trying to get some sleep before midnight. Still, it was very pretty. It was serene and swimming there was much nicer than in Anawangin and Capones. I can see myself returning there, although probably not on a weekend.

Nagsasa 2013

Now that more budget carriers are flying direct to Japan from Manila (including Jetstar), it’s cheaper than ever to go there. The biggest expenses in Japan are the transportation, accommodation and food. A ride in the subway costs a minimum of ¥200 (around Php 100), same with buses. But if you don’t mind walking, you can make most of Japan Rail’s network to get around for free if you’re holding a Japan Rail Pass. Accommodation costs can be driven down by staying in hostel dorms or even further down by Couchsurfing with a local host. As for the food, Japanese supermarkets and convenience stores offer bento boxes of real food, so you won’t have to live on instant ramen (unless you’re really strapped for cash). Onigiri (rice ball with filling or seasoning) starts at ¥68, bento at ¥350, depending on where you’re buying.

If you’re like me who have a weakness for shopping, you’ll go crazy in Japan. They have a lot of shops that offer the cutest things and brands that we don’t get in Manila. If you’re a toy collector, prepare to say goodbye to your money when you step inside Kiddyland, Mandarake or the Kotobukiya store. Toys and figures are for most part, cheaper in Japan. But for other things, it’s about the same or it’s more expensive.

The biggest savings I got for this trip was the Japan Rail Pass. Sure it cost me Php 23,000 for a 14-day pass, but considering that a one-way ride on the shinkansen starts around Php 3,000 and I rode 6 of them and a bunch of other trains, it really is worth the investment. Of course, that’s only applicable if you plan to move around a lot, like I did. If you plan on staying in just one city, best not to buy it. I’ll be posting about this in detail in a later post.

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Great hotel deals in Tokyo via Agoda

Then again, there were activities and cities that we incorporated into the budget that we weren’t able to do or visit while in Morocco. Still, Morocco, though not as cheap as Southeast Asia, is a relatively cheap destination. Another thing that made a huge impact in keeping the costs down is having a travel buddy to share the tab with.

Excluding the airfare and my personal shopping, our total is a surprisingly low figure, considering that we traveled for 19 days. The trip took us through 7 cities and 5 UNESCO World Heritage sites. We ate in the streets and in the restaurants, we stayed at hostels and riads. It’s a great mix of budget and mid-range options that kept us happy and quite content.

Enough with the words, on with the numbers!

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Drama aside, this is one trip I’ve been looking forward to since early this year. I had a self-imposed travel ban and it was really great to get away from Manila, even just for a weekend. This was my first time to fly Zest Air. I was anticipating the worst, owing to some friend’s lousy experience with them, but apart from an hour delay due to changing planes and document double checking by the ground staff, the experience wasn’t too bad.

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Great hotel deals in Boracay via Agoda

Myanmar can both be expensive and cheap. In restaurants catering to tourists (usually ones that appear in the guidebooks), you can expect to shell out an average of MMK 2,000 per meal. If you’re adventurous and eat in the streets though, you can get noodles as cheap as MMK 500. A liter of purified water usually go for MMK 300 per bottle. Taxi rides within Yangon can go for MMK 1,500, depending on the driver, the distance and your bargaining skills.

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The cost of traveling in Indonesia is pretty much the same as other Southeast Asian countries — not as expensive as Singapore, though not as cheap as Vietnam. It’s not a dirt cheap trip — it wasn’t meant to be. It was a vacation, and I don’t want to scrimp. A lot of people have done the same trip far cheaper than I have, but they’re them and I’m me.

I also decided to give CouchSurfing another try so I CouchSurfed with Zuky in Jakarta. Actually, I had intended look for accommodation when I get to Jakarta, but I couldn’t stand the thought of arriving without any accommodation. I tried to find a good, cheap place in Jakarta but the ones that had decent reviews are either already fully booked or are too expensive. I turned to CouchSurfing when I ran out of options, and luckily, Zuky welcomes last minute requests. I requested to CouchSurf with her the night before I had to fly to Jakarta, since the host I initially contacted canceled at the last minute. I had two tickets out of Yogyakarta actually, and I was already considering taking the August 25th flight instead of the 24th in case I can’t find a place. Thankfully, Zuky replied quickly, so I made my way to Jakarta and had a very positive CouchSurfing experience.

Of the three cities in Indonesia, Bali is the most expensive (and has the most touts), but it’s also the most interesting. Admittedly, I am partial to beaches, but it wasn’t the beaches of Bali that endeared me to the place. It was the Balinese culture that’s making me want to go back and explore the island.

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Vietnam was pretty cheap. Dining at the restaurants can set you back around Php 300, while dining in the streets or markets can go as low as Php 40. Accommodation is also relatively inexpensive. My rooms range from $15 to $18, all with air conditioning and a fan, with ensuite toilet & bath, cable TV, a closet and even a small fridge. While the xe om is the most popular way to getting around town, I prefer to hop on a cab. The taxis in Vietnam are well kept with good air conditioning. Meter starts at VND 9,000 for the small cars, VND 10,000 for the sedans and VND 12,000 for the vans (depends on the company). Be careful about the taxis though; there are rogue taxis that use a very fast meter! They use the same name as the big cab companies, only changing one letter and using almost identical hotline numbers.

Krabi, on the otherhand, is pretty expensive (as expected). However, in the midst of the Thai and Italian restaurants, there are small street stalls selling noodles and rice. I stayed in Ao Nang beach, and it’s small enough to walk around. You can take the tuktuk around town, but to go beyond, you’d either have to ride the government songtheow (with routes to Krabi and other places) or hire a taxi (taxis in Krabi are Toyota Fortuner. Sosyal!)

Bangkok and Kuala lumpur are only in the itinerary for transit and shopping.

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Hailed as the Summer Capital of the Philippines, Baguio City is a cool respite from the sweltering heat of Metro Manila. Perched at 1,500 meters above sea level in the Cordilleras, Baguio enjoys temperature that’s 8°C lower than Manila’s. It’s perfect for a weekend getaway, since it’s just 5 hours away if you drive really fast. The city is also pretty small, so you can see most of its attractions in one day. Many also go to Baguio for the ukay-ukay shopping (thrift store or second hand clothing) as well as for the fresh fruits and vegetables.

This trip pretty much confirmed that I am not suited to be a hardcore backpacker. I do try to keep things cheap, but I also love indulging myself. The bulk of my expenses went into food and souvenirs. If I held off in the shopping, went to more budget friendly eateries and rode the jeep instead of taxis, the total cost would probably be around Php 2,000.

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Calaguas’ pristine white beach

What finally got me to go there was when one of the bloggers I follow announced that Calaguas is one of her destinations this year. One comment and a seat sale later, I am booked for a flight to Naga. Naga is the closest airport served by most domestic airlines. The closest is Daet, which is served by Seair, though only seasonal. From Naga, you have to ride a van to Daet, then transfer to another van to Paracale. In Paracale, you have to find a willing boatman (and an available boat) to take you out to Calaguas, and buy supplies for your stay there, since there are no stores, no electricity and no water.

Save for the boat rental, the airfare and the van rides, this is a fairly inexpensive trip. It can be made cheaper if you take the bus instead of the plane, and just stay overnight. I think the bus schedule works well for a quick weekend getaway to a gorgeous deserted beach.

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The perception of many is that El Nido is a very expensive place to travel to. It actually is, considering that direct flights to El Nido from Manila can cost as much as Php 13,000 per person. The cheaper alternative is to go via Puerto Princessa, but you’d have to deal with rough roads and cramped spaces inside vans or buses (or if you’re hardcore, saddled on an off-road motorcycle). The best place to stay for budget travelers is El Nido Town. There are several resorts and lodges that offer cheap accommodation to fit every budget. The same go for restaurants and shops.

El Nido’s main attraction, of course, are the spectacular limestone formations and sparkling white sand beaches of the islands in the Bacuit Archipelago. To visit these islands, you can either hire your own boat or go with a group tour. The group tour aren’t so bad, and they’re usually limited to about 8 to 10 passengers. If you’re a fairly large group (5 and up), you can try sweet talking the tour operator to let your group have the entire boat to yourselves. Tour of the islands usually start at Php 500 per person and already includes lunch.

This is certainly not my cheapest domestic trip, but considering that it’s a 5 day, 4 nights trip in one of the most amazing places in the Philippines, it’s worth every peso.

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