The introduction...
We went with my wife 2 weeks in Hawaii during February 2015 for our honeymoon. I had concern it's a bit too cold for swimming but it's actually OK. You can swim all year long in Hawaii.
We used Japan Airlines with 1 stop in Japan.
FROM HONG KONG TO HONOLULU - 15/02/2015
Feb 15 Sun
JL7054 5h05
13:15 Hong Kong, Hong Kong International - Terminal 1
19:20 Osaka , Kansai International - Terminal 1
Connection time : 2h50
Feb 15 Sun
JL792 7h05
22:10 Osaka, Kansai International - Terminal 1
10:15 Honolulu , Honolulu International - Terminal M
TOTAL DURATION: 15H00
FROM HONOLULU TO HONG KONG - 27/02/2015
Feb 27 Fri
JL89 9h25
17:35 Honolulu, Honolulu International - Terminal M
FEB 28 SAT
22:00 Tokyo , Tokyo International Haneda - Terminal I
Connection time : 12h35
Mar 01 Sun
JL7043 5h25
10:35 Tokyo, Narita International - Terminal 2
15:00 Hong Kong , Hong Kong International - Terminal 1
TOTAL DURATION: 27H25
The itinerary...
... was to visit 3 islands: Oahu, Maui and then Big island. My wife being pregnant at the time, we skipped Kaui which is more about hiking and seeing nature.
The video of the trip...
The Story...
... Feb 15th
We flew from Hong Kong to Taiwan (which was not indicated while booking the ticket because we stay in the same plane!) then from Taiwan to Japan and finally from Japan to Hawaii.
The funny thing is that we arrived earlier in Hawaii than the tine we left Hong Kong !
... Feb 16th
... Feb 17th
... Feb 18th
... Feb 19th
... Feb 20th
... Feb 21th
... Feb 22th
... Feb 23th
... Feb 24th
... Feb 25th
... Feb 26th
... Feb 27th
We drove from our airbnb host to the airport car rental drop-off, then took the shuttle to the terminal. We flew from Big island -> Honolulu and then from Honolulu -> Tokyo.
... Feb 28th
We landed in Tokyo at 10:00pm, went to our hotel by train (very close). We had some ramen in a nearby restaurant and it was time to sleep.
... March 1st
We flew from Tokyo to Hong Kong ! We actually went to the wrong airport that day... We didn't realize the airports were different, but eventually the Japan Airlines staff found us 2 seats with Cathay Pacific with same schedule (with of course additional fees).
The introduction...
We went with my girlfriend 1 week in Guam during July 2014. I was a bit afraid because the wet season started but at the end it only rained a few times and rest of time was blue sky and sun.
We used United airlines which proposed direct flight from Hong Kong (about 5 hours duration).
UNITED AIRLINES - UA 0180
FRI, 11 9:55PM - JUL HONG KONG, HONG KONG S A R
SAT, 12 4:55AM - JUL GUAM, US PACIFIC IS
UNITED AIRLINES - UA 0179
SAT, 19 6:55PM - GUAM, US PACIFIC IS
SAT, 19 9:55PM - HONG KONG, HONG KONG S A R
The itinerary...
There is no specific itinerary in this trip as we stayed the whole week in the same area (between Tumon and Agana Bay) and drove to different places every day. The island is very small and this was very convenient staying there.
Our first hotel was the "Santa Fe" and the location was great. We could take our breakfast on the beach with an amazing view. The room was just ok with a bad smell of bleach.
Our second hotel was the "Aqua Suite". The room was nice and clean but the location didn't offer anything that the first hotel did (It was 5min drive from Ypao beach).
The video of the trip...
The Story...
... July 11th
This is the day we took off, the flight schedule was convenient as we leave to the airport straight after work. We were suppose to leave at 9h55 but there was 30min delay.
... July 12th
We landed at 5:15am local time. The immigration was really fast. For HK passport holders they just need a VISA that is valid for 10 years. For my French passport I applied for ESTA online (cost 14$) few days before departure.
At the airport, we could only withdraw money from coast 360 ATM (2$ charge per transaction), for some reason our master / visa cards didn't work with others.
With the package we bought, we had a 2 hours tour to start the day to baby sit us until the city wakes up. It started at 6:00am from the airport and a guy called Billy (a Chinese guy living there) picked us up with another HK couple.
The weather was terrible the whole morning as a typhoon recently passed by so we didn't enjoy that much the tour as we couldn't go out of the car.
The first stop was K-mart for 30min as everything is closed before 7:00am. We bought some snacks for our breakfast. Then we went to two lover's point, statue of Liberty, Espana de Plaza and Aguena Fort where we couldn't see much because of the rain.
Then Billy dropped us at 8:00am in our hotel where we could do an early check-in. He told us he could help for many things (book car, portable wifi, water game activities, buffet etc.). I was a bit skeptical that this cost us more money, but after using few of his services I think this was about same price, or a bit cheaper.
The first thing we did once on our own is to have a nap until 12. After waking up, we contacted again Billy to help get portable wifi (50$ for the week) and a car. This would have been cheaper to buy a SIM Card with unlimited internet (about 30-35$ if I recall) but with the portable wifi we were able to connect our 3 devices at same time (2 phones + tablet). The battery life was only 4 hours but fortunately my girlfriend took an external battery loader for her phone which we could use with the portable wifi (otherwise we should have a buy a USB cable for the car to reload when we drive).
For the car a guy picked us up at the hotel to bring us in his shop (Andy car). Guess what ? The owners are a Chinese couple originally from Shanghai :) We had in mind to book the cheapest car (Toyota Yaris) but when I saw we could rent a Mustang (my dream car) I changed my mind. I bargain a little and get a price of 600$ for the week (saturday to saturday) including insurance (1000$ excess). I thought that's about the same price as big rental company as I actually checked online before asking Billy for the car.
We had a very detailed car checking, they were noting on the report every tiny spot that the car had (funny thing is that at the end they spent like 5 sec to check the car when we returned it).
At this time the weather was awesome, it changes so fast. So we decided to go back to most places of the tour and actually enjoy them.
The introduction...
This trip was during eastern holidays and this was not easy to find a direct flight from Hong Kong to Cebu city at a reasonable price. Cathay Pacific was too expensive and we couldn't find anything with Philippines Airlines. Eventually a Filipinos friend advised me to go for Cebu Pacific which we did!
Departure: April 17th at 9:40am
Return: April 22nd at 6:20am
The itinerary was as below (Cebu city -> Oslob -> Badian -> Moalboal -> Cebu City):
The video of the trip...
The Story...
...April 17th
We woke up at 5:00am in order to take the bus going to the airport at 6:10am (A22 from Kowloon Bay). We arrived at the airport around 7:00am. We got quickly our boarding passes so we had plenty of time to take a breakfast since we didn't pay an extra with Cebu pacific.
Nothing special in the airport, we took off on time.
2h30 later we landed in Cebu city. We had to wait about 45 min for immigration for just our plane.There were only 4 counters for foreigner passport holders.
First thing we did is to buy a SIM card with data plan. The SIM card cost 150PHP (from SMART) and we took a recharge of 300PHP since we want to get the 5 days unlimited internet pass for 200PHP (internet was so slow, I seldom used it during the trip).
Then we tried to find the Hertz counter where I book a car online. Fortunately I didn't have to pay anything in advance because that was impossible to find. Locals didn't know about it and they would always redirect us to the airport transport counter to get taxi / private car.
After wasting almost 2 hours looking for the Hertz counter and passing useless phone calls talking to local operators saying non-sense (phone numbers we found on Hertz website), we decided to give up the idea of having our own rental car for the trip duration (which was by the way the best thing to do). My plan was to use the GPS thru the phone, but as stated above, the internet was so slow that it would have been a nightmare. And eventually, paying a driver whenever we needed one is cheaper that renting a car and much less troublesome as the traffic was quite intense.
It's about 2:00pm when we quickly grabbed some lunch and paid 3100PHP to the transport counter for a driver to bring us to Oslob where our first night is. The driver was very nice and we asked if it's possible to stop on the way for sightseeing since we originally had in mind to stop in Argao and Dulaguete for the Churches. At the end we had enough time only to see the one in Argao. It was night time when we arrived at Dulaguette. On our own I don't think we could have find this Church in Argao.
Church in Argao
In total it took us more than 5 hours from Cebu city to Oslob (including around 45min to see the Argao church). Night was starting at around 6:00pm and at 6:30 it was pitch black.
It was 7:30pm when we arrived in our hotel (MB's Sunrise View Resort) and we were very hungry. Unfortunately the hotel didn't serve food (except breakfast between 8:00 to 10:00am).
We found a small restaurant few steps away from the hotel but most food was sold out (seems to be late for locals to have dinner). We ordered what's left, meaning fried chicken / egg with rice (for 200PHP each).
Then we went back to the hotel and we found there was no pressured water in our room so we had to use the public showers which is normally for tourists coming to see the whale shark. The water was a bit cold !
The bad news of the day was we only found out that since the day after is a public holiday in Philippines (Good Friday) the whale shark and Tumalog falls are closed attractions. The main reason for coming in Oslob was the whale shark but fortunately we planned 2 nights here in case we couldn't do this attraction on Friday (good call :).
A German couple we met had the same issue and they had to extend their stay for one more night.
Also we met Kent, a young man working in the hotel. He will become our guide/driver/organizer for the next 2 days (he basically helped us for everything, that was awesome).
April 18th...
We woke up at 7:30am in order to take our breakfast at 8:00. The sea view was really nice from the hotel.
While waiting for the food I took out my drone (DJI phantom 2) in order to capture some aerial videos with my Gopro (see my youtube link for the footage on top of the page).
We left at 9:15am with Kent on his motorcycle to go visit the Spanish cartel (Church, old prison, cemetery). It was only about a 10min ride.
I used my drone again to take aerial footage, the view is amazing with the sea side.
We left the place to go to the town center at around 11:00am. We bought some fruit in the market (30PHP for 500g of pineapple chopped and 50PHP for 4 oranges).
Then we return to the hotel and tried some snorkeling but there wasn't much to see there without the whale shark. And it's forbidden to go in the area where whale sharks are supposed to be.
We had lunch next door in the Aaron beach resort (285PHP for a cheeseburger with fries and a club sandwich).
Thanks to Kent the day before, we book a boat at 2:30pm to go similan island. It's a private island but the shore around is famous for swimming and snorkeling.
We paid 1500PHP and we were the only one in the boat. We realized we didn't even ask if we could join a tour which would have been much cheaper but I guess that's possible because we saw others boats with many people on it.
We were back at 5:00pm in the hotel and had dinner later in Brumini beds beach resort which is at walking distance from our hotel. We were sold by the smell of the grilled fish and chicken !
April 19th...
We woke up at 6:00am to sign up for the whale shark (1000PHP for foreigner including life vest and snorkeling gear. It's 500PHP for locals). There were already a lot of people in the water since the first round starts at 6:00am.
Also there were a lot of people waiting. We boarded in a small boat around 7:15am in order to go to next door first and listen to the rules. Most people were arriving directly at that place.
Then at 7:45am we finally went to see the whale shark !
From the moment we jumped in the water, we had 30 min to enjoy. There was a fisherman feeding the whale shark so it was swimming around and all people could see it in turns.
Since it's a Saturday, 95% of the people are locals and it was really crowded. Plus this day, it seems only 1 whale shark was there so in total we saw it maybe 3 or 4 times in the given 30 min.
I strongly recommend to go during week day and I regret I didn't know about the public holiday on Friday or I would have done the whole trip in a difference sequence.
Then we went back to the hotel and ordered our breakfast. But we didn't wait for it and went immediately to the Tumalog falls so we could eat it when we return to save time.
It's about 8:20am when Kent drove us to the falls. Again it's very close and only 10 min ride.
Entrance fee is 20PHP. And we paid an extra 50PHP for another driver to bring us from the entrance to the falls. We didn't even try to bargain or go on our own as we wanted to save time but you can just walk there, it would take 10 min and it's straight (you can't make any mistake).
The place was very crowded already by locals since it's the week end. It's still very enjoyable and a there is a good atmosphere. The water was very fresh and not clear because of the mud (it's hard to walk in the pool also because it's sticky, I fell a few times!).
We left around around 9:30am but I used my drone once more close to the entrance as the surrounding was cleared of tree. The falls was 500m away from my position! The max range is 1km but I can't see the drone already after 200m. Fortunately with the FPV system I can guide the drone safely.
We were finally back at the hotel around 10:00 am and ate the breakfast we ordered. After chilling for a while and packing, we were ready to leave at 11:45am with our new driver that Kent helped us to book. I'm pretty sure it was one of his neighbor trying to make some extra cash.
Our next destination was Terra Manna resort in Badian. We were sitting at the back of a truck, it was not too comfortable and hot but the view was awesome (but 2000PHP was too much for the trip, I should have ask first for an air conditioned car or bargain the price).
The place was not so easy to find and I couldn't stop thinking how troublesome it would have been for me driving there! Our driver had to ask to about 10 people to make sure we were on the right direction. Finally we arrived, the place was great.
Our bamboo house was not ready yet as the occupants didn't leave so we had to wait outside, it's 1:30pm. Since things were going slow I decided to take out my drone in order to take some footage of the great scenery. This would finish very badly... long story short, the drone ended up in the water due to an error of piloting. This took me 2 hours with the help of the resort owner's nephew (who by chance was watching me). Actually that's the young boy that found it. Of course everything was out of order except the memory card! This is why I was able to make the movie which is linked on the top of this page.
I was pretty sad at this point but we finally ate the food we ordered before I start using the drone. We ordered extra food for the young boy that helped us but he was not hungry. The food was much better than previously but more expensive(~300PHP for a main dish)
The plan of the day was kinda screwed now as we wanted to go to the Kawasan falls. So we just walked in the resort until sunset which was a very enjoyable place.
We planned to go to the falls the next morning and we asked the office to help us arrange transportation.
April 20th...
We woke up at 7:00am and just took a coffee outside on a bamboo table facing the sea. The hotel uses their mini van to brought us to the falls (we left around 8:15am and they charged 200PHP round trip). The driver dropped us at 8:30am on a small road leading to the falls (1km walk).
Some locals tried to convince us to take a guide but we politely refused as we didn't need it. The 10PHP entrance fee had to be paid around 200m after we started walking.We took our time and we arrived to the falls 25 min later.
The place was quite crowded already and there was not much space if you don't wanna pay for a table (300PHP for the day) which we didn't take because we wouldn't stay long.
We continued walking up thru the stairs and saw more of the upstream part.
We didn't go all the way up and returned to the main falls in order to swim a bit and takes pictures.
We left at around 9:35am as we told our driver to pick us up at 9:45am. We walked faster this time and arrived at 9:55am at the meeting point.
Once back at the hotel, we went to the restaurant for breakfast, the buffet was still open and it was very good.
We were ready to leave at 11:30am for our next destination. Office helped again to arrange the transportation with their same mini van (book the day before too). They charged 300PHP to drive us to Moalboal. The time to check-out and load luggage we were on the road at 12:00am.
We arrived in our Moalboal resort at 1:15pm (Quo vadis dive resort). It took longer than expected because the driver made a mistake.
Since the room was not ready yet, we walked around in order to find where to book a boat for Pescador island (Our hotel didn't propose it) ! I read it's famous for the sardines being in impressive group, all very synchronized while swimming.
We found one diving center helping us to arrange the ride thru a local captain I guess. They charged 1500PHP including thins, mask/tuba and 1 wet suit for my girl friend + life jacket (better deal than sumiland island in Oslob). We book for 3pm so we had time to have a drink next door and check-in our room.
We learnt that the sardines actually moved from the Pescador island to the near shore, but we still wanted to go there to enjoy the corals. We would be able to see the sardines anyway when we return.
The hotel room is nice and had sea view.
The place was quite convenient as we just needed to walk along the sea side to find restaurants, bar or shops. We never had to take transportation, everything was at walking distance.
We started our boat trip at 3:15am and the ride took 15min. We stayed on the south side of the island because the corals on other side have been destroyed by recent typhoon. The corals were great and there were many fishes. We saw as well one sea turtle. There were also Jelly fishes so it's better to have something to protect your skin. I was really regretting my gopro was dead because I couldn't take picture nor video underwater anymore.
Then after a while we went back to the shore to see the sardines. There were a lot of them and the corals were also very nice.
At 5:45pm back at the hotel, we decided to book a discovery diving for the next morning (3500PHP each if I remember correctly) before we go back to Cebu City. We book also a car to drive us there (2800PHP).
We had dinner nearby and ordered fresh seafood which was really good (grouper, shrimps and grilled chicken for around 1000PHP).
April 21st...
We woke up at 7:00am and met our instructor at 8:30am. He started with some explanation and then we wear the gears and did exercises in the swimming pool. Finally we went in the sea to enjoy the corals!
We finished at 11:00am and then went for a brunch in a nearby restaurant. We took as well the opportunity to take some last pictures.
We left Moalboal at 1:45pm with the car we book, and we arrived in our hotel located next to the Cebu City airport at 4:30pm (Waterfront hotel). After checking-in, we took a cab to went to the SM mall for shopping time. We spent few hours there and had dinner as well then went back to hotel.Taxi cost around 180PHP one way (avoid yellow taxi to return to airport as they are more expensive)
April 22nd...
We woke up at 4:30am to catch up our flight which was taking off at 6:20am. That was really funny to go to airport walking, that's probably the one time in our life we would do that!
When we left Philippines, we had to pay the departure tax which is 500PHP per person.
The introduction...
I went to Phuket with 3 friends in November 2013. The season is best between November and April and this is why the Similand Islands are opened only during that period (unfortunately we didn't go as I couldn't convince my friends to forget about the full moon party in Phi Phi Island on July 17th).
The flight schedule was quite good from Hong Kong with Air Asia airline:
Thu 14 Nov 2013FD2965HKG20:25HKT22:55
Tue 19 Nov 2013FD2964HKT15:35HKG19:55
The itinerary was as below (Airport > Patong beach > Phang Nga Bay > Phi Phi Island > Airport):
The video of the trip...
The Story...
(I finally decide to type this report after almost 2 years later. After reading this I suggest you watch the video as I used more often the Gopro than my camera)
... November 14th
After landing in Phuket international airport, we took a taxi (that I book in advance via e-mail bj1998th@yahoo.com.hk, it's a bit cheaper: 600B car / 800B van) to go to our hotel in Patong beach area. The location was probably a mistake regarding our travel plan but my friend booked it before the plan was actually finalized. We arrived past 10:00 pm and we went outside for a drink. I remember I took only 1 or 2 drinks and had terrible headach afterwards, the alcohol can be very bad in Thailand (or worse).
Another reason to go in Patong beach area is the "ladyboy show" which we didn't attend (I didn't know at the time but my friends recommended to see it once I was back in HK).
November 15th...
The hotel street where we stayed. My friends were in Apsery (left) and I was staying in the bed & breakfast (Bann Sabai Dee) in front of it. They were nice as they let me use their phone to call John's Gray to confirm the tour pick-up.
Before our tour starts, we went to the beach nearby.
At around 11:30 am we were be picked-up by the travel agent for a canoe tour in the hong with John's gray. That's really a must do if you go on vacation in Phuket. The meeting point was a pier on the north east, but this company can picked up tourists in most places.
I don't have too many pictures as it was dangerous to keep the camera with the water around, but in the video on top of this page you can see a lot more about this tour.
The tour last the whole afternoon and ended at night, the itinerary was as below:
1130 - 1230Hotel Pick-up
1200 - 1300Arrive Ao Po, Board our modern Twin-engine escort boat, Thai style light lunch, trip and Nature Game briefing
1430Arrive first island and explore 1-2 caves and hongs
1530Return to the escort boat and move to the second island
1600Explore two more caves and hongs
1800Thai seafood buffet dinner during Phang Nga Bay Sunset
1900Return to your kayak after dark to float your Loi Kratong
2000Depart for Ao Po.
2100Arrive Ao Po and transfer to your mini-van.
2130-2200Drop off at your hotel. End of JGSC service.
Our second night was in Phuket town (Lub Sabuy Guest House), close the the pier we need to go the day after to take the ferry to Phi Phi Island. John's Gray arranged the drop-off in our second hotel with no issue!
November 16th...
I don't remember the ferry schedule, but I think it's was very early for the one we wanted to take. We took a taxi from the Hotel to the pier which was around 10 min. There was a lot of tourists and the ferry was (almost ?) full.
Some pictures of when we arrived in Phi Phi Islsand:
After dropping our stuff in our hotel, we spent the rest of the day walking around and enjoying the beach. We took a taxi boat to go a southern beach. It's also at walk-able distance, the area around the pier is not that big.
At night we book a diving tour for the day after. One of my friend wanted to validate her PADI level 1, so she took a longer tour including 4 diving. For the rest of us, we just wanted to dive and see sea life so we had to go for a discovery dive (2 dives). The good thing once you have the PADI is that it's about 30% cheaper to go diving.
The next 3 nights were in the Andaman Beach Resort. I was looking at the map at the time I'm typing this post (May 2015) but it seems it has moved location or google map is wrong. This hotel was very quiet, by the beach and the location still very convenient (5-10 min walk from town center).
November 17th...
The day of the full moon party and actually the main reason my friends wanted to go to Phi Phi island (which I couldn't care less :).
The morning was scheduled with the dives we book the previous night. I think we left the pier at around 8 or 9:00 am and came back a bit after noon. A quick lunch was including with the tour.
The friend doing the PADI had to go back in the afternoon but we find out later she couldn't do it because the boat had a technical issue. So eventually she was missing one dive to complete the level 1.
During that time, the rest of us went to the famous Phi Phi island view point, which is a short walk/hike of about 30-40 min.
On the way back, we met by chance our friend that couldn't do the afternoon dives and we decided to finish the day once more at the beach. Also we rent a canoe for about 1 hour with one of my friend.
Also at this specific time, the locals are preparing the below to drop it in the water in order to ask for forgiveness.
We had a nice dinner, then went to a bar to see a fire show and then it was time for the full moon party.
November 18th...
This was for me the best day in Phi Phi island. We book a 6H boat tour to see the different islands around (such as the famous beach from the movie "the beach" with Leonardo Di Carpaccio :)
It's hard to find words to describe that day, so just take a loot at the pictures / videos:
November 19th...
The last day was a long way back home, first of all we needed to take the ferry back to Phuket, then a taxi to the airport.
