Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Planning Phase

Anticipating how big of a deal this U.S. trip would be, I've planned as early as last year, procrastinating until last month to push it forward. Getting the visa really got the ball rolling. Now, the real game plan has to be drafted ASAP.

For starters, I needed to book tickets. The original plan would bring me to San Francisco, Las Vegas, Dallas, Chicago, New York, Boston in a four-week triptastic holiday. Of course, the powers that be in the office wouldn't have it. So the longest I can have is three weeks. To add to that, I keep forgetting that I'm very, very far from being a millionaire (maybe in rupees or dongs, but not in pesos, much less dollars) and that going on a spending spree will greatly affect retirement funds. That brings it down to essential travel i.e. San Francisco (because of my newborn niece), and New York (because I want to go to New York). I was also determined to fly Singapore Airlines (SQ). However, after checking the prices, I decided against it. That way, an SQ flight from Singapore to San Francisco would even cost a bit more than what I ultimately got. The final flight plan is roundtrip from Singapore to San Francisco and roundtrip from San Francisco to New York, all the way via Northwest Airlines. Both of these booked through Zuji. And so it was written, so shall it be done -- on the 22nd of August.

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Here's a draft of the ever-growing list of things to do over there. Now this is aside from most of the touristy stuff that I'll be doing (like going up the Empire State Building and riding the ferry to Liberty Island). Most of the things listed here I won't be able to do or go to. But listing them down allows me to plan the itinerary better.

Here we go:
  1. Great America
  2. Woodbury Common
  3. Six Flags
  4. Eat at Medieval Times - Cable Guy!
  5. Eat at White Castle - Harold and Kumar!
  6. Nathan's - Hot dogs! Hot dogs!
  7. NBA Store - Getting my jersey
  8. Napa Valley - Maybe not. I'm allergic to alcohol, after all.
  9. Vacaville
  10. Eat at Papa Johns - I saw this on TV
  11. Eat at Krispy Kreme
  12. Eat at Arthur's
  13. U.S. Open - asa pa. But after the epic men's final at Wimbledon last night (between Federer and Nadal), who wouldn't want to see them face-off again?

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Thailand: Phuket & Phi Phi Islands Photoset


IMG_7004, originally uploaded by ton2fig.

http://flickr.com/photos/ton2fig/sets/72157600074985598/

More than five-hundred snaps for your viewing pleasure.

Descriptions and notes to follow.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

หมู่เกาะพีพี (Phi-Phi Islands): Prelude

Fresh off the Bintan trip, we thought of another opportunity for a holiday. And so it started as a question of where to go and what to do over the Easter weekend. Around here, Holy Week is not as observed as it is back home. It means that at most, we only get Good Friday off (in fact a radio DJ mentioned that it was Easter Friday). Now for the past twenty-six or so years, the Easter weekend to me means going to Bulacan and participating in the salubong on early Easter morn. Obviously, I wasn't planning to be anywhere near home for this year. Instead, a couple of people in the office and I decided to go Krabi, one of the many beach towns in Thailand. To short-circuit the [even more] boring story of correspondence with the travel agent, we ended up going to nearby Phuket and the much-hyped "most beautiful island in Thailand" Phi-Phi. Besides, there's a general consensus around here that you're never really on holiday unless you get out of the city-state. Away from the urban jungle and back to nature.

Fast-forward to the present.

It was a great holiday that left me rejuvenated and recharged. Once I get my flickr account sorted out, I'll post the two-something gigabyte collection of snaps I've taken during the trip, and put descriptions to boot. Tune in next time.