Yogyakarta - Indonesia

Yogyakarta – Indonesia

Post published:13 October 2015
Post category:Asia Indonesia Southeast Asia

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Yogya: Suitable, Karta: Prosperous

Moving onto the second stop along Indonesia we come to the city commonly known as the center of education in the country: Yogyakarta. Also commonly seen written as Jogjakarta or simply as Jogja. Nowadays, the second most visited city by tourists after Bali due to the proximity to two of the most beautiful and impressive temples in the entire country: Borobudur and Prambanan. But it is not only those nearby temples but for the beautiful yet small old town and much history that can be seen and felt across the city. It is the center of the Javanese culture, and without any doubt, one of the best stop-overs along an Indonesia tour you could ever do.

As said before it is very highly likely that tourists skip the visit to the city as they head directly on mostly organised day tours to the temples, but is worth to spare a day in here, see the cute Dutch fort, Great Mosque and the beautiful Sultan’s Palace. A good note I can give you in here about the palace is that the first building you get to see once you enter the complex is not the true beautiful one. That one lies afterwards, and unfortunately has a limited opening hours; same as is with the Taman Sari (or Water Castle as it is also known). Why would I mention this you might ask? Well, because it happened to us and we were too late there when it was already closed, being able to only see the first buildings that are nothing special unfortunately.

All other sights were not a problem and easy to see them all. What is best is that all of them are within walking reach from each other hence no public transportation involved in between plus saving you lots of time. The city after all is quite small, and one day will be more than enough to visit in full.

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Jakarta - Indonesia

Jakarta – Indonesia

Post published:13 October 2015
Post category:Asia Indonesia Southeast Asia

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Old Dutch Batavia

Ready for the next big holiday to a far destination, Indonesia, starting at its vibrant capital Jakarta. That’s the 3rd great trip so far this year, or 4th if considering the long-weekend trip to Turkey just few months earlier in the year, and of course plenty of weekends all over Europe. And as I know it won’t be still the last for this year it means I remain excited and will remain happy even when this holiday is over after returning from Indonesia and looking forward to the next one; or well, not that much long to wait, just 5 more days until flying again for one of the usual weekend trips.

If last year was Philippines, this year is the turn for Indonesia. It does not really matter when in the year but there is always one trip to anywhere in Southeast Asia or far East Asia; and I hope to keep it going this way as it works really well while always escaping the bad weather back in Europe in search of sun and heat at destinations mostly within the Tropics. Not the longest daylight hours per day but hey! I cannot see any other “downside” point apart from that. The only workaround is starting the days very early in order to maximise the day, and rest in the evening once sunset.

Jakarta was our entry point and first encounter to Indonesia. This huge capital city is not what you might have though and been told on first instance. I’ve always heard from my friends who’ve been there before that there is really nothing to see and do and that everything is ugly and unorganised. This was in reality very untrue!. The city is instead very vibrant, day and night, and so vastly large there is always something to do and places to go. From the ultramodern skyscrapers mushrooming everywhere, to the more traditional Indonesian, and to the great Old Town, former Dutch colonial city which has retained majority of its buildings almost intact and unspoiled, nowadays beautifully restored to their former glory with a much larger ongoing project to recover more and more of these structures and make the city more tourist friendly.

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Taal Volcano - Philippines

Taal Volcano – Philippines

Post published:26 April 2014
Post category:Asia Philippines Southeast Asia

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The Smallest Active Volcano in the World

At just 7 hours after returning from Taipei back into Manila, our last day in the Philippines would become a special surprise thanks to our Philippine friends who planned this day on our backs and told us just once we were about to take the plane into Manila the night before. The magnificent Taal Volcano National Park. What best way to end this great trip than spending the last day with them and enjoying these marvellous landscapes and nature merely 2 hours south of Manila.

The heat again played against us, although I keep saying that I totally don’t mind the heat, but mind the cold. We were anyway lucky towards the afternoon, with the refreshing thunderstorm out of the sudden. Quite unexpected, but kept the rest of the day under clouds and fresh air. This is part of the magic in here, the unexpected. And not precisely talking about rain, but how about a volcanic eruption? Mind that this is one of the most active in the world, and as recent as early 2020 it has put the area on a stand-still once again.

Reaching this place is really straightforward and comfortable. For at least half of the way there is a good motorway where you need to pay several times for tolls along the way, while for the remaining of the journey this will be a single lane road in each direction. With just some traffic near one mall you will pass along the way, there seems to be no complication at all. (more…)

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Boracay - Philippines

Boracay – Philippines

Post published:23 April 2014
Post category:Asia Philippines Southeast Asia

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White Beach: One of the top 10 beaches in the world

On our next move within the Philippines we travelled southwest of the country to this little piece of paradise, the island of Boracay. Barely 4 months since I was in another piece of paradise at the other side of the planet, 15500 kilometres to the west of Boracay, 15000 of them being the vast of the Pacific Ocean; San Pedro Ambergris in Belize (or La Isla Bonita as it is better known). Thankfully in this occasion weather made a huge difference to what was back then in the Caribbean with a horrible one! Although our second day was quite cloudy I have to admit it was even a relief after the intense heat and unbearable sun from the first day.

The island of Boracay is located in the region called Western Visayas. It’s so small that the nearest airports are on the larger neighbouring island of Panay, but easily to commute from/to as described in the transport section below.

It rapidly boomed in tourism being one of the most visited islands in the Philippines without doubts for its worldwide renown pristine beaches of fine white sand and turquoise waters. But something almost the 100% of first time visitors to the Philippines do not know is that there are by far much better islands and beaches elsewhere across the countless the country is formed of. (more…)

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Vigan - Philippines

Vigan – Philippines

Post published:21 April 2014
Post category:Asia Philippines Southeast Asia

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Bee Gan: Beautiful Shore

After spending a great evening the day before with a great traditional dinner at the house of my Philippine friend, we knew today would be a very busy packed day trying to see the most we can until the time to make the way back to Laoag airport for the evening flight back to Manila. Having so little time in each place on this trip has been one of the downsides, although in the other hand and coming from London so far away, that’s the less we could do. A very busy and tight agenda with almost no time to sleep. Definitely well worth it at the end. That’s the fun of travelling.

Vigan is the capital city of the province of Ilocos Sur. An UNESCO World Heritage Site in its full in the sense that it is one of the very few Spanish colonial cities in the Philippines left almost intact, keeping most of its charm and incredible Hispano-Philippine-Oriental fusion unique only to this part of the world. The best preserved colonial city in Asia.

Really small in size and well organised as it follows since its creation the usual grid pattern urban plan where the main streets meet at the central square; principal cultural, politic and religious part in the city, with the rest of the streets parallel and perpendicular between them. (more…)

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Laoag, Paoay and Santa Maria - Philippines

Laoag, Paoay and Santa Maria – Philippines

Post published:21 April 2014
Post category:Asia Philippines Southeast Asia

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City of Lights

On our next move in the Philippines after Manila we head to the northern region of Ilocos Norte, flying to it’s capital city, Laoag, where the only commercial airport for the whole region is located. We knew the night we landed and the following day would be extremely packed with a very explicit visit of Laoag in the night, Paoay in the morning, then the drive south towards Vigan, highlight for this trip but not before an unexpected surprise stop over by Pangil, an ancient dead coral reef and the UNESCO World Heritage listed Santa Maria Church; passing through countless tobacco fields plantations and beautiful landscapes; then back again towards Laoag for a late evening departure flight to Manila.

So right upon landing, our friend came to pick us from the airport and gave us a small tour around the landmarks of Laoag. Few minutes after we were already on way to the neighbouring village of Paoay where we drop our bags at the hotel and then enjoyed an amazing Northern Philippine dinner where we sampled the incredibly good Ilocano dishes. That was a great feast! We will always keep these great memories!

So here they are the key reasons in getting to this region: meeting my friend in Paoay, its World Heritage listed church, and of course, getting to visit the best preserved and almost untouched Spanish-Oriental colonial city in Asia, Vigan, a fascinating city like no other, and yet another UNESCO site visited in our growing list.

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Manila - Philippines

Manila – Philippines

Post published:20 April 2014
Post category:Asia Philippines Southeast Asia

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The Pearl of the Orient

Finally the date has come! 10 months waiting for this moment since we booked our tickets, now a reality. And thankfully as we found a good air fare in hotukdeals app on our phones (remember you can also check the website version here, just type flights in the search box). Although originally on a split flight from London to Abu Dhabi with Etihad, and Abu Dhabi to Manila on Philippine Airlines (both companies do code-share on this route); the flight times dramatically changed for the Philippine Airlines leg meaning we could not make the connecting flight in Abu Dhabi on time. Luckily for us in this case, Philippine Airlines re-booked us instead on the direct London to Manila which they recently introduced.

If you are the kind of person who cannot sleep on long haul flights then try to make everything possible to get some sleep on the outbound flight, always any flight from west to east; otherwise the jet lag will be definitely terrible. If you can or have someone who can get for you some sleeping tablets then that’s a good bet however needless to say careful with it and mind the doses. This flight is among one of the longest direct in the world, and to this date the longest I’ve ever done. And it was our lucky day, we managed entire 4 seats rows for each of us since the outbound flight was half empty.

Our plan on this trip was not only visiting Manila, but some other places during the 9 days in total we stayed across the Philippines and Taiwan. For instance, our stay in Manila was shortened to 2 days on our arrival and a last one before our departure back home. The rest of the places we would visit are Taal, Laoag, Paoay, Santa Maria, Vigan, Boracay and Taipei.

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