My FOOD bucket list

I have been checking out my Facebook friends' pages and noticed that many of them have their album called bucket list - a list of things that they have done in the past years.

I think na masyado namang mainstream kapag sa Facebook ako gumawa kaya I made this on my blogger account. So, what's in my bucket list as of March 2012?

Sumo Sam, Trinoma - 62nd monthsary, January 2012

Parvati, Trinoma - New Place for Sweet things

Happy Lemon, Megamall - a change from CBTL's hot tea

Long Island, UP MassComm - our hang out right at our college

BonChon, Megamall - Singaporean Chicken

John and Yoko, Greenbelt - one of the finest Japanese resto I have visited

Selecta Magnum - nuff said

Mad Marks, Kapitolyo Food Strip - a substitute for the ever famous and ever filled Charlie's

Moonleaf Tea Shop, Kapitolyo - addition to being happy

Banapple - where suprises are made and cakes will deliver

I have a lot more and I will update this once I get in my trunk of pictures. :)

Personal List 1: Looking for a New Buddy

Since our Indochina Trip is finally on the move, I think it is necessary for me to check out the things that I will need for the travel. I was initially thinking that a luggage would do well for me, but since the girls I am with are taking their own and thus, I need to help them out on this, I need something that I could easily work with, more convenient and comfortable for me. So I decided to look for a travel backpack. 

Now, I am on the search for the backpack that I will be using for the Indochina trip, and hopefully for future backpacking trips. Lalaki naman ako dati, kaya okay lang sa akin ang backpack. While online, I stumbled upon a site which gives great tips on how to choose your travel backpack. That's when I learned about a daypack and a travelpack.

Basically, a daypack is the smaller version of a backpack, which is on my perception, my hand

y dandy backpack (for school or for weekend travels). Think about multi-purpose for my backpack. Moving on, a travel backpack is somewhat similar to the backpacks mountaineers use, that elongated pack with spaces for tent and water bottle. On the site, it discussed what packs are suitable for women and men and what brands are the best for it.

Travel packs comes in various sizes, not by inches, but by volume. According to the site, a 30-45 pack is suitable for a 5'3'' frame like mine.

Deuter and North Face, both international brands, manufactures these packs. With that in mind and thinking of at least 30L of these backpacks, I came across these bags:

(from top Left, clockwise: Deuter ACT Trail 20, Deuter ACT Zero, Deuter Fox 40, Deuter Spectro AC 28, Deuter Futura Vario and Deuter Futura 32)

(from l-r: North Face Women's Terra 40, Terra 45 and Terra 55)

So now, I need to look for these bags, try them on and canvass how much I will be paying for it. Personally, I am setting the budget for my bag, na walang lalampas ng 6,000.

Happy bag hunting to me! 


For more backpacking tips, you may want to visit: http://travelindependent.info/whattopack.htm

The Beginning: Indochina trip

On my other blog, I have written all about my Indochina trip this August. I think it would still be okay if I create an entry here, kumbaga, second copy. 

So late last year, me and my college friends felt the urge of travelling this 2012. We have postponed our Sinulog plan, since we don't have that much time to plan it, and we thought that a great way to find ourselves is to go and visit new countries. And somehow, regalo namin sa mga sarili namin bilang mabubuting taga-pagbayad ng buwis sa Pinas. 

Malaysia and SG were our first plan, but finding out that it would break our bank accounts due to high accommodation and travel expenses, without much of the immigration stamps (Oo, habol namin ang immigration stamps para sa mga passport namin), we dished it out and settle for an Indochina trip. 

Our Indochina Trip: Manila - HCMC - Phnom Penh - Siam Rap - Bangkok - Manila

From a common friend and backed up by blogs that I was researching (pinapangatawanan namin ang pagiging researcher), we found out that it would only take us a little over Php 20,000 - airfare included - in visiting three countries - Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. So armed with that  motivation, we decided to pushed through it and look for cheap airline tickets. We have three missions here:

(1) Spend only Php 5,000 for round trip tickets

(2) Spend only Php 5,000 for accommodations

(3) Spend only Php 5,000 for inter-country travels and tours

I am not much of a hurry, since we are planning the trip by August this year and I am pretty sure that there will be seat sales before then. Luckily last week, Cebu Pacific was on 95% on their destinations, including Vietnam, so I mocked book it and resulted to Php4,500 tickets, all in for the three of us. Not that bad. So, Manila - Vietnam was good to go, pero paano naman kami babalik ng Pinas?

Cebu Pacific Air Red Eye Flight: Manila to HCMC 

I tried out Tigerairways, a budget airline flying stationed in Clark Airport, and decided to check what was in store for us. I managed to come across a 1,100 Thai Baht fare, Bangkok to Clark (roughly 1,400 base fare). Taxes are not included then, but we were able to book a Php10,500 tickets for the three of us. 

Tiger Airways Night Flight: Bangkok to Manila

In summary, we have Php 5,300 of our airline tickets at magtitipid na lang kami sa costs for accommodations, food and souvenirs. 

Step 1 is already achieved and we are good to clean up our itinerary. And we are 5 months away from the trip.