Batu Caves

Batu Caves is in Gombak district, 13 kilometers north of Kuala Lumpur. These limestone caves is a sacred place for Hindus. Every January, up to 800,000 devotees and spectators gather here for the Thaipusam Festival:

Images above from http://www.malaysiasite.nl/thaipusameng.htm.

To get to the caves, you'd have to climb up 272 steps and get past macaques. A 42.7 meter statue of Lord Murugan, a Hindu deity, stands near the base of the steps.

Bich Duyen Hotel, Ho Chi Minh

We chose Bich Duyen Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, because of the stellar reviews on Tripadvisor.com. It met all our requirements for a hotel: clean, airconditioned, central, and most importantly, cheap. Double room was $18 including breakfast.

Of the five hotels we stayed in during our trip, this was the smallest--smallest bed, smallest bathroom, smallest room, but it was definitely big on value. Room has a fan, aircon, TV, ref, a tiny closet, and did I mention the complimentary breakfast? I don't have a pic of our room without Abet in it. :P

Breakfast was basic, just the ubiquitous baguette, eggs, fresh dalandan juice, green bananas and coffee:

Of course, the coffee was the popular Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk, which was very good. I was very pleased with the bananas, we used to have this everyday when we were still living in Cagayan de Oro, but I don't think I've had this since we came to Manila. Breakfast wasn't much it was good, and it saved us a few thousand dongs every morning.

The hotel is on Pham Ngũ Lão, right smack in the backpackers' area on District 1 (where most of the tourist attractions are) and is surrounded by bars, cafes, restaurants, banks, and street food stalls. Cho Ben Thành (Ben Thanh Market) is just within walking distance.

The manager, Chanh, was energetic, friendly, and extremely helpful. He arranged the Cu Chi Tunnels tour for us at 11pm, we were picked up at the hotel the next morning. He also arranged for a car to take us to the airport for $8 (pick-up from the airport is $14).

There's a computer with high-speed internet at the lobby which you can use for free. We abused this on our last evening there when we were trying to get updates from friends in Manila about storm Santi and checking Cebu Pacific's Twitter for updates regarding our flight.

I feel that at Bich Duyen, we got more than what we paid for. If I visit Saigon on a budget again , I'll definitely stay here.

--=-=--

Bich Duyen Hotel
283/4 Pham Ngu Lao Street, 1st District, 84, Ho Chi Minh
bichduyenhotel@yahoo.com

The Jalan Alor Experience

Jalan Alor in Bukit Bintang in Kuala Lumpur is a side street dedicated to hawker stalls and is a popular foodie destination. When we went to Singapore last year, some of the best fare we had were the ones in hawker stalls, so Jalan Alor was definitely in our itinerary. In fact, it was our very first stop right after we got settled in our hotel, this is where we had dinner on our first night in KL.

Just stroll along this street and find something you like. The stalls serve pretty much similar stuff and were all full of both tourists and locals, so it was safe to assume that they were all the same and were all good.

We missed the food we loved in Singapore, so those were what we ordered in Jalan Alor. The dishes we got were from 5RM (P70) to 10RM (P14o).

hokkien mee


bak kut teh

satay

ais kacang

Was the food just like what we had in Singapore? No. The hokkien mee tasted more like char kway teow and had bits of chicharon and meat in it. The bak kut teh wasn't as peppery but had vegetables in the broth. The satay didn't come with rice cubes, and the peanut sauce tasted different. The ais kacang wasn't served with colorful shaved ice. But was the food good? DEFINITELY. The food was different from what I expected, but everything was really yummy. I especially loved the ais kacang (3RM/P42).

We had our first Tiger Beer (7.50RM/P105) of the trip here:

Tiger Beer & pineapple shake

Their fruit shakes (3RM/P42) was just fruit blended with a bit of water and ice--no sugar. I loved it. I also got a watermelon shake.

After our meal, we got some jerky/dried meat and pork floss for pasalubong from this stall:

They smoke their meat right there on the street:

Look at these goodies!

We didn't buy as much as we wanted because we'd have to lug the meat around for the next 10 days.

There were several fruit stalls in Jalan Alor and I wanted to get some durian to take back to our room, but Abet reminded me that durian is not allowed in hotels. I settled for some jackfruit and pink dragonfruit. The jackfruit was extra-orange and extra-sweet.

Jalan Alor is a vibrant street in the heart of Kuala Lumpur that is truly a feast for the senses. Every foodie who finds himself in KL needs to include a trip to Jalan Alor in his itinerary.

Tune Hotel, Kuala Lumpur

Abet and I did all of our planning for our trip online, and travel forums such as the one on PinoyExchange and GirlTalk, as well as travel blogs, have been a great help to us. We wouldn't have pulled this off smoothly (notwithstanding the bus accident and flight delay) if not for all of the tips, advice and recommendations we got online. I want to give back by posting all about our trip--accommodation, itineraries, food, costing, destinations, transit routes, etc. for anyone planning a similar trip.

I have been asked several times if we took a packaged tour: no. I dislike packaged tours. I want to choose where to stay, when and where to eat, and how long to stay at a particular destination, and I don't like being herded like sheep. I highly recommend doing a DIY trip--it's not as much of a hassle as it seems, and you'll have control over your travel. There are a lot of travel resources online, and I hope my blog can help a bit.

But I majorly digress. On to my hotel review. Please bear with me with my backpacking posts as I am not a travel blogger, and I still (STILL!) can't work the DSLR.

I highly recommend Tune Hotel for anyone looking for cheap, clean and central accomodation in Kuala Lumpur. Tune Hotel's concept works for the budget traveller: they don't have a sauna, pool, gym, meeting room, or other amenities you probably won't need, and the non-essentials such as airconditioning (all rooms have fans), towels and toiletries, and in-room internet come are charged extra, which means a much, much lower price. Book in advance and you get an even better deal.

A towel can be rented at RM5 (P70) with a RM10 (P140) refundable deposit (comes with free shampoo, soap and shower gel--no, we didn't avail of this), wi-fi internet is at RM12 (P168) for 24 hours (we didn't avail of this as well--there are several computers at the lobby you can use for free), and airconditioning can be purchased in sets of 12 hours and 24 hours: 12 hours is at RM13.49 (P161.76) and 24 hours is at RM21 (P294). The prepaid airconditioning works like cellphone load--the hours are programmed into your key card and is deducted upon use and can be topped-up at the front desk.

We paid for our room online five months in advance, and for a double room for two nights with 12 hours of airconditioning, we paid only RM87.43 (P1,225). That's just a little over P600 per night! And the room was not bad at all, it was actually much bigger than a standard hostel room:


The bed is outfitted with 250-threadcount sheets. Pretty decent for the price we paid. See those ads on the wall? Those help bring the cost down, they are all over the room, even inside the bathroom. The walls are care of Nippon Paint:

What I loved most about the room is the bathroom, it was larger than what I expected for a hotel room of that price. When I stayed at a P1800-per-night hostel in Hong Kong 2 years ago, I had to sit on the toilet to take a shower, but this wasn't the case with Tune:

Tune prides itself on its showers: high-pressure heated showers with a rainfall showerhead.

The hotel is conveniently located, just a few minutes' walk away from the Medan Tuanku monorail station (three stops away from Bukit Bintang) and is on the Star Shuttle route from LCCT, so you can take a bus from the airport and get dropped off right at the hotel doorstep.

There's a 7-11 and a Subway shop on the ground floor, as well as Uncle John's (a local kopitiam chain), perfect for grabbing a quick breakfast of kaya toast, soft-boiled eggs and white coffee.

The things I disliked about the hotel was its dilapidated elevator, the unfriendly reception staff (maybe friendly service costs extra, too) and the fact that they don't let you leave your luggage with them after you've checked out, which caused us to make adjustments to our itinerary. But other than these, I wouldn't mind staying here the next time I go to Kuala Lumpur. Its value for money can't be beat.

--=-=--

Tune Hotel - Downtown Kuala Lumpur

316 Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman

50100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

http://www.tunehotels.com/downtownkl_room.aspx

Back from Backpacking

Abet and I are back from an 11-day SouthEast Asian adventure across five cities in three countries: Kuala Lumpur and Malacca in Malaysia, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap in Cambodia, and Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) in Vietnam. We had the time of our lives.

We ate hawker food, went up the Petronas Towers Skybridge, ate at Nando's Peri-Peri Chicken, Carl's Jr. (which we sorely missed), and Baskin-Robbins, found the books we were looking for (Stiff by Mary Roach for me, a book I bought years ago and lost, but want in my library; Hemingway's For Whom the Bells Toll for him), lugged our backpacks all over KL's train stations, visited the Batu Caves, experienced vibrant Jonker Street in Malacca, got lost, visited the Killing Fields, Genocide Museum, and the Russian Market in Phnom Penh, ate crickets, ran out of clean clothes and underwear, toured the temples of Siem Reap, got sunburned, got insect bites, enjoyed a Khmer buffet, watched an Apsara performance, saw the sun rise over the Angkor Wat, saw how fine handicrafts were made, ate ice cream at Swensen's, figured in a bus accident that left several people injured (who had to be carried off in an ambulance), spent 15 hours on a bus, met other backpackers, met fellow Filipinos, became millionaires (P2,700 = VND 1M), ate a ridiculous amount of fruit, ate a ridiculous amount of French bread, drank beer almost nightly, squeezed our ways through one of the Cu Chi Tunnels, visited the War Remnants Museum, survived a sea of motorcycles, enjoyed bowls of pho, haggled at the Ben Thanh market, bought even more books, ate even more ice cream, got items for our future home, bought coffee, nuts and dried fruit for pasalubong, suffered from upset tummies from too much streetfood, and slept at the airport because our flight got majorly delayed due to typhoon Santi (we were still lucky, PAL and Vietnam Air flights were cancelled). We took a bunch of great photos, and thousands of crappy photos. It was a great adventure, and I can't say enough how happy, thankful, and lucky I am that I got to experience this with Abet, just the two of us. Travel is one of our ultimate favorite bonding activities.

My recent trip validated two things:

1) There really is no place like the Philippines. After seeing the different sights in Malaysia, Cambodia, and Vietnam, I realized that the sights, the food, and the people of the Philippines are the best. We have three trips abroad planned for next year, but I'll make sure to squeeze in some local destinations.

2) Abet and I make a great team. Ü I've known this from the very start, but travelling puts our team and our relationship to the test, and I'm glad that for this one, we passed with flying colors. Being alone in a foreign country makes us cling to each other a little tighter than usual and makes us more patient and understanding. We were each other's world for eleven days, taking care of and being responsible for the other. We feel closer than ever, and I learned so much about myself, about him, and about us as a couple. Actually, I'm currently experiencing withdrawal symptoms from my boyfriend--we were attached to the hip the entire duration of our vacation, I think we were apart only during trips to the restroom.

I have lots of stories and pictures that I'll blog about in the next few weeks or days. Hopefully, I'll be able to help out someone planning a similar trip, just like how travel blogs have been helpful to us during our planning. More travel posts coming up!

Jalapeño Cantina Mexicana

Abet and I skipped fine dining for our anniversary this year, we need to save our money for our backpacking trip next week. So instead of going to Paseo Uno which we originally planned, we wanted to go somewhere that wouldn't burn a hole in our pockets like a hotel dinner buffet would. My second favorite cuisine is Mexican and his is Japanese (#1 is Italian for us both) and on our shortlist were Jalapeño Cantina Mexicana in Ortigas Home Depot and two Japanese restaurants. Guess who decided to give way? He loves me, yes he does!

Boy, was he glad. The food we had was great, just great. It's my new favorite Mexican restaurant.

We always order quesadilla when eating in a Mexican restaurant, and here we got their Grilled Tomato and Cheese Quesadilla:

The tortillas were 8 inches across and were bursting with filling and came with generous portions of sour cream and salsa, and it was just P125. Compare with Mexicali's Garlic and Cheese Quesadilla which costs around P90:

Four small pieces, not enough filling, and paltry dips. I used to love these quesadillas, but Jalapeño ruined that for me. I don't think I can bring myself to order these from Mexicali anymore.

We also got the Baked Jalapeño Cheese Dip (P140):

The nachos it came with were good enough for three:

Abet had the Chili Beef Burrito (P125):


Pardon the bite mark.
I had the Grilled Chicken Fajita (P225, comes with 3 pieces of tortillas):


Sorry about the blurry picture, I've had my camera for over a year now but I still don't know how to focus. Meh. I got the fajitas, because at 26 years old, I still like to play with my food:


Make your own fajita--so much fun!
I have a low threshold for spicy food and rarely put chili sauce/hot sauce on my food, but theirs was really yummy, it was spicy-sweet. If they sold this, I'd buy a bottle or two:

My only complaint about the place was that it was too dim inside, in the indoor upstairs area where we were seated. Dim places strain my eyes. I had to take the photos above with flash. I avoid taking photos with flash in restaurants so as not to annoy other diners, but there were only two other tables occupied in our area, and both groups were really noisy, so I guess it was only fair, hehe.

Overall, we enjoyed the Jalapeño experience and I'm glad we dined there to celebrate our third year as a couple. The food were all great and reasonably-priced. For our meal above with two bottles of beer and two glasses of iced tea, our bill was just exactly P800. We were already too full to get dessert.

Of course, no dinner date will be complete without dessert, we walked to Metrowalk para magpababa ng kinain, and a little while later I got to have a Kahlua Chocolate Sundae, my favorite thing to eat at Icebergs:

It was a happy anniversary, indeed.

========================

Jalapeño Cantina Mexicana

Food Street, Ortigas Home Depot

Julia Vargas, Pasig City

Bloody Eyes

That's what my officemate Gelo called me when I showed up at work looking with my right eye looking like this:
I didn't realize that not having breakfast is dangerous to your eyes. I didn't get to eat breakfast last Tuesday, and not long after I had a very late Jollihotdog lunch, I was puking my guts out in the restroom. Stomach acids acted up. Little did I know that throwing up (as well as giving birth , carrying a heavy load, coughing violently, or just being really, really mad) may cause the blood vessels in your eyes to rupture. That's what happened to my right eye.

The ophthalmologist said that there's no need to worry, it's just like a bruise that should go away in a week with cold compress. The redness is getting lighter already.

It's just to bad that this had to happen just before our anniversary, tsk. No googly-eyed staring at each other this year, lest Abet get nightmares of bloody-eyed me.

I really do hope this goes away before our trip, or my sister will have some major Photoshopping to do when we get back--no way am I posting pictures of me with my eye looking like a monster's.

Just a quick message to my boyfriend

my best friend, my partner, my idol, my teacher, my biggest fan, my biggest critic, my clown, my alarm clock, my music stand, my metronome, my jukebox, my alalay, my body guard, my personal chef, my masseuse, my secretary, my nurse, my travel buddy, my pillar, my hero, my strength, my inspiration, my happiness, my Prince Charming, my dream come true, my happy ever after, my lover, my soulmate, my The One, my first love, my only love, my true love, my everything, my Abet:

Thank you.
I love you.
Happy Anniversary.

*reposted from Multiply, because there just aren't enough words*

The long way home

Papa finally got home today after being stranded since Thursday, thank God! It was just supposed to be balikan trip, all he brought with him was leche flan and chocolate muffins for my brother. No thanks to the landslides that blocked Marcos Highway and Kennon Road, he got stuck in Baguio with no change of clothes and no cellphone charger. Still, my dad is a very hard-headed chum and wanted to come home already, especially since Mama just came back from a week in Surigao yesterday. This is the same guy who went up to Baguio in the midst of typhoon Pepeng, after all (while my paranoid office took us home early as a safety precaution--and dropped us off in front of our doorsteps).

And so, my dad is home, safe and warm, but not after three bus rides, one jeepney ride, one van ride, one tricycle ride (12 of them crammed in one tricycle!), and three long, muddy hikes...

the Victory Liner bus from Baguio took them only up to here

damaged road

hiking along the highway

lapuk

boulders along Kennon Road from the landslides

more walking along mud

finally, dry land

this bridge in Pangasinan was impassable...

because it collapsed

Seems like my dad had quite an adventure--and a 12-hour adventure, at that! He's exhausted and is getting a massage as I type. I'm glad that he's as tenacious as he is (he seemed to forget that he's a heart patient, my God!), because if he weren't, he'd still be in Baguio right now, and we'd still be deathly worried.

Anyway, it looks like he enjoyed the way home. Who says baby-boomer dads can't camwhore?

Kalat-kalat.

Mama is in Surigao, Momon is in Cebu, Mimay is in Cavite, Joe is in Baguio, and Papa is en route to Baguio right now. I can't wait for the gang to be all together again.