Updated on 2/18/2009 at 1:19 AM. This journal is finally finished!

There will shortly be a new journal entry for February talking about Ohayocon on 2/1 and my latest nearly 1800 mile road trip, plus some new pics of items in my anime collection. I will make a seperate last years travel journal when I have time, since I didn't make a "2008 in review" journal.


Mabuhay everyone! ^_^

For my watchers and people that like my work, thanks for taking a moment to read my journal. I was on a small vacation in the Philippines recently and I'd like to tell you about it. I visited my girlfriend out in Cebu, Philippines earlier this week. Due to the bad weather in early January, I had to postpone my trip for 2 weeks. The weather was good this time for everything but the last flight- bad weather in the Philadelphia area caused a 2 hour delay and it was a little bit rough coming in on Wednesday 1/28, but otherwise there was no problems. Weather in Cebu was nice and warm, a far cry from most of the USA at this time of year.

This is how I got out there and back:

On Saturday I got off of work 3 hours early and drove to Philadelphia. After parking my car, took a shuttle to the airport and took a US Airways flight across the USA to San Francisco, California.

Total flight time (PHL-SFO): 6 hours 23 minutes
Flight distance: 2519 standard miles/4056 standard kilometers
Aircraft Type: Airbus 321

After landing, went and got my Cathay Pacific ticket for my flight to Hong Kong and browsed the internet for a while at the airport before going through security. Here's the plane I took for the flight below:

Total flight time (SFO-HKG): 14 hours 45 minutes (Took 15 hours due to strong headwind)
Flight distance: 6909 standard miles/11123 standard kilometers
Aircraft Type: Boeing 747-400 (Huge ass plane!)

Flight wasn't as bad as it sounds, there was personal entertainment screens for all seats, even in economy class. Got into Hong Kong, got my Philippines Airlines ticket and transfered over to my gate for my next flight less then 2 hours later to Manila, Philippines.

Total flight time (HKG-MNL): 1 hour 55 minutes
Flight distance: 701 standard miles/1129 standard kilometers
Aircraft Type: Airbus 319-100

Got into Manila, cleared immigration and then exchanged some US$$$$$$ for Philippine Pisos. If you plan to visit the Philippines, take my advice here. Don't exchange your home country money until you get to Manila- they have rates that are almost exactly the same as what you'd see on sites like xe.com or yahoo finance for the current going rate. Once again,

DO NOT EXCHANGE YOUR MONEY UNTIL YOU GET TO THE PHILIPPINES, YOU WILL MOST LIKELY BE GETTING A SHITTY RATE ELSEWHERE. (DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOUR HOME CURRENCY IS)

Sorry for the caps, but I wanted to make sure everyone got that. An example of this is San Francisco, California's airport. Their rate was a paltry 39.5 PHP to the US Dollar. In Manila's airport I got 46.5 PHP per US Dollar at the money exchanger just past immigration. Going rate on that date was about 47.3 PHP per US Dollar- not much of a commission difference, right? ^_^ I hope I help you get more for your money!

One more flight to go, took a short Philippines Airlines flight to get to Cebu next.

Total Flight Time (MNL-CEB): 1 hour 25 minutes
Flight Distance: 349 standard miles/562 standard kilometers
Aircraft Type: Airbus 330-300 (Another large plane!)

I got picked up by my girlfriend's cousin, who took us over to the hotel, the Crown Regency Suites and Residences on Mactan Island, to the south of the airport.


Two Days of Paradise:

After checking in and having my girlfriend's cousins check out the room and the views from the 8th floor that we were on, my gf and I just took it easy and used my computer to watch some music videos, especially of one of her favorite groups, the 80's group "Air Supply". We had a good time talking and just spending that important quality time together... we did check out the outdoor pool later that night, though the hot tub was not working. I liked being able to see some of the sky and even some starts despite being in an urban setting.

We did watch Tommy Boy, which Janeth had never seen. She really enjoyed the movie and we also watched the first half of the movie Airplane as well before going to bed. I was tired and definitely jet lagged after flying to the other side of the earth...

On the second day of my trip, we got up and went down for breakfast. They had what was mostly an American style breakfast with a few regional extras. They did make a mean omelette!

The tourist thing is what we did for the rest of the day after stopping back at her uncle's place, where I got to see where she was helping out. Our first stop was downtown Cebu and the old church of Santo Nino. We saw that, it was very interesting and had some really neat stuff inside, especially the stained glass window, sanctuary, and wall paintings. After seeing the inside, we went outside and went over to the nearby Magellan's Cross and took some pics there. That's where this picture of us was taken.

We then went over to the SM mall and checked it out and had lunch at KFC. I loved how the prices were about half of what I am used to paying in the USA. Neat mall, too. It was just like any big mall over here in the USA... goes to show if you have money, you can be quite well off. I personally think the difference between rich and poor is greater in the Philippines versus the USA.

We had one more stop after that, the Mactan Shrine back near the airport. We saw the shrine and the Lapu Lapu statue and then went back to the hotel. Before leaving, we took two pictures of each other with my camera.

I left early on Wednesday morning to head back. I had a good time despite the short duration of my visit and I know she did, too.

To get back, I had to take the following flights to return. I ran into a delay in San Francisco of over 2 hours, first due to the weather over in Philadelphia and then due to "Maintenance Issues"- I didn't get back home until about 1230 AM or so.

The first two flights here were on Philippines Airlines.

Total flight time (CEB-MNL): 1 hour 25 minutes
Flight distance: 349 standard miles/562 standard kilometers
Aircraft Type: Airbus 320-200

Total flight time (MNL-HKG): 2 hour 10 minutes
Flight distance: 701 standard miles/1129 standard kilometers
Aircraft Type: Boeing 747-400

I lucked out and got an earlier flight back across from Hong Kong to San Francisco on United Airlines, though the seats were slightly smaller and there was no personal entertainment system, unlike Cathay Pacific...

Total flight time (SFO-HKG): 11 hours 38 minutes
Flight distance: 6909 standard miles/11123 standard kilometers
Aircraft Type: Boeing 747-400

Then I had a delay and then got on the final flight, a US Airways flight back to Philly.

Total flight time (SFO-PHL): 5 hours 16 minutes
Flight distance: 2519 standard miles/4056 standard kilometers
Aircraft Type: Airbus 319

That about wraps it up. Yes, I did spend almost 2 DAYS in the air and went on three Boeing 747-400's. Any questions?