Michi Photostory: January 2013

January 28, 2013

Blue Bunny Ice Cream

I never knew about Blue Bunny Ice Cream till I became S&R member. I always see this in S&R fridge but I was having second thought if I will try it or not since I’m not familiar with the brand. Well, Blue Bunny is an international brand of ice cream. It is made in Le Mars, Iowa which is known as “The Ice Cream Capital of the World”. This ice cream is cheaper compared to other international brand of ice cream but it is still expensive if we compared it to our local brand.

Last month, we bought Blue Bunny Premium Pistachio Almond; it was on sale for P259.95. My husband loves this, for me the taste is just ok and my son dislikes it.

Photo from bluebunny.com

Then last Saturday we tried new flavor which is Ice Cream Cookie Creations White Chocolate Macadamia Nut. It is a little bit sweet but it was an instant hit to our family. You can really taste the chunk of white chocolate and macadamia nut cookie.

Photo from bluebunny.com

It is now my goal to try other Blue Bunny ice cream if it is on sale.

Update: March 4, 2013

We bought Blue Bunny Toasted Almond Fudge last weekend; it was on sale because of the Early Bird Member’s Treat. Among the three, this is now my favorite flavor so far. I love the creamy taste of chocolate ice cream plus the crunchy toasted almond. But my husband prefers pistachio.

photo from bluebunny.com

January 22, 2013

Things to Consider When Planning an Itinerary

Travel itinerary is something personal because you have to plan and decide according to your preference, lifestyle, and budget. We always travel as a family so expect that our trip is kids-friendly. I’m not a shopaholic so shopping is not included in my itinerary. I am a budget traveler so most of the time we stayed in a hostel and guesthouses but there are times that we splurged too and try high-end resorts and hotels.

Planning an itinerary is not easy especially if you have limited time but let me share with you the things that I consider when I’m planning our itinerary. Every time I plan an itinerary. I have to consider seven things; Place, Days, Budget, Tourist Spots, Accommodation, Directions, and Weather.

Things to Consider When Planning an Itinerary

1. Destination

Of course, I have to know which place we are going. Is it a domestic or international trip? If budget is not a problem, booking a private jet could be an option to take us to our destination in style. Plus, making use of a resource like this page about jet card pricing could help me to save money on the cost of this so that I could put it towards more luxury flights in the future. But the reality is that, more often than not, I am on a pretty strict budget so I have to check lots of different airlines where we can score cheap airfare to get us from A to B.

Do we need a visa or not? If we need a visa, I need to prepare all the required requirements and schedule an appointment at the embassy or accredited travel agency.

What is the location of the place? Is there a possibility that we can do some side trips?

Example:

Hongkong – Macau,
CDO – Camiguin,
Bacolod, Iloilo, and Guimaras

Singapore - Malaysia

Oslo - Copenhagen and Sweden

2. Number of Days

It is very important to know how many days I have to enjoy the place because if I have limited time I can’t do side trips and I will just stick to one place just like our Kota Kinabalu and Cebu trip. I have very limited time so no side trip in Brunei and no side trip in Bohol.

3. Budget

As a budget traveler, as much as possible I do stick to a budget. I try my best to save at the same time enjoy our trips. I have to note if one tourist spot has no entrance fee or how much is the entrance fee. If there are special passes or tickets that we can avail so we can save money on exploring the city or visit different attractions at a fraction cost.

4. Tourist Spots

I always list down popular destinations, attractions, and even must-try restaurants then I will choose. For example in Hongkong, here are the popular tourist spots that I can visit.

a. Disneyland
b. Ocean Park
c. Avenue of Stars
d. The Peak
e. Tsim Sha Tsui (Harbour City)
f. Mongkok Markets
g. Causeway Bay
h. Snoopy World
i. Stanley
f. Wax Museum
g. Other Museums
h. Nanlian Garden & Chilin Nunnery
i. Sky100

Since I only have four days to enjoy Hongkong, I chose Disneyland, Ngong Ping Village, Avenues of Stars, The Peak, HarbourCity, Nan Lian Garden, and Chi Lin Nunnery. Then I will decide which tourist spot is for Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, and so forth.

Day 1: 1881 Heritage, Clock Tower, Avenue of Stars, and The Peak
Day 2: Nan Lian Garden, Ngong Ping Village and CityGate Outlet.
Day 3: Hongkong Disneyland
Day 4: Hongkong Disneyland

5. Accommodation

Depending on my budget, I will look for a hostel, hotel, or guesthouse. I have to consider the location of the accommodation. As much as possible, I chose a hotel that is accessible to different transportation so commuting won't be a problem. Since hotel foods are expensive, it is important that there are restaurants or fastfoods in the area.

Example:

Yiu Fai Guesthouse – I chose this because it is walking distance from 1881 Heritage, Clock Tower Avenue of Stars, and MTR. It is near MTR so it is not difficult to go to Nan Lian Garden and Ngong Ping Village. Lastly, it is affordable too.

Hollywood Hotel – though this is expensive, we still reserve a room for experience and proximity to Hongkong Disneyland Resort.

6. Directions

I search for maps so I know how can I go to a guesthouse, hotel, tourist spots, and others. What is the cheaper way to get there, MTR, Taxi or hire a car or van?

7. Weather

Of course, don't forget to check the weather, is it winter, spring, summer or fall. You have to pack the right clothes and gear that you need to survive the weather during your trip. Don't forget to pack vitamins, medicines, and even a first aid kit.

Hope this helps. It may be an arduous task but I do encourage you to make your own itinerary and you will feel proud of yourself. "A little step may be the beginning of a great journey"

January 21, 2013

Food Trip in Macau

I don’t have any list of must-try restaurants in Macau; all I wanted was to taste their Lechon Macau, so we ate whenever and wherever we wanted. During our first night, my husband bought food here.

On the second day, we had breakfast at McDonald's, and we took advantage of the free taste on our way to the Ruins of St. Paul.

We tried the famous Portuguese egg tart at Pastelaria Koi Kei. We were already full, so we just bought dumplings here for our lunch and went back to the hotel.

For dinner, we went to New Yaohan Mall to find the food court so I could taste Lechon Macau, but we couldn't find it, so we ended up at 7-11. They have rice meals which we like, so the following morning, hubby bought rice meals in 7-11 for our breakfast. 7-11 is a few minutes’ walk from Hotel Sintra.

I finally tasted Lechon Macau in Venetian Hotel Fastfood.

We bought Portuguese egg tarts again, but this time in Lord’s Stow Bakery and Café. I have no idea that Lord Stow’s egg tarts have been available in the Philippines since 1999. They have branches in Madison Square, Banawe, and MOA.

For dinner, we ate at the airport. Macau International Airport is not that big, so if you’re planning for a Hong Kong and Macau trip, book Philippines to Macau and Hong Kong to Philippines because HKIA is big; there are so many restaurants and shops, so you will not get bored while waiting for your flight.

Note: Hong Kong Dollar is widely accepted in Macau, so we did not exchange our money to MOP. 1HKD = 1MOP

January 18, 2013

Day 6: Macau Hotel Hopping

This was our last day in Macau so we still woke up early to finish our itinerary. After our breakfast we went to Grand Lisboa Hotel and Wynn Hotel, we were supposed to watch Prosperity Show and Dragon Show but unfortunately, it was under maintenance.

Imagine we’ve been in Macau for three days already and natapat pa sa Maintenance Schedule yung pagpunta namin. I don’t know the schedule of maintenance; if I knew it we will visit this on our first night or second day. Waah! Sayang, there is no entrance fee for this show. Pinoy Security Guard told me,

SG: Ma’m balik na lang kayo.

Me: Uwi na kami mamaya.

SG: Balik na lang kayo sa Christmas.

If I’m rich, I will definitely go back. hehe! So we went back to Grand Lisboa to ride the free shuttle going to Macau Ferry Terminal.

Next stop is Fisherman’s Wharf, which is walking distance from the Ferry Terminal.

Then we went back to Hotel Sintra for check-out. You can leave your baggage after check-out but we did not leave our baggage because we know that other hotels have their own storage area. We took advantage of the free shuttle bus from Hotel Sintra to City of Dreams.

City of Dreams

We left our baggage in City of Dreams’ cloak room and watched Bubble Show, this show is not free. MOP50 for adults and MOP25 for kids.

Venetian Hotel

We were hungry already so we picked up our luggage and transferred to Venetian Hotel. Again, we took the free shuttle bus from the City of Dreams to Venetian Hotel. Finally, I was able to taste Lechon Macau.

Venetian is quite big and sometimes we feel that we’re lost, good thing that there were so many Pinoy working in Macau, so may napagtatanungan kami. Pinoy Hotel Staff even gave a Venetian Hotel Map and assisted us in transferring our luggage from one storage room to main lobby storage room.

From the main lobby, we took a free shuttle bus again to reach the Macau International Airport. We did not spend a single centavo on transportation. Thank God for the free shuttle bus.

January 16, 2013

Day 5: Macau Walking Tour

I’ve realized that I haven't finished my Macau series, and it’s been more than a month already. #boo

As I mentioned in my other post, we slept early, but I promised myself that we would wake up early so we could start our tour. We started our walking tour in Senado Square; it is really within walking distance from Hotel Sintra. My son was not in the mood to walk, so good luck with our walking tour.

Largo do Senado (Senado Square) – has been Macau’s urban center for centuries and it is still more popular venue to public events and celebrations. The square is surrounded by pastel-colored neo-classical buildings, creating a consistent and harmonius Mediterranean atmosphere.

But before anything else we took our breakfast in McDonalds.

We visited some stores and St. Dominic Church.

Then we walked towards the Ruins of St. Paul; before you reach the ruins, I’m pretty sure busog na kayo sa dami ng free taste.

Don’t forget to drop by Monte Fort and Macau Museum on the right side of Ruins of St. Paul.

We wanted to visit Na Tcha Temple, but we can’t locate it, and our feet are already aching, so we decided to go back to our hotel and rest.

We bought pasalubong in Pastelaria Koi Kei. We enjoyed our free taste and free drinks. Sayang, no free taste sa egg tart. Hehe!

After our rest, we went to Michael Jackson’s Gallery at Sofitel. 20-30 minutes of walking from Hotel Sintra. No entrance fee.

Then we went back to Senado Square for night photos.

January 14, 2013

Paying Real Property Taxes in the Philippines

Owners of land and buildings have to pay Real Property Tax every year. A tax that you can pay annually or quarterly but I have no idea about quarterly since we are going to pay it every year. Last Friday was our first-time experience personally pay our Real Property Tax (RPT) because for the last two years we already issued post-dated checks to our Developer for our RPT.

We went to our municipal office to pay our RPT, we’re expecting long lines but it took us only a few minutes to pay for it. We just gave our Official Tax Receipt from our Developer and pay the fee. That’s it!

Note:
Real Property tax payments are made at the Land Tax Division of the City Treasurer’s Office (CTO).

Requirements:
Copy of latest Real Property Tax Declaration
Photocopy of latest Real Property Tax payment/Official Receipt

Taxes, Fees and Discounts Taxes:

Basic Real Property Tax = Fair Market Value x Assessment Level x Basic Tax Rate
Additional Tax (Special Education Fund) = Fair Market Value x Assessment Level x 1.00%

Fair Market Value: Based on the Schedule of Fair Market Values proposed by the City Assessor and approved by the Sangguniang Panlungsod.

Assessment Level:

On Land Type /Assessment Level

Residential / 20%
Agricultural / 40%
Commercial / 50%
Industrial / 50%

* Residential 1.5 %
* Commercial 2.0%

Discount and Penalties

Prompt payment (paid on or before the deadline) - 10% discount on basic tax, SEF
Advance payment (paid before January of the taxable year - 15% discount on basic tax, SEF
Failure to pay tax - 2% interest per month on the unpaid amount or fraction thereof, but total interest shall not exceed 36 months Source:

For more information click here

The discounts depend on where you live but it ranges from 10 to 20% or even higher in some places. The deadline for the discount varies too, it depends on where you live, some places until January only while other places until March. And because I want to save money, I want to pay for our RPT every December so I won't miss the discount.

Merienda at Banapple

Banapple is one of the restaurants that I really wanted to visit because I wanted to try their famous Banoffee Pie but as usual the branches are too far. I saw Banapple in Alabang Town Center when I redeemed my free J.Co Donuts last December so I promised myself that I will be back again and eat.

So when we went back to Alabang Town Center last Friday we had our merienda here. The place is quite small especially the table, nasisikipan ako. Once seated, they will give you the menu but you have to go to the cashier for your order.

We ordered Lasagna (P180), Buttermilk Pancake (P135), and of course Banoffee Pie (P95). I don’t understand why my son ordered a pancake for merienda but he really wanted it so we gave in.

Hubby loves the bread

When my order came, I took this photo and immediately tasted it and after few minutes…

Chocolate toppings were gone

…and my son was eating my banoffee pie. Thank God, his pancake arrived.

We enjoyed our food, Bannaple is not that expensive and the serving is big.

January 10, 2013

Macau: Hotel Sintra Review

One of my dilemmas while I was doing our Hongkong-Macau itinerary is our Macau accommodation. I know that there are so many hotels that I can choose from but I dislike the rates, it is too expensive for my budget.

I have few lists of different affordable hotel, hostels and guesthouses but the problem is they don’t have website and I’ve read some not so good reviews. Some people reserve a room through email but when they arrived in Macau they have no room. Some people even called long distance to confirm their booking but the hotel/hostel staff can’t speak English. I don’t want to experience that.

I was thinking of going to Macau on the day of our departure so I can save on accommodation but I don’t want to take risk like, what if there’s problem with ferry and we can’t travel to Macau. Are we going to enjoy our tour if we’re always in a hurry because we need to finish everything before our flight? So after several months of thinking I booked our hotel which is four months before the trip.

Hotel Sintra is one of the most recommended hotels in Macau so I booked here. It was an online reservation and there’s no down payment. You can reschedule or cancel your reservation two or three days before the trip.

Tip: If you are going to Macau, as much as possible don’t visit during weekend because the rate of the room is very expensive, the rate from Sunday to Thursday is cheaper than Friday to Saturday.

I did not know this before and our Macau trip falls on Friday and Saturday so the rate is high. Waah! If I knew this before I should book Clark to Macau and Hongkong to Clark.

Anyway, fast forward to our trip. We took TurboJet ferry from Hongkong to Macau; it was more or less one hour trip. Hotel Sintra has free shuttle bus unfortunately there was no shuttle bus at the time of our arrival.

Thank God for casino free shuttle, we rode Grand Lisboa free shuttle bus and from there we walk on our way to Hotel Sintra. We had a hard time looking for the location because people can’t speak English.

We’re all tired and exhausted and my son doesn’t want to walk anymore so ang daming buhat. After checked-in, my husband bought some food for dinner and we slept immediately.

Likes

1. Good location. It is located near New Yaohan shopping mall, commercial area and tourist spots so you can save on transportation.

2. Free shuttle bus.

3. Service is good.

4. Free wifi

5. The room is nice. The bed is comfy and we have four fluffy pillows.

6. Towels and toiletries replenished every day.

7. They have a free shuttle bus going to COD or City of Dreams.
8. Free Macau Booklet and Tourist Map

Dislikes

1. Shuttle bus is not always available. During our 2 nights and 2 days stay, I haven’t seen their shuttle bus so we have to walk to Grand Lisboa to avail free shuttle bus.

2. I paid our hotel upon arrival and I don’t understand why they have to charge my credit card again. I received SMS message that there are unusual transactions (floating charge) on my credit card.

Hotel Sintra

Address: Avenida de D.João IV, Macau

Tel: +853 2871 0111

Fax: +853 2856 7769

E-mail: rsvn@hotelsintra.com ( For reservation )

eo@hotelsintra.com ( For general )

Website: http://www.hotelsintra.com

Toll-Free Hotline:

Hong Kong: 800 969 145

China: 4001 20 0225

10 800 153 0025 (China Telecom)

10 800 853 0025 (CNC)

January 08, 2013

How to Get to Macau From Hong Kong

When I was still starting to travel, I would just book a round-trip flight and tour one city or one country, but now I’m learning to visit two or more places. It started last year when we celebrated our wedding anniversary in Bacolod, Iloilo, and Guimaras. It was a four-day trip, but I was able to visit three places, so when I booked our flight in Hong Kong, I booked Clark to Hong Kong, then I’ve made another booking from Macau to Clark because I know I can go to Macau via ferry.

Traveling in two or more places will give you more savings, we are aware that travel tax and terminal fee are not cheap so if ever you will go out of the country, as much as possible try to visit two or more countries or spend more days in that country.

I realized that when we went to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, we didn’t even have two whole days to tour the country, and if I just book a 5-day trip, I can still visit Brunei because there’s a ferry from Kota Kinabalu going to Brunei.

Anyway, there are three ferry terminals in Hong Kong going to Macau: Sheung Wan, Tsim Sha Tsui, and the Airport. Since we are from Hong Kong Disneyland, we took the ferry from Sheung Wan Ferry Pier to Macau Ferry Pier.

How to get to Sheung Wan Ferry Pier:

Take the MTR from Disneyland to Sunny Bay, then Sunny Bay MTR station to Hong Kong MTR station on the Tung Chung Line. Once off the station, walk towards Central Station, take the Island Line to Sheung Wan Station, and look for the Shopping Center where you will find Sheung Wan Ferry Pier.

It was a long walk, especially if you have kids in tow. Since we’re going to leave Hong Kong, I refunded our money on the Octopus Card.

There are several travel agencies in Sheung Wan Ferry Pier where you can buy your ticket, but I bought my ticket at the TurboJet Counter.

$HK185 adult

$HK170 child

I bought our economy ticket past 6PM, and our trip is at 6:45PM, so we immediately went to the gate. We’re really walking fast because we’re afraid to miss our ferry. I filled out the immigration form and prayed while waiting for our turn. Honestly, I still feel nervous every time I need to pass an Immigration Officer because I’ve read a lot of not-so-good experiences with the IO. It was like an amazing race trip because I had no idea how far the gate was, but we’re not late.

Immigration form

January 06, 2013

Hong Kong: Café de Coral

I don’t really have list of must try restaurant in Hong Kong because I know we will just it wherever and whenever we’re hungry but there is one fastfood that we frequently visit whenever we’re is TST area. During our first day, we ate our lunch in McDonalds and for dinner my husband bought some food in one local restaurant which I didn’t enjoy.

Prior to the trip I’ve read so much about Café de Coral so the following day I searched for Tsim Sha Tsui branches and fortunately we found it. Since then, we did not try other restaurant in TST because we’re satisfied with the taste and price of Café de Coral.

It is a self-service restaurant, you have to order and pay in one counter and move to other counters to get your order. I always choose the table beside or few steps away from the food counter so my husband will not have a hard time in transferring our food to our table (one tray per order).

Here are the foods that we have tried. I forgot the exact prices but I’m sure it is not over $HK30 per order.