During our trip to Cebu, we spent a day in the city. There aren’t a lot of tourist spots to visit in the city so the next best thing is to try the country’s only sky attraction, the Skywalk Extreme and the Edge Coaster at the Crown Regency Hotel & Towers.

The Crown Regency Hotel in Cebu is the tallest building in the city spanning 38 floors. On the 37th floor is the Sky Walk where you will walk around outside the building and get a view of the whole city. The Edge Coaster on the 38th floor is a ride around the edge of the building where you can tilt your seat downward for a vertigo-inducing view.

We took a cab to Crown Regency at Fuente Osmeña and entered the hotel. The receptionist told us to head to the 19th floor to inquire about the rates.

Rates

Since we went there after lunch, we didn’t avail of their buffet with rides rate. There’s also a 4D theater available but we only opted for the Sky Walk and Edge Coaster ride.

The rate for the two rides is Php600 per head inclusive of a light snack. Not bad I might say considering how expensive the sky walk in Macau is. For complete rates and packages, check out their site.

After paying, we head up to the 38th floor and went outside to check out the view of Cebu city first before doing the rides. You can already see Bohol from the hotel.

Skywalk Extreme

This is the first and only Sky Walk in the country so it’s something you might want to try when you’re in Cebu. You will go outside for a 10 to 15-minute walk around the walkway with a cord attached to the ceiling and into your harness.

You need to wear a flight suit and rubber shoes. No slippers nor any loose items. No cameras allowed as well! They will give you a locker for you to place your belongings. If you don’t have any rubber shoes on, you need to buy a pair of socks (Php20) and they will lend you the shoes.

Once on your suit, you will put on your harness. There’s also an instructor who will brief you on some safety procedures. He will also lead you during the walk and act as some sort of tour guide. There’s also another personnel who will be taking photos during the walk.

As you do your walk, your guide will make you stop at certain points for some photo op. You can walk near the edge and look over below if you want.

Make sure you ask the photographer to take lots of photos with different poses. Take your time at each stop. It’s probably going to be a once in a lifetime thing so make the most of it.

When you’re done, you have the option to buy your photos on a CD or have it printed.

Ok I’m going to take some time talking about claiming the photos. I was surprised when I learned that the CD costs Php550!!! It gets more expensive if there are more of you so splitting the cost won’t do any good. Unbelievable! The photos were amateurish despite using a DSLR camera (there were a big speck on the lens) and we only had 10 shots. You can’t say no because you want to bring home something from it. Having a photo printed costs about Php200+. What a rip off!

Ok that’s enough ranting… for now.

Edge Coaster

Back at the 38th floor is the Edge Coaster. This is a 3-minute motorized ride around the edge of the building so you can get a nice view of the city in all angles.

No need to get into any harness here, your seat will keep you secure. You can control how your seat is tilted. Backward if you’re afraid of heights and just want to enjoy the view from the top or forward until you’re literally facing the pavement below.

Just like the Sky Walk, you are not allowed to bring your camera with you. You can ask a friend to go outside and take photos of you while on the ride though.

I was hesitant in buying our photos because it’s another Php550 for a CD of amateurish shots. They won’t even put your Edge Coaster and Sky Walk photos in one CD so you have to pay more than the rides. Geez! We settled for a 6×8 printed photo for Php230 because Tia insisted on it.

Afterwards, we headed back down to the 19th floor for our included snacks. It’s just a choice of a donut, dimsum or sandwich and an iced tea for your drink.

It wasn’t really a thrilling experience especially if you’re not afraid of heights. If you are then it’s best that you go at night. You won’t see the ground but you’ll get to enjoy the city lights.

If I’m going to do it again, I’m just going to go for the Sky Walk and have more photos taken. If not for the absurd cost of the photos I would’ve enjoyed my time in the Sky Experience Adventure.

On December 2007, my wife and I went on a 6-day Ilocos tour. We visited places in Laoag, Pagudpud and Vigan. We don’t know anybody there so it was a great adventure for us. I’m writing our experience to help others out there who want to visit the place but don’t know where to start, what to visit, how to get where, etc.

Our plan is to go to Pagudpud first and stay there for 2 nights then go back to Laoag for 3 more nights. It was raining pretty bad the week before we’re supposed to leave and since it’s already December, we decided not to go swimming anymore on the nice beaches of Pagudpud.

We travelled by plane (Cebu Pacific) to Laoag instead of the cheaper but 12 hour bus ride from Manila to Laoag. As many of you may experience riding Cebu Pacific, always expect that the flight would be delayed. Anyhow, we were greeted with a nice sunny weather landing in Laoag Airport.

TIP: Call your airline before you leave for the airport for schedule changes. It sucks to be stuck on the terminal for hours.

Our next order of business upon landing is to head straight to Pagudpud which is covered on the next part.

Part 1: From Manila to Laoag
Part 2: Going to Pagudpud
Part 3: Pagudpud
Part 4: City of Laoag
Part 5: South of Laoag
Part 6: Going to Vigan from Laoag

If you have any questions/suggestions/corrections, please feel free to leave a comment. Thanks!

The Hot air balloons are back!

The annual Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta (PIHABF) is the country’s biggest aviation sports event today. Hot air balloon and airplane pilots from all over the world fly into the Philippines to join their local counterparts in this breathtaking event. In addition to daily flights of the hot air balloons, other activities include: skydiving, daily flag jumps (a skydiver jumps with the Philippine flag while the National Anthem is played to the start of the day’s activities); micro light demonstrations; small planes fly-bys and fly-ins; remote controlled airplanes exhibitions; aerobatics; light airplane balloon bursting competition; ultra-light formation flying and bomb dropping exhibitions; helicopter fly-ins and exhibitions; an air rally from Clark to Vigan; rocketry demonstrations; kite flying exhibitions; and races between ultra lights and motorcycles.

Be sure to be there early in the morning. Be there by 5am if you want to catch the Balloons being set up at dusk. It’s just awesome watching those balloons transform from flat pieces of linen to graceful and colorful flying balloons! The balloons are the real stars in the Fiesta. The sunrise and the morning sunlight is a show in itself as well! Thank you Lord!

There are other aviation highlights during the day. There will be kites, paragliders, parchutes, small planes, skydiving, choreographed kite flying and so much more. See the 12th Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiest schedule here.

In the evening, be there by 5pm when the balloons start making their way back to the field. Wait a while and you can watch the “night glow”. Night glow is like watching giant fireflies lighting up their behinds. The balloons are lined up, then they would light up the fire like giant christmas lights! It’s beautiful!

Here’s a mishmash of tips when you go to the Balloon Fiesta:

a.) Be there early, like 5am, if you want to catch the balloons being setup. Stay there late, like 5pm up to 7pm if you want to catch the “night glow”.
b.) Protect yourselves from the sun! Wear sunscreen, wear a wide hat, wear your shades. Bring an umbrella too.
c.) Hydrate yourself. Drink lots of water.
d.) Bring your camera! Keep on shooting! Fill-up the frame with the vibrant colors of the balloons. Get close!
e.) Bring a collapsible chair, banig, umbrella to rest your feet while waiting for the day’s next events.
f.) Take action shots, where the stillness in the photo you still captures “motion” in a sense that the subject was evidently moving when the photo was taken. Examples would be balloons lifting off, people running, airplanes zipping by, kites flying.
g.) Take videos. It’s also a good idea to take *videos* of flying things. When objects are way up in the sky, they end up too small in photos anyway. At least in videos, you get to see the movement of the plane or skydiver, for example.

Enjoy the show!

ka edong
up up and away on my beatiful balloon

CebuPacific Air does another round of airfare promos. This time, the Manila to Puerto Princesa, Palwan flights have been increased by 50% and they’re offering a Php98 per seat sale today!

CEB is offering a P98 one-way fare for the Manila-Puerto Princesa route from August 24-31, 2007. The seat sale fare is good for travel from September 26 to December 15, 2007. Fares are exclusive of government taxes and applicable surcharges.

The additional flights are scheduled to operate using CEB’s 179-seater Airbus A320 aircraft every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The flight departs from Manila at 2:30pm and arrives at 3:45pm in Puerto Princesa. The return flight leaves Puerto Princesa at 4:15pm and lands in Manila at 5:30pm.

Of course, there are surcharges and taxes added to that so you’ll end up paying somewhere around a thousand bucks or more. Still, it’s a bargain.

Updates:

• Cebu Pacific Air drops Fuel and Insurance Surcharges
• Cebu Pacific Offers Zero Fare for Clark & Reduces Go Lite Fare
• Cebu Pacific gives away 50,000 tickets for free!
• Cebu Pacific brings back Zero International Fares

Like the previous years 1 peso promo, Cebu Pacific Air is once again coming out with a 1++ promo.

This time international flights will be included as well as a total 300,000 seats will be available. This is a marked increase compared to the previous years 50,000 seats offered. List of flight destinations can be found here.

Reservation will be open from March 2 to March 8 only. Flight schedules will be between Jun 1 to Dec 15, 2007, again this is an improvement as the flight schedules are longer than the previous years offer.

Reservations can be made at the CebuPacific website. Because of the popularity of this promo however I’ve noticed that the site has become unavailable, so I’d recommend munching on huge bag of “Patience” when booking *snicker* Or you could always just go to the nearest Cebu Pacific ticket center to avail of the promo.

What are the general details of your boat trip to Boracay?

We rode the Negros Navigation ferry from the Manila Pier to Caticlan on our way to Boracay and the WG&A Super Ferry on our way home. There were four of us going there and three going home.

How long was the trip?

The actual boat ride itself averages 12 hours. Going there we arrived the port at around 3 p.m., boarded the boat around 5:30. We were actually the last ones to board. There were problems with people who booked online. We finally got off the boat around 8:30 a.m. the next day. There’s a lot of waiting involved.

How much did you save?

As opposed to riding a plane I saved Php 1,700.00 total. Our tickets cost around Php 800.00.

How was the ferry?

It was ok. It looked like an old Japanese boat; there were Japanese writings all over. I was actually surprised at how big it was. It had four floors. We stayed at the economy air-conditioned section. Double-decked bunk beds all over with only around a meter between beds. But there was actually a section that was open air. Something like a super-economy section. ‘Nung umaga nga, tumitilaok na yung mga manok ‘eh.

What did you do during the trip?

Played poker. Tried to sleep. Ate dinner. Checked out the people who partied at the roof deck. There was a DJ and people were actually dancing. Some of the girls were even sort of ledge-dancing. And this was all on the rooftop, open-air, really, really strong sea breeze.

Do you think the savings from riding the ferry was worth it?

No. It’s a very, very long trip. You waste almost 30 hours. You could have been a lot more productive than the Php 1,700.00 that you saved in 30 hours. By the way, this is if you are going on vacation.

Would you do it again?

If all of us were to ride the boat, I’d do it again. If not, I’d probably just do it one way. Definitely to go there, and ride the plane to go home.

Any last words to describe this experience?

It was really exhausting. It’s not for people who lack patience. Don’t do it if some of your friends are riding the plane. You wouldn’t want to be with the group who chose the boat. On our way home, I was part of those who rode the ferry. Our trip was scheduled for 5:45 p.m., their flight was scheduled for six. They were already in Manila and we were still waiting in line to board the ferry. Finally, I got sick after. Must have been the airborne germs from the loads of people in the sleeping quarters, it was like a hospital ward there.

Post edited from Thoughts In Binary for Pinoy Travel Blog.

From February 8 till February 11, 2007 the 11th Philippine International Hot Air Balloon will be held at Omni Aviation Complex in Clark. This festival features much more than just hot-air balloons and represents just about every imaginable form of flying activity.

Amongst the many attractions, visitors can enjoy hot-air balloon rides, aircraft displays, sky diving displays and kite flying competitions. One of the popular aspects of the festival is the stunning sight of the early morning balloon fly-out and late afternoon fly-in which fills the skies with balloons from all over the world.

The tentative schedule for the Fiesta 2007 will be as follows:

February 8, 2007 – FIRST FIESTA DAY

- Hot Air Balloon Flight 5:30 am – 7:00 am
- Paragliding/microlite/AOPA-P/Airlink airplane flyby opening6:45 am – 7:30 am
- ACFC Ultra-light aircraft formation flying 7:40 am – 8:15 am
- Ultra-light bomb dropping audience participation 8:15 am – 9:00 am
- Gyro Plane Flying Demonstration by Gyroplane Rotorcraft 9:00 am- 9:30 am
- Aerobatic show by Bill Wright and Meynard Halili 9:30 am -10:15 am
- Paragliding Exhibition by Team Malaysia 10:15 am -10:45 am
- AOPA-P Light Airplane Balloon Bursting Competition 10:45 am- 12:00 pm
- Kite exhibition by Kite Team Philippines 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
- RC Demonstration Flying by Joel Paje and UP Flying G 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
- ACFC Ultra-light formation flying 4:30 pm – 5:20 pm
- Hot Air Balloon fly in 5:20 pm – 6:00 pm

February 9, 2007 – SECOND FIESTA DAY

- Hot Air Balloon Flight 5:30 am – 7:00 am
- AFP Sky Diving Exhibition 7:00 am- 7:30 am
- ACFC Ultra light Aircraft Flyby 7:40 am – 8:30 am
- Private aircraft airplane fly by AOPA- Phil. 8:30 am – 9:30 am
- Aerobatic show by Meynard Halili and Bill Wright 9:30 am – 9:50 am
- Gyro Plane Flying Demonstration by Gyroplane Rotorcraft 9:50 am-10:20 am
- AFP Sky Diving Demonstration 10:20 am -11:00 am
- Radio Control Aircraft Flying by N. Hedeki and A. Ishimura 11:00 am -11:30 am
- ACFC Ultra-light airplane bomb dropping 11:30 am- 12:30 pm
- Choreographed Kite Flying Exhibition by Kite Team Philippines 12:30 pm- 1:30 pm
- AFP Sky diving Exhibition 1:30 pm -: 2:15 pm
- Aerobatic Show by Meynard Halili and Bill Wright 3:15 pm – 4:00 pm
- Microlite air show 4:00 pm – 4:30 pm
- Hang Gliding exhibition 4:30 pm – 5:15 pm
- Hot Air Balloon Flights 5:30 pm – 6:00 pm
- Hot Air balloon night Glow 6:45 pm – 7:30 pm

February 10, 2007 – THIRD FIESTA DAY

- Hot Air Balloon Flight 5:30 am – 7:00 am
- AFP Sky Diving Exhibition 7:00 am – 7:30 am
- Ultra-light aircraft Fly-By from Angeles City Flying Club 7:30 am – 8:30 am
- Aerobatic Exhibition by Meynard Halili and Bill Wright 8:30 am – 9:30 am
- Helicopter Flying Exhibition 9:30 am -10:00 am
- HelioSTOL aircraft Demo by Summer Institute of Linguistic10:00am -10:30 am
- Paragliding Exhibition by French and Malaysian team 10:30 am -11:00 am
- AOPA-P Light Airplane Balloon Bursting competition 11:00 am -12:30 pm
- Choreographed Kite Flying demo by Fort Boni Sport Kite Com 12:30 pm- 1:30 pm
- Angeles City Flying Club Ultra-Light Flying display 1:30 pm- 2:30 pm
- Gyro Plane Flying but Gyroplane Rotorcraft 2:30 pm- 3:15 pm
- AFP Sky Diving Exhibition 3:15 pm – 3:45 pm
- Aerobatic Display by Meynard Halili and Bill Wright 3:45 pm –4:30 pm
- CTRM Flight display 4:30 pm – 5:00 pm
- Ultra Light Fly By of the Angeles City Flying Club 5:00 pm – 5:30 pm
- RC helicopter flying demonstration by Rufino 5:30 pm – 5:45 pm
- Hot Air Balloon Flight 5:45 pm – 6:15 pm
- Hot Air Balloon Night Glow 6:45 pm – 7:30 pm

February 11, 2007 – LAST FIESTA DAY
- Hot Air Balloon flight 5:30 am- 7:00 am
- AFP Sky- Diving Exhibition 7:00 am- 7:30 am
- Rocketry Demo by Arnel Noel 7:30 am – 7:45 am
- Ultra-light Aircraft Fly-By 7:45 am- 8:30 am
- Aerobatic Exhibition by Meynard Halili and Bill Wright 8:30 am- 9:30 am
- Missionary Helio- STOL aircraft Demo 9:30 am-10:00 am
- Helicopter Flying exhibition 10:00 am-10:30 am
- AFP Sky Diving Exhibition 10:30 am-11:00 am
- AOPA-P Light Airplane Balloon Bursting Competition 11:00 am –12:30 pm
- Choreographed Kite flying Demonstration 12:30 pm- 1:30 pm
- Ultra-Light Flour Bombing Competition 1:30 pm- 2:30 pm
- RC Airplane flying Demonstration by Alvin Alcantara 2:30 pm- 3:00 pm
- Aerobatic Exhibition by Meynard Halili and Bill Wright 3:00 pm- 4:00 pm
- CTRM Flight Display 4:00 pm- 4:45 pm
- Gyro Plane Flight Demo by Gyro Plane Rotorcraft 4:45 pm –5:30 pm
- Hot Air Balloon flight 5:30 pm- 6:45 pm
- Crew and award night party 7:30 pm

If you want to see more pictures of this event click here.

When: From February 8 till February 11, 2007

Where: Clark Special Economic Zone. Take the North Luzon Expressway from Manila and exit at Dau, Mabalacat. After which, a left turn towards Angeles City would bring you to within an easy right turn to Clark itself. The trip should take about an hour and a half from Manila. Try to arrive around 5 am.

My rate: 10/10. Excellent airshow.

Info from: My Sarisari Store and PIHABF

Piso lang!

After the success of Cebu Pacific’s Php10 fare, an even cheaper/lower fare of Php1.00 is up!

About 50,000 seats will be made available for Php1 only for all domestic destination. Selling period is from March 29 to April 2, 2006 only, for travels scheduled from June 20 to October 18, 2006.

Just book and print your e-ticket from www.cebupacificair.com

Remember though that your total fare will still include surcharges, taxes, airport fees and the lot. Still, you can save up to Php1,400 on a single flight.

For more inquiries, you may also call (02) 70-20-888 or the nearest travel agent.

Haven’t flown for quite a while now. Much of my recent travels involved land trips because I feel that I could get much more out of it. While taking an airplane is definitely more convenient, I get to take a lot of pictures of people and places along the way when on the road.

My vacation in Iloilo and Guimaras last month was a relatively short one so instead of taking the Roro, I opted for the 45-minute airplane ride. For quite some time, I always prefer Cebu Pacific Air because they are cheaper. However, their flight schedules are way off — either too early in the morning or too late in the afternoons. On top of that, their online ticketing service wasn’t working when I tried to book a flight thru their website.

Thus, I went with Philippine Airlines.

I was surprised that their new planes, the Airbus A320, are much better now compared to the old Boeing 737′s that they have. The seats are a bit wider with more spaces in between rows. The airconditioning system has improved and you get the experience of having cool fog flowing thru the aisles during the trip.

PAL’s new carriers are now more comfortable than ever. If only they’d serve better meals/snacks in-flight.

Technorati Tags: cebu pacific promo, cebu pacific air, cebupacific airlines website philippines, flight schedule, seat sale

Cebu Pacific Airlines is running a Great Seat Sales from January 12 to January 17, 2006 with huge discounts to airfares for Cebu, Bacolod, Iloilo, Puerto Princesa, Tacloban, Kalibo, Davao, Zamboanga, Dumaguete, Tagbilaran, and Cagayan de Oro.

Discounted tickets are as follows:

Manila to Kalibo – Php 388 (one way)
Cebu to Iloilo – Php 388 (one way)

Manila to Bacolod, Cebu, Iloilo, Puerto Princesa or Tacloban – Php 488 (one way)

Cebu to Davao or Zamboanga – Php 588 (one way)
Davao to Zamboanga – Php 588 (one way)

Manila to Butuan, Cagayan de Oro, Cotabato, Davao, Dumaguete, Tagbilaran or Zamboanga – Php 788 (one way)
Iloilo to Davao – Php 788 (one way)

Tickets must be booked between January 12 to 17, 2006. Flight schedules are applicable for January 31 to March 16, 2006. For booking, call (02) 6364938 or visit cebupacificair.com