“Karl, I’m looking at the holiday schedule, and December 30th is a Filipino Holiday, the Embassy will be closed. Jan 1st falls on a Sunday. I wonder if the government is observing it on Monday?”
*google it*
“It’s on Monday! That’s a 4 day weekend for New Year’s Eve! My parents arrive on the 7th, but whatever, we won’t be traveling again until 10 days later!”
“Huh”
Check prices for international flights… Nothing for less than $250/ticket.
Check prices for domestic flights… Cheap! But cheap domestic tickets put us in places of no good hotels for less than $150/night. (I should note that Karl didn’t want to be totally isolated for NYE, which made it harder to find cheaper spots.)
Check prices for Coco Beach, which a lot of people recommend. Ooooh, affordable! But what is that thing there? Minimum of 5 nights stay? Compulsory NYE dinner at $85/person? Yikes! I don’t even think there is a restaurant in Manila that costs $85/person to eat at!
And then it clicked!
“Hold on, tickets for Singapore are around $250/person, but we might be able to stay with Traci… That will be cheaper than a domestic flight + hotels…”
“And we want to go to Singapore eventually anyway!”
Shoot Traci a message through Facebook…
Get a “yes! Come over!” reply.
And that’s how after a year of traveling: US, Brazil, Philippines (Manila, Cebu, Bohol, Coron…), Hong Kong, Macau, Korea, Taiwan, Guam (yes, it’s US, but it still counts!), we will also be showing up in Singapore for New Years Eve!!!
(Source)
Next year our travel schedule will decline quite a bit. We’re starting the year busy with my parents (Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam), and we scheduled a trip to Palau in April (oooh, I must blog about this too! How exotic is that?), but if we want to save any money while we’re here in Manila, we better tone things down. But heck, might as well take advantage before there are kids to think of, no?
For a person who hadn’t been to many countries before this year (US, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina – for dinner only, does it count?, Canada, Germany, Greece, Holland, Spain, England, France, Italy, Switzerland and Austria), I’m sure catching up on those numbers pretty quickly!
Singapore, here we come!!!
Sounds like a lot of fun! Have a wonderful time!!!
Thanks! I heard great things about Singapore!
Don’t leave Manila on New years Eve! You’ll miss how New years are celebrated here. It’s out of this world!
Tickets are bought, so we’re out of here! But we still have next year! Where is the best place to go for NYE in Manila?