A Step by Step Look on How I Travel

I have time in my hands since I am waiting for my flight. I cannot really sleep because I am excited today (always giddy before heading towards a destination) so I am going to give this blog another chance.

People always ask me how I go about my trip. So I am sharing this to all of you today.

Step 1: Seat Sale Hunting

I usually start my journey by buying the ticket. So when the Piso Fare hits the website of Cebu Pacific, I'm already checking for available seats. No fixed destination. Not sure which and how many friends I'll go with. Once I see that magical 'piso', that will enable me at least a 3d2n stay on that destination, I take note of it (not book yet).

Step 2: Finding Accomplices

Once I found the best date (meaning it is on an American Holiday or the weekend), I bug my friends (mostly my seatmates or my travel buddy). I remember everyone who said they'd want to join me in the future. I tell them the date, destination and the amount.

Step 3: Book the Flight

This part is very tricky. Make sure you check each page carefully. Remove baggage and seat selections because it adds up to the fare of the ticket.

Step 4: Filing Leaves

Most people should consider this first. Always remember that you must not compromise work schedules. Your boss might get pissed and you'll get fired. No work means no moolah for your travels.

Lucky for me, I belong to a company that believes in Life-Work Balance so we have Vacation Leaves that are easy to file (you may contact me also if you want to be referred ;) ). Most of the time, it is available and since the only condition I need to consider is my partner who is usually not on Leave (Seriously! I even forced him to go on VL's at times!).

Step 5: The Wait

This is the longest. It could take months! The longest I waited is 9months. Most people doesn't like that but not me. It gives me time to pray for everything, enables me to save up and also allows me to research about my destination.

Step 6: Apply for Visa

Not every country requires this. In fact you can refer to this site to check the ones that doesn't need it. For those places who do, my suggestion is it is best to apply for Visa 50 days or less before your flight date. My only reason for that is the validity of your visa may be 60 days from when it's approved. That date should not be a standard though just consider the validity period.

Step 7: Finalize your Itinerary

I am a very optimistic person but I don't finalize anything until my Visa is approved. First of all, I hate having to plan twice so I don't make any until I really am supposed to. I make a schedule with myself (I really need to do this otherwise, I won't have the chance because believe it or not I am actually a busy person. hahaha) and the person I am going on the trip with. It's usually on a coffee or tea shop with Wifi because I have to check google every 5 minutes during this step.

Step 8: Book the Accommodation

People find it strange that my answer to the question, "Where are you staying?" during Step7 is still uncertain. My reason is that chances are, I won't stay in the same hotel or guesthouse during the whole trip. There are times where I have to stay on 4 different hotels on my 5 day trip. It saves you time and money if you make your lodging movable than flex your itinerary because of a preBooked room. Plus you get the liberty to go to the outskirts and suburbs of the country you are visiting.

Step 9: Plan your Outfit

Yes. This is the girl in me. :) I make sure my clothes will not just be apt for the weather, it should also look good in the photos I am about to take. I usually consider temperature, dominant hue of the place and lastly, how difficult is it going to be to get to the destination. I am also thankful for my sister Jackie because her closet is a gold mine for me during my vacations, her clothes are almost in every single one of my OOTD's.

Step 10: Pay Travel Tax and Baggage (if needed)

I do this 15days before my travel date so I will be able to pay it from my previous salary cut off funds. After planning my outfit, i now know how much baggage I need. This is also the time when people are asking me to buy things for them from where I am going. So I somehow have an idea already of how heavy my baggage will be. I then coordinate with Cebu Pacific to buy it. Since I do it over the counter, I also have to pay for the travel tax already. For adult passengers, the travel tax is PHP1,620(Business and Economy class) and PHP810 for children (2-11 years).

Step 11: Pack your Bags and Go

I do this on the same day of my flight (unless I have to work before I go to the airport). I lay everything out on my bed then Ate Aileen help me figure out how to put everything inside my small bag. I usually do not have added baggage so I have to be very strategic. You will realize that my Step 9 is really important because even though I have lots of outfit changes, I am able to pack light.

So there it is. Very lengthy but I hope I'm able to give you tips on how I do my travels,

Crossing Borders : Bangkok to Cambodia

We were really hesitant to go through this since we are both girls and you know how paranoid the parents get
The problem is, our ticket to Manila is coming from Siem Reap. So we tried with all our might to check for flights from Bangkok to Siem Reap, but they are too expensive for us (yes, 125dollar one way is already costly for us).  Being the frugal people that we are, we don't want to waste our return ticket so we searched for alternatives.
One of the most helpful blogs that I found was from Lakwatsero. We are already determined to follow his path when I ran into a news from Bangkok Post.
The first blog is really helpful however, I felt uncomfortable with the transfers. I'm really anxious with the thought of not having a vehicle from the border to Siem Reap (although I know it's close to impossible and it's just the paranoid me talking).
So our agenda on our first day in Bangkok is to go to Mochit Station then took a cab to Northen Bus Terminal and book this bus.

The cost of the ticket is 750 Baht.

We were at the Northern Bus Station platform 106 at around 8:30 am. We got a couple of Dunkin Donuts and some water to munch on while we're waiting.

At around 9:15 am, we boarded. The bus is much like our Deluxe buses here in the Philippines. It has a bathroom at the end of the bus so make sure you get front seats because it gets stinky after a while a couple who unfortunately got seats at the back transferred near us.

The man who serves like our Journey Attendant (cause I can't use Flight Attendant since we're not flying) handed us some pre-packed snacks: cake and orange juice. Tastes ok considering it's free. Around noon, he handed us our lunch. I thought we're gonna stop at a restaurant.

we forgot to take a photo of the cake

Few minutes after we were asked to get off to fix our documents since we're gonna have to go through immigration both with Thailand and Cambodia. The foreigners we're with are hesitant probably because of the blogs but we went through with it since we know that we don't have to pay. Good judgment for us because the place is actually an official Cambodian Immigration Satellite inside Thailand to facilitate easier crossing once we reached the border. They gave us forms to fill out and we're also able to do bio break with a 5 Baht fee.

After sometime we're already at the border going through standard procedures.

We can't take photos in the immigration parts so this is the only photo we got.

Since we already filled out the needed forms, we finished early and we even had the chance to have a frappe and check in through their WiFi in Poipet.

Then we're back on the road again. From here, you will see that it is a lot like the outskirts of the Philippines. Notice that its already Right Hand Drive in Cambodia so we were really impressed with our driver.

A few more hours, we arrived at our destination: Siem Reap! There are tuktuk drivers waiting to take you to your hotel for a dollar each. We got Lucky Man and he became our driver the next day for our Temple Run Expedition.