I Chose Nikon D3100

Ahem..

After years and years of debating with myself and asking questions from photographers I knew all over the world, I finally bought a single-lens reflex camera last night in just a matter of minutes at Camera Haus, SM City Cebu.

There were only two options for me to choose from – Canon 1100D and Nikon D3100 – and I chose the latter.

Both cameras are suitable for beginners like me and although Canon 1100D was way cheaper at 29,000 pesos, comes in different beautiful colors (red is just sexy, haha), and offers 3-years warranty but according to my French photographer friend, Jacky, Nikon is the choice if I really want to learn photography. Also, my sister believed in the powers of Nikon.

So, after shelling out 32,000 pesos and signing the warranty card with a coverage of 2 years, I’m now a proud owner of Nikon D3100. Yay!

Now, it would be pretty stupid of me to spend this huge amount of money but not make the most out of this camera so I’ve been on youtube for hours now trying to learn the fundamentals of photography.  I find the guy behind FontanaKnowledge a bit “unique” but he sure is a fine and interesting teacher. And this guy is telling me that I need to read the manual first. Oh-oh! Just one look at this thick book makes me want to start snoring already.

P.S.
If within Avion, France and looking for a photographer, you might want to get hold of Jacky via his site: http://www.jpip.site90.net/ I heard he will have a studio somewhere in Thailand soon so check out his site for any new updates.

HotelThailand.com Activity Tour Review

A local travel agency in Cebu gave me the quote of the following Bangkok tours per person:

Grand Palace Tour: 3846 Php
Floating market + Rose Garden + Lunch: 4458 Php
Bangkok Canal Tour: 3496 Php
Rose Garden: 3715 Php
Crocodile Farm + Elephant Show: 3715 Php
Ancient City Tour (Mon/Wed/Fri): 4021 Php
Safari World + Marine Park + Lunch: 4283 Php
Dreamworld + Lunch: 4283 Php
River Cruise with dinner: 4458 Php
Siam park City with Lunch: 4283 Php
Full day Pattaya tour with coral island + Lunch: 5463 Php

I find the prices very expensive and limited because they don’t offer these tours unless you book a hotel from them too. So, I decided to consult Mrs. Google and she came up with the following options:  Isango.com and hotelthailand.com. I chose hotelthailand.com because they were the first to respond to my inquiry: Do they pick up people for a group tour in Rikka Inn? And the answer was a big YES!

Isango and HotelThailand.com acts us middlemen between travel agencies in Thailand and the rest of the world. I had my doubts at first especially since I can’t find any reviews of hotelthailand activity services but I followed my gut instinct anyway.

After booking 3 full – day tours with lunch from HotelThailand.com, I have to send a copy of my passport to verify the validity of my reservation before they could confirm my bookings and send me my tour vouchers as well as my payment receipt.

These are the tours I booked for my lovely parents with a total price of only 9,660 Baht or 14,584.91 pesos:

Damnernsaduak Floating Market & Rose Garden with Thai Cultural Shows Tour (06.30 hrs. – 18.00 hrs. on 14 Feb 12))

Grand Pearl Ayutthaya Cruise + Transfer (06.30 hrs. – 16.30 hrs on 15 Feb 12))

The Bangkok Landmark Tour (08.00 hrs. – 16.30 hrs. on 16 Feb 12)

I am very happy about the prices of HotelThailand but do you know what really impressed me? Their customer service. You see, I set my mom’s phone to roaming before they left for Thailand but something must have gone amiss (GLOBE network, GRRR!) because I can’t contact my mom at all. But I emailed Rikka inn and they told me that parents have already checked in.  Not to be outdone, hotelthailand also informed me that my parents have been picked up from Rikka inn and even gave me the phone number of their tour guide. Isn’t that great or what?

Oh yeah, my parents are now back from their Bangkok holiday and I asked them how they find their day tours and mom said: SULIT KAAYO (Very satisfactory!)

Thank YOU HotelThailand.com and Rikka Inn

Rikka Inn – Khaosan Road Hotel

My 50ish parents must have been inspired by stories of my travel that they finally started going on a trip annually since 2010. For this year, they will be celebrating Valentine’s Day in the City of Angels – Bangkok, Thailand.

My parents aren’t really the most savvy travelers in the world so they prefer relying on packaged tours booked from travel agents and are just happy to be herded from one place to another. But since there’s no direct flights from Cebu to Thailand on Philippine’s budget airlines, Cebu Pacific, total roundtrip airfare for both of them was a bit more expensive at 13,000 pesos (236 Euro).

For the package tour from a travel agent, the cheapest quote I got was 6,118 pesos per person (111 Euro) and this includes: 3 Nights hotel accommodation, half-day city tour, roundtrip airport transfers and daily breakfast. Mom was fine with this price but if you think about it, that’s 12,236 pesos (222 Euro) for the two of them so, I’ve decided to look for other options.

I’ve been to Thailand twice already so I know that a taxi from airport to khaosan road cost around 400 Baht (560 pesos or 10 Euro) – cheaper even if you get one from Departure area.  For the hotel, I booked my parents at the same place that I’ve stayed before – RIKKA INN where the internet rate for their HOT DEAL Standard Double (Non Refundable / No Cancel / No Change) is only 2,850 Baht per ROOM (3,990 pesos or 72.5 Euro) for 3 Nights hotel accommodation. Room doesn’t include breakfast of course but when did my parents ever eaten a hearty breakfast anyway?

Mom can’t believe how cheap their hotel will be that she asked me if it’s a prostitute hotel. Apparently, their friends went to Thailand before and because they wanted to save money, ended up staying in a very cheap hotel that seems nice enough until they started hearing loud sex noises at night. Nyahaha. I assured mom that Rikka Inn was decent, clean, very organized and no sex noises at night. But then again, I tend to sleep like a log and SOMETIMES even snore like a sailor.

Now, if only I could book a join-in sightseeing tour online for my parents. I’m thinking hotelthailand.com, viator.com or isango.com. I will keep you posted.

Why I love Khao San Road

I’m not a party animal at all (heck I don’t even drink), but I love Khao San Road, a backpacker’s haven, for a number of reasons:

1. Cheap accommodation is available for as low as 100 baht in a dormitory type guesthouse. Just don’t expect it to be in tip-top shape.

2. Cheap street foods are all over the place with chocolate banana pancakes as my favorite of them all for only 20 baht. Uhm, fried spicy cockroach? No thanks

3. Markets for shopping cheap goodies. I have tons of families and friends who EXPECT pasalubong (gifts) back home.

I know. What could you ask for more right? So every night before I go to sleep after walking about the city of Bangkok, I’d walk up and down this road to enjoy the scenery when a guy suddenly came up to me and asked: Ping Pong show Ma’am?

Ping Pong what? And then the guy proceeded to show me this list of variety shows available for people’s disturbing pleasures.

Sorry sir. Not interested at all to watch pussy write a letter, cut bananas, open the bottle and any other stunts.  Unless perhaps it’s a FREE SHOW?