At last we didn’t cycle (and I was happy to save that Y300 or Y500) and we walked towards the left after coming out of the station because the map says so.

The map given at the Shijo Omiyo station was a little misleading; we planned to go to Tenryu-ji first but ended up at the Togetsukyo (Togetsu Bridge) which is also known as Moon Crossing Bridge.

I seriously have no idea why I put this bridge in the itinerary but many travel articles recommended this bridge, so I thought why not since it’s free?

Thankfully I did as the view from the bridge is spectacular. The water below the bridge is so crystal clear and I was seriously amazed. There were wooden boats and mandarin ducks swimming gracefully on the river.

I took many photos using my DSLR but not iPhone. The cold weather and freezing breeze discouraged me taking my gloves off despite the sun was out. I should have got the gloves that can transmit heat over the cloth so that can use iPhone without taking my gloves off. Huhu.

We walked to the other end of the bridge and then walked back. There are more to discover if walk further down like the Monkey Park and some temples. We didn’t due to time constraint. Plus we didn’t just walk across the bridge – we spent nearly 30 minutes there because Satkuru was busy photographing the scenery.

We just couldn’t help taking lots and lots and lots photos there. The reason is, we won’t be going back to this place again, and the weather was so fine that the photos turned out super great! So, let the shutter clicks away~ Haha!

Totally love each and every shoot that I took there. Definitely enjoyed taking photos there. Not wonder it’s on the “must visit” list on all travel sites!

From the map, it told us to turn right before getting onto the bridge and take the 2^nd right turn. However, there’s no second turn unless we walked all the way to the end which is the wrong road.

So we walked back to the first turn…

…and got ourselves lost in the housing area. @_@

At the junction of certain road, we saw a Japanese girl ran down towards us hurriedly, holding a big plastic bag. I told Satkuru that I’m going to ask her for direction but Satkuru asked me not to seeing that she’s in hurry. But I ignored him and asked her anyway.

To my pleasant surprise, she stopped and smiled at me. I pointed Tenryu-ji in the map asked nani? I meant to say Doko, but the word Nani came out. Argh. Even Satkuru laughed at me for saying nani!

But she understood what my question is and pointed us the direction – straight ahead, on the left side. I bowed and thanked her for her help. She bowed back and ran off.

We continued walking uphill – we had to walk uphill and that time we were thinking did we understand her when she spoke to us in Japanese? But judging from the body language, we should get what she meant, which is the straight road ahead and on our left.

Thankfully at the end of the road, we saw lots people walking towards the left and I assumed that the temples must be near!

In our itinerary, I wrote that we’ll be heading to Karasuma with Hankyu Kyoto Line Ltd Exp for Y690, but in the board we found Karasuma with the fare (Y390). That time we didn’t have any idea on how to differentiate the trains from local, semi-express, express, rapid, limited, etc. We just looked at the board and paid whatever amount needed. So, I was quite happy to save Y300 per person here.

Unsure of which platform to go to, we asked the nice officer in charge and he told us which platform and which train to take. Very nice and helpful they are, always offering help with broad smile.  We thanked him and headed to the platform as per instructed by him (I can’t remember which now) and waited for the train to arrive.

When the train came, we went in and I found myself to be sitting at the PRIORITY SEATS. Actually, when I walked in, I didn’t know there are priority seats and quickly gestured Satkuru to follow me. Only after the train moved, Satkuru told me that and I told him no wonder the seats here were empty. I looked at the stickers above the seats and found that the priorities are the elders, pregnant women, handicapped and those with young kid(s). Since we were there early in the morning and it was the rush hour, I’m pretty sure we can secure the seats without any trouble – I told him.

And I was so right. We sat the entire journey and no sight of the ‘priorities’. There was a graceful elder woman in kimono but she sat on the seat in front of me, so there’s no need of me giving my seat to her. Keke.

Earlier I mentioned about being happy for saving Y300 in this ride, little did I know that the Y300 makes a difference in speed. I’m pretty sure we were in this train for nearly an hour because in my itinerary the limited express train would bring me to Kyoto in 40 minutes.

We reached finally and got off the train at Karasuma station together with few working people.  Following the map from the guesthouse, we exited at No. 25, turned left upon coming out of the building, passed 4 streets before turning left into the 5^th street (Samegai Street).

There, we walked further down, passing 2 smaller streets and found an old wooden, house in between 2car park lots.

We rang the old wooden house; it was 9ish in morning and that neighbourhood seems a little quiet so we weren’t sure if we were there too early.  After few minutes, the owner came out and we asked him if we could leave our luggage with him and came back later for check-in. He agreed but asked us to come in after 4pm as he said the guesthouse will be closed from noon to 4pm. We have no problem with that, so we bid goodbye and went out looking for breakfast.

Before that, we stopped by a convenience store to get essentials like mineral water and some snacks. Then we walked down and up Shijo Street, looking for cheap restaurant to have our breakfast.

Finally Satkuru spotted McDonalds and he suggested why not we have our breakfast here.

A little reluctant but too hungry to argue, I followed him into McDonalds outlet near Omiya Station south exit.

When we walked in, we were greeted with full of enthusiasm workers. We felt so welcome that I didn’t even bother how much the set cost because the service is so darn good! We looked at the Japanese menu and asked her if the meat is of beef or pork, and then she immediately turned the menu around and there it is, the English menu!

Ordering seems so easy here as we just point and order! Paying too as we paid according to the amount shown on the screen. It was one luxury breakfast as it costs us Y460 each but then we wouldn’t mind paying because of the service. I even went to the lady cashier asking her if she could fill in hot water into my flask and she asked in Japanese how much I would like her to fill with big smile before taking my flask away. The whole scenario was too happy and cheerful that I could remember it very well now.

Oh ya, the breakfast set’s burger in Japan is different too. Instead of the usual bun, they replaced it with pancakes and you can see the prominent M logo on top of the pancakes. Both of us ordered the same set, bacon (pork) with egg cheese set and we savoured the burger to the last bite! The hashbrown is unusually crispy and delicious, far cry from our local McD’s hashbrown.

Why the difference? I want that type of hashbrown here in Malaysia too!

After satiated breakfast, we went around to look for Shijo-Omiya station which is the building actually across the Omiya Street. We didn’t know that’s the building and spent about 10 minutes walking up and down the Omiya station (Hankyu line) and eye-scanning the buildings around.

Finally Satkuru said, “It must be the building opposite there” and dragged me across the street.

Yes, it’s located underneath this building!

True enough, it is! We went to the station ticket machine and again looking at the Keifuku Arashiyama lines and its stations. A trip to Arashiyama costs Y200, but we got ourselves the Keijuku Dentestu One-Day Tickets for Arashiyama for Y500 since this ticket is good for unlimited travel on Keifuku Dentetsu Arashiyama lines for one day.  We’ll be using the same line 4 times today so we saved Y300 with this ticket!

The elder behind the counter passed us our tickets and also maps for Arashiyama. We gladly took it, went through the automatic ticket gates by showing the officer our ticket and got into this pink coloured tram with painted with cherry blossom. Few minutes later, the tram departed and our journey to the Western outskirts of Kyoto began.

The tram lines are all over the roads, streets and backyard of houses and buildings. A uniformed driver handles the tram’s speed and direction, often slow down when nearing the road where motorists and pedestrians stopped, and honks to the cars who took the opportunity to cross the tram line just before the tram comes.

In the tram, there are two long parallel benches mounted to the body of the tram, facing each other. As we sat on the front right side of the tram, we enjoyed the scenery at the right side of us. It was a little sunny and the sun came in from the left, shone a little at us.

Our tram stopped from station to station. Off and on, people would get up and down from the tram. As we only got down at the last station, so we enjoyed the view and observed people.

There weren’t much people using the tram. In front of us there were two mid-forties Japanese ladies with travel guidebook on their laps, discussing while pointing at the book, often giggling in between the discussion. Few seats from us were old couples, and a mother and son sitting further down from the two Japanese ladies.

Obviously I didn’t take photo of them. So shy mah! Haha!

Finally our tram stopped and excitedly we got down from the tram. I asked Satkuru to take a photo of me with the tram, which he did!

The tram is very pretty and I was convinced that this is the romantic tramway that I read about – well, I was convinced until now I found out it isn’t.

*bang wall!*

The website shows a night stay starting from Y4,800 per person but luckily we managed to secure a cheaper rate at Y3650 per person from Booking.com. Without much hesitation, we placed booking for our first night stay in Japan.

When the day finally came, we took exit 13 from Osaka Namba (Nankai-Namba) station as mentioned on the First Cabin’s website. Thankfully I saved the map of our guesthouses in my phone, else we had to dig our bag to take out the printed maps.

We took the left turn and walked towards the crossroad. Unsure of our direction at that time, we asked a Japanese lady for her help. She had a look at the map and then looked up at the buildings around us. Tho she spoke in Japanese, I can tell that she said that she wasn’t sure of the location but she felt it’s in this direction – her hand pointed straight road across the busy road as she spoke. She even asked us to keep left and the hotel is on the left side.

So we did what she said. After thanking her for her kind time in assisting us, we crossed the road, walked straight and kept looking at our left. As we walked towards the end of the road, fear arose as we thought we’ve misinterpreted her. That’s when we spotted the First Cabin’s signboard.

The building looks new and classy. We walked in and to our surprised there are only two lifts on 1^st floor (1^st floor is the ground floor in Japan). There’s a sign on the left indicating the levels and the tenants of the buildings. We searched for First Cabin. It’s on 4th floor.

We went up the lift and when the lift door opened at 4^th floor, two receptionists greeted us with broad smiles from the reception table. We did our check-in and paid 7665 yen in total for two pax per night inclusive of the 5% VAT. Then the male and female receptionist explained to Satkuru and me respectively on our cabin number and also our bathroom floor. My cabin is located on 4^th floor but female’s bathroom located on 3^rd floor and the male’s bathroom located on 6^th floor while his cabin is on 5^th floor if I’m not wrong. After explaining, they gave us our keys and card to access our room.

My adrenaline was pumping like mad that time as I was so excited to see my cabin! But before we parted, we agreed on the time to meet the next morning and bid each other goodnight.

I scanned my card and the door opened. With my red luggage bag behind me, I went to look for my cabin, number 459. There are numbers and signs written on the wall, and I obediently followed the direction. I turned left and found myself surrounded by cabins on both sides. I walked further down and apparently my cabin is located at the end of the corridor, right beside the room with a ‘Telephone’ sign.

I pulled the curtain open and there is it – my cosy cabin. I pulled my luggage into the cabin and without wasting any time, I took out my camera and started snapping around.

A TV at the end of the bed; main light, air-cond, TV switches, power socket as well as headphone strategically placed on the wall is within an arm reach when you lie on the bed.

Right beside the bed, there’s a round table with a humidifier, tissue box and a paper vase filled with complimentary toothbrush, face towel, plastic comb, and slippers. Oh ya, there’s a locker drawer underneath the bed which I didn’t know until Satkuru told me. Hmm.

On the bed, there are pajamas (what they called, cabin wear) and a big towel.

Wearing the cabin’s slippers, off to the bathroom with the Cabin’s toothbrush, towel, and cabin wear. One doesn’t have to bring other toiletries to the bathroom if stays here because they are all provided.

As for the cabin, there’s no door lock as there’s no door. So to seal the cabin, you got to pull the curtain to the other end and align it to the magnetic strip at the side until you hear a ‘tap’ sound. Two tap sounds in fact.

Following the sign, I was about to walk down the stairs when I spotted a rack with only one pillow left. The rack has a sign – something like ‘Feel free to take’ and I immediately grabbed one and put it in my cabin. Then I continued my walk down the stairs to the bathroom.

There’s a chat/relax are’ too but I didn’t go and check them out as it was already late.

There’s a spa beside the bathroom, but the spa was closed that time. It was already near midnight when I went to the bathroom, so I quickly put my slippers at the shoe rack provided. Inside there are rows of dressing tables with large mirrors (the vanity area) on my left and white racks with baskets (the dressing area) on my right. The place looks clean and tidy and bright!

Disclaimer: I took these pictures using my iPhone when there wasn’t anyone around. It was 12.30 am that time!

Ohya, there was a Japanese girl drying her hair at the vanity area when I entered at that time.

Seeing this, I felt sense of familiarity and I know this is the communal bathroom, not the cubicle type. Luckily I’ve been to onsen before, else I would feel super darn shy and in culture shock.

Communal bath rule number 1: No swimming suit and undergarment in the hot pool. Not even towel, only small/face towel is allowed.

Communal bath rule number 2: You have to bath first before getting into the hot pool.

From my understanding, this is to prevent temperature shock on your skin when you enter the pool. The temperature of the hot pool is nearly 40 degree Celsius (if I’m not wrong) and that’s why you need to shower with similar water temperature first before entering.

Inside the bathing area, I went to the first stall and placed my towel on top of the divider. I know I should put them on the hook near the sauna area but I was too shy to walk across with another girl showering there. I looked at the water faucet and adjusted to the pre-determined temperature mode of 40 degree Celsius.

If you notice the brand of the toiletries provided there, they are all by Shisedo and the quality is real good. I washed my hair with the hair shampoo and the hair conditioner provided. Normally if I were to use the provided hair shampoo in other countries (or even in our country), my hair would be tangled like mad. But this one leaves my hair smooth and silky.

After washing, I went into the pool and dipped myself. It was so, so, so relaxing. However, I spent about 10 minutes in the pool only and it was getting late and I needed to wake up at 6.30am later.

So I got out of the pool, put on the cabin wear, put on the facial stuff provided by the Cabin (they’re all good so you don’t have to worry about using them) and blew dry my hair. Then off to bed I went.

The bed is comfy and but the temperature in the cabin annoys me a little. Even though I’ve turned the air fan switch to maximum, I still felt stuffy and would prefer the temperature to be lower. Nevertheless, I fell asleep too as I was too tired from the 7 hours flight earlier. However about 10 minutes later, I heard a cell-phone rang and a girl answered it, which followed by a big bang and soft sobbing. Slightly annoyed but shocked, I was too tired to bother much about it and thus continued sleeping.

Speaking about the noise, one got to be discreet in moving around as the cabin is not entirely sealed up. I felt bad taking out my plastic bags and walking around as the crumbling and squeaking were quite hearable.

At 6.30am, the cabin’s alarm went off. It was a soft ringing, but loud enough to wake you up from your deep sleep. I went to shower, packed my stuff and then checked out from First Cabin. For my first night in Japan, this place is indeed a great experience and a total first class sleep for the price I paid.

As we were getting to Kyoto, it’s only dawn to us that First Cabin is located above Subway Namba station.

Then only we were thinking if we could make this trip as dirt cheap as we did for our previous trip. Slim chance, as the cheapest accommodation we could find would cost us at least RM100 per person, not per room! Not to mention a bowl of noodles would cost us RM20-RM30.

Then the proposal came in. With wedding budget coming in our way, we really thought a lot and wondering if we did the right choice of going to Osaka.

While we were still thinking, we proceed with lots reading, itinerary drafting, accommodation booking, visa application at the Japanese embassy, and keeping a close eye on the Yen currency against Ringgit.

The moment Yen dropped, we immediately took out our savings and changed into Yen. During the itinerary drafting, I drafted too on the amount of money we’ll be using for our trip. I calculated that we’ll be using about RM3000 per person, with little souvenir back home. We both know we can’t afford to change more as we need to keep some for the wedding.

Well, the thinking stopped the moment we changed our money. Of course, we started thinking again when I fell sick the weekend before flying. I felt sick during Chinese New Year and it dragged until then. In fact it dragged until now, as I’m writing this post. *cough cough*

On 7th February we boarded flight D7 3056 to Kansai International Airport at 2.45pm. Thankfully, my sick subsided but I armed myself with lots medications in my bag. We didn’t pre-book our seat for our flight to Osaka and to our pleasant surprise, we got the whole row to ourselves!

Satkuru filled up the disembarkation and embarkation form for both of us.

I gladly stretched my legs over to the next seat. The journey was smooth; Satkuru fell asleep while I indulged in Travel 3Sixty magazine.

We did pre-book our meal, but we opted to have them for dinner. However halfway flying, our tummies growled and we decided to have tea time!

The blueberry muffin wasn’t that great, and I forced it down my throat because I didn’t want to waste any food. *__*

When our flight captain announced that we will be arriving 25 minutes earlier than expected, we were ecstatic. From the plane’s window, beautiful neon and warm lights can be seen clearly and I couldn’t help but to admire the lovely sight.

Finally we landed and boarded the sky bus to the main terminal. As I walked towards the immigration, I was feeling jittery as my previous experience at the immigration counter wasn’t that smooth.

I recognized the officer whom was having a hard time getting my fingerprints the last trip and was pleased to know that the line I queued at didn’t go to him, lol!

My turn came and I calmly passed my passport and embarkation form to the officer. Then he asked me to place both index fingers on the machine.

First time, the machine rejected me. The officer stood up, asking me to try again as he observed the way I placed my fingers.

Again, my fingerprints rejected.

He mentioned something and naturally I showed him both palms. He had a close look at my fingers and then went back to his seat. He then asked me to press the machine again – this time, looking at his computer.

Surprising, no buzz went off and I somehow believe that he manually approved my unclear fingerprints. He handled over my passport and I thanked him profusely for his kind act.

We went down to get our luggage and then went to look for JR office to get our ticket. We were walking towards the escalator when Satkuru suddenly spotted this Rent-a-mobile booth at the airport. As we were deliberating on to get a mobile phone for 800 yen a day, we were approached by an airport police (he showed us his badge) where he politely asked for our passports for ‘survey’.

Knowing that we didn’t do any wrong, we gave him our passports and he jotted down our names and passport numbers. Then he thanked us for our cooperation. After he left we were still discussing if to get a mobile phone. Didn’t know why we didn’t and we continued looking for the JR office.

I stopped by to ask at the information counter but was given a rather cold answer. I wanted to press on more but Satkuru told me judging from his body language he will only give the same answer therefore no point asking. So we took the escalator up to level 2, headed out and embraced the super cold weather.

We went to the building opposite the airport and saw many ticket machines. We paused and looked at the big map above the ticket machines. Then I looked on the right and saw the Nankai Rapi:t signboard. I remembered writing something about Nankai in the itinerary so I immediately took out our itinerary.

Thankfully the Japanese embassy forced us to prepare a very thorough itinerary, it really saved our time in determining what train to take. Satkuru went to the counter and bought 2 Nankai train tickets for 890 yen each.

Then we went to look for the JR office. The office is situated right in front of us, but we weren’t sure if that’s the place to go so we asked the lady officer opposite the JR office. She pointed Satkuru to the JR office which we immediately went in there.

There was already a line in front of the counters when we entered, but the officers are fast and efficient that we didn’t have to wait long. We purchased 2 JR One Day Kansai Area Passes to be activated on the last day of our trip. The officer asked for our passports before asking us to sign some document and telling us the price, 4000 yen in total. He placed a blue tray in front of us, which naturally we placed our bills on the tray. He asked us to keep the passes and use it only on 15^th February. He also told us rather than putting the ticket into the slot machines; we were required to show the pass to the officer standing at the side only. Thanking him, we dragged our luggage out of the JR office.

Satkuru asked, “So… all the tickets we should be getting, we got them already right?”

I nodded my head and off we went through the slot machine with our Nankai train ticket we purchased earlier. We went down the stairs and there were two trains waiting on both sides. Unsure on which trains to take, we peeped at the carriage seats before deciding to walk into the left one.

At the end of the carriage, there’s a compartment for luggage and we placed our bulky luggage there.

Even inside the train, I was telling Satkuru if we were in the correct train. His argument was this train looks like our KLIA Expressway train, and the other one looks like subway train. Since the ticket we purchased from the station shows the word Nankai Rapi:t, so we should be in the correct train.

But we were wrong. Halfway, we were asked by a pretty conductor on our tickets. We showed her our ticket but were told that that’s not the limited express ticket. Funny thing is, she looked at me and spoke in Japanese which I showed her my puzzled face. She then realised that I’m not Japanese and quickly changed to English. Her English is very good and she explained to us that we need to show her another ticket which is bigger in size. We told her we didn’t have that and she gave us two options. She asked politely if we would want to get to another train at the next station or pay 1000 yen to continue on this ride.

I was so prepared to get down and board the other train, but Satkuru said it was getting late and we needed to get to the hotel as soon as possible. So, he directly replied, we’re gonna pay.

She replied Thank you and gave us two additional tickets which we held on dearly for the rest of our ride. Lol!

Our ride took us to Nankai-Namba station and my goodness, after getting from the train only I realised we sat in such an awesome looking train! It really looks like one of the bots in Transformer with that beautiful midnight blue paint. I asked Satkuru to take photo of me with the train but that cow said, ‘we’re late already. Faster walk!’

Gah!

In fact, I’ve just reached Penang today. Boy am I so relieved to see price tag without two zeros – though 100yen doesn’t equals to RM1 but RM4! Not to mention that the price starts from 100yen, so each buying costs at least RM4. @_@

Yet, this trip is one of my finest and most explorable backpacking (or more to trolley-pulling) trips I’ve ever been to and I can assure you that both my legs are in terrible pain now. We totally walked until we dropped; and we ate like no tomorrow – to gain back energy after walking in cold. Yes, it was so cold (less than 10 degree Celsius in the day and negative at night) and it rained on 13th and 14th! Thankfully, the rain wasn’t heavy (more to drizzle) and that didn’t really dampen our exploration spirit, lol!

Many have asked me for this fabulous trip itinerary – I would have given a full one with all the accommodation and the subway/train stations plus its price, but I guess it’s better to reveal them out as I blog on. One thing for sure, we brought with us 149900 yen in total (for 2 pax), and this morning we have only two pieces of 1000 yen left.

So here you go – our itinerary for 8 days 8 nights Osaka-Kyoto-Nara-Himeji trip.

This is not the original itinerary that we brought to Japan, but the updated itinerary of the places we went or stumbled upon to. We went with the flow since it’s just two of us and guess what, we ended at somewhere else and seeing something else! BIG LOL right? – I know.

Oh ya, the total stated above are the total of entrance fees and two passes (Osaka Unlimited Pass and JR 1 day Kansai Pass), not the entire expenses. Do bear in mind on that.

Correction: There’s a mistake in the above photo. For the itinerary on 14th Feb, I wrote Universal Studio Japan Y6200 (RM200 with Pass). It’s supposed to be – (RM200 OFF with Pass). Sorry for the typo mistake.

It supposed to be 10 pax trip, but ended up only 8 managed to secure the ticket.

Last minute, one had to pull out due to work and thus only 7 people got onto the plane heading to Vientiane, Laos.

Don’t know why they sprayed so much of this asap thingy.

The flight took 2 hours and 50 minutes with occasion turbulence along the way. Once the turbulence was so strong that I felt that we were in roller coaster ride, lol!

Aaron, Satkuru and my head! LOL!

We couldn’t help but to order Deepavali special meal, tandoori naan set though we had lunch 2 hours earlier. It was delicious! Thumbs up!

Came with a packet of muruku too!

Laos is an hour earlier than us. So when we reached the airport, it was already 6.30pm. We quickly changed money at the money changer and gotten ourselves a van heading to the city centre.

The van is so much better than the van we gotten in Medan! It was so spacious and new. And clean too! Gosh, I begin to like Laos already. Haha!

The moment we got out of the airport vicinity, I could see tents after tents at the roadside and people would be dancing in it. I even counted the numbers of tents I seen along the road! I told the rest this, and we all agreed that Laotians are really good at enjoying themselves – by dancing in the tent with music blaring out loud.

Our van brought us to this hotel in front of Mekong river. As our van turned onto the road leading to the riverfront, there were a sea of human blocking the road. We were puzzled on the crowd and the loud music, all wondering what festivals that brought the locals out to the roads.

Our van driver explained that it was the day of the Dragon Boat Competition. It was held at Mekong river, which explains crowd. Apparently we were a day late, according to him. He said if we were there yesterday, we would have gotten a chance to witness the competition!

Ahhh! What a waste!

After few minutes of honking and jamming, we reached the hotel. It looks lavish and instinct told me it’ll be expensive. Emily and Vingie heard good review from a Singaporean guy about the hotel, therefore we decided to head there daringly. Satkuru went in to inquire on the room rate.

Then he came out, my gut was right, they charged USD60 per pax per night! Cheap for Singaporean, not cheap for us!

So we asked the van driver to bring us to Rue Pengkham. Before coming, I’ve listed out few potential hotels as well as the map of the hotels – just in case we might need it. It really came handly, having these extra information in hand.

The sky got dark pretty fast! Tho it was only 7ish but it seemed like 8 something or 9. There were massive jams all over the main road in Vientiane. Stomach started to growl and anxiety began to grow as we came in without any booking!

First time we went into a country without room confirmation. It’s not that we didn’t try to book, we did inquire around. But those that replied were expensive, and those that look cheaper, didn’t reply. Gahhh!

The Singaporean told that it takes the local 2 weeks to reply. So guys, if you want to head to Laos, especially Vientiane; book 2-3 months earlier.

When our van finally turned into Pengkham road, we were happy to see few hotels there. We told the van driver to stop us there, and paid him USD2 for the extra trip. I was later told that he wasn’t really happy with the USD2 when Satkuru passed him that; ‘maybe should give him USD3‘, he said.

Coincidentally, the van stopped in front of Family Hotel Laos, the hotel that we inquire 2 days before. Satkuru ran up to ask on the room rate and also the availability while we waited outside.

Now, why we inquire this hotel 2 days before the trip? Well, we were waiting for reply from Thawee Guesthouse and so happened I came across this hotel’s website on Agoda which stated they have 3 queen beds! Without hesitation, I asked Satkuru to email this hotel. Unfortunately, the hotel only replied on the day we flew.

Satkuru came out and told us the place is clean and the room is priced at USD38 per night; which all of us happily accepting this hotel. Comparing to the earlier hotel, this hotel is much cheaper!

Immediately we went up the stairs to the lobby, registered and checked into our rooms. Satkuru and Aaron in room 504, Emily and Colleen in room 603 while Vingie, Jessica and I in room 604.

The room looks clean, the bed looks so puffy and inviting, and the toilet – it is sparkling clean and spacious! Strong WiFi connection is available in the room and along the corridor. We washed up a little before leaving our rooms with only valuables in hand.

We were hungry. Like mad hungry. Satkuru stopped by the hotel reception to ask if there’s any ‘food’ available around the hotel area. He encouraged us to walk down the road as there are plenty restaurants and cafes there. He mentioned a popular cafe, “Khop Chai Deu” in the recommendation.

Which fits the information I gotten from Lonely Planet. Top 100 eatery in Laos!

So we walked along the road, passed by an Italian restaurant, a Scandinavian cafe and a bakery, and a fountain. Since the receptionist guy asked us to walk down the road, so we decided to cross this considerably main, busy road. Before crossing, I so happened to look to the right at this cafe with lanterns hanging all over and told Satkuru, see over there, such a beautiful cafe!

In front of the busy road, there were food stall on both sides of a smaller road and goodness, I couldn’t stand the aromatic smell coming from the stirring, charring and bbqing food. I so wanted to tapao something there, don’t know why I didn’t.

We crossed the road, but after walking straight for few minutes, we decided to make an U-turn and head to this beautiful cafe. It’s the famous restaurant, Khop Chai Deu!

At the entrance of Khop Chai Deu, we were ushered in by the lovely waitress. She led us inside, but we told her that we would prefer to sit outside, so we got ourselves a table for 8. Insufficient menus were passed to us. ==”

Sat and I decided to share, so we ordered their Laos set, which comes with sticky rice, papaya salad, sour and spicy fish soup, minced chicken with fresh herbs, Lao dessert and LaoLao. We added a bamboo sticky rice, just in case the sticky rice that they provided weren’t enough. While ordering, I actually asked Satkuru if we should tell the waiter to reduce the spiciness level of the food, but he felt the food shouldn’t be spicy.

Bamboo sticky rice that looks like a banana. Similar to lemang, but not that lemak.

And we were so wrong – in ordering the extra sticky rice and in the spiciness level! The papaya salad is delicious but totally burnt my tongue! As we ordered tower beer to share among 7 of us, the beer didn’t help to lower down the ‘hot’ sensation in our mouth! As for the bamboo sticky rice, it came 10 minutes before the set came and feeling hungry we ate that up first. But when the whole set in, we couldn’t finish up the sticky rice that was stored in a cute small bamboo weaved basket. However, I walloped up the whole basket to counter the spiciness of the papaya salad. Luckily it worked!

Even the minced chicken is spicy. T___________T I gladly munched on the greens to cool off the ‘hot’ sensation in my mouth.

As for the soup, it was sour and less spicy. However the fish meat contains lots bones! I hate fish that has lots small bones. The bones make eating less enjoyable because needs to pull them out before putting into the mouth. Gargh!

Ohya, Satkuru ordered their famous Luang Prabang sausage too.

… but I didn’t know that he did order that until this dish was placed on the table.

Immediately after we finished our meal, Satkuru asked for the Lao dessert. Thankfully the dessert is cold and sweet! I could only manage to take in few mouthfuls as Satkuru telan the whole bowl. LOL! Yes, like me he can’t take spicy food too. Haha!

After a filing meal, we talked, laughed, and enjoyed the beers. I busy observing people.

Like how I observed an angmoh initially sat alone at the bar with a beer tower while we were eating and after finishing our meal, there was a Lao chabo (girl) sitting beside him. Unfortunately for her, the angmoh totally ignored her. I saw her sitting alone, drinking Pepsi and looking around in boredom. While I was busy digging into the sweet Lao dessert, I saw the angmoh suddenly walked towards other angmohs who were seated at table in front of us and joined them, bringing over his beer tower, lol!

Halfway talking, Satkuru suddenly called the waiter and asked for the last item to be served. I puzzled and asked what’s the last item? He said, LaoLao, but no idea what’s that.

The waiter came back with a glass of yellowish liquid. We looked at it, and asked the waiter, what’s that? He said, LaoLao. Lao Whisky!

All of us went Ooo in unison. One by one took a sniff of the liquid, not daring to take a sip. When it finally reached to Vingie’s hand, she took a sip and advised us not to take it in whole as it’s very strong.

Me being the curious cat, wondered how strong it is. So I took the glass, and took a sip. When the liquid entered my mouth, it felt cold; but as it descended down my esophagus, I can feel the liquid ‘burned’ its way through. It was strong, but surprisingly good!

But I don’t dare to take another sip. One sip is enough.

The glass then traveled around the table, all took a sip just to taste it. Satkuru accidentally took a big gulp, hence he felt heavier burning sensation in his stomach. Teehee!

After the LaoLao experience, we paid the bill and left the place for a little exploration. However when we walked out of Khop Chai Deu, most shops were already closed and we had no choice but to walk back to our hotel. Along the way, we stopped by a 7-11 alike convenience store, M-point Mart – which turned out to be our favourite shopping place for the next 2 days, lol!

We bought few essential items like water bottles, yogurts, and snacks. Then we continued our journey back.

That night, we played Monopoly deal for almost 2 hours. Emily and Colleen supposed to come over and we waited for them, kept messaging them but there’s no reply. Little did we know that they fell asleep almost immediately after their heads touched the pillows. They must be really, really tired to fall asleep that fast!

That morning we woke up early, as we need to catch the 7 o’clock bus to Clark. However one room didn’t get the revised departure time; they went down half an hour earlier and Sat and I felt so guilty upon hearing that. That moment, I made up my mind to personally tell everyone on important stuff like ‘gather time’ rather than relying on the others to pass the message.

We did quick check-out and then left GoHotels.Ph via taxi for Philtranco bus terminal at SM Megamall. Unfortunately the taxi could only fit 7 people, so Sat, Aaron and Steven volunteered to brace through the human-packed MRT. The taxi driver dropped us down at the entrance of SM Megamall, vaguely telling us to get to the back of the building. We have no idea where, so we stopped and asked one of the policemen on duty. He asked us to walk further down, take the pedestrian bridge and then turn left.

We did all but taking the pedestrian bridge. All of us were too lazy to do so, haha!

I sincerely thought that the bus terminal is a building – little did I know that it’s actually a bus stop. It’s the same place where we got down when we arrived in Manila 5 days ago. Seeing few people waiting there with luggage further confirmed our doubt on the right place to wait. I was afraid that Sat, Aaron and Steven didn’t know the way so I asked Emily to message the guys on our whereabouts.  As we were looking for the accurate landmarks to tell them, they were seen walking towards the bus stop.

We waited for a while before the bus finally came. I noticed some were lining up but some were sitting there. Those lined up were carrying a white paper, which we didn’t have. I panicked a little, then I remembered about the online reservation. I thought to myself, maybe these people got their tickets online or earlier. I told Sat that, and Sat began to count the number of people queuing.

I went to the front to look at the placard displayed at the bus’s front window. It shows 6.45am. I was glad and worried at the same time. I KNOW if we couldn’t get this bus, we could get a 7am bus, but we need to be at airport 2 hours earlier, so we might not be able to make it in time.  So I told Sat, no matter what we have to get it.

Then he told me a good news.

“I counted d. Still have places for us!” and he smiled.

After those with tickets got in, it was our turn. We threw our backpacks at the bus luggage compartment and went up. The lady bus conductor came to us to collect money for our ride. It costs 300 Pesos.

The bus started moving and our 2 hours of sleep started. I totally konked and only woke up when we’ve reached Clark airport.

The security of Clark airport is super tight. We have to do through manual body scan by the officers and they would ask you on the stuffs in the backpack when they spotted anything unusual in the thermal scanner. After going through the very tight security, we noticed that there’s no restaurant/stall around there area except for the Departure Hall. There weren’t much people there and the counter wasn’t even opened thought it was time for checking in! So basically we were stuck!

Feeling hungry, tired and sleepy, we waited patiently (not that we have much choice) and observed how the officers work. And based on my observation, I’ve noticed something different. I noticed that the lady officer ran through her hands sideways when she was checking the aunties but for the ladies, she stretched her hand to the front and slid her hand straight down!

Ah, I felt so violated! T_T

About nearly 20 minutes, the AirAsia ground crew finally appeared and we quickly lined up for checking in. Then we have to write something (I think it’s the declaration paper, can’t really remember what was it already) and finally entered the Departure Hall.

HOWEVER, before entering, there’s another scan and this time we were required to remove our shoes too!

Ahhh!

I couldn’t understand why is this airport extremely tight in security. Sat told me maybe they beef up because of the terrorists thingy, but I was thinking otherwise. I went vacationing with my family members to Europe not long after the 911 incident, true enough the airport security was tight, but it wasn’t as ‘extreme’ as this!

Whatever it is, I glad that I went through this without a glitch. We were starving and the aromatic smell coming from the food stalls were unbearable.

Just when Sat and I entered the Departure Hall, few of the guys who had went in, told us which one is more expensive and which is not. Haha! They’re our price scouter! So we just followed their recommendation and I got myself a hotdog while Sat who was still in the Filipino mode, ordered their local delicacy.

Then I went around with the thought of window shopping, but ended up getting few last minute gifts. I thought I could bring home different amount of bank notes currency as collection, BUT because of my itchy hand, collection no more! Lol!

As we waited for our flight back to Malaysia, Sat armed with his iPhone started interviewing us around on our overall feeling for this trip. It’s a good way to kill time, since our flight got delayed. -.-” So everyone was having laughing at other people’s video.

Yeah, I laughed so hard that when it was my turn to talk, I tongue-tied and mind went blank. Hate watching my own video. Potongstim to the max!

Finally it was the time to board. I can still remember that it was a very sunny day. And the queue was so long because people would take their own sweet time putting their luggage on the compartment above. -.-”

The moment I got in, I quickly looked for my seat and hoped that nobody was sitting there as some people wouldn’t just sit on the allocated seats stated on the tickets. I was seated between Ailing and Aaron. Sat supposed to sit beside me, but seeing that Ailing were to sit beside a large size man, he quickly occupied her seat. Lucky Emily and May got whole row to themselves!

Then it was time for the take-off. The plane went from the tarmac to the runway, the speed went faster and faster then next thing we know, we were up in the air! Lol!

Though I just had my breakfast few hours ago, but when the cabin crew started pushing cart along the aisle, my stomach began to feel hungry and I quickly looked at the menu, and decided to go for Spaghetti Bolognaise.

After a filing meal, I continued watching Nine, the movie that I watched halfway at the Laoag Airport. By the time I finished the movie, the announcement of landing was made and I was thinking, Wow, such a good timing! Haha!

Believe it or not, for this trip I spent under RM1000! *beam with pride*

Yeah, I kid you NOT! Sat and I calculated our expenses over and over again, and because I jotted down every single expense I made throughout the trip, I calculated it to about RM600-RM630 only (I don’t have the figure now as I blog). Our international and 2 domestic flight tickets costs us to nearly RM300, and the only hotel we’ve paid prior to the trip was the GoHotels.Ph which is like RM50 only.

So you say ler, cheap or not? Heee!

Anyway, if you missed out any of the posts, please do click at the links below.

Multiple posts : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18

We were truly reluctant to leave the place. Though we were supposed to clear our bills and checked out after lunch, but May and I went for a little more exploration around the resort. Both of us were curious on the number of rooms the resort has and also the vicinity of the resort as we’ve only seen the lobby, restaurant, pool and a row of rooms where we occupied two rooms out of the 4.

As we walked we saw like an entrance leading to the back. We walked in and we saw a small vege garden in front of us! Further down a little are the rest of the hotel rooms

On our left is the storage for surfing boards.

Curious no more! We’ve found our answer. Haha!

Then it was time to go. We took our backpacks and lugged them to the van. We took group photos with the hotel staffs and they look amazing! XD

Journey from Pagudpud to Manila takes 10 hours by bus/van/car and doing that would be equivalent to having our butt to be extremely numb when we reach our destination. Since it’s more than 15000km in distance and Philippine Airlines was having promotion, we decided to grab opportunity and booked ourselves flight back to the capital.

But the downfall is we have to get back to Laoag for the flight.

Since the flight was rescheduled to 7.15pm from 11.15am, we departed from Kapuluan Vista Resort for Laoag Airport at around 3pm. It took 2 hours to get there and I dozed off after passing the Cape Bojeador Lighthouse.

The moment the van entered the Laoag town, I automatically woke up. It was dark outside and it looked like it was going to rain heavily. That moment, I was worried that our flight will be affected by the rain.

Finally we reached the airport. It was drizzling and we quickly took our backpacks, paid and thanked the driver (it was 230 pesos or RM16.79 per pax) and walked into the rectangular red brick building.

There wasn’t much room to roam around, so we immediately checked in at PAL counter. Just as we were about to enter the Departure Hall, someone pointed at the famous Philippines’ local product, 7D Dried Mango at a small food stall. We went to enquire on the price (140 pesos/RM10.22 per package) and ended up buying more than 20 packages from the stall.

I grabbed 3 packages too. Heehee!

Then we entered the Departure Hall and waited for our flight. To our dismay, our flight got delayed for 3 hours because of the thunderstorm out there. It was so bad that the entire building backed out for few seconds. Luckily, I’ve put few movies into the iPod Touch and I killed my time by watching Nine. Lol!

Thankfully, the rain eased up and we were allowed to board the plane on the tarmac. Umbrellas are provided and I took one even though it was only drizzling out there. I can’t afford to get sick after vacation as there will be piles of work waiting for me.

Our flight finally took off at about 9 something and I was so freaking hungry. Fortunately PAL serves light snacks on board. I was gladly munching on the peanuts and pink waffle biscuit given by the cabin crew. Heehee!

The flight took an hour and 10 minutes. By the time we finished eating the snacks, the announcement of landing was made and soon we landed on Manila Airport safe and sound.

The moment we touched down the airport, we immediately went to claim our backpacks and Hannah turned on negotiation mode and went enquired for airport van to our hotel, GoHotels.Ph. Meanwhile few of us went off for a quick toilet relief. Hehe!

We had van ferrying us to GoHotels.Ph for 1280 pesos (RM93.44). After reaching the hotel, we checked-in, did quick refresh and then left for late dinner. Hannah brought us to Whistlestop Restaurant in Makati.

The moment we walked into the restaurant, I could feel all eyes were on us. We were led to the back where they joined few tables to make it into a long one for us. Then menus were passed to us.

I know that I was supposed to order food, but my eyes wandered around the shop as it is decorated with antiques and stuffs from the earlier decades. There are few types of camera of different ‘generation’ on top of the shelves. Old typewriters, radios, television, pictures, clothes, shoes, bottles! – All nicely placed around the restaurant.

The waitress then came to get our order. Then we continued talking and snapping photos. As we talked, one by one the food came. Like usual, we did prayer, using our DSLR. Heehee.

We actually planned to stay until late night as it was our last night in Philippines; but we were told that it would be very hard to catch a cab after midnight. So we decided to leave after Hannah’s boyfriend picked her up from the restaurant.

At about 11 something, Hannah’s boyfriend appeared and all of us said goodbye to Hannah. Not long after that we left Whistlestop too.

… and I zoned out immediately my head touched the soft pillow.

She would stress on how clear the water that time and is disappointed on the condition of the sea water. Being accustomed to the cloudy sea water, I too longing to see the crystal clear water that my mum mentions.

I thought I’ve found one in Redang, but I stumbled upon a better one in Philippines!

Uber clear seawater. It is as clear as drinking water, but obviously you can’t drink the water ler. LOL.

Seriously, I never stumble upon such clear and BLUE sea water. I couldn’t comprehend where the blue hueness came from. It could be due to the difference of depthness, but maybe the blue is reflection so blue because of the sky.

The sky is exceptionally blue there!

No wonder the local calls this place, Maira-ira or Blue Lagoon.

Of 11 of us, only 9 got down from the van. Sat was down with migraine and Hannah wanted to go back and shower. I thought of accompanying Sat, but then Blue Lagoon was calling me aloud so bye bye boyfriend.

And oh my god, it was so freaking sunny and I could feel that my skin got tanner by N layers. I took out my umbrella to shield myself against the harsh UV rays, but somehow they managed to penetrate through. Cis.

But once I got into the sea, the scorching heat miraculously disappeared; and I enjoyed the cooling sea water and awed at how clear the water was at the same time.

We didn’t take off our crocs as we fear that we might step onto sharp, pokey, slimy, unpredictable thing.

We wandered around at the water level of knee deep only, as we didn’t have the plan of getting ourselves really wet. After all, we only planned to spend few minutes there.

As much as I wanted to walk deeper to the sea and dip myself into the cool sea water, but at the same time I was feeling afraid too. Don’t ask me the reason as I didn’t know why too. Lol.

We really have fun there. Took lots pictures, crazily posed for pictures after pictures and because we wore sharp colour tops, the pictures came out outstanding!

It seems like we found a little paradise in Northern part of Luzon, the Blue Lagoon. Teehee!

Somehow the heat got into me again and I walked to the shady area to cool myself.

The rest was still at the sea, laughing and taking ridiculously amount of pictures.

May, Ailing and I just sat at the side patiently waiting for them. The gentle salty sea breeze occasionally swiped our body to cool us down a little. But I fanned myself to increase the coolness.

I can’t remember what happened that caused us to start walking back to the resort without waiting for the rest. Maybe we waited too long and the guys didn’t seem to wanting to move at all. So we made our move first.

Or maybe it’s because I wanted to pee so badly. Lol!

Halfway walking, I bumped into Mr Boyfriend in the opposite direction. Apparently he had felt better and wanted to check out Blue Lagoon a little. So I left him walking there and I quickly sprang all the way to the resort.

I love swimming and it’s so unfortunate that I didn’t get to swim often. So seeing a swimming pool at Kapuluan Vista Resort, I wouldn’t have missed this good opportunity to swim! Hee!

So the next morning, I woke up early as my mind already set on jumping in the pool the moment the pool is open at 7.30pm.

I woke up, went down the stairs and found out that Jess wasn’t on the bed. I went to the toilet to relief myself and overheard soft voices coming from outside. Then I opened the door and found Jess and Daniel both looked at me, greeted me morning. Lol. I asked her why was she up so early and she showed me her DSLR and mentioned about sunrise shoot. Only then I remembered about her asking me last night if I wanted to go take sunrise shots which I declined.

Smiling meekly, I closed the door and went back to the room. Gently, I nudged May and asked if she wanted to swim.

Surprisingly she said YES!

Boy, were I happy when I heard that. I quickly changed to my swimsuit, went out with May and slowly went into the pool. Surprisingly the water wasn’t cold. We were the only people using the pool. From afar, I could see Jess and Daniel deeply in conversation and didn’t want to join us despite my endless calling from the pool. Hehe!

Halfway swimming, I went into the guy’s room to persuade Sat into swimming in the pool. But he wouldn’t budge at all. I gave up and went out. Few minutes later, he came out with a cute sleepy look while rubbing his eyes innocently. <3

Seeing this, I can’t help but to give him a hearty hug; but since my body still hasn’t dry from the swimming I had earlier, I patted him instead. Hehe!

The bathroom in our room was used that time, so I sat outside drying myself while waiting for my turn.

The water pressure in the bathroom is so small! It took forever to wash my hair – from wetting it to washing the shampoo away; half an hour would have passed by the time I finished washing my hair. -.-“

Nevertheless, I washed my hair and showered in the simplest and fastest way ever and quickly came out. I pre-packed a little before going out for breakfast.

My breakfast was the simple American breakfast which I had ordered after last night’s dinner.

Someone ordered cocoa powder, and it was the DIY type. Hebats!

Someone decided to join us for breakfast. Hehe!

After breakfast we went back to the room to get ready for a little expedition to the nearby waterfall.

Initially thought of wearing my swimsuit in it but it was still wet from the morning swim. Thought of wearing my bikini top but don’t felt ease of revealing my flesh yet. LOL!

I’m a bit of conservative la.

Saw two cute shih tzus paying with each other. Very cute! But they look like a piece of rug here in the picture. Lol!

At 9 in the morning, all of us got into a van booked by the resort and headed to Kabigan Waterfall located about 20-25 minutes from our resort. Something I don’t understand about Pagudpud’s sky is the blueness of the sky! It was so sunny yet the sky was so blue! How can it so? If Penang’s sunny, the sky would be light blue, not blue blue.

Our van driver took a left turning and pulled a stop just before the road gate and told Sat that we’ve arrived. There are wooden hut at the side of the road gate, and few ladies came out of the hut after seeing our van.

We got down and Hannah started speaking to the ladies. A bit of Tagalog here and there, then Hannah then looked at us and told we have to pay 30 pesos (RM2.19) for the entrance fee and tips to the ladies here.

So we took out 30 pesos and passed them to Hannah. After settling that, 3 lady guides armed with umbrellas appeared from the hut, signaling it was time to walk. One of them led the way, while the other two along our sides.

We walked through the vegetation farm and lush greenery. Off and on we got to dip our feet onto the cold water as we need to cross the ankle deep stream to get to our destination. The trail is easy to walk (unlike the hike to Mount Batur in Bali @_@) and doesn’t require much physical strength, thus making our journey more relaxing.

Halfway walking, I heard someone mentioned about not dirtying the stream because it was the water source for the villagers below there. The water coming from the waterfall and flowing down the stream to the river is the villagers’ drinking water, cooking water, washing water, bathing water and so on.

I was like WTFISH upon hearing that. I told Sat that they should bring a small bridge across the stream then or stop people from visiting this place, as people would definitely take a dip at the waterfall.

Finally, after nearly an hour of walk, we reached our destination. The remarks on the villagers using the waterfall water to drink were all forgotten the moment we saw the bluish green water. The waterfall looks serene, and it was very cooling there. David, Aaron, Daniel and Hannah quickly jumped into the water after dropping their stuffs.

Sat asked me to go down together with him but when I told him that I didn’t wear my swimming suit, he was sort of angry at me because he wants to swim with me. I told him that my swimming suit was still wet from morning swim.

Since I didn’t bring any towel or swimming suit to the waterfall area, I just dip my leg onto the cool water, and took pictures of the rest.

We spent about an hour there, before leaving with few group photos. Then we walked back, making sure that we didn’t leave anything behind.

The walk back to our van is faster and smoother than the walk to the waterfall. It was freaking hot too, and I regretted not bringing my swimming suit for a cooling swim at the waterfall.

It was so hot that we were super ecstatic when we saw a coconut stall at the exit. Priced at 15 pesos (RM1.10) per cup, the lady had to get help from her friends in opening few more coconuts as each and every one of us bought one. Some even bought two cups to quench thirst! Haha!

After the refreshing drink, we got into our van and were ferried back to our resort. But we requested to get down at this beautiful place. I’ll talk about more on this place in my next post.