Writing my dedication to AirAsia on the wall!

Congratulations AirAsia! I’m glad to be a part of your history!

AirAsia Philippines’ first flight to Kuala Lumpur!

We boarded Flight PQ 7455 at 3:15pm and arrived minutes earlier than the scheduled 7:00pm arrival.

This new daily route complements Malaysia AirAsia’s existing Kuala Lumpur –  Clark – Kuala Lumpur morning flights which have been in operation since 2005.

All aboard!

“The additional frequency to Kuala Lumpur provides yet another link for Filipinos and Malaysians in the areas of business and tourism.  But more important, we want to draw tourists from Malaysia to our amazing beaches and natural wonders in Puerto Princesa, Kalibo, Davao and here in Central Luzon.  If we are able to draw even a fraction from Malaysia’s 24.5 million tourists, this will impact on our tourist arrival record for 2012, which means more jobs, more food on the table, more opportunities for every Filipino” AirAsia Inc. CEO Maan Hontiveros.

True indeed, my friends from Malaysia Angeline and Satkuro have already flown early on from Malaysia to Clark, then hoppin on the plane directly to Kalibo!

The new route will be operated with brand new Airbus A320.

early on, AirAsia Philippines celebrated with friends from Media

It was great being a part of this! I made new friends!

With me on the flight is Upper Viceo of PHL360.com

I’ll blog more about my trip to Malaysia in the next post!

More photos here.

Book your AirAsia flight tickets online via http://www.airasia.com/ph/en/home.page

Philippines’ AirAsia call center also accepts booking of regular fares via +632 588 9999 from Monday to Sunday at 8:00 am to 8:00 pm (GMT +8)

Interact with AirAsia via:

Facebook: facebook.com/AirAsiaPhilippines

Twitter: twitter.com/AirAsiaPh

Air Asia Philippines Inaugural flight photos.

First flight to Kuala Lumpur!

Book your AirAsia flight tickets online via http://www.airasia.com/ph/en/home.page

Philippines’ AirAsia call center also accepts booking of regular fares via +632 588 9999 from Monday to Sunday at 8:00 am to 8:00 pm (GMT +8)

Interact with AirAsia via:

Facebook: facebook.com/AirAsiaPhilippines

Twitter: twitter.com/AirAsiaPh

With this, they have mosques, churches and chinese temples.

We were sailing aboard the SuperStar Virgo overnight from Singapore and docked early morning at Port Klang, Malaysia.  It was a very nice experience.  I slept, when we were in Singapore – and when I woke up, this was my view 🙂

This was our view of the port while we were enjoying a festive breakfast buffet at the Mediterranean restaurant.  I swear, food never ran out and I gained like 3 pounds over the trip – but I don’t care!

Food is part of the trip and I choose to enjoy it!

Port Klang looked gloomy as it rained early in the morning.  I was happy that it did.  I remembered the first time I went to malaysia and it was so hot! Hotter than in the Philippines.  The rain, regulated the temperature a bit.

I remembered having a sore throat and that bothered my sleep in the cabin.  I only felt relieved when I drank Jas’ Pei Pa Koi – a chinese all-around cough medicine.  That was already 4am so I barely had any sleep and so I slept through the entire trip from Klang to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia.

When I woke up, I was greeted with bright colors evoking words like “Good morning Hannah”

I love colors!  We went down and toured around the temple.

It was one big temple.  We had to climb a flight of stairs up the tower.  That definitely woke me up.

There were a lot of people, and I even noticed a couple getting wed.  The tour guide then explained that the Thean Hou temple offers fortune telling and marriage registration services.  She was like “If you have your boyfriend or girlfriend with you, you can already get married right here right now.” 😛

We went inside the alter and saw people praying and meditating.

The temple was so big, but if you look at the details, you will see that it is carefully crafted.

One example is their ceiling.  I know nothing about architecture, but it looked like they sure put a lot of work on this one.

In addition to the altar in the prayer hall, there is also a smaller statue of Guan Yin to the right of the hall, set amongst rocks and falling water. Here one can kneel and receive a blessing of water from the statue. Outside the temple at the entrance to the grounds, there is a larger statue, similarly set amongst rocks and falling water.

Other features include a Chinese Medicinal Herbs Garden, a Wishing Well as well as a Tortoise Pond.

Finally there is a large statue of the goddess opposite the temple, along with a collection of other large statues that include representations of the twelve animals of Chinese astrology.

Traditional Chinese exercise and martial arts activities such as Qigong, tai-chi and wushu classes are conducted at the Thean Hou temple.

I was inspired by the details of the temple that I opened my perspective to recognize the tiny things in my environment, including this flower.

this was a really tiny flower.  But, it’s beautiful and it looks fresh.  It’s like the world i want to live in!

I went to a Chinese temple in Cebu, Philippines about over a year ago and what the fortune teller told me was “A very handsome guy will propose to you in marriage this year.”  I was like – “what?” But, I asked about my career and there he is, predicting my love life. But to make the story short, it didn’t happen guys 😛  Maybe I wasn’t concentrating enough.

hmmm, how about you guys, do you have any Chinese temple stories?  Please share below!

Fly to Singapore and Sail on a Cruise Ship to Malaysia

This trip was part of AirPhil Express’ Fly and Sail adventour package.  We only had a day trip in Malaysia but I think it was about enough time to go around the major landmarks.  What I like about sailing is that I need not pack my bags to go to another country because I can leave my things in the ship.  No hotel transfers or whatever.

More to come in our Malaysia experience: Menara KL or KL Tower, KLCC and docking at Port Klang and Thean Hou Temple

Related Links

Merdeka in Malay means Independence.  Just like the Philippines, Malaysia also struggled colonization from Britain.  Manila was also under the British rule around the 1700s for only 2 years.  Resistance was strong and it prevented the British folks to spread around the archipelago.

But don’t you ever wonder how it would be if they colonized us? Think Harry Potter, Queen Elizabeth, The Spice Girls, David Beckham, Kate Middleton, Prince William, and of course and Mr. Bean😛

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Malaysia was colonized by Britain for many many years.  Hence they drive on the left hand side of the road, and they have British sounding towns / places.

Why choose between fashion and comfort when you can have both?

Wearing my Sanuks.  It’s perfect for traveling where there’s a lot of walking!

Merdeka Square, Dataran Merdeka or Independence Square

Sometimes they also call this place as Padang Merdeka.

I never knew that this place is so rich of history.  I was standing at the place where Malaysia waved their first flag of independence.  Across the field is the Royal Selangor Club which is a very exclusive, all men’s club

Therefore, I can’t go in 😛

Sultan Abdul Samad Building

This building is just right across Merdeka Square.  We hanged out inside the bus for a while because this area had free open internet.  Most of the pictures of this building was taken by my Blackberry Playbook.

Too bad we couldn’t go here at night because I heard that this building is also decorated by lights.

I always happen to visit Malaysia during August.  And I usually see their flags displayed everywhere.  This is to celebrate their Independence day.

Notice the buildings with Malaysia’s national flag.

Malaysia has different states and Selangor is one of them.  Kuala Lumpur is a city within Selangor.  Each states have a different flag of their own.  And of course, they have a national flag.

*If you ask me why I know so much about Malaysia, it’s because I have a lot of awesome friends there. (Shout out to all shouters!)

I was supposed to meet AlvinC a.k.a. Chewygummy at Port Klang because he’s the one who lives in Klang.  We planned to go around Klang to find some nic Bah Kut Teh.  They took me here once and he wanted me to try the dry BKT.  We couldn’t find one so we tried the ‘ol traditional soup 🙂

But we didn’t push through because our tour went to KL instead.  Don’t worry yah, I will be back.

Fly to Singapore and Sail on a Cruise Ship to Malaysia

This trip was part of AirPhil Express’ Fly and Sail adventour package.  We only had a day trip in Malaysia but I think it was about enough time to go around the major landmarks.  What I like about sailing is that I need not pack my bags to go to another country because I can leave my things in the ship.  No hotel transfers or whatever.

More to come in our Malaysia experience: Menara KL or KL Tower, KLCC and docking at Port Klang and Thean Hou Temple

Related Links

I have heard of the yummy Penang Island *drools* The first few people I got to know in Malaysia were in Penang and now I’d love to call them friends And if you may ask where I got to have many friends in Malaysia, it’s all because of this. I really love these guys.  I know that I’ve only gotten to know most of them online, but I feel like I’ve known them for years.  They also came by the Philippines to say Hello I blogged all about it here.  Actually, I just realized… I blogged a lot about them.  Pretty much, they have influenced me a lot I guess when it comes to blogging.  They were also the first blogger friends I had.

Okay lah, time to blog about me and Ed’s jet-setting adventure to Penang and KL!

Ed and I booked tickets like a year ago Why? Coz they were only for Php 621 (to and fro KL).  Cebu Pacific went ZERO fare and I believe this has been the most inexpensive ticket I have ever bought!  A few days after, Air Asia went super sale too!  And so we bought tickets from KL to Penang.  They were selling a ticket each for only RM 19 all in (RM 19 = Php 266 – ish). BINGO!

After a year…

(well almost)

I was on my car on the way to NAIA 3 and look at the weather… @_@

At the airport… I got hungry so I ate a little bit of unique donuts from Mister Donut.

I got lazy taking pictures of myself.  Also, at that time, I felt ugly so no pictures la la la…

anyway, I took pictures of these tips I found on Smiles magazine

This one too… I was planning on following this but… I got lazy and tired too because I brought some work with me while on vacation.

We left NAIA 3 at around 10-ish (can’t remember well)

and… touchdown LCCT yaye!  It was around 1:30 am then

Ed was busy checking stuff via LCCT’s wifi.

We got sooooooo hungry and it was so bad for both our diet

I still felt ugly but what the heck… *click*

I ate a cheeseburger meal by the way which cost RM 11 (P 160) @_@

Ed ate Spicy Chicken burger thingy… It was so spicy he was sweating like crazy XD

We had to wait for 5 hours for our next flight to Penang.

Tune Hotels is just nearby and had I known they had a 3-hour resting promo thingy then I would have booked a room and slept.

But, I didn’t know that so we waited at LCCT *faints*

Of course after 4 hours of waiting I got hungry again and ate something… Chrysanthemum tea is my favorite tea of all time and I love the Iced tea better!

I don’t know why but I can’t seem to find Chrysanthemum teas here in the Philippines so I often buy them when I’m abroad.

I didn’t know what was wrapped in this banana leaf when I bought it and I was surprised –

It’s Nasi Lemak wee! (bought everything at RM 10 or Php P145) @_@ expensive!

Nasi Lemak is like their favorite breakfast meal consisted of Rice steamed with coconut oil.

On the side are anchovies (Dilis) and shrimp paste (kinda like bagoong with tomato sauce and chili)

Oh yaye boarding time!

I guess we were so tired by then that we got grumpy over AirAsia.  There were around 20 planes on dock and we had a hard time looking for our own plane.

We almost went to the wrong plane which was supposed to go to Johor Bahru (south of Malaysia near Signapore).

We spent like around 30 minutes looking for the plane.  It wasn’t only me and Ed, the entirety of us passengers got lost lol

haaaaa… finally we found ze plane to Penang!

okay I look so demn tired at this time as you can see but I can still manage to smile as always

In flight Beautiful sunrise ^_^

I seem to notice that sunrise and sunsets are more colorful in the Island of Penang

they also call it “Pearl of the Orient”

and as you know, the Philippines is also “Pearl of the Orient”

no wonder I can relate so much with the people in Penang

Touchdown Penang!

We were supposed to take a cab as Satkuru suggested which should only cost about RM 60 – RM 70 I believe ( I can’t remember)

But, we were a little bit adventurous and we took the bus for only RM 2.70

We took the bus 401 which should take us to the Jetty port Bus station which is on the rightmost part of the map below

Jetty means we’re near Georgetown (near TuneHotels)

When we arrived to Jetty, we took another bus (Bus 101 Php 1.3) that took us directly to Tune hotels.

So, if ever you’re visiting Penang and you’re on a budget, and you’re wondering how to get from Penang International Airport to Tune Hotels (tunehotels.com)

then, just follow what we did. Bus 401 to Jetty Port.  Another bus 101 to Tunes

So how many hours now no sleep ah?

I still managed to flash a smile for the camera

*click*