2016.01.28-29: To the Philippines!

One of the gardens within the Changi T2 Airport

This is the first post for Vanessa and I’s trip to the South East Asian region. We begin our journey in Brisbane, travelling to the island of Cebu in the Philippines, exploring the city and airport of Singapore, making our way from the north of Thailand, starting at Chang Mai, and making our way south through the Historical Parks/cities of Sukhothai and Ayatthaya, to Bangkok for Chinese New Years, to Phuket where we make 2 day detours to the Similan Islands and Phang Nga Bay, spending a night on a Sleepaboard at Maya Bay, staying at Ko Phi Phi Island, and finishing the trip in Krabi at the Hogwarts Hostel. 

While I still haven’t posted up about our trip to New Zealand, you’ll find that we learnt from that trip and made sure to arrive super early this time. And by early, I mean 6am… Seriously, who wakes up at 4am? Apparently, a lot of people! Our flight was at 9am, so we had plenty of time to make it through the checkin, make it through the security, make it through the TRA, make it through a Subway breakfast, and make it to our gate. 

I can’t remember which movie I watched on this flight, but I’ll update y’all if I do (because I know how much you want to know). Got to Singapore without problems and had a 3 hour stopover where we got to explore the wonders of Changi Terminal 2; a place full of gardens, sculptures, activities for kids (or easily entertained adults…) to do, plenty of shops and eateries, and end upon end of “travel-ators”. Seriously, the airport is a destination in itself! 

But moving on, we then arrived in Manila Ninoy Aquino International Airport, and after walking to the transfers part of the airport, discover that our domestic flight was at a completely different airport (first lesson of the trip learnt: check to make sure what terminal and airport the flights are actually at). So a short taxi ride later and we arrived at the domestic airport, and eventually landed in Mactan-Cebu International Airport. 

Next time on “The Adventures of Team Vanessa and Eli”: making our way from Mactan-Cebu International Airport to Moalboal, and my experience of exploring this little town.