When we extended our travel dates, I know that a visit to Sun Moon Lake is a must. Two hours by bus from the city of Taichung, Taiwan lies the beautiful and breathtaking Sun Moon Lake.

Sun Moon Lake offers a lot of activities. You can do a round-the-lake bus tour, or board the boats and sail some areas of the lake such as Lalu Island and Ita Thao, or try the ropeway (a.k.a. cable car), where you can see a fantastic view of the lake from above.

But of all the activities that are offered, I only wanted to do one thing: go cycling. Sun Moon Lake has been dubbed as one of the most scenic cycling paths in the world.

And it did not disappoint.

I've got to say, this is one of the most memorable trips I've ever had. And I bet Jan would say the same.

We booked our Taiwan trip from November 16 to 19, thinking that 3 days would be enough for Taipei. But since the airline cancelled our flight on the 16th, we had it moved to the 14th. Coming from Davao, international trips can be steep because we also have to fly either to Manila or Cebu since the only international flight available from Davao is going to Singapore and vice-versa (soon to Kuala Lumpur). Fortunately, we were able to book an early flight to Cebu because we also planned to go to Bantayan Island before the Taiwan Trip.

So apparently, the Bantayan trip has to be scrapped to give way to Taiwan. And even with the extended travel dates, 5 days is still not enough to experience Taiwan. And one blog post will not be enough for that. So for now, this post will only be about Taipei.

I was 4 when I was first introduced to Mickey Mouse. Since then, I fell in love with anything Disney. From The Rescuers to Aladdin to their first computer animated film Toy Story to their latest live-action film Beauty and the Beast. Name it. I have seen it all. Disney has etched magic in my 4-year old heart and apparently, it has not escaped me ever since.

Well, almost.

Macau is also known as "Little Vegas" or the "Vegas of Asia", or at least that's what I've heard. And with its reputation for grand casinos and luxurious hotels, all the while we really thought going around Macau is expensive. But with research and a lot of reading, we never thought that it could be the most budget-friendly first class destination in Asia (as if I've traveled a lot of places in Asia noh? Haha).

We originally planned to book our Macau tour from legit online agencies since we can always go cheaper with that. A Macau city tour can go around Php 5,000+ that's already inclusive of lunch buffet in a 4-star hotel, roundtrip ferry (HK-Macau), and of course, the convenience of having a transportation that can take you from point A to point B. Actually, it's not bad. The buffet lunch would have made it reasonable. But it can still be quite steep for budget travelers like us.

This is not a travel guide but rather a summary of our recently concluded HK-Macau trip.

ON AIRPORTS
I'm not really sure what exactly happened but I think I held my breath for a while as I stood in front of the Immigration Officer while he asked me a couple of questions. The thought of being offloaded scared me. But the next thing I know, I was already at the boarding area working on a couple of urgent tasks.

My mom has always emphasized the importance of having physical copies of our photos. So if by any chance you come to visit our home, you would see piles and piles of photo albums where our deepest, darkest, and most embarrassing childhood moments were kept.

I've never really listened to her though. Uploading was apparently easier and printing photos was quite expensive. Then I learned my lesson the hard way when the hard drive suddenly crashed and Multiply and Friendster unexpectedly shut down for good. I've only had a few photos left during my college years. And those were the photos that my mom saved by having them printed.