My All-Asia Tour
A few years back I took an all-Asia tour through Cathay Pacific . They used to have a promo where you get to pick your destinations in Asia and travel to as many cities as you want as long as they’re within the covered regions. The price was $999.00. Pretty good, huh? What’s the catch you might ask? Here you go:
- Travel must be booked through a travel agent. That was the very first and the last time I used a travel agent because I prefer planning and booking my own travels.
- Travel must be completed within 21 days
- Must fly out of Cathay Pacific’s US gateway to Hongkong (in my case I chose New York since it’s the closest gateway from Orlando)
- Surcharge applied for US outbound flight that’s not from any of Cathay Pacific’s gateway.
- The flights did not earn frequent flyer miles:(
- Lastly, I had to fly from Hong Kong to each city and back, then out again to the next one, and so on and so forth.
The planning wasn’t too tedious. Armed myself with a map of Asia, a note pad and calendar, I started planning my destinations. I picked the countries/cities I wanted to visit, and I noted how many days/nights I would spend in each city, making sure I wouldn’t go over the allotted 21 days. I then took my itinerary to the travel agent, who I found online, to book my flights. When I got there, the travel agent was impressed saying she didn’t even know such thing existed. She’s never heard of All-Asia tour promo before, but either way, she’s happy to book it for me. I’m sure after my reservation, she booked more for other clients. Who knows maybe even for herself :)
My itinerary: Orlando – New York – Hongkong – Manila Philippines – Cagayan de Oro City (booked separately) - Manila Philippines - Hongkong – Taipei Taiwan – Hongkong – Tokyo Japan – Hongkong - Singapore - Hongkong – Seoul South Korea – Hongkong – New York - Orlando. I booked a separate round trip flight from Manila to Cagayan de Oro City so I could visit my family. I couldn’t visit Asia without visiting them, are you kidding? :)
Next step was booking my hotels for each city (except in the Philippines of course, we have a house close to the beach so no need for a hotel, that’s always a plus!
Accommodations were booked, luggage were packed … so what are we waiting for? Let’s go, come fly with me ….
First stop, Philippines! I planned to spend more days here. It’s been a couple of years since my last visit so I was very excited to see my family again! One of the advantages of being with my family, I didn’t have to lift a finger. I loved just sitting back, relaxing, and there’s no better place for that than in my home country! My mother referred to me as “princess in a pea” :) As I mentioned earlier, our house is just a few feet away from the beach. In the morning we would go to the beach and buy fresh fish. If we were not at the beach, we would be at the shopping malls, shopping and dining. I always enjoy our delicacies, and the halo-halo! Yummmmyy!!!
Hanging out with my sister and my cousin
At the beach close to our house
Enjoying halo-halo, one of my favorite desserts
With my sister and brother at the Limketkai Mall
With my cousins and my sister, we are family!:)
After visiting with families and friends, it seemed like days went by fast and it was time for me to say good-bye, it’s never an easy thing. I flew back to Hongkong from Manila to continue with my journey.
I traveled alone so I decided to take a mini tour of Hongkong, this included a visit to Victoria Harbor with the Victoria Peak in the backdrop. I remember an ascend to the peak then a stop to an observatory which offered an incredible view of the city! I saw this view from a postcard, sent to me by my high school pen pal, who lived in Kowloon Hongkong. I was truly mesmerized and couldn’t believe I was actually standing there. I kind of wish I had someone to share the view with at that very moment. It was so romantic! Oh snap out of it! I told myself! Hahahha! The tour concluded with a visit to a Chinese restaurant accessible only by ferry.
Hongkong
Can’t remember what I ate, but I’m pretty sure it included some dim sum and noodles or maybe steamed rice. I spent a couple of nights in Hongkong after which I was back in the airport to catch my flight to Taipei Taiwan.
There I was met by three of my Asian friends who were also contributors for my magazine. After our meet and greet, they took me to the shops for some shopping and dinner afterwards. I went back to my hotel for a good night sleep. In the morning, they picked me up from my hotel to show me around the city. After the sight-seeing, I took the cab to the airport to catch my flight back to ... guess where? Yeap, Hongkong :)
With friends in Taipei Taiwan
Next in the itinerary was Tokyo Japan! Back then I was a Disney fanatic so obviously the main purpose of visiting Tokyo was to see Tokyo Disneyland. I’ve seen both the American versions (Walt Disney World in Orlando Florida and Disneyland in Anaheim California), and the French version (Disneyland Paris in France) That was fun. Little did I know, my quest to visit all of the Disney theme parks worldwide would end in Japan. I think I’m missing one or two.
Tokyo Disneyland
One night in Japan was enough, I was back in Hongkong the following day to catch my flight to Singapore. When I got there, I was met by some of my magazine subscribers. I was delighted to get together with them. It was highly recommended that I went on a trip to Sentosa Island. Universal Studios Singapore was still non-existent at that time. I remember taking a cable car and had an incredible view of the island and the harbor. One of the highlights was posing for a photo with a giant snake dangling over my neck. I spent two nights/3 days in Singapore. Did more sightseeing in the city, visited and dined with friends until I was off for yet another flight to Hongkong, from where I had to fly out for Seoul South Korea.
Sentosa Island, Singapore
Singapore
Visiting friends in Singapore
It was already night time when I got to Seoul South Korea, bad idea to be taking a night flight especially being alone. I took a cab to my hotel. Unfortunately, the driver didn’t speak a word of English so it was really hard to explain where I wanted to go, I showed him my hotel reservation which sort of helped. I wish I’d brushed up on my Korean before embarking on that trip. I was counting on meeting up with my Korean Tae Kwon Do master friends but they were out of the city for a Tae Kwon Do demo tour. They were members of the Hodori Tae Kwon Do Demo Team and they’re always on a tour. Just my luck, they’re not there when I needed an interpreter! Anyhow, after over an hour, the driver finally found my hotel! That was truly unnerving! After exchanging our “kam-sa-ham-nidas” (thank yous), I rushed for the check-in counter. I was too exhausted to do anything that night, so I retired to bed right after check in. Since this was my second visit to Seoul, I didn’t mind not having done much when I arrived, I just wanted to sleep.
Seoul South Korea
The following morning, I did some sight-seeing and hit some of the popular shopping areas including Itaewon. I bought a few clothes. It was a shopping delight for a petite like me who always has a hard time finding clothes that fit, and I didn’t have to look for them in the children’s department this time:) Score!!!! Enough shopping … I was once again ready for the airport! This would be my last flight into Hongkong where I would catch my intercontinental flight back to New York. It’s quite a long flight!!!!
So there, I did it! Was it worth it? You bet. It was definitely financially sound! Nowadays, a roundtrip flight from Orlando to Manila alone will cost at least $1500. Cathay Pacific have since discontinued that program, maybe they have something similar but costs a lot more and I’m sure includes only a very limited number of cities, unless you are willing to pay the add-on surcharges. Maybe someday I can take another All-Asia tour like that, but until then I’m satisfied and very happy with the tour I took.