Planning for Vacation: Part 1

It seems that vacation is still 3 months away, July, yet it seems so near. We would have wanted to go home earlier since July is rainy season in the Philippines, but with Xiane’s school schedule, we don’t have any choice at all.

With Xiane being older and less worrisome when travelling, we’ve been making some side trips when we’re on vacation. 2 Years ago, we went to Hong Kong to see Mickey and his friends at Disneyland. We were also able to take my family with us as it was a promise I gave my Mom in 1999 as she always wanted to go to Disneyland. Last year, we were able to go and snorkel with the fishes and visit the longest underground river in Palawan. That was an unforgettable 5 day experience indeed.

For those with us in the trip, it seems easy enough to follow the itinerary. But for someone who plans the whole trip, for 8-9 people, it is a tedious job.

Usually, a plan is set 6 months before the actual trip, deciding on where to go and doing the research, budgeting and planning. It also doesn’t hurt that some low cost airlines gives free seats once in a while. AirAsia had their seat sale last December, I think, but we haven’t really decided where to go yet so I missed that one. We were thinking of going to Bangkok or Malaysia but by February, Mavis and I settled that we might not be able to do an extra trip this year. However, my Mom blurted out that they were planning to go to Hong Kong Disneyland again since she missed the fireworks and got sick when we were there. So I started with the research and initial budgeting. It seems that their funds and our funds wouldn’t quite meet the needed budget plus there were some concerns that it would just be a repeat of our trip before. That didn’t really bother me, Mavis or even Xiane, who wanted to ride the Buzz Lightyear again. With Mavis and I, we love Hong Kong and seems that we feel we’ve connected with the city. We love the transportation, the food, the walking, the shopping, and everything else. But I digress. Having a more set budget, we set our sights to our original plan, Bangkok or Malaysia.

To be continued…