Welcome to

Travel Club Philippines

Proceed now to Hotels and Resorts Online Travel Reservation System

Click to proceed now to Boracay Online Travel Reservation System

Discover the best diving sites in the Philippines.

Click now to => Diving Sites in the Philippines

Most of these sites are located in Batangas, Bohol, Boracay, Cebu, Mindoro, Palawan and others.

Click to proceed now to:

Boracay Beach Resorts

Ten ways to save money when travelling

So you’ve done the math twenty times but you’re still a few hundred dollars short in the budget department. Here’s ten ways to save money – US$1,400 to be exact – while travelling. Just think how much more you could do, see and experience with that extra $1,400!

1) Don’t spend hundreds of dollars on a pair of hiking boots.

You won’t need them. Trekking in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam isn’t like trekking in Nepal or Peru. Most get by just fine with a good pair of sturdy sandals. Hiking boots are hot, they’ll start to smell really bad, you’ll be needing to take them off over and over again to visit temples and enter guesthouses, and they’re heavy.

Estimated saving over a month: US$285 (based on an average pair of quality boots going for US$300, with a sturdy set of leather sandles for around $15)

2) Don’t spend hundreds of dollars on malarials.

Unless you’re planning on sleeping naked in a swamp in remote areas along the Thai/Burma border, chances are you’ll not need to take malarials during your trip. If your family doctor starts writing out a script for months of malarials as soon as you say “Asia”, go and see a travel doctor for a second opinion. If the travel doctor says you still need them, then buy generic equivalents upon arrival in Asia – at a fraction of the cost of what you’ll pay at home. But remember, if you are visiting destinations on the main tourist trail in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, and are not planning on spending time in remote rural areas, you do not need to take malarials. Instead use repellent, dress sensibly at mosquito feasting times (light coloured clothing, with long sleeves and pants), and use a mosquito net.

Estimated saving over a month: US$135 (Based of $3 a Doxyxyline pill for fourty five days — a month and a week before and after.)

3) Don’t spend hundreds of dollars on brand new guidebooks.

As you’re reading this on Travelfish, you’ve already got the right idea. Regarding guidebooks, buy the book for the first country you’re heading to and buy/swap as you travel for the others. Not that we support piracy, but … pirated (photocopied or bound) versions of Lonely Planet guides are available throughout Vietnam and Cambodia – Yup that’s right, that US$20 guidebook to Laos you bought at Borders yesterday can be purchased on the street in Phnom Penh for $2. The regional guides (Southeast Asia on a Shoestring etc) are hardly worth using in our opinion and you’ll be FAR better served by the country-specific guidebook for each destination. Buy/Swap/Sell.

Estimated saving over a month: US$80 (based on purchase cost of four guidebooks at a cost of $100 Vs one real guidebook for $20, then swap or buy a fake one)

4) Invest in a digital camera.

Asia is a beautiful region and you’ll take photos — lots of them. If you’re shooting film or slide you’ll be looking at hundreds of dollars to process all your happy shots. A mid-range digital camera (say around US$300) will pay for itself in no time at all and if you buy the right one, you’ll get a video camera as a part of the package.

Estimated saving over a month: break even, but you’ve save money on your next trip.

5) Don’t buy a sleeping bag.

You won’t need it. If anything, get a sleep sheet or a couple of sarongs, but nearly all lodgings will have sheets and treks will have bedding organised. Plus sleeping bags are hot (you’re in the tropics remember) and they take up space that could be filled with trinkets.

Estimated saving over a month: $190 (based on a $200 sleeping bag Vs a $10 sleep sheet)

6) Travel second class

The train system in Morocco has “C class” — locals joke the C stands for Corpses, Crates and Cattle. Thankfully 2nd and 3rd class in Asia is nowhere near as bad. In virtually all cases, 2nd class is more than enough – and it’s generally about half the price.

Estimated saving over a month: US$50-100

7) Drink water not beer

Both beer and water are cheap in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. The former makes you fat and drunk, the latter slim and hydrated. While beer is often super cheap — say US$1 for a big bottle, water is often cheaper. Drink alcohol in moderation and you’ll be surprised just how quickly the savings pile up – and that’s without even counting the greasy $5 American Breakfast you’ll find yourself craving the morning after the night before. If you don’t want to listen to us, listen to your Mum. Drink less booze and you’ll save more baht.

Estimated saving over a month: US$90 (Based on four beers a night vs one, at $1 a beer -doesn’t include the greasy breakfast.)

8.) Fan good air-con bad

You’re in the tropics so you know it is going to be hot, but the evenings are often surprisingly cool. If you’re on the beach, look for rooms with good window space to let in that fine sea breeze. In cities you want a room on a higher floor and preferably with a window. Oddly, often rooms on the upper floors are cheaper.??

Estimated saving over a month: US$300 (based on an average for of $10 for a fan room Vs $20 for an air-con one)

9) Money management

Check with your bank before leaving to find out just what charges they have for overseas withdraws from ATMs and for cash advances. The fees may curl your hair and make travellers cheques look a lot more sensible as bank fees on a month-long trip in Asia can easily mount into the hundreds of dollars. When your bank tells you they have a US$5 charge per foreign bank withdrawal, plus an extra 5% spread on the exchange rate, you know which way to run — either straight to a bank that doesn’t, or to the closest American Express office for some travellers cheques.

Estimated saving over a month: US$100 (based on personal experience of one month in Vietnam foolishly using a Commonwealth Bank of Australia credit card)

10) Food, food, food.

Most guesthouses will offer what they call an “American Breakfast”. This is normally two greasy eggs, a couple of plastic sausages, manufactured ham and a decorative tomato or cucumber. Don’t be surprised when it costs US$5. Skip the overpriced fatfest, walk out the door and plonk yourself down for some fried rice or noodle soup for a dollar.

Estimated saving over a month: US$120 (Based on $5 fatfest Vs $1 noodle soup)

Five more little tips

1) Buy your Travel Insurance through Travelfish.

?Buy your travel insurance with World Nomads through Travelfish and you’ll save 5% on the policy cost. (See the Member Centre for more information — Americans and Canadians not eligible sorry!)

2) Get your visas in Asia, not at home.

Visas for other Asian countries are almost always cheaper in other Asian countries than in the west. For example a visa for Vietnam costs A$70 in Sydney, Australia or US$30 in Cambodia.

3) Catch the bus, not a cab.

Where possible use public transport rather than taxis. Taxis remain very cheap, but the bus system, particularly in the larger cities in Thailand and Vietnam, is even cheaper. Bangkok, Saigon and Hanoi all have comprehensive and very affordable bus systems.

4) Get your travellers cheques in large denominations.

Exchange kiosks will often charge a flat fee per travellers cheque. So to change five US$20 travellers cheques may cost you $5 ($1 per cheque) while a single US$100 cheque will cost you just $1 to change. Don’t get travellers cheques in anything smaller than US$100.

5) Look into the Bangkok Airways Discovery Airpass.

If you’re planning on a few flights between Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, then the Discovery Airpass can be a steal. Note the Airpass CANNOT be purchased in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand or Vietnam – you must buy it in your home country.

Travelfish.org

Click to proceed now to:

Timeshare Baguio City, Philippines

Click to the pioneering personals site that revolutionized online dating

Click to proceed now to:

Boracay Beach Resorts

Beneath Jerusalem, an underground city takes shape

JERUSALEM – Underneath the crowded alleys and holy sites of old Jerusalem, hundreds of people are snaking at any given moment through tunnels, vaulted medieval chambers and Roman sewers in a rapidly expanding subterranean city invisible from the streets above.

At street level, the walled Old City is an energetic and fractious enclave with a physical landscape that is predominantly Islamic and a population that is mainly Arab.

Underground Jerusalem is different: Here the noise recedes, the fierce Middle Eastern sun disappears, and light comes from fluorescent bulbs. There is a smell of earth and mildew, and the geography recalls a Jewish city that existed 2,000 years ago.

Archaeological digs under the disputed Old City are a matter of immense sensitivity. For Israel, the tunnels are proof of the depth of Jewish roots here, and this has made the tunnels one of Jerusalem’s main tourist draws: The number of visitors, mostly Jews and Christians, has risen dramatically in recent years to more than a million visitors in 2010.

But many Palestinians, who reject Israel’s sovereignty in the city, see them as a threat to their own claims to Jerusalem. And some critics say they put an exaggerated focus on Jewish history.

A new underground link is opening within two months, and when it does, there will be more than a mile (two kilometers) of pathways beneath the city. Officials say at least one other major project is in the works. Soon, anyone so inclined will be able to spend much of their time in Jerusalem without seeing the sky.

On a recent morning, a man carrying surveying equipment walked across a two-millennia-old stone road, paused at the edge of a hole and disappeared underground.

In a multilevel maze of rooms and corridors beneath the Muslim Quarter, workers cleared rubble and installed steel safety braces to shore up crumbling 700-year-old Mamluk-era arches.

Above ground, a group of French tourists emerged from a dark passage they had entered an hour earlier in the Jewish Quarter and found themselves among Arab shops on the Via Dolorosa, the traditional route Jesus took to his crucifixion.

South of the Old City, visitors to Jerusalem can enter a tunnel chipped from the bedrock by a Judean king 2,500 years ago and walk through knee-deep water under the Arab neighborhood of Silwan.
Beginning this summer, a new passage will be open nearby: a sewer Jewish rebels are thought to have used to flee the Roman legions who destroyed the Jerusalem temple in 70 A.D.

The sewer leads uphill, passing beneath the Old City walls before expelling visitors into sunlight next to the rectangular enclosure where the temple once stood, now home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the gold-capped Dome of the Rock.

From there, it’s a short walk to a third passage, the Western Wall tunnel, which continues north from the Jewish holy site past stones cut by masons working for King Herod and an ancient water system. Visitors emerge near the entrance to an ancient quarry called Zedekiah’s Cave that descends under the Muslim Quarter.

The next major project, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority, will follow the course of one of the city’s main Roman-era streets underneath the prayer plaza at the Western Wall. This route, scheduled for completion in three years, will link up with the Western Wall tunnel.

The excavations and flood of visitors exist against a backdrop of acute distrust between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Muslims, who are suspicious of any government moves in the Old City and particularly around the Al-Aqsa compound, Islam’s third-holiest shrine. Jews know the compound as the Temple Mount, site of two destroyed temples and the center of the Jewish faith for three millennia.

Muslim fears have led to violence in the past: The 1996 opening of a new exit to the Western Wall tunnel sparked rumors among Palestinians that Israel meant to damage the mosques, and dozens were killed in the ensuing riots. In recent years, however, work has gone ahead without incident.

Mindful that the compound has the potential to trigger devastating conflict, Israel’s policy is to allow no excavations there. Digging under Temple Mount, the Israeli historian Gershom Gorenberg has written, “would be like trying to figure out how a hand grenade works by pulling the pin and peering inside.”

Despite the Israeli assurances, however, rumors persist that the excavations are undermining the physical stability of the Islamic holy sites.

“I believe the Israelis are tunneling under the mosques,” said Najeh Bkerat, an official of the Waqf, the Muslim religious body that runs the compound under Israel’s overall security control.

Samir Abu Leil, another Waqf official, said he had heard hammering that very morning underneath the Waqf’s offices, in a Mamluk-era building that sits just outside the holy compound and directly over the route of the Western Wall tunnel, and had filed a complaint with police.

The closest thing to an excavation on the mount, Israeli archaeologists point out, was done by the Waqf itself: In the 1990s, the Waqf opened a new entrance to a subterranean prayer space and dumped truckloads of rubble outside the Old City, drawing outrage from scholars who said priceless artifacts were being destroyed.

This month, an Israeli government watchdog released a report saying Waqf construction work in the compound in recent years had been done without supervision and had damaged antiquities. The issue is deemed so sensitive that the details of the report were kept classified.

Some Israeli critics of the tunnels point to what they call an exaggerated emphasis on a Jewish narrative.

“The tunnels all say: We were here 2,000 years ago, and now we’re back, and here’s proof,” said Yonathan Mizrachi, an Israeli archaeologist. “Living here means recognizing that other stories exist alongside ours.”

Yuval Baruch, the Antiquities Authority archaeologist in charge of Jerusalem, said his diggers are careful to preserve worthy finds from all of the city’s historical periods. “This city is of interest to at least half the people on Earth, and we will continue uncovering the past in the most professional way we can,” he said.

By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press

Click to proceed now to:

Timeshare Baguio City, Philippines

Click to the pioneering personals site that revolutionized online dating

Click to proceed now to:

Boracay Beach Resorts

QUIRKY ASIA: He gets paid to sleep on the job

Kuala Lumpur – He has the best excuse to sleep on the job.

Lee Jia, 27, earns 10,000 yuan (US$1,600) a month just to test the comfort level at hotel rooms.

Besides sleeping, he checks out the scent of the rooms, the cleanliness, the brand of toiletries and the type of TV programmes available.

Sin Chew Daily quoted Lee, a Chinese national, as saying that his job was more than just sleeping in hotel rooms and that it could get stressful at times.

His job, he said, required him to observe well his surroundings.

Lee, who loves travelling, said he would then write a review of the hotel and its facilities on his blog.

“You need to be highly focused and articulate to observe every detail in order to produce a comprehensive report,” he said.

By News Desk in Kuala Lumpur/ ANN

Click to proceed now to:

Timeshare Baguio City, Philippines

Click to the pioneering personals site that revolutionized online dating