#Turkey2017: Travel Budget & Itinerary

The blogs I was mostly following for my ideal itinerary all mentioned either a minimum of 5 or 8K AED per person so we were hesitant to go because it's almost the budget we're planning on for our grand European trip. However, after much research and colleague interviews, this is what we ended up spending in total for 2 for our 9 day Turkey odyssey:

Note: Not including the international and domestic air tickets and visa fees because we paid for all these in advance, along with 1 day of of accommodation free at The Cappadocia Hotel courtesy of my miles ^^ #creditcardperks #travelwisely #beprepared #prebookingislife. If air tickets and visa fee included, it will be a total of only 5,530.38 TL for 2 or 5,287.32 AED.

You can still reduce your own costs if you book your hotels in advance, and sign up for promo fares in budget carriers like Pegasus Airlines. Our domestic flights actually cost us only 29.99 TL each for Istanbul to Kayseri and Izmir to Istanbul per way versus booking them at the last minute for almost 200TL. And make sure to buy your air tickets ahead of time and apply for your visa at least 30 days prior to your stay to avoid rebooking fees. ^^

Also, we didn't do the hot balloon tour or paragliding because these kept getting cancelled due to bad weather. We mostly spent our money on entrance fees, food and souvenirs. Pero you know what, this is actually the first time we were able to follow our scheduled itinerary with the bus transfers and everything so sulit narin :) sooo proud of us both ~ we're really learning with each escapade on how to be more adventurous and how to use our strengths effectively (he's my navigator and I'm the planner)! Japan was a bust, Taiwan & El Nido were trial runs and now in Turkey - it's a success :) I love it!!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I patterned our itinerary on Lady's from Lady and her Sweet Escapes so the one I'll be sharing is much like hers, only customized for a 9 day trip:

Day 1: Dubai - Istanbul, Istanbul - Cappadocia

04:05 - Flight from Dubai to Istanbul via Pegasus Airlines
08:10 - Arrival in Sabiha Gokcen Airport
14:35 - Flight from Istanbul to Kayseri via Pegasus Airlines
15:50 - Arrival in Kayseri Airport
16:00 - Airport shuttle to The Cappadocia Hotel
20:00 - Early dinner in Urgup town center

- When I was booking our cave hotel (for free courtesy of my Dubai First miles) I didn't read up on exactly where our hotel was located. Turned out it was located in Urgup which was quite a distance from Goreme so we were unable to hike up to Sunset Point before our tour. Not bad though, because we were able to see their historical caves up close.

Day 2: Cappadocia Historical Tour + Bus to Pamukkale

Green Tour from Angelo's tours (arranged by The Cappadocia Hotel)

09:00 Hotel pick-up and check-out
17:30 Drop-off at bus station
18:00 Early dinner at Sadaf Restaurant
20:00 Night bus to Pamukkale

Day 3: Pamukkale!

05:00 Arrival in Pamukkale town
07:00 Check in at Bellamaritimo Hotel
08:00 Breakfast
09:00 Rest
13:00 Lunch
17:00 Pamukkale Natural Park (free)
20:00 Dinner

Day 4: Pamukkale + Heirapolis DIY Tour

07:00 Complimentary breakfast at Bellamaritimo Hotel
09:30 The Cotton Castle / Pamukkale
11:00 Exploring Heriapolis
19:00 Dinner

Day 5: Pamukkale - Selcuk

09:30 Breakfast
12:00 Hotel check-out
13:00 Lunch
14:00 Karahayit
16:45 Dolmus (minivan) to Izmir Bus station
20:00 Arrival at Selcuk and check in at Nicea Hotel
20:45 Dinner

- I was getting homesick by this time ^^ HAHA this was the longest tour I've been on.

Day 6: Selcuk DIY Walking Tour

08:00 Breakfast
10:00 Basilica of St John
11:00 Isabey Mosque
12:00 Temple of Artemis
14:00 Walk to Ephesus
16:30 shuttle to Selcuk center and early dinner
17:30 Rest
20:30 Selcuk market and train station

Day 7: Selcuk to Istanbul

05:30 Hotel check out
06:00 Train from Selcuk to Izmir Airport
11:15 flight to Istanbul
12:20 Arrival at Sabiha Gokcen Airport
13:00 Lunch
14:00 Airport shuttle to Taksim and Uber to Senatus Hotel
19:00 Whirling Dervish Show at Hodjapasha Cultural Center (70TL/person)
20:00 Dinner

Day 8: Old Sultanahmet Walking Tour

08:00 Complimentary breakfast at Senatus Hotel
10:00 Topkapi Palace
13:00 Sultanahmet Square
13:30 Istanbul Archaeological Museum
14:30 Hagia Irene
15:30 Hagia Sophia
16:00 Early dinner
17:00 Bosphorus Cruise (12TL/person)
20:30 back to Hotel

Day 9: Last Full day in Istanbul

10:30 Sultanahmet Square (again!)
11:00 Souvenir shopping
14:00 Uber to Taksim
14:30 Shuttle to Sabiha Gokcen Airport
21:30 Flight from Istanbul to Dubai via Pegasus Airlines

After 6 flight hours to Dubai, another 2 hours to Abu Dhabi and 1.45 more to Al Ain, I was back to work! Haggard bes! Running on caffeine! 

Oh well, hope you'll have fun in your trip as much as we did ~ No fighting with your travel buddy when homesickness strikes! HEHEHE

DIY Visa Series: Travel to Taiwan Visa-Free!

Ok, so I'm feelin' good today :) because as you knowww *wink wink* so I'm doing another post on how to travel to Taiwan visa-free using the R.O.C Taiwan Travel Authorization Certificate ♥

YES, we Filipinos can now travel to Taiwan visa-free as long as we meet the following requirements:

Basic Requirements
To be eligible for an ROC Travel Authorization Certificate, the following three basic requirements must be met:

1.The applicant’s passport must have remaining validity of at least six months starting from the date of arrival in Taiwan.
2.The applicant must possess an onward/return air or boat ticket.
3.The applicant has never been employed as a blue-collar worker in Taiwan.

Additional Requirements
1. The applicant possesses at least one of the following documents issued by Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, any of the Schengen countries, the United Kingdom, or the United States:

O Valid resident or permanent resident card or status
O Valid entry visa (electronic visa must be printed out)
O Resident card or visa that has expired less than 10 years prior to the date of arrival in Taiwan

2.The applicant possesses an entry visa or resident card issued by the ROC at any point in the past 10 years and has no record of immigration irregularities or law violations in Taiwan. However, holders of ROC entry visas bearing the remark FL (i.e., foreign laborer) or X (i.e., others), as well as holders of ROC resident cards with stated purpose of residence being foreign laborer (i.e., 外勞), are not eligible for an ROC Travel Authorization Certificate.

Read more here.

Since I was issued a single-entry visa to Japan last year, I'm eligible under the above (see highlighted area) so all I need to do is go to this website. Also, as most OFWs in UAE either has Schengen, UK or US visas, getting the TAC is a breeze!

Ok how to get one? See below:

1. Choose your language.

2. There will be 2 more reminders prior to application area, just read this and click on Next.

3. Fill up the fields below.

*Make sure that when prior to filling this up, your air tickets and accommodation/ hotel are booked.

4. Scroll down to the last fields and you'll see this:

I did the following:

a. Entry Permit

b. Country (Japan)

c. Number (Entered the Japan visa number found at the top right hand corner)

5. Click Next.

6. Last window will require you to review everything, make sure all information entered is correct. However, if you entered something wrong and already printed out the form, I read somewhere that you can re-do the process again and print out a new TAC.

7. Print out the form and present it at the airport upon check in, along with the visa you used. Print at least 3 copies just in case each immigration office you encounter needs a copy (I'll confirm this for myself after 3 weeks.)

Here's a sample copy of the certificate:

REMINDER:

An approved ROC Travel Authorization Certificate is valid for 90 days. Multiple entries within these 90 days are allowed. The holder of the ROC Travel Authorization Certificate may stay in Taiwan for 30 days, starting from the day after arrival. If the holder wishes to apply for another ROC Travel Authorization Certificate, he or she must do so seven days prior to the expiry of the current certificate.

In booking air tickets, I used Air Asia because they had the cheapest fare if you're travelling from Manila. Had a slip-up though, because I was not able to check the timings for my return flight when I booked through the app so TAKE NOTE. Or not if you're not a klutz like me :P HAHAHA

If you are, and you want my sage advice *wink wink* better to do it via their website (and using a PC) to make sure you can see all the information you need prior to clicking on payment or else rebooking fees will cost you an arm and a leg #gurangproblems I don't know why but all my cards were not working if I'm using their site so I used their app. Better make sure with your bank though, there might be restrictions set in.

Leaving you with the video below to get you all hyped up on Taiwan:

SUPER EXCITED!!! I deserve this! CHAROT!

See you there!

UPDATE: Make sure that all information entered is correct as this will be thoroughly scrutinized by airline check-in staff. If you have the wrong passport expiry date in (like me) they will require you to do the impossible (aka do the above again and have it printed out - NO PRINTERS IN AIRPORT T3 as I and another guest learned the hard way) so please be sure to triple-check it before your flight!

Alrighty, bon voyage!

#UAE2017: 9 Day DIY Eid Al Fitr Celebration

As soon as I got back from my annual leave last year, I was homesick for at least a month after ~ I kept missing my nephew and niece (self-declared #TitasofMLA), my parents, our youngest (who was already in his 3rd year of med school but was still a baby to me) and practically everybody I left back in Manila. It was my 3rd vacay home to date, but the homesickness was still as pervasive, if not more intense, as soon as I left for the boarding gate.

So 2 weeks into the post-vacay blues, CebuPac had 399aed sale flights again! Granted, it was nothing compared to their original seat sales before where you can get 300aed roundtrip flights DXB-MLA (#ErrorFare) but it was better than their most recent promos so yalla, I booked for 3 people in time for the Eid holidays! Just dropped the bomb a month after that they have no choice but to weather the sweltering heat in UAE for a week and a half HEHEHEHEHEEEE*evil laugh*

I booked the flights in early December so I had plenty of time to plan their itinerary as well as to plot the budget I'll need to allocate for their stay.

However, the main problem I encountered during this stage was actually getting the Affidavit of Support that the PHL immigration is requiring from Filipino tourists. The full list of requirements (which made me feel exhausted just by looking at it) and the need to take time off from work to personally request it from the embassy really stressed me out for a month before I was able to finalize everything a week prior to their flight.

Here's the list of requirements that the embassy needs:

Ugh.

This affidavit was originally implemented to help curb human trafficking but personally, I don't think it helps. Anybody can circumvent the process and it's just a potential avenue (if not yet) for corruption. Plus, I had to request for NSO authenticated certificates for proof, and klutz that I am, I don't have any remaining hard or soft copies on hand so what to do?

I scoured the net for possible alternatives on how the parentals can breezily go through immigration without so much as a glare. I wasn't able to find any, only opinions on just how useless this affidavit is yada yada yadaaaaa so I just made my own checklist of what they need to present to the officers and how to effectively present it to avoid being offloaded. I'll share my tips on another post ;)

Mash'allah :) everything went off smoothly and they were able to experience the mega sales that Eid Al Fitr has to offer, along with the glorious heat/ humidity, local culture and authentic shawarmas that UAE had in store for them! Till the next holidays!

Eid Mubarak!

Pupuru Pocket Wifi Rental Review

After getting my first postpaid smartphone in Dubai, I became so used to being online 24/7 that as soon as I first planned to go to Japan, I knew I needed to do research on wifi options ASAP.

Based on this review, risk of online withdrawal and the likely possibility of getting lost as soon as we step off the train, I went and signed up for Pupuru wifi:

4,860 JPY = 157 AED (additional 800 JPY included because of airport delivery)

We had at least 6 devices connected to it at the same time and we didn't even reach 10gb, you just have to make sure to bring an extra battery charging pack with you for long trips.

There was no interruption of service, the connection was fast and it definitely came in handy multiple times: when we were searching for a hotel at the last minute, the Glico Man odyssey and the right subway line to get to USJ that was on the same rail network with our Kansai pass.

How to claim it?

If you opted to claim it at the (Kansai) airport, you can follow the directions here:
                                     

Just present your passport and reservation ID (I printed off their email confirmation) to claim the wifi kit and you're good to go!

To return it, just put the kit in the self-addressed yellow envelope that comes with it and drop it off at any mailbox on your designated return date. For us we did the drop off at the airport right before we checked in.



To get your own for your Japan trip, just click on the link below: