People looking for a budget buffet would do well to try out Richmonde Hotel’s breakfast buffet.  For 575 bucks you get a spread that includes moussaka, garlic and fried rice, chicken cordon bleu, poached and scrambled eggs, bacon, awesome pancit canton, blueberry cupcakes, pastries, congee, and a lot more.  Plus you get to feel a little extra special with hotel service.  Not a bad deal at all in my opinion, and if you eat like Aissa and I do you probably won’t need to eat again until dinner!

Graffiti seems all the rage these days, and students have been asking left and right about using these pictures I took a few years ago.  I actually wandered (ha! get it? wandered?) into Katipunan about a month ago and took some snapshots with my rangefinder at the newer graf that’s popped up in UP and its environs.  As usual, please feel free to use the pictures for classes or presentations.  You don’t need to ask my permission but if you could drop me a line at ryan.sumo@gmail.com and credit Ryan Sumo for the pictures, that would be terrific.

found in UP stuck on a Meralco meter

a “momy nick” found on a brick wall opposite the SC

hiding behind the bushes near the c-5 overpass

mystery

You can check out the rest of the set here.

It’s been a while since we’ve last posted, and I feel like we owe you an explanation.

We’re lazy.

Ok, that’s not the entire truth but we have both been quite busy and unable to update the site regularly.  Certain career related issues have also taken their toll, and suffice it to say that wanderous has quite unfortunately been the last thing on our minds these past few weeks.  However, we still want to keep the site going, as the few emails that trickle in thanking us for reviews or asking for advice on trips really make us feel like this site is worth keeping up.  We’re seriously considering hiring someone to keep the the site updated on the latest deals, while Aissa and I will take the backseat and just post about our travels and reviews whenever we feel like it have the time.  Hopefully we can come to a point where the site will be able to pay for itself, and we don’t need to rely on the kindness of fans (sup JC?) to pay for our Flickr pro account.

Till that day comes, We’d like to thank everyone  who’s dropped by and commented and found the blog useful.  Oh, and for the last time, we’re NOT a travel agency.

steamed broccoli and button mushrooms, milkfish fillet, tuna chorizo, garlic rice, cheese omelette; cheese cupcake, melon & grape, dinner roll, unsalted butter and strawberry jam.

I am the only person I know who gets excited over eating airline food. It’s not that the food’s great or anything, it’s just the idea that man was never made to fly and eat full meals while in the sky, and yet here I am doing exactly that. The wonder of that stays with me to this day and will hopefully never let go. I feel the same way about microwaveable meals. It’s a meal in a box! What’s not to love?

Anyway I did a google search on airline meals and found this website where people review the food they eat in the air. I’m a little surprised and pleased that Philippine Airlines seems to be well regarded when it comes to the food department. This makes me all the more excited to finally board a Philippine Airlines jet again to go to Singapore for the 2nd annual games conference asia. Took advantage of their $98 sale, and ended up paying 9710 pesos. Still kind of steep. Basically you get the travel tax for free.

I was actually thinking of going via Malaysia airlines then taking a train to Singapore, which would have cost roughly 7000 pesos (ok more like 6500 but bear with me I’m trying to rationalize), but even my frugality and cheapness has its limits.

Looks like even larger carriers like Malaysian Airlines are getting on the Zero fare bandwagon, as Malaysian Airlines is offering free seats to Kota Kinabalu and Kuala Lumpur.  Our friend Carlo from kegler747 scored roundtrip tickets for a measly 5314 pesos!  All things considered, that’s a pretty sweet deal, especially from a non-budget airline.

If we hadn’t already booked flights to KL and Kota Kinabalu with Air Asia I’d have bought tickets already.  I wouldn’t have to travel all the way to Clark to get on the plane, and I won’t have to fight for my seat with other passengers as well!  Booking is from May 21 to June 3 and good for flights between June to December 2008.

Man, PAL’s getting really aggressive with it’s pricing these days. They’ve just released a promo for 88 peso fares to local destinations, which coupled with some promos for international fares make them much more competitive than they used to be. Here’s some of the highlights of their press release:

• one-way fare of P88 offered between Manila and Laoag, Legazpi, Puerto Princesa, Bacolod, Cebu, Iloilo, Kalibo, Roxas, Tacloban, Tagbilaran, Butuan, Cagayan de Oro, Cotabato, Davao, Dipolog, General Santos and Zamboanga.
• round-trip fares start at $88 for the newly launched Chinese points of Chongqing and Chengdu.
• $88 round-trip fare to red-eye flight to Jakarta (PR 535), which departs Manila every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday at 9:00 p.m. and arrives in Jakarta at midnight, and return service PR 536, which departs Jakarta every Wednesday, Saturday and Monday at 12:50 a.m. and arrives in Manila at 5:45 a.m. (Both China and Jakarta promos good for travel through November 30 2008.)
• $98 round-trip fare offered to Singapore. promo rate applicable on PR 501, departing Manila at 2:45 p.m. and arriving in Singapore at 6:25 p.m., and PR 505, which departs Manila at 7:40 p.m. and arrives in Singapore at 11:15 p.m. The return services, PR 502 and PR 506, are also covered by the $98 special fare. (available for ticketing up to May 31 2008, valid for travel between June 16 and October 13 2008.)
• all other PAL flights to Singapore and Jakarta, as well as to Bangkok, Hong Kong, Ho Chi Minh City, Taipei and Xiamen, round-trip fare of $108.
• Other Asia-Pacific promo rates: Shanghai, $168; Beijing, $268; and Melbourne and Sydney, both $428. (available for ticketing June 1 to 15 2008, for travel between July 1 and October 13 2008.)

That’s a pretty extensive list of deals. Offhand I’m very interested in the domestic flights, because they rival Cebu pacific’s current promo of 88 peso flights to all local destinations. Chengdu and Chongqing are also promising, though I’m not sure if these areas were anywhere near the recent earthquake. The singapore deal isn’t too shabby either, and I even did a quick calculation of the fare (7993 pesos), which you can see above.

For more information or to book a flight, contact PAL at (632) 855-8888 or check out their website.

Cebu Pacific’s got some new destinations for you, and they’re celebrating with a sale! Their new ATR aircraft will take you to Tuguegarao, San Juan, and Naga city for 1 peso (plus fuel tax etc. roughly 2.5 to 3k for a return trip). They’ve also got 88 peso fares to local destinations in case these three cities just don’t do it for you. To read more about this click here and to book your flights just click the graphic above!

Best Macau and HK discovery: Salmon Sushi flavored chips

Just arrived from a trip with Aissa’s family to Hong Kong and Macau. Too tired to write now, just letting you know that there are new pictures up in our Flickr account for you to check out.

The promo will run from May 15 to 18, 2008 or until the allocated 500,000 seats are sold out. This is good for travel from June 9 to December 31, 2008 to any of Cebu Pacific’s domestic and international destinations.

When Ry and I saw this we both started panicking. We’ve already said that we’re pretty much set for the year, but this is just crazy. How can you say no to something that’s free? As with the Piso fares deal you still have to pay other fees* but it still comes out lot cheaper than the regular fares and the psychological effect of FREE is very powerful.

* Fuel taxes and surcharges will range from 3,500++ pesos per flight (so for return flights that’s times two) for international flights, and 1,000++ pesos for domestic flights. Airport tax of 1,620 pesos is also charged for international flights, along with a 700 pesos terminal fee.

It’s been a while since Air Asia’s last seat sale, but they’re back with a two day sale for International trips from January 12 2009 to April 30 2009.  You’re gonna have to plan ahead a little bit folks, but I’m sure it’ll be well worth your money.  As usual Kuala Lumpur is your gateway to all these cities, as its Air Asia’s base.  But once you’re there you can go to places like Hanoi or Vientiene, or even all the way to the gold coast in Australia!

One cool thing that Air Asia’s done is come up with a little spreadsheet that tells you if free seats are readily available, limited, or taken in any given month.  This makes it a LOT easier to search for the free seats, since you no longer have to keep clicking “next day” over and over again hoping for a free seat on a particular date.  Just to get you started, a return trip from Clark to KL and back will cost you roughly 3125 pesos.