If you're arriving in Soekarno–Hatta International Airport, there are many options on travelling to the city. My favourite is to hop on a Blue Bird taxi. It's affordable, safe and comfortable.

However, for first-timers in Jakarta, getting a Blue Bird taxi might be confusing. So here's how you can ease through the airport and hop on the taxi to your hotel in a budget yet comfortable way.

Upon leaving the arrival hall, you will see some booths on your right for taxi companies. You would be tempted but I wouldn't recommend them as they tend to be twice the cost of a normal taxi you might get.

To your front, you will see a lot of people waiting by the railings. Turn left and exit the building before the crowd. You'll see a lot more people waiting around outside too. Ignore all of them and just continue walking. You would walk past the toilets and just continue going that direction. There would be a lot of people approaching you, asking if you want a taxi. Just continue walking.

Look out for a kiosk. The kiosk will be a distance away from the Blue Bird taxi queue. On the kiosk, you'll see two buttons. Click on the Blue Bird taxi and get your queue number.

There will be a guy in the Blue Bird uniform calling out numbers for the taxis. Walk towards him and standby. There is also a TV with the queue numbers but when I was there, it was not working.

Once your number is called, wave your queue number at the guy in uniform and he will escort you into the taxi.

My taxi cost only 160,000 out from the airport to the city center, inclusive of tolls and airport charges. Half the price of what my friend got from one of the guys in the airport.

Last December, I visited Philippines for the first time in my life. Was looking for a beach holiday getaway and realised that many of the places have already been explored by either one of us. Krabi, Bali, Phuket, Bintan, Langkawai, Tioman, Redang, etc.

In the end, we settled on Cebu, a place neither of us have been to. Flights were relatively cheap and we flew by Cebu Pacific. Since it was a midnight flight, we managed to reach Cebu early in the morning, ready to start our activities.

One thing to take note is that the traffic is horrible in Cebu and you should expect to spend a lot of time stuck in traffic. And it's always good to arrange for transportation with your accommodation!

Our Moalboal accommodation provided transportation services - an air-conditioned SUV for 3,000 php. It took us 3 hours to get from Cebu to Moalboal.



We had the most amazing guesthouse which we booked directly through them - to avoid airbnb fees. It was a little risky but we did our research thoroughly and decided that this was the safest, nice and cheap accommodation.

Honestly, if I were to ever return to Moalboal, I would definitely return to the guesthouse. The owners have 3 lovely, friendly dogs. They were pretty adorable and when I went on a morning walk alone, one of them even followed me (until a neighbour's dog started barking at it and scared it away).



They even have hammocks in the garden, where we spent every night of our trip lying there, admiring the stars and talking. We even spotted a couple of shooting stars! That's how amazing the visibility of stars were. As we were in the rural part of the country, there was hardly any light pollution which made the nights on the hammock amazing.

Drop a comment with your email if you're interested in the accommodation and I'll share it with you!

Canyoneering

One of the activities you can do in Moalboal is Canyoneering. That was our first stop - Canyoneering at Badian. It is approximately 1,500 php per person and last 2-3 hours long.

Equipments - safety helmets, life vests, and a pair of track shoes are included in the price, along with a simple lunch after your canyoneering adventures. Price also included guides (which we had two)!



Canyoneering involved a lot of waddling in the water, sliding down rapids, and the highlight - jumping off waterfalls and cliffs. If you're an adrenaline junkie, don't miss out on this! Scroll all the way down to look at our adventures in the vlog! :)



See the people behind on the top of the waterfall, that's where you'll jump off. It doesn't look that scary from here but when you're up there, looking down, I suppose it's kind of scary. I opted out of it due to health issues.

We even had a stop inbetween where we danced with the locals and took a swing into the water. Video below!



At the end of the trip, you'll find yourself at Kawasan Falls. There, you wait for your turn to get on the raft where the guides will bring you across the water to the waterfall, and let the waterfall give you a "massage". It's really really painful for the water to hit on your back honestly. But good experience!

Osmena Peak

After a tiring adventure jumping off waterfalls, we washed up and head over to Osmena Peak. We had a lovely guide bring us up, who also doubled as a photographer.



The amazing thing about Osmena Peak is all the tiny little peaks across the area. A great place to watch the sunset. And the hike up was really short, approximately 10 - 15 minutes (depending on how fit you are). Moreover, the hike wasn't that steep so it was a really easy climb for a really amazing view.

Island Hopping & Sardine Run

The next morning, after a lovely breakfast with our hosts, we went on island hopping and sardine run! We booked through our hosts and they managed to bargain the price down for us - telling the operators that it was one of our birthdays, which was true actually.



Honestly, the island hopping was not very memorable. The sea wasn't exceptionally beautiful or clean. One of the guides even showed us a starfish (plenty of starfishes in the sea there). We only managed to catch a glimpse of the sea turtle.

But the best part was the sardine run. The location was a little unexpected as it was really near the shore and the sea wasn't clean at all. But the sardines - they were amazing. It was like watching the northern lights dance, but in this case, watching sardines dance in the sea. And if you try to scare the sardines, they would quickly disperse and make another line.

White Beach

After the island hopping in the morning and a hefty lunch, we went to White Beach to spend the rest of our day chilling and relaxing. There's admission fee for White Beach by the way, and if you want to use any of the shades, it will cost money too.

We even caught the sunset by the beach. The good thing about our accommodation was that they also arranged a motorbike taxi for us whenever we wanted to go somewhere. The driver waited for us for 2 hours as we chilled by the beach, soaking in Vitamin E.



After a long day, out in the sun, we headed over to Panagsama Beach Street for dinner and drinks. Again, our driver waited for us to finish dinner and drinks so whenever we were done, we went over to the carpark and there he was. This made things easier as we did not have to look and hail for a taxi randomly.

Unfortunately, our stay in Moalboal ended the next day as we headed back to Cebu to send our dear friend off first, before we continued the next part of our trip in Cebu. If I could plan this trip again, I would have allocated more time in Moalboal and skip the entire Cebu part of the trip.

Definitely one of the best beach getaway ever, with a good mixture of chill and adrenaline rush.

Since I am in Prague for a business trip, I made use of the weekends to do some exploring. If you're interested to read more my adventure in Prague, check out my older travel post on my Prague trip in 2014. I'll be updating a new blog post on my current Prague trip when I return to Singapore (which will be in 2017).

Kutna Hora is a historic town located an hour train ride from Prague. Kutna Hora is actually a UNESCO World Heritage site, home to some of the most magnificent churches. Kutna Hora also sits on a silver mine.

Kutna Hora is an hour train ride from Prague. To get to Kutna Hora, buy your train ticket either online or at the Prague main train station (Praha Hln). The train will take you to Kutna Hora Hln and you'll have to switch to a connecting train to get to the town center, Kutna Hora Meso station. So make sure your ticket brings you to Kutna Hora Meso instead of Kutna Hora Hln. The return ticket will cost 209czk. The train comes at an interval of 2hours in the morning so make sure you check the timings, especially on your way back.

I alighted at Kutna Hora Meso and walked to the town center. It was winter, and one of the coldest days, so nobody was on the streets. The shops were all closed too so I highly recommend not to come in winter.

The first stop is to the Church of St Barbara.

It's such an amazing sight just walking to the church. I took a rather long way, winding some alleys, because I got kind of lost and I was refusing to take off my gloves to navigate the map on my phone because it was freezing.

Church of St Barbara is a gothic style cathedral that began construction in 1388 but was only completed in 1905.

The entrance fee for the church is 60czk and you can actually get a bundle ticket which will include the other main attractions in Kutna Hora.

To be honest, I did not do much research before going over so I had no expectations and idea of what the main attractions looked like. Neither did i know that there's an entrance fee. So I went in on a Sunday when there was service and managed to sneak in for free. I only realised that there was an entrance fee when I was buying tickets at the other attractions and they were showing the bundle package which included Church of St Barbara.

Before leaving, there's this hidden gem with a great view of Kutna Hora just next to the cathedral.

This is the Stone Fountain in Kutna Hora. Kutna Hora Stone House is around the corner and unfortunately, it's closed in winter. During warmer days, you can actually go on a tour into the silver mines.

As mentioned earlier, it's winter and not a single shop was open. So at the sight of an opened store, I went in immediately. The chocolate museum serves chocolates made in Czech and they allowed tasting. So I kind of left the store with a little more chocolates than expected.

Church of the Assumption of Our Lady and Saint John the Baptist is the other attraction in Kutna Hora. While the Church of St Barbara is located at the Kutna Hora Meso station, the Church of the Assumption of Our Lady and Saint John the Baptist is closer to the Kutna Hora Sedlec station.

It takes 30 minutes to walk from the town center to the Church of the Assumption of Our Lady and Saint John the Baptist. Would not really recommend it so it's better to take the train.

While the Church of the Assumption of Our Lady and Saint John the Baptist has a gothic style, the interior of the church has a clean look with the minimalistic style.

But the key attraction of Kutna Hora has to be the Sedlec Ossuary. My colleagues, who recommended me to visit Kutna Hora, was raving about the bone church where they used bones to decorate the interior.

It's a little unusual to use bones to decorate a place but it's definitely an interesting sight. There's piles and piles of bones lined up as decorations.

To be honest, I felt Kutna Hora to be a little underwhelming in the winter with the empty streets and closed shops. But it was definitely worth the escape from Prague to visit somewhere less crowded. If you have extra time on your hands, do drop by Kutna Hora.

Will be updating the blog again real soon as I will be clearing some of my backlogs from my other previous travel adventures.

Till then!

I travel leisurely frequently and people are often asking me how I get the money to continue this hobby. Here's the secret, I'm always getting the cheap deals and travel on a budget. For example, my return flight to Sydney/Gold Coast only cost me $375. My Osaka hotel accommodation was less than $25/pax/night.

I'm going to share some of the tips to travel on a budget (because we are all students here!)

Cheap flight

Cheap hotel

I booked a lot of my hotels with Agoda (or used to till I had a bad service experience with them). I've been using Expedia since because of their exceptional service and experience. Expedia is great because they help secure the cheapest prices. Haven't had any problems with Expedia!

There's another option to cheap to hotels - hostels. I love hostels, especially when I'm on the road in Europe. They're cheap and hip. Booking.com and Hostel world are perfect sites to look for cheap hostels and I've used them way too many times when I was in Europe.

Another option is to go for home stay aka airbnb. They can be pretty cheap, and there are some hits and misses with airbnb. My only advice is to read the comments very carefully. I actually prefer going with airbnb in Australia but when I'm in Asia, I would stay away from airbnb.

Offline Maps

If you do not have a mobile data connection, it may seem like it's going to be very difficult to navigate your way around. You wouldn't be able to find wifi anywhere either. When I was in Tasmania, I had poor connectivity because I'm always out in the mountains. That's when offline maps come in handy.

I adore the app maps.me and it allows me to download maps in advance so I don't have to worry about them not loading when I'm overseas. If it rings a bell, that's because I've mentioned about maps.me before in my other posts. You can also use Google Maps to save an offline map so you'll be able to use it without connectivity.

Do you know that you can actually use GPS without data connection? Simply make sure you have GPS turned on and it'll work without incurring costs!

Plan

A great way to save money while travelling is to plan well. Why do you need a good plan? Because there are early bird promotions, especially when you get accommodation or transportation deals.

If you're planning to travel by HSR in Taiwan, booking early saves you money. If you're travelling to Japan, you might want to calculate if a JR pass is worth the money. It can actually save you money if you plan to do a lot of travelling around.

Therefore planning your route before hand may be a wise idea. Planning in advance also allows you to better understand the area you're going. You can easily find cheaper alternatives when you're planning rigorously.

Save with Rebates

The last hack I'll be sharing will be the use of rebates.

Shopback allows you to get rebates from making online purchases. They have a long list of partners ranging from Expedia, Agoda, Booking.com, HostelWorld, Jetstar, Tigerair, Singapore Airlines, and so many more. The rebate amount depends on each partner site.

I've saved so much from Shopback just from booking my accommodation and flights. So here's how you can go about doing so.

Firstly, create a new account using the referral link!
After signing up, you're ready to start saving! Whenever you want to shop at a certain site, simply go into ShopBack first. Look for your site from the long list of partners they have (or simply use the search function). Click Shop Now and you'll be given some terms and conditions and a notice that you have to stay on the same window while making the purchase. You'll be redirected to the site of your intention and you can begin making your purchases! Again, I emphasize on staying on the same window whole making the purchase.

The rebate is not immediate (as how credit card rebates are not either). Thus, be patient and you'll be able to see that your transaction is pending after a couple of hours.

After the money is in (the days differ between different partners), you can cash out your money! Kaching!

It's simple as that! And here's the extra catch! If you sign up using my link, you'll get a $5 immediately which you can cash out together with your first cash out. That's  $5 just for signing up an account!

https://www.shopback.sg/?raf=QYoCbl

So these are 5 tips I use when travelling to save money and I hope you find them useful!