ASIAN TRAVELING

     For the past few days, I have been trying to book reservations for my boss and his family for a post-Christmas, pre-New Year's travel to Singapore.  Well, actually, I only act as an intermediary since my colleague has a travel agency, but she's on leave.

     I already know that Christmas season is not just a peak season for traveling, but it's a super peak season.  For tickets alone going to Singapore, round trip via PAL, the rate is around USD 600 to USD 800.  And the land arrangement is so much worse.  4D3N 5-star hotel accommodation with daily breakfast, hotel-airport-hotel transfer and half-day city tour would cost a whooping USD 680 per person on a triple-sharing basis.  I mean, wow.  Really, wow.  For a family of 3 to enjoy Singapore during peak season, tickets and land arrangement would be around Php 180,000!   My eyes literally bulged when I saw the quotation.  Although I would not be the one to pay for it, still, that's a lot of money.

     That is not all.  It's quite difficult to book tickets and hotel accommodations for the Christmas season.  They sell off really, really fast.  And the price goes higher day by day.  In my case, I tried to book sale tickets for Hong Kong since last July, but the dates from 15 December 2011 onward were always not included.  When it was finally sold on sale, it was already late September or October, and even the price cannot be considered as "sale."  Oh well.  Better luck next year.