Kia Ora Aotearoa

22 August 2016

Touchdown New Zealand!

One of the Hobbit-holes at the Hobbiton Movie Set

Okay, so my first day in Auckland was more like a stopover. We arrived mid-afternoon and used the airport’s 30-minute free wifi to book the Sky Bus to the city (it was $2 cheaper to book online). We got off the last stop at Queens Street and walked to our hostel, Haka Lodge. We came from a 20-hour flight from the Philippines so we didn’t have any plans that night except apart from eating and sleeping. We were quite happy with our hostel. It was clean, they had a big (and well cleaned) kitchen and the staff were friendly. We each had our own pod that was equipped with a lamp and socket.

Matamata i-Site

 We noticed a number of Asian (middle eastern and south east Asian) shops near our hostel. Since they were cheap, we did our groceries in one of the Asian stores and had a takeaway dinner before we snoozed and snored.

23 August 2016

Today, we went to one of our trip highlights—to the Hobbiton Movie Set.

Green Dragon Inn

We woke up at 5:15 AM and took the 6:15 AM bus 02 to Britomart where the Mana bus pick-up point was just about 50m away. By 7:00 AM, we left the City of Sails for Matamata

Mana bus was convenient—it had wifi and an electrical socket. And the Matamata stop was just in front of the i-Site, where they sell the tour tickets and where the bus picks up the passengers. We booked the next tour at 11:00, left our backpacks at the i-Site’s storage room (NZ$5.00 for both our backpacks) and waited for the bus to arrive.

The tour began with a drive from Matamata i-Site to The Shire’s Rest, a café in front of the entrance of the farm. Along the way, the bus driver gave commentaries about the farm—some tidbits about Matamata and the impact of the Lord of the Rings movie to the little town. He showed us where Peter Jackson stayed, told us how the location was scouted (it was the party tree that attracted them to the farm) and how the Alexander family preserved the set and made a business that helped tourism in Matamata.

The Hobbiton is adorable. I’ve seen some of the Lord of the Rings movie but I’ve never read any of the books and I haven’t watched the entire movie franchise. The place is picturesque even for a non-fan. Although at 79 NZD, I supposed someone who is familiar with the movie would appreciate it more. The details on the set is amazing—they put in so much details from the book for a few seconds on-screen. 

We went to the hobbit holes, which were 60,80, 100% scaled to the size of a hobbit (5’4”). The holes were just a façade as the interior was shot in a bigger location. The tour ended at the Green Dragon Inn, which was like a pub. They served us one free beer (non-alcoholic drinks were also available) and you have an option to buy more along with some snacks.

The ride back to Matamata was quicker. Before 14:30, we were back at the Matamata i-Site. We went around Matamata and ended up eating a Charlie Pie at McDonald’s. Finally, at 4PM, our bus arrived and we were off to Rotorua.

Spontaneous Trip in Myanmar for USD 555 (no promos)

Bagan. Pyin Oo Lwin. Inle Lake. Yangon.

4 towns. USD 555. PHP 26,000. 9 days/8 nights. All in.

One of the difficulties of being employed is that your leaves are limited. My trip to Myanmar was a result of a small window in between jobs.  As soon as I knew about this window, my friends and I decided to go on this trip and we only had two weeks to plan it in between our busy schedule. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to do much planning and left much of our itinerary for spontaneity.

Just to be clear, we did do some research about Myanmar and have already filtered out which places we wanted to go to. However, we haven’t booked our hotels (except for the first night which was required for my friend’s visa), we didn’t have an itinerary and we didn’t know how we’ll go from one destination to another.

We didn’t receive airline or tour promotions and we weren’t even travelling on a shoestring. We had full tummies throughout the trip, often stopping for fresh coconut water, sugarcane juice or milk tea. So, details of our expenses? Here you go…

Flight

Our flight was 52% of our expenses. Duh. We booked our flights 2 weeks before our departure. Our flight included 20kg checked baggage per person, meals and wine. Our total expenses would’ve been considerably low if we got a flight on promotion or flew with one of the low-cost airlines. But again, we were not on a tight budget during this trip.

Accommodation

Our first night in Bagan was pre-booked since this was required for my friend’s visa. I actually just randomly booked the hotel without looking at the reviews or the price and was planning on cancelling the booking after he got his visa. But we forgot to un-cancel it and luckily, we ended up at a nice hotel. We checked out online booking services for our second night but decided to stay in the same hotel. For Pyin Oo Lwin and Yangon, we picked our hotels through online booking services on the same day we checked in (in case of Yangon, upon our arrival at the city). As a regular traveler, I wouldn’t however recommend doing the same especially if it’s peak season (we went on a low season in August/September).

At the Shwedagon Pagoda

Going Around

I wanted to travel by train around Myanmar but we didn’t have the luxury to take our own sweet time. So, we ended up taking either the bus or taxicab to go from one city to another.

Yangon to Bagan: Overnight bus. JJ Express was highly recommended arounded the internet and true enough, the bus was clean and comfortable and their staff spoke in English.

Bagan to Pyin Oo Lwin: Taxicab. A local helped us hire the taxi and communicate with the taxi driver who didn't speak a word in English.

Pyin Oo Lwin to Inle: Taxicab to Mandalay; Overnight Bus to Inle. 

Inle to Yangon: Overnight Bus

Gokteik Viaduct

Activities

In Bagan, we went to several temples, notably Shwe San Daw, Dhammayangyi and Ananda. On our first day, we traveled by bike to see the temples. And on our second day, we rented an e-bike.

From Bagan, we hired a taxi to bring us to Mount Popa and we made several stops along the way including a small hut distilling alcohol and a sunflower field.

In the cool highlands of Pyin Oo Lwin, we went around by bike and visited the Botanical Garden. Then we spent a couple of hours just relaxing in a small shop, drinking milk tea (lots of it!).

From Pyin Oo Lwin, we took the train to Nawngpeng to see the popular Gokteik Viaduct. As soon as we arrived in Nawngpeng, we hailed a taxi to bring us back to Pyin Oo Lwin. Unfortunately, we encountered a traffic jam on the way back.

We spent an entire day in Inle Lake, seeing the floating village. The village is much larger than Siem Reap’s floating village. There were temples, shops (for tourists), schools and farms—all floating on the lake.

Long-Necked Kayan

In Yangon, we visited the impressive Shwedagon Pagoda. The temple was large, well-maintained and worth it’s price. We also visited the Strand Hotel, a popular 5-star hotel, and had our most expensive snack during the trip (although we bought the cheapest one in the menu) in their café.

Our trip to Myanmar was a lot of fun. We weren’t crimping (but it wasn't luxurious either) and we had a flexible budget. I was quite surprised that at the end of it all, we didn’t spend so much. I’m glad that I spent my 2-week window at Myanmar. It was worth it.