Tuesday, April 17, 2007

A quick check on the news and travel thoughts

Front page of the PDI has a cover story on two specially trained dogs who sniff out pirated DVDs, brought in by the government agency to help eradicate movie copyright piracy. The dogs were brought to the three malls known to sell pirated DVDs. And yes, they sniffed out the fake dvds. Everyone and his brother know that the vendors in those malls sell fake dvds. You don't need two trained dogs to do so. Go to suspected warehouses, or stand by the docks sniffing at the container vans, and search out the shipments of fake dvds. Don't go to the end point where you know they are going to be! PR BS, argh.

HK Airlines is now flying Clark to HK for US$20 (roundtrip; add taxes, probably paying $50 rt). Sooo tempting. Flights have to be made by the end of June.

Cebu Pacific is again offering the P1 fare, and a friend said that they've added Taiwan to their list of destinations. The application for a visa to Taiwan seems too laborious, as tedious as that of the US. I'm not sure if low cost fares are enough incentive for me to go.

Travel ads touting 5 day trips to Shanghai for $99. ???? What, are you expected to swim there? It says 4 nights in a 4 star hotel, so one hopes there are full, western toilets, not a hole in the ground toilet. I didn't believe it, but more than one travel company was offering the same rate. What's the catch?

1 comment:

wysgal said...

The catch with some of the cheap trips I've seen is that you're supposed to go on their one or two day tours ... you're REQUIRED to go and can't say you want to stay in the hotel otherwise they'll charge you some ridiculous fee. So I suppose some of the tourist traps included in the mandatory tours reimburse a portion of your travel expenses?

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