Arrived last night from Bukas Palad’s trip to Hong Kong. As usual it was a tiring but fulfilling experience…
This was probably one of the most efficient trips we’ve had in a while – both from the group’s routine (shopping) and the organizers planning.
Since I haven’t been posting in a while, might as well narrate the whole thing.
My sister and I woke up at about 4:30am to catch a 7:40am Cebu Pacific flight (getting there early was a must since it’s xmas season and they supposedly bump off the tardy ones left and right)… this was a Saturday.
Though HK was probably a good place to do some christmas shopping, I honestly didn’t see much of a price difference from anything there that could make me want to get from there rather than right here in the Philippines.
The only thing for me that makes it worthwhile buying there are the styles (which are probably more recent), and novelty items. I noticed electronics there are cheaper there by a couple of hundred bucks, which was hardly worth the effort of adding extra weight to your luggage.
Simply put, my 300USD which I had alloted for food and emergency (and some supposed shopping) wasn’t spent at all… which brings me to my next point.
The organizers were amazing that they were able to generate extra funds they decided to just give the group some extra pocket money – about 400HK dollars each at that!
You have to understand that BP isn’t a profit based group, we’ve never even required an honorarium. We show up and perform in different events to help the organizers in their cause and the only thing required is lodging and transportation. As long as those concerns are covered, then the money any organizer generates out of the whole operation is solely theirs.
So having 400HK dollars each was really great as it sorta made us feel like professional performers for that short time. But most of all, especially in my case, that meant I didn’t have to spend a single penny from my initial pocketmoney at all! Moreso, I had extra cash to buy some stuff if I felt like it.
The flight was ok, there were last minute cancellations I guess since the supposed “fully booked” flight had a bunch of empty seats (which I obviously transferred to for more space).
We came with other celebrities like Nanette Inventor (not sure about the spelling) and were on the same coach… I think the whole “Philippine Entertainment contingent” was on the same schedule.
As soon as we arrived, it was free time for the group, so [as usual] we promptly planned out our excursion path… making sure we ended up in the place where we were to have dinner [and perform] later that night.
I’d like to say where we went but I honestly was just following the group so I didn’t get to remember exactly where we were. Hopefully the pictures can shed some light on this.
The dinner was sort of a fellowship / welcome party / organizer get together I think. It was in some nice Italian restaurant (which was great since I was pretty much fed up with seeing all Chinese the whole day – including the people). Anyways, we came, we ate, we sang, we went “home.”
The next day was spent mostly in Chater Garden, where the Filipinos congregated to a mass and some sort of variety show – I wasn’t too sure if that was a regular sunday event or not, but that didn’t matter. We came, we soundchecked, we sang for a mass, then we had some free time while waiting for our turn in the variety show – the excursion continued.
Jason, Mich, Candice, Paola, Barok, Jampao, Kenneth, Nikki and I stuck together most of the time while Jason was shooting video – with us as the actors hehehe. I can’t wait to see what he was plans to do with the footage.
We got back to Chater Garden and proceeded with our “concert” – right after which we had to go to Statue Square for another fiesta thingie we were requested to sing at. Both performances were great as you can really see how much the Filipinos missed home. Like how one of the oldest songs in the groups arsenal could make a bunch of Filipinos start crying their eyes out.
After everything, the group went to some Chinese place (what can you expect when the decision is left with Palan hehehe). But in fairness, what I ordered by chance, happened to be one of the best tasting dishes of all, so I’m not complaining.
After dinner, some people went back home, but most went out shopping some more (at night, where the HK shopping scene was still very much alive).
I stopped by an Apple store and almost bought something… unfortunately, they didn’t accept US dollars (which I hadn’t converted yet). But I think that was all for the best. God telling me to just “stop buying.” And I went home proud of myself that another day went by without me having to spend more than necessary.
Next day (Monday) everyone woke up early for the last stretch of shopping experience. Jowi and I ended up staying behind and just watched some episodes of Joey in my laptop. I also started on weeding out the pics I took during the trip.
Obviously I didn’t spend anything too since we were just at home.
The group came back, we all packed up, went to the airport and went back home.
I’m so proud of myself, I didn’t buy anything! It felt so good knowing that I still had this bunch of money with me after that whole HK trip!
Now I hope I can say the same thing when we go on our Singapore trip hahahaha, I doubt it.
The pictures are online, but they’re located in the BP website. I had a bunch of other nice shots which I want to post on my site, but I’m tinatamad to do it eh hahaha.