Going to Bantayan Island The Convenient Way

Bantayan Island is located in the northern part of Cebu.  To get there, if you are from Manila, you will be using all modes of transportation: via air, land and sea.  You will need to book first a flight from Manila to Cebu.  Then from Cebu, you will ride a jeepney or a cab from the airport to go to the bus terminal where it is headed to the Hagnaya port where you will ride a ferry going to Bantayan Island.  If you compute for the time in all these modes of transportation, it will take you about 8 hours just to get to Bantayan Island.  This includes waiting time from the airport (about 2 hours).  Once in Cebu, travel time takes about 5-6 hours including waiting time.

An easier way to go to Bantayan Island is via rented van, private vehicle or taxi.  Of course this will entail additional and more expensive cost.  But if you are a group, the share of expenses will be lighter.  And if you are press for time with no worries about additional cost, then you can opt to ride these.

Getting a taxi or rented van will take you only 2 hours travel time from the airport to the port.  Another 1 hour for the ferry ride going to Bantayan Island.  All in all, that's only 3 hours!  Aside from you will get there easily, you will not also feel tired.  Its just like traffic in Manila, haha!

Anyway, I made this separate post particularly in getting to Bantayan Island the convenient way is because I wanted to share the contact details of our taxi driver.  I prearrange taxi transport service with Anika Island Resort (where we stayed in Bantayan Island, blog post to be uploaded soon) as they provided the cheapest taxi transport service I found.  Normally, the cost is Php 3,000 per way from Mactan Airport to Hagnaya port.  Some even charge as high as Php 4,000 (according to ad post in olx.com.ph).  The lowest I inquired was at Php 2,800 then I found Php 2,500.  Finally, Anika Island Resort told me that their charge is Php 2,000 only per way and payable to the taxi driver directly!  That's already cheap!  At least for us.  Because Air Asia moved our flight to a not so early morning, we wanted to maximize our time and at least arrive in Bantayan Island by lunch time.

Mr. Jimmy Pacifico is our taxi driver.  We learned that he not only caters transport service to Anika Island Resort's guest but to several resorts and hotels as well.  He can even take the passengers to Maya port (pickk up point going to Malapascua Island) at a cheap rate of Php 3,000 one way and even to the port going to Camotes Island.  He's a very jolly man and with safe driving skills.  We never encountered any problems while riding his taxi.  He does not own the taxi but I'm not sure until when will he be driving it since we learned that his son will soon be working in Singapore and part of their plan is to have their own taxi company so maybe later on he will no longer be the driver but the owner of the taxi.

Just to know how affordable his Php 2,000 rate is, he turned on the meter reading on our way to Hagnaya port.  The meter read Php 1,100+, not a lot difference from his rate to think that he will still go back to Cebu City with no more passengers.  We also asked him to fetch us from Hagnaya port going to Shangri-la Mactan on our 3rd day in Cebu.  Again, he turned the meter on.  Once in Shangri-la, it read Php 1,500+.  Again, he has no passengers on the way to Hagnaya port.  So we thought, his rate was really reasonable.  We handed him a tip for a very safe and convenient ride.

You may contact him at 09176961523.  Just tell him that one of their passengers from Anika Island Resort last October 24 recommended him to you.  I'm not sure if still remembers us but for sure we will never forget him.  We will get his service again on our next trip to Cebu, maybe going to Malapascua Island.

Taiwan Excellence: Made to Enjoy Christmas Contest

Christmas is generally the celebrated and anticipated season for most Filipino.  This is the season where people exert extra effort in giving special gifts, sharing their blessings, setting up reunions and holding Christmas parties.  With Christmas just almost a month away, people have surely prepared something for someone or even for everyone around them.  Other than birthdays, people treat Christmas as one of the most important event where they would give something extraordinary and memorable gifts to those people close or special to them.

It is good to know that Taiwan Excellence, producing quality Taiwanese products, recognizes the importance of Christmas to Filipinos that is why they are offering a one of a kind gift giving where you can get any of their products of your choice for free!  How?  Through the Taiwan Excellence – Made to Enjoy Christmas Contest.

Taiwan Excellence – Made to Enjoy Christmas offers wide range of products for different people which could provide them with an excellent lifestyle.  There’s Acer, Asus, BenQ, and MSI for IT related products; Pacifica, Strida and Tern for bicycles; HCG, Teco, Tatung and Sakura for home and living products; Miacare and Microlife for health and medical products and many others.  These products have Taiwan Excellence Seal which is known to provide quality, reliable and innovative products.

To get any of these products for free, just register at http://www.MadeToEnjoyTheLife.ph and select a Taiwan Excellence item you wish to give as a gift to your special someone.  Upload your photo and share why you want to give the chosen Taiwan Excellence gift to your selected recipient.  Ten (10) winners will be selected to receive the chosen Taiwan Excellence gift and one (1) of them will have the opportunity to have their gift delivered by Taiwan Excellence Celebrity Endorser in the Philippines, Iya Villania – Arellano.

The best part in joining this contest is that no initial purchases required in entering or winning the contest.  You can even share the Taiwan Excellence – Made to Enjoy Christmas to your family and friends.

The contest runs from September 28, 2014 until November 23, 2014.  So hurry! Register now to get that special gift to your love ones for free!

Taiwan Excellence’s theme, Excellent Lifestyle is a campaign launch in the Philippines by one of the organizers, Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), a non-profit, semi-governmental trade promotion organization in Taiwan.

*Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post.

Discover Products of Taiwan through Taiwan Excellence

With the emergence of e-commerce and online shopping, people around the world have now plenty of choices in buying products that they like and access to numerous products and services across the globe.  However, one cannot guarantee the quality of the products posted online.  A thorough research on the background of the product or manufacturer maybe needed or even a product review to determine that you are getting your money’s worth in buying their products. 

Good thing there are several countries that exert extra effort in making sure their products are of good quality and passed through rigorous quality assurance process to ensure the high satisfactory rate of their consumers.  Such country is Taiwan where one can discover products of Taiwan through their Taiwan Excellence entity.

Taiwan Excellence is a campaign established in 1992 by the Taiwan government to promote Taiwanese brands that guarantee high quality and value products.  These products go through a screening process to determine whether they will pass a high standard quality for them to bear the Taiwan Excellence Seal.  But how would they qualify a certain product to be of high quality?  You may wonder.

Any Taiwanese brands who wish to have a Taiwan Excellence Seal are entitled to join this campaign.  Their products can fall any of the categories such as fashion, information technology, arts, culture, transportation, sports, home and living and many others.  An international panel of judges will evaluate the products based the following criteria: Research and Development, Design, Quality and Marketing Strategy.  A score per category will be given on each product.  After thorough evaluation and computation of scores, selected products can now carry the Taiwan Excellence Seal which they can use locally and internationally.  People will now be able to discover products of Taiwan through Taiwan Excellence.

Further distinctions are given to selected products who can be awarded a Silver and Gold Recognition Award.  Thirty products will be selected among the winners.  Only ten will be given the Gold Award, which is the highest recognition in the Taiwan Excellence campaign while the rest are given Silver Award.

In the Philippines, where various brands competition are emerging in the market particularly in terms of price, many consumers wonder which of these brands will give more value to their money.  Since Taiwan Excellence campaign was first launched in the Philippines early this year, now Filipinos can be assured of quality products of Taiwan brands such as Asus, Acer, HTC, BenQ, KingCom, MSI, Transcend and many others.  Filipinos will now have the confidence in buying these products because they pass through a rigorous screening process in obtaining a highest form of quality seal. 

The campaign, with a theme of Excellent Lifestyle, will not only benefit Filipinos of good quality products but will also let them recognize how these products will enable them to have an “excellent lifestyle”.  With about 56 Taiwanese brands with Taiwan Excellence Seal launched in the Philippines, these products provide consumers with innovative and state of the art products which will aid them in their day to day activities whether at home or at work.  One will surely discover products of Taiwan through Taiwan Excellence to be having good quality product that does not only give value for money but provide meaningful use of the products in their lives as well. 

*Disclaimer:  This is a sponsored post.