skip vietnam???

so it happened again. the resolve to quit traveling is yet again defeated by no other than the cebu pacific fare sale. august of last year, my sister and some friends in her office booked tickets for manila-ho chi minh-manila. each only paid around PhP3,151 for the two-way tickets. upon booking, my sister texted me about it. at that time, i vowed to no longer travel without planning ahead. HAHA, buying plane tickets unplanned is definitely a burden to someone who doesn’t have savings. of course, i was envious – the good kind. but like i said, i have to consider my finances. then late last year, i got a health scare and was truly sick early january. that made me scared about traveling. if my health continues to be problematic and will take out traveling in my life’s equation; i’d be looking at a really, really pathetic life. though i feel this, i’m also aware of my financial standing. i can’t afford to travel abroad – at least not for this year 2011.

early february, cebu pacific had again one of those seat sales. haha, i booked myself tickets for manila, for travel date august 13 and 18. i got them for only PhP924. it’s not that cheap, as i’ve once booked the same for only PhP297 and it’s for TWO PEOPLE. but anyway, i needed to feel good and believe that there’s a future to look forward to despite my beautiful u. the end goal was to join my sister for the vietnam trip. but there was no international seat sale then and i’m not willing to pay PhP13K+++ for a ticket. i rationalized, that i could always explore luzon if don’t get to buy tickets for vietnam. additionally, i told myself that i will decide come june since the trip is not until august anyway. but as fate would have it, cebu pac had an international seat sale last february 14-17 ( i think it was their valentine sale) and it was then that the resolve to be financially responsible crumbled – HARD!!

i got the manila-hcm-manila tickets for only PhP4488. that’s definitely cheaper than the regular 13K fare. so i thought myself lucky. early on, my sister decided to cut short her trip and get back to cebu on august 18, instead of the 20th. so naturally, when i booked my tickets, i booked a return flight for august 18.

but behold when i started researching for places of interest, i was stumped. travel time will kill my chances of seeing vietnam, at least ho chi minh city. see, in the first few days, the group’s target was to see cambodia’s famed angkor wat in siem reap. now, travel time from hcm to sr is comparable to doing manila-baguio except that travel to sr happens during daytime unlike when you’re traveling to baguio where there’s nightime travel available. travel time is like this; from hcm, one travels for 6 hours to get to phnom penh, then from phonm penh another 8 hours by bus. this has got something to do with the bus schedule. flying in to sr from hcm is out of the question as it’s really an expensive 4-hour flight. SO..this spells out doom for my booked tickets.

generally, we will be arriving in hcm dawn on august 14. rough travel i.t. looks like this:
august 14: hcm to pp [overnight at pp]
august 15: pp to sr [overnight at sr]
august 16: angkor wat tour
august 17: sr to hcm; arriving at 8PM.

now, i’m supposed to be back at the hcm airport at 11 PM on the very day we arrive back to hcm. so now there goes my dilemma.

IF this travel plan goes through, i’ve two options:
OPTION 1
-stick with my booked flights and just be happy having the chance to visit this wonderful beauty (hehe, i’m a sucker for old stone structures.. you should have seen my reaction when i finally stepped on my favorite ayutthaya, thailand)

behold cambodia’s angkor wat; photo credit here.

and MISS getting a glimpse of ho chi minh city..

OR

OPTION 2: i rebook my return flight and spend some $107 for hcm-manila and some amount for manila-cebu just to see this:

behold vietnam’s dai nam – photo credit here.

decision, decision… i’ll decide again in JUNE, haha.. but still crossing fingers that work and health won’t get in the way…

oh, there’s a THIRD OPTION:

skip angkor wat and do vietnam alone!!! oh, travel life!!!