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It feels sooo good to be back home! Back here in Cordova and in the Philippines, though I also welcomed the disconnect the past few weeks. I wish to tell you more about what I’ve been up to in the next few blog posts. In the meantime, I leave you with these:

Airbnb

My sister, Bernard, and I are off to Hong Kong next week (excited!). We’re supposed to fly in the late evening of August 16 and come back on August 19, early morning. But no, Cebu Pacific is full of surprises. They just decided to cancel our first reservations and moved us to the next dates. So we’ll be spending 3 days and 2 nights there.

Sounds great, right? Well, we’re on a tight budget, and accommodation isn’t very cheap there. Even hostels can cost more than 10,000 pesos for the three of us. That’s basically what happened after I had booked a great room in Hop Inn HK–Carnarvon. It already cost me more than 5,000 for one night. If I add one more, it would throw our budget way off course, and I wasn’t really sure if they could accommodate us for another day. I just canceled it.

The other options I had were great but a bit off from Kowloon, where most of the good things are. Moreover, as hostels, the rooms can be pretty cramped with a lot of people fighting over a small bathroom. I needed another choice, something that’s within Kowloon and my budget.

So I went to Airbnb. This is very much like Roomorama (and I can’t really spell their huge differences), except that I found cheaper prices in the former. Some of the listings are full apartments and homes, so they cost a lot of money, but the others were private rooms in hostels and inns.

I liked the fact that I can browse according to how many a room can accommodate, the kinds of amenities they offer, their location, and, of course, price. I can also read reviews.

Anyway, after 30 minutes, I spotted this.

Obviously the room isn’t huge, as most HK units are, but it’s enough for us three. And we get to have our own bathroom and free Internet access.

It’s within Jordan, which is also in Kowloon. Since we’re planning to go to Macau, the ferry terminal is only a few minutes’ walk away. Outside are small dining shops that I’m hoping are cheap. The host sounds like a really great, friendly person; and he’s actually very prompt in replying to my messages.

We get all these for about 5,500 pesos–for 2 nights’ stay! It already included the website and cleaning fees.

Right now I feel it’s such a great steal. My only hope is that it’s as good as it appears.