Talking Travel: Paradise Lost

We hope Malapascua looks like this again very soon.

No sooner had this author pressed "publish" on last week's edition of Talking Travel then Cebu Pacific Airlines announced a RMB 1 air ticket deal from November 5-7, for seats to the Philippines April-June 2014. And barely had that sale ended when Typhoon Haiyan blew in and devastated that wonderful country. Reports of damage in popular travel destinations vary. Some received severe damage, others not so much, but tourism infrastructure throughout the country has taken a heavy hit. If you'd like to donate to relief efforts, please see this list.

This author is not a big fan of giving aid. Instead, the best thing is to travel to the place as soon as it's reasonable to do so, spend some money, and then let everyone know that it's cool to go back. Phuket was devastated by the 2004 tsunami, but a visit to Patong Beach today and you wouldn't know that one of the worst disasters in recorded history took place there less than a decade ago. Vote, and support, with your travel wallet.

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We promised deals in the previous edition and this time we have a good one: Cathay Pacific's Getaway Surprise is offering RMB 2,900 roundtrip fares (not including tax) to Malé, via Hong Kong. Where, you say? Malé is the capital of the Maldives, one of the world's great island paradises. With tax, the fare comes in at just under RMB 5,000 per person. Validity is November 1, 2013 through January 27, 2014, with no blackouts for Christmas. However, seats are limited, so if you want to take advantage of a pretty good price, act quickly.

Cathay is also offering RMB 1,990 roundtrip to Bangkok, also via Hong Kong. That's decent, but the fare itself isn't particularly special, especially since it's only valid until December 14. The Hong Kong carrier usually flies to the Thai capital for about that much, which is funny considering a flight only to Hong Kong from Beijing is about RMB 3,500.

Air France has fares to Europe from Beijing from RMB 2,900 (Paris is RMB 3,500, mais bien sur), valid until March 31, 2014. Minimum stay is six days (or at least one Sunday), maximum is one month. However, the fares we checked, to London and Munich, all had taxes of over RMB 4,000 tacked on to them. That's not a bargain.

There are also some pretty good prices available on domestic flights, especially now that China has scrapped mandatory "floor," or minimum, prices for airline tickets. For example, flights to Kunming from Beijing are available now for just over RMB 1,000, in case the heat hasn't come on in your building yet and some guo qiao mi xian would hit the spot.

See how it goes with those prices. If you see other deals that we don't know about, please add them in our Comments section below. Until next week, one road flat straight.

Email: stevenschwankert@truerun.com
Twitter: greatwriteshark
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