Boracay 2020

This is the first time I visited Boracay after the six-month long rehabilitation, and boy, was it amazing! The beach was perfectly clean, no trace of trash anywhere. There's a security personnel stationed every few meters that made me feel absolutely safe to walk at night. And the annoying salespersons who keep pestering you to avail their beach activities? They're gone! They were replaced with licensed ones who are compliant with regulations.

The reason why I came to Boracay in the first place was because Ryan and I was invited to a wedding at The Lind. The wedding was beautiful—nice and intimate, just with close friends and family. We spent four days in Boracay and felt that they weren't enough!  

Japan 2019: Osaka + Kobe

And here we are on the last leg of my Kyoto-Osaka trip! I'm a bit tired writing at this point lol (this is my fourth post today), so I'm just going to list what we did on the last leg of our trip:

- ate ramen at Ichiran

- went to Osaka Castle and rode the Osaka-jo Gozabune boat

- went up the Umeda Sky Building

- had fluffy french toast at Hoshino Coffee

-had yummy unlimited sushi at this random place in Dotonbori 

- took pictures with the Glico man and shopped at Don Quixote

- ate Kobe beef (AMAZING!!- worth a trip to Kobe)

-had lots and lots of Gyudon

- was treated steak because it was my friend's birthday

Now that I think about it, it seemed like we did nothing but eat, eat, and eat! Haha. Until next time!

Japan 2019: Universal Studios

My favorite part in every vacation—a visit to a theme park! I'm still a kid at heart and I love love love going to theme parks. This is quite funny but my theme park tradition is ordering a turkey leg for snack. Every time I go to theme parks, I always have to have a turkey leg. It makes my visit complete. Lol.

In USJ, I especially loved the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! I am a Harry Potter fan and I've read all the books immediately after they were published. This place is truly memorable because it was where I got my very first taste of butterbeer! And to add to that, we were lucky that we went on this trip in October, since Halloween was approaching, the park was horror-themed! There were horror houses, and at nighttime, the park staff dressed up as monsters or zombies and they roamed around the park to try and scare you! HARRY POTTER + BUTTER BEER + HORROR HOUSES + TURKEY LEG = HAPPINESS!!

Japan 2019: Himeji Castle

We headed to Himeji Castle on our second day in Kyoto... which was a wrong decision because we would be passing by Osaka on our way there! We stayed during the first half of our trip in Kyoto and the second half in Osaka. Traveling back and forth is so fast and easy so it would've been better if we stayed in Osaka the entire duration of our trip—we could've avoided the hassle of transporting our luggage! 

Himeji Castle was amazing! From the train station, we rented bikes and biked around the castle complex. It was so cool because we got to enter the castle to see the rooms up close. Would you believe that this castle was built more than six centuries ago?

When we felt we have spent enough time at Himeji Castle, we took the train back to Kyoto for a quick visit at Arashiyama Bamboo Forest. Unfortunately, when we got there, it was already closed! Disappointed at our poor time management, we just went to the mall where we met up with a Japanese friend, and ordered katsu for dinner!

Japan 2019: Kyoto

It has been a looooong time since I last visited Japan—nine years ago, to be exact. Oh but I did go to Okinawa last year as it was a stopover in a cruise, but that doesn't count lol. Anyway, for my annual trip with my high school friends, we decided on Japan!

We visited Kyoto and Osaka, and I was the only one in group who would be visiting these cities for the first time (I visited only Tokyo before)! We went to Fushimi Inari shrine, and joined a walking tour in Kyoto on our first day, where we explored both Gion (where geisha houses are located) and Higashiyama districts. We decided not to finish the tour because some of my friends were tired from all the walking, so instead of making multiple stops had we continued the tour, we headed directly to Kiyomizudera Temple. We didn't enter though because the building was under construction. Sad, it could've looked so beautiful. We ended our tiring first day with an unlimited yakiniku dinner. Yay!

The next day, we headed to the majestic Himeji Castle! But more on that on my next post.

On the third day, we got up early to have a quick look at Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion). It was a remarkable sight! The place looked so peaceful and relaxing, and the entire walk around the property took only around 20 minutes. After that, we were supposed to meet up with the rest of the group at Nishiki Market but we took the wrong bus and got lost on the way! Lol. It took us a long time but we eventually got there. After grabbing some food at the market, we checked out from the hotel and took the train to Osaka.  

Thailand 2019: Bangkok City Center

The rest of my trip to Bangkok was spent on eating Thai food (pad thai and mango sticky rice, yum!), getting massages, and visiting markets (Chatuchak) and shopping malls (Icon Siam). 

One unique thing we did was try Dialogue in the Dark. It's a one-hour experience where you would be navigating and exploring different places in the dark to give you a glimpe of how it would be like to live without the sense of sight. You would also be given a cane and a blind tour guide to accompany you. At first, it was very difficult to move in the dark since I couldn't see at all--even if you open your eyes, you would only see darkness--but after a while, it somehow became easier. The blind lady who accompanied us was very patient, and even with her disability, she was able to navigate pretty well. After this experience, I got a newfound appreciation for my eyes and realized that I'm blessed to be able to see the things around me. I highly recommend this experience to anyone who's open to try new things!

That's it for my Bangkok trip! Will be posting my Japan trip next!

Thailand 2019: Suhring

This is definitely one of the best best best meals ever! Suhring is a two-star Michelin restaurant and belongs to the World's Top 50 Restaurants in 2019. We had a wonderful nine-course meal, which took us almost three hours to finish! Each of the dishes were very innovative and perfectly crafted. Every bite was like an explosion of flavors⁠—I loved every bit of the experience! The restaurant is a beautiful glass house surrounded by lush greeneries, which made the meal even more enjoyable.  

Before we had lunch, we joined a yoga class at Trika Yog. The class focused more on deep stretches rather than traditional yoga poses, which I don't see very often, but the instructor was great and guided each student in the class well.

Thailand 2019: Ayutthaya

Since my first visit to Bangkok last 2018, I have been wanting to visit Ayutthaya because of its historical significance. I booked a day tour and visited Wat Phutthaisawan, Luang Pu Thuat Market (where we had lunch), Wat Ratchaburana, Wat Mahathat, and Wat Phra Ngarm. Most of these sites have Buddha structures, with the one on the tree at Wat Ratchaburana the most popular. We spent an entire day in Ayutthaya, and when we got back in Bangkok, we had a relaxing massage! 

Thailand 2019: Cooking Class

This is the third time I signed up for a cooking class during my travels. The first one was in Ho Chi Minh, the second one was in Bali, and the third one's here in Bangkok! I noticed that I'm slowly enjoying preparing food in the kitchen! 

On my first day in Bangkok, I booked a class at Silom Thai Cooking School. The preparation area was very nice and clean, and the chef very friendly and approachable. I found the class a bit fast paced though—while I was still slicing and chopping the ingredients, the chef was already explaining the next steps! It was perfectly okay though as I was able to catch up easily. The class had to be fast paced because we had to prepare five dishes under three hours! Not an easy feat for a beginner like me! When the session was over, I felt so proud of myself to have prepared these yummy dishes! The dishes I made were: Tom Yum Soup, Pad Thai, Green Curry Chicken, Red Curry Chicken, and Dessert Rubies in Coconut Milk.

Bucket List

Traveling has always been one of my greatest passions. I enjoy discovering new places, and immersing myself in different cultures. And the more I travel, the more I want to see the rest of the world. 

Experiences matter a lot to me, which is why I'm more willing to spend my money on funding my trips, than on material things. This is also the reason I decided to keep this blog. I suck at writing but I wanted to remember everything about my travels as much as I can. I've been to quite a lot of places but my feet are still itching to explore what else the world has to offer. Here, I listed the top things I want to do and I hope I get to do all of them in my lifetime!

La Union 2019: Day 1

Summer was the perfect time to go on a beach holiday, and I went with none other than my high school friends! Compared to our other trips, this one was not planned in advance. In fact, we only decided that we were going to La Union less than a month before we leave. Lol. On the day itself, I took a 12-hour land trip from my hometown (Legazpi) to Manila, and spent another 5 hours from Manila to La Union. Whew! 

We were starving when we arrived in La Union so we stopped by Grumpy Joe's for lunch. We didn't know that their serving size was enormous so we ended up ordering too much. Lol. For dessert, we drove to Halo-halo de Iloko for some (yes, you guessed it!) halo-halo. The queue outside the restaurant was very long so we just decided to have the halo-halo to go, and ended up eating them in the car. We were tired from the long drive, so we checked in at our hotel and rested a bit. Just before sunset, we went to the beach at San Juan for some surfing. Unfortunately, the waves were too small-- we decided it wasn't worth it. We walked around the beach to pass the time, and had an early dinner at Baybay Seafood. Our seafood boodle dinner was amazing, and very affordable! I'm not a fan of boodle fights, but this one was one-of-a-kind. The seafood was so fresh and the sauce tasted great. Naturally, I ate a ton! We ended the night early but still managed to squeeze in a bonding session in our room before going to bed.

Australia 2019: Bondi Beach & Sydney CBD

And we've finally come to the last day of our Australian vacation. We woke up early in the morning to go to the world famous Bondi Beach. Three trains, and one bus ride after, my sister and I found ourselves at the southern end of Bondi Beach. We enjoyed the light breeze and listened to the sounds of the waves crashing against the rocks. What a wonderful way to spend our morning! We then realized that we hadn't eaten breakfast, so we hurriedly looked for a nice cafe. The Pokecado at Preach Cafe was amazing-- clearly the best dish I had in Australia! It had cured salmon, edamame, smashed avocado, rocket, cucumber, mango, and black sesame seeds with soy sauce on sourdough. The combination of the flavors, and the presentation was just marvelous!

We absolutely adored the walking tour in Melbourne, so at 2pm, we joined another walking tour in Sydney. And after that, we joined an evening tour of The Rocks. For dinner, we had ramen from Gumshara in Chinatown. There were a lot of walking so I wasn't surprised that we were all so tired! I checked the health app on my phone and it said we walked 14 kilometers that day! Whew!

During our time in Australia, our tour guides would say that Sydney and Melbourne have this long-standing rivalry. Personally, though Sydney has more iconic sites, I prefer the city of Melbourne. I think Melbourne has a lot in common with San Francisco. Both have hilly terrain, and have trams as public transportation. They also have the same young, hipster vibe. I feel very lucky that we got to visit a lot of different sights with the limited time we had. In Melbourne, I think we only skipped Great Ocean Road, and in Sydney, Manly Beach. The next time I'm in Australia though, I plan to go the Outback! Until then!

Australia 2019: Sydney CBD

My aunt offered to take us around the city on our second day. She taught us how the transportation system works, and which trains or buses to take to get around the city. We visited the Sydney Opera House, and the Harbor Bridge, and strolled along the streets of The Rocks. Thankfully, there weren't a lot of tourists walking around, probably because it had been raining on and off. After walking for some time, we stopped to eat lunch at this pub called The Glenmore, and also to rest our feet. We then took a train to Parramatta and spent the rest of the day souvenir and grocery shopping.

Australia 2019: Blue Mountains

Hello Sydney! Upon arrival at the airport, we were greeted by my aunt (my dad's sister) and her family. They've been living in Sydney for as long as I can remember and because of the distance, we don't get to see each other often. We were really happy that we got to spend time with them.

We wanted to take advantage of the sunny weather on our first day in Sydney, so instead of taking a city tour, which is usually the first thing we do when we arrive in a new city, we decided to spend the day at the Blue Mountains. We went to Scenic World first to try the rides. There were three different rides-- the Cableway, the Skyway, and the Railway. The Cableway and the Skyway just felt like riding a big cable car. The Railway was the most exciting among the three because it's the steepest railway in the world! We then headed to the Blue Mountains Heritage Center for another scenic view of the mountains. This was also where we started trekking to the Three Sisters. The trek was very easy, so we didn't have any problem at all. The next time I'm in Sydney, I'd probably skip Scenic World, and do more nature hikes at the Blue Mountains instead.

After our short trek, we drove to Leura, a small, charming town just twenty minutes away from the the Blue Mountains Heritage Center. We walked around, and decided to grab lunch at a restaurant called Leura Garage. After eating, we started our drive home.

My aunt just celebrated her birthday the day before we arrived in Sydney, so she invited us for a post-birthday dinner at her family's favorite Japanese restauarant called Hukuya Sushi Bar. Definitely a day well-spent!

Australia 2019: St Kilda & Brighton Beach

Aww I couldn't believe this was our last full day in Melbourne! To start the day, we grabbed a cup of coffee from Patricia Coffee Roasters, the best coffee in Melbourne according to some random website. Lol. Melbourne is the coffee capital of Australia, and they say you've never really experienced Melbourne until you've tried their coffee. True enough, their coffee was good! 

We wanted to buy some souvenirs at the Queen Victoria Market so we walked all the way there, but it turned out that they are close on Mondays. Boo. We dropped by the State Library of Victoria next. It looks wonderful from outside, but looks even better inside! If I were studying in Melbourne, I would definitely come here everyday. We then took an Uber to St. Kilda where we had our lunch at a local cafe called Cafe Banff. They serve some amazing pizza and pasta, and the dishes are not so pricey too! 

From Cafe Banff, we walked to Luna Park and Palais Theatre. It was a long walk, but we didn't mind because we passed by a lot of nice sceneries. We took a few photos at Luna Park, and then took another Uber to Brighton Beach to see the colorful bathing boxes!

And that's it for Melbourne! Going to Sydney next!

Australia 2019: Yarra Valley

We started our day with some bread and tea at this cafe at Sherbrooke Forest called Grants on Sherbrooke. We had some spare time before the bus leaves so we went on a short walking trail. There were a lot of birds in this area, such as cuckaboroughs and lyrebirds, and you could actually hear them chirping! Next activity was the Puffing Billy train ride. The Puffing Billy is a century-old steam train and runs on its original track through the Dandenong Ranges. After getting off at Menzies Creek station, we rode the bus and headed to Yarra Valley for our lunch and some wine tasting. We visited three different wineries in total: Rochford Wines (where we had our lunch), Dominique Portet, and Yering Farms.

It was a Sunday, and we arrived in Melbourne pretty early so we were just in time for the 6pm mass at St. Paul's Cathedral. Our family's Roman Catholic, but since there wasn't any Catholic church in the area, we went to St. Paul's instead.

After the mass, we rested for a bit at our Airbnb, then walked to Supernormal for our dinner. (Seriously, everything is so near our Airbnb! I am so going to stay there again the next time I'm in Melbourne!). I first came across Supernormal while browsing The Monocle Guide to Drinking and Dining, and after reading lots of positive reviews online, I decided to book a table. We got a banquet menu for 69AUD per person (quite pricey but so worth it!). All the dishes served were fantastic, and we were so full afterwards! 

Australia 2019: Philip Island

One of the top sights to see near Melbourne was the Penguin Parade at Philip Island. Getting there through public transportation was difficult so I booked a tour for the family. The tour started at Moonlit Sanctuary where we saw wombats being fed, and kangaroos, and wallabies walking around. We had a simple lunch of sausages, potatoes, bread, and some greens. I loved it! But the rest of my family didn't lol. We then went to Churchill Heritage Center where we watched a sheepdog herding sheep, and a guy shearing wool from a sheep. I even got to touch the wool afterwards! Lol.

Next was the Koala Conservation Center. There were only very few koalas in the centre, and it made me quite sad. According to the guides, koalas are dying because of the destruction of forests. They eat large amounts of leaves from the eucalyptus tree, and even in the conservation center itself, the koalas eat more leaves than the trees can regenerate. To make sure that the koalas have enough food in the centre, they have to continuously plant and grow eucalyptus trees.

We had a light snack which I really appreciated because the tour agency made no mention that there was going to be an afternoon snack. It was very simple-- tea and coffee in plastic cups, and a few pieces of crackers, but very much appreciated, nonetheless.

Next stop was the Boardwalk at the Nobbies Centre. It was terribly cold but very much worth it! We saw some rock formations called seal rocks, home to the largest Australian fur seal colony. Our stop here was quick because we still had to travel by bus to the Penguin Parade. 

After dinner, we headed outside the boardwalk to watch the penguins emerge from the sea and walk on the shore towards their burrows where they would be staying for the night. They were so incredibly cute! There were so many penguins and you could see them up close, like a meter away. This truly was the highlight of the day! Too bad it wasn't allowed to take photos of the penguins. This day could've been perfect if it wasn't raining on and off. Oh well, I guess you can't have everything! :)

Australia 2019: Melbourne CBD

So this year's family trip was in Australia! I've been planning this trip since last year because I was just so excited. It was my first time in Australia and I wanted to see so many places! Unfortunately, we couldn't leave work for a long time. With the time we have, we could only go to two cities, and I chose Melbourne and Sydney obviously.

I did a ton of research, especially on Melbourne's transportation network. It took me hours to understand how they work lol. I got them eventually. I was surprised to find that the trams travelling within the city center were free. Yay! We stayed in a gorgeous three-bedroom Airbnb apartment along Flinders St. and just across it, was the tram station. Talk about convenience!

On our first day in Melbourne, we joined a walking tour by I'm Free Walking Tours. Meetup place was outside the State Library of Victoria. We got to see the highlights of the city and learned some interesting history in just three hours! The tour ended at the South Bank, and we just walked all the way back to our Airbnb. 

My family decided to stay in the Airbnb the whole afternoon to rest, while my sister and I dropped by Federation Square to check out the exhibits at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. For dinner, we went to Degraves St., which again, was just a short walk from where we were staying. We ate some pizza and pasta at The Quarter, then our parents headed home. Us, kids ordered ice cream from Pidapipo, and brought them home so that we can share them with everybody. We thought that our sister walked back home with our parents, but when we arrived home, she was nowhere to be found! Lol. Apparently, she was waiting for us outside Pidapipo! I took a photo of the ice cream shop before we left, and when I checked the photo after we realized she was missing, she was there! My dad hurriedly went back to the ice cream shop to pick her up. What an eventful first day! Lol.

Cebu 2019

I had an amazing weekend in Cebu last March that I couldn't wait to write all about it! I attended two weddings, one on Saturday and the other on Sunday. It was such a big coincidence that the two out-of-town weddings I had to attend happened to be on the same weekend!

Upon arriving at the airport, I met up with my sister, who was currently studying in Cebu that time. We had a yummy dinner consisting of roti, curry, and char kway teow at OSG, and I stayed at her place for the night. The next day, I took a Grab to Shangri-la Mactan, where I would be staying for the next three days. This was also where the dinner reception of the first wedding was held. I had an enjoyable time at the resort, the staff were super nice, and they even gave us a bottle of wine, and fruits upon check in!

A day after the wedding, I had to rush to Cebu City for the second wedding. This time, it was at the Grand Convention Center. Right below the venue, on the ground floor, was Seafood City, the restaurant I've been dying to try in Cebu. You had to get a cart, "shop" for the seafoods, and choose how you'd like them to be cooked. We had our lunch there the next day, right before going to the airport to catch our flight back to Legazpi.

US 2019: Orange County

On my last day in the States, I took my time packing my things, and getting ready. I even got to squeeze in some episodes of The Blacklist. My uncle had to go to work so he couldn't show me around the city during the day. To pass the time, I walked to Target and grabbed some stuff for my family back home. After work, my uncle picked me up and we had dinner at the newly opened branch of Porto's at Buena Park, then drove to Anaheim for a quick stroll at Downtown Disney. While walking around, I saw this place called The Void, and they currently offer Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire (according to their website, they also have a Ghostbusters themed one). I read about it when I was in LA. Basically, It's a fully immersive VR experience-- you can see, feel, and smell things. We were given a mission, and we had to complete it by disguising as Storm Troopers. It felt so real, like I was in the Star Wars universe! Seriously, after the experience, I could not stop talking about it. It was truly the perfect way to end my US trip!

I feel like I was able to do so many things and visit so many places in just two weeks. To sum it up, my trip started in Las Vegas, then we went to Page, Arizona, then LA, then I flew to San Francisco, then flew back to LA, then drove to San Diego, and last stop was Orange County.