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: 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.

SSV Day 1: All Aboard

A month hadn't passed since I arrived from my trip to Dubai and I was going away on another trip! This time, it was a 6D/5N cruise aboard Superstar Virgo with excursions at Ishigaki, Japan, and Keelung, Taiwan. This was my first time to be on a cruise ship so I was really really excited! 

We arrived at Pier 15 at around 2 pm, and immediately checked in our bags. The lines were okay except for the immigration which was quite long. Upon boarding, we went straight to our cabins and freshened up. Our room was not bad at all-- we had enough space to open our luggage, and had a nice balcony where we could stay and chill.

The first day was mostly spent on looking around so not much happened. There were three inclusive restaurants (where there were no extra charges for meals), an adult pool, a kids pool, four hot tubs, two indoor training pools, a gym, an activity center (where you could borrow board games), a spa, a library, a theatre, and some Duty Free shops. After dinner, we watched a show at the Zodiac Theatre called 'Love Around the World'.

I had a late night snack at Ludo Restaurant and watched the film Geostorm at the theatre. My first day was a blast but I had a feeling that the following days would be even better!

Kalanggaman Island

Last year, I went to Ormoc for the christening and birthday celebration of my godson. The event would start in late afternoon so to make the most of our time there, we visited  Kalanggaman island in the morning. Pristine white sand beach, clear blue waters-- the view was amazing. The almost two-hour drive and one-hour boat ride was totally worth it! The island was surprisingly very peaceful probably due to the fact that not a lot of people know of its existence. In fact, I found out about it only the night before, when a friend mentioned it. Lol. 

Bali Day 3: Waterbom + Uluwatu

On the third and last day of our trip to Bali, our itinerary was pretty simple-- visit Waterbom Bali (Waterpark) and Uluwatu Temple. It rained so hard that morning, it took us almost an hour to get to Waterbom! We were so near and yet the cars in front of us were hardly moving. That was when we decided to wade in knee-deep floodwater-- our adventure already started even when we haven't arrived yet in our first destination!

I loved Waterbom! The place was super chill, the slides were fun (and didn't make you dizzy unlike slides in other waterparks). I tried all the slides, including the Smashdown 2.0, where you enter a capsule 26 meters up, wait for the countdown, then have the floor drop from underneath you! I felt so scared while waiting for my turn, and even considered backing out! But I saw kids around 10 years old waiting in line without any trace of fear and that instantly became my source of motivation. Lol. If they could do it, why couldn't I? I put on my brave face until it was my turn and was already inside the capsule and could no longer back out. A great sense of accomplishment washed over me when I got off the slide. I felt invincible!  Hahaha. Too bad I didn't have pictures. Would I do it again? Definitely! 

Still feeling the adrenaline from the water slides, I couldn't believe it was time to go. We needed to hurry because we still had to catch the sunset at Uluwatu Temple. We arrived just in time, if we had arrived 10 minutes later, we would miss it. Aside from the wonderful views, another thing to love about Uluwatu was the abundance of monkeys! I love monkeys and I even had a personal encounter with one of them! On our way back to the car, I felt a weight on my slipper, when I turned to look, a huge monkey was trying to get my slipper off my feet! I refused to let go (because those slippers were new lol), so I got really scared that it would try to attack me! I asked help from Ryan and his aunt and they shooed it away. Whew, slipper saved! 

After sunset, we visited some outlet stores in Uluwatu area, mostly selling swimwear brands like Roxy, Quicksilver, Billabong, Rip Curl, and dropped by a popular souvenir shop called Krisna for some last minute shopping.

Bali Day 1: Ubud

I went on a trip to Bali last June with Ryan and his aunt. In fact, this was the second time I traveled to a different country with Ryan's aunt! The first time was when we visited Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam (day 1, day 2, and day 3), and it was just the two of us then because Ryan had an important commitment at work. She's game for anything so trips with her are always fun!

We arrived in Bali around 9am, dropped off our bags at an Airbnb in Seminyak then travelled to Ubud. We stopped by Ubud Royal Palace to take a few photos and walked towards Ubud Art Market which was just across the street. The art market is a nice place to buy paintings and cute trinkets. You can get the items in really affordable prices if you know how to haggle. 

A coffee plantation called Bali Pulina was our next stop. They offer coffee and tea tasting for free, but they charge a small fee for Kopi Luwak (civet coffee). It's a nice place to chill and hang out, plus,  it has a wonderful view of the rice terraces. 

The day was almost over but there was one last thing remaining in our itinerary-- take a cooking class! And so we decided to come back to Ubud the next day but more on that on my next post!

Harbin Day 5

Now back in Beijing for a day of shopping! We went to The Plaza and the Silk Market to do some shopping and had wonderful Chinese food for lunch where they serve the best dumplings. We stayed at Marco Polo Parkside Hotel and our rooms were spacious and super cozy. We would have wanted to stay longer in Beijing but since we availed the services of a travel agency, we couldn't change the itinerary and flight details. Before we knew it, it was time to go. The trip was super enjoyable, and the memories I made were one-of-a-kind. Plus, it was my first time to see snow!

Definitely looking forward to my next trip in March!

Harbin Day 4

Up early today to ride the snowmobile to Yangcaoshan mountain. The ride was exhilarating and scary because of the unexpected twists and turns! It was so much fun! The view up the mountain was amazing, definitely worth suffering the cold for. Lol.

We rode the snowmobile again going down the mountain and had to walk the entire stretch of China Snow Town to get to our hotel taking photos along the way. We then checked out from the hotel, had a quick lunch, and rode a bus going to Mudanjiang Airport for our flight to Beijing.

Harbin Day 3

After breakfast, we checked out from Sheraton Hotel in Harbin and went on a 6.5-hour bus ride to China Snow Town stopping by a ski resort along the way for lunch. We were informed by our tour guide that we would be walking the entire stretch of China Snow Town for 20 to 30 minutes in the freezing cold with our luggage in tow to get to our hotel. Surprisingly, the walk wasn't as bad as expected. Although the cold was sometimes difficult to bear, it was quite fun actually! The houses and shops looked adorable with snow covering their roofs. It was interesting to see street vendors selling frozen fruits and ice cream no longer needing a freezer-- the goods were just placed on tables! 

We arrived at the hotel late afternoon and had little time to go around the village before dinner starts. We still did anyway. Lol. 

Harbin Day 2

Now this is when the fun begins! This day was pretty exciting because our itinerary was packed with lots of places to visit. But before going anywhere, we had to have our winter gear ready. Apparently, everything we brought from Manila weren't enough for Harbin's subzero temperatures. We had to make a quick stop at a local store selling winter clothes to buy thicker ones. 

We then headed to St. Sophia Cathedral (this used to be an Orthodox church and was now turned into a museum), had lunch at an Irish restaurant, visited Sun Island, dropped by the Harbin Opera House, enjoyed a hotpot dinner at an ice room at Shangri-la Hotel Ice Palace, and went to the Grand Ice and Snow World.

Harbin Day 1

I noticed I haven't posted photos for most of my travels last year (Bali, Cebu, etc) so I want to make sure I post about my Harbin trip this time. Sorting photos take forever and editing them one by one is sooo time consuming that I'd rather lie in bed and watch Supergirl or HTGAWM. Eventually I decided to post photos here without editing them cause I'm just too lazy. Lol.

Okay, so on to my trip: we spent the first day of our trip in airports. There is no direct flight to Harbin so we had to take a connecting flight via Beijing. We had a lot of time to kill at Beijing airport so I took the liberty of walking around the huge airport. Saw some interesting things here and there (indoor garden anyone?). The day was exhausting but hey, at least we arrived safe and sound!

Life Updates

(Image from google.com)

Some updates about me:

1. I danced in front of a lot of people-- in a panda costume no less! Oh my gosh-- I still can't believe I did it! Okay, one thing about me is I'm very bad at dancing. I guess all the zumba classes I attended paid off because the people who saw me dance said I did good. I still get embarrassed thinking about it. Lol.

2. Arrived in Legazpi yesterday after a week long stay in Manila. My scheduled flight to Legazpi was two days ago. Everything was going smoothly until the pilot announced that we couldn't land in Legazpi because of the strong winds. We had to go back to Manila and reschedule our flight BUT the next available flight was Friday and I could no longer extend my stay in Manila because I was already gone for far too long. I decided to reroute my flight to Naga (there were available seats for the flight yesterday) and took a two hour land trip to Legazpi. It was completely exhausting. But I'm glad I made it home safe and sound!

3. Booked a trip to Harbin this December. Something to look forward to!

The Farm at San Benito

First off, The Farm at San Benito is huge! In fact, it will take you a while to go around the entire place. And what's even better is that there aren't a lot of guests staying at the resort. I can actually count with my fingers the number of guests we saw during our entire stay! 

Read on to find out what you can expect at The Farm at San Benito. :)

Boracay in December Day 2

On day two, we had a little bit of time in the morning for some water activities! We tried parasailing, flyfish (my fave!), and helmet diving. The weather was surprisingly good despite it being the rainy season. 

Highlights of 2016

(Photo from: Google)

Happy New Year, everyone! The year 2016 was my happiest ever, yet one of the most challenging. There were lots of disappointments, frustrations, and challenges that tested me and pushed me to my limits. But the past year was also filled with one-of-a-kind opportunities, memorable achievements, and unforgettable experiences which I'll be forever thankful for.

Last year, I made a promise to myself that I would make 2016 my travel year and I'm glad I was able to do it! Since I couldn't leave work for a long time, I decided it was better for me to have shorter but more frequent trips. There were so many things that made my 2016 amazing and I couldn't possibly list all of them here, but I'll do my best to cover everything!

Read on for the highlights of my 2016!

Guangzhou Getaway

Guangzhou (Canton) is surprisingly just a short two-hour train ride from Hong Kong. The train had comfortable seats and it even had a food car (yay!) for those with hungry tummies. Upon arrival in Guangzhou, the first order of business was to get a good look at the Canton Tower. The weather was warm and sunny, it was a perfect day to walk around and take photos. Below are some photos taken during my trip last May!

A Week in Singapore

I've been to Singapore several times, but none of those previous trips ever lasted more than four days—so when I found out that I was going to be there for a week, I thought it would be boring. What I didn't realize back then was that, although Singapore could be considered quite small, you can never run out of places to visit and things to do.

We met up with a few friends who showed us around and brought us to places popular among locals (and of course, thanks for letting us stay in your apartment for an entire week!). During this trip, I could say that I got to experience Singapore in an entirely different way—taking trains to travel from one place to another (I now have the train stations almost-memorized!), and stopping by hole-in-the-wall kopi tiams for breakfast. Even though we've been to most of the touristy places before, we still didn't mind coming back to Orchard Road, Haji Lane, Universal Studios, Adventure Cove Waterpark, and Marina Bay Sands.

Phuket Day 3

On our third day in Phuket, we caught up on things we didn't get a chance to do the past two days. We woke up extra early to go to the beach to watch the sunrise, had a poolside breakfast at the hotel, then took a quick dip in the beach. The best thing about this day was that we weren't in a hurry at all. We took our time and enjoyed every moment of it!

Phuket Day 2

The second day was no doubt the highlight of our trip. We went island hopping to the various beaches of Phi Phi Islands (apparently, there are two Phi Phi Islands -- Phi Phi Lay, and Phi Phi Don). We visited Khai Nok Island, Monkey Beach, Viking Cave, Pileh Lagoon, and Maya Bay.

Phuket Day 1

Crossed another country off my list -- Thailand! Although I didn't visit the country's capital which is Bangkok (I'm saving that for another time!), Phuket is just as exquisite with the crazy shopping, the insanely spicy food, and the pristine white-sand beaches.