Old Town

Kyoto in the spring // Kyoto in the winter // Kyoto in the summer

I can only imagine that no matter the season, it remains as beautiful and authentic as I'd seen it. 

Kyoto // Japan 

Inari Shrine / Arashiyama Bamboo Grove // Paper cranes origami // a random Kyoto cafe by the train tracks // Golden Pavilion 

Watching the Sunrise

There is something about watching the last sunrise of your twenty-fourth year, standing atop an ancient temple. Its stones have seen the same sun rise and set a thousand times in the past; it will stand guard for another hundred or so years, watching our star move across the sky. 

Yogyakarta // Indonesia 

Borobodur 

Water for Elephants

Elephant bathing - Kanchanaburi, Thailand

The name of my elephant that day was Mayura, and she was particularly fond of stopping every so often to forage for food on the way to the riverside. I went ahead and sat on her head for the most part of the afternoon, and I had to keep apologizing to her for having to climb over her face every so often. I patted her on the back and stroked her trunk as best I could to let her know I liked her very much indeed.

There's a lot to love about these gentle giants. You can sit on the apex of its head and it won't swat you away the way we swat away flies. You can hold onto its trunk, and it won't send you flying off to the side. You can stare straight into its eyes and be confident that you've at least made a good friend out of a wild animal--something to cross off the bucket list, I daresay!

A Bit of Bangkok

Here are some snapshots of Bangkok's wats in film from my May trip. There are many more things to write about from that trip, much to do with bathing with elephants and playing with baby tigers outside the city, along with a great spa discovery and cheap but excellent shrimp paste rice. Ah, Bangkok! What a lovely, lovely Asian city!

Bangkok 2013: Don Mueang International Airport to Hua Lamphong

I felt the need to share the short but exhilarating solo trip I had from Don Mueang International Airport to Hua Lamphong MRT Station before meeting my friends in the hostel we were staying at. Scouring the internet for tips and train maps to get to the main city before the trip proved very helpful, but it took hours to do - so here's a shorter, more concise version. No one online seemed to have written anything comprehensive, so here I am!

While it might be a bit more of a hassle to get to the city center from this airport rather than from Suvarnabhumi International Airport (that's the one with the new Airport Link), it was still more efficient than, let's say, being a first-time tourist in Manila and your only decent option is to take a cab to your destination.

There are two ways to get from Don Mueang Airport to Hua Lamphong, at least, train-wise:

(1) Take a diesel train from Don Mueang Railway Station (right across the airport) all the way to Hua Lamphong Railway Station. This was my initial option, but as I've researched online, many travelers didn't recommend this route because the train arrival was erratic and it takes more or less an hour to finally get to Hua Lamphong. 

(2) Take the newest A1/A2 airport bus (operating since the early part of 2013), get down at Mo Chit BTS or Chatuchak Market MRT, then ride all the way until Hua Lamphong MRT Station (conveniently connected as well to Hua Lamphong Railway).  

(2) is what I did. 

Source

It's 30 baht a ride, and both of these routes like I said can take you to Mo Chit Station BTS/MRT station, the nearest BTS/MRT to the airport. It's quite useless to look for specific signs pointing you to where you're supposed to wait for the A1 or A2 buses, but follow the signs that say 'Shuttle' anyway and it'll eventually lead you to numerous exit doors that lead to the taxi bay and the main road.

I luckily found an A1 bus waiting at the exit near an airport security counter. It's an orange bus with A1 clearly readable by its door, and just to make sure, you can ask the nice security people that, indeed, A1 passes by Mo Chit BTS. I can't say for sure how often A1 and A2 buses come and go, but internet searches say that they frequent the terminal more than ten times. If you're unfortunate, you may have to wait up to an hour before the next one comes. It isn't a jam-packed ride, fortunately, and it takes about 30 minutes or so to reach Mo Chit BTS/Chatuchak MRT.

When the conductor finally tells you that you've reached your stop, walk down the sidewalk still in the direction of the bus route towards the pedestrian overpass, past some vendors and you'll eventually see the escalators leading down to Chatuchak Market MRT. It shouldn't be too hard to find!

Getting back to Don Mueang Airport is supposed to be easy as well (you basically do everything in reverse and wait at the opposite side of the road to catch an A1/A2 bus to the airport), but I took a cab instead for about 250-300 baht from Hua Lamphong MRT Exit 1 (using the meter, and including the toll fees).

I have no pictures, unfortunately, to guide you step by step, but hopefully this post helped anyway! :)

People Watching

The thing about tourists is that they'll never stay put. One day they're sitting right across you, capturing pictures of themselves and taking in the hardscapes and the softscapes, and on the next day, they're gone. New ones take their place. It's a new couple, a new group of friends, a new baby in the stroller; a different language, a different shade of hair, slightly wider eyes that try to make sense of the place. The crowd changes, every hour, every day, and I sit in the same spot, watching.

From Korea With Love, 2/2

A late happy new year to you, reader! I hope 2013 started off well for you and will sustain its awesomeness for the next twelve months. 

As a girl from the tropics, never having grown up experiencing winter, one can only imagine the effect snow has upon me and the rest of us who only knew perpetual summers and monsoons. It's absolute magic. 

These were taken in Nami Island, made most famous by that famous Korean drama, Winter Sonata. Hee. It's supposed to be beautiful no matter what season it is - which isn't too hard to believe because it looked amazing in that drama and to think that they first shot scenes in the autumn! 

In any case, I still can't believe I got to go to this beautiful country last December. Now it's January and I'm too immersed yet again in a charming drama so much so that I'm thinking of going back to Korea much sooner than I originally intended. Ehehehe. I thought I escaped it, but I suppose I'll always be riding this hallyu / Korean wave no matter what. 

From Korea With Love 1/2

Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope the twenty-fourth of December for you was as awesome as mine was. Personally, Christmas Eve is the best part of this season in my family, and I consider myself very fortunate to have been able to come home for Christmas this year! There's nothing like Christmas in Manila! 

I'm glad to be able to write a new post just when 2012 - a wonderfully blessed year - is just days away from ending. A lot of travel-y dreams have been fulfilled, surprisingly, in the last twelve months, and I only hope 2013 is just as kind. Today, I look back on a great weekend in Seoul, in the land of k-dramas and winter sonatas, k-pop and G-Dragon's face on LED billboards. What is there to see in Seoul in just two-point-five days? Not much, really, because it's a city full of tons of things to see, impossible to cover in that short span of time. But what you do see is beautiful anyway, and most if not everything you take a picture of looks like a darn postcard. 

Here I stand beneath a door way in the servants' quarters of Changdeokgung Palace (for history buffs, a UNESCO heritage site; for k-drama aficionados, a setting for many scenes of Jewel in the Palace), looking quite delighted to finally be in Seoul. It may look like it's just autumn, but it's very much winter already! Because I was there only for a weekend, I didn't get to see Rooftop Prince's palace or Lotte World where Stairway to Heaven was filmed, but no regrets there, I suppose, as it only means I have to return to this awesome country to set out on a koreanovela tour of sorts and maybe even spend a few hours outside of KBS or SBS in hopes of seeing one or two stars. 

Near the new city hall, there was a huge ice skating rink that opened at around two in the afternoon into  which kids and adults alike poured. I kind of regret never having learned as a kid to skate or rollerblade, because it looked mighty fun!

This is Myeongdong, one of Seoul's famous shopping areas, jam packed with people in the middle of the day, but unfortunately isn't a twenty-four hour joint as the vendors begin packing up by nine pm. Still, you could come here to get a really nice woolen scarf for ten thousand won or le gasp! a pig rabbit  keychain made famous by that k-drama You're Beautiful which I regret not stopping for and buying. 

The real star of this picture is GD, really, because he is just super cool. I actually had a Big Bang/G-Dragon phase back in college that I went so far as to order his solo album online! Hence the soft spot I have for him and this picture of his ad in Myeongdong (just one of the many, many markets of Seoul and the only one I was able to see). Technically I only had one-point-five days in Seoul, as the second day was mostly spent outside of the city, which, unsurprisingly, is just so beautiful! Oh, Korea. Oh, Korea, Korea, Korea.

Come back to see more wintry shots: this time in Nami Island (aka best known for Winter Sonata, hihihi!).

And again, MERRY CHRISTMAS! God bless!

Life So Far

Happy November, everyone!

October's been a pretty hectic month, and much of November is shaping up to be the same crazy month. While I was able to go home for the last long weekend of October - such a fine weekend that turned out to be, and Manila will always be the coziest spot in the world for me - I have many travel-y things to look forward to: a wintry trip to Seoul, Christmas back home, and the grandeur of Borobodur and Prambanan on my next birthday weekend (YAY for promo fares!). I'm so happy that though much of my travels plans for 2012 drastically changed in the last six months, it's brought on so many new adventures!

Today there was a bookstore expo sale, and in my effort to solidly and seriously invest in near-future travels, I bought five travel guide books. Now you know where I'm planning to go in the next year or so! :D

And just because the going there is as essential as the being there, here's a lovely quote from the Travel section of my new Quotations for Occasions book:

Cheers!

Weekend in Melaka 2/2

This batch was taken in film. I really should have brought another roll! 

I had a whole bunch of ideas for this second-part Melaka post, but I'm feeling a bit lazy tonight, so I'll let the pictures tell the words. Suffice it to say that it was a wonderful weekend altogether, and to live life as a tourist is the dream. C'est la vie!

Oddly enough, Melaka wakes up very late in the morning. This was one of the only two or three cafes open for business at 9:00AM!

Weekend in Melaka 1/2

On the last weekend of July, I tagged along with two friends to spend the weekend in Melaka, Malaysia. It was one of the most budget-friendly inter-country trips I've ever gone on, considering I only spent a total of SGD92 dollars (approximately PHP3000) inclusive of lodging, transport costs, food and souvenir(s)! So it's a treat to get yourself to Melaka even on a day trip when you find yourself staying quite a bit long in Singapore! It's only a four-hour bus ride away, and I now appreciate the pros of living in a peninsula country as compared to living in an archipelago (but I do love our 7,107 islands so! Which reminds me -- given what has just happened, do help out if you can and check out how and where you can help here).

There are quite the number of buses going in and out of Singapore to get to Malaysia. We got on the 707 Bus (SGD27 due to peak time, but it does go as low as SGD21) at around 8:00AM and reached Melaka at around 1:00PM. The bus does stop for immigration checkpoints and a thirty-minute brunch break at some rest point, so worry not about getting hungry along the way! 

This is what greets you when you reach the heritage town of Melaka and you're dropped off in the plaza nearby the watch tower - tricycles adorned with so many colorful flowers and blasting party music all over as it rushes past you. Depending on where you're staying, the bus does drop you off right at your hotel or at the landmark nearest where your accommodations are. My friend booked us a room in Sayang Sayang Youth Hostel, a neat little place right by the riverside. Very quiet, very clean and accessible to the tourist areas, and cheap! A night cost SGD30 or so split among the three of us, so that was about SGD10 each.

That weekend made me scorn Duccio's lens' limitations - my only working lens at the moment is a portrait lens and therefore has no capacity to zoom out or zoom in - because there was so much to capture in this lovely Malaysian town. Good thing I brought my film camera, and I've just picked up the film rolls! It was all about the street culture and, as my friend puts it, the very fact that Melaka is a living heritage. It's no wonder that it makes UNESCO's list of heritage sites; it's a rather well-preserved town, and we only wished that we could do the same to so many cities and towns back in the Philippines.

One of the key things to do in Melaka is to go to Jonker Street, especially in the evening. The street takes on a totally new form at night, because vendors begin setting their tables up by 6PM and by 8PM, the night market is alive. 

The street is just packed with people, so do remember to take a breather once in a while when you feel suffocated. There are stalls selling tea and fruit shakes, frozen grapes and ice cream, dodol (durian, we realized) here and there and a lot of other things. You can buy imitation bags and shirts, antiques and more food! The locals are rather nice, and they can spot a Filipino immediately by our accent. One vendor knew we were from the Philippines right away, and it was nice of him to explain the health benefits of the fruit shake I ordered - complete with a complementary sour plum. 

By the end of the night, we were tired from walking in such a full street, and retired to the hostel. We walked a bit around the river, enjoyed the peace and quiet, admired the simplicity in the ways that Melaka transformed its riverside at night, drank to chill music and finally found sleep. 

to be continued!