Category Archives: Travel

On Filipinos not going on long holidays

16 Monday Feb 2015

Posted by in Holidays, Life Lessons

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Have you met a Filipino doing a long holiday? With long, I meant more than 6 months or so.

Probably not.

I am pretty sure there are few Filipinos who had or travelling for this long, but it is not very common.

I was 24 years old when i went to Dublin for a company training. I had a 3 day weekend between the courses and decided to join an organised tour to see other parts of Ireland. It was on the tour when I met this lady and she said she had been travelling for 10 months and will continue to for 2 more months before going back to Australia. My reaction was like a kid given a new toy or a bag of lollies (because I am a fattie, let’s go for the bag of lollies) – “WOOWWW!! That’s amazing! travelling for a year?!? I didn’t know it’s possible!”. And I didn’t stop there- I even asked how could she afford it. I asked about her job, how could she pay for the flights, etc. Hahaha! I was so naive with the whole long travel idea.

Me in Ireland, November 2009

Me in Northern Ireland, November 2009

It’s not just a thing for Filipinos. Why?

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Weekend Camping at Glenworth Valley

16 Thursday Oct 2014

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To celebrate the start of spring, we went to Glenworth Valley to camp for a night.

We initially planned to go the weekend after the Hobart trip, but weather sucked that weekend. I was very hopeful that it would just be cloudy, however, it was pissing that Saturday morning. We were already packed and was about to turn left to Parramatta road when Andrew asked me to call Glenworth Valley and ask if I can move my reservation. They were happy to convert my booking as a credit for that instance (by company rule, rebooking should be 48 hours notice). But I wasn’t happy, I even cried. Haha! Nothing makes me more upset than rain ruining my plans. I’ve calmed down after few hours and accepted that it was right not to push through as the ground would be wet from the rain and it’ll be difficult inside the small tent.

And it was indeed a good decision (to postpone) because the weather was more than beautiful the weekend after.

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Second Time in Tasmania

14 Sunday Sep 2014

Posted by in Holidays, Photos, Travel, Weekenders

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Our first time in Tasmania was Easter 2012, I’ve summarized that trip in this post. Despite getting into an accident on the trip (you can read about it here), we still fell in love with Tasmania and knew that we’ll come back. Probably it’s because of the food, or the people (and the lack of), but mainly for me it’s because of its natural features. The mountains, all the possible trails, the coast and the animals. I’ve always said that I won’t mind moving to Hobart for a year. Yep, just a year. I’ve thought about it and it will be more difficult to get out of Australia if I live in Hobart. But a year will not be bad, and of course, frequent visits.

So last weekend, for our end of winter getaway, we flew to Hobart. We were I was initially thinking to go to Snowy Mountains, but I assessed that it will be more expensive and we’ll just be more tired because of the long land travel. Jetstar always have specials and we got our return flight for $150 per person, flying out Friday night and flying in Monday morning. We’ve visited most of the island from our last trip so we wanted to go to somewhere we haven’t been to, and Bruny Island was the number one candidate.

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Andrew planned our itinerary, can you imagine!? His plan was to fly in Friday night, Saturday morning visit Salamanca, afternoon drive to Bruny Island and stay the night there. Sunday afternoon drive back to Hobart and fly back to Sydnay Monday morning. I can’t believe he can pull off such schedule. Haha!

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I didn’t expect to love Lima – Part I

19 Saturday Apr 2014

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I spent too much time reading travel blogs and reviews before my trip. And I’ve seen posts that they didn’t like Lima. They said Lima is gloomy and lacking life, so I didn’t expect much from it. The main reason I planned to stay 3 nights there was because I knew I would need to have a rest and time to recover after the long flight from Sydney. Oh, and I was thinking of joining a cooking class as Lima is known to be the gastronomical center of South America so I thought I would need 1 full day for that.

Things didn’t go as planned. I didn’t need a long time to rest and I didn’t take cooking class. However, I did see the beauty of Lima in my 3 full days of stay. I actually think I can live in Lima for a year (haha, just for a year!).

I think my hostel helped a lot in my appreciation of the city. Staying at Lima Backpackers (http://limabackpackers.com.pe/) and having Marco as the host made a big difference. It felt like I stayed with a friend and he was so happy to have us as guests at his hometown.

So what did I do in Lima?

1. Visited the Old Town (Historic Center)

Our hostel is in Sucro, it’s quite near Miraflores and Barranco. Marco lent us Metro bus tickets so we can just top it up. It is 2Soles per ride, and we took the bus from the station near Plaza Vea (a chain of supermarket in Peru) Sucro to the Centro stop. Do not expect that all information will be available on the bus stops, we didn’t know which gate to board, but there were very nice locals that told us where to go. They don’t speak English but they were to tell us not to board a certain bus and how many more stops until the Centro station.

From the Centro stop, we just walked for 15 minutes until we get to Plaza de Armas where the free walking tour starts everyday. I was immediately smitten by the Plaza de Armas. There were beautiful old colonial infrastructures everywhere, I felt I was transported back in time. I’m not a history geek but I was in awe with the sights. I highly suggest to do the walking tour as it gives you a summary of this bustling place.

From the center of the plaza, you can see right away the Governor’s Palace, City Hall and Cathedral.

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Plaza de Armas, Lima

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Governor’s Palace

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First update on my South America trip

08 Tuesday Apr 2014

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Ola. It’s day 4 of my 2 month South America trip. I thought I’ll be able to update my blog regularly but there’s just so many things happening everyday. Spent the first 3 days in the beautiful Lima, and today I’m flying to Cusco. I have around 1.5 hours to spend here at the airport before boarding and there’s no wifi, so might as well write a post in notepad and upload it later at the hostel.

 

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Our route from Sydney to Lima. Original photo of map from http://3.bp.blogspot.com/

Day 0 was the big journey from Australia to South America.

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Blogging enroute to Alice Springs

24 Thursday Oct 2013

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I’m on the plane to Alice Springs and I’m not prepared for a 3hour flight. I knew it’ll be 3 hours but I thought I’ll sleep it off. But not today.

I don’t have my kindle, I don’t have a book, this plane has no magazine, my friends are on the opposite end of the plane and I don’t have games on my phone! I’ve read the food menu 5 times already even though I know I can’t order anything. Well I can have coffee but I want to sleep.

Thank goodness I have earphones. I’m going through my songs and playing those I haven’t listened for a long time. And then now I’m blogging. With my phone’s keypad. It’s actually not too bad. Maybe because I really don’t have a story to say, I’m doing something so to not lose my mind.

What’s up with me?

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A bit of Asia in 4 weeks

07 Thursday Mar 2013

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Because I couldn’t decide whether to post about Singapore first or Hanoi, why not give the summary of where we’ve been.

The trip started and ended in Sydney (doh!). Thanks to Scoot, we got Sydney-Singapore return for $600AUD per person, including food and baggage. The fare sometimes even go as low as $400 return, but I’m still happy with what we paid considering that we left on a Saturday, return on a Sunday and had 25kg baggage allowance each.

So first stop was Singapore. We stayed 3 nights and 2 whole days, just enough to see its highlights and meet-up with good friends who are based there. Also, less days in Singapore means less expensive days for the whole trip.

Merlion and Marina Bay Sands at 6AM

Merlion and Marina Bay Sands at 6AM

Then we flew to HaNoi via Jetstar.

Huc Bridge at Hoan Kiem Lake

Huc Bridge at Hoan Kiem Lake

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How to gain 5 lbs in 5 days in Melbourne

20 Monday Aug 2012

Posted by in Travel, Weekenders

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I was only in Melbourne for 5 days (Wed morning to Sunday afternoon) and I did manage to gain 5 lbs!

How did I do it?

1. Chinatown

On my first night, I walked 2km from my hotel to Melbourne’s Chinatown. I was thinking of cheap and “light” meal but this was what I ended up having:

Congee + peking duck wraps

Everything for $20 and I’m sure it’s enough for 2 persons as long as Andrew is not one of them LOL. I ate the 2 pecking duck wraps nad probably half of the congee. I almost didn’t touch the youtiao (fried bread) because it was really oily. The one I had in one of the restaurants in Sydey Chinatown was better.

2. Cheap Japanese Food at Swanston

Second night, I initially intended to go to Cookie along Swanston but it was so packed when I got there and I thought it was not a good place to dine alone. I walked along Swanston and searched though Urbanspoon on my phone. I was reading about DonDon and when I looked up, I was right in front of it. Destiny.

Sukiyaki Beef bowl

It’s only $6! Having a university around the area allowed these small restaurants to sell cheap food. When I was there, most people did take-away and others finished their food on small tables in less than 5 minutes. You really don’t want to stay long inside as it’s small and packed.

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Melbourne

03 Friday Aug 2012

Posted by in Travel, Weekenders

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Melbourne is the second most populous city in Australia (next to Sydney). I’ve been to Melbourne twice in less than 3 months. First was last May after my Great Ocean Road Half Marathon (see post about Great Ocean Road here), and second was for a product training on my new job. The May visit, I tried to see most of Melbourne in 2 nights and 1 day. And on the recent visit, I spent 5 days and gained 5 lbs after the trip because we (Andrew followed Friday evening) basically just ate on the whole weekend.

Royal Exhibition Building

What can I say about Melbourne? I love it, but I’m not in love with it.

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