Visit Korea 2010

Lee Byung Hun is the face of Korea’s tourism ad for 2010:

I don’t need to be sold on going to Korea, I’ve been wanting to go since forever!! Take me with you Byung-Hun sshi!

Anthony Bourdain visits the Philippines at last!

I believe Tony more than the Bizarre Food guy. Zimmern is just way to “adventurous” for me!

Tony said that the Cebu Lechon is THE BEST he has ever had. LOL! And he ate street food ! Fish ball! And he tried taho, palabok, etc. And went to a Dampa. Just watching them eat makes me hungry!

He also commentstowards the end of the show that Filipinos are too nice that’s why our food isn’t that well known in other countries. Isn’t he a nice guy to say that? I think one of the reasons why our cuisine isn’t famous because white guys keep complaining that it stinks. :-p

You can read his blog entry here.

And watch  part one of the show here. Just click on parts 2- 5 from the site.

As for me, my favorite Filipino dish will forever be sisig and grilled liempo with ensaladang mangga or ensaladang talong. With rice of course. YUMMY!!

Day on the beach

I’ve been gone the other day, and this is where I went:

my own private beach

bluer than blue pool water

so relaxing

It’s the Terrazas de Punta Fuego in Nasugbu, Batangas, Philippines. Love iiiiiittttt!

“Twilight” Vampire tours

Fans of the movie and books are swarming FORKS, WASHINGTON, USA , and checking out the Twilight themed tours! There are Twilight themed slumber parties ($175 per person), tours of film locations in and around Portland, Oregon, (starting at $99 per person) and dinners with “Twilight”-inspired dishes such as Bella Ravioli ($22). Kalaloch Lodge in Olympic National Park, about 35 miles south of Forks, offers a two-night “Twilight Package” starting at $349.

You can read the whole article on LA TIMES.

I’d love to go on this tour if Robert Pattinson would be the tour guide! LOL!

Food Tripping in Singapore

I’m back from Singapore!… no trip of mine is complete without giving a rundown of the local cuisine. Because I love trying out new food and eating to my heart’s content. (harharhar)

Wasn’t able to take pictures of every meal because most of the time I “attacked” the food as it arrived. I was always that hungry. Here are a few of the foods I’ve tasted and managed to capture:

Spicy Cereal Prawns

This is one of the dishes I’ve tried at the Makansutra Gluttons Bay. Cereal is used to bread the prawn. It’s quite tasty, but a bit oily. The cereal itself is spicy but if you remove it, it won’t taste as good.

We also had some of the top selling/ well loved “street food” that included two very oily forms of pancit. I already forgot the name and I wasn’t able to take pictures of them. One was dark colored the other light. :p

Makansutra Gluttons Bay Milk Tea

The first normal drink I’ve had since the morning I got to Singapore. I’ve also tried Lemon Barley Drink (tastes exactly like bubblegum), Horlick drink (kinda tastes like nesvita), Barley Drink ( tastes like vanilla). They also have chrysanthemum tea, ribena juice (which , according to Wikipedia is ” a brand of fruit based uncarbonated soft drink and fruit drink concentrate produced by GlaxoSmithKline. The original and most common variety contains real blackcurrant juice.”),Soya bean milk and Sugar cane juice.

Singaporeans have a sweet tooth.
Below is the  YUMMY YUMMY Sergeant Hainanese Chicken Rice.

Hainanese Chicken Rice

I saw Anthony Bourdain on tv the night before I was to fly to Singapore. He absolutely loved the Chicken rice in the Hawker Food courts so I was convinced to try it as well. He was right. It’s great!

Although I wasn’t able to eat the street food version, like what he recommended, I think the Food Republic version is also pretty good because I liked it a lot!

This one above is the best dumpling soup noodle I’ve ever tasted in my whole life!It has seaweeds, chicharon, shallots, dumplings ( the best ever) and gorgeous egg noodles. Yummy! Naubos ko ito in 5 minutes kahit na chopsticks ang gamit! hahaha!

Pepper Lunch Express

The pepper lunch establishment in the picture  above is in  Funan Digitalife. Click here to go to their website. I Was super hungry so we grabbed some SUPER SUPER LATE lunch at around 3pm. hahaha!

Pepper Beef lunch

Loved this dish.  It’s already very spicy because of the generous amount of black pepper but the sauces make it even tastier and spicier! I loved the chili sauce and the honey garlic sauce. And the Miso soup (which is like a staple with every meal) is also the yummiest I’ve tasted so far. ( I generally dislike Miso, so this was a surprise to me. )

The trick is to mix it up really really fast so as to cook the beef! Also, if you leave it as it is, the rice and cheese and veggies will get burned!

The hot plate had a paper thing around it with instructions but I already removed it when I took the picture. Gutom na eh! Excited na ko kumain nyan. hehhe.

Bo Bo Cha Cha

This picture above is the Ginataan of Singapore. It tastes exctly alike but without the great stuff in it. The orange bits you see is some unknown fruit. and It also has kamote and sago. The orange bits look like carrots or papaya but it’s not! I do not know what they are!! :p

Grabe, all this talk about food is making me hungry!! Kelan kaya ang next food tripping/sightseeing extravaganza ko? Macau anyone?

Big Bear Adventure

We got ready for the trip up to Big bear at around 5:30 in the morning. It was about a two or three hour drive. I didn’t know the road up the mountain would be so zig-zagged so I was not prepared for it at all. I got dizzy and threw up because the road curved every 8 seconds or so! If only someone told me about the darn road! I needed anti motion sickness medication!When the car stopped, I wanted to kiss the ground. It felt soooooo good to just be on steady ground! But I knew I had to be strong. There still was a long ride ahead and I wasn’t about to let anything come between me and the skateboarding trip because I wanted to experience snow!

Anyway, when we finally got there, we had to leave our stuff in the car. In my excitement, I forgot to bring my camera so I wasn’t able to take pictures of me on the slopes! Humingi na lang ako ng pics sa ibang tao. Sigh. We had to rent a snowboard and shoes. I wasn’t able to walk very well when I first put on the shoes! I felt so weird! It was like I couldn’t bend my joints and I walked very slow at first. Going up and down the stairs was really hilarious for me. lol! It was better to have the snowboard strapped on than walk on my feet. lol.

We started out on the puny slopes and that went well so we worked our way to the not as puny but still a beginners slope. The slopes weren’t really the problem, it was getting in and out of the ski lifts! It was difficult to get on coz you had to strap your board on already and slide your way to the right spot and get on the chair. You had to move fast not only because the chair will knock you out but because there were a lot of people in line as well. It wasn’t as easy as it looked! It was difficult to get down coz you had to balance yourself and snowboard away from the lift. We saw that they can stop the chairs for people and we tried to tell the operator to stop it for us but they didn’t listen! I saw the chair coming at me and I knew I’d get hit on the head so I just lied down!! that was hilarious! LOLOL! It was almost embarrassing but since lahat naman kami hindi expert, ayos lang. It would be a fun story to tell afterwards anyway.

I’m a pretty fast learner and I got the basics right away. I still got banged up though— my knees had LOTS of bruises, I fell on my butt ten times and some guy slammed his board into my lower back while I was sitting on the snow. After half a day practicing, I could confidently snowboard down without out any problem. I just need more practice so I can learn all those fancy moves. hehehe.

After snowboarding we all went to the cabin we rented a few minutes away . It was cozy and rustic but it had two fireplaces and a heater. Everybody seemed to have a lot of energy left after a day of snowboarding and that made me feel like a weakling . I was TIRED. SO VERY VERY TIRED and all I wanted to do was take a hot shower , eat and go to sleep. Nakakahiya lang if I stayed inside while everybody else was playing board games and eating and mingling. Bakit hindi sila kasing plastado ko?! I managed to stay awake until things winded down.

It was snowing when I woke up the next day, and I felt so excited, like a kid waking up on Christmas morning.

It really did feel like Christmas to me. It was my first White Christmas in February! I hurriedly bundled up (2 layers of long sleeved shirts, a light hoodie plus a winter jacket, beanie, waterproof gloves and shoes) and went outside to frolic in the gently falling snow. Everybody was still asleep so I had to tiptoe my way through the common room and out the front door. I think maybe I went a little crazy coz it was my first time to see actual snow falling from the sky.

The whole thing was really fun and I hope I can do this again !

San Francisco

I’ve finally seen this famous landmark up close:

It really does look majestic. I just wonder why they call it the Golden Gate Bridge when it’s not golden, it’s actually red.

And the famous “postcard row”

I love the colorful and quaint Victorian Houses and I’ve learned how to differentiate the 3 kinds: Italianate, Stick and Queen Anne. I wanted to take a tour of the Haas-Lilienthal house but we went there on a wrong day and there was no tour. I was happily surprised to know that it was still used as a private residence and it wasn’t turned into a museum.

Speaking of museums, we went to the De Young Museum and the SFMoMA ( Museum of Modern Art). The first one was more to my taste than the other, but nevertheless, it was a nice experience to get to see both.

We also got to see the Japanese Tea Garden:

It was a very beautiful garden, ideal background for reading or relaxing. I found this bridge (above) amusing; it’s too steep to cross comfortably.

And we also went to see the Palace of the fine arts.

Next to it was the Exploratorium where we got to play with some science experiments and stuff. There were booths where you got booed or applauded ,etc , mirrors that when you stand just the right way, you’ ll look like you’re flying; hot and cold coils that when you touch it feels like you’re getting pricked; machines that make water vortexes etc. It was a lot of fun! You can spend all afternoon there and wouldn’t be able to play around with each contraption. There were lots of kids so you had to wait for them to go away but at least there was no entrance fee coz we were there on a Wednesday. ( Free pag Wednesday. I don’t know why and I didn’t bother to ask. Basta FREE! hehehee. ) I believe there’s a similar one in Manila called the Science Centrum? I remember a field trip there once.

We ate at a restaurant on the Fisherman’s Wharf and of course, SEAFOOD was on the menu. We were also able to eat at Louis’ Restaurant near the Cliff House. It was a “historical” site because it’s been there since the early 1900′s I think. Back in the day the Sutro Baths (which was the world’s largest indoor swimming pool establishment in the late 1800′s)were all the rage and the actual Cliff house was still standing . Now ,the baths are just ruins and the Cliff house isn’t a mansion anymore but a one storey building full of shops and restaurants. Google Cliff house or Sutro Baths for the complete history. Click on this sentence to see a website I find interesting.

There’s a huge parking lot nearby so you can stop for a bite to eat and take in the beautiful scenery.

We also went to chinatown where I got to see an actual, working, old cable car!I was happy about his because all I’ve seen prior to this Chinatown visit were buses on cables. Yes, you read that right. Buses on cables which work pretty much like the one in the picture except, they’re buses. It’s not charming at all and not what I was looking for. You read the travel guides and such and they talk about cable cars in SFO, but you need to actually go to Chinatown to see the real one! lol. It says on the front of the cable car that it goes to Van Ness Avenue ( the main street of San Francisco) but I’ve never seen it there.

The city streets were hard to navigate because there were some that goes only one way and you have to go all the way around just to get somewhere. Also, the roads are on hills! And some are on hills, and goes zigzag as well! think LOMBARD STREET! That was an experience. haha. What a nightmare for a newbie driver and for visitors as well! Parking is almost terrible, but not as terrible as in New york I suppose. It ‘s really a small city which surprised me because San Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California and the 14th most populous city in the United States, but you can go around the entire place in a matter of hours. According to Wikipedia it’s just 47 square miles!

I don’t think I’d like to live here because of it’s prone to earthquakes and because of the hilly streets. I really like the houses though. :p

Newport Beach

Because it was my first time to go to Newport Beach, I was half expecting to see ‘familiar’ landscapes dahil nanood ako dati ng The O.C. ( Tv show ito for those who do not know) pero I think ibang beach ang ginamit nila sa show. Kasi iba yung itsura ng lifeguard houses sa totoong Newport kaysa sa nakita ko sa tv. hehe.

the beach seemed low-key to me, but maybe that was because it is still winter here in california.  There were lots of other people who were there like me, taking pictures of the magnificent sunset and just strolling around taking in the sights. There were A LOT of seagulls which kinda freaked me out coz I don’t like them flying around my head  and swooping down every so often. I’m afraid they might drop some poop on my head! :p There were lots of kids too. It’s a very family oriented beach I guess.

There was also this cool looking bed and breakfast joint very near the beach (just a stone’s throw away really) and a great snack store where we ate yummy a FUNNEL CAKE and a corndog. I forgot the name but you won’t miss it coz it’s right next to the pier and Newport beach house/building/office.