How I managed to keep my jaded brain somehow alert those twenty-nine hours is beyond me… What challenged my mortal body and wit: a couple of sleepless flights (wee hours layover in between), a quickie Yangon city tour, and a looong van ride to Bagan with a two year old sans the hubby. Sure I…
Year: 2013
Puebla City, Puebla, Mexico: All Things Beautiful
Filipinos On Long-Term Backpacking: The Great Depression (Part 2)
“Maybe you had to leave in order to really miss a place; maybe you had to travel to figure out how beloved your starting point was.” – Jodi Picoult In case you missed the traveler memorandum, this is to remind you that the journey ain’t all party buckets and postcard-worthy photos. Homesickness, being broke, and…
Case Of The Missing Mermaid Ariel Carry On
Pandemonium around the belt. It was quite unsettling. And there’s only one in Dili’s teensy Presidente Nicolau Lobato International Airport. My daughter Luna and I stood in confusion while the hubby fought his way through the ferocious crowd to fish out our luggage. Everyone seemed to be in a rush even though there was no…
That Psychedelic Village Named Nimbin
Duuude, it’s 420! We ain’t celebrating with a slice of space cake though. No Puff, The Magic Dragon either. To commemorate this uhm, counterculture holiday, let’s do a different kind of “trip”, shall we? A psychedelic visual trip. The talk of spliff takes me down two travel memory alleys. That of Amsterdam’s (where possession of …
Filipinos On Long-Term Backpacking: The Great Depression (Part 1)
We came. We saw. We conquered. Conquered our fears. Conquered our doubts. Conquered financial hurdles. We quit our jobs, booked those irresistible seats on sale, traveled on a shoestring for months and finally saw the world beyond glossy magazine pages. Beyond Facebook timelines. We ignored all that bull people said about us, especially the one…
Thanjavur, India: Brihadisvara Temple (Brihadeeswara Temple)
Under the fiery Tamil sun, hubby and I trampled on Thanjavur’s dusty streets. To which direction, we were quite unsure, yet we rambled on. Minutes ago, we just hopped off a bus that traveled from Tiruchirappalli. As I looked up and down what appeared like a major road, the lack of foreign tourists and absence…
Ulaanbaatar Walking Tour, Mongolia: The Long And Dusty Road
To climb, or not to climb? Our brows asked for the sake of asking. Hubby and I were eyeing Zaisan Memorial from the foot of a Sakyamuni image in Buddha Park. The cold has not bitten the lowlands, and we chose to keep our arses out of below-ten-degrees-celsius-harm’s way. So our answer was quite predictable….
2013 Thus Far: The First Quarter
Three months down, many more moons to go. 2013’s first quarter was a mixed bag of family huddles, waiting games, bittersweet reveries and whirlwind peregrinations. And oh, tons of toddler sobs. We stepped foot on six countries with a so-called scheme that’s jotted on sand. Its course we paved as we went, depending on our…
The Bayleaf, Intramuros, Manila: So We Sort Of Celebrated Valentine’s Day
The newish kid on the block humbly stands within Intramuros’ old walls. It ain’t much of a looker from afar, but we effortlessly spotted it from the bedlam that is Taft Avenue on Valentine’s Day 2013 — much thanks to the discernible sign posted on its facade just below the roof deck. Our car cautiously…