through scratched glasses

Still

2012-02-12T20:46:00.000+08:00

I am not the most patient person in the world.

My mother once labeled me as rash when I was younger, and rightly so--I earned more than my share of scrapes and bruises in my frenzied dash through adolescence.

I have had to teach myself how to wait and to wait gracefully over the years. To learn anticipation and not finish a book overnight so I could savor the ending the next day. To sit down and go through my notes and assignments, suppressing impatience when the lessons don't seem to come as easily as the other concepts had. To let an idea germinate and rest when I could not do much with it, but have the wherewithal to pick it back up and work on it some more until it finally matures. And finally, I have had to learn to be comfortable about being still over the years, realizing that rest can sometimes do wonders for one's heart and soul.

There's something to be said about waiting... slow cooking... planting the seeds. There's a certain beauty that can only be found in the care and the patience that is required to make something grow and grow well.

So to myself this is a lesson and a reminder. That every nay is not necessarily a failure and that sometimes even the ayes can mean disappointment in the end. That I need to look deeper and feel more to find the true meaning of things and events. And that I should not be so quick to give up when things seem to go against the things I really want. I'm still in this... I can still make a difference.

The Lighthouse Resort @ Oslob, Cebu

2012-02-01T23:48:00.000+08:00

Had a wonderful overnight stay at a private guest house called The Lighthouse Resort a few weeks ago. This was recommended by an officemate and I was more than glad that I heeded the advice and visited the place. It was just a perfect vacation spot: secluded yet accessible, rustic yet comfortable, and most importantly, relaxing and stress-free.

While half of me wants to keep mum about this place and make it into my own personal hide out (forever and ever), the other (more convincing) part of me is actually quite determined to share the word.

So read on for more details. This is part of my thank you to the other bloggers out there who have shared their experiences and shown the way to novice adventurers like me and also as a free advertisement for the owner of this place (one Atty. Navarro) for sharing this delightful place to the public.

Facilities:

4 beachfront air-conditioned rooms, the smallest is good for 4 persons to a maximum of 6; each room comes with a toilet and shower (w/ temperature control).
Kitchen with gas range, microwave, rice cookers, toaster, water heaters, coffee-makers, and a refrigerator. Plates and cups and utensils were also available.
Dining area that seats up to 20 (I think... forgot to count the chairs)
Common room with TV (not sure if they have cable... but why would you want to watch TV during a vacation?!?)
Covered lounge area by the pool with a medium-sized billiard table
Small basketball court, also by the pool
Deck area with tables and umbrellas near the rooms, overlooking the beachfront
Swimming pool
Secluded beachfront, semi-circle, with stone walls on the outer rim to break the waves
Parking area (I think good for 2 SUVs, although a third could probably park on the grass).

Telephone Numbers: 481-0122, 231-8489, 231-1072
Rates: Php1,500/room (this is the rate we paid as of Jan '12, please check during reservation as this may change)
How to Find the Place:

Drive south or go to the South Bus Terminal and catch a bus to Oslob (routes to Bato Oslob will pass by the place).
Take note of the yellow stone route markers on the side of the road and look out for K113 (Kilometer 113).
A few meters (about 30m) after the 113 route marker is a stone wall with a gate and a small sign that says "the Lighthouse resort". Ring the bell if the gates are closed.
If you've reached the Oslob public market, you've just bypassed it by about 15 minutes. Go back.

Some Notes:

Light sleepers may be bothered by the sound of waves crashing against the shore at night or of buses speeding by.
Bring your own food or buy provisions from the Poblacion market, about 15 minutes away via tricycle. You can cook your food in the kitchen.
There's free mineral water (cold, room temp).
Maintenance is minimal in this place so expect some missing bulbs or broken cue sticks and even jammed door knobs. Like I said, the place is rustic.
This is a guest house, so prepare to clean up after yourselves. There's a family that cleans the house and serves as point of contact for the guest, but otherwise, we were pretty much left on our own.
Although it's called The Lighthouse Resort, I did not see a lighthouse nearby although there's supposed to be a lighthouse on the nearby island of Sumilon. The island is visible from the resort .

As others have said, don't take my word for it, go see the place for yourself!

Queue

2012-01-27T11:32:00.000+08:00

Ok, this may be a bit morbid, but I'm going to share anyway since the story struck me somehow. That and I've already written some paragraphs about it so I might as well finish it.

It was the start of the year and our professor had been absent from class since December. Normally, I would welcome any extra time away from school, but our professor is from the southern province of Iligan, where the flash floods had struck shortly after the typhoon Sendong poured over the region last year. We had heard that there had been a death in the family and we were worried.

On the next school day, we went to school ready to commiserate, bracing ourselves for grief, the tragic kind expected after a calamity. To our surprise though, we saw our professor still as busy and absent-minded and full of stories as ever as she had been before the typhoon.

It seems the aunt had died due to old age and what we heard was not a story of grief but instead an almost comical tale of relatives trying to come together for a funeral in a place that had already seen too many deaths.

There were a lot of anecdotes, some funny, some sad, but what struck me the most was her story of them having to register their aunt for burial at the funeral house. They were running out of graveyards and coffins, it seems, so our professor's aunt had to be wait-listed until those before her had been serviced properly. There was no faster way, no alternative, and no fixed schedule on when the burial would be held. There were just too many dead and too many grieving relatives. The only recourse was to wait. So wait they did, always checking just in case, and then visiting other relatives near the area. Until about two weeks later they got notice that a slot was available and the aunt was finally buried.

The story struck me, not because it was funny... although it was a bit but not quite. I just thought that to have to wait in line like that, even in death, is a little bit frustrating. There are already too many lines in life. In banks, in amusement parks, in jeepney terminals, etc. While I would welcome any extra time to think or to read or to chat, I'd also like to think the route to the after life would be less... I don't know.... congested? This burial queue... I don't think I'd like it very much.

Joining the blackout

2012-01-19T06:41:00.002+08:00

Turning black in coordination with other sites to protest SOPA and PIPA. TED has this excellent piece explaining why SOPA is something that should be turned back and protested against.

TED Takes on SOPA: Why it Would Create a 'Consumption-Only Internet' [VIDEO]

Dear Father

2011-12-16T12:17:00.001+08:00

Dear Father,

Sometimes I feel like I sin because the best thing I like about masses are the songs and the choir. It does not help that when I attended the first mass of the Misa de Gallo together with family earlier this morning, the only thing that came across to me was that you like the sponsors a lot.

Here are some tell-tale signs:

A roll call of sponsors was repeated at least thrice before the mass was started.
Special seats were reserved for the sponsors at the middle aisle of the church.
The info that the church needs money (again) to repair the CR and your office was mentioned in your homily. In fact, it was the only thing I remember about the homily since that discussion took up more than half of the time that was supposed to be spent on the gospel.
The fund raising Light-a-Belen ceremony somehow found its way in the middle of the mass, with the sponsors called out one by one.

Father, the church was just recently rebuilt after a massive fund-raising campaign in the past year. I have a hard time believing you need to remodel so soon, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume the worst about the CR and your office. Still, couldn't you have knocked privately on doors of potential sponsors after the mass? There are more urgent things that need repair... like perhaps the spiritual lives of your parishioners.

By the end of the mass, I must say I felt like I had gone to a sales meeting instead of a mass.

Why does the church keep asking the parishioners to serve it without ever seeming to give back? When will it serve its parishioners?

I have not seen a true religious leader in this parish for a while. I have to say I continue to be disappointed.

Eclipse

2011-12-11T09:02:00.001+08:00

We went outside last night to view the dimming moon, in what they say is the last lunar eclipse of 2011. The moon did not go completely dark. It just turned a hazy shade of red towards the end of the eclipse. Then it was back again to its benevolent shade of yellow.

There were only a few of us on the street with our heads raised upward, gazing at the moon. I think I kind of miss those days when eclipses were a big event in the community.

I took a lot of pictures, most of which showed the moon as red. But I prefer this monochromatic one with its dramatic shading. If I had a choice, I would build a house with a glass roof. So I always have a view of the sky and will not have to go outside to see moments such as this.

Restored

2011-12-08T22:26:00.001+08:00

I look around and see people happily bantering (there may be slight torture involved every now and then). I smile as I remember being in a similar situation with a different team ages ago.

I am definitely happier now and my heart feels less burdened. I don't feel so alone now. Yes, alone is the right word. This is what a team should feel like. Finally my faith in myself is slowly being restored.

I am relieved.

Food Trip: Manna's Su-Tu-Kil (STK) @ Mactan

2011-12-03T02:56:00.000+08:00

We were heading to a resort in Mactan island, when we decided to stop for lunch at a SuTuKil place near the Lapu-lapu shrine. There are several seafood restaurants in this area and I've been to some of them, but remembering a tip from a friend, I led the group to the rightmost restaurant, Manna's SuTuKil (Sugba-Tuwa-Kilaw), which turned out to be a very good decision. My friends later informed me that they've also been to this restaurant and that it came highly recommended by their friends too.

It was my first time in the restaurant and I was impressed with how neat and clean the interior looked. Their staff was efficient, and aside from taking a long time with the drinks (several buko shake and water for everyone), served us well and may I add, quite cheerfully as well.

Manna''s SuTuKil, one of the best STK restaurants in Lapu-lapu

SuTuKil, or STK for short, describes the popular way of eating fresh seafood in Cebu. Sugba means grilled, tuwa is short for tinola or boiled broth, and kilaw roughly means eaten raw.

Near the entrance, the guests are presented with an array of fresh seafood and they then get to choose (a) which seafood they want; (b) how much they want in kilos or servings; and (c) how they want it cooked. The seafood is then charged per kilo (one can order in half kilos). A separate cooking charge is applied to the bill.

Grilled Tanguige (1/2 kilo, Php420/kilo), Shrimp in butter and garlic (1/2 kilo, Php210/kilo),
Sinigang with shrimp (1/2 kilo, Php210/kilo), Calamares (1 kilo, ?), Sea weed salad (Php45/serving)

Where is Manna's SuTuKil? The restaurant is located in Punta Engaño, Mactan Island in Cebu. It is right beside the Mactan Shrine where one can find the statue of Lapu-lapu. Just park in the area fronting a stage (and pay about Php20 parking fee) and go to the left side of the stage. Several men with large umbrellas escorted us and gave recommendations about which restaurant to pick. There was an almost battle of shouting men before we finally made it clear that we were going to Manna's. We gave our umbrella-carrying escorts a tip (about Php20 each) just before leaving (their umbrellas helped shield us from the really hot un-December like sunlight).
How to Get There? We took a private vehicle, but I believe one can also take a jeepney to the area. I am however, woefully ignorant about the public transpo system in Mactan.
How's the food? Everything was delicious! From the kinilaw to the calamare to the sinigang to the garlic shrimp to the grilled tanguige to the buko shake. I would highly recommend this place to anyone! :)
Facilities? The restaurant has two storeys, with the upper storey overlooking the site where Magellan was said to have landed. For a seafood house, I found the place to be clean, including the restrooms, and well-ventilated. The windows were also covered with fine netting to keep the flies out.
Price? I've tagged the prices as best as I can remember in the photo caption above (the receipt did not contain a breakdown). For a group of about seven, we only spent Php1,435, including drinks which came up to a total of Php520. That's Php205 per person, which is not a bad price for delicious fresh sea food and delicious buko juice.
Payment method? We paid in cash. I'm not sure if they take cards.
Recommended? I would highly recommend this place to anyone!
Any Tips? Visitors to the area can also buy souvenirs and guitars from stalls near the area. First time visitors should also drop by the Mactan shrine nearby. There's no entrance fee and one can find the statue of Lapu-lapu and the Magellan landing site in this plaza.

Last drop of summer

2011-12-03T02:44:00.000+08:00

Enjoying the shade inside one of the
clam-like pod lounges @ Be Resorts

I haven't enjoyed summer all that much this year. All my planned summer trips had gotten cancelled and I wasn't able to go to the beach at all, much lest take a much needed vacation. However, I seem to have more than made up for it in the past few weeks... and during the wet monsoon season of all times. Tropical countries certainly rock.

So far I've been to the beach in Alcoy, gone to the Kawasan Falls (finally!), and just last month (yes, November is now past) enjoyed the pool and the beach (again) at the wonderful Be Resorts in Punta Engaño, Mactan, Lapu-lapu, with friends.

Not too shabby a record, if I do say so myself. I like how this year picked up towards the end.

Thank You! :)

Crazy November

2011-11-28T00:43:00.001+08:00

I can't wait for November to end. Not only because December is my favorite time of the year (next to July), but also because November's last week has proven to be a turbulent one for me.

Oh where to start. A good friend of mine was hospitalized due to a swollen knee that just developed overnight. Another good friend is due for a minor surgery by the end of the month to fix a yet unknown (to me) illness. Another good friend's lola just died and the wake will be held this week. My younger sister was in an accident earlier today while riding a jeepney and had to be taken to the ER to have her knee checked. Thank goodness it was nothing painkillers couldn't fix and we were able to go home the same day (but not before deciding to eat out and go to church together to celebrate and give thanks for the gift of life).

I hope December will be better for all of us.

Thanks, Wikipedia!

2011-11-24T09:24:00.001+08:00

Just before I went to sleep yesterday, I saw a tweet with steps on how to remove the appeal from Jimmy Wales on Wikipedia. I smiled since I was able to relate; I'd opened the site several times the past few days and seen the banners and was starting to get slightly annoyed.

However, after reading the actual appeal, which turned out to be very short and straight to the point, I changed my mind. Well, not about the banners. I thought they were still slightly annoying and bigger than they had to be. But about helping.

So I ended up donating. Just a small amount but still a donation.

I have always been a fan of Wikipedia, and while I like free things, I also know there's a social responsibility to keeping things free. So this is one way of thanking Wikipedia for giving up-to-date and fairly unbiased information and allowing us to not keep bulky volumes of encyclopedias in the house.

Keep those pages up and running!

Side trip to the San Diego Dance Studio

2011-11-22T19:58:00.000+08:00

@ the San Diego Dance Studio near Capitol Site, Cebu

I don't dance... well okay, I do, but I don't do it well. So it is safe to assume that I did not go to the studio to enroll. Just stopped by for some business and noticed this beautiful family portrait on one of their walls. After a major fire that burned their studio and most of their props last 2002, I am happy to see that they have partially rebuilt this wall and managed to hang up this happy painting.

Food Trip: Adventure Park Café @ Busay

2011-11-22T12:01:00.000+08:00

Adventure Park Cafe, Mango Crepe @Php75

Enjoyed some mango crepe at Adventure Park in Busay last weekend after a zipline adventure. Enjoyed the brisk afternoon mountain air and the view. The venue reminded me a little of Bag o' Beans in Tagaytay, which I got to visit last year.

Back to the crepe, the mangoes were not as sweet as expected, but the combination of vanilla ice cream and cream more than made up for it. They also have Banana Choco Crepe for Php80. While the banana choco looks more delectable with its chocolate syrup and sticks, I still preferred the mango crepe with its vanilla ice cream and mangoes. But then again, I'm a sucker for anything with mangoes. :)

Adventure Park Cafe, Banana Choco Crepe @Php80

Where is Adventure Park: Located on the 33rd kilometer of the Trans-Central Highway in northern Cebu. It is just before K33 Adventure Camp and Island in the Sky. Can be found on the right side of the road if coming from Cebu City.
How To Get There: We went using a private vehicle, but GTExpress vans for hire or V-Hire and the habal-habal (motorbikes for hire) also pass by the area.
What Else Can You Do at Adventure Park? Zipline is available for Php150 for one round trip. Dinner and coffee is also available although we just went there for dessert after someone told us about their crepes. :)
Service, Price, Facilities? I thought their crepes were reasonably priced compared against other joints. The service was also quite good considering there were several people around. They have about 3 levels, with the main and the lower ground floor serving as dining areas and the upper floor serving as the launch pad for the zip line.

By the way, am I eating too much? Or am I just blogging too much about what I eat? :)

Food Trip: Café Capriccio @ Nivel Hills, Lahug

2011-11-21T02:03:00.001+08:00

Clockwise from top left: Chicken ala Capriccio with mashed potato (Php250),
Complimentary toast and butter (Free), Lechon Kawali (Php180),
Calamari (Php160), Buffalo Wings (Php180).

Cafe Capriccio is located on Cebu Veteran's Drive in Nivel Hills, Lahug just before Marco Polo and after The Outpost and on the left side of the road if you're coming from the city. It is one of my favorite places to dine or hang out with its warm interior, good food and friendly staff. While I'm sad they no longer serve the delicate apple cobbler that first attracted me to this place, they do have a good selection of main courses to choose from and last Friday I got to sample some of them with a few friends.

I was told their best seller is the Chicken a la Capriccio with mashed potato and this dish is my favorite out of all the dishes we ordered with its tasty vegetable side dish, creamy mushroom sauce, crispy crust, tender chicken, and cheesy filling. The mashed potato was just right, not too salty and not too bland. The Buffalo wings were somewhat dry though, but the calamari and pork kawali are also highly recommended.

All in all, we were pretty happy with the food and service that we got!

How to Get There: Accessible by taxi or by jeepney (routes 04C or 17H). Parking is limited so you may have to park by the street side.
Price Range: Php180-250, no service charge
Contact Number: (032) 4171086
Recommended for: Dinner or coffee or KTV with friends. Also a favorite party location with its function rooms and roofdeck with KTV, but make sure to reserve in advance!

Who knew

2011-11-16T19:45:00.001+08:00

You know what they say about learning new languages? That it's better to learn it if you're going to use it regularly? Well, it also applies to poi.

I found some fellow poi-enthusiasts at work and now I'm starting to pick up a few tricks every now and then. When I signed up to learn this skill one weekend I didn't realize it would turn into a hobby. :)

Food Trip: Canvas Bistro Bar Gallery @ The Terraces, Ayala Center Cebu

2011-11-12T21:24:00.000+08:00

Another food trip memory. Dinner at Canvas with some friends. There were four of us and they so happened to have a set menu good for 4 for just Php 1,500 (or as their menu helpfully suggests, just Php375 per person).

The menu consisted of two starters and four main dishes with four steamed rice and a pitcher of iced tea. The servings were actually not that big, but the dishes were quite filling and we actually had some leftovers to take home after.

Below are some shots of most the dishes we ordered. Missing are the soup, rice and iced tea. Sorry, I didn't get a shot of the interiors or even of the name of the bistro. I must have been hungry. :)

Starter: Crispy Baby Squid with Fried Garlic and Labuyo Chili Flakes

Pork Chop with Fragrant Spices, Lemon Juice and Steamed Rice

Mama's Spaghetti and Beef Meatballs in a Creamy Tomato Sauce

Grilled Fish with Toasted Almonds, Meuniere Sauce,
Vegetables and Steamed Rice

Five Spice and Lemongrass Roast Chicken Breast
with Garlic Mash, Green Beans, and Baby Corn

Ambiance: Thought I'd take some time to talk about the interior since I did fail to take a photo of it. The inside of the bistro is divided into sections; there's the outer bar section, then the inner section that is comprised of the main dining section with the open kitchen, and then another area sectioned off from the middle by frame dividers covered with burlap(?) curtains. The decor was mostly gray and neutral tones. There was absolutely no sense of fluff or frill in this resto. Even the paintings were in pen and ink (if I remember correctly). If I had to give a single overall description, I would say it felt sparsely decorated with a few chosen functional pieces as if invoking a camp somewhere in the great Outback. But it is a very cushy roomy camp, and they had cozy grey chairs and big tables so I had quite a comfortable time.
Must Try: Everything was delicious. The baby squid stood out especially. The grilled fish was also good. Not the best I've tasted but the flavors of the fish and the almonds and the sauce blended well. Had it melted in my mouth I would have rated it as one of the best I've tasted. As it was, it made my eyes pop but did not dislodge the memory of my best fish dish so far. :)
Menu: I didn't get a good look at the menu since we ordered the set meal. Again, I didn't take a pic of the menu and had to rely on other bloggers. Here's a blog post that contains a menu. Thank you! :)
Price Range: Php375 per person. A bit pricey but the food is worth it. Plus your food is prepared by students from the excellent Center for Culinary Arts in an open kitchen. Almost like being in a food show!
How You Get There: Ayala Center Cebu is a major shopping center in Cebu. Most taxi drivers know where it is and it has a jeepney terminal. Some jeepney routes that stop at Ayala Center include (but are not limited to) 14D, 04L, 03Q, 03M, 21B, and 12L.

The service was again okay. Nothing great although the staff seemed attentive enough, although we had to wait awhile before the orders got served and the bistro was not full during the time of our visit. I would definitely recommend this place to others. Good food and good ambiance

Korea 2011: Day 2 - Heritage Tour

2011-11-12T20:54:00.000+08:00

The itinerary

8:00 AM Breakfast at Guest House (Free!)
9:00 AM Changdeokgung
11:30 AM Changdeokgung Huwon (Secret Garden)
1:00 PM Korean Lunch
2:00 PM Gyeongbokgung
7:00 PM Namsangol Hanok Village
8:00 PM Korean Dinner
9:30 PM N Seoul Tower
11:30 PM Lights out

9:00AM - The visit to Changdeok Palace(-gung)

After breakfast, we left the Guest House to visit the Changdeok palace or Changdeokgung ("gung" means palace). Here are five reasons why you should also visit this palace:

For just thrice the cost of regular Korean street food you get to enter a completely different world!
You get to see where the royal family lived until about a few decades ago and then you get to imagine what life must have been like in such a place.
This is where the last royal family stayed until about 2002 when the last direct descendant of the royal family member died.
The palace has a secret garden that was previously only accessible through royal invitation but is now open to the public through guided tours.
It's beautiful! This is one of the eastern palaces in Korea and is a cultural treasure included in the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1997 and is a must-visit for any tourist!

How we got there

We got off at Jongno 3(sam)-ga station and walked towards the palace entrance still a few blocks away. I remember we were just walking downtown in the somewhat misty Korean morning when we came upon a large group of students also heading in the same direction. They dodged around us and we tried to walk faster to get past them. We look at an ivy-covered brownstone and go mildly gaga believing that it was part of the palace and find out that it was just a commercial building. We walk further looking around us and then there it was, the palace gate, which is as grand as any gate I could have imagined. I actually thought it was the palace at first.

Entrance tickets

We bought tickets at KRW 3,000 each and then entered the gates. The Korean tour starts at 9:30am but the English tour is not until 10:30am. There were several visitors to the palace on a Saturday, and most of them were Korean. I was impressed.

The tour

It was still 9.30am so we decided to walk around ourselves guided by the maps on the palace brochure and visited the throne hall, council hall, King's (Huijeong-dang) and Queen's residences (Daejo-jeon), and the hall built for the beloved concubine Lady Kim, Naksaeon-jae, which also became the last residence of the last members of the royal line.

We had some fun posing by the columns and the gates at first, until we realized that the palace compound was larger than we had anticipated. We entered gate after gate after gate and still we had not covered all of the area. And it was filled with trees and plants too, as if intentionally integrating itself with its mountain backdrop. It was so peaceful and calm and empty, even with the many visitors, the place still felt empty, that it was hard to imagine how palace life would have been back when the royal dynasty was alive and in full power.

We had some fun taking pictures while waiting for the English tour!

After an hour of wandering along the palace compound, we came to the gates of the Huwon or Secret Garden where a guide told us that it was better if we joined the English tour and then come back after for the Secret Garden guided tour. Luckily for us, the English tour had just started and we could still catch up.

We joined a large group with a costumed tour guide who switched easily from Korean to English and learned a lot of fascinating facts. For example, we learned that what we thought was at first a tombstone was actually a rank marker where officials stood behind during royal parades. We also learned that the pathways were multi-tiered and that only the King was allowed to walk on the highest and widest middle tier. Then the color of the roof was pointed out to us, which we hadn't noticed before. Blue was protected by a dragon, and was the royal symbol for the king; everyone but the king was forbidden to use this color, etc. A lot of fascinating tidbits were given that the brochure could not even cover. We were glad we joined the tour.

We saw the palace as if through new eyes when we joined the guided tour.

Tip/Lessons Learned:

Join the guided tour. There are much more fascinating facts to be learned about the buildings and the comings and goings of the Joseon dynasty members!
Wear comfortable shoes. The compound is big and will take about two hours worth of walking to explore sufficiently (not fully, I think you'd need a day or two for that).
Prepare to walk a lot. The compound is very very big and the secret garden is a series of ponds, gardens, buildings and pavilions scattered all around a mountain area. You are going to do some serious stepping on this tour.

11:30AM - The Changdeok Huwon (Secret Garden)

Huwon means "secret garden" in Korean. We came back around 11.30AM and bought our tickets. There was a good-sized crowd, all led by a single guide with a microphone (really small too with a battery pack hung over their neck).

How We Got There
It's just in the Changdeokgung compound, behind the main buildings and residences.

Entrance Ticket
This section of the palace grounds requires a separate entrance fee of KRW 5,000. A bit steep but we wanted to see what was inside so we queued up and joined the tour where we found out that it wasn't so much a garden as a private mountain retreat of the Joseon rulers.

Our tickets to Changdeokgung

What We Saw

There was a library, a study hall, several study and reading pavilions for Kings and princes who needed quiet places to contemplate and learn. (Which reminds me, do our public officials still study and read these days?) There were several ponds too, all square-shaped to represent the earth with a circular formation inside it filled with plants and trees to represent heaven.

At the Changdeok Secret Garden!

We didn't get to see all of the Secret Garden. Dark clouds had formed by this time complete with ominous rumblings and sure enough rain fell in fat droplets towards the latter part of the tour. We took shelter in one of the pavilions built by the last Joseon ruler until the rain let up enough for us to walk again. I sat inside that pavilion, appreciating the shelter provided against the rain and breathing in the wet, misty air and thinking that a king had probably sat in the exact same place years before and perhaps witnessed a similar display by nature. I almost got goosebumps.

Tip/Lessons Learned:

Join the guided tour. Again, maps and notes are good, but nothing like a living, breathing guide who can respond to your questions and provide tidbits about the royal family that may not necessarily be fit for publishing. :)
Bring an umbrella or a waterproof jacket with a hood. Recommended if rain is forecast on the day of your visit.
Visit in mid autumn or spring. I imagine the place would look even more magnificent with all the trees in flaming red or orange or all the flowers in bloom.

1:00PM - Time for Korean Lunch!

We were starving by the time the tour ended so we set off immediately to find some eatery. It drizzled as we were walking and we sought shelter in a small mobile stall that turned out to be selling street food so of course, we got some! Takaw much, but it was also strategic since we didn't know exactly where the nearest food place was and our stomachs were rumbling. And at KRW 500 each, it was worth every won. :)

Our first Korean street food:
Sugar-filled naan or 'hotteok' and the ubiquitous waffle with cream filling.

The rain had thankfully stopped by the time we finished our naans and waffle so we resumed our search for lunch. Soon thereafter, we found a street lined with various shops including diners and stalls for flowers and clothing, about 2 blocks away from where we bought our street food. We walked up and down the street before deciding to go into the most crowded diner we could find.

Our first ever Korean lunch!
In columns (L-R): Paella rice (did not taste the same as our paella but still delicious),
Two kinds of noodles, one tofu and the other pork (sorry, I forgot the names!) and
Korean kimchi.

Tips/Lessons Learned:

A picture paints a thousand words. Even Korean. The board menus in the eateries are usually entirely in Korean but thankfully, the menu they handed us had some English subtitles/labels, and we picked the safest looking dishes. And by safe, I mean not reddish in color! :)
Kimchi is everywhere! The cabbage and chili concoction is a staple of any Korean dinner. So is pickled radish. We were able to tolerate small amounts of kimchi... and even appreciated the chili on days that were particularly cold. The radish was also okay. All in all not a bad side dish combo especially since it's free with every meal. :)
Go with the crowd. Opt for a place with other people around. In a foreign environment, crowds are a good indication of the quality of food in an eatery!

2:00PM - Visit to the Gyeongbokgung

Full and now itching for more sight-seeing, we proceeded to the nearby Gyeongbok Palace, which is the largest palace in Seoul. We walked over three blocks and then found ourselves entering a wide driveway that opened farther into an even wider (and empty) parking lot. In the distance we could see the outlines of the gate and the palace compound set against a misty mountain backdrop. We spent a few moments absorbing the calm grandeur of the place (while skipping mini ponds).

Entrance Ticket
Signs and a few other visitors led us to the ticket booth and bought tickets for KRW 3,000. There were no guided group tours available, but there is an audio guide available for a fee. As before, we opted to explore the palace ourselves using only a brochure as a guide.

Our tickets to Gyeongbokgung

We entered the front courtyard of the palace (or I think that's what it is called) and saw several people milling about. There were actually several visitors milling about the compound, but the size of the palace grounds made the place still seem semi-deserted.

Changing of the Guards

We were looking forward to the hourly changing of the guards ceremony and were relieved that we were still in time for the final exchange scheduled at 3PM.

The colorfully-clad guards were all stationed by the gate due to the rain, and we joined a flock of tourists around them and had our pics taken with the guards, or rather near the guards. They weren't very rigid; they made minimal movements and sometimes looked around, although they did not interact with any of the tourists at all.

At around 3PM, amidst a mild drizzle, the stationed guards started marching to the inner courtyard and grouped together near one of the covered passageways while waiting for the last batch of guards to meet them. The downcast weather made for a muted albeit still colorful guard-changing ceremony.

With the colorful Gyeongbok palace guards.

Exploring the Palace
Done with the ceremony, we made our way to the inner compounds, dodging icy puddles and tourists alike. This time we knew what to expect: the large courtyards with the rank markers, the colorful buildings with ornate roofs, the paper covered windows, the advanced building interior (the palace had electricity in the early 1900s!).

Since we did not have a guide, we did not get as much inside scoop this time around and the rain made it harder for us to enjoy the trek from building to building especially as we only had a single umbrella. We opted to visit the most interesting points in the map. We stumbled upon a tea ceremony and came across several workers repairing or pruning around the compound. We also saw the party place where all important gatherings were held, which was an elevated building surrounded by pond. I could only imagine the decors and the lights and the costumes!

At the Gyeongbokgung compound

The temperature dipped in the low single-digits (Centigrade) so we hurried to our next destination, which turned out to be, almost by accident, the National Folk Museum of Korea, which is adjacent to the compound (or perhaps it was within the compound?).

Tips/Lessons Learned

More than picturesque. There are several activities that visitors can do in this palace aside from just having your pics taken with the guards and the buildings. Visitors can also participate in a traditional Korean tea ceremony. According to a friend, when they visited, there was a small tent set up beside the main gate where visitors could dress up in traditional Korean garb and pose for pictures. We didn't notice any such tent during our visit. Must have been because of the rain.
Audio-guided tours. There are no scheduled group tours for this palace, but there are available audio guides for rent near the ticket booths, for about KRW 1,000.

4:00PM Visit to the National Folk Museum of Korea
Wandering around the palace led us to the entrance to the National Folk Museum of Korea. Intrigued and needing some shelter from the cold wet weather, we eagerly entered the place and navigated to the left-most room, which turned out to be an auditorium. We were ushered in and we thankfully sank into comfortable seats and took in a cultural showcase where I finally saw how the janggu or the buk is used during a performance. Picture-taking is however not allowed, so I only managed one pic of the performance. I can tell you however, that we were clapping and jumping to our feet by the time the show ended.

The accidental visit to the Nat'l Folk Museum of Korea yielded
several insights into Korean tradition and culture.

5:00PM Side Visit to the Children's Museum

The museum had a Children's section and we decided to check it out. It is similar to the Museo Pambata in the Baywalk area in Manila and contained a lot of games and play areas. We were, unfortunately, too big for the display and the furniture so we just walked around and observed the kids playing. On our way out, we noticed a cordoned hallway that was painted with strips of bright orange. Since one of us loves the color orange, we decided to check if a ticket was needed to get in and to our pleasant surprise we were ushered in for free! :)

We found more digital games for kids plus a display for ancient forms of board games. But what drew our attention the most was the chess room with its checkered floor and chess piece hats and collections of Star Wars, Alice in Wonderland, and Cabbage Patch chess sets. :)

Fun at the Children's Museum

7:00PM Visit to Namsangol Folk Village

Next on our agenda was the visit to the Namsangol Folk Village. Whereas the palaces dazzled with the grand scale of the compound and the buildings, the folk village actually gave us a glimpse of what life might have been like inside these traditional houses.

Late-night visit to the folk village.

Tips/Lessons Learned

Don't visit late at night! Or you won't see much at all.
Free Entrance. There is no entrance fee! :)
Must Visit. If you are not staying in a Traditional Korean House, then this is a must visit. Even though I was a bit creeped out because the place was so quiet and there were mannequins in traditional clothing inside the houses and barely anyone was around, I actually found the visit to be quite educational. Korean houses tend to have really large windows on either side of a room to let the air in during the summer and I had a hard time picturing out the interior. That is, until I saw the sample houses in the village.
Plan the Progression! If you do decide to visit the Folk Village, I suggest that you visit it first before you get to the palaces, to get a picture of how the regular traditional houses looked like both inside and out. Then after, visit the palaces and the palace gardens, so that you get a better sense of the grandeur and the scale of the palace compounds.

8:00PM Late Dinner
We were very hungry by the time we finished touring Namsangol so we decided to have dinner somewhere nearby (actually, I forgot where we were; I just followed my friends into the nearest eatery we could find).

Our first Korean dinner! :) Some fish and pork cutlets plus tofu soup.

The board menus were again entirely in Korean but the menus had English names so we were fortunately able to pick out the food that we'd like to eat and chose dishes with rice. It wouldn't be dinner without rice!

Talking to the server for our order was another matter however, but we were able to get by with a lot of pointing and nodding and shaking of heads. Yes and no head movements thankfully meant the same and we got the food we meant to order. :)

The food was again delicious. The soup was a bit spicy for my taste, but hey, we didn't mind the warmth it brought us especially since the temperature seemed to have dropped in the single digits. It was very cold outside!

I forgot how much we actually spent for this dinner, but it was below KRW 20,000 for all three of us.

9:30PM Visit to Namsan Tower

After dinner, we decided to go to the Namsan Tower since it was still open and the rain had cleared by the time. Since we were at the city center and very near the location, we chose to walk off our dinner instead of hopping aboard the subway. And I'm proud to report we didn't get lost. :)

Cold wet weather and clean air make flowers bloom readily in Korea.
These were planted in the middle of a busy intersection near Myeong-dong.

We stopped at our Namsan Guest House for a few moments of rest (and so I could get my T-Money coupon from the room, which I forgot) and then proceeded to hike up the Namsan mountain to get to the cable car station. The hike took us about 20 minutes and was no mean feat in the extremely cold autumn night (we learned later that the temperature had dropped to 3 degrees Celsius that night). We were eager for some warmth by the time we reached the cable car station.

Namsan Cable Car Ride
We bought round-trip tickets (each at KRW 7,500) and then waited for a few minutes before boarding a cable car for a short ride to the base of the tower. There were several visitors with us, again mostly Korean, Japanese or Chinese (as far as we could tell), but we did meet a group of Filipinos who were being toured around by their Korean counterpart. Lucky them! :)

Our cable car arrived and we were one of the first to get on it, thankfully. My that cable car was packed! It was standing room only, but I didn't get a sense of panic at all since the ride remained smooth all throughout. The only bumps we felt were during the loading and unloading.

The ride was pretty short since were only going up to the base of the tower. We did get spots by the side of the car and got a view of the Namsan forest below as well as a preview of the Seoul nightscape that we were about to view at the tower so it was still a pretty enjoyable ride.

Our Namsan Tower Cable Car Tickets

The cable car delivered us to a station just a few meters below the tower and then we climbed a wide wooden path up to the base of the tower. We passed along a restaurant, Cibocima, before finally reaching the base, marked by the neon-green N of the tower.

N is for Namsan.

Yam lined up for the tickets while Dona and I checked out the Teddy Bear Museum store. There's actually a Teddy Bear Museum nearby but it was already closed. Too bad. There was also a Coldstone Creamery next to the teddy bears but it was also closed by the time we got back down from the tower. :(

Entrance Ticket
The Namsan Tower entrance ticket cost us KRW 9,000 each, which is a bit steep when compared to the other entrance fees we had to pay during the day. But we were excited to see what it had to offer, cloudy skies and all. Plus we did have a 10% discount, so we really just paid KRW 8,100 each.

The gang at the N Seoul Tower. :)

From up top we saw Seoul in its entirety and saw how large a city it really was. We even saw the majestic Han river and the spans of bridges that crossed it. There must have been scores of cars crossing the bridges because from my viewpoint, the bridge looked like ribbons of Christmas lights strewn across Seoul. That's how beautiful it looked!

Tips/Lessons Learned

Get a discount. Our City Pass Plus cards also came with several discount coupons, including one for Namsan Tower. Foreigners were eligible for a 10% discount on the entrance ticket! Make sure to bring your coupon!
Read up about the tower before visiting. This is a good resource: http://visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?cid=260067
Visit the Sky Restrooms! This promises a panoramic view of Seoul and should make for an interesting experience at the loo. :)
Visit the Roof Terrace! The view from the observatory is nice and all but it is still through glass. Nothing beats the open air viewing experience.
Visit during sunset! Our view was partially obscured by the wet glass due to the rain as well as the cloudy skies. But I could see that the view would be breathtaking during twilight. I brought a pair of binoculars and even that didn't help with the cloudy skies... especially since I didn't really know what I was looking for. ;)
If you skipped the article in the first bullet, go and read it. We didn't and we spent all of our time in the Digital Observatory and missed out on some of the good stuff!

End of Day 2
After the Namsan Tower visit, we braved the cold weather again and descended back down, rode the cable car back down and then walked back to our Guest House. We cleaned up and then had our 2nd night's rest in Korea. That ends our Day 2 adventure. :)

Want to find out how we got to Korea?
Click here for our preparation details and tips and here for our Day 1 experience.

Pictures courtesy of me, Dona and William. Collages are solely my fault. :)

Onwards

2011-11-09T23:44:00.004+08:00

Got my grades for last semester and it looks like my efforts have paid off. My grade's looking lean and mean. It was a bit overweight the previous sem. :)

Which reminds me. I need to get enrolled this week. On to the next semester!

Food Trip: Boosog @ The Gallery

2011-11-07T17:35:00.002+08:00

Food trip at Boosog @ The Gallery with the family a few months ago. I've been to Boosog several times, but it was the rest of the family's first time so I took charge of ordering.

Clockwise from top left: Monggos with Seafood, Baked Scallops,
Red Egg Salad, Tropical Chiller, Kalderetang Kambing,
Grilled Tuna Belly, Dinuguan, Chicken Pandan

The verdict? Everyone loved the food, even my mama who is a finicky, health-conscious eater.

Must Try: The Monggos with Seafood. When I first heard about Boosog, people raved about this dish and it is as good as ever! As someone who grew up eating monggos soup, I can certify that the dish is as authentic as it gets. Made extra creamy with coconut milk and richer with seafood.
Menu: I didn't get a picture of the menus but this post from another blogger contains a fairly recent copy. Thanks! :D
Price Range: Php100-200 per person. We spent about Php1,300 for lunch with 8 persons (5 adults and 3 kids)
How to Get There: The Gallery is a few minutes away from SM City Cebu or Ayala Cebu. It is accessible by taxi or by jeepney (04L route). Parking space is available but may be extremely limited during peak hours.

The service is okay, nothing exceptional, but nothing bad either. All in all a good restaurant for family lunches.

So...

2011-11-07T00:45:00.002+08:00

I want to rock and roll...

I want to hear your call

Ask me how I am

See me once again

I'm here...

Coastal Cleanup @Punta Engaño

2011-11-05T22:15:00.003+08:00

I'm still working on my Korea posts (delayed again) but for now I'll post a few pics from a (company-sponsored) coastal cleanup activity at Punta Engaño, Mactan, Cebu that I joined earlier this year.

It was my first clean-up activity so I prepared for it as well as I could. I brought a long-sleeved shirt, a cap, rubber padded gloves, and a mask. And when we arrived we were given large trash bags and a barbecue (bamboo) stick for picking up the trash. I was all set. Or so I thought.

Volunteers for Lexmark coastal clean-up
activity @ Punta Engaño in Mactan

My jaw must have dropped a few inches when I saw the site. I had thought I was going on a coastal clean-up activity not a garbage dump site clean-up. But my, the place certainly looked more like a dump site to me.

The bamboo sticks went in the bag with the trash (they were going to be of no use at all) and then I started picking up litter by hand. I was glad I had brought gloves but I wished even more that I had thought to bring a spade. Or a bulldozer. If I had only known! There must have been over thirty volunteers but we didn't even make a dent on the piles of trash after hours of picking up litter and bagging them.

My strategy was to stick to one area and pick up all the trash around me until that area was clean before moving to the next area. I was hardly able to move at all. No sooner did I clear away a layer of trash when another layer popped up. I would tug on an innocent looking piece of plastic and it would dislodge a sack or a plastic bag and reveal more trash underneath!

Bent over and trying to
clean up the area around me.

I picked up all sorts of garbage, from plastic sachets of shampoo and conditioner to empty toothpaste tubes, bottles, plastic wrappers, plastic bags, sacks of garbage, old clothing, damaged toys, ballpens, clothing, even baby diapers! My revulsion towards garbage rose and I swore I was going to stay away from sachets from that day forward, which is a promise I have not been able to keep at all.... plastic is everywhere!

We also had to be careful to separate leaves, coconut husks, branches and soil from the trash and only bag those that will not decompose well such as plastic, rubber, cloth, etc. Members of DENR monitored our activity and kept reminding us not to include the branches/leaves/coconut husks with the trash, all while sitting under the shade of a marooned banca... lucky them, I thought.

Hauling away my last sack of trash.

I must have helped fill about 2 bags with garbage before we found out that there were no more bags left to fill. The organizer had underestimated the site and brought only 20 bags, which we had already used up in just an hour of picking up trash. Someone was on the way to deliver more empty bags and in the meantime, we busied ourselves with separating the coconut husks from the garbage and gathering them in piles.

I found that bending over and picking up trash can actually be draining and back-breaking work, especially since we were working under the hot tropical sun. The only shade available was near the company van or under a marooned banca and the DENR people were occupying that space along with other volunteers.

Growing piles of garbage

I rested a bit and then we worked for a few hours more before it was finally time for lunch. I spent the last few minutes taking pics of the other volunteers since there were very few bags left. We took away almost fifty bags of trash, but left with the place still looking as garbage-filled as ever.

I asked around but the locals say the place was not a garbage dump, rather all the garbage were brought in by the tides. I found this to be incredible. I can't imagine the sea being that dirty! How did the garbage get stuck on the coast and not get dragged back out with the waves? There were no mangroves for them to catch on! Tsk, tsk. Next time, we should hire a backhoe or a bulldozer to clean up the place!

Which reminds me, also. To get to the clean-up area, we actually had to pass through a padlocked gate with a sign that said the area is for sale. Did we just clean a private property?!? Other volunteers reminded me that no business or person can own the coast or beach, so perhaps not. But still, I have my doubts. Someone did make a good point in saying that private or not, we were still cleaning up the coast and helping nature. Only that thought kept me going through the activity.

Whew! Now I can definitely say I have waded in a sea of garbage. Cue in Manny V.'s campaign song. :p

Help me decide...

2011-10-29T22:50:00.002+08:00

"Watch it all go by
Was it really true
Is that what it was
Was that really you"
- "Save You" by Matthew Perryman Jones

Korea 2011: Day 1 - Cebu to Seoul

2011-10-23T22:02:00.003+08:00

The itinerary

Leave Cebu, arrive in Incheon
Take a train to Seoul
Find hotel
Visit downtown
Sleep

Flight to Incheon

We took the 3:55PM flight of Cebu Pacific Air to Korea. The flight is 5 hours long; we left Mactan International Airport a quarter before 4PM and arrived in Incheon International Airport a few minutes before 10PM, which is really 9PM in Cebu since Korea is an hour ahead. Our flight was without incident for the most part, we met with some expected turbulence but nothing major. The landing was a bit rough though.

Columns, from left to right:
1st column: Fun at the Mactan airport
2nd column: The excited passengers
3rd column: Fun with the Smile magazine; Yam wins a prize
4th column: Arrival in Incheon

I got a bit excited after recognizing one of the writers in the Smile in-flight magazine, a high school classmate. Then we noticed the map in one of the ads and we got a bit carried away marking places on the maps in the magazine that we'd like to visit in the future--we got so excited that someone actually requested an attendant to shush us up. Hehe. Sorry.

Incheon airport is impressive and very very large. We had to take a transit rail to get to Immigration and baggage claim. We actually had to double-check and make sure we were with the right group of people, discreetly looking around and trying to spot some familiar-looking heads and backs.

There were very few Filipinos in the plane with us, but we did meet a few while lining up at the Immigration in Incheon including a really really cute baby with chubby cheeks and the mom who turned out to be Filipina.

We had little trouble during Immigration. No questions asked or papers requested so we breezed our way through to baggage claim where our bag was one of the first to arrive. Then we took some time to do a mini celebration. After all the problems we'd had getting our visa approved in time for the flight, here we were in Korea. We were finally in Korea! Our trip was really happening!!! :)

Finding Seoul

We had dinner (Jollibee) on the plane so our main priority after arriving was to get to our hotel in Seoul. We bought a City Pass Plus for KRW 3,000 and loaded KRW 10,000 worth of T-Money, which can be used for train or bus rides and also to buy stuff in convenience stores.

We made our way to the rail station and obtained subway maps for each person and got on a train headed for Seoul, which is around 45 minutes away. We figured we'd arrive at the hotel before 11PM.

Spell complicated. There were as many as 15 lines on this Seoul Metro subway system!

Fun in the metro :)

Mid-way through the ride it was announced that T-Money holders should get off before Seoul Station since City Pass Plus cards are not accepted there (only single journey tickets were). We consulted our maps and revised our plans and got off at Hongik University station, switched to Line 2 and got off at Euljiro 3(sam)-ga and switched to Line 3 then got off at Chungmuru then switched to Line 4 and got off at Myeong-dong, our final stop (which is only 2 stops away from Seoul Station by the way). The entire trip cost about KRW 2,700.

We arrived shortly before 12 midnight and did not have any time to do anything other than check-in, clean-up, and sleep. We had a mini photoshoot before calling it a night by the way... but I'll keep the pics for now. :)

Wondering how we got to Korea? Read about our preparations here.

Korea 2011: The preparation

2011-10-23T16:18:00.001+08:00

Why Korea?
This is a question I encountered a lot when I started telling people I was visiting South Korea with friends. And the answer really is that going to Korea was kind of a random decision for us. Airline seats were on sale and we were searching for tickets to HongKong but ran out of tickets before we could agree on a date. What was left was Korea, and while we've never been to Korea and had no idea what was in Korea that we'd like to see, we were willing to go and see this country from where we get our popular Korean telenovelas and K-Pop artists. So Korea it was.

Since Korea is not part of the ASEAN we needed to get tourist visas to be able to enter the country, so our preparation began about a month prior to the actual trip. I decided to list below the things we did, which in retrospect is now considerable, but at the time only became time-consuming the week before the actual flight.

I also added in some tips, which I'd gathered from experience, research or by observing my companions who are also experienced travelers. By doing this, I hope to invite other people to go visit Korea, which we found to be a beautiful place full of beautiful and friendly people. This is one way of thanking them for our wonderful visit. :)

I’ll blog about the trip in a series of posts. Here're some I've already completed:

Day 1 - From Cebu to Seoul
Day 2 - Heritage Tour
Souvenir from Korea - a post about the souvenir I got from the trip. :-)

Sorry, I'm still not yet finished chronicling the trip! Check back in the next few days for more, if you are interested to find out more about our experience in Korea. :)

Visa Procurement
Korean Visa application is free. However, since the consulate is located in Manila, we decided to hire the services of Asia Light Travel and Tours, Inc for Php1,000 each. Click here for a list of requirements.

Tips/Lessons Learned

Bank details are needed. Make sure you have at least Php50,000 in your bank account/s. Make sure your bank is a PDIC member, otherwise, your bank statement may not be valid.
Allocate enough time for Visa processing. Although processing is listed for 7 days, it may take up to 2 to 3 weeks so apply in advance... But don’t apply more than 2 months in advance! A Korean tourist visa may only last a few weeks; our visas were single entry and good for 59 days only.
Personal appearance may be required. Some first-time applicants may be required to present themselves at the embassy. I was requested to submit 2 government IDs personally but the agency helped me by submitting the IDs with a waiver instead via a messenger in Manila.
Airport-to-airport effort. If your visa is approved just a day before your flight date and your passport is still in Manila the night before your flight, try airport-to-airport transfer to ensure that it arrives in time for your flight. We had to do this for one of our passports. The agency facilitated this for an additional Php1,500 fee. Didn't anticipate that transporting a small booklet could cost that much, but given our wonderful experience in Korea, I think it was worth it. :)

Hotel Booking
Korea has several guest houses as well as youth hostels. We tried to get dorm spots at the youth hostels but couldn’t get enough space so we searched for Guest Houses instead, the next best option for budget travelers like us.

We finally reserved rooms at the Namsan Guest House and were very very satisfied with the rooms we got for the price we paid. There were 3 of us and we booked a Twin B room (KRW 55,000) with an additional bed (KRW 10,000) for KRW65,000 per night. That’s about Php 2,461.89, which is affordable considering the cost will be split among the 3 of us (that's around Php 820.63 per person per night).

Tips/Lessons Learned

Book your hotels early. Most of the hostels and guest houses we checked out were already fully booked. Plus some hostels actually don’t allow last-minute reservations.
Confirm your reservations! Make sure to confirm your reservations a week before your arrival lest you end up without a place to stay in.
Free breakfast rocks! I found out that hostels don't offer free breakfast, so this is one advantage for staying in a guest house. We had free breakfast (unlimited bread, peanut butter, jelly, noodles and access to toaster, microwave, and ref) and wifi with the room we got at the Namsan Guest House.
Fully paid. The Guest House requested upfront payment when we registered for our rooms for our entire stay, so make sure you prepare the right amount of KRW for the entire stay.

Me and my travel mates Dona and Yam shortly before we moved to Namsan 3.
I loved the place and gave it a high rating on TripAdvisor! :)

Currency Exchange

It pays to travel with a budget and one way to do that is to set the amount that you will be spending for the entire trip right at the start. For us, that amount was KRW 400,000 per person for a 4-day adventure in South Korea, which is about Php15,200 each. We had our pesos exchanged through a friend whose sister worked for a bank and got a better rate.

Tips/Lessons Learned

We won! Well, yes we did. We received a lot of Korean Won after exchanging our pesos. (corny, I know ^-^)
Research to get the best deal. It pays to have a friend who has a sister who works in a bank, as well as others friends who have travelled to Korea and gave us advice on what to do and ideas on how much each day will cost us. But if you don’t, then the best recourse is to canvass and check which forex shops have the best rates before exchanging your money.

We were millionaires for a day. :)

What to Pack for Korea
Aside from the essential toiletries and clothes, here are some tips on what to bring:

Prepare for the weather. Since it was October, we expected cold weather so I packed no less than 2 jackets to alternate; one heavy and one light to account for changes in the weather. Also didn’t want to wear the same jacket in all the pics! :) I also packed long socks and gloves. One travel mate brought ear muffs.
Bring a plug adapter. Korea uses 110V and plugs with rounded pins. I didn’t research this so I almost wasn’t able to charge my phone or iPod until we were able to borrow adapters from the front desk.
Bring an umbrella. Especially if the weather forecast indicates rain is likely on the days you’ll be in Korea (you’ll have to check this in, with the current airport regulations). Otherwise, be prepared to buy an umbrella in Korea. (We didn’t bring any so we had to buy one big umbrella for KRW 7,000).
Check if you can travel lighter. The guest house we stayed in provided shampoo, toothpaste, and fresh towels so there was no need to bring these too. But I didn't know so I brought my own. This is for those looking to travel even lighter than we did. I only brought one backpack, one duffel for the heavy coats, and one small sling bag for passport and money.
Use comfortable shoes! I brought boots and a pair of sneakers. Seoul is a city designed for walking and my, did we walk a lot in the four days we stayed there. We were all hobbling by the time we got back to Cebu due to various muscle pains.
Bring a medicine kit. I had some stomach pains after tasting some really spicy Korean food but it thankfully did not devolve into a full-blown illness. I stayed away from anything spicy looking (i.e. red-colored) and I was able to enjoy their food better after that.

What To Do in Korea
We didn't know anyone in Korea (well, one of us did but we were not visiting the country as their guests so there was no guarantee of a meet-up) and we also did not want to book a packaged tour since we were on a budget, so we planned our own itinerary.

Tip/Lessons Learned

Read blogs and various websites. One trusted source is TripAdvisor. The site english.visitkorea.or.kr also has several sample itineraries that you can use or modify to suit your own adventure.
Talk to friends. We also consulted with friends who have (recently) been to Korea for any tips on must-sees or must-visits.
Compare notes. We read and read and read and then came up with partial lists of places to see (including short notes on why we would want to actually go see them) and then swapped lists.
Come up with a shortlist. We then discussed and agreed on places to see and sites to visit. This is particularly important when traveling in a group. You will not be able to visit everything so it is important that you pick out the places that most of the members in your group will want to see. For example, I wanted to visit the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) but my companions were not interested so we did not push through with the plan. Another example was when all of us decided we wanted to go to a theme park and there was Lotte World and Everland to choose from. Theme parks are big and expensive so we allotted an entire day per theme park to make sure we got the most out of the experience, but then we realized later that we did not want to spend half of our Korean experience inside a theme park (that would have been no way to experience a country) and decided to choose only one, which turned out to be Everland.
Find out how to get there! After we had our shortlist, we listed down the addresses, and looked for directions on how to get to the site from the nearest subway station and whether an entrance fee or ticket is required.
Check for special requirements. It would also help to find out if there are special requirements (e.g. Chongwadae or Blue House requires 10 days advance reservation, passport is required for DMZ tour, etc).

How to Get Around Korea
We also read up on public transportation in Korea to find out how we could get from place to place in Seoul. This is very important since we were not planning on getting a car and we were not part of a guided tour. This was also an important step in planning our budget. For example, we found out that the trip from Incheon to Seoul would cost around KRW 2,700 and that the ferry from Gapyeong to Nami island would cost around KRW 8,000. At the end of 4 days, we have been on a train, taxi, bus, ferry, and cable car!

Tip/Lessons Learned

Subway and bus base fare. The basic fare for metro or bus is KRW 900 when using T-money (KRW 1,000 if paid in cash), with additional fare calculated based on distance.
Pay attention to the next stop! Unlike the Singapore subway system where direction of the train is determined by the end station of each line, in Seoul, the train direction is indicated by the next station (or stop) for the train so you have to take note of which station you want to go next. This makes sense since there are as many as 15 lines in the Seoul metro alone and the subway map pretty much looks like a maze; finding the end station of a line would have been like solving a puzzle! There are exceptions (of course), such as when a line is split into sub-lines and then you'll find direction determined by the end stations of the split lines and not the next stop.
Grace period. Our travel mate, Yam, found out that transferring from subway to bus or vice versa within 30 minutes would waive the base fare for the 2nd mode of transportation and fare would be calculated cumulatively (i.e. you won't have to pay the base fare twice if the transfer is within 30 minutes after you exited the bus or the train station).
Taxi rates. We also found out by experience that the base fare for taxi (flag down) is KRW 2,300, with increments in KRW 100. We were tired, our feet were in varying state of pain and we were hungry so we caved in and called a taxi. ;)

Leaving Cebu for Korea
We went to the airport approximately 2 hours before the trip, paid our travel taxes (still at Php1,620) and terminal fee (still at Php550) and then breezed our way through immigration.

Tip/Lessons Learned

Don’t be late! Go to the airport early to avoid long lines at the check-in counter. Also, Cebu Pacific check-in closes 45 minutes before boarding and believe me they will leave you behind if you are late!
Delegate tasks! If traveling in a group, even in a small group of 3, it is best to divide the tasks. Someone paid the travel tax, while another collected the immigration forms, while I lined up to check in. We also designated a banker and paid Php2,300 each for the taxi to the airport, tax, and terminal fees. Less headache that way.
Prepare your docs! Print out your certificate of employment and approved leave form to make sure you don’t have a hard time with the immigration officers
Prepare to write. There are forms to be filled out so bring a pen! Or practice a sweet smile and borrow from other passengers. (I brought a pen.)

Actual Trip Cost
I was told to prepare around Php20,000 to 25,000 for the travel expenses, but we managed to keep costs down to around 15,000 for the actual trip. With the preparations and various fees, the entire trip actually cost a little more than Php20,000, which is not bad at all and even affordable for young professionals who want to travel.

We also had some Korean Won left from the trip and we even managed to buy several pasalubong items, so there is still room for reduction if necessary. I spent around KRW 100,000 for souvenirs alone (not 87,000 as I'd originally thought!), exactly a quarter of my total pocket money, but then again, what would the trip be like if we didn't bring pasalubong back to our friends and relatives?

See the breakdown of our travel expenses below:

Item	Actual Cost
Airfare (round trip)	2,907
Visa application (thru agency)	1,000
Bank certificate procurement	100
Taxi to Airport (from office; shared)	130
Philippine Travel Tax	1,620
Airport Terminal Fee	550
Travel Pocket Money	15,200
Taxi from Airport to home (shared)	150
TOTAL	Php 21,658

Complexity complex

2011-10-23T00:40:00.001+08:00

I mentioned that I visited Seoul in my previous post. I don't have pics from the trip posted yet, but I did take some time today to complete the souvenir I had bought for myself from Korea.

This time I really wanted something special or unique that would trigger something in me and make me remember the country I'd visited... I wanted more than something nice to look at... more than just a visual stimulus. So while my friends bought keychains and magnets, I wandered around, looking for a specific... unknown. Not very easy, I tell you.

That is, until I found myself in an island called Nami after a 1-hour train ride and a Han river boat ride. I wandered into a small shop filled with various items including souvenir shirts, chopsticks and paper weights and I saw miniature models of towers and European houses with hand-wound music boxes inside similar to the music box I'd bought when I was in Tennessee. I thought to myself, wouldn't it be perfect if they had a Korean house too... and it turns out they did. Two models actually. I picked the traditional styled house since it reminded me the most of the palace compounds and folk villages we visited in Seoul.

Now I almost have my souvenir but I have to build it first to complete it. This is perhaps the most complex souvenir I have ever bought so far. It was the most expensive souvenir I had bought in the country too at KRW 19,000.

Preparation... brought out the coloring materials since the pieces were not yet painted! Started coloring the pieces first before assembly... although I did decide to attach the music box first.

Finished the painting and then started working on assembling the walls, then the roof.

It's complete! I finally have a souvenir! :D

It took me around 3 hours to get everything painted and assembled. But the effort was worth it. I definitely won't forget making this music box. :)