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Josh & I flew home to the Philippines to continue our adventures together. We had a busy month planned for March where we had a lot of local travel and new adventures in store.

Dumaguete

Known to our generation as Dumzville and later on Dumaghetto (and more recently, as per Twitter, Dramaguete), our hometown is a small and laid back city. It is a relatively artsy place serving as a second home to a lot of university students from different parts of the country. When my friends here in Canada ask me what we do for fun back home, it can always be summarized with two words: eating and drinking.

Catching up with my girlfriends

Korean softshell tacos @ Alima Cafe

Official Instagram: @alimacafeofficial

The food culture in Dumaguete is phenomenal, considering that it’s not that huge of a city. It caters to a wide variety of cuisines such as Korean, Tex-Mex, Spanish, fusion and so much more.

Authentic Korean food @ Soban Restaurant 🇰🇷

Our favourite, fish ice cream (does not contain actual fish) 🍦

Food talk aside, our time in Duma was also primarily spent catching up with good friends. Since Josh & I more or less run in the same circle, a lot of our friends are mutual so we get to see them together without the hassle of planning and organizing. Some friends we know all the way back from high school (for me, some even as early as pre-school) and others are friends we both met in college.

Dinner with the “Brios + Ate Joey”

Out on the pool with the girls ⛱

The boys! 🍻

  Manila

Our country’s capital, Manila is a bigger and busier city compared to our hometown. It’s a good place for shopping and the party scene is also pretty tight.

We were there for a few days to meet up with some childhood friends that were now based in the city, as well as to attend the annual Wanderland Music & Arts Festival. We stayed at the Crimson Hotel which was situated within walking distance from the venue of the event, which that year was held in Filinvest City, Manila.

Ready to wander ✨

Room service

The festival itself was fun, local bands like Up Dharma Down and Gab + John of Urbandub, had everybody singing and dancing along. The international line-up was also very impressive. Acts like Honne, Lany & The Ting-Tings rocked the stage and had everyone on their feet, screaming their hearts out.

There were also some games and other forms of entertainment within the area so there was always something to look at. For food, there were a lot of stalls available with really tasty and convenient (handheld: pizza, hotdogs, food in bowls or cups 🥡) so you could still eat without having to worry about finding a spot to sit. It was there, actually, where I discovered the Poke bowl (not related to the Pokémon catching contraption), which is generally a deconstructed sushi roll in salad/rice bowl form.

The main stage.

Warm smiles and neon lights. 💚

Cute wrist bands!

Some Honne lyrics to light up the night 🌙

After the festival, we spent the last few days around the city checking out some of the trendy places to grab a bite. We also managed to meet and catch up with two of my closest girlfriends Kate & Korina, who are both in Manila for medical school.

Retro vibes are real! 🍭

Group photo sesh!

My girls 💕

  El Nido, Palawan

After a semi-hectic couple of days in the big city, our next destination gave us our much needed one-on-one time with nature. El Nido has gained so much popularity recently as a top tourist destination. With the white sand beaches and the famed island tours, you could book a full Maldives-vibed vacation for a fraction of the price.

The Trio! 💚

Boats of different shapes and sizes.

  My sister joined Josh & I and we made our way to Palawan via a short flight from Cebu. Once you reach the capital, Puerto Princesa, it then requires a 5-6 hour drive (depending on how fast the driver is going) to reach the town of El Nido.

The long journey was then soon rewarded by the spectacular view. Despite the number of tourists in the area, it wasn’t very crowded to the point of claustrophobia. The island tours were organized well (you had a choice between four types) and the boats were in abundance. Each tour had a guide and hot lunch served in the boat.

Turquoise waters 🌊

A wonder of nature

Lunch is served!

  We spent two days to explore the islands, taking advantage of two of the four tour options. There were various activities in the itinerary including rafting, exploring a cave, chilling at a sand bar and a quick hike up to get a bird’s-eye view of one of the islands.

Rafting!

DarthQua Man

Sister selfie! 👯‍♀️

Despite being a short visit, our hearts were full by the end of our trip. It wasn’t perfect and there are things (with regards to the planning) that we would definitely do differently next time, but all in all we had a great time. On to our next adventure! 🌏

  March 2017 | Beaches 🌞 + Wanderland 🌈 Josh & I flew home to the Philippines to continue our adventures together. We had a busy month planned for March where we had a lot of local travel and new adventures in store.

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February is our month and on the 17th day, we celebrate another year of being together. Because of our geographical conditions, our anniversary always requires a little bit of extra planning. For 2016 we spent a couple of days in Phuket, Thailand for our 2nd anniversary and it was amazing. I had a little extra time for 2017. So instead of spending a lot of money on a fancy weekend getaway, we had to plan around a wider set of adventures to last us all the way ’til May.

Hong Kong

Since Josh lives in HK and we pretty much covered all the touristy destinations during my first few visits, our time spent here was basically for chill dates and lounging around. I flew in from Vancouver just in time for Valentine’s day which we decided to spend low key. After watching a movie (La La Land), we went around the city and decided to pick up a huge box of pizza for dinner. 🍕

The next couple of days we spent around the city. I did some light shopping here and there (a lot of time spent in Uniqlo because we don’t have it back home) plus the excitement of venturing around to find a place to eat.

My go-to beef noodles with your choice of add-ons

Happy faces at the noodle shop!

  Usually when I first arrive, I always beg Josh to take me to eat all of my favourite food. I craved for some Gong Cha milk tea, Mr. Softee (the best soft serve on wheels) and a bowl of hot noodles 🍜 from the small shop at Lamma Island.

Spot the Gong Cha logo

Yummm! 🍦

  Macau

After a few days in Hong Kong, we packed our bags and made our way to Macau. It was my first time to visit Asia’s Venice so I was excited to spend the next couple of days there for our third anniversary. You travel from Hong Kong to Macau by ferry for roughly an hour and a half. When you arrive and go through immigration, there are a multitude of free bus transports that do drop offs for nearly all of the biggest and most frequented hotels in the area. We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel in Macau’s City of Dreams, so we didn’t have to spend any money for transportation since the free bus brought us there directly.

Our luxurious robes

On the bus

View from our room

We were only in Macau for a few days, so we decided not to overbook our trip with touristy activities. Half of the trip we spent as a staycation, enjoying our huge room (we even got to do a mini Harry Potter marathon) and exploring the sights nearby.

Evening stroll ✨

Enjoying the view. 💚

The other half of our trip we spent enjoying some tourist spots. I love the entire vibe and aesthetic of Macau. Since it was a Portuguese colony for a long time, you can definitely see the European influence in the city’s architecture and food. Even a lot of the street signs are still in Portuguese.

A little corner by the Ruins of St. Paul

Senado Square

We trotted around Senado Square where I just fell in love with the colours of the buildings and we also visited the famed Ruins of St. Paul and the Museu de Macau. 

Ruins of St. Paul

Overlooking the city

Selfie-worthy background

Quaint little corners

As expected, these tourist attractions were packed with people from all over the world. So we tried avoiding the busy main roads and made our way around the city by foot through (non-sketchy) little street corners. Because of doing so, we were able to discover artsy alleys where we got to take some photos. We also found a hole-in-the-wall local restaurant that served delicious Macanese cuisine which we had for lunch. 🍴

Enjoyed a little photowalk with my model. 😍

Cute walls everywhere!

For our last night in Macau, we decided to look for a place to eat within the area. They had an entire floor dedicated to restaurants specializing in different cuisines from various parts of the world, so picky eaters will have no problem with finding a spot. As for us, we went for some pub grub and had some drinks while playing some foosball, jenga and other games.

That cute look of concentration!

That was one huge margarita. 🍹

I feel like there is so much more to see in this beautiful little country (yes, I Googled and it is a separate country) and we will definitely be coming back for more some time in the future.

February 2017 | Hong Kong + Macau February is our month and on the 17th day, we celebrate another year of being together. Because of our geographical conditions, our anniversary always requires a little bit of extra planning.

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We're back!

Hi friends! The blog just got a makeover. Check it out and tell me what you think! ✨

After the longest hiatus there is (or maybe not), the blog is finally back and kicking. This feels like one of those New Year’s Resolution type things wherein you try to revisit forgotten hobbies and interests. But since it’s already March, we’ll just say this revival was brought about by the promise of Spring and the end of Winter. Looking at the blog contents I don’t think there’s been an entry…

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“Aphrodite,” I pleaded to the moon drenched night sky “Tell me; if love is meant to heal, then why does it destroy those who choose it?” From somewhere beyond the clouds, I heard the Goddess laugh. And I knew.

Nikita Gill, Night Songs To Aphrodite  (via meanwhilepoetry)

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