I have been hearing a lot about this place from my friends who already had the chance to visit South Korea. The same stories I heard them kept on saying was that this was where they shot the Korean TV show - Winter Sonata. I was my first time to visit South Korea and I thought it might be worth it to go there.
With my usual practice before I go on vacation, I always spend some time researching on how to go the places I plan to visit and the details such as transportation to ride, their costs, and all the other things that comes with it. And this one was no exception. The options for transportation in Seoul were the train/subway, bus, or taxi. The taxi was scrapped out from our options because it proved to be costly. The cost for the bus was okay, but in the end we chose to ride the subway because it was the easiest to understand.
The Baluarte is also known the zoo owned by Chavit Singson. This zoo sits on top of a 80-hectare land on top of hills and mountains. There are still on-going construction around the different areas but what it currently has is already magnificent. It is just a 10-minute drive from Vigan City.
When I heard that Baluarte was one of the places we were going to visit in our tour, I thought it was some kind of a forest with a lot of trees. But obviously I didn't have any idea. When we arrived at the place, I was surprised to see a lot of animals. It was a zoo! A zoo that was way too better than that of Manila Zoo. The animals they showcased were ones that you will not find anywhere else in the Philippines. And they sure were fed and cared properly. Can't help to compare with Manila Zoo, but Baluarte is sure funded very well for its maintenance and well being.
With the few and countable destinations I have visited in the Philippines, next came Ilocos. In our travel from Laoag to Pagudpod, we rented a 4x4 SUV that drove us to different tourist spots. The rent costed 3,500 pesos which was pretty affordable since that was already for the 7 of us. Our first option was to ride the tricycle worth 2,400 pesos. Good thing we found a second option because the whole trip from Laoag to Pagudpod lasted for more than 6 hours and there were a lot of rough roads. One of the destinations we visited was the Kapurpurawan Rock Formation.
Christmas may be over, but this is still worth sharing...
It started in the Christmas of 2010, when restaurants suddenly sprouted one by one in Ayala Triangle Gardens. These developments has caused accumulation of more and more people visiting the area. To add more complement to the fun, the Ayala Group has put up Christmas lights and decors around the trees to light up the place. People visiting the place greatly increases during the Christmas season to witness the light and sound show that they present.
Here are some trivia on lighthouses...
What is the tallest lighthouse in the U.S.A.? Cape Hatteras (191 feet)
What is the oldest U.S. lighthouse in service? Sandy Hook in New Jersey
What is the most expensive lighthouse? St. George Reef in California
Enough of the trivia... Let us now focus on the lighthouses that can be found in our homeland - the Philippines!
The Philippines has its own collection of lighthouses that were built since the 19th century. You too may discover them and see them for yourselves.
There’s always a first time for everything. My first trip, all by my lonesome self, is to Phuket, Thailand were my cousin was working before. Being a lover of crime shows, I’m always paranoid about talking to strangers and being in shady situations but when my cousin failed to pick me up at the airport, I had to ride a cab...alone. It was a scary ride as it was already 11 in the evening and Patong Beach is quite far from the airport. Luckily, the 700 baht-ride safely delivered me to my cousin who was waiting at the Jungceylon Mall.
It's every kid's dream to go to Universal Studios and feel what it's like to have their favorite cartoon characters come to life. But nowadays, even adults would want to reminisce their childhood days, which leads us to our visit in Singapore Universal Studios.
The opening time of Universal Studios is 10:00am, but we arrived there at 9:30am to have time to take some pictures in the area. We didn't buy tickets anymore because our friend already got us tickets from the Cebu Pacific office in Singapore at a cheaper price. The normal rate is SGD 66.00, but our friend got it for only SGD 63.00.
While spending the time outside, we wanted to have a picture with the famous Universal Studios Globe, but unfortunately at that time, it was being repaired, so we just had it on the tarpoline version of it.
It was year 2008 when I last visited Singapore before this 2011. During that time Marina Bay Sands was just in the mid of cimpletion, but I already saw 3 buildings being constructed. I never got close to it, and only saw it from a far on my way to the airport.
Two years later, there it is. Marina Bay Sands was completed.
In our latest trip, we visited Marina Bay twice. The first was during the night and the second one was in the afternoon. The pictures taken during the night didn't look so clear, so we wanted to get another shot at it.
While walking in the paths outside the Marina Bay Sands, you will see a wonderful view of the Esplanade on the other side of the waters. But as we walked further to the Marina Bay Art & Science Museum, we glazed upon the famous and first-ever "Double Helix Bridge" in the world.
When we were still in the Philippines planning for the places we will visit, I did see this in the internet. I wanted to include this in our itinerary but thought that we won't have time anymore considering already a full schedule. I didn't gave time to research on the double helix bridge anymore. Good thing that I was able to read about this. If not, we might not know it was already the famous bridge even if it was in front of us.
We're twenty-something Filipino-Chinese I.T. specialists from Manila. When we're not busy being contributing members of society, we share a passion for traveling and discovering new flavors and places to eat.
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