My Pink Shoelace

It has been quite sometime since I had taken a vacation and I think I need to go on one. I searched Google for vacation packages and landed on Branson Missouri vacation packages. There were tons of packages too choose from but the best they have to offer is the family vacation package which is very affordable. The Magical Package at $317 includes a 2 Night Deluxe Lodging for 2 adults and 1 child. Plus tickets to Kirby VanBurch and Hamner Barber Variety Show.

Yesterday I spent the whole day wandering around the streets of Cebu joining in the throng of people enjoying the parade. Lucky for me the parade passes by the road near my home and not too far from where I live I saw a float carrying anime cosplayers and they looked really cool. Take a look below:

As my friends and I went further along we found this kid in the sideline eating tempura dressed up as Naruto and we went ahead and had our photos taken with him. He was really cute though it looked like all the fuss we made about how cute he was made him all shy. It made me wonder if there are other anime cosplayers out there.

Isn’t he just adorable or what? We were just glad he was so willing to pose with us.

Kokopelli is a fetility deity shown as a humpbacked flute player and is venerated by some Native American cultures in the Southwestern United States. Kokopelli presides over both childbirth and agriculture.

The image of Kokopelli is very famous and can be seen in almost every type of crafts, from vases to necklaces. It is also a famous design in tattoos and I got one on my right wrist.

Let’s take a look below:

Kokopelli On My Right Wrist

Kokopelli On My Right Wrist

What do you think?

- Chillin @ Starbucks -

I took this prolly on my third day in Singapore; somewhere near Sunshine Plaza, ground floor of the Kaplan Building. I was waiting for KKnM to open; by the time I got to Sunshine Plaza it was close to 12 noon and I realized KKnM doesn’t open till 1:30 PM. With nothing to do … I saw my favorite coffee shop back home and decided to take a sip as I watch the “world go by”. I ordered what I always order back home, Signature Hot Chocolate – Venti [see? am an addict lol] and waited … watched and ponder on things I’ve never had time to think about.

Somethings just don’t change wherever I go, seeing Starbucks is like coming home after a stressful day …

So I’ve made peace with the fact that I have left behind friends at work and that no amount of crying would do me any good. Several people left and they didn’t make as much fuss as I did so I should be getting along too and I think am heading towards the right direction. The main reason I left so suddenly was this Singapore trip, planned for months and applied for months only to have not approved. It’s uhmmm crazy I think.

I arrived in Singapore on the Saturday close to midnight and given that this will be my fourth time visiting the country I’m kinda familiar with the airport and the what not. Passed through immigration well and good, saw my aunt by the exit looking rather bored and hopped on the cab to take us to where were staying. Knowing her and her fascination for all things elegant and in order … am counting on sleeping in yet another 5 star hotel.

It has been a long day … and am rather tiiiiirrreeed. Gotta get some sleep! Will blog again later … see yah folks.

Te Kate and I had a short coaching session which ended with us talking about the next possible team building escapade. She mentioned that Diva actually suggested going on an island picnic via Island Banca Cruises. It’s travel company based in Punta Engano offering a whole of services such as fish feeding, scuba diving, island hopping, kayaking as well as snorkeling and dolphin watching.  We checked their website out and thought we’d go for Lechon Bbq picnic but since we couldn’t get any price on the website so she filled out the form to get a quote.

I persuaded her to select after the 15th of May, at least by then we’d have enough money as it’s after payday and hopefully I’d be able to join them this time but I am not that optimistic. If I cannot join this team building I hope I would be able to take one of the banca cruises with friends some other time. I saw this picture on the website and it’s really enticing and I sure hope I’d be able to capture a somehow similar picture with me in it … lol.

Isn’t this just perfect??!! Infinity pool and blue as far as the eyes can see. I got this while searching for images of Bali and I want to go to Bali with friends next year hopefully on March or April at least we still have a year or so to save up for this vacation grande. I have suggested this trip over to a couple of friends at work and they seem warm to the idea, am crossing my fingers that this will push through.

Searching for beautiful and relaxing places on the net I run across this image of a Chateau Lake in Branson MO, take a look below

Isn’t this place scenic of what? Found it via google images and it sure is fine now anyone can experience this piece of heaven by obtaining one of those Branson tickets available via several channels or resellers online. Book in advance to get a good deal.

I was sick last 22 and on the 23rd, so much for a happy birthday but all’s well now so here’s a few tidbits. On the 24th Bena, Diva and I met up for lunch after my appointment with the quack. I decided that since we’re all food people we’d better go for eat all you can and we did at Family Choice. There was not that many people [must be coz of the rain] but the food was good and so was the company. It was fun!

- moi, or shall I say yours truly -

- Diva -

- Bena of bena-yot.com -

- Bena, Diva and Moi -

It was a good choice to go for eat all you can, I had two rounds lol but the bayot had 3! Waaaaaaaa lol. Till next time

Not me that is … am just in one of my many wishful thinking mood lol. But seriously wouldn’t you wanna spend a couple of days maybe weeks there? I know I’d love too especially during holidays when several hotels in orlando are doing major slash on their rates. Take for instance that hotel on the pic, it’s inside Disney itself and is less than a hundred dollars per night, isn’t that a bargain or what??!!!

via: skylinkholidays

She asked me where or what I want this year for my birthday and I said … Egypt without any hesitation. I wanna go there and hopefully she’ll say yes. Crossing my fingers …

Out of nowhere he texted asking if I wanna go to Bora on September. That is so typical of him … we’ve had a conversation about going to Bora in passing couple of years back but they never materialize. Now he’s asking again which reminds me that Lil Gurl asked me to go to Bora with her and the other girls from work on October during sem break. So which is which?

Nah … its too early to make a choice and to set my hopes up. Filing for leave is a toughie for me and going with Lil Gurl and the others would make it all the more difficult. Imagine 5 agents filing for leave on the same dates … getting that approved would need some sort of divine intervention and if I go this September … am not at all sure I wanna see him just yet.

This is a mock-up collage of some of our pics in Bantayan last February 2007. I was just scouring through files scattered all over my hard drives both internal and external and I found this.  Seems like yesterday but really it was 2 years ago.  And a lot of stuff has happened since then and I’ve been to several places all too many places it’s now hard to keep track.

But Bantayan is great, the beach, the white sand and the tranquility something you rarely find in the city. Guess I need another alone time with nothing but the smell of the waves and a good book.

This was taken in Baguio last April at Camp John Hay … they have a very beautiful garden with a wide assortment of pretty flowers. This bunch reminds me of two persons who meant a lot to me. First is Lovely, one of my besties and the sister am never blessed to have and second is Te Kate … a friend from work. Funny how we only got closer when mom died and Vic chose her to send his condolences to me. Like Lovely she has accepted the fact that am a brat, childish most of the times and very fickle-minded. Like Mitchy she’s kinda like my big sister on the floor, the kind who never refused to give you 50 bucks when you ask for one coz your hungry and you need to dash to the pantry and grab something to eat. So yeah … am surrounded by good and affectionate people.

Scouring through voluminous pictures scattered all over my hard disk drives and memory cards when I ran into this one. There are several of them actually, flowers in the garden of the most prestigious hotel in Baguio taken last time I was there sometime in April of this year. The garden was meticulously designed with several colorful flowers in pink, yellow and purple.

MJ used to say and she still does say it out loud that I am strict in person. Well, I don’t talk to strangers (mom’s golden rule), I avoid eye contact which is an opening for conversation with strangers, my eyebrows always seem to meet at the middle and most often than not I hide behind my earphones to avoid people from talking to me directly. Yeah yeah yeah … that’s me. Pretty uptight huh?

Now the last time I was there with Doi, we didn’t meet anyone not that there weren’t any worth meeting but because Doi and I are pretty much tight lipped. But this year with MJ with me it was amazing, being friendly sure brings quite a lot of fun. Talk and talk about everything under the sun.

Thanks to MJ I befriended Wuteim (an Israeli), Sala (an Egyptian who now lives in Denmark) and the pretty Marietta (from England but she’s Polish). Guess coz we’re girls we were pretty much close to Marietta what with dinner and drinks as well as breakfast together either at her place or at ours. It was pretty cool.

Here are some of the photos taken.

** upon arrival **

** MJ and I **

** Starbucks in Khao San Road **

** Moi, MJ and Marietta **

** A very good dessert at May Kadees **

The rest of the photos are here – Bangkok : May 2009 | Dinner/Meeting New Friends.

Do check them out.

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The first thing we did was in the morning after our arrival was sign up for the River Cruise (I believe this is a must do for every first timers in Bangkok) which takes you around the Chao Phraya River which is the biggest river in Thailand (I think, I’ll confirm that with wiki) while serving dinner on board and getting entertained by Thai dancers performing some of their classic dances. It was nice and the food has not changed since I last went there.

** inside the van on our way to the River Cruise Hotel **

** the Chao Phraya River **

** inside the River Cruise Hotel **

** the boat **

** Moi and a not so yummy carbonara **

** my partner in crime : MJ **

** the view **

** taking a pose before hopping in **

There are several more shots found in the album Bangkok : May 2009 | River Cruise. Do take a look.

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We find ourselves amongst other tourist on the 2nd day of our arrival, we were all headed to the ancient city of Ayutthaya, the former capital of Thailand.  The old city was packed with ruins of temples, castles and budhha’s. Our tour guide gave us a brief history of what each site used to be and how it came to its downfall. Pretty interesting if you ask me. Here are some photos taken from that day though don’t be surprised if most of the photos are of the temples and the budhha’s not much on us.

** first stop **

** statue of a golden lady **

** one of the many buddhas **

** entrance to the prayer room **

** pose before climbing all the way up **

** pose from the top **

** cooling down from all the walking **

More of the photos can be found here: Bangkok : May 2009 | Ayutthaya Day Tour.

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The day after we arrived, we decided to take on the River Cruise on the Chao Phraya River and have dinner while being entertained by Thai dancers. Since the cruise begins at around 7PM we had the whole day all to ourselves. Had breakfast at my favorite restaurant a few blocks away from where we stayed and went to see the malls around town. Roamed around MBK and Siam Paragon.

** Siam Paragon **

** portrait of the king and queen**

**on board the tuk-tuk **

** inside MBK **

More photos here: Bangkok: May 2009 | Around Town

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Am such a slowpoke when it comes to uploading photos from my travels that Dang and Julie kept on bugging me to post the photos from our Baguio escapade. Waaaaaaaaaaa its just that I don’t seem to have any time!!!! Now MJ was very religious in uploading our photos from Bangkok in Facebook and she has arranged them in separate albums. So in this entry, I’ll post the photos she placed on the album called “To and Fro”.

** waiting at gate # 4 **

** waiting for our flight**

** on board the plane **

** inside the plane **

** Suvarnabhumi airport **

**waiting for our flight back home**

**me and my iPod**

Do visit the album here: Bangkok : May 2009 | To and Fro

It was fun that we both didn’t want the vacation to end and most certainly we didn’t wanna come back, to work and to the worries we left behind at home. *sigh* Oh well … working on the next travel escapade

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Originally the plan was for us to visit Bangkok and Cambodia but due to the limited number of days that we had, we decided to explore Bangkok and set Cambodia aside for the next adventure. It’s my second time visiting Bangkok, the first being last year with Doi of doispeaks.com. We stayed in the same hotel Doi and I stayed last year (familiarity reasons) and explored the many temples the city has to offer as well as the shopping district. We also had dinner on the river boat in Chaopraya River (did I spell that right?), took a smaller boat from the Bang Paan canal to Pratunam, took the Chaopraya River Express boat in going to Chinatown. We spent one day in the ancient city of Ayutthaya and upon seeing the structure I wondered if going to Aztec would give me the same feeling.  Here are some of the photos we’ve had. Some are in MJ’s cam, I’ll have to give her my flash drive so I can have a copy.

My Pink Summer Contest is still up and running you guys might wanna join. Just click on the banner below.

Just got home from Bangkok and I dread going back to work and facing reality. *sigh* No presents for anyone this time … somehow some if not most people tend to like me for what I can give and not for who I really am. Bangkok was a swell especially with MJ who was just super friendly, we made friends with 3 tourists like us, Salah from Denmark (he’s Egyptian); Wuteim from Israel (he’s been travelling in the last 7 mos.) and the lovely Marietta from London (she’s Polish). It was a cool bunch they were all so talkative, between food and drinks talk was from whatever topic that sprung to mind. Photos later My Pink Summer Contest is still up and running, click on the banner below to join.

For the second time am going to Bangkok and this time its with MJ, it’s her first out of the country escapade and she’s very excited. Hahaha reminds me of my first time. We’re off to Bangkok first and would go to Cambodia to see the Angkor Wat. So I won’t be able to post new entries from May 17 to 22. Will keep you guys posted.

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I have been terribly over the last couple of weeks. Was in Singapore from April 25 to April 29 and to Baguio from April 29 to May 2, 2009.  My flight arrived at NAIA Terminal 3 at 4:15AM April 29 and I waited for well over 6 hours for Dang to pick up at the airport. We then headed to the domestic terminal to pick up Kathy, Julie and Dio whose flight was delayed due to weather conditions. They arrived safe and sound and the trip to Baguio begins.

My luggage.

Outside the NAIA Airport, while waiting for Dang to pick me up.

From left to right: Julie, Dang, Moi, Kathy. This was in SM Mall of Asia … while buying stuff for our trip.

Moi, inside the van talking to the people at the back.

Inside the condo unit we stayed in.

From left to right: Kathy, Moi and Julie at the grounds of PMA.

Kathy and I at the Botanical Garden

Full house.

It was a blast thanks to Dang and to Marcial and his circle of Friends.

My Pink Summer Contest is still up and running, you guys might wanna join. Click on the banner below for the details.

People at work all said that I have restless feet and that in no time I’d be able to visit all of Asia and then head on to the rest of the world. I have been wanting to go embark on one of the many European cruises available, then if all goes well and when I have enough money I’d embark on a Caribbean cruise. Someday … all in good time.

After Hong Kong we took a ferry and went to Macau. Stayed at Best Western Taipa and went casino hopping.

Finally I was able to try my hands on the slot machine, not much luck though but it was fun. Shopping was amazing in St. Paul’s Ruins. It was jam packed with people native and tourists alike and I had a good time looking through the variety of pastries for pasalubong.

To those I missed out … sowwweeeee … am going back this month anyways.

St. Paul’s Ruins.

As usual some of the photos are in his cam and am hoping he’ll send them via email soon. For the ones I took, check em out here: Macau : March 2009 Album

The trip has been planned months ago and I’ve been looking forward to it since then. We were able to save on the accomodation in HK because we stayed at his cousin’s house. We arrived Tuesday night (March 24, 2009) and went to Ocean Park the following day. Spent the whole day roaming around Ocean Park. The place is huge and packed with tourists like us.

Was amazed to see real live pandas up close and they’re just adorable. Since I can’t take a live one home I settled for the stuffed toy available in the souvenir shops within the park.

Some of the photos were in his cam, am not sure when he’d send them via email. But here’s a few snapshots from my cam.

Take a look here: Hong Kong : March 2009 Album

Arrived home earlier today and am tired. Dead beat. Lol but it was worth it. Had a swell time with those casinos, finally I get to play on the slot machines. Hehehe Still sorting out the presents for friends and the pastries I bought from Macau. Will post pictures soon.

Yep, you got that right. I won’t be able to post any new entries until I get back which is on March 29, 2009. My Pink Shoelace is officially on Hiatus from March 23, 2009 to March 29, 2009 and will be on vacation in Hong Kong and Macau. Will keep you guys posted when I get back. Mwwaahhh… love lots

A friend of mine mentioned once that since she was a complete hopeless romantic (just like me) she dreams of a romantic vacations plotted or shall I say planned as a surprise for her by her beau. A dinner perhaps on Eiffel Tower, or weekend getaway in Venice, that would be superb not to mention freaking expensive. Another gal expressed her desire of having one of those celebrated caribbean weddings she has read about in various travel websites and magazines. When asked what I want? I shrugged and said that I’ve long since heard of variousjamaica all inclusive resortwherein living the dream of river rafting, waterfall climbing or rocking the day away in a hammock under a palm tree doesn’t necessarily mean spending your lifetime’s savings. Next stop: Jamaica.