Month: September 2012

Korea Day 2: Changdeokgung, National Museum & Korean BBQ

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When we went on our City Tour yesterday, we caught glimpses of four of Seoul’s “Five Grand Palaces”: Deoksugung, Changgyunggung, Changdeokgung and Gyeongbukgung. While it would’ve been cool to be able to say that we went to all of them, it just wasn’t practical given the limited time that we had. In the end, we decided on visiting Changdeokgung–according to our City Tour Bus guide, it’s the most well preserved palace of the Joseon dynasty and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We started the day off with breakfast at Cafe Nescafe, mainly because that was the nearest place to the palace that we could see. It wasn’t full at all; in fact, it was just us and another family who–surprise–turned out to be Filipinos as well. No matter where I go, I get a kick out of randomly hearing people speaking in my native Filipino tongue. From there, we walked to the admissions booth for the palace and purchased our tickets. We got the one for both the Palace and the Secret Garden for a …

Butlers Chocolate–such sweet seduction!

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I’m gonna go way off track, but I just can’t help it– I’m enchanted by the Irish. The Irish chocolate brand, “Butlers”, that is. I remember my dad coming home from the grocery one night and him showing me that box of Butlers Hot Chocolate Drink. He told me, “Here’s a new chocolate drink that you can try”. Not really being a hot chocolate fan, I just said okay and shrugged it off.

Just Coz I Like Beautiful Things

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Yesterday, I accompanied my sister on a last-minute mall run before she left for Singapore.  We were browsing around BAYO, a local boutique, and I was telling my sister that I kept seeing tops that I liked, but that I won’t shop for anything aside from exercise clothes since I need to save up for Scotland. Yes, I am serious about going! Minutes after saying that, I came across a display of jewelry. Curious cat that I am, I came closer…and found this necklace. I could’ve stopped with just admiring it by touch, but no, I HAD to try it on. And once I did, there went my conviction. I just fell in love with its design and craftsmanship (BTW, I wore it the wrong side up in this photo, LOL). Do you know what I mean when I say that it’s so me? Well, it is. My sister knew that I was a goner then and urged me to buy it. That was all the push I needed to whip out my much-abused credit card …

Happy Lemon

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Gosh, I’ve missed how many days of coffee posting?! To make this post extra special, here’s a pretty cool take on coffee (in my opinion, anyway)–Happy Lemon‘s Iced OREO Cookies & Cream and Coffee. It’s a Chinese chain that opened in Manila around two years ago, and has gained popularity for its unique array of drinks. Another one of my favorites is their Cocoa with Rock Salt & Cheese, but that’s for another day. In terms of caffeine content, the Oreo & Coffee doesn’t pack much of a punch. Depending on the preparation, it may end up tasting watery or bland. Luckily, this wasn’t one of those times. I just love the layering of coffee with that cookies and cream concoction–it’s fuel and dessert in one! Talk about a happy beverage, indeed!

Korea Day 1: City tour, Insadong, N Seoul Tower & Myeongdong

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In my former line of work, we didn’t really have holidays. People were most likely to come to our showroom during weekends and holidays, so we were expected to be there as well–even on Labor Day, I might add. The only exceptions to the rule were the Holy Week (from Holy Thursday ’til Easter Sunday) and the Christmas shutdown. So you can imagine how much we wanted to maximize the said vacations. For this year’s Holy Week, Kuya (my older brother), Ate (older sister) and I headed over to South Korea for some much-needed downtime. We left Manila early Thursday morning (and I mean 1:15 AM early) so that we’d have a full day to get our bearings.