Cebu and Palawan :D

Well the longest vacation for the year was in Cebu and 5 days trip to Palawan.

I went to Cebu for my brother's university graduation :)  At last, he will be able to sustain himself and create some of his own adventures!

After some few days in Cebu, I went to Palawan with some of my closest friends from my university - Ate Mars and Jayka.

I was happy when I was in Cebu and I was amazed at how beautiful Palawan is.  The rock formations at El Nido were grand comparable beauty to that of Phuket.  Palawan is more pristine though :)

After Palawan, I spent some few days in Cebu and enjoyed the company of my family and friends.  Never mind the finances involved as the experience was priceless :D

This is quite long overdue same as other travel blog entries I had.  I am actually not sure of how to go through already about this blog.  At some point it felt boring, honestly... .  At some point I missed writing some personal accounts, great or utterly lame.   Maybe because of a lot of things that's going on inside my head right now, that I lost track of some of the things I want to do.  Anyway, this blog is not exclusive of the travels I made but rather those experiences I enjoyed and had managed to put a smile on my face ...

And for that, three weeks ago, I had my first dragon boat experience.  It was super fun and but then I had to be a bit disabled from the body aches I got :)  I was also following the Spartacus series - really gory which makes me sick but after a while I got used to all the blood and spilling organs.  I met old friends from Cebu here in Singapore.  Also visited my friend's house for some catching up - we played mah jong! lols :P

This week would have been another vacation for me.  I was booked to go to South Korea to visit Seoul, Jeju and Sorak mountain but then I had to cancel for some personal reasons - Mamul and Epoy enjoy your trip!

Lastly, I am actually in a dilemma of quitting or not from my job. Or maybe going back to the Philippines :(  Or going for an MBA?  This has bothered me for quite sometime already.  All I am asking for is God's guidance and blessing or wisdom... .  But yeah, I still have lots of financial obligations so, that will be a major factor in this decision which I'll be making. 

According to Francois Bacon, "A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds." Well the question right now, if I am that man he points out if not then I will first have to strive harder to be that wise folk :))  Just kidding!

I think I just need to stop over thinking and just believe in the Almighty that things will come at the right time and place.

Have a happy Saturday guys!

Valentine's day is ordinary

I did not celebrate the heart's day as they call it but then I can also say I did. Well, for another celebration, that is. Yes, I had a very bellytiful lunch with Mamul :) She told me that it was her gift for my birthday. I was so touched to be honest. She booked a buffet lunch at Mandarin Orchard.

Thanks Mamul for treating me in advance for my birthday! And because of that, I'll pray very hard for the approval of your vacation leave for South Korea :P

Here are the food we shared. And by the way, she's a very private person so I cannot show you her pic :D





She knows I like Japanese food ;) Arigat0 ....

Long over due

The Europe vacation that I had was quite too long to have come up in this site. Imagine I wrote it for what, 3 months ? I guess I was just busy doing a lot of things other than blogging.

After my Europe vacation, I went to Cebu with some of my friends to attend a wedding. I also went with my office mates/friends to Jakarta to attend another wedding. Will I be attending weddings my entire life ? I'll never know :( The reason I love attending weddings is that, aside witnessing two happy people sharing their future together, I get to shop and buy clothes for myself :)) I'm not sure if it's the later which has more weight though - ooops just kidding.

Anyway, after all the parties I had attended to, I booked a last minute flight to Cebu. I guess with all the busy life I had here in Singapore, I just missed my family and our dog :D

Yeah, I brought a lot of chocolates....

When I arrived in Cebu, I dined with my family in some fancy restaurants. Actually, we have never been to these types of places before because money was not that easy to come by. Thank God I have a decent paying job now and I get to bring my family to nicer and fancier places in Cebu. I hope we can go to a nice vacation outside the country. But seriously, I still love my dad's bam-i (noodle cooked the Visayan way and prepared during special occasions). Though my dad travels a lot in nearby islands in the Philippines, but mostly it's about family stuff and we don't usually go with him. So yeah, I'd like to bring them somewhere out of the country ....

I also had a great time meeting my friends and spending some catching up with them. It's fun to see familiar faces whom you have shared some of your life's wonderful experiences. And so I thought I had to plan for my next vacation....

One big event was the Sinulog in Cebu but I had a limited vacation which was just a week and so I left my natal land without experiencing the grandest festival in whole Philippines. Anyway, I am hoping not to miss the next year's celebration....

After a week of celebrating life the way I felt and wanted celebrating it, here I am poking my Vaio over spilled thoughts and not knowing what to write next. It's actually nearing 1AM and I better have a good sleep for I shall conquer another day :D Ciao!!!

Oh happy valentines day to God, my family and friends :)

Schengen visa, how to get one ?

Schengen visa is your ultimate ticket to the EU member countries. But how to get one? What are the hassles and yeah how to be prepared?

In Singapore where I am currently based, all EU member countries has their embassies. For us, we got our luck at the Spanish embassy. Well, to be honest, we had a bad luck at the Italian as well as the German embassies. It felt that they were not just compatible with what we had planned for. Simply put that our initial plan was to stay the longest at Germany but then our point of entry was Spain. At first we filed at the Italian embassy but then the officer noted that technically we are staying longer in Germany because of the number of nights aka sleeps we will be making. So our first try was a bust. Then we applied at the German embassy and it proved useless as the officer told us that we should apply at the first point of entry which was Spain and for that we were not served - poop busted again. We actually called up the Spanish embassy and made clear that our first of entry is Spain but then we will be staying longer in Germany so where do we have to apply? And the Spanish officer over the phone told us that it has to be Germany. But then we had no choice right? We have been there (hello German embassy) and we got a refusal from our application simply because of the first country of entry. Anyway, we have booked everything and it's frustrating on our part to back out. What we did was we rescheduled our hotel and train bookings and made Spain our still first point of entry and now the country where we will be staying long. Good thing we we were rather early filing for the visa because the approval or rejection will take 3-4 weeks if you are from the countries like the Philippines and Thailand. We went to the Spanish embassy and we were able to submit our application and we have to wait for 3-4 weeks to get our visa.

For those who are interested to know the requirements, here are the list:
1.) Schengen visa application form which you can download from the embassy's website or alternately here : http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/IMG/pdf/visagb.pdf
2.) Photo attached to the application form
3.) Passport - original and photocopy.
4.) Singapore Identification (for foreign professional/permanent resident)
5.) Flight reservation or booking which has to be roundtrip.
6.) Medical insurance worth 60K Euro
7.) Employment certificate which states the status, salary, position etc. your HR should know what to write.
8.) Financial guarantee - at least two bank accounts which showed transactions for the last three months
9.) Hotel reservation from all the countries which you will be visiting

That's it, if you have some clarification or specific inquiries then you are free to call the respective embassies :)

As a final advise, try to file a month earlier so you will have more time to prepare and they very key is proper planning. Take note that the French embassy has this website where you can reserve for an appointment and usually it's almost always filled all the time.

Good luck to would be travelers to Europe ;)

In Rome, our last day in Europe

The next day was our last day in Europe. Not a bit on a rush since there was one last planned excursion for the day. We actually woke up a bit late and finished up around 9AM because usually, we start our day at around 7 in the morning.



Well, we were planning to go to the Vatican museum. We were going to see all of Vatican's glorious masterpieces. We commuted through train still and arrived at the station a bit drenched of Rome's summer. Don't be mistaken, the sun was not that scorching.... Well we arrived at the queuing area and there was a huge crowd. The servicing at the queue is quite fast so we went inside so unharmed and less sweat.



Our main target was the Sistine Chapel and so we had to walk a mile long I guess. It was a pleasure walk though seeing the different paintings, sculptures and some iconic epitaph of the Romans. The chapel was located at the far end and so we needed to walk a bit faster.

We arrived at the chapel and it was hugely packed. And seriously, no picture taking, and silence must be observed. Well, as human as we are, there are those who are so undisciplined and took pictures and the guards had to apprehend them. Since the place is crowded, you will hear from time to time some hushes and the guards will make it worse by shouting, "silence please". But yeah, the alfresco was really amazing. Imagine all the formidable forces of Italian renaissance joining forces with Michaelangelo. I would say Michaelangelo's "The Last Judgement" is really amazing. Sigh again, we were not allowed to take pictures. Well, consider this that camera flashes will destroy the paintings in due time so yeah we have to respect their rules.



After the tour at the chapel we were heading out. There will still many displays at the exit hallway. I was using my iphone most of the time because it was really handy. It was another long walk actually and we had to take a good pace because it was already lunch time.

We dined out at a nearby restaurant and I had tortellinis and some of my friends had other kinds of pastas. It was a huge meal as I have said they've got really huge servings.



After satisfying lunch, we headed back to our hostel, packed up, took the train going to the airport and viola, we were taking the Qatar Airways' 747 plane bound for Doha then to Singapore.

And that my friend was the most expensive travel I had(good luck to my savings {cough2x}) . Yet, it was the most amazing vacation I took and words and even photos are still not enough to describe the whole journey. I am planning to actually visit other countries in Europe and hopefully I win the lottery!!!

Ooops, some of the photos were in my external hard drive and I left it in Cebu when I had my new year vacation :(