Crevado

Hi guys, I've decided to create and shift my time managing a simpler portfolio (rather than this blog). Check it out here.

As much as I've loved sharing my adventures here on blogspot, it's time for me to turn a new leaf.

Keep venturin'!

Bucket List | Baguio City, Philippines

Photo Source: The Travelling Dork

Because Strawberries aren't forever, make no more excuses. Pack up your bag and go!

Bucket List | Ilocos Norte, Philippines

... also known as the entry of things to do and the must see places in the northwestern-most province of Luzon and the Philippines.

If you're anything like me who looks for a little bit of everything in a given place, you'll be as much excited as I am to visit this lovely province in the northwestern-most part of the Philippines. From great food to great sights and stories; to being taken back to old worlds or seeing modern engineering marvels; getting pampered in a 5-star resort or staying in a remote white sand island beach under palm trees or getting lost in nature trails and san dunes; and, admiring nature's masterpieces formed through time. Oh, and the activities! I pray to god for waves to surf, and the time to surf sand as well. I'm getting so overwhelmed by all the possibilities to see and do.. not to say I'll be hitting all these places in one trip, but just the prospect of hitting any of these makes me all the more excited for what will be an awesome trip up north.

Philippines | Pintô Art Museum & Cafe, Antipolo City

Philippines | Batad, Ifugao

Serene, remote, peaceful, and above all beautiful. 

Philippines | Banaue, Ifugao

riding atop a Philippine jeepney in Banaue

By The Gods of All Things Ramen

I'm not much of a ramen lover (of noodles, actually), but boy did I love my ramen at Ramen Yushoken. 

Kazuo Yamagishi is agreed to be and known by most as the 'Ramen God' in Japan. I've actually never known anything on him until I heard about the newly-opened restaurant in Alabang. The ramen here is as authentic as is should be since everything, including their noodles, is made from scratch and is prepared strictly following Yamagishi's own techniques and recipes. 

The head chef, I believe, is one of the Ramen Chef Champions. It could even be Tashiro, the anointed son of the 80+ year old Ramen God. I'm not entirely sure, but regardless of who the chef is, this place has definitely given the Metro's south another reason to be visited. 

Photo: Kazuo Yamagishi, the Ramen God

from Ramen Yushoken via Facebook

Color Manila Run: Kicking off 2013 with Fitness, Happiness and (a lot of) Colour!

Color Manila Run, a new concept run to craze the Metro, was one heck of a fun run. Hundreds, or maybe a thousand runners of all ages went through clouds of edible pink, blue, yellow, purple and green colours in waves of 3-5-10 kilometer routes this morning at the Fort. I went along with friends and had the most fun so far this year. I really cannot stress the word 'fun' enough because it was more of that than a workout really, at least for my friends and I who just walked (strolled and skipped) the whole stretch. 

I first learned about the concept last year when I stumbled upon this video of The Color Run (TM) on Youtube. I got so envious because it was on the other side of the Pacific! I wanted to join one so bad, and finally became so ecstatic when I found out about the first ever Color Manila Run independently organized by Proactive and KangaROOS. Here's the video that first got me envious and excited:

           

To be fair to the Color Manila Run, here's their awesome video, too:

          

     
It was definitely an awesome way to kick-off 2013. To share with you more of what happened, here are more photos:

The Most Basic and Complete Packing List For All Regular Travels

...so you'll never leave anything important behind!

Philippines | Climbing Taal Volcano, Batangas

Sanne, on top of the world and overlooking the Taal Volcano (that small cone on the left) from Tagaytay

Philippines | Bacolod City, Negros Occidental

Philippines | Pahiyas Festival in Lucban, Quezon

Held annually on May 15 with streets of consecutive houses in competition for the best decorated with kiping (edible ground rice wafers), fuits, vegetables and other agricultural products to honor the patron saint of farmers, St. Isidore the Labourer. Residents welcome all visitios, local and foreign, to bask in the colourful houses, cheap and delicious local delicacies like longganisa (indigenous sausages) and pancit habhab (noodles served on babana leaves), festival parades and nearby sights and trails.

Philippines | Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, Taguig City

Philippines | Oslob, Cebu

Philippines | San Juan Beach, La Union

Hosting

New friends I met working in India recently visited me back home!

Tom from Taiwan was assigned in the same project I was for Genesis (HIV/AIDS awareness). Tina and Gerry from China, on the other hand, worked on different projects. However, we all lived in the same house in Begumpet, Hyderabad. Tom brought along Eason who, same as he, is a Mechanical Engineering student in Taiwan.

They all arrived the weekend of January 21, and left just yesterday, January 30.

It was great fun being host to them. It was also very tiring. We got to see a lot around Manila, as well as places out-of-town like Tagaytay, Pagsanjan and Boracay. Some, new sights even for me. I'll write about our awesome adventures some other time. In the meantime, I would just like to share something Eason wrote me as soon as he got back to his home in Taiwan. Mind you, we had only met here through Tom - It makes his message even sweeter (in a platonic way, of course). I was just glad he enjoyed his stay here very much.

India | Srisailam, Andhra Pradesh

Nepal | The Last Resort: Free Falling Over the Bhote Koshi - Twice!

I had 2 short weeks to spare in between work projects in India, so I decided to join my friends in traveling to Nepal and to go bungee jumping (among other things).

A few nights before our travel from Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, we met a Nepali girl who was actually born and raised in New York, and who after college went soul-searching and worked in Nepal as an adventure-writer. She told us all about her own experience bungee jumping with her mom who was a lot braver than she was.. made me more and more excited for our short trip. It was just what our group needed to boost our confidence and excitement.

hanging bridge at The Last Resort

Here's an edited video of my own experience, hoping it, too, would inspire you to go and be excited for your next adventure :)

SSS: Week 5

Sarvajanik Shikshonnayan Sansthan (SSS)

A-3/302, Vishal Khand, Gomti Nagar, Lucknow

226 010 (Uttar Pradesh) India

sssngoindia.org

Initial itinerary:

12-16 June, Hardoi

2 batches of meetings with focus groups

We separated the days between 2 batches due to the lack of transportation, and for efficiency. Ideally. The first group - the "white group" /the Europeans - left on the 12th. They were delayed a lot of hours, and I was not really surprised to see them after I woke up midday when they were supposed to leave early morning. While they were gone, we were supposed to work on our reports and presentations for the final week of the project. Instead, the Malaysians, Yi Ni and Khar Khee, left for Jaipur and Agra since they weren't going to have enough time to travel before their flight back in July. America and I, on the other hand, will have more time to spare after the project and so we stayed and went shopping in the Aminabad market that Sunday.

What we didn’t know was that markets are closed on Sundays. Too bad. But still, a few shops were open, and we found some nice fabric and accessories! I bought a beautiful jewellery set for 600 INR (600 PHP). Here it is worn in the wedding we attended on the 17th:

SSS: Week 4

Sarvajanik Shikshonnayan Sansthan (SSS)

A-3/302, Vishal Khand, Gomti Nagar, Lucknow

226 010 (Uttar Pradesh) India

sssngoindia.org

Initial itinerary:

7-11 June, Almora

Working with community and discussing with district authorities

This week was not very productive. We were supposed to be in Almora doing further research but some problem with our accommodations made us travel back to our office in Lucknow. Instead of in the hostel where we stayed in the first week, we're living in our office! Good for us girls since we were placed in an A/C bedroom above it..:) love. it! The boys, however,  got it bad sleeping on the floor of Dr. Trivedi's windowless office, and under a ceiling fan.

Another plus for us (girls at least) is that we finally have unlimited access to the world wide web!  Time to check our accounts, mail, etc. update our blogs and chat and skype with our friends and family we miss from home.

Due to the change of schedule, us AIESEC interns used the first 2 days to meet, discuss and make reports of our individual research collected from the past three weeks. By Wednesday, we had sent it to KC. We met to further discuss it with them, and plan for the remaining 20 days of the project.