travel

Seoul, Korea (June, 2014) – Day Two: Gyeongbokgung Palace + Samcheong-dong + Bukchon Hanok Village + N Seoul Tower

May 10, 2015

For this day, we set out focusing to experience more of the traditional and cultural side of Korea. Luckily enough, the hotel we booked was located within the vicinity (Jongno-gu) of the most-visited traditional palace in Korea, i.e. the Gyeongbokgung Palace.

The Gyeongbokgung Palace has existed for over 600 years and also remains as the largest palace in the region. We were lucky enough to visit the palace during the last Wednesday of the month–it turns out that every last Wednesday of the month is free admission day! Continue Reading

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Seoul, Korea (June, 2014) – Day One: Hongdae

October 6, 2014

We decided to cap off the day by having our dinner in a good old Korean BBQ restaurant in Hongdae (which is also an abbreviation for Hongik University). Since it’s in the vicinity of the school, you’ll be sure to see much of the youth around the area. Apart from that, Hongdae has also become the ‘go-to’ place for young street performers who aspire to be discovered and become professional artists of their own specialty one day.

(P.S. Please forgive me for the photo quality, since I was only able to use my mobile phone to snap photos during the part of the trip!) Continue Reading

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Seoul, Korea (June, 2014) – Day One: Cheonggyecheon Stream + Myeongdong

September 7, 2014

After the quiet and peaceful stroll along the traditional streets of Insa-dong, we decided it was time to take a glimpse of what the hustling and bustling city life of Korea was all about. We had Myeong-dong, the famous shopping strip, listed as our next destination in our itinerary. And as we were still adjusting to the lifestyle of Koreans in relation to public transportation, it was another tiring walk for us from our current spot to the nearest subway station. We still had much of the day ahead of us! Continue Reading

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Seoul, Korea (June, 2014) – Day One: Arrival + Insa-dong

July 4, 2014

I noticed that I haven’t posted anything in a while. It has honestly been quite busy the past few weeks since a lot of preparations were going on for our trip to Korea. Now recently back from the trip, I am glad to say that I have a ton of things to share with you guys about it!

(By the way, since this will definitely end up being a photo-heavy post, I’ve decided to break down my blog posts by making separate blog posts regarding highlighting events/locations of the trip per day. I’ll eventually be including links to other related blog entries once I’ve completed all of them.)

Our trip was scheduled for five days and four nights on the month of June, which is within the summer season of Korea. We did our research beforehand, and were pleased to find out that the expected climate was very much in our favor, since it was around 23°C (similar to Tagaytay in the Philippines) during most of the days of our stay, as compared to the typical scorching 29°-31°C here during the summer in the Philippines. It was also indicated that it was mostly going to be cloudy, with barely any intense heat from the sun.

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Singapore-Cambodia Field Trip 2011

December 30, 2011

I realized I haven’t posted about this yet, so I thought I better share this with you now, before I forget the details!

Before anything else, I’d just like to apologize for the quality of the photos, since my zoom lens was under repair during the trip, so I had to make do with a prime lens. I had a lot of difficulty capturing things as is, since I had to move forward and backwards on my own. These photos are unedited as well, so again, I apologize for the quality of some photos. But at any rate, please do enjoy!

Our school gives us the privilege to attend international field trips every year. This year, for our subject called History of Architecture (HOA), we were offered the opportunity to visit the ancient ruins of Cambodia, and the urban areas of Singapore (as a side trip). We only spent one day in Singapore. Since it was just a side trip, we spent it mostly for rushed shopping and opportunities to try their different dishes.

Schoolmates at Changi Airport, Singapore

Our happy bus, with our very friendly tour guide!

It was unfortunately a dark and rainy day, so it was not such a good opportunity for us to take photos of famous buildings while riding the tour bus.

We were given a chance to go along the famous shopping district, Orchard Road, to do some shopping of our own!

Along Orchard Road, there was this famous local ice cream that our professor suggested for us to try. It was this ice cream sandwich that comes in unique flavors, such as green tea, choco mint, red bean, choco chip, etc. Since we were all rushing for shopping during that time, we decided to just eat the ice cream sandwiches for lunch! And I tell you, it was worth it! The ice cream in between the wafers is so solid, that it takes it so long before it actually melts. It made us so much easier for us to eat while walking towards H&M during our limited shopping time! (Sorry if I don’t have a photo of the ice cream!)