• USNS Mercy

    As a traveler, I’m very interested with different forms of transportation. I’ve ridden a dromedary in the Sahara Desert, temple-hopped on a horse cart in Bagan, flew over Melbourne on a hot air balloon, crossed Manila Bay on a naval ship to Corregidor. One of the more interesting vessel I’ve been on was the Oberon-class…

  • Adventures of a different kind

    Despite my life of non-travel in the past two months, the universe gave me some things to get excited about. This way to the beach For one thing, the real reason I went to Misibis Bay was finally revealed: we went there for the filming of the second season of the Amazing Race Australia. The…

  • Easy flight search with Skyscanner

    This is an advertorial One of the questions I often get asked is “how do I get to (insert destination here)?” I reply with the route I took, following it up with the other possible routes that they can take. A related question would be “what airline did you take,” and “how much does the…

  • On turning six and new beginnings

    Six years. Imagine that. Who’d ever thought I’d stick long enough to one particular hobby to actually make it to a sixth year anniversary. I think I just may have found my passion. Traveling never gets old. At least for me. My decision to stay put in Manila instead of following the location independent nomads…

  • Project Japan

    A lot of you got scared when I posted my Japan travel expenses. It’s understandable — that’s a lot of money to spend for two weeks in one country. Japan is worth it. It’s very very expensive, yes, but it’s also a really really beautiful country to explore. To those who I haven’t scared off…

  • Maximizing your Japan Rail Pass

    When I published my Japan travel expenses, most of you balked at the price of my train ticket: Php 23,000 or ¥45,100. I also had the same reaction when Ivan told me about the pass, but upon reading up on it and calculating the amount of money I’ll save vis-a-vis buying the tickets separately, I…

  • Travel Expenses: Japan

    Japan is expensive. They do not exaggerate when they say that. It really is. But that’s not to say it’s not a good place to travel in. Japan is incredibly tourist friendly despite the language barrier, and a lot of tourist attractions have free admission (well, mostly temples, shrines and palace grounds). Now that more…

  • Snapshot Japan: KIX once more

    Snapshot Japan: KIX once more, a photo by nina_theevilone on Flickr. I am officially stamped out of Japan. As I exited the Kansai airport train station, I glanced down at my JR Pass. Tomorrow’s the last day of its validity. "I still have one day," I thought. I can still hop on another train or…

  • Snapshot Japan: Takayama and Shirakawa-go

    Snapshot Japan: Takayama and Shirakawa-go, a photo by nina_theevilone on Flickr. I learned about these places from Ivan, who visited in 2011. I knew as soon as I saw his pictures that it should be added to my Japan itinerary. Fast forward to 2012, after a long time in transit (16 hours, 5 trains), I…

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