Charmed Life of a Mrs Archives | Page 33 of 98

Please Help Save the Philippine Dragon Boat Team

26 June 2011 Ibyang Sanchez 1 Comments Category: Charmed Life of a Mrs, Projects of the Mrs

I seldom blog forwarded messages or solicitations but the letter I’m about to share with you is from one of the members of the Philippine Dragon Boat Team.

Please Help Save the Philippine Dragon Boat Team_32230374_4420879_o

Kurt is one of our good friends from Manila and we had the pleasure of having a coffee date with him during our recent vacation. He shared with us the wonderful journey of the Philippine Dragon Boat Team and their achievements. Hearing Kurt’s stories would make any Filipino proud.

The Philippine Dragon Boat Team has been featured in TV Patrol. As the team is getting ready for another tournament in August in Florida, USA, they are hoping for the Philippine Government’s support. Hence, the email from Kurt below.

Please Help Save the Philippine Dragon Boat Team

Dear President Benigno ‘Nonoy’ Aquino,

I would like to seek help from your office to give immediate attention and guidance to the current situation of the dragon boat sport in this country.

The Filipino dragon boat paddlers under the supervision of the Philippine Dragon Boat Federation or PDBF brought home numerous international awards in this sport, defending WORLD CHAMPIONS and WORLD RECORD HOLDER to name a few, yet the Philippine Sports Commission do not recognize the federation, stripped down all its rights as member of NSA without any clear or justifiable reasons, and created a separate dragon boat national team under the Philippine Canoe Kayak Federation or PCKF.

Current statistics show that PCKF has around 40-50 members only compared to PDBFs more than a thousand members. PDBF is the ONLY RECOGNIZED dragon boat association in the Philippines by the International Dragon Boat Federation or IDBF. From the latest letter of IDBF President to PDBF, only paddlers recognized by or members of PDBF will be allowed to race in local, regional, continental, and world dragon boat competitions for as long as it is governed or supervised by IDBF.

By stripping down the rights of PDBF from the NSA, PCKF will take over all of the existing rights and properties of PDBF including government funding to the WORLD CHAMPIONS, the Philippine Dragon Boat National Team.

And at the end of this month, PCKF will get ALL the dragon boats parked at Manila Bay and will make PDBF dragon boat paddlers unable to train for the upcoming competitions this September in Florida-USA for the World Championships and SAVA Sprints Singapore wherein FILIPINOS ARE THE DEFENDING CHAMPIONS.

As a paddler, a public relations practitioner, and as a Filipino, I am asking for your utmost consideration to look at the current situation of the sport where we excel, and help save Philippine dragon boat from doom.

I hope that you can lend the federation your liberal ear to discuss this important matter with you and help our athletes defend their WORLD TITLE.

Respectfully yours,

Kurt Urbanozo

Member, Philippine Dragon Boat Federation

My Dear Friends, Blogmates, Tweetmates & Plurkmates,

Please help support this cause by sharing Kurt’s email via your blog/s, twitter, facebook or plurk pages. If you would like to link this blog entry up, please feel free to do so. The Philippine Dragon Boat Team hopes that thru the power of the internet, their voices will be heard and that the support due them will be given by the government.

Thank you very much,

Ibyang

In The Streets of Seoul: Hongdae

13 June 2011 Ibyang Sanchez 6 Comments Category: Charmed Life of a Mrs, Cherished Memories, I Love Seoul, Photography, Travel

My Husband and I concocted our own itinerary for Seoul. All we wanted was to roam the streets and have a taste of life in Seoul, so we didn’t sign up for any guided tour. Plus, we also wanted to own our time and have moments for rest. We didn’t aim to see “everything”–that was impossible for just four days of staying there. We made an itinerary (a big thanks to the Husband’s research) but we prepared ourselves to dodge some of it incase we get tired or wanted to do something else.

Our itinerary was based on some of the Koreanovelas we watched and suggested places we found on the internet. We also bought Lonely Planet’s Guide to Seoul and read a few stuff from there.

After our breakfast and afternoon nap at the hotel on our first day, we spent whatever’s left of our first day in Seoul at Hongdae. We took the train, got on LINE 2 (green line) and got off Hongik University.

Some things you need to know about Hongdae:

It is where you’ll find the famous Hongik University, Korea’s leading art and design centre.

It is the heart of Korea’s youthful nightlife. You’ll find hole-in-the-wall restaurants, pubs, live music dens, karaoke bars, and cafes.

It is one of Seoul’s shopping havens. Endless lanes of boutiques that sell clothes, shoes, cosmetics and cute what-nots plus craft markets during weekends.

It is where you’ll find numerous Korean Barbecue restaurants. So many that you’ll have a hard time choosing where to eat.

What we saw in Hongdae:

Hongdae is a big area. So big that one afternoon of exploring is not enough. The first thing we saw as soon as we got out of the train station was this….

We noticed that Seoul has a lot of mini-parks scattered in the metro. In Hongdae, their parks are clean, vibrant and filled with graffiti.

Walking in the streets of Hongdae in Spring meant seeing flowers everywhere, from pretty little flowers to abundant Cherry Blossoms.

In the evenings, the Korean BBQ restos in Hongdae comes alive as patrons coming from school and the office drops by for dinner.

If not the Korean BBQ Restaurants, you can find these tents all over the city (not just Hongdae) with people indulging themselves in Korean street food.

When in Hongdae, shop! Lots of boutiques, fancy and affordable, can be found in Hongdae.

They even have a clothing store for dogs! Look how adorable their clothes are.

And when one gets tired from all the walking, there are so many cafes to check out.

We went to Hongdae twice. The second time we went here was on the morning of our 3rd day.

There’s something very artsy about this place, even their bicycles seemed artsy haha.

During the day, you can find models having photo shoots.

What we did in Hongdae:

We checked out the cafe from the Koreanovela “Coffee Prince #1“. We visited the cafe twice but sadly it was closed. We don’t if it was under renovation or it was closed for good. There was a sign on the front that said “Closed” but it didn’t say until when. We were kind of disappointed because we really wanted to try their coffee.

There were a few women waiting outside as well. They looked like tourists, too.

Notice that I’m only wearing a knitted cardigan here. I didn’t bring any winter jackets with me, hoping that it won’t be too cold anymore. But alas, the temperature in Seoul was still below 10 degrees when we arrived. I was really freezing here but right after hanging out at Coffee Prince’s Cafe, the mission was to find me a proper winter coat. Went around the shopping area of Hongdae but didn’t saw anything I like.

Husband and I decided to take a break and luckily found the Charlie Brown Cafe.

When we got out of the cafe, it was raining hard. We had to buy an umbrella so we can continue for my quest to find a winter coat. We weren’t able to take more photos coz it was raining, plus had to focus on finding a coat for me. It was nearly dinner time when I found one, just in time for the colder temperature to set in.

One of the shops we fancied was this stationery shop in one of the streets of Hongdae. They have the cutest stuff (think “Morning Glory”).

They have lomography cameras.

They seem to like Little Prince here…they have so many Little Prince stuff.

Kimmidolls!!!! I love them!

We found these earphones that Gil Ra Im (from the Koreanovela “Secret Garden”) used and bought it for my mum who likes Koreanovelas too. She loved it! I wanted one too because it was so cute but it was a bit expensive so I just bought one for my mum.

After shopping, we looked for a place to have dinner. Took us awhile to choose–there were just so many Korean BBQs in Hongdae. Then we choose this…

We were hoping they’d have a menu but they didn’t. The plan was to point at stuff on the menu, that was our lame strategy in ordering food (LOL). Good thing, they have this poster on the wall that had a plate of meat so we pointed at that and said “one order, please?” We also ordered two bowls of rice.

For only US$13.00 we got a plate of pork, the “Banchan” (english: side dishes) and a bowl of bean paste soup. We had to pay extra for the rice as it was not part of the US$13.00 meal.

When dining in Korean restaurants, if they don’t give you cutlery, it is most probably hidden and boxed up underneath your table.

The friendly staff helped us set up the barbeque and then eventually left us to our devices. We could have ordered a bottle of soju but we wanted to stay sober for the whole trip so we fought the urge to order.

The rain finally stopped after dinner so we walked some more before finally going home.

Themed Cafe: Charlie Brown Cafe (Seoul, South Korea)

4 June 2011 Ibyang Sanchez 7 Comments Category: Charmed Life of a Mrs, Cherished Memories, Food, I Love Seoul, Photography, Travel

One of the things I noticed about cafes in Seoul is that when it’s a themed cafe, they are consistent when it comes to following the theme of their cafes. One of the themed cafes and also one of the restaurants we had a meal at Hongdae, was at the Charlie Brown Cafe.

P1040581Charlie Brown Cafe (Seoul, South Korea)

It was a miracle we found this cafe in the middle of Hongdae. We knew that there is a Charlie Brown Cafe in Hongdae. We hoped to find it but after awhile of going around the streets of Seoul and having realized that most street signs are in Korean, we let go of the fact of finding it. On our first day in Seoul, we thought to ourselves to just throw our cautions to the wind and not expect to find all the things we hoped to find in this trip.

After walking around the shopping area of Hongdae, we decided to have afternoon tea. Due to some twist of fate, we entered a small alley and when we turned a corner, we were surprised to see this sight…!

Charlie Brown is a famous character of the comic strips Peanuts created by Charles M. Schulz. When I was a kid, I had a few Peanuts comic books and I enjoyed the life and humour of Peanuts characters such as Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus and Lucy Van Pelt, Sally Brown, Schroeder and Woodstock. Seeing Peanuts characters come to life in the form of food and dining is one of the cutest experience I’ve ever had.

The Charlie Brown Cafe brought me back to my childhood as I was amused by several Peanuts interiors and dining paraphernalia.

Upon entrance to the cafe, you will be greeted by Peanuts characters.

Their counter and menu board full of characters drawings.

Peanuts characters are seen everywhere in the cafe, from the pillars of the cafe…

on the tables and walls….

The door to the ladies’ room…

Comic strips on the tissue holder inside the ladies’ room.

Woodstock reminds us to throw our trash properly.

The Charlie Brown Cafe logo stamped on their serviettes.

Their pagers have Peanuts characters…

and even their cutlery! Oh sooo cute!

The Husband ordered a big cup of Cafe Mocha with a lot of cream.

While I ordered Cafe Americano and after I had my first sip, Snoopy’s head appeared. I love it! I also love their coffee. Tasty, rich and smooth.

The back of their coffee mug.

The Husband and I only shared a plate of Belgian Waffle. We loved the presentation of this dish. Notice that the waffle is shaped like the head of Snoopy. The Belgian Waffle plate already came with slices of fruits, whipped cream, maple syrup and two scoops of ice cream.

Wedged in between the scoops of ice cream was a small piece white chocolate stamped with Snoopy lying on top of his doghouse.

The Husband and I enjoyed our dining experience at the Charlie Brown Cafe. The coffee and food was good. And before we left, I just had to have a photo with my most favourite Peanuts characters, LINUS Van Pelt.

You can bring home some Peanuts goodies too. At the Charlie Brown Cafe, you can purchase souvenirs such as mugs, shirts, stationery, etc.

My Husband and I bought two little plates which we’re already using at home as cheese, fruit and cake platters.

We also bought a Charlie Brown Cafe mobile key chain/monitor cleaner which we will turn into a ref magnet. They don’t have ref magnet so we will improvise.

I also bought this pink Peanuts mechanical pencil so that every time I write, I’ll always remember the fun and cute time we had at Charlie Brown Cafe.

Charlie Brown Cafe
Hongdae, Seoul, South Korea
Check this map for location
If you are taking the train, get on Line 2 and get off Hongik University Station.

Where We Stayed in Seoul: Lotte City Hotel Mapo

31 May 2011 Ibyang Sanchez 3 Comments Category: Charmed Life of a Mrs, I Love Seoul, Photography, Travel

The place we stayed at was a gold mine. We don’t know much about Korea, but we know that one of the most famous Korean brands is Lotte (yes, the chocolates and gum). Lotte Co., Ltd. is a South Korean conglomerate. It is one of the largest food and shopping groups in South Korea and Japan. Lotte Group consists of over 60 business units engaged in diverse industries such as candy manufacturing, beverages, retail, publishing, entertainment, hotels, etc. Such a big company that they even have their own duty free called Lotte Duty Free.

Before I moved on to telling you about where we stayed at, let share with you this Lotte Duty Free video. When we arrived at the Lotte City Hotel, I saw this catchy and entertaining advertisement playing non-stop on their Lotte channel, I was in awe because they are endorsed by the hottest actors, singers and Kpop group in South Korea. Everytime I see this ad, and I mean always, I can never take my eyes off the tube. As in I feel– “Ahhhhhh, I’m inlove.” LOL. If you like watching Koreanovelas, have found a Korean actor cute or like a Kpop group, please WATCH THIS! I’m sure you will like it too. This is not cheesy. You might even like the Lotte Duty Free song. It’s so catchy, it made me want to dance haha.

Did you like it?

Anyway, back to my post. Let me tell you first how we ended up staying at Lotte City Hotel Mapo. Please note that all our preparations were mostly done online. We researched, planned and organized everything thru the use of the internet.

One’s accommodation in South Korea need not be expensive. You have the option of staying in a Guest House (their version of Bed and Breakfast) or in a Hotel. Guest Houses are definitely cheaper and you can easily find them by making a search online.

My Husband and I are quite particular when it comes to accommodation. Although we know that we’re mostly spending our time outdoors because we will be exploring all day, we still want to be comfortable during our time of rest. So we ruled out staying at a Guest House.

In choosing a place to stay during travel, we take note of the following:
(1) Travel time to and from the Airport
(2) Access to public transport
(3) Safety and security
(4) Establishments in the area such as restaurants, malls, etc.
(5) Convenient location (should be near places will plan to go to)
(6) Clean rooms with basic amenities

Given these basic considerations, we studied about 4-6 hotels/apartments we can find online. We’ve had bad experiences with a hotel or two before so choosing a place for lodging is a process for us. It takes us a week to decide because we do a lot of research when it comes to things like this (I know, we’re such geeks!).

For our Seoul accommodation, we initially had five hotels, then it narrowed it to three. In the end we chose Lotte City Hotel Mapo because:
(1) it’s Lotte and a 4-star hotel (so we had a bit of high expectations)
(2) if there’s no traffic, the airport is about 45 minutes away
(3) it’s conveniently located nearby popular places like Myeong-dong, Seoul Station, Hongdae and Yeouido (the places where we plan to go!)
(4) it’s accessible to public transport: the bus stops are right infront of the hotel and Gongdeok train station is just underneath the hotel.
(5) there are cafes and restaurants that surrounds the hotel

Now for some photos.

LOTTE CITY HOTEL MAPO

Check-in is at 2pm but since we arrived early in the morning and would like to rest, we informed the hotel that we will check-in at 7:30AM. We arrived at almost 8:00AM and they let us checked-in. No questions asked.

They don’t have bellboys or porters so be ready to carry your luggage to your room.

IN THE LOBBY OF OUR FLOOR

Upon entrance to our room, there was a glass that works as a divider and decor.

Our room is minimalist and modern with a bit of zen.

An office in the corner.

The bathroom in white. The usual toiletries and bathrobes are available for guests.

The clear sink. Stylish (I like!).

They have bidets!

And a hairdryer which I believe every hotel should have in every room.

On my bedside table is the all-in-one controller for lights, clock, aircon, etc and even an emergency button (if you are too stressed to pick up the phone and dial a number).

Each room has two pairs of slippers.

Safety is a big deal for the Koreans, hence each room has this…

and this.

Our view is not spectacular because we are in one of the business districts of Seoul but that was fine by us. We enjoyed watching the cars and buses passing by.

The street infront of us has 10 lanes!!!!! They have wide roads here.

Our coffee table by the window. Here I was spending a few minutes journaling what transpired during our day.

We don’t have internet connection inside our room. We didn’t asked to be connected because we wanted to just relax and watch Korean TV (although we can’t understand and there was no subtitles LOL) before we sleep. If we needed the use of the internet, we can always go down to the Business Center where WIFI is free.

Can you see our reflections on the Business Center divider?

The basement area of Lotte City Hotel Mapo has a supermarket (where we bought lots of Lotte chocolates), cafes and a bank (where we had the rest of our money changed). The basement is also connected to the Gongdeok Train Station. Very convenient for tourists like us.

We loved our stay at the Lotte City Hotel Mapo. The rates were reasonable and staff were very accommodating. Check-out time was 12:00noon but since our return flight was schedule at night, they safekept our luggage until it was time for us to go.

LOTTE CITY HOTEL MAPO
http://www.lottehotel.com
Gongdeok-Dong, 467 Mapo-Gu
Seoul, South Korea 121805

UP NEXT: Exploring the streets of HONGDAE

The Morning We Arrived in Seoul, Korea

29 May 2011 Ibyang Sanchez 7 Comments Category: Charmed Life of a Mrs, Cherished Memories, I Love Seoul, Photography, The Married Life, Travel

This week, I start sharing our Seoul adventures to you but before I blabber on, let me answer a few questions sent to me via FB and twitter:

Is it cheaper to fly to South Korea via Manila or Sydney? Based from our calculations, it was cheaper for us to travel from Manila to Korea. So what we did was booked our plane tickets via Cebu Pacific and fly from Manila instead of stopping over in Korea to and from Sydney. Our flights and accommodation were all booked online and were settled even before we were in Manila.

Do Filipino citizens in Australia need to apply for a Korean tourist visa? Yes. My Husband still holds a Filipino passport so he had to apply for a visa. He was asked to present a show money of AUD$5,000.00, our flight itinerary and accommodation bookings. Before you do anything, please call the South Korea Consulate General (+61-2-9210-0200 – Sydney; +61-2-627041000 – Canberra) to confirm what you need to do. Visa or denial of visa is granted after 5 working days.

Why Seoul? Part of our travel plan everytime we go overseas is to grab the chance to explore an Asian city. The last time we were in the Philippines, we went to Hongkong. When I picked up my Husband in Dubai, we had a quick stopover in Singapore. When we planned our Manila vacation, there were three cities we thought of exploring: Singapore (again), Tokyo or Seoul. The choice to go to Seoul won because (1) it was a chance to have a break from Manila’s heat–April is Springtime in Seoul and it would be lovely to see some Cherry Blossoms; (2) We love Koreanovelas!!! And one of the reasons why we love watching them is because of their lovely scenery and (3) exploring Seoul seemed cheaper compared to going to Singapore or Tokyo. All these three major reasons for choosing Seoul proved to be a good decision.

We took the red eye flight on a Monday morning. We left Manila at 1:15AM and touched down at Incheon International Airport at 5:45AM. We liked taking the red eye flight because it meant we will arrive in South Korea in the morning and we’ll have time to rest and be able to explore the city right away.

I slept soundly during the flight and only woke up because the pilot announced that we will touch down soon. When the Husband opened the window, Korea’s sunrise greeted us a good morning.

It was 6 degrees when we arrived, a chilly morning in Incheon.

We had to ride a small train which transferred us to the Arrivals area of the airport.

This escalator machine talks but I only heard Korean words. Maybe there was an English translation but I didn’t have time to listen.

Their airport is massive. They say an airport is a reflection of a country, in this case, it is true. This country is all about wide and high spaces–much like their airport. It takes a lot of walking to get from Point A to Point B, hence, the help of walkalators.

Their walkalators have these signs. If you incidentally step on the left side, the walkalator will make a loud noise, telling you that you are at the wrong side.

This writing table used by passengers for filling in their travel forms amazed us. Other than pens, they have reading glasses available for passengers to use. What’s more amazing is that there are three reading glasses with three different grades. So cool!

Lining up at the immigration took awhile. But passing by the Customs was a breeze. We had a quick side trip to their foreign exchange centre before going out of the Arrivals section.

And then we were out! And finally we saw this part of the Incheon International Airport, a place we’ve seen in numerous Koreanovelas. My Husband and I were laughing like crazy when we realized that we are finally in South Korea and we felt like we are living a koreanovela we’ve seen on TV (yes, we are lame like that haha, it doesn’t take much to make us happy). I kept on saying, “Oh my God, we are here!”.

They have gardens in the middle of the Arrivals area.

First order of the day was to find a way out of the airport. We checked out the electronic map and the Information Centre.

The electronic map seemed user-friendly enough. The ladies in the Information Centre can speak English.

As we walked towards where we’ll buy bus tickets, we passed by this counter where you can rent phones. In Korea, there are no pre-paid phones (only post-paid) so if you really need a phone, you need rent them out. My Husband and I didn’t rent a phone because we learned that most areas in Seoul have WIFI. We got in touch with our loved ones via FB or twitter while we were there.

There are three ways to get out of Incheon Airport: Bus, Taxi or Train. We decided to take the Limousine Bus which won’t involve too many stops and will drop us right infront of our hotel. There is an “ordinary” bus which is cheaper but will involve more stops. Taking the train will involve a lot of moving from one platform to another or worse, getting on a bus too.

The Limousine Bus costs 15,000 won (about U$15.00) per head.

The cost is worth it because the seats are likened to a business class seat in an airplane. The seat has reclining functions and made it comfortable to sit back and sleep.

The ride going to Seoul took more than an hour because we were on the road during morning rush hour (about 7ish in the morning). Photo below indicates the right side lane has slow moving traffic. Those vehicles stuck in slow moving traffic are on their way to Seoul.

However, seeing Cherry Blossoms outside our window made up for that. We were surprised to see the city enveloped in blooming Cherry Blossoms. We thought we were too late. We were told that Cherry Blossoms usually bloom on the 2nd week of April and only lasts for a few days. We arrived on the 3rd week of April and thank God, there were still lots of Cherry Blossoms.