Travel Archives | Page 25 of 30

Afternoon Delight with Bhenie

16 March 2009 Ibyang Sanchez 2 Comments Category: Aussie Life, Blog Life, Charmed Life of a Mrs, Food, Photography, Travel

Meet-ups with blogosphere buddies were never new to me. But meeting up with a Multiply online buddy from the Phils who migrated to Australia–that is new.

Whenever an opportunity arises, I grab every chance there is just so I could meet my online buddies. So when Bhenie, an online buddy from Multiply, messaged me that she will be visiting Sydney, I was very very excited. For about three weeks, we have known of her Sydney rendezvous but never blogged about it, afraid to jinx it.

And so on the 13th of March, we met and said our “hellos” in person for the first time. I got off work early so we can hang out for most part of the afternoon. We started our afternoon delight by having coffee and cheesecake at Starbucks. At dun na nagsimula ang chikahan. 🙂

The day started with a cloudy weather, at may drizzles pa. Other than meet-up with her, I planned a short itinerary of where I would take her. It was her first time in Sydney so I really wanted it to be memorable for her. There was a forecast of thunderstorm for that afternoon but still, the whole morning I wished for a sunny weather.

After hanging out in Starbucks, the sun finally shone. Yay! We were blessed with blue skies for the rest of the afternoon. So we’re both happy campers :).

I gave her the grand tour of the Circular Quay where you will find both the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge.

We had a lot of fun taking photos and laughing. Ang ingay-ingay namin hehe. The thing with Sydney is that we’re very tourist-friendly, that’s why you’ll also find lots of people taking photos everywhere while exploring the city.

For dinner, we (the Husband and I) brought her to Bahay Kubo. Since I know that she’s missing home, I asked her if she wanted to eat something Pinoy instead of the usual Aussie food and she said “yes”.

I also invited my friend Chloe to join us for dinner.

We all shared an order of Sisig, Crispy Pata, Bicol Express and Pinakbet. Kain Galore!! 🙂

Our last stop was at our place. Konting chika pa hehe. Kung di lang talaga late na, malamang ay nagtagal pa sana sya sa aming munting tahanan.

We had so much fun til the last minute. Husband and I are happy that she’ll be moving here soon and that we’ll have an addition to our group of friends (Welcome Bhenie!!!).

For more photos, please visit: First Meet-up with Bhenie.

Caleb’s 1st Birthday at Dee Why Beach

10 March 2009 Ibyang Sanchez 1 Comments Category: Aussie Life, Photography, Travel

Another fun and busy weekend as we celebrated our godson Caleb’s 1st birthday on Saturday, 7 March 2009 at Dee Why Beach.

Happy birthday, Caleb!!!!!

Congratulations Jojo and Jackie on Caleb’s biggest milestone so far…turning 1!!!! And thank you for hosting a cool Luau Party, we had so much fun. 🙂

The ladies were given Luau necklaces…

Our barkada spent the whole afternoon eating, taking photos, catching up…

…and singing songs by the seashore!!! hehe.

I also had the pleasure of meeting one of my online buddies in Multiply, pretty Chie and her equally beautiful daughter, Bea.

This is one my favorite photos from Saturday’s party…Caleb with his Nongnong Chris–these two are such good friends. When they’re together, they seem to just have so much fun. Chris has such a way with kids.

Some souvenir shots…the birthday boy with his Nangnang Ibyang…

…and Caleb with his ‘Nong and ‘Nang.

Magnificently Melbourne

3 February 2009 Ibyang Sanchez 5 Comments Category: Charmed Life of a Mrs, Milestones, Photography, The Married Life, Travel

In celebration of our 2nd anniversary and my 32nd birthday, we decided to take a quick break from Sydney and spend it in MELBOURNE!!!

Melbourne is such a refreshing and welcoming place, so let me share with you the things I love most about it.

I love their quaint alleyways that entices you to follow your senses: you’ll smell heavenly food offered by eccentric little cafes and see dainty boutiques that sell fashionable clothes, bags and accessories.

I love their different modes of transportation: the colorful trams, old and new buses and their cute cute trains.

I love that this place is the coffee and chocolate capital of Australia. Every nook and cranny, you’ll find cafes that serve delicious chocolate and coffee.

I love that this is the fashion and shopping capital of Australia. Need I say more?

I love that everywhere I look, I find something artsy like sculptures in the middle of the sidewalk, graffitis that doesn’t seem offending, and some of their buildings’ architecture here are more innovative-looking that can rival structures in Dubai and Hongkong.

I love it that they have the better Casino place here that boosts of a great hotel (where Roger Federer stays so I’m told hehe), a beautiful view of the Yarra River, posh restaurants and designer boutiques.

I love that they have Nobu Restaurant and TGI Friday’s here.

I love that this is the home of the Australian Open. This was an event that we weren’t keen on participating on the onset, but we’re glad we spent one day watching games at the Australian Open. It was such a marvelous experience.

I love their night market: numerous stalls of clothes, bags, house decors, lamps, food and even massages!

I love that they have an avenue full of photography shops where we even found a cafe called “Zoom Cafe” (how cool is that!)

I love that this is the maiden home of “Wicked” The Musical. It is because of this musical that made my birthday doubly special…and one of the main reasons why we chose Melbourne to spend our 2nd anniversary and my birthday in.

Our anniversary and my birthday were significantly more special because we spent it there, all the more making our trip to Melbourne magnificently memorable.

We were in Melbourne for only four days, but it felt like home…and we would gladly go back there with or without a special reason.

For a more detailed account of our Melbourne experience, please click on the following links:

First day in Melbourne

Anniversary Dinner at Nobu (Crown Entertainment Plaza)

The Australian Open 2009 Experience

Melbourne at Night

A “Wicked” Birthday Celebration in Melbourne

A More Relaxed and Light Travel

19 January 2009 Ibyang Sanchez 7 Comments Category: Travel

Husband and I are going on a short trip tomorrow and for the first time, we are traveling light.

Define traveling light. We are only bringing 1 DSLR with a Flash, 1 Point and Shoot Cam, 1 Tripod and 1 Handycam. We won’t be bringing a 2nd DSLR, our Lomography cameras and…(drum roll please)…the laptop!!!! When I realized we won’t be bringing the laptop, I’d have to admit that I felt kinda scared. I can live without the internet but I’m worried about not being able to download our photos as soon as we arrive in the hotel after a long day of exploring and shooting. That’s just me being paranoid hehe.

However, the Husband and I have agreed that it’s about time that we do a more relaxed and light traveling (a.k.a. not bringing all our gadgets) for once. Ang una ngang dare ay wag magdala ng DSLR, point and shoot lang. But with the kind of P&S we own right now, hindi umubra.

Why are we doing this? Simply because, we’ve been wanting to have a vacation wherein we won’t have too much “photographing” to do. Our travels in 2008 were very well-documented and well-organized that we explored and took photographs of every corner of every place. But this time, we are looking forward to a more relaxed vacation–in the sense that we won’t have to click the camera every minute and we won’t have to be stressing too much on packing gears whenever we go out. I swear, hindi talaga biro ang mag-travel na may photography ka pang iniisip.

A more relaxed vacation also means that we don’t have much of an agenda on this trip. We have two scheduled dinners (one was because we needed to reserve and the second was we’re meeting a friend) and a musical to watch (which we needed to buy tickets in advance). Other than that, we don’t have any planned itinerary—I don’t even have an idea where we’ll have my birthday dinner! The only plan we have is that WE WILL FOLLOW OUR SENSES, wherever our feet takes us, whenever we see something that will interest us, that’s where will go.

And guess what? It’s already 5:00pm now and we’re leaving tomorrow and I haven’t packed anything yet. Since we won’t be gone long, we won’t be bringing much clothes too. The only thing I got ready right now are our tickets and booking confirmations for the trip. Yay me for being so relaxed! hehe.

Wine Tasting Adventure at the Hunter Valley

30 October 2008 Ibyang Sanchez 5 Comments Category: Food, Photography, Travel

Last Saturday (27/11/08), we saw endless hectares of vineyards!!!! It was so beautiful and mesmerizing.

Hunter Valley is the most well-known wine regions in Australia, about two hours drive from Sydney. Other than being abundant in vineyards and wines, their produce also includes cheese, olives and olive oil.

Other than enjoy the beautiful sceneries that Hunter Valley can offer, people often come here for Wine and Cheese Tastings, have long lunches in one of the many restaurants, explore the Hunter Valley Gardens, enjoy Horse Drawn Carriage Tours, ride on Hot Air Balloons, and visit Historic Villages and Museums to name a few.

On our first visit to Hunter Valley, we went there solely for three wine tastings (not one, not two, but three!).

Our first stop was at the McGuigan Winery. Twas our first experience at wine tasting and the best of all the three wine tastings we attended last Saturday. Here’s why:

When we arrived there, we were ushered in to a private area and all of us were sitted as if we were in a bar. On the table, we were welcomed with a small wine glass each, a piece of paper that has a list of the wines they offer, a pencil so you can take down notes, biscuits and a bottle of water. Very organized, aye?

All we had to do is just sit, listen to the winery host, drink the wines they pour on our glasses, jot down what wines we like and just enjoy! And did I mention that this wine tasting was free??? So yay!

After I taste each wine, I jot down how my tastebuds reacted to the wine. In McGuigan’s, we tasted about 3 whites, 3 reds, 2 dessert wines and the last one was their Tawny Port (that according to Chris tasted like Kiamoy hehehe).

After our wine tasting, we bought about 7 bottles of wine. They gave 10% discount for every bottle and for those who bought 12 bottles, they got another bottle for free. Very very nice. Session was free but you still get a 10% discount.

Our next wine tasting session was at the Tyrrell’s Winery. Now, this was where we got really tipsy.

The session started with a short history of Tyrrell’s Wines and we were shown where the wine was created and stored.

They had these big barrels worth AUD$15,000 each (barrel palang yun, wala pang laman) where they store their red wines.

After that we were ushered in to their bar, standing room only this time. No chairs, no pencils, no paper. We just stood near the bar and waited for the wines to be poured into our glasses.

Now what made us really really tipsy was that they poured the wines too quick. The wines kept coming one after another. Good thing they served cheese and biscuits.

Before I knew it, I was becoming “happier”, laughing like crazy with Faith (family friend)–in short, makulit na kami bigla. May tama na kami! 🙂 And you know, the thing with me when I get tipsy, I never turn red…I turn the opposite–I become pale. So this is me, tipsy and happy…

We never bought anything at Tyrrell’s. For one, we cannot remember the wine we liked and two, we paid $5.00 for the wine tasting and we weren’t even given a chair to sit. Although they do have wines that was good, I just jotted down the name on my notebook (yes, I brought one) and will just buy it in the liquor stores.

So what did we do to get rid of our “amats” (tipsiness)? We explored Tyrrell’s vineyard and took photos under the shining sun.

After session number two, we had lunch outside the Hunter Valley Gardens. That gave us a chance to sober up. At 2:00pm, we went back to McGuigan’s for Cheese Tasting. Wasn’t really interested so we just hang outside and waited for our group to finish.

Last stop was at Rosemount Winery. Paid $4.00 for this session but they had chairs to sit and we were given a wine list so we can at least take note of the wine the host was introducing.

The photo above seemed like I was a drunkard with a wine glass in each hand but no, I’m also holding husband’s glass while he takes photographs. And I really avoided getting tipsy this time by passing off on some of the wines offered to us.

We bought two bottles of “O” at Rosemount. One of the best wines I’ve tasted so far.

We loved the vineyards at Rosemount, they’re taller compared to others. Before we left, we had one last photograph near their vineyard.

It was such a beautiful day to be at the Hunter Valley…and to get drunk hehe. Husband and I really enjoyed it a lot. We hope to visit again next year.