Korea's Sights and Sites: Day 3

Our third day in Korea was spent touring Seoul. Again, just like our Tokyo city tour last year my family opted not to join a huge tour group, so it was just us and our tour guide Henry. 

Korea's Sights and Sites: Day 1 and 2

During the Travel Tour Expo held last February at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City, my family and I were able to score discounted plane tickets to Korea, which we've been eyeing as our next travel destination abroad (following last year's trip to Japan which you can read about here, here, here, here, and here).

Not too long afterwards, we booked our hotel through Agoda and arranged our tours and transportation with the help of Dreamline Travel & Tours. After months of planning, we were finally all set to go!

Press Release: Laoag na ma-stress sa APEC! Book online instead!

The APEC Summit creates a four-day holiday for the tenants of Metro Manila. Flights are being cancelled and the flow of traffic is expected to thicken within the city as the main roads are scheduled to be closed for this congregation. If you're still thinking about what to do over this long weekend, this hiatus can be best maximized with an out-of-town road trip/adventure to places like Vigan or Laoag.

Laoag na ma-stress as there's no need to line up at bus terminals or commit to a long drive in order to reach these distantly beautiful destinations. Biyaheroes has partnered up with Partas Transport in order to provide a seamless online reservations system that lets you book and even choose your bus seats online! Offering Express First Class Vigan/Laoag and Pasay/Cubao routes, this cuts your travel time by up to four hours as there is only one stopover and no passenger pick-ups will be done along roads.

You can book your seats roundtrip, and via Dragonpay, you can settle payment in major banks (whether it's online or over the counter), payment partners such as Bayad Center, Cebuana Lhuiller, LBC, SM Bills Payment, and other popular options found nationwide.

Online reservations have a 2-day cut-off and a fixed 10% extra service charge per booking or P50 for bookings P500 and below. This gives you Biyaheroes points, cool freebies, and the convenience of booking and paying anywhere for the guaranteed seats of your choice. Book directly at the Biyaheroes website and enjoy this provincial commute easily for this holiday.

Save your energy for exploring! Unwind in the countryside and get to know the Philippines better with historical destinations, awesome food trips, and beautiful sceneries from Vigan and Laoag.

Biyahe na, biyaHEROES! 

SEAIR Partners with Muranglipad.com to Offer Fare Comparison to Passengers

SEAIR International (SEAIR) announces its partnership with Muranglipad.com to offer airfare comparison to passengers. 

SEAIR, the brand that pioneered commercial flights to Boracay in 2005, is back to offer premium services with fast and stress-free travel to passengers. Part of its thrust to offer innovative services to clients, is the belief to offer the best value-for-money fares to passengers. 

Muranglipad.com, a division of Triplestar Travel and Tours Inc, provides airfare comparison to all domestic and international destinations, across all airlines. SEAIR clients can now enjoy expert travel advise from Muranglipad.com's pool of Travel Specialists. To avail of specialized travel assistance, passengers may call the reservations hotline at 849-0100 or visit www.muranglipad.com. Office hours are from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM, Mondays to Fridays and 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM Saturdays and Sundays, to accommodate consultations, bookings and reservations. 

Triplestar has 11 ticketing offices nationwide, particularly in Makati, Manila Domestic Airport, Quezon City, SM Clark, Cebu City, Cebu International Airport, Davao City, Davao International Airport, Puerto Princesa, Tacloban and Bacolod. All are strategically located to cater to passengers' immediate travel requirements. 

To find out more about the new and exciting service, please like SEAIR Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/flyseair and Muranglipad.com's Facebook fan page at http://www.facebook..com/muranglipad.com for updates on promotions.

Press Release: Muranglipad.com Signs Deal with M Lhuillier Financial Services Inc. as Cash Payment Acceptance Partner

(In Photo) L to R: Mr. Patrick Tan, COO of SEAIR International, Ms. Delza Gochoco, President and General Manager of Triplestar Travel and Tours, Mr. Charles L. Lhuillier, MLFSI Executive Vice President and Ms. Clairene C. Umali, MLFSI Insurance & Special Products Division Manager

Muranglipad.com announces its partnership with M Lhuillier Financial Services, Inc. (MLFSI) to accept cash payments for air ticket issuances. Muranglipad.com, a division of Triplestar Travel and Tours Inc, is an online budget travel portal that provides airfare comparison and real time ticketing for all airlines to all domestic and international destinations.

With this partnership, clients can now enjoy expert travel advice online from Muranglipad.com's website or through its pool of Travel Specialists through its reservations hotline at 849-0100, 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM, Mondays to Fridays and 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM Saturdays and Sundays and the convenience of paying their booked air tickets through any of the 1,600 M.Lhuillier locations nationwide with almost 160 locations operating 24/7.

To find out more about the new and exciting services, you may visit muranglipad.com, any of Triplestar's ticketing offices nationwide and M.Lhuillier's website at www.mlhuillier.com.

www.facebook.com/MurangLipad and www.facebook.com/mlhuillierfinancialservices

Japan Trip: Food Escapades

One of the best parts of travelling is trying out all sorts of food. For me a trip to anywhere (especially out of the country) is never complete without sampling local dishes and snacks. As much as possible, I would prefer to avoid eating at the usual fast food places, although they're always a good go-to place when all else fails.

When in Japan, having Japanese food is a must. Although Japanese restaurants are fairly common here in the Philippines, nothing still beats having authentic Japanese food in Japan. Food is taken very seriously in this country, and the number of Michelin-starred restaurants in Tokyo alone can attest to that. You can also see it in the way the Japanese prepare their food. A lot of measures are taken to ensure that the dishes are made with the finest and freshest ingredients.

Let me take you on a virtual food adventure during our trip to Japan:

Philippine Airlines

We left Manila shortly before 7 o'clock in the morning. We were served breakfast--beef curry with rice, along with a fruit cup and cake from Perfect Endings for dessert. It was decent, but not exactly too memorable. 

On the other hand, lunch on the way back to Manila was INCREDIBLE! I chose the Beef Yakiniku with rice, a bread roll, and salad made with tofu, meatballs and some vegetables (not sure which ones). The beef was very tasty and the rice was drizzled with nori (Japanese seaweed) on top which made it very flavorful.

The salad up close--I actually had two of these since my brother (who's not into veggies at all) didn't touch his. It goes really well with the main dish!

After the meal, the flight attendants began distributing these small tubs of Japanese vanilla ice cream for dessert. What a great way to end the meal--this was definitely the best in-flight meal I've ever had! Good job, Philippine Airlines!

Around Tokyo

Walking around Tokyo Disneyland surely made us hungry! We bought these smoked turkey legs for our mid-afternoon snack at Y520 each (around P200)--much cheaper compared to the turkey legs they sell at Universal Studios Singapore which cost $13, or around P400,

On the day of our city tour around Tokyo, we stopped for lunch at this Parisian-inspired food court called Marche de Metro, located at a train station (underground) at Omotesando. I bought this Ratatouille Curry dish at one of the food stalls called Bistro Lyon. It was a bit (but not too uncomfortably) warm at the time, so eating this spicy dish did make me sweat a bit more. The food was still quite good, though.

Too cool off, I got this chocolate milk tea drink from this nearby stall called Vietnamese Cyclo.

On our third day in Tokyo, we had dinner at this place called Tonkatsu Wako, located at the Sunshine City Alpa, one of the two major shopping malls connected to our hotel. 

My mom's Ebi-Furai Gohan (around Y1188 or P510). Each tray comes with a bowl of rice, pickles, miso soup, and cabbage. They also serve complimentary green tea.

My dad, brother and I each had an order of Rosukatsu Gohan (also priced at Y1188). By the way, the rice, cabbage and miso soup at this restaurant are unlimited so you can keep asking for refills! The staff here are very friendly and helpful (but then again, who isn't in Japan, really?), and the waitress, despite her slight struggle with English, patiently explained to us the different types of dressing for the cabbage that we could choose from.

Other Food Photos

KitKats are extremely popular in Japan, and they come in all sorts of flavors--from the tame ones like Strawberry or Green Tea to the more quirky ones like Wasabi or Soy Sauce (you read that right). We also got to buy a small box of Baked KitKat (yep, that's right) which are ideally eaten only after being put inside the oven toaster for a few minutes which is supposed to turn into something like a crispy cookie. We tried to do that and it turned out to be a failure--I guess we were really just not doing it right.

In case you're wondering why KitKats are so popular in Japan, it's because it sounds very similar to the Japanese phrase "kittu katsu", which is synonymous to "good luck". Students usually eat KitKat just before an important exam for good luck.

Aside from doing some extra shopping, we finished off our remaining Yen at the Narita Airport in Tokyo (before flying back to Manila) with a quick meal at this place called Asian Cafe Bowl Bowl. I got these fried octopus dumpling balls and also got some of the ramen (on the left) which my mom and dad ordered for themselves. These dumpling balls were served piping hot.

Check out the rest of my Japan blog posts here:

Japan Trip: Random Photos Around Tokyo Disneyland

Around Tokyo: Ikebukuro and Shibuya

Around Tokyo: City Tour

Around Tokyo: At the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace

Japan Trip: Mt. Fuji and Hakone

Japan Trip: Mt. Fuji and Hakone

For the fourth day of our trip to Japan, we headed over to Mt. Fuji and Hakone at the Kanagawa Prefecture, both several kilometers outside Tokyo. Unlike our city tour where it was just my family and I accompanied by a tour guide, this time we were part of a large group--three buses (all from the same tour company) full of tourists from several countries, in fact. Our bus, though, had mostly Filipino passengers, with a few other nationalities mixed in. The other buses had several Filipino passengers as well.

Since our hotel is at the northern part of Tokyo and is quite far from where the other tourists on our bus were staying, we were picked up from our hotel at 7:20 AM, and the next 60-90 minutes were spent going to different hotels around Tokyo to pick up all the other tourists. We were then brought to a drop-off point somewhere in Tokyo, where we boarded another bus that would actually take us to Mt. Fuji and Hakone. Our first stop, Mt. Fuji, is more than an hour away from Tokyo by car.

Here are some photos I took along the way:

The streets of Ginza were empty on Easter Sunday. The long drive around Tokyo really helped me appreciate how beautiful this city is!

Ginza is a primary shopping district in Tokyo with large boutiques and department stores. This Gap store was just one of the many multi-level standalone stores that I saw in Ginza.

Since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami which resulted in the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, some Japanese have begun protesting against nuclear energy. This photo was taken in a part of Tokyo where several government offices are located.

Instead of travelling on the expressway throughout the journey, the drivers of the three buses decided to take a detour to avoid a massive traffic jam caused by a major car accident. This made the trip a bit longer than it should have been, but at least we were able to get a glimpse of the smaller towns outside Tokyo, such as this one.

We made a quick stopover at a rest-stop at one point. We were given fifteen minutes to go to the bathroom, buy some snacks, or just stretch our legs. I got this pack of chocolate-covered wafers (?) at the supermarket, and this small bottle of milk tea from one of the vending machines. This brand of milk tea is actually available here in the Philippines--I was able to buy a (larger) bottle of it at the international food section of the supermarket at SM Aura Premier for P99.

After the stopover, we passed through several more towns and cities including Hamamatsu, the birthplace of famous car brands such as Honda and Suzuki. As we moved closer to Mt. Fuji, however, we began to see less houses and more trees and, as we moved higher up the mountain--snow!

As we moved further up the mountain, the patches of snow on the side of the road grew larger.

There are a total of 10 "stations" for tourists on Mt. Fuji. Regular tourists (those who arrive on tour buses in large groups) are normally allowed to go up to the 5th station, while mountaineers are allowed to go up all the way to the 10th station. However, on the day we were there, we were only allowed to go up to the 2nd station because of poor visibility and heavy snowfall. We never even got to see Mt. Fuji (and its perfect, snow-covered cone) at all! Thick fog and less-than-pleasant weather accompanied us for the rest of the day. Bummer.

My first encounter with snow--and I was totally unprepared for it! See how underdressed I am? It was freezing and it felt like my fingers were going to fall off!

Before moving on to the next part of the tour, we first had lunch (a set grilled chicken meal) at the (rather empty) Hakone Lake Hotel, after a 30-minute drive from Mt. Fuji. Earlier on in the day, our tour guide, Kumiko, went around the bus asking each of the passengers whether we wanted the set meal or not. Those who weren't really interested in the set meal were dropped off at a restaurant near the pier at Lake Ashi, which was actually where we were headed to after lunch.

The staff at the hotel were well-prepared to handle three busloads of hungry tourists--when we got to the hotel, all we had to do was to tell them our bus number (in our case, we were on bus #3) and our last name and we were immediately directed to our pre-assigned table. It was very organized.

Our set meal--grilled chicken, shrimp and pasta with potato wedges and vegetables on the side. The meal also included two bread rolls, soup, and one slice of fruit and a small cake for dessert. That's A LOT, isn't it? I was actually pretty satisfied with the meal, and I was able to finish off everything except for the shrimp.

The next part of the tour--a cruise across Lake Ashinoko (or Lake Ashi) on board these pirate ships!

On a clear day, passengers on the ships are supposed to get a nice view of Mt. Fuji, as well as the beautiful temples along the shore. Unfortunately, all this fog prevented us from seeing anything. Ugh, another epic fail.

Sailing across the lake on a pirate ship in near-freezing temperatures was still quite an experience, though. It was the coldest I've ever been in my life!

This guy's lucky he never feels cold. Pfft.

Our next stop was the Hakone Ropeway for an 8-minute ride on a Sky Gondola/cable car that would take us up a mountain. Again, on a clear day the ride would have given us a great view of Mt. Fuji, but...yeah. Fog. 

Behold--the lovely "view" from the cable car. Epic fail? Pretty much, yeah.

It was so cold that I had to get a cup of coffee to warm myself up. As I was getting the sugar and creamer, I saw this. That's Engrish for you, folks.

We were able to fulfill our tourist duties here, by buying some souvenirs and some Japanese snacks such as black kuro-tamago eggs from the Owakudani Valley in Hakone, which, according to legend, will add seven years to one's life when eaten.

Before finally heading back to Tokyo, we first stopped at a train station where several passengers of the three buses got off to take the Shinkansen (bullet train) back to Tokyo. Those who chose not to take the train (my family included) still had to get off the bus anyway and board one of the two remaining buses (one bus was heading straight to the tour company's garage) depending on where our hotels were located. Again, just like on the bus we were on earlier, the passengers were mostly Filipinos (including this rather lively Cebuano family who were chatting among themselves non-stop throughout the nearly two-hour ride back to Tokyo), although there was also a group of Australians and a solo female traveler from somewhere else. 

A small token of appreciation from the company that owns the pirate ships. This was distributed to us while we were on our way to the train station.

We were the last ones to be dropped off (as expected), so we reached our hotel at past 8 pm. I didn't mind though--at least I got to see the different parts of Tokyo all lit up at night! Too bad I wasn't really able to take decent photos. 

Up next : Food Photos!

Around Tokyo: At the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace

My favorite stop of our city tour around Tokyo would have to be the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace, which we visited after lunch.

The Imperial Palace serves as the official residence of the Emperor of Japan and his family. It occupies a large piece of land in central Tokyo, and the area around it is a popular jogging path for both locals and expats. For security reasons though, visitors are only allowed to enter the East Gardens, while the western side, where the royal family lives, is closed to the public, except on very rare occasions. 

The palace is also surrounded by large walls and a moat. Unlike the British royal family who are a bit more "exposed" to the public, the Japanese royals prefer to have their privacy.

This is actually an enclosed area--it was designed in such a way that in case of an invasion, the two gates (the one you see in the photo and the one behind me) would be shut, trapping the invaders. To kill the invaders, gunshots may be fired through the holes you see just below the white part of the walls. Arrows could easily pass through the holes as well.

Admission is free--you just need to have this ticket with you at all times while inside the Palace grounds since visitors are supposed to surrender these tickets upon exit.

One of the many old security outposts around the Palace that are no longer actually in use.

What used to be large pillars for gates are now just holes on the ground.

According to our tour guide Sho, these walls have been blackened by fire (from previous invasions?)

Meet Sho, our tour guide. For a man in his 60s (or 70s?), he sure has a lot of stamina! He had no problem walking around all day--my family and I even struggled a bit to catch up to him at times. 

The Fujimi-yagura, or the Mt. Fuji View Keep, serves as one of the many watchtowers surrounding the Palace. Also, a photobombing Spanish tourist in the foreground decides to pose for dramatic effect. Er...

Tea is grown and harvested right within the palace grounds. Royal Tea for the Royalty. *badum-tss*

The East Garden is a place where families can just sit on the grass and enjoy the weekend. I took this photo from the ruins of a structure that served as a meeting place for members of the Parliament. Unfortunately, it was destroyed by a fire just 19 years after it was completed.

I'm not sure if the artists who made these were actually selling their artworks or just displaying them for people to see--I couldn't understand what they were saying.

As in a lot of places we visited during our trip, the landscaping throughout the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace is very impressive. We were also still lucky enough to see some Cherry Blossom (Sakura) trees in full bloom even if we were there during the second half of April. According to Sho, it's best to see the Cherry Blossoms in late March or early April.

(Disclaimer: I am not a skilled photographer)

Up Next: The sights (or rather, the lack of it) at Mt. Fuji and Hakone!