http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/liliram/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from liliram en-us Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:46:49 +0000 Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:46:49 +0000 What to eat in Indonesia Long before we arrived here we have been familiar with the worldfamous Nasi Goreng and Sate Babi. Fried rice and barbecue to most. And then there's the famous sambal that goes with almost anything edible here. There are many places we tried from highend to the daily fare and thought we should do a separate blog on what else but FOOD Bebek Bengil A trip to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Ubud/blog-449594.html As soon as we landed in Yogyakarta I received a text message from Paul. The message read I guess it is not that difficult to spot a longhaired man with a beard. And it wasn't. Piece of cake. Paul drove us straight on to the Hindu temple complex in Prambanan . Just before entering the complex we decided to buy our hats. This is when I remembered I forgot to bring my sunscreen. Oh we http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Java/Prambanan/blog-449503.html From the temples of Prambanan and Borobudur to the beaches and ricefields of Bali. Dreams of sunrise and sunset photos of Tanah Lot and Uluwatu Temples and other Balineseinspired architecture. So when our local guide Diwa told me that there may not be enough time to cover all the sites listed in our itinerary in time to catch the sunset at Tanah Lot I was on a warpath. Well not exactly. But http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Nusa-Dua/blog-449500.html We have only seen it in photos. Yet we were not prepared for it. We were not discouraged that one of my friends suffered a leg problem on our first day in Yogyakarta and had to drag her leg while clocking it around the temple as locals do. But it certainly helped that we were with very competent local guides Bellong and Yantong who made sure their Ibu mother in Bahasa Indonesia did not miss t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Java/Borobudur/blog-449072.html What to do in DavaoI have made many visits to Davao in the past and have felt I have run out of things to do. There is the famous Pearl Farm in Samal Island. I would not mind going back again but surely there has got to be other things to do. Then there is the Eden Nature Park where I remember fishing with my little Patricia then aged 3. She caught a small one yet that was one of her http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Davao/blog-437834.html It's another long weekend. And many have planned for this long weekend. Just slightly more than an hour's plane ride from Manila and Cagayan de Oro City in Mindanao welcomed us. There is work to do and more.... Cagayan de Oro in Northern Mindanao but in the southern part of the PhilippinesCagayan de Oro looks and smells like another metropolis but there is a provincial touch to the place as p http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Cagayan-De-Oro/blog-427855.html Typhoon Ondoy hit Manila last Saturday September 26. It has been a week since but the debris and heartbreaks left by the recent typhoon remain.......just as we braced ourselves for yet another typhoon.The days that followed the September 26 typhoon and flooding in the metropolis were blurred. I am writing this now as I nurture a bad cold and cough while cooped inside the house hoping and pra http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Manila/blog-440766.html It was a weekend wellspent in Subic. We planned this weekend with the kids and made sure there's a day to enjoy swimming and just bumming around a day with the dolphins at Ocean Adventure and a day at the Zoobic Safari to check out the tigers and other animals in the zoo. Early morning and we were ready for our 3 hour journey to Subic the former American military camp which has been transf http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Subic/blog-441070.html You always save the best for last. And Santorini is truly the best. But I must say it is not that easy to decide on that. Rhodes impressed me a lot. And Crete is something else. But Santorini took my breath away Lost Continent of AtlantisImagine this. Five thousand years ago the island was believed to be a sophisticated outpost of Minoan civilization. Then catastrophe happened. Around 14 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-433481.html The Republic of Crete This is the biggest of all Greek islands and Heraklion is the capital. From the port it is just a few minutes to the city center where protests or rallies seem to be the order of the day. Our guide warned us about it while at the same time telling us that we would be heading straight for the Palace of the Knossos before coming back to explore the rest of the capital. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Heraklion/blog-433480.html From Patmos the island of the Apocalypse we left the island in the evening and woke up to find ourselves in Rhodes. Now this I've got to say. I wasn't prepared for Rhodes. Perhaps because all this time I was more fascinated by the more popular islands like Mykonos or Santorini. All I knew about Rhodes was some history lesson marking the Colossus of Rhodes as one of the 7 Wonders of the An http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Rhodes/blog-433474.html From Mykonos we departed before midnight and woke up in Kusadaci Turkey. I have to admit I slept in and didn't bother to go out. We were here just a week before and I thought I'd spend the morning on the boat and dreaming away. Shelly wouldn't pass up the chance to go out and check out more bazaars of course. So I saw her off dear old me waving her goodbye as she crossed the plank and wa http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Patmos/blog-433467.html We checked out of Athenais Hotel on a bright sunny morning bound for Piraeus where we would be boarding our ship. We booked this cruise with Louis Hellenic Cruises months before. The itinerary includes Mykonos Kusadaci in Turkey Patmos Rhodes Heraclion in Crete Santorini and back to Piraeus Athens. All of 5 days. Out Monday and back Friday. I know......it could have been a lot bette http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Mykonos/blog-432672.html This has been long overdue. I may have taken comfort in the many notes I have taken while doing this visit that I blogged about my more recent trips to China and Taiwan before working on this one. It has been nearly 6 months since Greece and I beg you to indulge me. A Second Time Around in Greece.......It has been 13 years. The first time I visited Greece was back in 1996. I was not exactly http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Thessaly/Meteora/blog-432087.html This does not pretend to be a travel blog. But I feel compelled to write about this. Some of you may have visited Manila this August 2009 and may have wondered about the recent events. This is our story.Today marks the 26th death anniversary of Benigno Ninoy Aquino Jr. whom many believed to be the only man who could have beaten the country's dictator for 20 years Ferdinand Marcos. Ninoy http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Manila/blog-429975.html We arrived in Taipei midmorning of August 6th. A good 45 minute ride from the airport we soon found our Leofoo Hotel in the city center. We were a group of 4 traveling from Manila each one smarting from the superb deal we bagged from Philippine Airlines which put out a twoday promo fare of only P3900 about US80 inclusive of the travel tax of P1620. The planned 4 day3 night holiday lis http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Taiwan/Taipei/blog-427021.html Shelly murmured Poor Medusa nearly all throughout the time we visited the Basilica Cistern. While I remember the underground palace's impressive water system from years ago still in use today I remember poor medusa most. So many legends surround the mystery of how and why Medusa came to be. I must have read too many I couldn't decide which one to believe. On the other hand Shelly is mor http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Istanbul/blog-398192.html Oh I missed blogging about this stopover. On our way back to Istanbul we did make this stopover . Not much to see really but the stories are good. The ancient kingdom of Phyrge and Gordioum where legend claims Alexander the Great cut the proverbial Gordian Knot. A place where Gordious raised Midas whose claim to fame is his Midas Touch. Midas a peasant who became King on the stren http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/blog-398190.html Semana Santa.......and we were in SevillaLook at these pictures. It's not some Ku Klux clan rally or some costume party or some parade. This is a Good Friday procession in the heart of Seville Spain. We stayed in Hotel Don Paco and right in front of our hotel some 4 to 5 processions must have passed. Carried on the shoulders of locals called costaleros the pasos religious statues wea http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Andalusia/Seville/blog-396172.html Who wants to go through all the trouble of securing a UK visa for a day trip to the Rock of Gibraltar In my home country a UK visa is as rare as a visa for the US and costs quite a lot. A day in the Rock of Gibraltar does not do justice to the nearly US100 we paid for the visa to enter this UK colony.The Rock is a crown property of United Kingdom in the southern coast of Spain. This limeston http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Gibraltar/Gibraltar/blog-396171.html