St. Paul's Subterranean River National Park in Puerto Princesa, Palawan certainly deserves to count among the 7 wonders of the world. My friends and I thought it's about time we visit this famous underground river which has been declared a UNESCO Heritage Site , and check out the many other attractions of this southern part of Palawan (the northern part deserves a separate blog!). We were pleasantly surprised to find many more wonders in Puerto Princesa. And this is how our adventure went. St. Paul's Underground River It took us a couple of hours to reach the place. That's over land. [View Full Entry]

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March 21, Tuesday Arrived safe and sound at 6 am in Paris. Hardly slept. And after our late nights in Singapore prior to this flight, we arrived dead tired. Having decided to spend 3 nights in Paris and a night in Lourdes before heading back for Paris to join our Cosmos tour group, we checked out the Air France counter in the Charles de Gaulle Airport for our plane bookings for Lourdes as well as for Zurich on April 1st when the Cosmos tour ends. Lacking sleep, it wasn’t easy to make all these bookings. Tired that we were, we had [View Full Entry]

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March 11 Friday It’s heartbreaking to wake up with young Patricia hugging you tight, hardly letting go. Even before we woke up at 4 am to prepare to leave the house slightly past 5 am, Patricia woke up crying…….not a word , no pleas, just a quiet whimper knowing that Tata Nang and Mamu are leaving for their US holiday. When we actually boarded the van to leave for the airport, Patricia was with her Mom Suzette bravely waving us goodbye. Not long after we left, Suzette sent a text message to inform us that the young girl cried loudly into [View Full Entry]

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September 13 Monday From Russia, we flew to Paris for the last leg of our adventure. Taking the Air France shuttle bus to Etoile then taking a taxi to #24 Avenue Gabriel, we were so warmly welcomed by Cynthia. It was good to be “home” again. We told Cynthia that we will spend the night there but need to leave early the following morning for Orly airport for our separate flights to Lourdes and to Marseilles. Emy and I are splitting up so I can visit Lourdes again while she visits Avignon and Arles, which I have visited back in 2003. [View Full Entry]

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September 7 Tuesday Woke up real early today for our 7:45 am flight for St. Petersburg. Good thing we got our suitcases in Lylah’s trunk the night before. Thank yous , hugs and kisses for our perfect hostess, Lylah Moonlight, and Emy and I were off to Russia via Paris. From Paris, it was just another 3 hrs or so before we landed in St. Petersburg. Emy was held up in the airport immigration for a good half hour. By the time they released her and allowed entry to Russian soil, they have managed to tamper her passport presumably to check [View Full Entry]

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August 27 Friday Emy and I feel almost sad to leave our Frauenfeld home, a home that is never locked at night, where neighbors’ voices are hardly heard, where the only noises you’d hear would be the washing machine spinning or the coffee beans grinding. Or our loud Filipino voices and laughter! Moonlight, as we now call Lylah, and Papa, as we call Fredy , plus the 2 boys alternately called “sunshine” and “baby” by dear Lylah, have become our family in Switzerland. But we paid good money to join this Trafalgar tour, so Lylah helped us get our bags in [View Full Entry]

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August 22 Sunday After missing out on the Cosmos’ Russian River Cruise to join the Placinos (which got fully booked one year prior to departure) , change in Trafalgar bookings for lack of time to secure all the visas, and the ordeal relating to the issuance of the Russian visas, Emy and I are finally ready for our holiday. Emy was running late but arrived at the airport with time to spare for a heavy snack of gyoza and chicken sotanghon. Our first wise decision……we were served dinner at 9pm yet on our Air France 161 flight for Paris. All of [View Full Entry]

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I am restless. It's summer vacation here and I mulled over the idea of spending all of 2 months in Australia. My nephew, the one who left in 1999 to migrate to Australia, just bought a house with his sister. Between him and his sister, they have lined up a number of odd jobs and repair work needing to be done on this 10 year old house. That meant a number of appointments with the carpenter, mason, plumber, etc. So, I towed my 6yr old grandniece and my sister to spend the next 2 months with me somewhere in the suburbs [View Full Entry]

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Semana Santa.......and we were in Sevilla! Look 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) weaved through the narrow streets from almost all corners! Behind and in front of the pasos walked locals called "nazarenos" wearing capes as you'd see in these photos. Some are in [View Full Entry]

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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 US$100 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 limestone promontory juts out into the Strait of Gibraltar and on a clear day, one can enjoy [View Full Entry]

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