Travels – The Adventures of a Calamari Queen

Hyatt City of Dreams Manila

Hi Friends! After our HK trip my family decided to stay 5 days in Manila just to relax for a bit. Our HK trip was very busy, with something always going on everyday. So we were all looking forward to this time because there’s no “agenda”. We planned to just swim, eat, relax and bond as a family. With this in mind, my family decided to check in at the Hyatt City of Dreams Manila Hotel. It’s a luxurious 5 star hotel (I think). It just opened last year so everything was still new. The rooms were spacious, free wifi, staff was helpful and friendly. It’s a hotel casino (so you can gamble if you want but I never went in the casino area). The pool is what we liked the most (so relaxing). My nephews loved every second swimming in the pool. What I like about this hotel is the location too. It was close enough to the airport and Mall Of Asia (largest mall/retail place in the Philippines) so we’re able to try restaurants like SARSA. Zach and my sisters had a chance to eat at some of the hotel’s restaurants but they thought the food was OK, and nothing to rave about. I wasn’t able to take a lot of pictures in the hotel because to be honest the family was just lounging at the pool most of the time (obviously with the amount of pool pics I put here), then we ate out or spent time at the mall. If my family will return to Manila we will for sure stay at the Hyatt or one of its sister hotels again.

Hi Kram!

Tita Chack, Krammy, Eboy enjoying the pool!

Kuya!

Hello that’s me!

Sisters and our nephews

Relaxing sisters

Tita Till and nephews

Tita Kiss and nephews kram and crev

Mom and her grandkids

We had the pool to ourselves most of the time!

Crevy and Krammy (I asked them to jump at the same time and this is what happened! lol

Another try!

EBoy loved the pool! He said it’s his favorite part of the hotel.

I’m not sure what EBoy is trying to do here!HA

Someone is ready to go back to the hotel room!

One afternoon we skipped the pool and watched the UAAP game between Ateneo blue eagles vs NU bulldogs! The game was so crazy, with two overtimes. Our team won so that made us happy! GO BLUE EAGLES!

On the way to get a ride to Smart Araneta Coliseum

Bad photo of my brother and the boys!

What We Ate: HK edition!

Hello Friends! I just wanted to post what we ate on our vacation in Hong Kong. This is mostly pictures because I love food pictures, and also I don’t understand the Chinese/mandarin language so there’s no way I can translate food descriptions. To be honest, we encountered quite the language barrier during our trip too so ordering was kinda difficult, but the food was great! For the first time in my life, I had fried frogs! It was flavorful (similar to chicken) but kinda boney in my opinion. My sisters tried it too but they didn’t like it. One thing I like to do when traveling is try new food that we can’t get at home.

Plane food!

I didn’t care so much for our food during our 12 hour flight.

Fresh fruits on the streets of Hong KONG

Braised Pork Belly that Zach finds really tasty!

Deep Fried Snapper with bitter melon!

Pork Ribs!

Vietnamese Pork Chop style..Everybody loved this dish

Starbucks and Dimsum! We had Starbucks everyday on this Vacation:) I love me some starbucks!

Zach assembling our take out Chinese food! This is for the whole family (not just for the two of us).

Deep Fried fish and Braised pork belly (one of my fave meal during the vacation)

After Dinner Pic outside the restaurant!

Meat galore just outside on the street!

This meal right here made Zach sick because of the price! Rice and beef stew (of some sort) was close to US $25..HA

Roaming around the night market!

After checking out their night market, we got hungry so off to one of the restaurants that served seafood. I don’t remember the name of the place but it was crowded and we thought it must be good. The food was great, the service not so much.

Krammy not impressed..hehe

Fried Frog!

Ate and I at a restaurant at the Peak!

DisneyLand Lunch

Lunch at IFC mall! The place was really good too.

Disneyland, Hong Kong

Disneyland was the main reason why we wanted to visit Hong Kong. We wanted to bring my nephews there. They’re at the age where they can appreciate theme parks. My sisters and I have been to Disneyland HK 10 years ago, the first year they opened. It was the first Disneyland I’ve been to. It was such a magical experience for us. In my opinion, your first Disney trip will always be special:) After being here in the States for almost 8 years, I’ve been fortunate enough to visit some theme parks, Disney CA included, and I can say that Disneyland HK is my least favorite one (I’ve never been to Disney Paris / Tokyo) so far from my experience. The castle was so small in comparison to other Disney parks. The food was OK (close to terrible IMO). The shows were not as good as Disney CA (especially the Lion King; it was disappointing). We even skipped the Frozen show because we prioritized the Mystic Manor ride (which was worth it for us). The rides were great! We loved Space Mountain, Mystic Manor, RC Racer, and everybody’s favorite the Grizzly Gulch (except my mom, she opted out). My nephews enjoyed the Go Cart thing but had to wait for an hour just to get in. Both the parades and the fireworks didn’t disappoint! It was a tiring day for everybody but seeing the faces of our nephews made it all worth while:) Personally, I have no desire to go back to this Disney park, but for my nephews I would gladly do it again!

Naay parade mga sisterets, busy ba sa selfie!hahaa

Kissy faces!

It’s a small world ride! This is a must when you’re in Disneyland.

Krammy is getting tired already!

So he was really happy that Uncle Zach gave him a shoulder ride!

Going back to the hotel now after a long, fun tiring day!

Big Bus Tour, Hong Kong!

Hello Friends! On our third full day in Hong Kong my family decided to do the Big Bus tour to see the HK as we were limited in time and we wanted to check out the city and other touristy places with less hassle. The tour bus was perfect in our opinion. The sisters and I were a little worried that the bus would have lots of issues (base on some reviews), but thankfully we had a good experience and found the tour comfortable. Our Tour included the Peak Tram, Star Ferry/Harbour tour, Hongkong Island, Kowloon; boat tour around Aberdeen Harbour (our boat driver was very accommodating to us / offering to take pictures without us asking him!) now that is customer service:)

There’s probably nothing special about the tour bus in general but I know my family, especially my nephews, loved being in the top part of the double decker open bus. They don’t have this in the Philippines (not in our our city) so it was neat to see them experience HK this way. If you want a comfortable sight seeing experience with limited time, I would recommend this tour. I had such a wonderful time with my family:)

The Tram was crowded as expected!

Tram Selfie!

Selfie with my siblings!

HA! this picture makes me laugh..Zach likes to take candid pics thus our faces looks funny in this! #reallife

All the Titas took pictures and they don’t know where to look!

The look on my nephews faces says they’re not impressed!

Mama!

Here comes the Bus!

About to watch the Symphony of Lights (It was Ok for us, nothing special)

Ocean Park, Hong Kong

Hello Everyone! I Hope you’re all having a good weekend. We’re still recovering at home from our nasty colds and annoying coughs. I just wanted to share our Ocean Park adventures with family during our 2 weeks vacation. Me and my sisters visited this park 10 years ago, we had a great memory about our experience thus we wanted to visit it again so the rest of the family can see what it’s all about.

The Park is so big that I don’t think we were able to see the whole place. We had to prioritize what shows and places we wanted to see because we didn’t have a lot of time and also their cable car was not working that day (what a bummer). Too bad also that my nephews were too short for a lot of the rides. Maybe next time we visit that won’t be a problem!:)

Here’s a description of the Ocean Park, Hong Kong (source: wikipedia): Ocean Park Hong Kong, commonly known as Ocean Park, is a marine mammal park, oceanarium, animal theme park and amusement park, situated in Wong Chuk Hang and Nam Long Shan in the Southern District of Hong Kong.

Bus ride going to Ocean Park!

I love this picture of my Nephew Krammy, he was laughing at himself while trying this hat (miss you Kram)!

Eboy (another Nephew) miss you Eb!

I’m the only one looking at the camera?

Lazy and sleepy Panda!

About to watch the Dolphin and Seal show ( I was disappointed honestly, I feel like the show 10 years ago was so much better)

Lunch at Terrace Cafe (disappointed at how expensive the food was yet the quality was mediocre; I guess you’re paying the view of the restaurant)

Excuse my double chin! Bad Angle! HA..

After Lunch, we’re off to the Jellyfish museum which was very cool and one of my fave in the Park.

Candid picture of my Mom, sis, and nephew! They were laughing at my older sister while Zach was giving her a hard time on one of the rides they took.

I forgot the name of this ride, it was fun watching my family act like crazy kids..

Nassau, Bahamas

The last Island that we visited was Nassau, Bahamas! It was our least favorite just because it was too crowded and the weather was too hot for us (like the sun eating your skin). We checked out Paradise Point, some parts of the Atlantis Resort (that’s opened to the public) and spent the rest of our time at Cabbage Beach (which was gorgeous but too wavey for me!).

little selfie while waiting to get out of the cruise ship

was excited to see starbucks bahamas so I can buy their "you are here collection" but they don't have it — was excited to see starbucks bahamas so I can buy their “you are here collection” but they didn’t have it

we had drinks and croch fritters before going back to the ship — we had drinks and conch fritters before going back to the ship

St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands!

Our 2nd Island to visit was St. Thomas, US Virgin Island! This was another beautiful Island, I only wanted to do 2 things here and that was to see Magens Beach Bay (I heard that it’s voted one of the best beaches in the world; National Geographic Magazine!), second thing to do was visit Paradise Point to get a good of view the Island. After getting off from the cruise ship, we got a taxi right away going to Magens Beach because it can be so crowded and I wanted to take pictures when it’s less busy. When we got there, it didn’t disappoint! My goodness the water was so calm surrounded by a lagoon, crystal clear blue water! If you get to visit St. Thomas and have limited time, you gotta see Magens Beach, it’s one of the best beaches in the Caribbean in my opinion! *I’ve read somewhere that Bella and Edward (Twilight series) shot some scenes here in their honeymoon part of the movie. I can’t confirm that though because I don’t think I’ve seen all the movie/series.*

I took this pic inside the taxi, I can't get over how pretty the color is! — I took this pic inside the taxi, I can’t get over how pretty the color is!

Our next stop was Paradise Point (it was just walking distance from our cruise). They have an entrance fee of $21,kinda pricey but the gondola ride was nice and quick (the view was worth it).

Zach took this pic, inside the gondola (going up)

St. Maarten, Philipsburg

Our first port on our Caribbean cruise is the Island of St. Maarten, Philipsburg (Dutch side). We’re really excited to be out of the ship after 2 and half days being on the sea. I really liked St. Maarten because it was clean and really tourist friendly. We visited Maho beach. We spent a good amount of time there (it’s also called the “airport” beach) because it’s so close to the airport (Princess Juliana International Airport). It is a must if you visit St. Maarten, I mean how often do you experience having a huge plane just above your head?! We got to see the big commercial plane KML ( looks like everybody was waiting for it too). It was so much fun for me, but the Hubs wasn’t as excited to see this whole thing. He’d rather drink at the bar and lounge! The beach was so nice too, clear and powdery white sand (my kind of beach!).

On our way to Maho Beach (we took the taxi, paid $9 each)

Photo from online (but this is the same plane we saw) that made me super excited!

enjoying some fruity drink at Sunset Bar and Grill

the famous Guavaberry (it was OK for us)

Ocean Blue By Geoffrey Zakarian

We had our Anniversary dinner at the Ocean Blue (Norwegian Getaway cruise) and it was one of the best times on our cruise vacation. The food was superb and the service was amazing ( always anticipating your needs yet not in your face kind of attitude). Although it was a bit pricey because this place is not part of any “free dining” that the cruise offers. The Hubs went all out with the appetizers! He really likes his apps:) They offer seafoods and have selections of raw items like oysters and hamachi. If you find yourself on a cruise and they have an Ocean Blue restaurant, you must try it at least because you will not regret it! The Hubs and I had a great experience in this restaurant.

2015-04-19_DSC_2704 — mascarpone bread and cheeses

yellow tail hamachi — yellow tail (hamachi)

beet salad with caviar (the food presentation is just lovely)

steak tartare (this was Ok for me, had better steak tartare here in Seattle)

Lobster Mushroom Risotto (rich and decadent!) love the flavors!

I had the snapper with some fancy side dish that I'm not familiar with!hehehe — I had the snapper with some fancy ingredients that I’m not familiar with! hehehe

complimentary cake! that we end up not eating because we’re too full. we had some in our cabin the next day though

Caribbean Cruise!

Hello everyone! I’ve been MIA for the last couple of weeks because the Hubs and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary with an Eastern Caribbean cruise (Norwegian Getaway). It’s our first time cruising and we had so much fun! It was such a relaxing time with my Hubs. We visited St. Maartens Philipsburg (Netherlands,dutch side), St. Thomas US Virgin Islands, and Nassau Bahamas. We really liked our cruise ship because there’s always something going on, lots of options/activities so we were never bored and the food was great too. I will be posting more of our amazing dinner experiences in the coming days. Enjoy the pics!

enjoying the view from our balcony room — enjoying the view(Miami port) from our balcony room

Pretty Chandelier from the ships main lobby

animal towel prepared by the housekeeper

Fruit and Veggie carving demonstration (this is so pretty, watermelon flower) — Fruit and Veggie carving demonstration (this is such a pretty watermelon flower)

The cast of Legally Blonde (we did watch it but preffered the real "broadway show) — The cast of Legally Blonde (we did watch it but preferred the real “broadway show)

2015-04-19_DSC_2792 — watched Fireworks on the 4th night!

My hat has a life of its own..lasted for 6 days and I have to throw it out because it was pretty useless. — My hat has a life of its own..lasted for 6 days and I had to throw it out because it was pretty useless.

last selfie before going back to Seattle