Friday, January 27, 2012
Bhutan In a Nutshell

I am getting worse with writing. I have came across a lot of travel blogs detailing personal experiences, guesthouse and food recommendations, tips etc but I just cannot complete my own writing with such grace.

So anyway, since my memory of my travel experience is so scattered and chaotic, I decided to just list down the things based on what I remember.

1. Bhutanese people are sweet, pleasant folks. They are by far the sweetest people I have ever met. "Commercialized" is definitely not a term to describe this beautiful country. No one will harrass you to buy anything from them (read: Indonesia).

Tour guides practically babysit their guests. They help you carry your heavy bags and follow you around wherever you go so you won't get lost. They make sure you get your tea and toilet breaks while on the road. That's us on our way to Bhumtang enjoying our tea and amazing view.

They even ask you to write down your wishes on their prayer flags. See photo below, he's our driver. :)

One time, I saw a tour guide carrying a caucasian baby while hiking who turns out to be his guests' baby. Beat that! They are the best. Seriously.

2. Bhutanese kids are so adorable and I have photos to prove that.

3. It's all about chili. Food in Bhutan are very basic. I bought a cookbook and the recipes all revolve around 2 basic ingredients: chili and cheese. I lost weight after the trip. But please don't get me wrong, I lost weight because I got sick due to dehydration from climbing Tak Tzang and couldn't eat much afterwards. Another thing, dessert is apparently non-existent in Bhutan. hahaha. I can't imagine not eating anything sweet for one week but I actually did and easily shed those unwanted pounds.

4. Hilltop dzongs and temples are common. I am not good with hiking. My knees are bad and I realized that after training myself to be able to run 10k on flat land, I am still not strong enough to handle extensive hiking. So if there is one thing about traveling to Bhutan I would like to share to people ... do it while you are still young. By the time you hit 40, you're probably too old to handle climbing hills and mountains already. Oh well, I guess this does not just apply to Bhutan. it applies to life. Please don't delay things or you.

5. Bhutan is a very laid-back country. Would you believe that it took us 3 days before we can finally have our money changed? That is because we arrived on a weekend which means no banks. By early morning Monday, we were still not able to change our money because they start operating at 930am and we could not afford to wait that long as we are driving up to Thimpu from paro. So, one important tip, don't forget to change money at the airport.

6. Still very manual. The only disappointment we had during our trip was when the hotel that we were initially booked for at Bhumtang all of a sudden cancelled our reservation. We had to be moved to another hotel. Based on our conclution, these hotels tend to cancel smaller groups in favor of bigger ones, which in my opinion, is not a good practice.

7. Festivals are a bit boring for my taste. You see I came from the vibrant and energetic land of the philippines. In our book, festival equates to loud music, flamboyant costumes and crazy crowd. No inhibitions.

Tsetsu and Prakhar festival unfortunately did not live up to this expectation of mine. Somehow, the state of uptightness was lingering while watching the performance. To each his own I guess. I did enjoy people watching and taking random photos of strangers though. Photos below.

8. Monks are everywhere. As you know or don't know, Bhutan is primarily a buddhist country. Many kids are sent to temples to practice and study buddhism. According to our tour guide, some of these kids decide on their own that they want to be monks while some are being sent down by their parents. But looking at them play and get rowdy at the temple, I still view them as boys. Monk or not.

9. Last but not the least, the mountain views are simply breathtaking. I cannot remember how many times I whispered, "thank you Lord" for being able to witness such beauty.

 

posted by greentealover @ 12:02 pm     Comment

Monday, January 16, 2012
2011

Last Half of 2011

Biking at ECP. Painting at Artistique. Hongkong and Macau with Family. Macau Venetian. Veggie Burger. St. Paul Ruins. Motion Sickness Pill that almost killed me. Trapped Gas. Getting Sick all the time. 10k night run at ECP. Standard Chartered Marathon. 10k@1:13. Sprained Ankle. Bhutaaaannnn. Young monks. Potato and Cheese. Paro. Bhumtang. Tsetsu Festival. Stupa. Mountains. Sonam. Namgae. In love with Bhutanese. They are very pleasant people. Rice Terraces. Backlight. Dzongs. Miserable Job. Really Really miserable job. Studio shoot with Leslie. Ipad3 for Mom. Getting Good Grades in IELTS. ACS. NSW. Parkour shoot. Buckwheat pancake. Luong Phung Vietnamese Restaurant. French bread from Mooshi. Park Connector. Two loops of Bedok Reservoir. Polar's heart rate monitor. Moka pot. Barako coffee. Lavazza coffee. counter culture. Gluttony on December. NB Running shoes. Belt bag. Murakami's What I talk when i talk about running. Vanilla Latte. Munch. Heart Rate Monitor. Resting Heart Rate. Burpee. Stair Climbing.


 

posted by greentealover @ 02:50 pm     Comment

Sunday, January 01, 2012
2012 goals
1. run a 21km
2. shoot more concept shoots (big mess, displacement...)
3. cook puttanesca
4. cook loleng's meesua
5. start an online photography shop
6. ipad 3
7. visit spain or italy or greece or denmark
8. lodge oz pr
9. learn latte art
10. make new friends
posted by greentealover @ 10:31 pm     Comment

Tuesday, November 01, 2011
Think Big

More Goals!

1. Expand my Getty Portfolio
2. Shoot Kids with balloons, bubbles and cotton candy
3. Year End Short Trip
4. Cook Something New
5. Run 12km or More
6. Paint One More Time
7. Get a Wacom or an Imac
8. Attend another workshop next year
9. IELTS
10. Start Online Shop

Recap of my previous plans

- Process OZ PR papers   - In Progress
- Bhutan  - This Weekend
- Some short trips (Vietnam, Cambodia, Cameron Highlands, Palawan or Batanes) - Planning
- I need to lose some weight - Errrrgh!
- Bikram Yoga and Yoga by the Park  - Failed
- Cook more  - In Progress
- Learn how to paint   - Done
- buy a trail shoes and some cool weather clothes for bhutan  - Failed

- Travel alone at least once - Done!
- Build my own portfolio website - Done!
- Attend more workshops - I did!
- Get more photoshoot jobs - Failed

posted by greentealover @ 12:59 pm     Comment

Monday, October 17, 2011
Getting By
"I'm getting by." that was my response to someone who asked me how am I. I am just getting by and this is not good. I should be happy.
posted by greentealover @ 10:05 pm     Comment

Monday, September 26, 2011
:(
I feel so lost. and so miserable. and the root of all this is the fact that I have no goals in life at all. :(
posted by greentealover @ 01:01 am     Comment

Wednesday, June 15, 2011
2nd Half 2011 Goals

- Process OZ PR papers
- Bhutan
- Some short trips (Vietnam, Cambodia, Cameron Highlands, Palawan or Batanes)
- I need to lose some weight
- Bikram Yoga and Yoga by the Park
- Cook more
- Learn how to paint
- buy a trail shoes and some cool weather clothes for bhutan

 

posted by greentealover @ 06:29 pm     Comment (1)

Wednesday, June 15, 2011
2011 First Half of the Year Highlights

- Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka
- Merino Wool at Uniqlo
- Green tea cafe somwhere around Kyoto
- Tofu Restaurant at Kyoto Tower
- Temples in Kyoto
- Shinkansen
- JR 7 day Pass Rocks
- Dotonburi in Osaka
- Fish Market in Tokyo
- Asakusa Temple in Tokyo
- Ueno park and Ameyoko district
- Shinagawa Station
- Timberland Boots at discounted price
- Lack of water on a winter weather in japan makes me sick
- Hot packs from Daiso
- Coffee in Japan
- Fresh Sushi without the wasabi at Fish market
- Planned the japan trip without a travel agent. :) Yay!
- cooking on weekends
- getty curator
- Georgetown Penang Weekend
- Foodtrip, temples and LoveLane at Penang
- Manny Librodo Workshop
- Natalia Taffarel Workshop
- Not much photoshoots
- Mamiya 645
- 120 Film and Triple D
- Swamped at work
- Lion King
- Top 45 finalists in KL International Portrait competition
- Photo You Magazine Published Works
- 3x to 4x a week of night conferences
- Traveling alone to Sydney
- Finding Nemo
- singapore Airlines to Sydney for 7 hours at 928SGD
- YHA Sydney Harbour Hostel
- Wynyard station
- Circular Quay
- Newtown and Glebe Point
- Kingston biscuits
- Lamington cake
- flat white coffee
- darling harbour
- 41AUD train pass
- Mary Poppins and Jersey Boys
- Bondi Beach Ciff top walk and fish and chips
- Surry Hills
- Drunk Teenagers at George Street
- Cinnamon Toast!
- Manly Beach and Watson's Bay
- Walk from Milson's Point
- Miriam the roommate
- Breaking down at the airport
- Bratwurst Coffee at plaza singapura
- couch to 5km training program
- great eastern 5km fun run
- creamy butter crab
- bonchon chicken
- learning how to cook kiampeng

posted by greentealover @ 06:23 pm     Comment

 
Previous Post
Next Page
Archives
<< May 2012 >>
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
 01 02 03 04 05
06 07 08 09 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31
Twitter
Links
Jonray
Xanadu
Ben
Sofia
Javanese
Gr8tislove
Jacs
Razlene
Alwyn
My Playground
www.flickr.com
This is a Flickr badge showing photos in a set called Places. Make your own badge here.
Powered by

Free Blogger Templates

Blogdrive