I cannot believe we’re nearing the end of July, guys. Time flies so fast when you’re having fun. Or so busy. Which is sad, because deeeern, when do we get to do all the fun things, eh? I’m having a bit of a walkabout-drought here, it’s a good thing I can let my mind drift back to previous visits, like this one foray into a palace in the heart of Saigon: the Independence Palace, or the Palais de l’independance.
Continue reading “Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam: The Independence Palace”
Imagine feeling bored and tired of your usual routine, so you retire to that garden at the back of your house, where you could smell the fresh air, read a book (or even write one), walk for hours along the picturesque trails, sit inside any of the pavilions and be mesmerized by how calm and still the water on the pond is… Oh wait, I suppose you can only do that if (1) you are royalty and (2) you lived during the Joseon era. You can still catch a glimpse of that long-gone era, however, by checking out Huwon, the Secret Garden of Changdeokgung.
Continue reading “SoKor 2015: Huwon, The Secret Garden of Changdeok Palace in Seoul”
Palaces are a staple if you’re visiting Seoul. Or South Korea, in general. In fact, I think you cannot say you’ve made a proper visit to this beautiful country without having visited at least one of these national treasures. Changdeokgung, or Changdeok Palace, is one of these palaces: a well-preserved historical relic of the past and a beautiful reminder of that past in the present. Out of the five major palaces of Joseon, it is the most well-preserved to this day, and that’s partly the reason it was declared another UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Continue reading “SoKor 2015: Changdeokgung (Changdeok Palace) in Seoul”
So who else, besides me, is none too pleased with this heat spell going on? I know it’s summer and all, but I am always positively sweating buckets, even when I’m standing still. Makes me long for the chill you can only feel atop mountains in the north. Before that, though, let me continue my SoKor series, picking up where I left off in my last post, when we decided to try to walk as far as we could along the Suwon Hwaseong Fortress.
It’s May! I just realized I’ve been away too long – both from this blog and from RL. The last 2 weeks of April have been crazy (the good kind of crazy, the amazing kind of crazy) as I moved from one hot city to another (check my IG feed). Right about now, I’m close to being toast – literally! It reminded me of another warm late afternoon spent exploring another beautiful place in South Korea. So for my first post this May, I will talk about that time I was able to walk around Hwaseong Haenggung, the “temporary palace” located in Suwon City, in the province of Gyeonggi. Continue reading “SoKor 2015: Hwaseong Haenggung in Suwon, Gyeonggi-do”
It’s crrrrrruuuuunch time in my own end of the universe. It comes with the territory of being a bean counter, I suppose, because it’s that time of the year again: preparation of yearend financial reports. Hopefully, by the end of this week, this busy time will be over…. only to make way for another, equally, busy time. But hey, better busy than idle, I always say.
So I’m taking a bit of a break from numbers and balances, and dive right into the continuation of my “revisiting Gyeongbukgong series. (Check out the first part here.)
Did you notice something different about my blog? It’s just a liiiiiiittle change, so you might not notice it, but yes, I moved hosts. I figured I have to make sure that I won’t lose the memories (yes, they are memories) that I write about and share in this little corner of the internet. Granted, the migration is not full yet, I’m about halfway there still, so if you notice some distortions or wrong links, then I’m still in the process of fixing and tweaking them. Slow, baby steps.
For now, I’m going to continue with my South Korea travel series, and here’s another place that I revisited: Gyeongbukgong, or Gyeongbuk Palace.
As things are starting to wind down for the year and we are about to enter the last quarter of 2015, so are my posts on my trip to Japan last year. I cannot believe it’s almost a year since I was traipsing around the “Land of the Rising Sun”.
Continue reading “Nagoya, Japan 2014: Nagoya Castle’s Hommaru Palace”
I could not help but look at my now very long list of backlogs… travel posts to make, photos to upload… and I start to panic. But then when I calm down a bit, I think to myself, “all in good time, eh?” It’s already the 2nd half of May, and I think I’ll be lying low for a bit. Catch up on some ZZZZs, recharge my batteries, recoup losses, replenish travel fund… y’know, normal, ordinary things. At least, MY kind of normal & ordinary. For now, though, I’ll take you to another Kyoto jaunt: the NIJO CASTLE.
Continue reading “Kyoto, Japan 2014: Nijo Castle”
That was a bit of a dry spell, wasn’t it? I was off somewhere, so I wasn’t able to update earlier. But now I am picking things up by giving you the second part of the tour inside the Kyoto Imperial Palace, which I started in the previous post. Continue reading “Kyoto, Japan 2014: Kyoto Imperial Palace Pt 2”
Right now, I’m far from home again, this time with friends-slash-colleagues, and we’re hitting the scene down south. Of course, it is primarily for work, but you know me (and my crowd, haha!). Somewhere in there, we’re squeezing in some fun non-work times. But that’s not what this post is about. This time, I am taking you inside the Kyoto Imperial Palace. Continue reading “Kyoto, Japan 2014: Kyoto Imperial Palace Pt 1”
Due to an unexpected visit of the Imperial family, I was not able to enter the Tokyo Imperial Palace when I was in Tokyo, so I made a mental note to myself that “you must check out the Kyoto Imperial Palace, then!” when I got to Kyoto the week after. I thought, going in, that I can just enter and see the Kyoto Imperial Palace immediately. It turns out to be just a small part of a larger area, which is the Kyoto Gyoen National Garden.
Continue reading “Kyoto, Japan 2014: Kyoto Gyoen National Garden”
Remember when I went all the way to Kawaguchiko just to get a glimpse of Fuji-san? And failed because of the weather? Well, guess what. I managed to see Fuji-san. From Tokyo. All the way from the main observation deck of the Tokyo Tower. Continue reading “Tokyo, Japan 2014: Tokyo Tower and the Tokyo Imperial Palace”
I am one of those who grew up with the concept of “palaces” as pearly-white walled giant edifices with tall towers and turrets, where princesses are locked up so they could grow their hair really long and turn them into rappelling tools. Thanks to more than a handful of Korean dramas, I realized I’ve been limited in my “palace know-how”. And when I found myself in Seoul, I knew that it is a must for me to see at least one palace, and what better way to get a dose of (Korean) royalty than by checking out the most famous one among the Five Palaces of Seoul, the Gyeongbukgong? Continue reading “South Korea Pt 2 – A Dose of Royalty at Gyeongbukgong”
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