Food tripping in Singapore

It was my sister's birthday. And we all needed the time off from work and a few moments together. My family, partner and I decided to hie off to nearby Singapore for a few days of bonding and yes, what better way to do it than to return to Singapore and laze off at the fabulous boutique Naumi Hotel on 41 Seah Street.

I've always felt at home with Naumi Hotel and truth be told, it's a posh boutique hotel right beside the legendary Raffles Hotel. While many of the taxi drivers are not familiar with this hotel (and I believe most of my blog readers as well), it is without a doubt one of the best hotels in Singapore. The staff are mostly Filipinos (yes PINOYS) and they are uber courteous and helpful. From the time the doors open up to the time you get to check out, there is undoubtedly that Filipino smile that has charmed the world. Then of course are the rooms. It would be an understatement to say that they are splendid and sprawling - with a mini kitchenette, Nespresso daily, soda and water in the fridge (free and replaceable anytime), a fabulously huge bathroom (tub and bath are separate and the shower has a rain shower) with Molton Brown amenities, iPod dock, free (yes free again) wifi throughout the hotel, and free (yes free again) buffet breakfast that serves only healthy food (organic bread and jam, freshly squeezed juices, steamed fish, freshly cooked eggs, non fat milk, boiled or broiled meat, a variety of garden salad, and those into champagne or wine with breakfast can avail of the early bubbly as part of breakfast. Did I mention that the cappuccino is refillable and freshly made?). There's a small but relaxing infinity pool at the 10th floor that overlooks Suntec City and the Singapore Flyer.

But this vacation on my sister's birthday had a different twist to it because we decided to eat our way through our stay. I could not even recall all the foodies we went to but one of the fantastic finds was YY Cafe right at the back of our hotel. It's one of those local "carinderia" - sinfully good, downright cheap and yes, you'd be back for more!

Then there was the Taiwanese dishes which we had at Vivo City and at Ion Orchard. Curiously the one at Ion Orchard had the Xiao Long Bao in various flavors!!! The milk iced tea was really flavorful and made the GongCha or Serinitea teas sold at the Philippine malls taste pathetic.

Obviously, we needed to try some seafood as well so we headed off to the Mandarin Marina area where a delightful assortment of pasta and flame-it-in-your face giant prawns in cheese dashed with excellent lime juice or a bubble gum drink to go.

But it wasn't simply a food trip. There was shopping and "green living" at the Orchid Gardens of the beautifully manicured Botanical Gardens. Our cameras just couldn't stop clicking away at the variety of orchids as they overwhelmed us on the beauty of this flower!.

It was a great weekend (and weekdays) to cap off the birthday of my sister. And even if we had to settle with pieces of cakes from TWG and their fine macarons, we got to celebrate another year together.

After all, money is only good if you get to enjoy the fruits of your labor. We come into this world with nothing and we leave all of these behind.

It's about time we fly right

All my bags are packed and ready to go...

November is here and I'm quite sure that we've all planned some vacation of sorts for the upcoming Christmas holidays. Some of us spend the holiday season in some other province or country - just to get away from it all. As my niece puts it, we all need a vacation!

I won't blog about destinations but about airlines and flying.

1. I don't really mind flying on economy class so long as the flight is less than 4 hrs. Anything above that becomes quite uncomfortable, so to speak, and I would prefer flying on business class if my budget (or airline miles) will allow it. Seriously speaking, long hauls (more than 4 hours) on economy becomes uncomfortable not only because of the time differences but also because of the level of comfort. In short, why does one want to arrive at his or her destination looking like part of the baggages when you can arrive there in comfort? After all, even the flight itself should be part of a vacation! There's really no better way to fly on long haul flights than on business or first class.

2. You'll have to contend with the seat mates on the plane. Unfortunately, you can't choose the person who sits next to you. I had the unfortunate experience of having an autistic child sit at the back of my seat in one of my flights from Bacolod on Philippine Airlines. The young boy was seated beside his nanny while his grandfather sat on business class. Aside from the fact that he was making several wailing sounds throughout the whole flight, he kept kicking my seat in the 1 hr flight. I simply put on my iPod and drifted into la-la land. When the flight stewardess approached me to ask me to remove my iPod because we were landing already, I whispered to her that I'd slap her if she forced me to remove it. After all, it was all that was keeping me sane from the 1 hr kicking from the poor kid seated behind me. If the airline was going to allow these neurodevelopmentally challenged kids on board, they should place them all the way to the back of the plane where they would have no passenger to harass!

3. Then there's a flight I took going to Cebu the other month. Because it was business, I was allowed to fly on Mabuhay Class. It was when PAL had a bad strike because of retrenching some PALEA employees. I didn't actually mind the in-flight service. I was irked about the fact that the woman behind me was playing Bejeweled Blitz at full volume. It was downright irritating! The bitch was either deaf or dumb! And the flight attendants didn't give a care in the world that her gadget was open during take off and landing!

4. Of course, you'll have to contend with the various types of passengers seated beside you. Those that have body odor...gosh...imagine having to breath the same air as these people. People who are overweight (I mean really obese) should pay for more than one seat, or should be mandated to sit in business class. You can hardly move and breath in your seat or even get up to pee, especially if you're seated in the middle or on the window area. Airlines should leave the bulkheads for the disabled and NOT for those carrying babies. When you're flying on economy, please use the bathrooms reserved for your section. Children (and at times adults) usually zip in and out of the economy area so that they can use the bathrooms reserved for those in the business class section. Don't forget to flush the toilet or lift the toilet seat (if you're a guy) so that the next passenger who uses it isn't inconvenienced or dies from seeing all that sh*t floating in the toilet bowl. A little consideration in an airplane goes a long way.

5. When checking out the flights for your destination - check on line before booking with your travel agent so that you know more or less how much it's going to cost you. Check all available airlines so that you get the best time for your planned destination as well as reliability and frequency of on time service with the particular airline. You can also check for the kind of services the airline provides as well as read reviews of the airline on various websites based on the experience of various customers. Don't forget to enroll in frequent flyer miles and start collecting them. Believe me when I say that it pays off to be enrolled in a frequent flyer because you can get your next flight either free or upgraded from all the traveling one does.

6. A budget airline IS NOT necessarily a budget airline as it claims to be. For example, I was checking for the fare for Cebu Pacific from Manila to Seoul for a certain date and I found out that while the flight going to Seoul cost me about P5780 only, the return flight was horrendous at P17000!!! Which ended up more expensive than the round trip that Korean Air or Asiana Airlines was giving for the same dates! Be warned of supposedly low cost airlines!!! Why is it that the local airlines (Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific) end up being more expensive than foreign airlines? Seriously! It's more expensive flying on our local carriers from Manila to most destinations of the world than flying the flag carrier of other airlines!

Maybe you all have a story or two about your own vacations. I have friends in the travel industry business and they can help you decide by giving you pros and cons on your next journey. Sometimes, the travel agent can even give you fares much lower than purchasing on line! With the internet at our fingertips, you can always verify their claims so that you're abreast of what you're purchasing.

Remember - that it's the journey that counts!

Travel+Leisure - Where in the world is Manila? (Part 2)

Before I could post this blog, the Philippines tourism secretary Roberto Lim had resigned. While some may say it's out of political pressure, I say, good riddance.

Travel+Leisure Magazine and website takes us to a closer look on the 10 World's Best Cities (current rank on the left hand side and ranking in 2010 in parenthesis):

[Photo of Grand Palace in Bangkok, Thailand]



1. Bangkok, Thailand (1) - score 90.49
2. Florence, Italy (3) - score 89.92
3. Rome, Italy (5) - score 88.45
4. New York City, New York, USA (10) - score 88.4
5. Istanbul, Turkey (-) - score 88.18
6. Cape Town, South Africa (-) - score 88.06
7. Siem Reap, Cambodia (-) - score 87.90
8. Sydney, Australia (6) - score 87.84
9. Barcelona, Spain (9) - score 87.83
10. Paris, France (-) - score 87.73

The (-) meant that the property was not among the top ranked in this category last year.

Ironically, Siem Reap in Cambodia did not even rank anywhere in this category and still made it to number 7 place to visit in the world!

Manila, Philippines has its own character, its own feature and its own adventure (and not for the faint hearted). As the song goes - "Manila, Manila....I keep coming back to Manila..."! Only in Manila can you experience the ultra uber mixed culture where SM (Shoemart) is found in gazillion places all over the city, where the pedestrian lanes are good for only one person to walk on, where the pedicabs and jeepneys make a mockery of the streets by loading and unloading passengers on the major thoroughfares, where you get a fantastic roller coaster ride in the dilapidated rugged streets of Metro Manila (usually after the rains, every nook and cranny has a pothole), where you get strangled in the streets because of some Maynilad Waterwork excavating the streets and God knows who decided to patch it together after the excavation that took forever to finish and decided to just throw some rocks into the diggings, where buses just fall from the sky, where you see the crotches of some hunky guy thrown in your face in the major highways of the street, where the traffic enforcers run after number coded cars rather than those not obeying traffic rules and regulations, where traffic enforcers are busy texting on the street corner even when the metropolis is clogged, where the streets of the metropolis have literally turned into an extension of Manila Bay or Laguna de Bay after a torrential rain, where pedestrians play tag with oncoming cars in areas where they shouldn't be crossing (and by golly it's the fault of the driver if you run over an idiot who attempts to cross the street that has warning that you're not allowed to cross here), where when you drive a vehicle in Manila you shouldn't only be looking at the rear view mirror or the left side or right side of your car but at the sky because some loony decides to jump from the overhead pedestrian passage and lands on your car and you're accosted by the cop who files "homicide due to reckless imprudence" charges against you, where snatching of mobile phones is an every second criminal act, where people who get caught smoking in public places have the temerity to go to the supreme court to file charges against the government because they have the right to pollute the air, where squatters have more rights than the owners of the land they squat in...and I could go on and on, but that's the adventure you can experience in Manila for the next 5 days alone! When you land in the Philippines, most of the foreign carriers will have to dock at the NAIA 1. An outdated, outmoded scrappy airport that will not even meet an international airport's standards! Where the bags that come out of the conveyer belts carry boxes and boxes of Balikbayan boxes as if the Filipino that owned it had packed his whole house and included a coffin inside those huge boxes!

Seriously, let's face it. Manila has deteriorated because of very bad urban planning. It is accentuated by the fact that local government officials keep the dumpy squatters in their places because they serve as the voting majority during the upcoming elections. No political will at all. And Sec. Roberto Lim was facing a blank wall when he assumed the post. Since he had no balls to tackle this mess and no ideas at all on how to coordinate and plan how to make the Philippines, let alone Manila become one of the best cities as tourist destination in the world, his exit will not be missed. Neither will be the guy who will need to fill in the shoes and the void in our tourism industry.

But all is not lost. The Philippines IS a beautiful country to visit. Truth be told, in the same Travel+Leisure 2011 Best Islands in the World is Boracay that ranks at number 4! Our only pride left is not to taint the ranking of this beautiful destination by not making it a gambling capital or by building more hotels than what it already carries.

So here's the official list on the Best Islands for 2011:

1. Santorini, Greece (6)
2. Bali, Indonesia (4)
3. Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia (-)
4. Boracay, Philippines (-)
5. Great Barrier Reef Islands, Australia (-)
6. Sicily, Italy (7)
7. Big Island, Hawaii (10)
8. Kauai, Hawaii (2)
9. Maui, Hawaii (8)
10. Galapagos (1)

Boracay Island had a star beside it's name. Meaning its the World's Best Debut entry for the year. Three cheers for Boracay!!!

[Photo of Shangrila Boracay, Philippines]


As a seasoned traveler, I've been to most of the cities and islands mentioned and Boracay truly deserves to be in the list, hands down.

Without a doubt, the work of the next tourism secretary is cut out for him. And it may be a tough job, but simply focusing on how to land Manila as one of the best cities in the world will be sufficient to generate income for tourism to the Philippines.

Investing in tourism may be one of the toughest jobs but when done well, should become self-sufficient enough to generate jobs for Filipinos in the land of Juan de la Cruz.

So that next time when we're traveling abroad and people ask us, "so where are you from?", we can hold our head up high and proudly say, Manila, Philippines!

For more informative reading, you can log in to www.travelandleisure.com