Ish Meets World

When it comes to Asia, Brunei is not exactly on top of the list of places to visit for Filipinos, other Asians or Westerners alike. I got my opportunity to visit Brunei a couple of times because of work and was pleasantly surprised. The Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Mosque In general, visiting a Muslim country is very intimidating to Filipinos and Westerners because of the misconceptions surrounding the rules implemented there. We have all heard the horror stories of people getting beheaded, kidnapped and jailed for all sorts of violations in other Muslim states. (I have been watching “Locked Up Abroad” waaaay too much). Although not as much a  victim of bad publicity as other Muslim states, not many good things are know about Brunei either. I thought I should share all the good experiences I’ve had there. First of all, the people there speak perfect English. We used to be proud of our English in the Philippines but since the discovery of tagalized shows (dubbing everything ...

Anyone who has known me long enough must surely know how much of a petrol head I am. Not many girls have ‘drive in the autobahn’ in their bucket list but I’m proud to be one of the few. I went on a trip to Germany a few years ago and ended up being adopted by Wolfgang, who is the best friend of a colleague (Thorsten) who wasn’t there at the time. If you’re German and you’re reading this, you must think it’s stupid to make a big deal out of a road system but if you’re Filipino and have to drive through EDSA, you’ll know why I find the autobahn so fascinating. 🙂 Let’s start with misconceptions. At first, I thought the autobahn was: 1. Straight (I know it’s stupid but I always had an image in my mind that it would be dead straight) 2. Composed of a minimum of five lanes 3. One particular highway. Boy, was I wrong! Apparently, it’s NOT straight. Well, it is in some places, but just like our highways here and in other c...

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d share this photo that I took in Milan: PDA is not an issue in Europe 🙂 I photographed this lovely couple in the streets of Milan while I was doing the touristy thing. Judging from the suitcases at their feet, it appears that they have just reunited or are about to part ways. While the story behind the tender moment escapes me, I captured the memory forever. I like imagining the stories behind random moments like this and this is one of the best things that I like about Europe. People there are not ashamed to show affection. Public displays of affection are not frowned upon like they are here in Asia. The Philippines in particular, has been very conservative about kissing in public. Holding hands is perhaps as far as you can go without making everyone else uncomfortable. This is one of the things that I enjoy most about travelling. Experiencing how other people live their lives is a lesson that can only be learned on the street...

Ok, so is it true that they eat anything in China? On a recent trip, my travel buddies and I came across some fairly nasty things. After years of enjoying street food in Taiwan, we decided to check out if they have similar stuff in Beijing. The night market (Shi Lin) we go to in Taiwan has an entire food section which we crash before heading out to look for bargain shopping deals. In Beijing however, we stumbled upon this night market dedicated entirely to food. According to my friend Lyndall, the place is called Wang Fu Jing. 🙂 But I don’t think you can get there by saying that to the taxi driver. We needed someone to write it down in Chinese characters haha. The market started out normal enough with a row of stalls selling candied fruits which were so perfect they looked like plastic. They were nice and fresh when we tried them though! Further along it started getting a bit strange. But for a Filipino, seafood on sticks is no biggie: A few more stalls later, we finally started...

I know I keep praising the Madrid Metro system which results in empahasizing more and more that I live in a third world (ok fine, developing is a more acceptable term now) nation which has a horrible public transpo system. But hey, If you are one of the millions who drive to work everyday in the rush hour traffic or one of the people who has to squeeze into the MRT, you would be just as deliriously happy as I am to have the Madrid Metro. Not to mention the soaring gas prices which I don’t really want to get into. I normally hate it when people diss Manila or the Philippines in general and I get defensive. I always think that only Filipinos can criticize our own country haha. However, the public transpo chaos is one thing I can’t deny. So anyway, I’m bringing this up because of a commercial I saw when I was waiting in one of the stations for the train to arrive. It’s an ad about the Madrid Metro which involves the Philippines. The ad is called “El Madrid de ...

It’s summertime once again and before everyone heads out to the beach, the holy week prompts us Catholics to uphold the traditions which we grew up with and one of those is the VISITA IGLESIA. Being struck with wanderlust, I decided to do it differently. Instead of doing the traditional Visita Iglesia, I would like to share with you my list of favorite churches that I have visited around Europe. I am hoping this will suffice as my own version of visita iglesia for this year. 1. Santa Maria Real de la Almudena-MADRID, SPAIN Of course, the first Cathedral on my list is located in Madrid. As Filipinos, we owe our faith to our Spanish conquerors. I must say, I’m more than thankful that they left us Catholicism! The Almudena stands opposite the Palacio Real and at first glance I mistook it TO BE THE PALACIO REAL 🙂  Being from the Philippines, I have the Disney- influenced concept that castles have towers, domes and spires. The actual Palacio Real is Grand but it’s a rectan...