 | About Me | Mar 18, 2007 |
|  | Right after our meeting on the 11th, my colleague & I left Shanghai around 9pm and arrived in Beijing at 7:30am via train. Although the travel time is indeed too long, we saved not just money (for hotel lodging) but, more importantly, time coz while sleeping comfortably (see Shanghai album for the train photos), we're traveling at the same time so the long-haul ride didn't bother us at all!
From the train station, we went to the hostel and our guide was there already. Yep! We booked for a packaged tour. When you don't have much time to explore a particular place for an adventure, the next best thing is a package tour! Haha! :D Seriously, appreciating the beautiful architecture is one thing but knowing the story behind them is way better!
So far, this is my most educational trip abroad (thanks to our tour guide)! These are just some of the historical places we visited in our 2-day trip:
- Tiananmen Square
- Forbidden City
- Temple of Heaven
- Summer Palace
- The Great Wall
- Ming's Tomb
- Olympic buildings: Bird's Nest & Water Cube |
| | After 3 consecutive International Sales Meetings in Austria, the convention, for some reasons, was moved to China. Even though I was hoping that the meeting be held at that same place (so I can visit my friend in Switzerland afterwards), I still got excited coz I've never been to China yet.
Since it was my first time in Shanghai, I convinced my colleague to go there a couple of days prior to the meeting. That's exactly what we did... we explored the city, went shopping at Nanjing Road, which happens to be the main shopping street (darn it! I should go back there soon! a lot of great stuff at very low prices!), checked out The Bund, among others.
The meeting ended on June 11. Thank God for the long weekend (12 being a National Holiday, plus Saturday & Sunday), so we were able to go to Beijing without a need for us to file for a vacation leave! :) |
| | Holy week of 2009.
We were supposed to go to Siquijor & Cebu last December w/ Dino & Juvvy. The 3 of us had to reschedule coz I visited my parents in Taiwan, Tin went to Hong Kong while Raqs...Raqs... I don't have any idea where she spent her Christmas break but one thing is certain - she's with her papa! :D
Spending 7 days with just Raqs & Tin nearly got me insane so I swore to myself that it will NEVER happen again! Hahaha! Kidding! ;-) |
| | Feb 18: Our Store Supervisors surprised me with me pre-bday cake!
Feb 19 (My Day): My single friends dragged me to the office pantry and danced to Beyonce's Single Ladies one by one! :D They brought out a cake and some snacks afterwards. Sweet! :)
After work, we had a videoke party & a late night dinner @ Dampa.
Feb 20: I received the ultimate birthday present of my life! A ticket to Gary V's (my all-time fave) Live @ 25 concert at the Araneta. Great show! I was in awe the whole time and even on the following day! Thanks again to Rocky & Tin for the surprise! :)
Feb 21: I don't have the pix yet but I went to Gateway mall. 3 of my friends bought concert tickets from a scalper. They paid for just 3 tickets but he gave them 4 so I had no choice but to watch the Piolo/Sam/Erik/Xtian/Mark concert as well! Wahaha!
On the way home, around midnight, a friend asked me to go out. Since it was another sing-along session, I wasn't able to say no! Haha! went home around 5am :)
Feb 22: My siblings & I went out and had lunch together, then I bought myself some gifts @ Greenhills.
This ought to be one of my most memorable birthdays ever! ;-) |
| | ...with some of my high school friends. |
| | Our family was reunited when my siblings and I visited our parents in Taipei to celebrate the New Year.
My 3 sisters left Manila on Dec 26. They were just expecting my bro & sis-in-law (and her younger sis) on the 28th. To their surprise, I was there too! Everyone's so happy (I guess. Hehe!) coz I was supposed to go to Siquijor, Bohol & Cebu with my friends. I just re-booked the tickets so I can be with them. After all, our family spending special occasions together rarely happens!
It was my first int'l trip ever with my siblings, my 1st time in Taiwan & the 1st time to welcome the new year away from home. We went to:
-Taipei 101 (Currently the tallest building in the world. We wanted to watch the fireworks on the 31st from the observatory but tickets were already sold out days ago)
-Taipei Zoo (We were excited to see some Pandas but they have yet to arrive)
-Taipei Museum
-night market
-malls, malls, and more malls! Yep! It was raining from the 29th to the 31st so those 3 days were spent on shopping instead of sight-seeing :-( Anyway, the important thing is that the whole family is complete during the holiday :-) |
| | Birdwatching. I really don't get it! I often wonder why my good friend, Dino, has gone mad about it. Since he started participating in the said activity (early this year, I think), he has trekked some mountains, flown to Palawan, and sailed to Batanes just to see and take photos of these creatures!
Here in the city, he would spend countless hours by the window in his room so he could get a good snapshot of birds. At the office, he'd suddenly stop whatever he's doing when he sees one and even tries to identify what kind of bird it is! A certified bird addict? Indeed! :D
When he asked us to join him, I immediately said yes, hoping to finally understand what the fuss is all about. We then went to Mt Makiling one morning. To our dismay, we only saw a handful! From the various sounds/chirps/tweets, we're certain that there were many different types of birds that day. I guess they were just not in the mood to fly around and show themselves up. Haha... :)
Still, Dino and his fellow birdwatcher waited patiently. I got too bored that I ended up taking photos of wildflowers instead. LOL!
Visit http://gearguru.multiply.com if you like birds too! That's Dino's site :D |
| | True... the view at the crater of Pinatubo is indeed breathtaking. I don't see myself going back there in the near future, though. Trekking in Pinatubo for a couple of hours to reach the crater lake and another 2 hours back ain't that fun! Trust me!
Hats off to the Pinoy Ultra Runners for enduring the heat of the sun while running for hours along lahar fields filled with rocks and loose sands, passing through several rivers, and other challenges just to raise funds for Kythe (a foundation that provides psychosocial support to pediatric cancer patients).
More photos of their altruism at: http://pinoyultrarunners.multiply.com |
| | From Munich, I took the 11pm train (the last one for the day) to Frankfurt. By 1:30am, I was already in the airport and I immediately scouted around the place where I can sleep comfortably.
I woke up around 6:30am... uploaded the Munich photos in my laptop, rushed to the comfort room, changed clothes, freshened up, had breakfast @ McDonald's, left my luggage at the baggage deposit area, then took a subway train to the city.
Most establishments are closed every Sunday so I spent my 2 hours in Frankfurt wandering around.
My cam's power shut off while taking some snapshots as I forgot to charge my battery. It's as if I'm being reminded to go back to the airport already or I'll miss the flight. Still, I refused to go back without much photos of the city so I brought out my trusty cellphone and used its camera. After just a few shots, my phone memory got full. I guess it's really a sign that I ought to go :(
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| | Adventure really is an aftermath of poor planning. In this case, there was no plan at all! LOL!
It was the 6th and final day of the sales meeting (in Austria) but I'm still uncertain where to spend my 2-day vacation. I thought of going:
- to Switzerland but someone told me that my visa might not allow me to.
- to Vienna with my Taiwanese friends, spend a night there then a daytrip in Prague and go back to Austria after (might be too tiring, though)
One suggested Germany. It was the best option since I have to go to Frankfurt aiport on the way back home anyway. Left Salzburg around 7am and reached Munich 3 hours after via train. I approached a Filipina-looking lady to ask if I was on the right way. She was also headed to Munich so I went along with her. Apparently, she's a Thai who married a German and now resides there.
Soon as I reached Munich, I went straight to the tourist info center to get a map of the city. Perhaps I grabbed the wrong one as it was all written in German so I just threw it away. Hehehe! What happened next is I roamed around the city aimlessly for almost 8 hours... alone! T'was another superb experience! :) |
| | Theme night: TOTALLY WHITE
Doctors, nurses, scientists, chefs, ballerinas, brides, angels, ghosts, priests, nuns... The rest of us who can't think of a costume just wore white tops/bottoms/shoes. Others even used bathrobes from the hotel!
Of course there's always the creative ones: a guy who wore a sheep costume with matching sheep mask (I don't have his photo, though), and sperm boy (wearing a huge white thingy on his head and a tail. Just imagine... sperm! lol!) with a "NO TO CONDOM!" sign at the back of his shirt, among others :D
Don't know who won the best costume of the night coz while the European team danced the night away, the Asian team retreated back to the hotel. The party, by the way, was held at an abandoned castle which was then transformed into a restaurant. Cool! :D |
| | Man, this is the coolest thing on the planet! All I can say is....AWESOME!!!
I've been told that I have to pay for gear rentals myself. Spending my Euros on less important things ain't a good idea given that I have 2 extra days of vacation this time (my last 2 times in Austria were 99% work!). Thus, I DID NOT try skiing or snowboarding. :(
After the activity, we all went back to the hotel. Guess what I found out! Nobody asked for the payment! Apparently, that darn thing is free of charge! I was like... WTF?! Oops... sorry for that! Sigh... I really should've given it a shot! I guess I'll just try my luck on the next winter sales meeting. That is if I'll still be the company's representative then :) |
| | I didn't take too many photos this time coz I've been here - Salzburg & Saalfelden, thrice already. I just revisited the Hohensalzburg fortress to see the dungeon and the instruments used to torture the prisoners hundreds of years ago. Wasn't able to check 'em out last June due to time constraints.
Also included in this album are photos from our Gala Dinner and the hotel/room where I stayed :D |
| | Photos taken from my cousin's wedding reception @ Edsa Shangri-La Hotel |
| | Got nothin' to do this afternoon so I decided to play around with some of my favorite photos. Go to photofunia.com and start uploading your pictures NOW! Have fun! :D |
| | Puerto Galera (June 8 & 9, 2008)
Meet one of my BESTest friends - Neil (a.k.a Alvin). I just noticed that after close to 2 years of posting stuff here, this is the first album where he's present! This is how seldom we see each other. So when he woke me up that day (even if I just had 5 hours of sleep from Austria) and asked if I wanted to go out of town, I didn't hesitate anymore.
Noel & his wife couldn't join us because of their newborn baby so I kinda expected to be the 5th wheel on that trip right between 2 couples (Neil, Nelson and their girlfriends)! However, Nelson wasn't feeling well that day, while Neil & his GF had a little argument. The ending? Just me & my bestfriend!
That didn't stop us for having a good time, though. We had a blast, actually! Looking forward to the next trip... hopefully with the rest of the gang in tow! :D |
| | "The next time I visit Austria, I'll go to a castle!". I promised that to myself last November 2007. Finally... it came true! :D
It was just a quick trip, though, as I was rushing to the airport. Thus, I didn't get to see the most interesting part - the dungeon (creepy places excite me! hahaha!) ! Oh well... guess I'm gonna have to go back there next time, or probably go to a different one instead :) |
| | On the last night of our sales meeting in Austria, we had to transfer to this hotel. While waiting for dinner (these photos were taken around half past 7 in the evening!), the Asia team stayed at the playground and like kids during school break time, we played like there's no tomorrow! sliding... swingin'... up and down on a see-saw... hopping on a trampoline... name it! :D
Will post some of the videos taken from my camera soon. ;) |
| | It's my 2nd time in Salzburg. I was there last November of 2007.
We arrived here around 10am (Jun 1). Since the meeting will start by 5:30pm, we went on to check out the town first.
Austria's lovelier the second time around! Hehe.. :-D More greens & flowers than my last visit as almost everything's covered with snow back then. |
| | Holy week of 2008.
Photos by Dino De Leon.
More of his amazing shots at gearguru.multiply.com |
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 | Kenpot!done greeting u in ur facebook,friendster..dito naman ngaun..hehehe
Maligayang Kaarawan!!:))magsawa k s greetings..:)) |
 | Inaanyayahan kayong dumalo sa paglulunsad ng nobelang Batbat hi Udan. Ang nobelang ito ay hinggil sa kultura ng mga katutubong HIgaonon ng BUkidnon. Gaganapin ang booklaunching sa Pebrero 11, 2009, 5pm, Boston Cafe LB, Los Baños, Laguna.
Para sa karagdagang detalye, maaaring bumsita sa www.anijun.wordpress.com |
 | kamusta po hope makilala mo ko :P |
 | Yes, Sir! Will let you know when/where's our next trip, Prof. Po! :D |
 | checking in! count me in the next trip! |
| hey! eto... sales meeting nanaman. kakaantok! hahaha... I'm gonna be back in the Phils soon! kita kits! :D |
| Jols! Thanks, brother! I know I can count on you. Best of luck on your business. I'll see you around :) |
 | hey brother!
Hope you the have the best that life can offer, it was a pleasure learning and working with you. rest assured you will be successful in all that you do. keep in touch bro! if you need anything- anything at all, you know who to call :)
best regrads,
jol |
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