Quality Time with my Mom at Cafe Lidia in Calumpang, Marikina City

It is best to have quality time over quantity time.  I heard this in my favorite telenovela and I immensely agree with it as I am a very busy woman. I am always on the go… I am always at work or on the road stuck in traffic for hours. It is not possible for me to always go with my family to trips just like when I was still a child. And so I realized the importance of having quality time — to make those times extra special.

Today, I made it a point to block off my day to rest (since I’ve been working way too much these couple of weeks) and take my mom to dinner at Cafe Lidia in Calumpang, Marikina. Since she saw it on TV, she’s been asking me to take her there.

Cafe Lidia is a famous restaurant in my city (Marikina) so it’s really a must to pay a visit. I am so happy that we weren’t disappointed when we finally tried their delicious food!

We ordered their specialties pizza Lidia, pork steak, and grilled pork belly:

Look how excited my mom was:

Spotted this on the way to the restroom:

The wall:

It’s definitely not going to be my last time to dine at this place. There are still a lot in their menu that I want to try. I’ll even bring the rest of my family next time! 🙂

Prepare for Spontaneity: Wandering the Streets of Kuala Lumpur and Singapore

A SCAREDY CAT LOCKED UP IN HER ROOM FOR 2 DAYS 

September 15-22, 2013 — I booked myself for a week of vacation in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I’ve always wanted to be an independent traveler, I want to explore other countries by myself. But I found myself locked up in my hotel room for 2 days. I was scared. Never did I hear a single positive thing about the country. My friends told me it’s boring in KL, that there’s nothing for me to see in the city. Another friend even told me how dangerous it was in there. That she doesn’t wander the streets by herself whenever she’s there for work.

It was not until my 3rd day when I proved that every single negative thing my friends told me wasn’t real. My model friends Kelvin Mangilit and JM Manalang (click on the links to view their Facebook pages) arrived in KL that morning. And I was so giddy that I couldn’t wait any longer to meet up with them. I needed to feel safe in this foreign country. I decided to walk from Cube Hotel in Jalan Pudu. I passed by Bukit Bintang and finally reached Jalan Hang where Arenaa Luxury Hotel, our meeting place, was located.

Jalan Hang was totally different from my area. It looked like a totally different world from my place. The street was clean, there were some Universities there, some nice hotels, and a decent crowd. Aside from that, it’s totally accessible. I would recommend travelers to choose this area in booking their hotel.

Anyway, one of the biggest factors why I believed my friends was that Jalan Pudu, compared to Jalan Hang, appeared shady. There wasn’t any good view from the hotel since the street was under construction. Aside from that, there were beggars on the sidewalks. Indians were also everywhere. Not that I’m afraid of them, but my friends said they were bullies and that they could harm you.

That was my biggest mistake. I let fear overpower me. So the consequence? I wasted my first two days in KL.

Here’s a traveling tip: Never let fear overpower you. Yes, some places could really be dangerous. But can you tell me a place where it is 100% safe? Live life dangerously, my dear friends. That’s where the fun starts.

WHEN GREAT COMPANY TURNS A BORING TRIP INTO AN INTERESTING ONE

Since I was enveloped in fear, my brothers from the modeling world tore my walls of fear. We didn’t waste another minute. We instantly traveled on foot to the Petronas Towers (click the link to get to their website)!

The twin towers were a feast to the eyes. They’re undeniably fascinating. Here are some photos of us at the Petronas Towers in broad daylight:

With Kelvin and JM:

Inside the towers:

And again, we traveled on foot to the KL Tower, the highest viewpoint in Kuala Lumpur that is open to the public.

The KL Tower served as our pastime to check out how the Petronas Towers looked like at night. Once again, we traveled on foot to the twin towers. Did I mention that the sun sets at 7pm in KL? So we were wandering the streets up until 7pm. Non-stop walking, people! Anyway, here’s a photo with the twin towers at night:

We walked the whole day. After seeing how beautiful the towers were at night, we went back to our hotel to freshen up and grab a few drinks at a bar nearby for a nightcap. JM and I were ready to call it a night when we reached the hotel but Kelvin convinced us that we had to experience the nightlife in KL. So JM and I dragged ourselves out of the room… but first thing’s first. We realized we haven’t had dinner.

We dined at Bistro Tom Yam. I only remember the Chili Paddi, JM and Kelvin’s favorite. Since I don’t eat anything spicy, I didn’t finish my food. The food was undeniably delish… I blame it on my choosy tongue.  A few exchange of stories after comes…..

THE UNPLANNED SINGAPORE TRIP!

How did this happen? My cray cray friends JM and Kelvin thought their return flight to the Philippines was 3 days after. But thanks to my observant eyes, I remember their return flight… it was 2 days after. So right then and there, we asked Kuri, a waiter at Bistro Tom Yum, where the bus station to Singapore was located. He said it was just right across and that the last trip was at 2am. It was already 1:20am then. So we were back on our feet, brisk walked to our hotel to collect our important stuff and went back to the bus station. Hello to spontaneity! 🙂

5 hours later, we arrived in Singapore! A few more hours passed and we were at the Universal Studios Sentosa!

It was my 2nd time in Singapore and at the Universal Studios but I was still excited to go there since I didn’t get the chance to ride this huge ass roller coaster. Unfortunately, it was under maintenance. Ugh. 😦

Oh, haha! Cuz Miley you’re my idol… not!

Hey baby Shrek!

Madagascar!

Welcome to Hollywood!

Watched the performance of our Kababayans: The Streetboys! Proud to be Pinoy!!!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Bye, Universal Studioes, Sentosa! We had a great time!!! 🙂

You’ll find the man-made beach 2 stations away from Universal Studios. I insisted on going there since I didn’t have the chance to go there on my first SG trip. I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about this place.

The bar behind us is called Bikini Bar. Cute name! This area is full of bars. So basically it has a Boracay feel in it, minus the clear blue water. I was only referring to the party scene by the beach.

And in this photo, we were deciding where to go next. And we decided to check out the Marina Bay Sands.

WHOOPS! No photo at the Marina Bay Sands. Imagine we were on our feet for 2 consecutive days already without getting a proper rest. We found the train going to Marina Bay Sands but the train in SG was so confusing. So we went back and forth and found ourselves at the exact spot were we were. I was almost losing my patience. When we got off to the Marina Bay station, we walked inside the Marina Bay Hotel looking for the spot were we could take a good photo with the hotel as our background. Again, we went back and forth. It took us hours to finally locate the place. And we were already tired by then. I wasn’t in the mood for photos ops anymore.

10pm on the same day, we were on the bus to Malaysia. It was freezing cold in the bus so I had a difficulty falling asleep. But when I finally did, we all woke up 7 hours later. We should have gotten off the bus 2 hours earlier.

It was already 5am when we learned that we were in Ipoh City. We thought it was already a remote area since no one spoke English when in fact people in Malaysia converse well in English. Anyway, good thing we were approached by a taxi driver. He said the only way we could get out of there was via train. The train station opens at 7am so we had to wait for 2 hours. He offered to take us at a nearby famous restaurant.

INTERESTING THINGS HAPPEN AND ARE MEANT TO BE DISCOVERED WHEN YOU’RE LOST

The taxi driver didn’t disappoint us. Restoran Kam Ling is a famous restaurant in the area. And we were welcomed by a friendly waitress (or probably she’s the owner) who spoke a bit of English.

What do we have for breakfast? :O

Glutinous sticky rice is my favorite! It’s a sticky rice with a chicken wing inside. It’s really really really yummy!

Paying for our pasalubong! I got home-made egg tarts for my mom! Yeyyyy!

Meet the taxi driver! Thanks so much, manong driver, lol!

Take a peak at their train station. It is spacious, and well I am really amazed with their train system. I felt like I was at the location of Harry Potter (sorry for my exaggeration haha!).

HERE COMES ANOTHER CHALLENGE!

Two hours later, we were back in Kuala Lumpur. We freshened up at the hotel for a few minutes… I decided to switch into my rubber shoes because by this time, my feet were already killing me!

I was asleep on our way to the Batu Caves. I was exhausted but I just wanted to take on the challenge and also to see the caves. I even fell asleep at the station while waiting for our train. Haha, a stolen photo by JM:

If I gave in, I wouldn’t have seen this beautiful site. Check that out! And that was our next goal: to climb 272 steps without even having enough rest.

And so, I made friends with Red Bull! :))

Inside the Batu Caves, we were all smiling! We did it!!! 🙂

And of course all good things must come to an end. We were off to Manila that night. We stopped by the hotel to collect our belongings and freshen up. That was when we realized we never really slept in our hotel. We spent our nights at the buses for 3 days.

GOING HOME. We took a bus going to the airport. But before we reach the bus station, we had to walk from our hotel to the KL Station. Luckily, I was with these machos so they carried/ dragged my luggage going to the station. The wheel was broken so you could entirely feel the weight.

All in all, our trip was a 3-day amazing race! Haha! It was full of challenges where we had to test our strategic thinking skills. That’s not all, it also required a lot of patience.

So after that trip, we would always challenge ourselves. And comes our follow-up questions, “are you gonna give up? Are you gonna quit?”

NEVER BE A QUITTER. NEVER GIVE UP. BECAUSE YOU CAN DO EVERYTHING IF YOU BELIEVE THAT YOU CAN. 🙂