The awe of Angkor Wat

On June 1, 2015August 25, 2016 By BerylIn Cambodia, Travel1 Comment

Apologies for the silence from me! Since I went to Cambodia in March, I have also been to Indonesia, Nepal (to help with the earthquake relief) and New Zealand. SO much has been going on, which means that there are a lot of blog posts to come!

Angkor Wat has been on my bucket list, and I’m sure yours too, for a long time now – ever since I started to travel without my parents in my late teens. However, it just seemed like the place that always got away from me! Many of my friends went on mission trips to Cambodia, but I always seemed to have something else more important happening at the time that would prevent me from joining them.

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Isla de Gigantes – Part II

On January 20, 2015March 31, 2015 By BerylIn Philippines, Travel7 Comments

After traveling to some beautiful places around the Philippines since our trip to Isla de Gigantes, I still can’t help comparing everything to it. Perhaps it was fact that we had no expectations for the trip, or the fact that we had beautiful beaches all to ourselves or the fact it was actually sunny (!!)…I’m not sure.

But while looking through our photos, I realized that I only gave you a small taste of Isla de Gigantes in my previous post. Here are some more photos to help you understand why I can’t get this place out of my head.

HNY 2015

On January 3, 2015March 31, 2015 By BerylIn Philippines, Travel1 Comment

We have just arrived home from our holiday on the islands of Cebu (for Christmas) and El Nido, Palawan (New Year’s Eve). Our holiday wasn’t exactly what we were expecting…but more on that later!

For such a small sleepy town, seemingly in the middle of no where, the people of El Nido sure know how to celebrate the coming New Year and put on a fireworks show! It all started with firecrackers going off as soon as the sun went down. We decided to watch the show from our hotel roof and went up just in time to see Chinese lanterns sailing gracefully by above us at about 11.30PM. I’m not sure if our watches (and phones) were wrong, but I swear they started celebrating the new year at 11:50PM with the majority of fireworks and noise starting at that time! But what a show, albeit a random show, it was. Fireworks lit up the sky all along the beach in a gorgeous colourful display (sorry for the average .gif quality below – you can watch a better version on my Instagram). Then they went off behind us; and just as if it was the grand finale, fireworks shot up on top of us from our hotel rooftop!

While watching the festivities, I was thinking that there is not much more that commands your attention like fireworks going off. They kind of snap you back to reality, forcing you to live in the moment. What a great reminder for how to live everyday of 2015.

Here’s to living in the moment; being content and grateful for how far we’ve all come. Happy New Year!

Throwback: Kawasan Falls

On December 23, 2014March 31, 2015 By BerylIn Philippines, Travel3 Comments

In 2012 my husband and I visited the Philippines. It was his first trip here and he loved it (phew!). We went to seven islands in three weeks and this was when I realised how amazing the Philippines is.

During our visit we decided to have a family day out with my relatives and visit Kawasan Falls. I had seen numerous photos of the waterfalls on the internet but nothing mentioned where they were so I had to track down its location through lots of Googling and stalking of random photos!

Kawasan Falls is approximately four hours drive from Cebu City and on the West side of the island near Badian. Once you cross the mountains in the centre of Cebu, the view of Negros Island across the sea is quite striking. I almost thought I could swim there!

The water at Kawasan Falls is a beautiful light shade of turquoise and is so clear. There are a few waterfalls to visit as you walk up the hill, but obviously the one at the bottom is the biggest and most beautiful. Sitting on a bamboo raft under the waterfall is a must! And while you’re at it, hang around for sunset and cross the road opposite the Kawasan Falls carpark. There is a beach just behind the huts which has a great front row seat for watching the sun set.