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Let’s Do Brunch in… Bali

Winter has overextended in Europe, but back home in Southeast Asia, summer is already in full swing. This long Easter weekend in particular is prime beach time; everyone’s out of town and the endless parade of vivid sunsets, bright white sands and turquoise waters on my Instagram and Facebook feeds are killing me.

So it’s perfect that this month’s virtual brunch is in the beach paradise of Bali.

Sanur beachfront Bali

I’ve never been to Bali myself, but if I did go, the first person I would ask for tips is The Diplomatic Wife. She’s a friend from university who found herself turning from party animal to domestic diva when she and her diplomat husband were posted to Jakarta. The Diplomatic Wife blogs about her life in Jakarta—full of delicious food, easy DIYs, stylish homemaking, and travels around Southeast Asia—on her blog and runs a chic webshop filled with her fab finds and jewelry designs.

Diplomatic life will soon take her to Berlin. But for now, The Diplomatic Wife leads us away from the tourist crowds and glitzy bars to her favorite brunch spot in Bali.

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Posted on March 31, 2013
Category: Let's Do Brunch · Labels: , , , ,

Iceland: Fun with glaciers (Part 2)

Allow me to continue with my list of fun things you can do with glaciers in Iceland. So far, we’ve covered walking on, drinking from, and finding wildlife on a glacier. Here’s a couple of things you can do with a glacier’s many smaller offspring: those glistening, floating chunks of fun called icebergs.

4) Drift among them. When the glacier Breiðamerkurjökull receded from the nearby Atlantic Ocean, it left behind a lagoon known as Jökulsárlón, now the deepest lake in Iceland. (You may recognize it from A View to a Kill, Die Another Day, Tomb Raider or Batman Begins.) Floating in this lagoon are chunks of ice that have broken off the glacier, and you can take a boat cruise to find yourself bobbing alongside them.

Jokulsarlon glacier lagoon

Marlon and I chose to take an hour-long Zodiac boat tour, which includes floatation suits and life jackets. The smaller size of the boat allows a more intimate group, and enables you to weave in and out of the icebergs more easily.

Jokulsarlon_Zodiac boat

That way, you enjoy a chance to get up close and personal to some truly impressive creations of nature.

Jokulsarlon boat cruise captain

Uh, I meant the icebergs.

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Posted on August 4, 2012
Category: Wanderlust · Labels: , , , ,

Summer at last!

You might have noticed that I haven’t been posting much about day-to-day life here in Amsterdam. Well to tell you the truth, apart from the traveling, spring and summer have been less than inspiring… and the weather has been mostly to blame. Weeks upon weeks of pouring rain and heavy gray clouds made me wish I was somewhere else, and you’ve seen that here.

But this week, things have changed. Summer finally came bearing its gifts: near-cloudless blue skies, blazing sunshine, and a transformed city. Amsterdam in the sunshine is colorful, cheerful, and so very alive—and I’ve spent the last few days offline in an effort to make the most of all that.

This late summer in Amsterdam brings with it the realization of things I once took for granted: walking to the corner store in shorts and flip-flops, enjoying a bowl of cereal with cold milk for breakfast, deciding that you want ice in your drink, getting a tan, even the feeling of breaking into a light sweat without moving a single muscle. (If you only really have to get sweaty a couple of times a year, it’s not so bad.)

But it also brings with it new pleasures: playing with babies and laughing with friends in a lush green backyard, driving to a beach where you never get burned no matter how long you stay in the sun, reading a new book in a sunny public park, throwing steaks and salmon on a barbecue grill (and eating them with salad, not rice). It’s funny how barbecues have become such a huge pleasure because the weather they require is so rare. Back home, there are barbecue grills practically installed on every other street corner, and we don’t even think about it.

So, I’m going offline again to enjoy this elusive, precious summer and all the little things I may again take for granted someday. (That’s humanity for you.) But please come back on Sunday for a special brunch treat… one that’s been way overdue! And of course, there will be more Iceland adventures next week.

Happy weekend!

1 Comment
Posted on July 27, 2012
Category: Life in Amsterdam · Labels: , , , ,

Iceland: Sun, sea & black sand

It was overcast and chilly on the first two days of our Iceland road trip. When the sun finally broke through, it transformed everything—it almost seemed like we were in a different country! The timing couldn’t have been more perfect, as we found ourselves at the southern coast, near the headlands of Dyrholaey.

It was a day at the seaside unlike any I’d ever had, with crashing waves pounding at black, volcanic rocks…

Sea near Dyrholaey

… that would, over thousands of years, turn into miles and miles of this fine black sand.

Reynisfjara black sand beach

Iceland often seemed like it was so many different countries in one, and it wasn’t just because of the sunshine. If you looked back from the volcanic beach landscape, you would see these mountains carpeted with green and yellow. Yo-de-ley-hee-ho!

Inland from Reynisfjara

The coast near Dyrholaey and Vik is also known for being home to one of Iceland’s most famous critters: the puffin.

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Posted on July 24, 2012
Category: Wanderlust · Labels: , , ,

Salsa verde, sand & sea

Summer graced Amsterdam with its presence last week, and it was amazing. Sunny, hot days (I still think it’s crazy that I now find 24℃ officially hot!) and clear blue skies every day. The whole city was in total fiesta mode, and it was finally time for the first beach picnic of the year.

I decided to whip up an Italian salsa verde, from a recipe by Jamie Oliver. We usually use salsa verde to top off grilled fish or chicken at home, but it works as a sandwich filling too. It’s yummy and easy to make.

Ingredients for salsa verde

The basic ingredients are simple: a few cloves of garlic, plus a handful of fresh mint, flat-leaf parsley, capers and pine nuts.

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15 Comments
Posted on June 1, 2012
Category: Food & Drink, Life in Amsterdam · Labels: , ,

Amsterdam’s biggest flea market

I love me some old things, so I was delighted when one of my friends suggested a girls’ day out at the the IJ-Hallen flea market in Amsterdam Noord. 
Held in a huge warehouse in the old shipyards of the NDSM-Werf (or wharf), it has over 500 stalls selling second-hand items, making it the largest flea market in Amsterdam. The IJ-Hallen flea market is held on the first weekend of every month and costs €4 to get in. Sometimes, they will have a second market day focusing on certain kinds of goods; this March, it’s toys, miniatures, dolls and dollhouses. 
The IJ-Hallen is not nearly as atmospheric as, say, Les Puces de St-Ouen in Paris, but it has its own unique vibe being in a huge industrial complex where ships were once built.
Click “read more” for the full IJ-Hallen thrifting experience, plus our finds for the day!

As with most thrift shops and flea markets, majority of the items for sale are junk. Still, if you are diligent and have a keen eye, there are treasures to be found, ranging from the pretty… 
to the quirky… 
… to the simply nostalgic. 
I was in the market for a vintage wool coat in an interesting color or pattern. I found racks upon racks of winter coats for just €25 apiece, but I was not lucky that day. Check out how far above me the coats are hanging; this is a very typical short-person-in-Holland problem. 
Still, I was happy just rummaging and taking photographs.

As my designated pack mule, Marlon was the only guy in our group. I love how he not only indulges my love of old things, but has also come to appreciate them. For his time and patience spending a day thrifting with a gaggle of girls, he rewarded himself with a handful of funky old die-cast cars from the 1960s.

As for me, I fell in love with these vintage postcards featuring hand-tinted photographs of Zaandvoort and Scheveningen, the beaches closest to Amsterdam and the Hague. They were postmarked between 1903 and 1910, making them over a hundred years old.

I love it when I stumble upon something combines several of my many loves. In the case of these postcards, it’s the beach, vintage, paper and, on the back, beautiful cursive handwriting. 
Can you believe everyone used to write like this, back in the day?
We also picked up a couple of things for the home: a tiny crate to use as a magazine rack in our equally tiny toilet, and a vintage glass decanter, which is the kind of purchase that makes you feel very grown up.

And yes, my bathroom reading material is proudly Filipino!

2 Comments
Posted on March 9, 2012
Category: Life in Amsterdam, Shopping & Finds · Labels: , , , , ,

10 things that are more fun in the Philippines

Inspired by the recently launched Department of Tourism campaign, I looked through two years worth of photos (without the help of Google, all of them are mine) to come up with my own list of things that are more fun in the Philippines. I’ve put up only 10 here but the possibilities are endless.

Can I just say, this was so much fun to do? Can the Negative Nellies out there please give it a try? It’s better for your heart and your wrinkles, I promise. Although may find it difficult if you are devoid of humor—a rather rare and life-threatening condition for a Filipino.

But wait, there’s more!


Oh, and here’s the one I included in my previous post. This makes it 11, but at least I have the complete set in one post. 
Twilight, Salad, Getting Buzzed: taken at the Bohol Bee Farm, Bohol. 
Morning Coffee, Exfoliating, Seeing Red: taken on Alona Beach, Panglao, Bohol. 
Of course, the tarsier (Treehugging) was also shot in Bohol.
Sunblock: White Beach, Boracay Island, Aklan. 
Breaking Dawn: Bantayan, Cebu. 
Finding Nemo: snorkeling at the Virgin Island Marine Sanctuary in Bantayan, Cebu. 
Christmas: Filinvest Marikina.
The images are yours to use and circulate. Please remember to credit me or my blog when doing so. Go forth and spread the love—and have fun! #ItsMoreFunInThePhilippines

23 Comments
Posted on January 8, 2012
Category: Manila Girl at Heart · Labels: , , , , , ,

Year four

Marlon and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary with five days in Boracay. Holing up in our own little world is just the kind of thing marriage gives us license to do, without setting off a wave of wagging tongues!
Financially, 2011 has not been the best year for us—although we were prepared for that when we made the decision to move to Europe. So, no gifts this year. But just out of curiosity, I looked up a list of traditional wedding anniversary gifts. We’ve never followed the traditions (year three, leather = missed opportunity!) but upon seeing that year four is supposed to be fruit or flowers, I suggested that we share a Boracay favorite to mark the occasion. 

Yep, for our fourth anniversary we gave each other mango shakes from Jonah’s! Slurping them in the shallows, under the sun, was absolutely perfect: another great memory to add to our growing list.

 Then Marlon made me funny things out of sand…

like a perfect white sphere carved with our initials…

an “Angry Birds” inspired effigy of Rogue (a.k.a. “Angry Cat”)…

… and the silliest gift of all, a “love lump” in the sand. I told you this was a low-budget anniversary!

Thank goodness for Boracay’s spectacular sunsets. Instant romance! Libre pa!

We both love, love, LOVE Dos Mestizos and make sure we have at least one meal there wherever we’re in Boracay. So we didn’t even consider any other restaurant for our anniversary dinner. Aside from their scrumptious paella, we also love their ostras fritas (fried oysters with aioli).

And don’t even get me started on the bread pudding. My mouth is literally watering at the memory.

We decided to hoof it all the way back to our digs in Station 1. After walking past the perya atmosphere of Station 3 (all I can say is: not for me), I heard a familiar voice at Bom Bom Bar. Hello, Armand!

I’ve known Armand for years but was my first time to see him perform a full set.  In fairness nag-enjoy ako. He sure knows how to spread good vibes. And his songs are catchy. #proud

So that was our anniversary. Simple and sweet, but filled with all the things we love to enjoy together: travel, food, music and each other’s company. I couldn’t ask for more. 

2 Comments
Posted on December 31, 2011
Category: House & Spouse · Labels: , , ,

Beach bummed

As of June 21, summer has officially arrived. You’ll have to excuse me for not blogging about it earlier, because it’s been hard to get worked up about it when it’s been gray and rainy for the first two weeks of the season. I check the weather forecast obsessively (being appropriately dressed for the weather can spell the difference between bliss and misery), and after the seemingly endless doom and gloom, I was ecstatic to see sunshine and 27℃ forecast for last Monday… the hottest it’s been all year!

I’ve been reading about Amsterdam’s city beaches, which are basically man-made patches of sand strewn around the city. Now Amsterdam’s not by the sea, so the “beaches” are actually beside canals and rivers, thereby satisfying the basic beach requirements of sand and water. But others, like Strand Zuid, have no sand at all… and the “beach” on top of the NEMO building has sand but no water!

Coming from a country of beaches (without the quotation marks), I found this all very… curious. Apparently, the city beaches are intended to give people without the time (or money) to go on vacation the chance to still enjoy summer at the beach. And with the weather being so changeable from day to day all the time, planning a proper seaside vacation can really be iffy. That I can definitely relate with. So I figured: why not give the urban beach a try?

Bright and early Monday… uh, afternoon, I hopped on a tram to Centraal Station, then on the tram 26 to the man-made island of IJburg, which is the next big up-and-coming residential development.

IJburg and the other nearby islands definitely deserve their own walkabout/photo safari. Being new and man-made, the islands feature modern city architecture vastly different from what you’ll find in Amsterdam. Definitely interesting, but what I saw reminds me too much of our Asian megapolises. If I wanted brand spanking new and cemented, I would just go home… or back to Singapore. I like the greenness, narrow streets and history of Amsterdam too much to move out here. But who knows, the still-low property prices of IJburg may make me eat my words some day.

On that island is Blijburg, which from everything I’ve read so far is hailed as Amsterdam’s best city beach. A “nomadic” beach that has changed addresses several times, Blijburg came into being as a by-product of the construction of the island and its buildings, and will continue to relocate until the construction of IJburg is completed.

I’ve read a lot of things about Blijburg’s “great vibe”, which actually made me look forward to getting there. So apparently, “great vibe” means “transplanted from a backpacker’s memories of the 6 months they spent bumming around Southeast Asia (mostly Thailand). Quaint little beach shacks? Check. Fluttering neon-colored pennants? Check. Zen-inspired chillout bar? Check. Oversized Buddhas? Check, check, check… six times over.

So, let’s talk about the beach.

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7 Comments
Posted on July 6, 2011
Category: Life in Amsterdam · Labels: , ,

Bergen aan Zee

Marlon had Thursday and Friday off the week we got back from Paris (they celebrate the Ascension here, who knew?). So it seemed like a good idea to squeeze in a quick getaway to the beach. We picked Bergen aan Zee, a seaside town a short train and bus ride from Amsterdam, and booked an overnight stay at a small hotel in town.
By the time I got back from Paris, I was so wiped out from keeping up with the Glee Club (and Mimi, and the frenetic city itself) that packing for another trip and getting on another train was the last thing I wanted to do. If we hadn’t already pre-paid for the hotel, I would have happily skipped this trip. But because we’d already spent the money, we decided to go anyway, leaving after lunch on Thursday. 
Bergen is a picturesque town with a relaxed vibe, and markedly upscale as I could see from its restaurants and boutiques. It’s full of old, pretty one- or two-story houses like these. 
To get to the beach from our hotel in the center of town, Marlon and I would have to cycle some 4 kilometers… which would have been fine and dandy with me if we didn’t run into the problem I always seem to have in Holland. Which is finding a suitably me-sized bicycle.
With no children’s bikes available at the hotel and the only bike rental closed for the Ascension holiday, there was nothing left to do except strap our beach blanket onto the rear rack of Marlon’s rented bike, hop on, and cling to my huffing and puffing husband for the next 4 kilometers. The bike ninjas of the Netherlands may scoff at this mileage, but for two relative noobs like us, it was no joke. If I ever had any doubts about Marlon’s love for me, he sure proved it with this bike ride. 

Still, it was a beautiful day and a pretty ride. We passed some huge and stunning summer homes, no doubt belonging to obscenely wealthy residents. Tall, lush green trees lined the bike path, cooling and shading us on the way.

I’m beginning to get used to the look of Dutch beaches: grassy dunes overlooking long expanses of sand and shallows. But in Bergen, I saw these for the first time, rows and rows of them harboring sun loungers and stretching for miles along the beach.

I don’t know what they’re called, aside from advertising space. But when the staff at the beach restaurants started packing these up at 6pm, it became all too clear what their function was: to block the wind. Which was damn strong. And cold.  Marlon and I didn’t last longer than 15 minutes on the beach without them. Mapapamura ka sa lamig!

Searching for shelter from the wind, I was drawn to these bright yellow wicker cabins for rent. 

They’re sort of like big rectangular boxes with cushions, armrests wide enough to hold drinks and small plates, and large drawers underneath for your beach stuff. Most importantly, they make an excellent barrier against the wind.

The colorful lining inside makes for pretty pictures too!

After we’d had enough of huddling (and cuddling) against the wind, we decided to bike back to town before it got too dark. Poor Marlon was so tired that we ended up walking a full third of the way back. After a surprisingly good dinner in the center of town, it was back to our little (and I mean really little) room at the Hotel Marijke.

I thought the trip would tire me out, but our quick seaside jaunt recharged my batteries. Then again, I wasn’t the one who had to pedal away with my extra weight. Maybe I need to ask Marlon how he felt about the trip! I’d love to go back to Bergen, though. And next time, I’m bringing my bike on the train.

5 Comments
Posted on June 24, 2011
Category: Wanderlust · Labels: , , ,