TRAVEL AND LIFESTYLE DIARIES

Yesterday Dutchman and I were in Itaewon, a really cool and trendy neighbourhood in Yongsan-gu, Seoul and I bought my first street food—‘Grilled Squid’! They were grilled directly on coal. Yummy! They are going at 3,000 KRW a pack (about EUR 2). Will be posting more street food stuff soon! Travel Period: October 2012 Destination: Itaewon (Yongsan-gu - Seoul), South Korea Keep in touch and follow me on Facebook: Travel & Lifestyle Diaries by Dutched Pinay Travels Happy Travels! Enjoy Life =)

Samil-Daero is a sub-locality of Jung-gu (Central District) or Jung in Seoul. Dutchman and I discovered this place one evening after our Bulgogi dinner (will post this soon) while looking for a place to have coffee and tea. The area is quite lively and is overloaded with colourful neon sign boards. It looks like Samil-Daero is not the first choice by many because no one told us about the place. We found  this place by ourselves. With popular Myeong-dong and Insa-dong nearby, I can understand that it can be overshadowed. Nevertheless, it’s very busy here with locals, mainly the younger ones and I am really loving the neon sign boards. It reminds me of Times Street in New York City. We finally had coffee and tea at Cafe Pascucci, with a view down to the main road. I love Green Tea Rice! I need to buy a few packs to bring back to the Netherlands. Travel Period: October 2012 Destination: Samil-daero - Jung-gu (Central District, Seoul), South Korea ...

We arrived yesterday Friday just before 1PM and have been out and about in the city already. So far no jet lag because we quickly adjusted our body clock to Asia by sleeping later. It’s Saturday morning right now here in Seoul and it’s raining cats and dogs. Weather forecast says it is going to be grey and raining ALL DAY. So we will have to be creative in finding things to do in the city indoors. That will be a challenge I am sure but I have ideas. So far there is no hurry because we are enjoying our time in the Hanok place that we are staying. We slept the Korean ‘floor mattress and ondol’ (heated floors) way and had breakfast, Korean style as well! Here it is: I told the owner no fish or anything from the sea for the Dutchman while I gobble up anything she serves. We had chicken, kimchi, vegetables with courgette and mushrooms, rice, and I had fish soup with tofu, black tea for drinks and persimon for dessert. Dutchman is trying to get used to the idea that the K...

Yep, we are counting the hours to our departure to Seoul, South Korea! However, I am not yet ready. So many last-minute stuff to do tomorrow at work and I now have a headache. I want to sleep! Anyway, I am afraid I may not be able to finish everything in time and may have to work a bit while on holiday. *sigh* (ugh) Travel Period: October 2012 Destination: Seoul, South Korea Keep in touch and follow me on Facebook: Travel & Lifestyle Diaries by Dutched Pinay Travels Happy Travels! Enjoy Life =)

When you are driving for longer hours you need some caffeine to keep awake and concentrate on the road. So we decided its about time for another stopover, and this time we want to take some of the famous Cuban espresso. We found this roadside ‘comida’ restaurant and they are selling Cuban coffee for CUC$1. Probably one of the best roadside coffee I will ever have. Strong, pure and just soooo good. Done with the coffee (so little in a big glass) and we have 2 more hours to go to reach the keys! Then we finally reached the causeway to Cayo Coco. This reminds me of the causeway to Marken (Netherlands) . Now this man-made causeway linking mainland Cuba to the Cayos (keys) is approximately 27 kilometres long. The whole thing is so cool considering that Cuba is a relatively poor country, they still managed to build this up. We are almost there! Travel Period: May 2012 Destination: Cayo Coco (Ciego de Avila), Cuba Keep in touch and follow me on Facebook: Travel & ...

So now that Santiago de Cuba is behind us we are an experience richer! Our next destination in the agenda is Cayo Coco—the islands or the keys. This is where the famous Cuban beaches are located, in the eastern part of Cuba. We will be staying in a 4-star beach resort. The drive from Santiago de Cuba to Cayo Coco is about 7 hours. We will be making 2 stops. Cow Traffic: Mooooo! While on the road, we saw cows joining lazily in the traffic. The biggest hazard in driving in Cuba are animals  that think the highways are their domain. I have a horrifying animal encounter on the road story to share later. And then we saw the usual scenery on the Cuban highways. The Toilet from Hell Then we have to make the necessary stop—our FIRST stop nearby Holguin, because nature called us to do THE deed. We’ve probably driven about 2-3 hours already. This is the roadside café restaurant that we had the stopover. And because nature called us to stop here we proceeded to t...

The blood that is MUSIC and DANCE runs in every Cuban’s veins. People there live to sing and dance. This is really serious business in Cuba. In every town and city in the country, they have a ‘Casa de la Trova’. It’s a community social centre where the locals from the neighbourhood gather in the evening together except that playing music and dancing are on top of the agenda. In Santiago de Cuba they have opened the Casa de la Trova to tourists for a minimal fee of CUC$5 per person. In fact, the Casa de la Trova in Santiago de Cuba is the most famous because they feature the unique musical style—‘Son’. Naturally, Blondine and I did not let this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity pass. We had luck as well because the Casa de la Trova is located just beside our hotel, Hotel Casa Granda. So very near, we can go back to our room late! So we went and paid, and we took our seats right on the front row. Perfect, we have the best seat in the casa. The night started with some...

Blondine and I were so glad to have discovered the pedestrian lane—Calle Jose Saco. We were literally harassed, walking on the narrow and busy streets of the city, such as the chaotic Calle Heredia where you practically walk side by side with pedestrians, bikes and vehicles as well. These are very poorly maintained vintage cars and old trucks blowing out very thick clouds of black smoke. The horrid air pollution was making me dizzy and I could feel the grime gumming on my skin. I know it is only a matter of minutes that I will catch allergy. If I was to be re-born again, I would ask for a super power skin where no amount of bad environmental elements can make me itch, sore or fly off the handle. Seriously. It is not easy having very sensitive skin. Anyways, oblivious to our surroundings, Blondine and I walked as fast as we could to get out of this traffic, noise and pollution madness. We just want to reach the corner of the street and turn to somewhere where we can breathe. We ...