TRAVEL AND LIFESTYLE DIARIES

In Playa del Carmenn I had my lunch at La Parilla Restaurant where I feasted on nachos with tomato salsa and guacamole. They are just my starter. For my main course, I ordered grilled lobster, just a small one. My big lunch: And I finished them all, except for the rice. Such a glutton, this woman, haha. This is the festive interior of La Parilla Restaurant. Although this was one of my best lunches (the best one was in Le Mont Saint Michel in France last year, I had a variety of fresh crustaceans, oysters, crayfish, prawns and clams, I am salivating now as I write, lol), I really felt guilty from all the food I ate. I felt hideous. So I made sure I did a lot of vigorous walking in the afternoon. My view to the street from the table. Later in the afternoon when the sun was setting down so I went back to the Fifth Avenue in search for a nice bar and this one caught me — a bar with swings as barstools! Now that's just cool, I cannot pass! Because I’m still...

I’ve talked about Playa del Carmen in my previous Mexico entries, it’s a touristy place, much more homely and charming compared to Cancun and the Hotel Zone. The locals call Playa del Carmen simply as “Playa” and in the olden days, “Xaman Ha”, a once small fishing village, now a booming city, it is the 3rd largest city in the Quintana Roo state after Cancun and Chetumal. I was deliberating if I should take the taxi to Playa del Carmen but the concierge in my hotel told me that the bus terminal called ADO is just around the corner and buses go to Playa every 15 minutes. He put my worries to ease when he said that the buses are new, huge, comfortable air-conditioned buses, and indeed when I saw the buses they look exactly the same as the tourist buses used for long distance tours in Europe. The bus ride from Cancun to Playa took about one hour and fifteen minutes and fare is $80 Mexican Pesos retour compared to $350 one-way by taxi. In fact I felt safe going with the bus with all the...

I really need to learn Spanish. I’ve actually studied 1 semester of Spanish when it was then a mandatory subject in the curriculum for colleges and universities in the Philippines, circa 1987. Back then I hated the subject and never learned a thing (my friend and I were busy polishing our nails in bright colours such as blue and green during class, really!) but right now I am so regretting. I was a lazy brat, typical teenager behavior of my kind I guess. Furthermore, I do not understand why the Philippine government passed the bill to exterminate (well, with the deep emotional scars harvested from the conquistadores this is indeed the appropriate language to use) the obligatory learning of Spanish for two years in the educational curriculum. Come to think of it, it was a VERY stupid decision! A terrific chronic case of myopia. Filipinos could have taken advantage of learning another language. Spanish is the second most spoken language in the business world! ARRGGH. Enough of my lan...