NOTTING HILL CARNIVAL MEMORIES

It's great to know that despite the recent riots in London early this month, Notting Hill Carnival, the largest street festival in all of Europe and the second largest in the world, is still on (Aug. 28 and 29)!  We've got fond memories of this festival because years ago, we were lucky enough to be in London during the carnival weekend and be witnesses to that year's Notting Hill Carnival. Weeeee!

Notting Hill Carnival is a two-day Caribbean celebration every end of August.  Started in 1959, a year after the Notting Hill Race Riots (a racially-motivated riot brought about by the sudden influx of migrants from the Caribbean) it is a response to racial discrimination in Britain at the time. Getting inspiration from the early 19^th century Caribbean festivals celebrating the abolition of slavery, Notting Hill Carnival now symbolizes solidarity and multiracialism in Britain.

Allow us to share some of our Notting Hill Carnival pictures unearthed from our trusty external hard drives!

All main streets and Underground stations leading to Notting Hill were closed down.  We got there by bus and got off at the Notting Hill Gate, then walked to Portobello Road (yeah yeah yeah that famous road from the movie). 

DUBAI DESERT SAFARI: Desert Camp

Now here is another short video of our Dune Bashing ‘After Event’ - at the Desert Camp.

After the nerve-wracking, life-threatening (okay we’re exaggerating) 4x4 ride, we were brought to the Desert Camp together with all the other ‘Dune Bashers’ of the day.

DUBAI DESERT SAFARI: Dune Bashing

Here's a short video during our Dubai Desert Safari's dune bashing.

Now before you comment about how overacting, loud-mouthed girls we are, allow us to explain.  In the video, it seems like dune bashing is nothing terrifying.  It doesn't look THAT bad when the video is shot from inside the car, we guess.  Aside from that, we weren't able to take videos during the craziest parts as we were holding on to our dear lives and not the camera.  Seriously, it felt like we are fruits in a blender ready to be turned into your favorite fruit shake.  If it weren't for our seat belts, we'd probably be rolling and spinning all over the SUV.  Here's another dune bashing video (a much, much cooler one) we found on youTube, taken from outside the 4x4 so you can see how dune bashing really is like. 

Now what's up with all of us shouting Butong Pakwan?  

Read on about how that Desert Safari afternoon went... how we started the day looking prim and proper, hair neatly combed in place, and how we ended up looking like we wrestled with a hundred camels in the desert.

neat and tidy-turned-wangsta

prim and proper-turned-disaster

PARADISE IN CLUB PARADISE

When choosing for accommodations in Coron Palawan, you have three choices: 1) stay at one of the non-beachfront (sad) hotels in Coron town proper, 2) stay at a beachfront villa in one of the islands with electricity running on generator only 12 hours a day (super sad), or 3) stay at a beachfront villa with electricity, 24/7 (hooray) in Club Paradise.

Obviously, when we went to Coron, we both decided to stay in Club Paradise.  We went separately, one year apart, but had the same wonderful experience!

Club Paradise is an island resort in the 19-hectare Dimakya Island.  Its package is already inclusive of everything.  As soon as we reached the Busuanga Airport, they picked us up for a 30-minute ride through the Yulo King Ranch.

We were then transferred to a boat for a 40-minute scenic boat ride, passing through the amazing mangroves of Palawan.  During this supposedly boring ride, they provided us with snacks and drinks (which is good because as long as we have food, we don't get bored).

1001 THINGS WE DID BEFORE WE DIE: Wear an abaya and hijab in Sheikh Zayed Mosque

Click here to see the rest of 1001 Things We Did Before We Die

TOP 3 PLACES TO SEE IN NAGASAKI

Three made it to our list of Top Places to See in Nagasaki.  These three were carefully chosen by us, yours truly!  Now if you ask us why we chose these three, it's because... 'cause... we only went to three places in Nagasaki. Hahaha.

Nagasaki is on the island of Kyushu, on the southern part of Japan.  We assume everyone's familiar with this place because of the World War II atomic bombings.  In case you skipped school on the day it was discussed by your teacher, Nagasaki is the second city in the world to experience a nuclear attack next to Hiroshima... on this same month of August, 66 years ago.  

sorry we had to post this map because it's cute

1.  Megami Bridge

The Megami Bridge, also known as Venus Wing, is the longest cable-stayed bridge in the island of Kyushu.  Built by Mitsubishi, the bridge is 880 meters long and 170 meters tall.  It was completed in December 2005, and is now slowly becoming a landmark in Nagasaki. What's cool about this bridge is that it has a pathway for pedestrians, so not only cars can cross it.  Of course our lazy asses didn't bother.  As soon as we got off the bus, we barely walked away from it and just took photos from where we are.  The best view of the bridge is from afar, anyway!  

Megami Bridge

1001 THINGS WE DID BEFORE WE DIE: Look silly with the gladiators in Rome

 
Click here to see the rest of 1001 Things We Did Before We Die

LAN KWAI FONG: The perfect party place in Hong Kong

When in Hong Kong and can’t decide on where to dine or spend a quick night cap with your friends or family after all that shopping, head to Lan Kwai Fong and be ready to have fun!  Lan Kwai Fong is Hong Kong’s dining and clubbing district and can be found in Central. Come Halloween and New Year’s Eve, people troop to Lan Kwai Fong to celebrate and get crazy.

And whenever we have the opportunity to celebrate birthdays in Hong Kong, we find ourselves trooping to LKF to what else- get crazy! 

But before all that we sort of have this tradition of concocting a ‘Hotel Room Surprise’ (and blogging about it now for everyone to read means we can't do it anymore as a surprise in the future hahaha).  We, Karol and Macy, would always be in charge of this crazy and immature idea. Everything would be planned- the cake, candles, decors and other birthday stuff and this would often mean overweight luggage even before reaching HK. 

2009 

In August of 2009, we celebrated the birthday of our friend, Lyd.  We brought party decors all the way from Manila instead of buying them in HK, where they would cost more.  We got everything from SM Department Store's Toy Kingdom. 

GIRLY-FIED TRAVEL GADGETS

 We are not gadget freaks.  We don't own ipads, blackberries, or any state-of-the-art, new-age, top-of-the-line gizmos.  We don't get bothered if a v2.0 of our v1.0 will be launched.  We don't get troubled in upgrading to whatever is the newest model.  We buy only those that we need, and we replace them only when they get broken. 

To say it simply, we are not techie.

We won't deny it though that there are some gadgets we can't live without, particularly when traveling.  So now we present to you... the kind of gadgets we, untechies, own.

But, don't you wonder how we choose what gadgets to buy, when we don't know much about them?  Plain and simple!  We buy whatever comes in Pink!! HEHE!  Really, carrying these heavy metal objects is already a pain in the a**.  It makes us feel less burdened if they at least look preettyyyyy,

WIN A MARC BY MARC JACOBS LOOT

We're giving away this loot! Hooray!

With all the DTI fiasco about requiring bloggers to get hold of a permit for blog giveaways, we're doing one now before it's too late! Heehee!

Now what is inside that paper bag? 

MARMARIS: How We Did Nothing

What did we do in Marmaris?

What did we see?

Nothing.  

So, don't expect to learn anything from this post.  We have nothing worthy to share.  And don't tell uis we didn't warn you! =)

Yes, we like to maximize our vacation most of the time, and see everything there is to see as much as possible.  But sometimes, we enjoy more if we don't do anything...  If we don't list must-sees on that place...  If we don't care wasting our time...  If we plan to do just whatever.  Like, there's no pressure at all.

And that's exactly what we did in Marmaris! 

Marmaris is a port city along the Mediterranean coast southwest of Turkey.