Adventure Accounting

I had to make a choice between Anura dhapura or Polonnar uwa. I chose Polonnaruwa because it was easi er to get to via public transportation and I could be based in Dambulla.   Polonnaruwa is an ancient kingdom and city in the northern central area of Sri Lanka. Take note of the spelling: single L, double N . I've seen an cient ruins before so I knew that exploring the complex would be awesome but repetitive too. My hostel offered to arra nge my tuktuk ride the day before. The owner knew the tuktuk ownder. I arrang ed my breakfast to be served at 8AM. While eating breakfast, I noticed that my hand was bare and I had to go back to my room and slip on m y fake wedding ring. Fake gold band as my fake wedding ring We stopped at a "spice garden" first. It is a garden filled with spices. No need to buy anything, according to them. But I guess th ey sell agre ssively or ask for a tip at the end. I wasn't able to find out because when the guy lear ned that I wa...

What do Rome , Athens , Siem Reap , Ayutthaya , Bacolod and Ollantaytambo all have in common? Ruins. These dilapidated (ex)important structures drives tourist to enjoy their ancient magnificence. Peru is filled with ruins. The most important and prominent being Machu Picchu. But I’ll eventually get to that. For now, I’ll show you the ruins left by aliens in Pisac and Ollantaytambo. Yes aliens. That’s according to the “Ancient Aliens” documentary. (Now I know that not all docus are true, but just play with me here).  The flight from Lima was smooth. I landed in Cuzco and almost froze. I spent some time unearthing my jacket from my luggage before finding my driver - Eduardo. I requested my hostel to send up a car to pick me up from Cuzco airport to take me to Ollantaytambo. We will be exploring the Pisac ruins along the way. Shining sky, cold air. Hiring a car was a pricey decision costing $80 for the first four hours and $10 for a succeeding hour. Y...

The plan: Walk going to Syntagma Square slowly. Explore the Roman Agora area. Get profile-picture worthy shots. It is Day 2 of Ancient Athens. Time to utilize th e € 12 combination ticket that we boughtin Acropolis . When planning your itinerary, check the opening and closing times of the sites in this link . Some sites are closed on Mondays/Tuesdays. I ran out of goddess-like outfits that day. Laundry was scheduled that night. I had to wear a black dress during a scorching hot weather.   We started the day early. We were at the Temple of Olympian Zeus shortly after 9:00am.    Tyring out yoga poses Jumpshot. Yes, those are my cycling shorts. Huli! Wa-poise!

The previous daywas uneventful. We were brimming with energy when we arrived at Athens Studios to meet our tour guide for the walking tour - costs €6. I warned Marj that these walking tours are very tiring, and it doesn’t give you time to take photos/camwhore. The tour started at around 9:00 am. Lots of Australians (there are always Australian backpackers), some from other EU countries. From Asia, there’s just us and some girls from Singapore. I feel some kind of kinship whenever I see someone from South-East Asia backpacking around the world. Surprisingly, there were no Americans. We made our way to Syntagma Square, into some side streets (that I can’t recall). At some point, we stopped for some snacks and a toilet break. Very important. Better empty your bladder even if don’t feel like it. There will be no time to pause after this break. I bought a banana from a fruitstand for €0.20. I like our local bananas better. It was a flurry of ancient stories. Al...

We have four full days in Bangkok. I wanted to have two full days for sightseeing and two days for shopping. Bangkok can be a perfect base for lots of side trips around the city. Most of the side trips are one or two hours away from the city proper. My choice: Ayutthaya. Being a world UNESCO World Heritage site, the choice was easy. How to go to Ayutthaya: I wanted to do this DIY rather than join a group. According to Tripadvisor, the best way to DIY Ayutthaya is by riding a minivan. Alternative options are taking the bus and train. We went with the minivan – read: parang FX. I found this blog as a guide in DIY-ing our Ayutthaya day. We navigated our way from Sala Daeng to Victory Monument station. By reading the exit maps, we located Fashion Mall Shopping Center. In front of the mall are   these minivans that will take us to Ayutthaya. Someone collected BHT 60 when we got in. A couple of minutes later, some locals and some fellow tourists arrived. The pre...

Another sunblock-filled day in Siem Reap. Time to utilize our three day pass in the Angkor Wat Complex. So here's our camwhoring adventure continued. There are some really steep steps. Although it was "off-season" when we were there, the tourists are still everywhere! If you want a super solo shot, you have to patiently wait for everyone to go away.  

This is gonna be a long post. Not a long read. Just long because of the pictures. It took me considerable time to choose the pictures for this post. Is there a limit on the number of pictures in a blog post? Harhar. Enjoy looking at our happy camwhoring adventure!  Despite the twister-like weather the previous day , Siem Reap greeted us with lots of sunshine. We slathered ourselves with a healthy layer of sunblock. For touring the Angkor Wat complex, I decided to get a personal guide. The guide is different from the tuktuk driver. Angkor Wat guides are licensed, and their standard rate starts at $25. Quite steep right? It is actually one of the most pricey expenses in our whole Indochina trip . But I read that getting a guide can really help you appreciate the Angkor Wat complex more; plus you get the chance to help a local. The most important advantage: somebody will take our pictures. Bousavy guesthouse provided our English-speaking tour guide: Mr. Em Khemra. First sto...

It was 6:30 when we arrived at the front entrance of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. It was already closed. I resigned myself to just taking photos of the sign. But our driver said we could still get inside. He drove us to the entrance. True enough, there were some guys hanging out ( read: tumatambay ) at the front. Kinda scary scenario for tourist girls, in this old high-school-turned-prison, at night, with a bunch of guys. I didn’t feel safe at that moment, but I wanted to see the place. We were charged $3 because it was already past the museum hours. I knew the fee costs $2 so I smelled that this was not exactly legal – ala colorum na tour itoh teh . We bought the tix anyway. Our driver went with us inside. He kept on apologizing that he didn’t speak a lot of English because he didn’t go to school. We smiled and said that was okay – he was so helpful. He toured us around the deserted prison. The ten commandments, the prisoner's version He said he was a sma...

Rome has a lot to offer. I have a lot to share. My posts are scattered. I don’t know if I should blog on based on the day, the type of attraction or place. Nevertheless, I enjoy back-blogging because it allows me to always reminisce about my Europe trip.  Coming from the Vatican , I wanted to spend some time in the ruins before meeting up with a former colleague of my dad, who now works in Rome. Understandably, my parents need someone to check up on me, since I was traveling alone . Hahahaha. It would be good to converse in Filipino again.  When I got back to Termini station, the exhaustion got me. I’ll just visit the rest of the Roman Ruins next time. I walked back to my hostel to rest for a bit. No roommates, so I had a peaceful hour of rest. I headed out to the Colosseum (our set meeting place).  At day: At Dusk:

Most of my roommates are traveling Europe in a counter clockwise direction, while I was traveling clockwise. They’ve all been to Paris and Rome so I got loads of tips for these cities. In my itinerary, I put these cities at the last leg to “save the best for last”. I’ve heard oooh and aaah stories about the magnificence of Rome but it always ended with a word of caution: “Beware of pickpockets in Rome”. I’ve read a fair share of warning about this ancient city crowded with pickpockets. Leaving Santa Maria Novella of Florence