Adventure Accounting

I have been avoiding eating animals  since my week-long detox adventure in Ananda Marga . It can be tough, but it is manageable. However, managing my choices becomes really difficult when I travel to different place.  Kobe is not a place for vegetarian wannabes like me.  Wagyu is a type of cattle breed which is predisposed to marbling. Marbling results to this nice fat around the lean meat of the cattle.  There are a lot "t rying hard" restaurants nowadays that pass off their Wag yu meat as the real deal. I've read menus that claim they bred wagyu in Laguna and in Cagayan de Oro. Technically, that may be right. But in terms of taste...? I shelled out money for trying some of these local Wagyu stuff but the real deal can be found in Kobe.  We travelled to Kobe to try this authentic real genuine Wagyu stuff.  We got the 1-Day Hankyu Tourist Pass whic h costs JPY 700. This allows the holder unlimited travel on Hanky u lines connecting Osaka, Kyoto and ...

I got back in Aguas Calientes at almost 1PM. I was soooo hungry at that time, I needed real food. I didn’t have the energy to scout for the best-authentic restaurant in AC so I ended eating where I had dinner the previous night. I ordered the same thing. Their trout was that good – it costs 22 soles but as I said, this is a touristy town. Why not have trout and fries again? With Inca Cola this time. My train going to Cuzco departs at 5:23PM so I had hours to kill. Aguas Calientes is not a big an interesting town. It is touristy. If you’re thinking to spend another night in town, choose a nice hotel. There’s not a lot to see.    Hello guard dog My hunger was sated but I was suffering from this hygiene guilt, caused by my Filipino habit of starting the day with a bath. I’ve conquered MP but I haven’t had a bath. I grabbed stuff from my backpack and headed up up up to the hotsprings.  The town   The town is really called Machu Pichu...

The train ticket s of Machu Picchu is the most expensive set of train tickets that I bought. So this train ride deserves its own entry. And I have a load of photos to share .   I got the tickets by booking them in the Peru Rail website, pretty much the same as booking a plane ticket. Got them four months before the trip. Cost: Ollantaytambo to Machu Picchu, $64. Machu Picchu to Cuzco, $117 , in the Vistadome section. I bought the ticket based on the train schedule. That, is a pricey ticket . It is equivalent to a roundtrip flight to a country in Southeast Asia from Manila. And I'm just travelling from one t own to another town in Peru. Screenshot of my ticket. Over the course of my adventures, I've realized that I am not a climber. Mountain climbing is not really my forte. I've done Batad and Mount Pulag and I am fine if I don't climb any other mountain forever (though that is unlikely, I know). Blame it on the lack of proper toilet fa...

Shopping in Madrid. I bought a lovely pair of brown boots from one of the shops around Palacio Royal. The pair costs €90. The purchase qualifies for a VAT refund so I requested for a form. The lady spoke limited English, she really struggled with explaining me how to claim the VAT refund at the airport. I tried shopping in Mango and Zara, the ever-so-popular clothing lines. I found their stuff still expensive. Sure, it is a tad cheaper if you buy in Europe vs. buying in the Philippines, but still expensive. I scored a faux leather jacket in Lefties for 20 euros.  

I could’ve just included this in my previous entry , but I feel that Fushimi Inari Shrine deserves a separate blog posts. If you have a day in Kyoto, please don’t miss visiting Fushimi Inari. You can go and skip all the other temples and pavilion (well, maybe not all of them) but DO NOT MISS VISITING FUSHIMI INARI! Memorize that name now. Fushimi Inari is one station away from JR Kyoto Station, along the JR Nara line. I used my Japan Railpass to board the train. The train ride is less than 5 minutes; waiting for the train is longer. You won’t miss the shrine, it is just outside the train station. There’s a bright red-orange temple gate. Everyone wants their photo here. There is no entrance fee! This is completely free! XD Red? Orange? Red Orange? Nope, It is VERMILLION. There are thousands of these vermillion torii gates dedicated to Inari - the Shinto god of rice. Even locals go here regularly, I believe. You can write your wish (again) ...

Transportation in Japan is expensive. I guess the biking in Anime series is the really practical choice of getting around. The buses and metro tickets are relatively expensive compared to Philippine and other developing Asian countries. The 7-day Japan Railpass costs like a trip to Hongkong. Scream now. Brutally expensive. But that is Japan. Besides, what is a Japan experience without trying the Shinkansen (bullet train)? Pricey piece of paper Time to hit Kyoto. First, I had to find my way from Asakusa to JR Tokyo station. Did that by just asking the staff of Khaosan Tokyo Kabuki . It was quite easy, even with my luggage in tow. The metro stations have working lifts and escalators. I entered the manned gate of the JR Tokyo station after showing them my valid JR Railpass. Tokyo Station was like an airport. I didn’t get to take a lot of pics as I was busy navigating my way to Toikaido Shinkansen tracks.     Find those tracks. There are English sign...

I remained loyal to the suggested itinerary of Japan Guide and proceeded to Nikko. I wanted to try a daytrip from Tokyo. Other suggested choices would be Yokohama or Kamakura. I didn’t feel like doing Tokyo Disneyland alone – and Tripadvisor says Disney parks are all the same. The autumn leaves of Nikko lured me. I was eager to experience autumn again. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t as enthusiastic as I was, it was a dark and gloomy day when I set out for the JR Ueno station. It was the first day of using my JR Pass - the most expensive transportation pass that I've purchased so far.  Ueno Station was so ....modern, it looked like an airport. 

I was soooo tired when I arrived in my hostel in Tokyo. I left my luggage and used the common room’s computer to send an email to my parents that I arrived in Japan alive. My stomach started to grumble. Time to find breakfast. I headed outside and explored Asakusa. (I’ll talk about Asakusa in a separate post).   Uh oh. The crowds. There are lots of restaurants and fast food chains around Asakusa. I was in search of something authentic, so I chose a place where the menu is almost not translated . The food pics look good. There was a greeter/ PR person at the door. I have a good background in reading Katakana and Hiragana because I was an Otaku in my teenage years . Well... I thought I had a good background...but my skills did not help me here. Someone assisted me in operating the vending machine. I inserted the bill in the slot, then pressed my desired order. A meal ticket came out and the staff handed this to the cook. After some time, the staff told me to ...

It was a scenic ride going back to Amsterdam. I had 3.5 hours to kill. Memories swirl my mind as I recalled what happened during the last three weeks. I landed in the Amsterdam Centraal Station with memories in tow . I located GVB’s building outside the station to purchase a day’s worth of pass. I was leaving in 18 hours. *sniff**sob*

Well, here we are. The last day in Paris. I knew it was going to be a somewhat depressing day.To jumpstart my day, I headed out to Galleries Lafayette. It was a couple of blocks away from my hostel. It probably took me around 30 minutes to get to the mall on foot, but I didn’t mind walking. After all, it was my last morning in Paris. I wanted to inhale the neighborhood as much as I can. I reached the mall at a quarter past 10:00am and hurried to the Longchamp store. Longchamp became such a craze in the Philippines. I’ve been wanting to buy one online but I can’t distinguish the real one from the replica. I held off buying any LCs until I reached Paris.

Time to say goodbye to Amsterdam and say hello to Cologne, Germany! My train leaving for Germany was at 8:04am. I didn’t have time to eat breakfast since I wanted to be at the station at 7:00am. Tsktsk, sayang ang buffet. Getting to the station was easy enough. The next challenge is finding the correct train. I booked my train ticket via DbBahn before leaving the Philippines. The ticket reflects the time, platform number and the train number. I asked around and some other waiting passengers whether I was waiting at the right spot. There should be no problem right? Very un-MRT

After more than 12 hours of flight, I landed in the continent of my dreams. Schiphol airport was another state of the art airport.  This gorgeous airport is actually below sea level. Amazing eh? First thing in order was to find my luggage. I had to pass by immigration first. The IO just asked me “how long will you stay in Amsterdam?”. I simply answered “two nights”. Tatak! Muwahahahaha! Said a silent prayer of thanks for my safe and stress-free arrival. Then I’m off to find my luggage.