The void that I feel when I walk aimless and uninspired, is the same hollow spot that aches when I’m broken.

After waking up from the warm comforts of my hostel room, I took my jacket and wrapped the layers of clothing to break the cold air sipping-in through my pores.
Alighting at the People’s Park station, I had to push my way through a whole stretch of cafe’s barricading the street before I ride the wave of crowd walking along Nanjing Road. Then I walked towards nowhere…

There will be days in the …

I arrived in Shanghai at noon with a sunshine attenuated by the freezing air and overpowered by the bustling crowd of platform 11. I was carrying my 60 L backpack and my day pack, plus big boxes of Aunt Xi Ling–whom by the way, I met in the preceding 14 hour train ride. Together with Max and Lene, we dumped the duct tape cocooned packages in the trunk of the cab for our motherly train seat mate. Aunt Xi Ling gave me a hug and uttered something in mandarin before …

Shanghai is where China first met the west. Since then, it’s galloped off at a pace that the rest of the world is finding hard to keep up with. This bustling, thriving and ever growing metropolis is at the forefront of technology – the city continues to grow and develop at a rapid rate. Sky high buildings dot the skyline and are some of the city’s most iconic landmarks – along with shopping centres, modern architecture and designer bars and restaurants.
You might be wondering what the attraction is for backpackers …

Meeting random people on the road is an easy thing to do, but getting a more intimate connection is a social skill I can only possess under the influence of alcohol. I guess that’s what they call “FUH-LIRTING!”
“Hi are you blind?”
“No!”
“can you see me?”
“Yes!”
“… how about tonight?”
NOT GONNA WORK!!!

It was around 7 degrees outside and the biting cold air made this lonely wanderer’s heart long for some warm snuggling, this hard and stiff-frozen HAND is in dire need of some thawing. Inside a backpackers’ pub, travelers found refuge as some …

It was my last day in Beijing and my train ticket back to Shanghai is my last rope and if I miss it, I should consider looking for a day job to earn for an airfare back home.

With limited time and budget, my dream of tittuping around the Summer Palace burst into mist. I decided to stay in central Beijing and walk around the Forbidden palace instead–and MAN! It was so touristy (like Disneyland Touristy), I was actually anticipating an Empress Dowager mascot to come out anytime in the middle …

WARNING: NOT FOR THOSE WITH WEAK STOMACH
Growing up in the Philippines made my guts tough as leather. My early memories of my balut eating days is as vivid as and LED screen (Balut is a boiled duck embryo). My mom has to cover my eyes while I ingest the helpless unborn little tweety bird inside. I hated those nights. but I grew up, and it became a staple beer nibbler and it’s one of my secret weapon to induce an instant hypertension to my enemies (hahaha kiddin).
I was also trained …

It was in 3rd grade when I started sketching different world landmarks at the back pages of my notebook as solution to the lethal boredom during math classes. Eifel tower, Statue of Liberty, Sydney opera house, pyramids of Giza and my favorite, The Great wall of China.

Up to this point, it still amazes me that a construction of this enormity took place out of some twisted idea of an emperor consumed by megalomania. But this paranoia byproduct transcended through time, generations and inspired an entire cultural identity.
Originally built to protect the …

Few minutes away from Qianmen square via subway is the Olympic green. Right after Beijing’s event of the century in 2008, this became second most popular destination following the Great Wall. During the time of the Olympic events, we were in Hong Kong and pretending to attend the Olympics even though the only event in HK then was Equestrian. So when I got this chance to visit Beijing, I made sure to check out and see the actual event venue in flesh.

It was reported that total spending on the games was …

I gave my body a favor and lied down on my bed. That was the first time I comfortably stretched my body in the last 42 hours. It was a glorious moment and I just want to retire to dreamland, but it was not that easy, my mind is not cooperating, I was too excited to walk around and start my date with Beijing and I can’t keep my mind off the pre-conceived images in my head. So I procrastinated on sleeping, it was 3 in the afternoon and 3 …

After the energy draining, butt bruising, slip-disk inducing train ride, I roamed around the divisoria-ish crowded Beijing Train station to look for a tourist booking counter to try my luck in upgrading my ticket back to Shanghai. Well I guess my lucky star just exploded to a Justin Bieber (???)–I re-booked, only to find out I got a train ride to Inner Mongolian border to Siberia. Pfrt!
I got too exhausted looking for a map to take me to the subway to my Hostel, so I flagged a cab and got ripped off, …