Traveling is not always an escape, at times it is a way to give yourself a chance to miss home. And in my case, it has been a year since the last time I set foot on my native home land.
(sniff sniff) Do I smell homesick? Not quite. As homesick is defined as a mood or sadness characterized with initial signs of depression and melancholy. And I may JUST be missing and craving for some things back home.
Home sick isn’t really in the vocabulary of wanderlusts, we can even live …

Previously, on Fliptravels:
We were both drifting fast to La-la land when I asked Monette…
Ron: We booked a round trip ticket right?
Monette: Yeah…
Ron: Is it (the return ticket) with you?
Monette: No…
Both: HOH CRAP!!!
And so we endured half of the five-hour trip to Mui Ne with shooting BPs as we don’t know how we can get hold of our return tickets. At the pit stop, I quickly took my caffeine fix; and with closed eyes, called our hotel that booked us the tour (Ron also had to call them to make sure …

Whenever we ask a waiter or a store attendant on what food they would recommend, ALL of them would say one, and only one dish… RICE AND CURRY. Be it an unassuming side street eatery or a hatted restaurant, like a busted pre recorded talking doll, press the button and they will utter–RICE AND CURRY! RICE AND CURRY! RICE AND CURRY!
We know that this dish will be omnipresent throughout this trip because we have been warned, so we tried straying away from it on our first day.
We found Theva and made it our …

“If you are what you eat, then we are FAST, CHEAP AND DIRTY!!!” ~Ron Cruz

Somehow, I don’t think that is what Brillat-Savarin wanted to say… But I have to admit liking fast and cheap food, though the concept of eating sometimes escapes me. The dirty part is just an added bonus, like the fly on top of the cherry that is on top of the cake. Yummy!

My gastronomic trip led me to sit down Bladok restaurant on my first night in Jogjakarta. Since the food was a bit expensive, I decided …

After the Pinatubo hike, that’s when we realized that it would really be the busiest month of 2010. After booking some more flights we ran around Manila like foreign tourists, minus the public transportation piece of it. We gave our guest from Vancouver an ultimate Manila experience–from the down and dirty foodie heaven of Estero to the glitz and glams of the Philippine fashion week.
After the fabulous holiday runway show of our friend Santi Obcena, I went straight to work, while Monette went home to prep-up for her 5 AM …

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 …

Arguably the most popular place to stay within the backpacking community–Borneo Backpacker is strategically situated right smack in the middle of the city, everything is almost just a kembot away (oh well, Kota Kinabalu is just the size of Makati, so everything is really a cigarette butt flick from where you’re standing).  I love everything about the hostel, the common room, the free internet, free quick breakfast and the staff who helped us all the way.
We booked a dorm room with 10 beds and as always, Monette is the only …

Okay, so the whole Bangkok shenanigan didn’t really came out as we expected it to be. It could possibly be the lack of funds, the wrong trail of itinerary, or it  maybe just the fact that we got fixated with the whole Angkor Wat immersion that preceded the trip. Or simply because we were tired, flat tired.
So to cap off our final night in Thailand, we decided to walk along the river until we reach Wat Arun, chill out a bit and wait for the sun to set behind the Rattanakosin skyline.
So, …

OK before anything else, let me say this: I am not a heavy beer drinker (at least not as heavy as Monette) couple of bottles will attenuate me to a lesser form of social being, add another one and expect me to start blabbering some gibberish Spanish with a Nihongo accent.

It was couple of years ago when I heard of this urban legend about the Happy Horse. According the this drunkard’s folklore, there are these nasty bottles of red horse beer out in the market containing twice as much of …

Being that we are backpackers, it always follows that we travel on a budget. Our plane tickets carefully booked, our hostels painfully scrutinized, and our daily allowance tightly budgeted. It is also an art of backpacking to find the most affordable places to eat in. We also consider the cultural requisites like flavor, tradition and the old school way of cooking it.

In most cases, we end up being seen in the streets and hawker stalls getting down and dirty. Hawker stalls can be found all over Asia, and the Philippines got …