PSA: Don’t believe what’s on your plane ticket

You buy a plane ticket, get email confirmation regarding your booking, print out the tickets and you’re set for your flight, right?

As my cousins and I found out on our way to Caramoan, no. Hell to the NO.

Case #1:

My sister and I were booked on the Friday 5:45 am flight to Virac, Catanduanes on Cebu Pacific, the only Manila-Virac flight for that day. We paid almost double what we would’ve if we flew to Naga, but we wanted to maximize our time in Caramoan. We arrived at the airport about 1 hour and 2o minutes before our flight. We went to look for our check-in counters only to find out our flight didn’t have one. All Cebu Pac counters were open to all flights and each counter had a line of its own. A ridiculous set-up, even more so during a busy Friday before a long weekend.

We were in line for about half an hour in a queue that was not budging when an attendant started to call for passengers for our flight. My sister and I were relieved, since we were starting to get worried we would not make it to the front of the line before our check-in cut off. We handed our tickets to the attendant, giddy with excitement at the prospect of the start of our journey. He got back to us a few minutes after with words a passenger NEVER ever wants to hear: “Ma’am, we have a bit of a problem.”

That “bit” of a problem was that the flight was full and we could not be accommodated. The airline overbooked the flight, which they are within their rights to do, the attendant was careful to point out. So unless two passengers willingly give up their seats for us, then my sister and I had no choice but to board a 9:30 am flight to Naga.

Unsurprisingly, no one gave up their seats. My sister and I were stuck in the airport for 3 more hours, missed our resort’s boat from Naga and arrived at our destination at around 5pm. If everything went according to plan, we would’ve been there by 10am. But since a local airline was involved, of course it didn’t.

Yeah, like the news that you’re being kicked off your flight.

Case #2:

There are no flights to Virac on Saturdays, so my cousins were booked on a 5:30am PAL Express flight to Naga. They arrived at the airport at around 2am, anticipating the even bigger crowds and wanting to avoid what happened to me and my sister. They got to the check-in counter confident that they’ve done everything they could to ensure that they would be on the 5:30 am flight, only to find out that there is no 5:30 am flight. It was cancelled. In APRIL. The tickets were booked in March, the flight was cancelled way back in April and my cousins only found out about the cancellation on May 11th, the day of the flight.

They had to be re-booked on another flight to Naga at 8:30 am. To this day, PAL Express has yet to offer any sort of acceptable explanation as to why no one bothered to inform passengers that the flight they booked tickets for NO LONGER EXISTED.

I wish airlines were not allowed to overbook their flights, or at least flights on peak days and times (i.e. the Fridays before long weekends, the Monday of that long weekend, etc.). I wish they would remember to inform their passengers of changes to their flights, especially the major ones like, you know, cancelling a flight entirely. If my cousins were informed ahead of time of their flight’s cancellation, I’m sure there would’ve been less disappointment and frustration (and more sleep) for them. I wish Cebu Pacific would get their checkout counters in order.

But since this is the Philippines and this is the airline industry we’re talking about, we can’t rely on the airlines to improve their services willingly. It’s up to the passengers to act to make sure that they actually get on the flight they paid for. So, to help you along, here’s what my cousins learned from our ordeals:

1. If you’re flying on a particularly busy day (during a long weekend, for instance) and and/or on a once-a-day flight, be early. Like, international flight kind of early. These flights are more likely to be overbooked. Being three hours early for a domestic flight is less painful than being bumped off to a later flight to a different city.
2. Monitor flight schedules. I know this is not something we’re used to doing. But apparently, airlines forget to let passengers know that they’ve cancelled a flight a month before its schedule, so how else are we supposed to know? You can check their website for flight timetables or have your travel agent confirm it for you.
3. Know your rights. My sister and I are entitled to free domestic round trip tickets from Cebu Pacific because of what happened. We were also given PhP 500 transportation allowance. My cousins, however, are not so lucky. As of this writing, PAL Express has offered nothing in compensation for their cancelled flight. They are still checking the T&Cs of their tickets to see if they are entitled to anything, but you can bet that for their next flights (whenever they decide to risk getting screwed over by a local airline again) they will know what they will be entitled to in cases like this. It’s just so much harder to after run after and try to claim from these people after the fact. So it’s better to know what you can demand, just in case. With the current state of things, that info will come in handy eventually.

I hope, for all our sakes, that there will come a day when we don’t have to be at the airport 3 hours before a 1 hour flight, just to secure a seat in a flight that has been bought and paid for. But until that day comes then it’s best to be prepared and informed. Hopefully, the airlines we’ll get tired of us calling to double, triple and quadruple confirm their flights schedule that they’ll finally do something about their crappy service.

Tiong Bahru Bakery in Singapore

I am never one to resist a French carb, so when one of my friends suggested going to Tiong Bahru Bakery during my Singapore trip last week, I was definitely up for it.

Officially named Tiong Bahru Bakery by Gontran Cherrier, TBB is named after the relatively quiet neighborhood where its first branch opened early last year. I honestly have never heard of Gontran Cherrier before this, but according to my research he’s a third generation boulanger with a few bakeries in Paris. Apparently he is the “Brad Pitt of the Paris bakery scene” known for spicing up his breads with miso and other flavors. However, I put more stock in the fact that Dorie Greenspan called his chocolate tartlet “lovely“.

The smaller of the two branches, the original branch, was packed on Saturday lunch, but my friend and I only had to wait a short time for a table to clear up. We needed the time to decide what to have for lunch anyway:

My friend and I decided to split a Specialty Bun with Bacon (right) and a baguette with Arugula, Prosciutto and sun-dried tomatoes:

The baguette for the prosciutto sandwich was lightly spiced with curry, providing another layer of flavor after the saltiness of the prosciutto and the peppery kick of the arugula. If I had known beforehand that the bread was curry-flavored, I might not have gotten the sandwich, since I would have thought that there would be too many clashing flavors already. But surprisingly, it works. And even more surprising: a light smudge of apricot jam (made available by TBB in little dishes, along with strawberry jam and French butter) just ties everything together. The bright sweetness of the jam is just a great counterpoint for all the savory flavors the sandwich has going on.

The bacon is, in a lot of ways, similar to the prosciutto sandwich, just with varying degrees of flavors. The watercress is less peppery than the arugula, but the bacon is saltier than the prosciutto. The bun is less savory than the baguette, but it compensates for that with the sprinkling of curry powder on the the top bun. It all works together though, and, as with the previous sandwich, it’s even better with apricot jam. I just might start putting apricot jam on everything.

Jam aside, though, the real reason I agreed to go all the way to Tiong Bahru was for, of course, the desserts.

My friend decided on an Almond and Chocolate Croissant (bottom right corner). I chose the Lemon Tart, a vanilla choux pastry and a Kouign Amann for the road (not pictured).

The vanilla choux pastry (i.e. cream puff for the rest of us) filling was delicious and tastes just as you expect cream puff filling to taste: creamy, velvety and lush. The choux, though, is slightly different from what I expected: slightly heavier, denser and drier than your average cream puff. It also came with a strange crust on top, like the ones you would usually have on a coffee bun. Not a dealbreaker for me, but still strange.

Also slightly non-traditional would be the crust for the Lemon Tart. TBB uses a crust that is more like shortbread, versus a tart shell. No biggie for me, really, because I care more about the filling. I would have preferred the lemon filling to be a little silkier, smoother, to be honest. But what it lacks in the texture department, it more than makes up for in taste. If you like your citrus flavors subtle and mild, then I would not recommend this tart to you. Gontran Cherrier meant business when he made the filling for this: bold, strong, tart… almost too tart, and that’s something, coming from me, a lover of all things lemon-y and lime-y. But he just takes the lemon flavor up to line of “too much” without crossing it and the result is citrus-y heaven.

My favorite thing from the Tiong Bahru Bakery, though, is the one thing I don’t have a proper photo of: the Kouign Amman. Crisp, flaky, sweet, salty awesomeness. Traditionally a cake made with layers of salted butter, sugar and dough (don’t you just LOVE the French for thinking up things like this?), Monsieur Cherrier’s version is of the rolled type, like a cinnamon roll. I’ve never had the traditional version of this Breton dessert (something that will change on my next trip to Paris, obvs), so he won’t get any complaints from me. TBB’s Kouign Amman is wonderful: with the inside sometimes doughy and sometimes flaky, and a crispy outer shell topped with clear, buttery caramel. Le sigh. I’m getting depressed by the fact that I’m just writing about it and not actually eating it.

On the merits of the Kouign Amman alone, I highly recommend Tiong Bahru Bakery. But if caramelly, buttery French carbs are not your thing are you human?!?! there are still other things from TBB that would make it well worth the trip to the neighborhood (or Raffles City).

Tiong Bahru Bakery
56 Eng Hoon st. #01-70
Singapore 160056
Daily: 8am to 8pm

252 North Bridge Road
#B1-11/12 Raffles City Shopping Centre
Singapore 179103
Daily: 9am to 10pm

Happy 200th Birthday, Pride & Prejudice!

Yesterday was the 200th anniversary of the publication of my favorite book of all time, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. I am ill-qualified to write anything that will do justice to the book, Jane Austen and its enduring place in literature, pop-culture and the hearts of millions of women (and some men) the world over. So, instead, I’ve rounded up, from all over the interwebs, my favorite bits and pieces to celebrate the day Jane Austen gave us the gift of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy:

• No surprise that The New Yorker’s tribute is wonderfully written and lovely. In what is a very quick read, William Deresiewicz manages to touch on the history of P&P‘s publishing, other legendary authors’ reaction to Austen and the book (Charlotte Brontë and Mark Twain hated her, Virginia Woolf called her “the most perfect artist among women, the writer whose books are immortal”), the dearth of information on Austen’s life and why we still love Pride & Prejudice so much, after all this time.

• Because I liked that New Yorker article so much I clicked through to the link to Deresiewicz’s book, “A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter.” As if that title wasn’t enough, the book description sold me:

“Before Jane Austen, William Deresiewicz was a very different young man. A sullen and arrogant graduate student, he never thought Austen would have anything to offer him. Then he read Emma—and everything changed.”

If that doesn’t convince an Austen fan to buy this book, I don’t know what will.

• This Conde Nast Traveler slideshow on the stately homes, towns and gardens all over the UK that were used as settings for either the BBC miniseries or the 2005 movie reminded me that I need to start saving for that trip to the UK. Chatsworth has been on my bucket list since, you guessed it, 2005.

• If you need a quick reminder of what the story is about then here’s P&P  illustrated as a comic. I actually want a printout of this to pin on to my office desk cork board.

• And again, via NPR, what is ostensibly a review of an Austen biography of sorts. What I liked about this particular article, though, has nothing to do with the book being reviewed (no offense to the author of both the book and the review). I liked the story about Albert the orangutan and the author’s thoughts on who Jane Austen would be pals with if she were alive right now (clue: one of them hosted the Golden Globes this year and the other one won two).

• The Week’s roundup of the most bizarre retellings and reincarnations of Austen’s story is so, well, bizarre, that Seth Grahame-Smith’s zombified edition doesn’t even make the cut.  But a Twilight-esque treatment, a retelling in the “dialect of the American South” and a “Wild and Wanton” edition (Austen must be rolling in her grave) do. If I were Jane Austen, I don’t know if I’d be flattered or offended.

• And now for a bit of shameless self-promotion. I didn’t write this for the 200th anniversary of course, but if ever you were wondering what I thought was the definitive Pride and Prejudice adaptations, here’s my sometimes rambling comparison (part one, two and three) of  the BBC production and the 2005 movie by Joe Wright. I wrote this a couple of years ago and have re-watched both since, and, instead of changing my mind, I now even feel more strongly about what I wrote. I’d love to hear what YOU think.

And so there you have it, a mishmash of the commemorations of 200 years of Pride and Prejudice. William Deresiewicz couldn’t have said it any better:

“Two hundred years—the bicentennial. Send in the tall ships. Set off the fireworks. Darcy and Elizabeth forever.”

Click the photos for their sources.

NYC food post #4: Everything else

As much as I would like to write a post for each of the wonderful foods I’ve discovered in NYC, I can’t. I’m running out of ways to say “delicious”. Plus I always end up craving for something to eat after I write these posts, and I can’t afford five or six more unnecessary snacks. Not that all these awesome foods don’t deserve their own posts, they do. But I don’t want to gain more weight than I’ve already had eating them.

So here you go. All the other awesome things I’ve had in NYC:

I read about City Bakery’s Pretzel Croissant on David Lebovitz’s blog, where he said he would haul back these babies to Paris if he could. The man is a pastry chef. Living in France. Land of Croissants. If he wants to bring these home to Paris, then they must be good. And they are. The contrast between that full-on saltiness of pretzels against the delicate buttery-ness of the croissant is fantastic.

One of the reasons I love breakfast is that you could pass off what is essentially dessert as your main meal. When else can I justify having two doughnuts from Doughnut Plant as an actual meal? Well, ok, more like one and a quarter. I could only managed two bites out of the famous Tres Leches after eating an entire Blackout doughnut. The latter, cake based and filled with chocolate creme in the middle, was my favorite of the two. Somehow, DP managed to make something with four forms of chocolate on it (cake, cookie crumb, icing and creme) not to be overpoweringly sweet or chocolatey (although some might argue there’s not such thing as too chocolatey). In comparison, the Tres Leches was just a tad to sweet for me.

And what’s NYC without brunch? For Labor Day, I had brunch with my cousin at the Tribeca outpost of Sarabeth’s. And true to my desserts-for-breakfast mantra, I skipped the Eggs Benedict and went for the Lemon Ricotta Pancakes. They were perfectly light and fluffy, although I did wish that they were just a tiny bit more heavy-handed with the lemon. The side of blackberries was a nice touch to cut the richness from the combination of carbs, butter and maple syrup.

Sandwiches are usually composed of bread, meat and some sort of condiment or vegetable. Bread and just meat sounds… lacking. But at Porchetta, that’s all there is to their Porchetta sandwich. Bread and pork. I don’t think they even buttered the bread. But in no way was the sandwich lacking. The pork was so flavorful, it tasted like the European cousin of Cebu lechon (and in my book, that’s high praise). And when the meat’s that good, you don’t need much else. Heck, you don’t even need the bread.

I remember watching a special on Danny Meyer around the time the first Shake Shack first opened and thinking “I want to eat there.” I finally got to chance to do that this trip. Was it the best burger I’ve ever had? I will probably get killed for this, but I will still give the #1 spot to Manila’s very own Charlie’s (blasphemous, I kn0w). That being said, the Shake Shack burger was still VERY good, although the fries did seem like they were just an afterthought. Next time I go back, I’d skip the fries and replace the calories with the liquid kind and try one of their shakes.

Meeting and surpassing all expectations, though, was Hill Country Barbecue Market, which I first read about on Man Eat Manila. I had a tough time choosing what to get (one of the cons of traveling and eating alone: you can’t order different things to share), but finally decided on the moist brisket. And, gaaaaah, I’m already salivating at the thought of it. The brisket, glistening with fat, was ridiculously flavorful. It’s amazing on its own, but you can also drizzle some of Hill Country’s “If You Gotta Have It” Barbecue Sauce, which is pretty awesome, too. I was trying to decide whether I liked it with or without sauce, but finished all the brisket before I could come to a decision.

My cousin can’t understand how I can eat an entire slice of Momofuku Milk Bar’s Crack Pie in two minutes one sitting. What I don’t understand is how you can’t. It is called Crack Pie for a reason. Once you get your hands on it, you consume as much of it as you can. Which explains why I didn’t get a photo of the actual pie. By the time I remembered to take a photo, there was very little pie to take a photo of. It really is THAT good. It’s like a pecan pie, without the pecans. All you have is the crust and that sweet, creamy, sticky filling. It’s probably your dentist’s and your trainer’s worst nightmare, but it’s crack and you just have to have it.

———————————————————————

And there you have it, the last of my NYC food posts. It was partly fun, partly tortuous to remember all the good food that I had, and then be struck with the realization that I have to fly thousands of miles (not to mention spend all that money) to have a taste of them again. Boooooooo. So if you’re lucky enough to live in/be visiting NYC, eat up, okay? And then go and torture tell me all about it.

NYC Food Post #3: Pearl Oyster Bar

I asked my friend J what she wanted to eat during our time together in NYC and she said lobster rolls. I’ve never had one, and I was game to try. So I Googled “best lobster rolls in NYC” and narrowed down the options to the three places that always showed up on the lists “best of” lists I found. We didn’t want to go all the way to Brooklyn for Red Hook Lobster Pound, so it was down to Luke’s Lobster and Pearl Oyster Bar.

Since it’s considered by most as the city’s lobster roll pioneer, we decided to go for Greenwich Village’s Pearl Oyster Bar.

Each order of the lobster roll comes with shoestring fries, which were great. I don’t know how they did it (and boy, I’d like to know), but they managed to make fries that thin still crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. These are nowhere near like the shoestring fries we’re familiar with, PicNic. Haha.

Like I said, this was my first ever lobster roll, so I have nothing to compare it against. But with just one bite, I could very well see how Pearl Oyster Bar’s version could be one of the best, if not THE best lobster roll in New York. The generous chunks of lobster were tender and slightly sweet. The dressing (although for me there was slightly too much of it) was creamy but not overwhelmingly so, with celery providing a counterpoint against all that mayo. And that bun was perfection. Normally, I don’t pay that much attention to the bread in a sandwich (bread on its own is a whole different matter) but the bun that Pearl uses is too yummy to ignore. It’s soft and excessively perfectly buttered with that wonderful nutty saltiness providing great contrast against the creaminess of the dressing.

Pearl Oyster Bar’s is one of the more expensive of the lobster rolls (our bill was $80++ for two lobster rolls and a glass of white wine) but I didn’t mind paying a premium for my first ever. It was definitely a great first try and it made me curious about the other (cheaper) contenders in that best of list.

So maybe I should do a lobster roll taste test for my next NYC trip?

NYC food post #2: Eataly!

You can’t really plan a trip to NYC without hearing about Eataly. Heck, I’ve been hearing rave reviews about even before I had my trip planned. When Chrissy Teigen hilariously wrote about it, that pretty much decided it for me. If and when I go to NYC, I was visiting Eataly.

And so I did.

First things, first. It’s chaotic in there. It’s a mess. It’s crowded. It’s noisy. You’re always at risk of running your cart into someone or, worse, a shelf full of glass jars filled with olives. Conversely, you’re always at risk of someone’s cart  or stroller (seriously, parents, leave the kids at home) ramming into your ankle. Eataly is cray, y’all.

But if you’re patient/brave/determined enough to face the crowds and risk possible ankle sprain, then you will be amply rewarded. Because Eataly is Italian food heaven.

It probably doesn’t have everything as in EVERYTHING, but I daresay it has enough to make you forget about that thing that they don’t have. A fishmonger, a beautiful produce section, a bakery, multiple aisles of dry pasta, a section for fresh pasta, and enough cheeses and cured meats to make you weep (or at the very least, stop and stare).

It really was quite overwhelming, as I didn’t know what to look at, touch and smell first. And it’s not like I was looking to buy anything specific, but it was just thrilling to be around so much wonderful, glorious food.

Of course, I didn’t just ogle at the food. Naturally, I had to have some too. It wasn’t easy choosing between the loooong list of options in Eataly. My friend and I considered eating at La Piazza, but we wanted something more substantial than cheese and cured meats. Rosticceria was also an option but, really, sandwiches? You don’t go to Eataly for the first time for sandwiches. You come for the most Italian of foods: pizza and pasta. So La Pizza & Pasta it is.

After perusing the menu, we decided on the day’s special: pizza with tomato, buffalo mozzarella, basil and prosciutto. Basically the best of Italy on a plate. And it tastes as mouthwatering as it looks. Drooooooool.

We didn’t order a pasta dish because we wanted to save room for dessert. We bypassed the pastries and went for gelato. It won’t come as a surprise to anyone that I went for the salted caramel:

I guess it should come as no surprise as well that this was delicious.  The flavors may not be as bold as in a Pierre Hermé macaron, but that’s not necessarily bad thing. I was worried that it would be too sweet but it wasn’t at all. The saltiness isn’t as pronounced as well, so the flavors still balance each other out nicely. Definitely worth passing up on pasta.

I still want to try that pasta though. And the sandwiches from both I Panini and Rosticceria. And have some cheese and meats in La Piazza. And to buy and eat some burrata.

Yeah, I guess I’m going to have to go back to NYC and Eataly.

An NYC Food Post: Two Little Red Hens

Paris = macaron. New York = cupcake.

I seriously considered doing a cupcake taste test like I did for macarons during my Paris trip, but I was just too overwhelmed by the sheer size of the task. There were just too many bakeries (and too many subway rides to get to all of them) and too many flavors. Plus, while I can wolf down four macarons straight (the petit ones, of course), the same obviously can’t be said about cupcakes. I didn’t want to leave NYC 20lbs heavier, nor did I want to just throw out half-eaten cupcakes. So no cupcake taste test for me.

But I still had to have some cupcakes. It would be a shame to not try at least a few in the city that started the trend in the first place. So I marked a few of the best bakeries on my map and the plan was to drop by any one of them if I happened to be close by and up for a sugar rush (which is probably always).

And so I ended up at Two Little Red Hens in the UES after an afternoon at the Guggenheim.

I was so glad they offered mini-cupcakes as that meant I could try multiple flavors. With the help of the girls behind the counter and my previous research, I settled on the following flavors (clockwise from the top): Brooklyn Blackout, which was the Village Voice’s #1 cupcake in NYC; Red Velvet; Peanut Butter and Chocolate and Yellow Cake and Fudge.

By a long shot, the standout among these four flavors for me was the Chocolate and Peanut Butter cupcake. While the Brooklyn Blackout and the fudge icing on the yellow cake needed a deeper, intenser chocolate flavor for me, the chocolate on this one was on point. The darker chocolate contrasted perfectly with the salty-sweet peanut butter in the frosting AND in the peanut butter mousse in the center. THIS was my favorite cupcake from Two Little Red Hens.

That all changed, though, as I was about to leave. I was desperate to try the Key Lime Pie cupcake, but they only had full-sized ones when I arrived. Naturally, when I saw a full tray of the mini versions come out of the kitchen as I was about to exit the store, I did a full 180.

And it’s a good thing I did, because this was perfection. The subtly-flavored frosting was a hint of things to come. The sponge cake was light and airy (almost angel food-like). But what takes this cupcake to a whole new level is the lime custard (curd?) center. Oozy, creamy and wonderfully tart and lime-y, it was eyes-rolling-to-the-back-of-my-head good. It was full-on lime flavor (no watered down, sugared-up lemonade-like flavor here), and I loved it.

And writing this post makes me want one, NOW. Too bad I haven’t found anything locally that even comes close to this bright burst of citrus. Suggestions, anyone? Or do I have no choice but to make my own?

Cebu, B?

Note: If you know where the title comes from, high five!

I have been MIA from this blog for over the week because I was in Cebu for a half work trip/half holiday. And despite the work part (hehe), it was a great trip, and was my first beach trip of the year (and in the end of June, too!).

What made even the work part was great was the fact that we didn’t spend the time cooped up in some resort conference room 80% of the time. The fact that activities started at 10am instead of the usual 8:30 or 9 was a plus, too, since it gave me chance to lounge around on the beach and catch some pre-noon sun.

Apart from catching some sun on the beach, what else is there to do in Cebu? Well, duh. Reward yourself for all that pre-bikini dieting with some lechon!

Lechon Cebu is my favorite. With regular lechon, only the skin is worth the calories, really. But with Lechon Cebu, the meat is soooooo flavorful, since the lechon’s cavity is filled with garlic, lemongrass and other secret ingredients. And one of the most popular lechon brands in Cebu is Zubuchon. Since a Zubuchon branch was conveniently located in Mactan, it was our go-to place for greasy, crispy roast pork goodness:

And if you’re still haven’t had enough of lechon the regular way, Zubuchon has more pork-laden options for you. Craving for a vegetable dish? There’s sauteed kangkong with lechon.  Got a hankering for soup? There’s monggo soup with lechon (it was yummy!).

But the standout non-lechon-but-with-lechon dish for me would be this:

Sizzling squid stuffed with lechon. I don’t even like squid that much. But I LOVED this.

Then you wash all that lechon down with their Kamias shake. I was worried that this would be too sour, but it was perfect. Like a green mango shake with a little bit more edge. Apparently it also has some fat-fighting properties. So obviously, I ordered this the two times I went to Zubuchon.

And, though it seems that way, I didn’t live in Zubuchon (or in the hotel it was located in). For the personal part of my trip, this where I stayed:

Crimson Resort and Spa

Although you can’t see them in this picture, they have these wave-shaped couches that are deadly. Sit on one of those (even without the cushions they put), and be prepared to not get up for hours, under normal circumstances. Add a sea breeze to that equation? Consider yourself glued to the couch. Like I said, deadly.

Le sigh. I haven’t been back a week and I already want to go back to Cebu. For the beach. For that couch. Okay, fine, for the lechon, too.

Lions: They’re just like us?

These are probably some of my favorite pictures from Kruger. They’re not particularly spectacular (none of my pictures are, anyway), but I love the story behind them.

We came across these lions on our morning game drive. It’s a juvenile couple, as you can see, the lion’s mane hasn’t grown out yet to a Mufasa-like fullness.

They sat like this for a few minutes, watching us watch them. Then the lion got up and left,

leaving the lioness. Who didn’t really care (you go, girl.)

The lion went on his way, alone.

And then he looked back, noticed that the lioness wasn’t with him, and proceeded to have a lion tantrum. He grumbled and growled until the lioness got up and joined him.

Which she reluctantly did.

And, after a bit of play-fighting, together at last…

I’m sure this type of scene has played out between every boyfriend-girlfriend, husband-wife, brother-sister, parent-child… So… Lions, they’re just like us?

Kruger National Park

It was two years ago, but I still cringe a little bit when I remember that within a few days of starting my new job, I asked my boss for a day off. For the following week. Yep. I took a day off in my second week of work in a new job. Not ideal new employee behavior, I know. But the minute my uncle asked me if I wanted to join him and his family to a trip to Kruger National Park, I knew I couldn’t say no.

If I didn’t go with my uncle’s family, my only other option if I wanted to go and see Kruger was to go and do it alone. Given that it’s a 6-7 hour drive (or a very expensive flight) from Johannesburg, and that I wouldn’t know the first thing about planning the trip and getting around the park, what else could I have done? Come on, you know you would’ve asked your boss for a day off to see one of the most renowned wild life reserves in Africa, too.

I’ve been to the smaller (and nearer) Pilanesberg Game Reserve and was lucky enough to see a lot of the animals before, but I must admit, seeing them doesn’t get old. Okay, that’s a bit of a lie. Seeing animals like impala, steenbok and the blue wilderbeest does get old after a while, since there’s so many of them. But I think I will always feel a rush of excitement when it comes to the animals you go all the way to Africa for.

Like the giraffe

And zebras

And of course, the elephants

and BABY (!!!!!) elephants (seriously, how cute is this teeny tiny baby one?).

Yes, I’ve seen a giraffe and a lot of these other animals in different zoos before, but there’s something about seeing them in their natural habitat. Apart from the fact that there’s something heartbreaking about zoo animals, there’s a sense of us, the humans, being in THEIR world instead of the other way around. Yes, there are paved roads and electric fences and surveillance cameras. But when traffic stops to let a turtle cross the road

This turtle crossed the road to drink from the puddles that form in the road because drinking from the waterholes is not the best option for them (i.e. they can get killed if they try).

or when you back your car away from a charging and overprotective elephant, you are left with no doubt that you are intruding on their turf. And there’s something fascinating and incredibly humbling in that.

Also, incredibly humbling (and terrifying)? Being in close proximity with, not one, but two lions while you are sitting in an open vehicle.

He is only yawning in this picture and not roaring, thank goodness.

Even when there are no animals to take pictures of, there is still a lot of beautiful scenery to marvel at. As National Geographic-esque as this sounds, the varied landscape, the vegetation is unlike anything I’ve ever seen in real life.

You can’t really tell from the photo but this Baobab tree is huge.

If gigantic trees are not your thing, though (not mine, either), then there’s always this:

Like I said, it may not have been the most professional move to ask for a day off for what is only 10th official workday of your new job (in a new country, I might add). But I don’t regret doing it one bit.

 You can go and see more of my pictures from Kruger on my Flickr album. Click here.