Strawberry Fields Forever

I do not claim to be a fashionista or a fashion expert but I appreciate beauty whenever I see it.  And in this year's Academy Awards, I thought that there were a lot of beautiful dresses.  And I thought that with the abundance of such beauty, I might as well  give out my best-dressed list as well.  Here you go:

Jennifer Lawrence in Dior

I thought that her look for the Oscars was perfect: the strapless dress in an eye-catching color with a great silhouette, the backwards necklace and that hair and makeup.  I have always thought Jennifer was adorable, but on Oscars night, she was just plain smoking.  Love this girl!

http://www.melty.it/oscar-2014-jennifer-lawrence-abito-dior-red-carpet-a122429.html

Charlize Theron in Dior

As much as I love Jennifer Lawrence, I thought that in terms of design and silhouette, Charlize was able to snag the better Dior gown.  I would have preferred for this dress to be in a different color (anything but black or white please) but Charlize carries it perfectly.  The necklace also complements her gown, as well as her sleek hair and makeup.

Lupita Nyong O in Prada

Wow was the first word that came to my mind when I caught a glimpse of this girl on the red carpet.  Her gown was just fantastic!  I love the seafoam color and the plunging neckline and how the dress just seems to flow.  And Lupita completed the look with just the right hairstyle and accessories.

Kate Hudson in Atelier Versace

This is my absolute favorite dress for the night.  It was just so sexy and perfect!  I can just imagine how better it would even look if it were red.  But anyway, Kate was the perfect blonde bombshell.  Seriously, everything about her look for the night just screams SEXY!  I loved it!  And she has such a shapely bum too.

Angelina Jolie in Elie Saab

I loved how Angelina managed not to wear black for the Oscars.  The glittery dress goes well with her coloring and her hair.  And she has the perfect arm candy too.

Sandra Bullock in Alexander MacQueen

Sandra oozed old Hollywood glamour with that strapless, shapely dress and wavy hair.  I thought that this was her best look for this awards season.  Would have preferred for her to wear red lipstick though.

Lady Gaga in Versace

I never thought that I could actually manage to like anything Lady Gaga wore, but remove that weird looking neck drape, I really liked this gown.  I love how it manages to showcase Lady Gaga's hourglass figure.

Awwwww, such a cute and whimsical dress, like it was sprayed with a thousand cherry blossoms.  I really thought that this was one beautiful creation.

Another star who oozes old Hollywood glamour.  I loved the nude sparkly gown, the earrings, the hair and that smoking look.  Cate looks out of this world, as usual.  And I meant that in a very good way.

Jennifer Garner in Oscar de la Renta

The dress is a bit unique compared to the other dresses I saw, but I thought that Mrs. Affleck looked smashing.  The silver flapper style dress goes well with Jennifer's figure and skintone.  And she just looks so young and so cute with that sweet smile.  I swear she is one of my favorite Hollywood stars.

I am lucky to have been able to get the Starbucks planner early this year.  It just so happened that I have a friend who needed to collect 3 planners to give to friends abroad so I let him in on the cheapest route to get several planners (and got a planner for myself at a minimum cost minus all the coffee calories in the process).

There are several ways to get this years planner:

2013

• Boracay Island - 4/2013
• Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - 5/2013
• Singapore - 5/2013
• Incheon, Seoul, South Korea - 09/2013

Still on my bucket list:

Domestic:

• Coron, Palawan
• Puerto Princesa, Palawan
• El Nido, Palawan
• Pearl Farm, Davao
• Camiguin
• CDO
• Batanes

• Tokyo, Japan
• Kyoto, Japan
• Hokkaido, Japan
• Osaka, Japan
• Sydney, Australia
• Gold Coast, Australia
• Florida, USA
• Switzerland
• Paris, France
• The Provence, France
• Hawaii, USA
• Beijing, China
• London, UK
• Siem Reap, Cambodia
• Vietnam
• Krabi Island, Thailand
• Bali, Indonesia
• Johor, Malaysia
• Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
• Maldives
• Go on a Caribbean Cruise
• Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Kenya
• Dubai, UAE

And many many more to come!  I sooooo love travelling!

This is my birthday wishlist for this year.  Hahaha, there's nothing wrong in hoping. :)

http://www.sanrio.com/bags-travel-accessories-luggage-tags/hello-kitty-20-suitcase-light-pink-hearts

http://www.michaelkors.com/p/Michael-Kors-Michael-Kors-Rose-Golden-Chronograph-Watch-ROSE-GOLDEN/prod9040014_cat35801_cat35701_/?index=30&cmCat=cat000000cat145cat35701cat35801&isEditorial=false

http://www.dmusastore.com/p-4857-shorestud.aspx

http://kim.com.ph/p/nikon-j1-10-3030-110mm/

http://kim.com.ph/p/apple-iphone-5s-32gb-gold/

http://www.amazon.com/Wizards-Collection-Blu-ray-UltraViolet-Digital/dp/B007FSEAHY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381424338&sr=8-1&keywords=harry+potter+collectors+edition

It's been a year since we booked our round-trip tickets to South Korea and the day to go has finally arrived!

We arrived at the Incheon International Airport at around 8PM.  It was a very nice airport, and like the Kuala Lumpur Internation Airport (KLIA), the arrivals / departure area is separated from the immigrations.  We had to board a train to get to the immigrations and luggage claim area.  After going through the usual immigrations process (which is hassle free, the officers barely talked to us and did NOT make us feel criminals like what I always witness HERE in PHL), we called the Incheon guesthouse and asked to be picked up.  The driver arrived in about 5 minutes and in another 5 minutes we were already in the guesthouse, checking in.  The driver turned out to be also the owner of the guesthouse and he was nice enough to offer his suggestions on where we could eat during our first night in Korea.

After putting our things away, we went down and started looking for a restaurant where we could have dinner.  We ended up eating at a Korean restaurant at the building's ground floor, and though the food was delicious, this was one of our more expensive meals during our stay, at 10,000KWN each.  After dinner, we went around the area to look for a convenience store to buy water, then went home to sleep.  It was an uneventful first night.

Day 2 greeted us with warm sunshine the following day.  But though the sun was shining, the weather was a VERY pleasant surprise: it was cold enough for us to be able to wear our coats!

Anyway, after having breakfast at one of the restaurants within the guesthouse's vicinity, we started off for Seoul at around 10AM.  We went back to the airport using one of the free airport shuttle buses and from the airport, we rode LimousineBus 6011 (the terminal is located at the ground floor) bound for Seoul.  The bus routes and schedule can be found here.

The ride to Seoul took around 45 minutes and based on our apartment's location, we were supposed to get off at the Gyeongbokgung station.  Unfortunately, we completely missed our stop because when the driver announced the station, it didn't sound like how we were expecting it to sound, so we ended up going down at the Anguk station and taking the train back to our original stop.

We got a little lost while looking for our apartment but after finally finding it, we were lucky that the landlord was already there and the guests who were checking out were also Filipino.  After leaving our things, we went around the neighborhood for a bit, then went grocery shopping at Sky Garden, then we had lunch at Momotaro, a Japanese restaurant within the condo building.  We went up to the apartment after lunch, and after some house rules discussion with Steve the landlord, we were off to our first sightseeing tour.  I think it was around 4PM by then.

First stop was sightseeing at Gyeonbokgung Palace, which was walking distance from our apartment.   It was magnificent!  For an entrance fee of 3,000KWN, one will be able to see and experience the main and largest palace of the Five Grand Palaces built by the Joseon Dynasty (info from Wikipedia).  It was a grand experience and one travelling tip that I have to give out is that one should wear REALLY comfortable shoes.  The place was HUGE and it was a bit tiring to go all over the place... but still worth it.

After the tiring walk around the palace, we rested for a bit at a Starbucks at Anguk then walked over to Insadong.  Insadong is a popular tourist attraction around the Jongno-gu area.  It has traditional as well as modern Korean shops, a lot of art galleries, teahouses, restaurants, and A LOT of souvenir shops.  This place has that distinct Korean feel which makes it popular among tourists.  And an added bonus for us was the STREET FOOD!  We had street food for dinner: Chicken barbecue and traditional Korean pancakes.  After dinner, we were too tired to do anything more so we took a cab home and rested.  I think we ended the day at around 10PM.

Now here are the pics:

Overall, this was a tiring but really worth it day.  It's official, I fell in love with Korea on this day.