celebraTINg exisTENce

The Colors of Stobosa, La Trinidad, Benguet

By Tin Gallemaso - 4:18:00 AM

From the Bell Church, we walked towards this Hillside Homes Artwork more commonly known as the Colors of Stobosa.

StoBoSa being the portmanteau of the sitio names where this artwork is located namely STOnehill, BOtiwtiw and SAdjap in Barangay Balili, La Trinidad.

This place is a part of the Urban Redevelopment Tourism Program and is inspired by the artworks in Brazil called Favela Paintings which is also an urban mural project over the slum houses in Rio de Janeiro.

Without the bigger space for walkways and tourist sites, this place is also similar to Gamcheon Cultural Village in Busan, South Korea. Only that, Stobosa has no enough space for tourists to walk in. You can only go as far as the bridge if you're taking photos and the waiting area is only along the highway.

In fact, there's no parking space if ever you're bringing your car in the area 'cause this place is literally along the Halsema highway.

And even if it looks much better in picture and even if it's hard to take pictures in this area, I can still recommend spending a few minutes here especially if you're in the area.

Afterall, it took a lot of planning and hardwork to make this project into fruition. Definitely succeeded into transforming an eyesore into a very "Instagrammable" artwork.

DIRECTIONS:

Ride any Trinidad bound jeep from downtown Baguio (Session Road or Magsaysay Area) Tell the driving you're going here. And even if he forgets, it's impossible to miss this colorful houses along the road.

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Out-of-the-Country

Seoul, South Korea: LED Rose Garden at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP)

By Tin Gallemaso - 1:47:00 AM

One of the famous attractions in Seoul right now is the thousands (25,550 to be exact) of LED roses that automatically light up by sunset outside Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP).

As for the subway, you can alight at Dongdaemun or DDP. Either will lead you to this place. <3

"Magical" field of white LED roses.

Remember when something like this went viral in Facebook? The one in Cebu? Well. I think this is one of the places where that cafe got its inspiration from.

Much beautiful up close. <3

If I ever find myself in this part of Seoul again, I would try my best to walk inside the building just to see what's there. lol. We literally just passed by these roses on the way back to the hotel. I wanna explore Dongdaemun area as well. I think, you can go walking along Cheongyechon Stream as well when you're from here since it's in the vicinity.

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Out-of-the-Country

Elephant Trails of Elephant Nature Park (Saddle Off Program), Chiang Mai, Thailand

By Tin Gallemaso - 4:33:00 PM

This is the "Saddle Off" program of Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai, Thailand and the Sanctuary we visited was Sila Elephant Sanctuary in A.Muang Camp

Elephant Nature Park link: here.
If you're interested in availing this day trip, all the details you'd need should be in the website.

Sila Elephant Sanctuary link: here.

A day spent with an elephant has always been in my bucketlist but I never imagined that I'm going to Chiang Mai alone. hihi #solotraveller

As soon as I finalized the days that I will be travelling in Chiang Mai, I immediately booked the day trip to the elephant camp. I researched for a bit and Elephant Nature Park is the sanctuary that I found most humane.

There are a lot of day/overnight tour options in their website but I chose the Saddle Off program which costs 2,500 THB mainly because I read in the itinerary that there is a short forest walk.

I traveled to Thailand in July and it was the monsoon season which explains the fog and the rain. It was the perfect day for me though because the weather was cool and I love being surrounded by fog while in the mountain.

After a bit of orientation, we changed to their traditional clothes, kept our things in the locker and proceeded to this area to feed the elephants.

This is the closest I got to an elephant.

The picture may look like they were small but they weren't haha! I was standing on an elevated ground when I took this picture.

After a bit of feeding, we were told to walk towards the mountain. It wasn't supposed to be a difficult hike but because of the non-stop rain, the trail has become muddy and slippery. The guides were there to help though so the difficult parts of the trail were all manageable.

It's a good thing that I decided to wear a hiking sandals for my Thailand trip because rubber shoes/trainers would be difficult to clean afterwards. You can opt to borrow rain boots though if you can't wet your shoes.

The elephants roamed freely in this area as they were eating plants. We also got some fruits from the trees and fed them to the elephants. It was exciting yet a little scary especially when elephants walk pass by us.

This is Minnie.

The youngest and the most energetic of the bunch. She doesn't eat fruit peels so we had to peel longan first before feeding her.

After the forest walk, we hiked back down to take our lunch.

After our lunch, it was time to feed the elephants once again. Yep! All they did was eat and bathe hahaha!

Our guide taught us how to prepare elephant food.

For these balls, you'd have to put it directly onto the mouth of the elephant unlike banana where you just wait for it to grab it on your hand.

After another eating session, we were directed to the mud bath area.

This is the dirtiest part of the trip, tbh. haha! You'd have an option to join the elephants in the mud and so you'll get mud splashes...

After the mud bath, we went to the rinsing area.

So there, after all the activities, it's time to clean yourself as well. We were dropped to our hotels when we got back to Old City, Chiang Mai. It was very convenient, informative, and memorable tour so I am able to recommend it to anyone.

Highlights: (copied and pasted from their website)

Bathing with Elephants

Elephant Food Preparation & Feeding

Short Forest Walk (around 30 minutes)

Elephant Mud Bath

Vegetarian Buffet Lunch

Traditional Thai Lanna Hospitality

I was hesitant to book this tour at first because of the price but I decided to go for it nonetheless. If that is what it takes to be able to spend a memorable with these gentle giants. hehe! I would not have this experience any other way, much better and happier when SADDLED OFF. <3

Bangkok and Chiang Mai Trip Photodump link: here.

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Blog Event

Sibyullee: Flavors of Seoul, Ground Floor, Ayala Malls the 30th

By Tin Gallemaso - 3:08:00 PM

Aside from their ala carte menu items, Sibyullee has now started offering eat-all-you can meats and side dishes.

You'd have 10 meat options, steamed egg and side dishes.

The interior of Sibyullee looks very classy and modern.

It doesn't feel cramped and is well-ventilated. We used the table with smoke suction tube and I didn't smell like Korean BBQ after eating like what usually happens in most places.

mashed sweet potato! <3

Hahaha! I actually prefer unseasoned meats for my K-BBQ so it all goes down to how delicious the ssamjang and the sidedishes are. And guess what? Theirs is one of the best kimchi I've tried... and it's actually the best out of the K-BBQ places I've eaten at here in the Philippines. It wasn't too spicy and tasted refreshing eaten with all the fatty goodness of the meat.

So above are all you're getting as side dishes if you avail their eat-all-you can promo.

I love Korean food so much. I used to prefer eat-all-you can places until I noticed that the side dishes are not good enough for me and so recently, I have only been dining at ala carte Korean restaurants but OMG, sibyullee changed my mind again because I liked their raddish and cabbage kimchi a lot!