Boracay
Somehow, I’ve never been to Boracay before. It’s probably because I had no money when I still lived in the Philippines, and also thought of Boracay as somewhere college kids go to get hammered.
But I get it now. Boracay is beautiful. I went for my sister’s wedding and it was a lovely ceremony (but those photos are for her to put up)
White Beach
Sunset
View from Shangri-La where I lived my best White Lotus life for a few days, only with fewer murders
Seoul
Because people with US visas can go to South Korea visa free if you’re only passing through, I decided to spend a few days there on my way back to SF. Unfortunately I got sick like, right in the middle of it, so I didn’t get to do quite as much as I wanted, but I still managed to get a color analysis (apparently I look best in light spring colors? What am I going to do with all these black t-shirts?), sneak in a few nice dinners (Y’East was my favorite, followed by Solbam, then Mingles), a trip to the DMZ, and a food tour of Gwangjang Market.
Your steak comes in a little smoking box from Solbam; great meal and they gave me a little hand warmer before I left because it was cold out.
A photo I’m not sure I was 100% allowed to take a photo of from the DMZ. It’s kind of weird, the whole experience. At the observatory a whole troop of uniformed personnel probably from the UN started streaming into the theater where you can just kind of look at North Korea, and given all the news that’s happening I never enjoy seeing that much military all in one place.
Cafe Hanyakbang, probably my favorite cafe (it’s well-hidden in a maze of narrow alleys and the coffee is good)
The best thing at Mingles was the Jang Trio dessert. Lots of textures, savory and sweet and smoky, but I was so tired from the DMZ that I don’t think I was able to fully appreciate the meal. And also this is probably when I started getting sick so that did not help.
Gyeongbokgung Palace
I joined an Airbnb food market tour; it was raining the whole time, but these little tents were warm. I also had the raw fresh octopus, which I’m glad I did once, but don’t need to again.
And listen, once a Classics girly always a Classics girly, so I took this photo at the National Museum of Korea:
And my final meal in Seoul at Y’east included this ridiculous thing, which is literally a bunch of rocks except one of them is edible and contains blue cheese and galbi, which was actually delicious.
Okay cool that was my trip, thank you