Travel Guide: Borobudur

On August 12, 2020March 30, 2024 By Psyche CastillonIn Travel, Travel Guide, UNESCO Sites1 Comment

This is my travel guide to Borobudur and I will start it by saying, Joel and I are destined for each other. I know that sounds off, but let me explain further. Joel and I went to different schools. He is also five years older. Joel is a true-blue Cebu boy, while I’m a true-blue island girl. There was no way our worlds would have collided. Except we met each other and our one common denominator is our high school Asian history teacher — Mr. Reynaldo Inocian.

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Cooking Lessons at Balkondes Karangrejo, Borobudur

On August 4, 2019March 30, 2024 By Psyche CastillonIn Travel, UNESCO Sites2 Comments

“Dukduk,” I told them, and they both started giggling. “Dukduk,” they repeated. The two women were teaching me how to make the base ingredient to their nasi goreng, the typical Indonesian rice dish similar to fried rice, and it involved onions, garlic and candlenut (kemiri, they called it), and a mortar and pestle. They were asking me how Filipinos call the pounding movement of the pestle and I replied “dukduk,” which is the Bisaya for “pound.”

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10 More Things to Love About the Cultural City of Hue

On February 17, 2019February 20, 2019 By Psyche CastillonIn UNESCO SitesLeave a comment

The city of Hue and its surrounding complexes, including royal tombs, parks, gardens, pagodas, and temples are included in UNESCO’s World Heritage Site list. Think 10-kilometer citadel, and hundred more kilometer former bastion of the Nguyen dynasty, the last ruling dynasty in Vietnam. If that is not one reason to convince you to visit this small, laid-back, and tree-lined city, then here are 10 more reasons (in no particular order).

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Hue Imperial Citadel, The Combination Ticket, and How to Avoid Being Scammed

On February 8, 2019March 30, 2024 By Psyche CastillonIn Travel, UNESCO SitesLeave a comment

On our first day in Hue, at around 5 in the afternoon, we stepped inside the gates of the Imperial Citadel. A rickshaw driver, in uniform approached us, offered us a deal of 300,000VND (676PhP) for a tour of the citadel and surrounding royal tombs. It was our first day and it was a tempting offer but I thought it was a too-good-to-be-true offer especially because we already learned ahead that the citadel ticket costs at least 150,000VND (338PhP) per person.

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One Day in Hue on the Vietnamese Philosophy of Life & Death

On February 3, 2019March 30, 2024 By Psyche CastillonIn Travel, UNESCO Sites2 Comments

Our tour guide was incredible. I am not sure if other guides of similar tours use the same spiel as his, but I thought it was creative, interesting, and unique. We started the day at the ferry terminal, and the tour guide, who also fetched us from our homestay and drove the boat occasionally, started his spiel with philosophical ramblings about life. In the afternoon, after our last destination, the tour guide, still full of energy, ended his spiel with philosophical ramblings about death.

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