“Take every chance you get in Life, because some things only happen once.” By Karen Gibbs
Seeing new places for the first time is really awesome. It is an extraordinary experience every person needs. Many people in the world do not have the luxury of going to another country for leisure and fun mostly because of financial deficiency. Although some people do travel even once or twice as gratification to escape on their stressful world and create a diversion which can help them meditate at least once or twice in their life. To get out on their comfort zones is beneficial to discover new things, meet new people and completely experience different way of life.
For me, it is really an amazing experience to have an opportunity in my life that traveling became part of my job. Honestly, I am not hypocrite to say that I can afford those luxurious travel, because I cannot. I just feel lucky that once in my life even though its part of the job, I can say that those are memories worth to reminisce.
Let me share some of those travel memories that made me feel that working and leisure times are all in.
The Address Downtown Hotel and the Address Dubai Mall which is connected to Dubai Mall is one of the memorable hotels during our Dubai stay. This is where we stay on my very first Dubai experience. Of course Dubai is known for the very nice architectural designs, on my first ever visit to Dubai I feel amazed with this building and what more when going inside. The Address Downtown with its 63 storey and very sophisticated modernized hotel which is very accessible to every place in the city. Imagine that we stayed here most often and just to sleep, eat , walk around and have fun. After how many days we will transfer to adjacent Address Dubai Mall, of course its mall connected what else are you expecting when you wake up from breakfast to dinner you will be there. Such a wonderful relaxing memories we ever had.
Dubai Mall is one of the biggest mall in the eye of Dubai. This is where our days started upon waking up till the mall will be close. At first malling experience here I almost got lost because theres a lot of gates and as I see them they are almost all the same. Everytime we will travel to Dubai this is where we spent most of our time, and yeah our feet is almost numb of walking, we almost enter all the boutiques and we almost eat al over the restaurants inside. Relaxing and quite tiring at the same time.
When you go to Dubai how can you ever missed the beautiful and colorful lights of the Dubai Dancing Fountain. Every afternoon If I am not mistaken 5:30 or 6 in the afternoon it will start to dance and every after 2 hours until the mall closed. All of the tourists will never skip to see the beautiful effects and music of this wonderful fountain most especially during night time. Even how hot the weather will be in Dubai as long as your here don’ t ever miss the chance to watch its amazing show.
During winter time this is the attraction that you need to visit. The Miracle Garden is one of the famous garden with over 109 million flowers in different forms. It is such a wonderful attraction awarded by Guinness World Record. The big clock at the center made out ouf colorful flower, miniature buildings of Dubai’s famous buildings made out of colorful flowers are really amazing and you cannot hold yourself to take a selfie or a groupie anywhere. I am very happy to visit this relaxing yet adorable place.
This place is like Asian in architectural design seems like you were seeing a chinese palace. These amazing hotel Zabeel Saray Jumeirah where in we stay during summer of 2013 is really awesome. Their infinity pool and beautiful gardens is really stress free kind of place. You can do a lot of recreational activities (and here I played table tennis my long time favorite sports) or walk along the seashore. The sea is very clear and very calm. You can walk barefooted along the white sand. The rooms can be compared to old or antique houses because of the furniture designs made of woods. Oh one more thing, how can I ever forget the buffet, the foods are really amazing from asian, american to arabic cuisine its up to you what you want to choose, as in eat all you can! as if you are eating in different restaurant genre.
Who told you that only Marian Rivera and Dingdong Dantes can visit this place or Gloria Aroyo can only stay in this million worth per stay? Actually we did stay here for almost 15 days. Burj Al Arab is one of Dubai’s famous architectural designed building next to Burh Khalifa situated along the center of the sea, such a luxurious place. From the lobby will show that tiny triangular fountain that will caught your attention! what more inside the room. When we entered our room here, all I can say is OMG! The furnitures, carpets, sofa, tables etc are all luxurious. The set up are all Hermes brand from soap to shampoo even a free hermes perfume that was set up on top of your bed. Inside the room is a huge living area where all the things were there and with a mac PC also. Imagine every room has a MAC PC! Going upstairs is our room and its very relaxing as if you are one of the richest while you sleep 😆. The bathroom is almost as big as a master’s bedroom with versace style decorative tiles. When you will see how much it cost per stay as compared of all the hotels we stayed in, well just forget about the digits since its an opportunity and free just have fun 👏😆🙂. I really enjoyed my stay here even the food as well and the hospitable hotel crews (of course most of them are kabayans). I will never forget this memory that once in my life I experienced the luxury of world’s only seven star hotel the Burj Al Arab.
Oh Dubai! you are such a great escapade. Behind those expensive kind of living but it’s all worth it from luxurious to simplest way, everyone will remember such a beautiful place. The ultra modern architecture to a nightlife scene, from the skyscraper filled skyline scene of Burj Khalifa what more can I say. Such a wonderful place like DUBAI.
Now let’s go to 🇹🇷 Turkey! Imagine you will walk down the aisle with a red carpet.. ooops just imagine! Here at Four Seasons Hotel at the Bosphorus simple yet elegant as you walk through the hotel entrance. The room is not as big as compared to Burj Al Arab in Dubai but I can say it is organized and clean with a famous turkish delights on your room set up is quite a gratification to love the place. At the backside of the hotel you can view the Bosphorus strait that separates the European part and Asian part of Istanbul (Bosphorus bridge), It is very unique, especially at night where in the lights surrounding the whole bridge seems dancing varies with different colors, very pleasant to the eye.
“Baby let’s cruise away from here, Don’t be confuse the way is clear 🎶 .” Remember the song of Gwyneth Paltrow, well! well! well! cruisin along the Bosphorus river is quite expensive with a private yacht, but in our stay here I am proud to say that we experienced to cruise and see the beauty of Istanbul (cruisin along the Bosphorus Strait). Thank you to this mighty captain of Pheri (sorry I forgot his name) for the safe and well deserved promenade.
Miniaturk is a park where you can see all the miniature arts, landscapes, buildings and scenery all around Turkey. As the name stated its seems like mini version of Turkey inside a huge park. Almost 105 models are inside and its such an art that resemble the real big one. Here’s a video how it looks like when you visit there. http://youtu.be/dBqQAW8cjXQ I really enjoyed roving around here, it is quite a resemblance of the “Nayong Pilipino” in the Philippines before as I remembered because of the mini version of the beautiful sceneries in my homeland inside the park also. This place is really an art! So amazing!
Dolphinarium seems to be a kid’s place but no doubt I enjoyed the show even other adults with their family enjoyed watching the performance of the witty sea lion. There is also a dolphin performing and doing tricks together with its trainor. The show was really fantastic, can be compared to a mini carnival show.
Ciragan Palace Kempinski Istanbul was like a mansion or I can say an old Palace where you can find a prince or a princess (just an imagination) anyways here as you entered in their very elegant lobby you will feel that you are inside a Palace. Big chandeliers, elegant furnitures, colorful flowers, huge displays and paintings and more. All I can say is how lucky I am to have an opportunity to land on this beautiful place. Such a wonderful experience worth reminiscing.
Istinye Park Mall is where I first taste the Shake Shack Burger 🍔. Yeah since rice meals is not mostly eaten here so we are stock in burger meals and shake shack became our all time favorite. This mall is not as big as Dubai Mall but look at the structural designs even around it inside out you will be amazed. Inside is like an an open park witn a man made small river that flows while you sitting on the bench besides it. I guess this is the only mall We visited in Istanbul.
Rumelihisari Castle is a medieval fortress located in Istanbul. It was built by Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II in the preparation of the conquest of Constantinople. It is situated on the shore of the Bosphorus Strait. This place is really historical and as I remembered we didn’t reach to go on the top of the castle, we are just in the half part but up there you can see the whole Bosphorus Strait. Theres a lot of stairs to walk through and you can see a lot of antiques or medieval things that was used by their progenitive/ancestors.
If you like shopping well this is the place to be. Forget about those ukay or malls. This place is all in to buy presents and remembrance, foods and goodies and a lot more. This os the Kapalicarsi Grand Bazzar located in Istanbul near the mosque. From here I bought a lot of things such as T shirts, figurines, keychains even the fancy earrings made by hand is really awesome to buy here. The place is very well ordered because food is separated to non food. If you want also to buy spices, preserve foods, turkish delights this is the place to be. You will get tired of walking and roving around the place and a lot of tourists people were here.
Let’s go and travel via domestic flight from Istanbul to Bodrum. I never been to Boracay but when we went here I can compare the place to Boracay. It seems to be a province far from the city and you can see the blue sea while your travelling going to Kempinski Hotel Barbaros Bay. Bodrum is really a paradise. As we are travelling I can see a lot of olives and people selling olives around the place, you can also see that besides every house there is an igloo. When we arrive at the place I thought the Palace I saw in Istanbul is the last beautiful place but I was wrong! Because Bodrum is such a lovely place. We stayed here in a villa situated beside the shore and from our villa there is a balcony behind where you can see nothing but the beautiful yet calm sea. Yeah it is very relaxing and good for meditation. Outside the villa you can rove around and walk in the swimming pool area or in the park or to visit the whole place you can ride in a golf car so you will not get tired. The place is so huge and the hotel is situated upland. The food here is good though everything is expensive, anyways its free so grab the opportunity just enjoy the stay.
While we are here we went also to a bazaar or a market called Bodrum Bazaar. As compared in Istanbul it is almost the same but it is situated outside and it is only open by schedule I guess Tuesdays or weekends I don’t know. Most tourist go here to shop variety of things. You can buy shirts hollister, lacoste etc (i don’t know if its orig or not) all I can say is all are good quality and cheaper as compared in the mall. You can use their currency turkish Lira or Euro to buy things here. Well I bought a lot of things here due to the cheaper prices 😆.
This is the view from our room in Ritz Carlton Istanbul. After a tiring domestic flight from Bodrum, we went back to Istanbul and stayed here for few days before heading home. The place is just like Manila because traffic is everywhere and a lots of building around, but from the top view you can see the whole city. The food here were good and there’s a buffet breakfast every morning. I didn’t see the whole place at Ritz but our stay here was very pleasant and oh! I remember the lady pianist who performed here was very excellent!
Turkey is a very nice country, a lot of place to visit if you really have the chance and the time. If ever I would be given a chance again I would like to come back and visit the rest of its place.
“Every Journey is a metaphor for a lifetime”
By Irma Kurtz
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