Archives For travel/tourism

The Shortest Trip from Peru to India

April 23, 2024 — Leave a comment

I took some time to plan an imaginary trip to India to truly realize we really live in opposite sides of the world. lol I’d figured these are the most possible routes.

[click to expand a bit]

Most comfortable route seems to be Lima via Sao Paulo to Johannesburg and Mumbai. Peruvians who want to travel for regular tourism and chill activities for less than six months can apply for an e-Tourist visa. Peruvians do not need visas to enter Brazil (shorter than 90s days) nor South Africa (visits shorter than 30 days).

Peruvians don’t need visa to transit through Amsterdam.

Peruvians do need one to enter the US, even for transit. Long gone are the days of free transit in the US. However, traveling through San Francisco seems the least practical, even though San Francisco is a great hub to enter into East Asia. My preferable spot for point of exit.

As a reverse practice— Indians DO need visas to enter South Africa and Brazil (only diplomatic passport holders are exempt.) But it looks like they might not need a visa to transit through Amsterdam.

Regular Indians do seem to need a visa to enter Peru, though citizens who hold valid US, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia or Schengen visas seem to be exempt. So if you already travel, it seems pretty straight forward.

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Isabella Leong for Condé Nast Traveler China

Isabella Leong has been on and off since she made her official film comeback back in 2015 with Murmur of the Hearts, which is an amazing film. Se also had small roles or almost cameos on 12 Golden Ducks that same year, and got back together with Pang Ho-Cheung for a small role in Missbehavior in 2019.

From her recent interview on A Date with Luyu (鲁豫有约), you can tell that she enjoyed or had fond memories of her debut film Isabella, which Pang directed almost 20 years ago— which also amazes Leong when she realizes how fast/much time has passed. I was also amazed at how she remembered the tracking of the shot, all the more amusing when both clips were put together for contrast.

In 2020, she appeared on Ann Hui’s Love After Love, which was available to watch on MUBI in some territories, and might be available on places like Netflix or Prime, depending on your territory. Now, she’s part of the most recent Dante Lam HK film starring William Chan and Nick Cheung, titled Bursting Point (爆裂點) [Trailer], which I’ve mostly heard positive things about.

Since her teenaged (!!!) sons already give her enough time to move about life, she’s been a lot more active at events and, if you follow her on Instagram, photoshoots. Which finally gets me the reason I was writing this post- she’s the first cover of 2024 for the Condé Nast Traveler China edition, which is a luxury travel magazine based in New York.

I checked their website to see who was the photographer of the shoot, but it looks like they haven’t updated that since their May 2023 issue was published (relatable). Editorial director Shawn Ong only mentions their collaboration with Eastern & Oriental Express Southeast Asia in prep for the launch of their luxury train in two different seasonal routes. The train interiors look (and photograph) amazing. They’re elegant, colorful and textured without looking overwhelming [1][2][3].

However, this is not a travel blog. I took these bad screencaps of some of my favorite shots.

Director Ong’s post features many more pictures, in case anyone’s interested. My favorite is this out of focus one. lol

Posted on January 25, 2024 In Celebrity, Chinese, English, Photoshoots, Screencaps, Sharing , , , , , , ,
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Yoko Takahashi’s Mikako Ichikawa Travels with Masako Motai + Satomi Kobayashi

November 14, 2016 — Leave a comment

Are you guys following Yoko Takahashi’s instagram account? If not, you’re missing out on the snaps she’s sharing of Mikako Ichikawa traveling to Osaka with Masako Motai and Satomi Kobayashi— aptly hashtagged “Noppo to Masako no Futari Tabi” (#のっぽとまさこのふたり旅) and “Noppo to Jukujo no Futari Tabi” (のっぽと熟女のふたり旅). In this case, Mikako Ichikawa is Noppo because she’s lanky. xD There’s only one Noppo in my life, but it makes so much sense.

I also learned how to say a version of MILF in Japanese, coz Jukujo (熟女) is the word used for “attractive mature lady,” which is refering to Kobayashi.

Masako-san is just Masako. xD

yoko-takahashi-mikako-ichikawa-masako-motai-001

I’m almost hoping Hairi Katagiri shows up at one point in an actual photo.

I’ve also added a travel/tourism tag, finally. xD

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Yu Aoi for Discover Japan: Watashi no Kyushu

I just got a notification that the November edition of Discover Japan [HMV JP] titled Watashi no Kyuushuu (私の九州) features Yu-chan on the cover and on several pictures inside.

Discover Japan 2016?11?? Vol.61 | ebook5

If you visit the Discover Japan website [1][2], you can check out more on the content. There’s even a short clip of Yu riding the JR Kyuudai Main Line (久大本線).

Posted on October 6, 2016 In Celebrity, English, Japanese, Photoshoots, Sharing , , , , ,
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I could watch 2 hours of Mamamoo rehearsals~

I know it’s horrible to say this, but I’ve been wasting a lot of time watching (and re-watching) Mamamoo clips on YouTube — thank you, Mamamoo Trans, Mamamoo Comedy and Rara Dish. You’ve reduced my productivity hours. You guys are awesome and hilarious.

I’ve just re-watched this re-upload of MMMTV from 2014 near Xmas. It’s glorious, I could watch Mamamoo rehearse all those two hours without editing.

My dream is that Marca Peru, who has -for a number of failed years- tried to lure Asian tourist into the marvelous sights of our country, will get in touch with Mamamoo, pay them their sponsor fees on top of 3 months to tour the WHOLE country. Eat (weird things, among others)… because turns out Mamamoo girls love choncholi~ though they say they love “intestine soup” (it sounds to me like ‘desang tang’ but I couldn’t find the actual name of the dish) and we eat intestines more like their Gopchang Gui (곱창구이) counterpart.

Imagine three months of Mamamoo travel adventures sailing the Amazon river, sand-boarding, visiting the sea lions of Paracas, visiting Machu Picchu; eating anticuchos, choncholi, picarones, all our varieties of ceviche (conchas negras ‘black conch,’ paiche), Arequipa soups, Juanes, Tacacho with cecina, high on sugar of perfect manjar blanco, suspiro a la limeña, and enchant them with a their daily dose of Queso Helado (‘frozen cheese’ that is not literally frozen cheese, but just milk and cinnamon ice cream). Just feed Mamamoo and let them be hyperactive, record it and present it as a 15-episode variety program of cross-cultural integration between Marca Peru and the Visit Korea program.

End the thing with a small unplugged concert. Ta-da! Broadcast tourism program~

Or we can just get Donnie Yen.

Posted on May 9, 2016 In Celebrity, Clips, English, Fun, Korean, Music, Sharing, Torrents & Digital Streams , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Su Yunying Meets Mayday + HAYA Band Meets Bjork

*dies*

Oh, hey! I’m back from my trip! And as I work on the photos (+1k) I took, I wanted to share these quick perfections~

These are pictures I took on the plane on my way there and on my way back, during perfect break of dawns across the Americas — one was near landing time in Los Angeles and the other in plain flight across Central America — to the most beautiful soundtrack moments~ Su Yunying’s Ming Ming 冥明 and Strong Sky People 空人得坚强. That album is certainly topping my favorite album list this year, LOL.

Anyway~ Su continues her perfection with a performance of Mayday’s Contentment (知足) [MV] in this year’s season of I Am Singer (我是歌手), which I thought I was done with. LOL I don’t get how this show works. But Su Yunying made another appearance and her presence just makes things better. I didn’t realize it was the Mayday song until the last moment or halfway through. xD Her version is so hers and so unique, makes me appreciate the original even more.

But if I thought that was it? Turns out HAYA Band also did a rendition of Bjork’s Joga [MV], which is also life itself. They topped it off with more chants. I’m not entirely sure why they call it 英格玛.

Posted on April 3, 2016 In Celebrity, Chinese, Clips, English, Music, Sharing, Television , , , , , , , , ,
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Yu Aoi for Tadaima Iwaki~

I’ve mentioned this before [1], Hula Girls was shot in Iwaki prefecture, so when the tsunami and eventual nuclear meltdown affected the zone, the Hula Girls team as well as the dancers lent their support and/or donated money. Now, Yu-chan is lending her time (maybe there’s money too, though I’d like to think this is from the bottom of her heart) to jump-start visits to Iwaki with the campaign Tadaima Iwaki (ただいま! いわき).

It doesn’t matter, I’d watch 1hr. of Yu eating savory things and visiting places if they’d made a movie about it. LOL As naturally charming as ever~ I’ll watch this 30-sec clip instead.

yu-aoi-tadaima-iwaki

Posted on January 28, 2015 In Celebrity, Commercials, English, Japanese, Posters/Artwork, Sharing , , , , , , ,
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Yu Aoi is a Taiwan Girl!

December 8, 2012 — 3 Comments

yu aoi kaiten teburu mutsukashii taiwan de nv hai

Look what I found! It turns out that Yu’s photobook Kaiten TEBURU ha Mutsukashii, which had her followed by photographer Ivy Chen in Taiwan doing their Taiwan Cafe rounds, will be translated to traditional Chinese in a new release simply titled Taiwan’s Girl (台灣的女孩), to be out on December 27th this year. I doubt this will show up on any other online websites~

Continue Reading…

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Seoul, the city of tea houses~

March 26, 2012 — Leave a comment

On Saturday — the day I was having dinner with my friend, I went to some tea shop that reminded me of The Storyteller… or maybe it was Bilbo Baggins place, I can’t be sure.. but it was one of the most rustic places I had ever sipped tea at with it’s scribbled walls and wooden interior~

*EDIT*

The place apparently is called Dalsaeneun Dalman Saenggak Handa (달새는 달만 생각한다 인사동), the branch in Insadong.

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Continue Reading…

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Hello, my friends~ Goodbye, health~

March 25, 2012 — 1 Comment

So… halfway through my stay in Seoul and I’ve hardly seen much. In all honesty, we’ve been really tired jumping from one place to the other, so we’re taking this time to relax like we haven’t before…

Having said that, I’ve gotten the chance to meet up with friends that I haven’t had the chance to see in nearly six years, so it’s been definitely a nice experience — warm, despite the bizarre Seoul weather that’s greeted us, which includes a full day of rain (bus water splashing included), sunny mornings with scattered snow, and loads of icy wind which have contributed with my broken throat and runny nose.

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I know I always talk about how I miss Vancouver and my friends, but my meeting with them has made me realize how much I miss hanging out with them over simple cups of coffee and snacks.

Of course, walking alone in Seoul through the streets and using public transportation made me think of that person. LOL So many people remind me of that person xD

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