Coley's Just Saying...: 2012: My Year in Review

Here are the highlights of my year:

1. coleysjustsaying.blogspot.com
Last year, I started this blog on Christmas day. But through-out 2012, I have made it work.
I used to blog because I ~~was bored~~ had a lot of time on my hands and I wanted to my family and friends to share my adventures around the world. Since then, I have found time to blog because it has become a creative outlet. It's nice because despite earning only a total of (Drumroll Please) Php289.66 (that's less than SG$9. It's not even enough for cab fare from the airport to anywhere central in Singapore!!!), some of the posts I have written come up as the top 3 search results on google (Hooray!!! Anything that comes out on top on google is really validation!) and when I am too busy to post quite often, my stats tell me that my reader sources come from google.

Obviously, things have changed sinced I started blogging. I have even changed my profile information accordingly:
I dream of writing a novel - so I blog. I dream of being a travel consultant - so I used to travel for work. Now, I work to travel. I dream of being a personal shopper - so I shop whenever I can. I believe in following your dreams!

So here's to me writing more in the coming year. Hopefully, it leads to me making enough for airfare instead of barely paying for my cab fare. Hahaha. And maybe someday, I'll get to work on my novel.

2. Starting the year right by vacationing in Bohol
We visited my sister's friends at their lovely resort, The Peacock Garden.
Congratulations Chris and Mandz! (since they just got married recently)

The place is really nice.
This was the view from our room.
You can look out to the sea.

We saw the sun rise at sea because
we went looking for dolphins.

And we finally found them. I took this picture :)

The food was also very, very good. You can read all my posts about our Bohol trip here.

3. Discovering Sri Lanka
When I visited Colombo in Sri Lanka in November the year before, I thought Sri Lanka was so over-rated based on high expectations because my colleagues raved so much about it. It was a different story all-together when I went back in February because I re-connected with friends who took really good care of me and showed me that there is more to Sri Lanka than what you see at the first glance.

At the Peace Pagoda in Galle.

At the Amangalla, the Aman Resort where we had a nice lunch.

Thanks for taking care of me Tala, Pau and Luna :)

I also loved the shopping. Especially for the jewels.

You can read all my posts on Sri Lanka here.

4. Celebrating my Birthday in Maldives! (woot! woot!)

Maldives is Paradise. Enough Said.
Thanks for celebrating it with me, Timsum :)

You can read all my posts on Maldives here.

5. Celebrating my Birthday with family in Boracay

It's not Maldives. just saying.

But nothing trumps family.

You can read all my posts on Boracay here.

6. Revisiting Australia
I have been to Australia before, so I wasn't really very excited about going back again, since this time around, their currency was even stronger than the USD! Surprisingly, I has so much fun hanging out with my mom's and my sister's best friends. It felt like a home away from home, where as usual, I managed to shop until I had 40kg to bring home. I am blaming it on the bears!

The Sydney Opera House at night.

I am blaming the bears for the 40kg luggage!

Thanks for taking care of me Tita Tess, Tito Boy and Pami! :)

You can read all about my adventures in Australia here.

7. Squeezing in a trip to Korea
My trip to Australia was short and sweet because there was a last minute change in my schedule that required me to go to Korea for a week. Hoooooray! This was on my bucket list!

I never was fond of Korean food until I had my fill of bulgogi, bbq, bulgogi and bbq... anyway, you get the picture.

I never knew they served Bulgogi with soup.
It was the best Bulgogi I ever had! From a hole in the wall place in Insadong.

Yummy BBQ beef ribs.

and there are things to see too...

I can't wait to come back with family when there are cheap flights available, preferably when winter clothes are required.
You can read about my week in Korea here.

8. A month in London with Mama and Sofia
I've always liked London because it grew on me over the years I visited my favorite cousin and godson Jacob from the time he was just born. Just for perspective, he's been taller than me for several years now.

I always look forward to travelling to London for work, but it was much much better when I could bring my daughter (and my mom) with me. All of the babysitting Jacob, when he was still known as Jonah Bonah Banana, paid off because I just had to go down memory lane to figure out activities Sofia would enjoy.

You can read about our month in London here.

9. Weekend in Paris
I can't go to Europe without going back to Paris, which I feel is home.
I had to bring Sofia to Paris because I told her that we would live there someday.

Even with our limited time,
I brought her to Disneyland. To make sure she loves Paris as much as I do.

You can read about our 36 hours in Paris here.

10. A month in Vietnam and backpacking to Phnom Penh
My last tour of duty before heading back to the Philippines was for three and a half weeks in Vietnam. It was fun because with no safety issues and visa requirements, I was able to bring Sofia and Yaya Naling. Just like we did in Thailand and Brazil!

We loved getting pampered at the spa while drinking Vietnamese iced coffee.

We also did some weekend trips to go sightseeing.
This was in Vung Tau.

I also loved the food, but beware because they serve carbs in everything. The worst part is, it's really good, so it's doubly hard to resist.
You can read about our stay in Vietnam here.

We didn't quite realize that Filipinos can only stay for 21 days with no visa. Ooooops!
Thankfully, Phnom Penh is just 4 hours and US$10 away by bus, so we were even able to go on a backpacking adventure.