Thank you 2016!!! We look forward to what 2017 will bring...

At the start of this year, I remember creating 2 goals for myself.

First Goal:

Only 3 Personal Trips with Sofia (as 2015, which you can read about here got a bit too hectic with all the flying I had to do as part of my work). DONE

I told Fi we could only go on 3 trips together, and she chose them really well.

1. Taipei

We celebrated my birthday weekend here so she really didn't have a choice.
#37inTaipei

2. Europe - 

This was my concession to Fi for being away so much. 

I let her plan her own itinerary in Paris and she did really well. You can check out Sofia's tips on Things to do in Paris for Kids here.

Not only did we do Paris... we did Pisa: Read post here.

Cinque Terre: Read post here.

Riomaggiore

Monterosso Al Mare

Vernazza

Manarola

Firenze: Read post here.

Mercato San Lorenzo. Shopaholic like mom.

 

3. And for Sofia's last trip, she asked for a Legoland Birthday trip to Singapore. 

(Sorry, no post on this yet). 

We did Brick or Treat after the Waterpark in Legoland.

Sofia planned the whole Singapore itinerary.
It was made all the more special since she was allowed
to play in the "IKEA SMALAND PLAYGROUND"
for the LAST TIME... twice!!! 

Just like Performance Management where I work... the personal trips came out to be a 3+1.

We did a very impromptu weekend trip to Hong Kong to help my future sister in law plan their Hong Kong wedding (which BTW is still up in the air). Read post here.

We love our future sister in law... but she doesn't like sharing her
Salted Egg French Toast. In fairness, masarap talaga.

Second Goal: Blog at least once a week. DONE. 94 posts in 2016 if I am able to finish this one. So let me breeze through the rest of my highlights.

Work still continued to take me places. 

If I'm not mistaken, I think I did 25 different work trips, squeezed into 15. I get 2 for 1 on my trips since I am now smart enough to do my Singapore mtgs during the layover for the none direct flights. Even for business trips, I am a sucker for a good deal. Hahaha.

Singapore

Vietnam

Malaysia

Indonesia

Thailand

I visited a new place, Myanmar, and I loved it. I was lucky enough to visit thrice. Read post here.

Yangon

Bagan

The secret to success at your job (well at least in my case)... is loving what you do and loving the people you work with.

I am lucky enough to work with this team that feels like family.
Complete with our dad, my kids and my pesky brother. Hahaha.
You know who you are.

My mantra for 2016 was "Dream. Then Do." 

If I were to refine it further, it would be "Dream Big, because You Can Do It!" (thank you Nike!)

It goes hand in hand with stretching your creativity to its limits, and let me
tell you... there are none.

I learned how to make my own Jewelry in Bali.

I also developed myself to myself to be a leather artisan and entrepreneur.

Wanderlust Sandals has expanded into Ballerines and leather accessories.
I'm so proud of what we achieved in our first year:
3 styles, 11 colors, 300 pairs sold, 3 styles in the pipeline

I now think I can make anything. Seriously.
Some ideas just need more honing than others.

I learned how to make scented candles too.
Thank you Tita Joy for generously teaching us your craft.

Lastly, I would say, this year was about Adulting. (Such a Millennial phrase)

It was both an honor (and a shock) to be asked to be a Godmother at
Peachy and Karlo's wedding, but I am very happy to be there for them.

On the same topic, I was happy to finally meet my cousin Jay, who has
literally been "ahente ng gastos" who has been aiding me in
Condo Hoarding because I started planning for my retirement
12 years and 2 months from now.

Excited for what 2017 will bring. I already see Hong Kong, Barcelona, Lyon, Paris, Madrid, Segovia, Marrakesh, Casablanca, Sri Lanka, more Singapore and definitely more Legoland in the plans, with tickets included. Clearly we don't have a 3-trip rule next year. 

So that makes 94 posts this year. Hope your 2017 will be just as exciting as ours. just saying.

HAPPY 2017!!!

A quick visit to Padang, the Foodie Capital of Indonesia

I travel to Indonesia quite a lot for work, but I've never visited Padang until last month. I was really looking forward to it because they say that the best Indonesian food comes from this region. Sort of like what Osaka is to Japan, which you can read about here, or what Lyon is to France which you can also read about here. 

Visiting Wet Markets is something I actually do for work, but I was just mesmerized by the chili peppers they had, and the fresh chili salsa, or what they locally refer to as sambal.

This is how the sambal is made.

Drool. I would have bought a lot to bring home, if I could only figure out
how to do it as I had to transit through Singapore.

One other thing about the market is everything is so fresh, you can choose
between a bloody carcass or if you want them to kill it right in front of you.
Que horror! If you're squeamish like me.

With such fresh food available in their markets, it does not come as a surprise that the food in the restaurant is a different level of fresh as well.

Typical Padang Style Restaurants have the dishes laid out on the table even before you arrive. You just help yourself to what you want, and they will bill you only for the dishes that you consume. 

My favorites include (sorry, I opted to stay away from Chicken this trip... on account of seeing and hearing them die... just before we had our meal!):

The best Beef Rendang in the world according to CNN.
Well cooked Rendang would be simmering on the stove for hours,
and melts in your mouth when you eat it,
with the sauce made from a rich concoction of spices and coconut milk.

My favorite dish has always been the Green Sambal salsa.

A new favorite is the puffed animal skin, served in tasty curry sauce.

Frozen Durian Pancakes to end the simple yet decadent meal.

The thing about Padang is that there is much more to it than just the food. There are a lot of things to see as well. 

We stopped by the Lambah Anai Waterfall which is on the way from Padang to Bukit Tinggi.

In Bukit Tinggi we walked to the center square, where the Jam Gadang or the local version of Big Ben is located. 

In Bukit Tinggi, we enjoyed their version of satay (using beef and beef tongue).

Each person gets their own plate of sauce (made of different spices including
tumeric) and sticky rice cubes. I refuse to disclose how many sticks I ate,
for fear that it may incriminate me. Hahaha.

Since we snacked quite a lot on the satay, dinner was a casual affair where we could snack on more satay, martabak (both sweet and savoury were available) and Indomie! All my favorites if I'm honest. Hahaha.

A different version of the beef satay.

The martabak was more traditional so they had Cheese, but not the more
modern Cheese-Chocolate (Keju Chocolate) version.

Light Dinner Fare 

The next day meant more wet market visits for us, and if I only knew there would be a really good traditional Martabak (sweet) stand, I would have skipped breakfast at the hotel. This vendor is a second generation Martabak stall owner.

They had plain pancakes that were so good and buttery, it must be the
Blue Band Margarine! Hahaha.

She was selling her freshly cooked sweet Martabak with chocolate filling at 5,000 Rupiahs (that's only 50 Singapore Cents!!!) and it was so good, it was clearly a steal!

We had a chance to visit Puncak Lawang where we were supposed to enjoy the nice view of the lake (similar to Taal Lake in Tagaytay) but it was so cloudy when we arrived that we couldn't see anything at all.

Good thing it cleared up as we were waiting for our Indomie and Teh Tarik. Yes, Indomie two days in a row makes it a very happy visit for me. It's never the same when you cook it at home.

We also had a good spread available for dessert and I'm glad it pictured
well, since I was attacked by a cat as I was styling this shot!

Buffalo Milk Curd is a delicacy. It tastes like yogurt, in case you're curious.

I've made a lot of good friends in Indonesia, and one
of them is this guy. I'll miss you Adek!!!
All the best in your new journey!

Lunch was another Padang-style favorite. But in this type of restaurant, you just point to what you want to eat, then they put it all on a plate for you. Unfortunately, since we just had Indomie, I had to explain that I only wanted one spoon of rice, and I couldn't point to a lot of things.

Burst of color on the plate, burst of flavor on the palate.
I hope I could have eaten more. My favorite were the crispy cassava chips
in the rendang sauce that tasted like crispy meat chunks.

Another sight we enjoyed was Harau Valley.

Hamming it up for the cam with my Indonesian sisters.

Of course, no stop is complete without snacking, and in this stop, we said no
to fried Indomie, but when someone's order arrived, it looked so good, we
each grabbed a fork and started to dig in! We did this to 4 or 5 dishes!
Demolished in no time, by people who weren't even hungry.

Ready, Set, Attack!

They also has luwak or Civet Cats that you can pet, but
I wasn't that brave. These are the cats that poop the best
coffee in the world. Or so they say.

Also close enough to our hotel in Bukit Tinggi was Panorama Park where monkeys run wild and you have a good view of Sianok Canyon.

Kudos to the breast feeding Mama Monkey!

Then we capped off the trip with a visit to the orphanage, we had home-cooked Nasi Goreng for breakfast with them.

We even had time to grab a Soto Ayam (Chicken Soup) at the airport
before flying home.

Padang is as beautiful on ground as it is from the air... and I heard they
have good surfing spots nearby too!

I can't believe we did all that in two and a half days, and the work we did isn't even captured in this post. Hahaha. No wonder I was dead tired when I finally got home. Eat well Travel often at it's finest.  just saying.