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Living in the Moment


On my 6th day in Japan, I really don’t have anything planned because I do have work. But what’s a good day to waste? I haven’t really explored Osaka that much during my first visit and as you know I am always pressed for time. So to me, this seems like a good day to see the tourist-famous Glico man which until now is not clear to me why the said spot is so famous. It’s also Christmas season so I can use the day to buy Christmas gifts for my loved ones. hehe.

June 06, 2020 No comments

We don't have any tiring activities lined up for this day. Just pure relaxation and chilling all day long. We started the day with Cara Cara Inn's amazing breakfast. If you're a heavy breakfast eater then the serving might not be enough for you but for me who's not really used to eating breakfast, the serving is just okay. Enough to give me energy. Each day has a different breakfast menu and breakfast is not buffet type. You'll have to give your stub for breakfast then you can choose which one you want for breakfast from the menu of the day. Guess who chose rice for breakfast? Yep, not me. Haha!
April 09, 2020 No comments



Finally!!! The last day on our Myanmar tour! Haha. It took me almost 2 years to finish this blog post but hey.. At least I was able to finish it. The silver lining in this quarantine is that I was able to write this blog post. Planning to write more but it really depends on my mood. Still have work during daytime plus I am also catching on my Netflix backlogs and I'm kinda hooked up with two-point hospital so if I am not watching Netflix, it's either I am playing switch or busy scrolling through my social media accounts to see the latest news about COVID-19.
March 31, 2020 No comments
Photo by Glen Carrie on Unsplash

It's been two weeks since the president ordered Metro Manila lockdown which has now escalated to Luzon Lockdown. Everyone I know is working from home, my carpool telegram group doesn't have any new post about finding a ride going to BGC and Pasig. And now, as I am typing this, Peter just told me his body aches which apparently is a symptom of COVID-19

Just the start of this year, the whole world was shaken when a new virus was suddenly making everyone sick in Wuhan, China. At the time, people don't seem to look at the situation as very critical or would become serious which is why we are where we are at the moment. The virus is new and no one knows how to stop it, information is limited, everyone is racing against time to find the cure or even just a vaccine to protect those who haven't contracted the virus yet. 

The moment I found out that there's a new virus in China, I was already afraid. Afraid because in today's world, people can come and go to any country they wanted to visit and the Philippines is just a plane away from China, even from Wuhan where the pandemic started. I knew that the Philippines would get it anytime soon so the next day, I went to the nearby drugstore to buy vitamin C and bought 5 bottles of alcohol. This is during the time the Philippines doesn't have any cases yet. It didn't help that Taal just erupted and everyone is struggling to get face masks so there are no stocks of face masks to any drug stores I went to. When I went home from work that day, I started checking Lazada and found out that Indoplas is still selling surgical masks so lucky me, I was able to buy. 2 days later when PH just reported its first case, the surgical mask was already out of stock.

January was still casual for everyone. Even though we have a reported case, everyone went on with their lives on a normal basis. I don't even know what's normal anymore. So how did we ended up here? Maybe it's a series of bad decisions or maybe it is just bound to happen. One thing is for sure, Ph is not ready for this kind of pandemic. 

I am young and I'd say I am pretty healthy but no one really knows who can get and have severe symptoms. Every night since the lockdown started, I always think about the future. I am set to work in Australia and just had my interview with my employer's Brisbane office because I already accepted that Brisbane might work better now if there are no projects in Melbourne.. But just when they are about to tell us the interview results, they said that they are halting employees from traveling overseas for awhile in precaution for COVID-19. It didn't help that Australia closed its borders too. 

2020 was the year I am supposed to fly to AU and I don't know now when it can commence. Every night I think about my parents. They are relatively old and the thought of them getting the virus scares the shit out of me. I also fear for my boyfriend because his immune system is not as strong as mine and until now, he still goes to work every day which is a very high risk for him.

Some people are getting laid off, some people are not earning right now because of the lockdown. Sooner or later, small businesses will find it hard to operate, big businesses will get affected too if this goes on. Every night, I always think of how hard it is to be a medical frontliner, I think of the future.. What will be normal, can we go back to our lives 1 month ago? 

I am someone who really likes going out so staying at home this long is really hard for me but I know that this is the only way I can help. I don't know if there's anything else I can do but it really sucks knowing I can't help big time at this situation. I can only pray and ask God to end this pandemic and I hope it is soon. I think of how the Philippines can cope knowing we are a third world country and red taping is more common that urgency. The news on social media is not helping too. COVID-19 cases are going up, the government we have right now doesn't have a sense of urgency, negative news day in and day out. 

My day to day activities would include working, exercising, then repeat until the end of the lockdown. It gets harder to focus every day on work because the news is overbearing. As if we don't have the worst news today, tomorrow gets worse than todays. I don't know how this will end. Will the lockdown totally end on April 14 or will there be an extension? Because as I can see it, it will be extended but for how long? How about the working class? There are too many questions and it is stressing me out because we don't know any answers right now. It just breaks my heart to see the world right now. How did we end up here? Do we really deserve this? The innocent lives that were taken, is it really the price we need to pay in order to survive this pandemic?

With all of this in my mind, it is not easy to be positive. The helplessness is frightening. Where are we headed? Every day is a day of surviving and not knowing what will happen. It just really makes me sad and afraid.

I hope we all make it. I hope the future is still bright and I hope that this is just a delay for whatever plans we have. I hope all the lessons we learn from this pandemic will be taken seriously so that this doesn't happen anymore. I hope we can all learn from our mistakes. 
March 29, 2020 No comments


Prior to this trip, I didn’t really know anything about Mandalay as well as Inle Lake. I just know that I need to visit this country just to see the Bagan hot air balloons. And when I booked our tickets via Air Asia, this is when I only knew there is really a lot of good stuff Myanmar has to offer too. I mean why is this country not as popular as Thailand and Vietnam when there are also a lot of temples, palace, and an amazing view?
February 14, 2020 No comments

Once we arrived in Mandalay, I already knew that this one is a whole lot different than our experience in Bagan. After alighting the minibus that transported us from Bagan to Mandalay, we rode a tuktuk going to our hotel, Royal Pearl Hotel. Our hotel is perfectly situated inside the city and getting a ride to different places in Mandalay is a breeze. Since we arrived at the hotel around the afternoon already, I made it sure that our itinerary for the day is just simple and not so tiring. 
February 01, 2020 No comments



It’s been almost 1 year and 6 months since we went to Myanmar and I am sooooooo delayed in writing this down. I can’t remember the tiny details anymore huhu. That’s why it’s always good to write while your memory is still fresh. This is one of the highlights of my 2018 and it just sucks that I didn’t blog about this sooner. I’ll just probably write what I can remember and believe me when I say I don’t really trust my memory that much but I’ll try. hehe. I’ll take notes from the photos I took and see if I can remember something from that. So yep, here it goes…
February 01, 2020 No comments


The last entry on my Japan diaries, for now. :) I can’t believe I’m down to the last one. I am missing every bit of my vacation to Japan. Almost all the stuff on my Facebook timeline reminds me of Japan. It’s really calling me back. LOL. Imagine the self-control I had to do when Cebu Pacific had their Piso sale just this week! I was really thinking of booking a plane ticket to Osaka again but figured that I don’t have the slightest clue yet of my schedule for this year so I set the thought aside for now. But you get the point right?!!! If not this year, I’ll definitely come and see their Spring season for the Cherry Blossoms.
January 19, 2020 No comments

First of all, my 14 years old self is so so so so happy about this. I am a big fan of amusement parks ever since I was a kid. Most, if not all Filipino 90s kid would agree that EK was their first happy place. I mean I don’t remember much from my childhood but I sure did remember going to EK with my family. Good times. Still warms my heart just by thinking about it. 
January 11, 2020 No comments


I haven’t seen real snow in entire life. I mean the Philippines is a tropical country and there are just 2 seasons here plus all the countries I’ve been too are also tropical countries. LOL. It’s either hot or super hot. Yup, that’s a joke but you get the point. It’s currently January and it should be the coldest month in the Philippines but it feels like summer. Ugh. I can only imagine how hot it will be in the upcoming summer season. Tank tops all way.
January 03, 2020 No comments

Oh wow. I don’t even know where to start but let me just say this before everything else: 2019 is my plot twist. It went extremes to extremes. If 2018 was all the good stuff like making me finish my SEA bucket list (this is a pretty big deal to me), loving my job but had to leave it, invested in something that both me and my boyfriend will benefit in the future, and many other things, 2019 started out like I want it to end already. I’ve been meaning to write this for a while now so here it is. This is just my experience and I don’t blame anyone or condemn anyone or any entity or any stuff, just to be clear.
December 31, 2019 No comments

On my third day in Japan, I didn’t have to wake up early as I will only roam around Nara Park and see the different temples together with my tita. And as you might know from my previous blog post, my tita lives in Nara so going to Nara Park will only take about 10-15 minutes from their house. 
December 27, 2019 No comments


I call it Osaka at a glance because well, for one, Osaka cannot be roamed around on a single day (just like the other places I went to on this trip), and secondly, I barely scratched the surface. There are many places I wanted to visit but time didn't allow me to.
December 23, 2019 No comments

If you know me personally, then you probably know that I love the Japanese culture so much. Japan is probably the place I would want to visit countless times. I grew up watching animes, loving Japanese food and is always amazed at the culture of Japanese people. This could be because I have relatives that worked in Japan that influenced me about its amazing culture. My grandmother, my uncle, and my aunt all used to work in Japan. I remember all the big boxes coming from Japan that contained all the instant noodles and chocolates. It was a lot of noodles that we can even share some with our neighbors HAHA! The days.
December 18, 2019 No comments

For our second day in Taipei, what I planned was to go to Yehliu Geopark, Jiufen, and Shifen. I mean what's a trip to Taiwan without these 3 right? Whenever I see people posting about their Taipei trips, these 3 destinations are always in their itinerary.
December 18, 2019 No comments


Finally, my first international travel this year! After Bali last November, this is the next international travel I had because of many factors. Well for one, and I've said this countless times in my blog already, it's because I resigned from my previous work and had a new work starting December 2018. Apparently, this company does not allow VL's and even SL's for the first 6 months. Should you be absent for any reason, then it will be tagged as leave without pay.
November 03, 2019 No comments
Bali, Indonesia
The photo was taken by Alesi Almario

Ahhhh, Bali. I miss Bali just by writing this here. Bali is my definition of chill and laid back. 

You see, this Bali adventure is almost a year in the making. There is much stuff that we need to take care of just so we can finally push this travel through. One is if you know me, you most certainly know I don't book airline tickets with its regular price. I am always counting on seat sale because hell yeah, you can really save a lot of money with that sale and call me weird but finding promo tickets is fun for me. With all the website crashing, the heavy stress load on the website, with everyone on the hunt, it just feels satisfying finding tickets on your preferred dates. :) 
August 05, 2019 No comments
Ananda Temple

Hola!! It's been over a year now since our Myanmar backpacking and I promise I'll try to blog all of these backlogs as fast as I can now. I've been busier than ever because of new work, you know the stuff... Trying to learn as fast as I can so I can be effective in the role right away... And because I'm also fixing requirements for this stuff I've been praying for since I don't know when. Life's just been so pretty darn good in the past days it's like God telling me He or maybe She? Haven't forgotten about me. It's quite an emotional topic for me so I'll blog it maybe some other time. Hehe.
August 04, 2019 No comments
Sompong Thai Cooking Class banner

If you've visited Bangkok many times now, you'll eventually run out of things to visit the first time. I mean, food is probably one of the reasons you'll visit Bangkok countless times but if you're into new stuff and exploring new places most of the time, then the third vacation in Bangkok would probably bore you already. I'm not saying I got bored during our vacation in Bangkok because I totally did enjoy but of course, I am one of those people who wants to experience something new whenever they go on vacations. 

July 06, 2019 No comments
The beauty of Shwedagon pagoda

I'm excited to share with you the final stretch of my Southeast Asia bucket list!!! If you're reading my blog way back 2016, you would know that I am trying to visit all Southeast Asian countries and guess what?! I've finally visited it all!! (Except Brunei and East Timor) Visiting it all (okay maybe not all but I'd like to think it was all, lol) wasn't really my plan when I got hooked up on traveling. I just wanted to experience the culture and explore new cities until I realized that if I wanted to connect the history piece by piece of these countries, I really need to visit it all. My goal was to finish it all before I turn 30 but I was able to visit it all a week before my 25th birthday (Bali, Indonesia is the last location and Myanmar being 2nd to the last).
June 30, 2019 No comments
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About me

About Me

Hello there! I am Maaya from the Philippines.

Welcome to my personal space where I document my life, mostly travels and just normal 20-ish stuff written down for documentation. I hope you find something interesting in this blog while reading it. Cheers! xx

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