hotel

One Night in Davao

January 12, 2012 by Bino 3 Comments

I arrived in the southern city of Davao on an evening flight from Cagayan de Oro. It was just a short hop over the same island and barely took an hour. The bright lights from the landmass below greeted us on our plane’s final approach, indicating to me that Davao is a much larger city than I had previously thought.

welcome to davao city!

davao at night

My initial impression of the city as we headed to the hotel was one of relative cleanliness and general sense of order which I definitely couldn’t say for most of the Philippines’ large cities. It’s a lot denser than what I had expected but nevertheless, there exists only one true high rise in the city, the Marco Polo Hotel which is also the tallest building in Mindanao.

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Wink Hostel: Indulgence on a Budget in Singapore

December 18, 2011 by Bino 12 Comments

I often have friends asking me for recommended places to stay in Singapore. Although I am familiar with most of the hotels in the country, I’m not sure whether it’s a wise idea to rely on a local resident to provide this kind of advice (just kidding!). Seriously speaking, I think for now I do have one to recommend. I normally don’t write an entire entry about a hotel (in fact, I never have!) but I thought this particular one deserves a special mention. Also, if someone asks me again next time, I’ll have this to refer to.

I’ve stayed in all sorts of places. I’ve stayed in a hostel where all I got was a filthy bunk bed. I’ve stayed in one-of-a-kind boutique hotels and I have stayed in chain hotels. There’s one concept I haven’t tried though — that’s the capsule hotel which is found all over space-deprived Tokyo. If given the chance to go there next time, I would want to stay in one. When I found that Singapore recently opened a lodging that took inspiration from this concept, I knew I had to check it out.

exterior of wink hostel

The trendy and charming Wink Hostel in Singapore’s Chinatown has been open since October and I’ve known it for about just as long. Located just one block away from the Chinatown MRT station, the hostel is an easy 3 minute walk and is conveniently located right at the commercial area of Chinatown near the souvenir shops and restaurants, and about 8 minutes away from the bar district and Raffles Place (where I work!).

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The Real Iran Pt3: Yazd – An Oasis in the Desert

November 20, 2011 by Bino 13 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-VBgDGuKQM]

After spending two nights in Shiraz and taking that daytrip to Persepolis and Nagsh e Rostam, it was finally time to move on to our next city – Yazd. Sitting in the middle of the desert, this central Iranian city is known for its unique clay architecture which gives it a very storybook feel. I wouldn’t be surprised if the story Aladdin was set here. A six-hour bus ride away, I had a rough idea of how to get there from Shiraz but Antoine, a Frenchman we met during the Persepolis trip, told us how it’s common practice to ask the hotel to book bus tickets. This was great news, and saved us the hassle of having to buy them ourselves at the bus terminal.

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