Since I began traveling mid-budget, I rarely stay at hotels. I’ve never stayed in a hotel in Seoul. But I loved staying at guesthouses.
Guesthouses, generally, gives you a feeling of community, like a home away from home – but not quite (depending on your perspective of home, I dare say). To begin with, I’ve stayed at three different guesthouses whenever I’m in town. This is because I still want to explore staying at different parts of town and find out which is the best neighborhood for me.
For this post, I’ll discuss each guesthouse based on the following criteria: proximity to nearest subway station, proximity to Airport Limousine Bus stop, breakfast, reception, toilet/bath, space, price, facility, night life, and shopping. These are the ten points I look at when choosing a hostel or guesthouse in general. This can be your starting point in choosing your guesthouse in Seoul. Or even in other cities.
To make comparing objective, I’ll give one (1) point if it’s positive, and zero (0) if it’s negative, and point five (0.5) if there’s both positive and negative, based on my experience. I will also give explanation as necessary.
In August, I put up a follow-up post on the dramas I’m watching. I was supposed to post this in September, but after being free for almost a month, I got immersed in tons of work so I did not have the time to complete this post. But I continued watching. [EDIT: I was supposed it in November, but then, again, life happened, travel happened, holidays happened, volcano eruption happened, Kobe died, then now, a virus outbreak.]
I still have not finished the dramas I posted about – I am on the brink of dropping them. I’ve been staying on Netflix the past weeks and focused more on Chinese dramas, and less of Korean series. Anyway, here’s a list of the few I finished and what my thoughts were.
A few months have passed since I posted DUMP: Korean Dramas I Am Watching and thought I should probably do this as a thing. For now, I’m thinking of doing it every season.
August is the last month of Summer and has pretty much marked the end of Spring dramas and the beginning of Summer-filmed dramas. But before proceeding to my current list, let’s see what happened to the previous dramas I’ve listed.
YesStyle is the first online retailer to globally distribute a wide range of beauty, fashion and lifestyle products from Asia through their website YesStyle.com. Every season, YesStyle brings customers the latest trends along with thousands of items from brands across Asia. YesStyle.com now represents the best platform for brands in Asia to connect with customers worldwide.
I’ve first come across Yesstyle through YesAsia back in 2008 when, as a college student, I had more access to anything K-Pop related. They’re both based in Hong Kong and that’s where all products are shipped from (at least based on my experience). So. Recently, I got too interested in K-Beauty and skincare in general. I got back from my winter trip to Korea and my skin was soooooo dry I had to do something about it.
After checking a lot of websites that sell Korean beauty products, I settled with YesStyle as they sell the product I was eyeing for at the cheapest price.
Since they offer free shipping and customs fee at an estimated amount of Php2,000, I bundled up a bunch of other things and I’m sharing my review of them with you!
Etude House Soon Jung 5-Panthensoside Cica Balm 15ml. This has Madecassoside, which is a component of Centella Asiatica, and is good in healing damaged skin. I use this to spot treat my pimple marks. So far, for the up and coming pimples, they do a better job than the Acne solution I got from my derma. It doesn’t leave a stinging effect and dries out the pimple without turning them into black spots. So far so good!
dear, Klairs Freshly Juiced Vitamin Drop. It has Ascorbic Acid which helps brighten the skin and Centella Asiatica that’s good in healing (pimple marks in my case).This comes with a dropper so contamination is less – just avoid touching the tip of the dropper to your skin. It feels warm when applied but not burning warm. I patch tested this at my chin area for 2 days before using it all over my face. So far, no irritation occurred but no remarkable difference yet!
Laneige Water Sleeping Mask 15ml. I have used Laneige products before in the travel sized tubes and we got along well, but the full size one was expensive (plus I got the Benton gel) so I just picked up the small one. It’s supposed to have a really good smell for deeper sleep (but I have yet to smell that). I’ve only tried it twice, it left my skin a little oilier the next morning – not sure if that’s how its supposed to be though. The instructions said to use it 2-3 times a week so we’ll see!
dear, Klairs Freshly Juiced Vitamin E Mask. Have not used it yet as I’m still testing out the Vitamin C serum. I just bought the 15ml one and will let you guys know how these combo work.
Benton Aloe Propolis Soothing Gel. Bought this for added moisture as I read a bunch of good reviews on this. It was at 60%++ discount so I just grabbed it while on sale. Have not used it yet, again, because I don’t want to abuse my skin by introducing so many products all at once.
True Glam Rabbit Ear Headband. I bought this as a gift for my cousin and its of high quality. Looks exactly like in the picture and the band is nice and snug. Thumbs up!
HEDGY Asymmetric Drop Earrings. I’ve been meaning to buy asymmetric earrings and these were one of the best-selling ones. The quality is not that high – the silver will probably fade after a few wears but it’s cheap and they look exactly like in the picture. They’re also lightweight! But because of its lightweightness (so to speak), it’s very flimsy.
Cutie Bazaar Elephant Mobile Stand. I thought this was the same as the one I already own but it’s lighter and more hollow. It’s made of hard plastic, while mine was of rubber. But it is indeed cute (looks exactly in the photo) and still serves its purpose of supporting / holding my phone (LG G5) so it’s still good. I will not buy it again though because it didn’t live up to its price. If you’re phone is bigger / wider than mine, I can’t recommend this as I think this is too small to support the phone when in portrait mode.
Seirios Alloy Heart Choker. The FREE of the day! Yes, YesStyle offers daily free gifts. You just need to follow their instagram account to get the code, or if you’re on mobile, it automatically drops to $0.0 (Php0.0) in your cart. Unless they ran out of stock.
All of these items are shown in the video (except the elephant and the choker) so make sure to check it out also! When I got the package, it was exactly 16 days after I have placed my order. Do take note that it was available for shipping within 24 hours as all products were already on-hand. However, the processing got delayed due to the Lunar New Year. It also came with a Tony Moly mask as free gift – but the gift only comes when you exceed a certain amount.
There you go! If you have any questions regarding making orders through YesStyle, please let me know. And don’t forget to use my Friend Rewards Code for discounts in your purchase and to also help me run this bog! Until next time!
June 2019, we went to Mindoro from Batangas Port. This post will just detail the fees you’d have to pay when you use the RORO facility or when you bring your private vehicle from Batangas to Mindoro. We went aboard a Class 2 Vehicle, and there’s always 1 passenger that is FREE of the Shipping Lines Fare.
Note that all fees are in regular passengers and are receipted.
Since the end of the school year, I’ve been spending a lot of time at home watching things. I couldn’t do it when school was ongoing since I have to prepare lectures, check papers and exams even at home so I treat the summer break as a special time for my K-drama thirst.
YES! Finally back in Korea, and our trip included a trip to the new JYP Building! Now, we usually go to the old building as we’re really attached to JYP artists 🙂
It’s 2019! And here’s a new post following my latest trip to Seoul.
Whenever I plan on going to Seoul, there are always things that I put on my to-buy list – things that I’ve been buying since the first time I went there, and new stuff that have become *hot* topics. As we all know, Korea is very much known for make-up and all things Kpop (trust me, I’m always asked to buy make-up and K-pop whenever I visit), but what other things can you splurge on when in the city?
Here are a few things I usually buy, and also things that I’ve bought for the first time. I’ve linked some of the products to their original Korean website and some of the products to YesStyle. If you order from them, please use my YesStyle Friend Rewards – as this will give you a discount, and will also give me the same amount. It will really help me with the running of this blog. If you have questions, please feel free to comment below!
YMC Entertainment is home to KPop artists Wanna One, Ailee and Jessi among many others. Located at the quieter side of Itaewon, it’s one of the more accessible agencies if you ever want to visit.
Usually, the entrance is filled with fangirls and I’m actually curious how they know Wanna One is inside. We spent some time at the coffee shop and surprisingly, there are no fangirls outside. Although we’ve seen quite a few inside the cafe.
On another note, it was a Saturday and Seongwu was at Music Core.
This is just a guide how to visit the office, PLEASE DO NOT INCONVENIENTLY WAIT OUTSIDE THE OFFICE.
2018 marked the year of my third driver’s license renewal, and this year I decided to do it at the Land Transportation Office (LTO) branch in Robinson’s Lipa. The branch aims to ease the number of people crowding the regional branch in Concepcion.
This branch is actually pretty small, and only caters to application for Student Permit, and renewal of Driver’s and Conductor’s license.
For this post, I’ll be talking about the process and throw some tips to make your renewal easier, and probably faster.
My Little Heaven on Earth 