Travel – Lollygaggers

January 31, 2020September 22, 2021

Top 5 things to do in Dubai

Dubai is a city with so much to see and so much to do! I have friends that have lived here for years and still find new things to do. With so many things to do it is a bit overwhelming to pick what to do when you have a limited time in the city.

I have picked my 5 top things that you must do when visiting this amazing city, especially if its your first time. Remember this is the Lollygaggers blog so for me it would probably take me two weeks to get these five things done…. One activity per day and a “rest” day in between to make a total of 10 days. But that’s just how I like to do things. Each of these can be modified to spend as much or as little time possible in each location depending on your schedule

1. Visit the Burj Khalifa

This is first on my list not, only because it was the first place I visited this last trip, but it is a definite must do when in Dubai. If you don’t have time for anything else, I recommend coming here. You can see the whole city from the top and you can get a real appreciation of this city that was built in the desert.

If you are short on time you can go up the observatory and back down in only an hour. If you want to make this a whole day trip you can spend time in the shopping center of the building, then head to the world’s highest lounge to enjoy tea in the clouds! Other than tea the lounge also offers breakfast in the clouds, bubbly sundowner and bubbly under the stars.

Following your tea, you can head to the Burj club pool where you can relax with beautiful views of the fountain. The Burj club also offers a gym and spa as well if you really want to take the spend the whole day in this amazing building!

Just to give you a bit of a heads up for pricing (as of January 2020, price could change anytime) tea in the clouds will cost about 618 AED and a swim pass for the pool will cost about 200 AED. You can make reservations ahead of time on their website. It is not completely necessary to make reservations (I did not, I never reserve ahead, I’m just too unpredictable) but if you are traveling during high season or you want to make sure 100% you don’t miss anything, then you should pre-reserve. There will more or likely be tickets for the observatory, but tea and other special services could be sold out.

2. Shopping in the Souks

There are so many different Souks or markets in Dubai and spending a day just walking around will keep you pretty busy even if shopping is not really your thing. Again, if you are short on time I recommend picking one souk that interests you the most. Trying to visit too many of the souks in a short time, you will really miss out on just enjoying yourself by being too rushed. But if you do have more time to spend in the souks then take your time to visit as many as possible!

For a full day of visiting the souks here are my recommendations:

-Gold souk

-Spice Souk

-Perfume Souk

-Textile Souk

-Souk Madinat

The first three, the gold, spice and perfume souk, are all within walking distance so I recommend starting your day here. This is a good time to pick up any souvenirs that you might want or buy any gifts for friends or family back home. I always recommend buying any souvenirs early on, so you don’t have to worry about it or you don’t forget and end up having to grab something over-priced at the airport…

The next stop should be the textile souk. To get here you will have to take a water taxi from the gold souk. Taking the water taxi or abra is the most scenic and the most fun way to get to this traditional market. The textile souk is so very colorful and bright! Make sure to bring your camera to get some really great pictures!

The last place to visit is the Souk Madinat Jumeirah. This is a more modern souk and has more of a shopping center feel to it with a mix of traditional architecture. This is a great place to get dinner and enjoy the views. The whole place has spots for some beautiful pictures, and you can see the Burj al Arab from here! I recommend coming here in the evening so you can get a day views and night views. The lights and the whole night atmosphere here are something you don’t want to miss!

3. The Palm Jumeirah

Another place you have to see when in Dubai is the famous Palm Jumeirah! This man-made, palm tree-shaped, archipelago is truly amazing. It is crazy to see what people can build. The biggest thing to do here will be to visit Atlantis. Even if you don’t book a room here, you can still get a day pass to go inside and enjoy the water park, aquarium, and other attractions. This place is great for families and has a lot of kid friendly activities. Even if you don’t have kids along there is still something for everyone at Atlantis! A day pass will cost about 300 AED (as of January 2020)

Other than Atlantis there are so many great restaurants on the Palm Jumeirah and almost all of them have some beautiful views.

We had lunch at a restaurant called Al Safadi and had some amazing seafood! It is a Lebanese restaurant that offers so many kinds of seafood. I really recommend visit here! There were so many restaurants to choose from so whatever it is that you are looking to eat they will probably have it here.

4. Desert tour

The desert tour is what I did on my very first trip to Dubai. I had a long layover going to Bangladesh to work with a humanitarian organization to test water and soil in villages around Dhaka. I had about 20 hours and so I picked one thing to do and that was the dessert tour.

This was a lot of fun. We rode camels, did sandboarding, had a dune 4×4 ride and then had dinner under the stars with a show of traditional dances and music.

There are so many different options for desert tours and honestly, I don’t remember which company I went with. I know that there are companies offering breakfast tours, sunset tours (like the one I did), and even over night tours. Next time I would really like to do the over night tour and get to experience camping in the desert!

5. Skydive Dubai

So this last one is something that I have not done yet but its on my bucket list! It costs about 1500 AED (plus extra for pictures and video) which is a bit expensive for a tandem jump, but those view are worth it! I sadly just did not have enough time last time, but I will be sure to make the time on my next trip!

I don’t know if any of my readers have done skydiving in Dubai. If you have, leave a comment below on your experience and if you recommend it or not!

So those are my top 5 things to do in Dubai! But there is still so much more you can experience, this is just a start!

January 23, 2020January 22, 2020

Stay healthy but don’t forget to enjoy life!

2^nd post of 2020! Whohooo I’m on a roll this year….

I have so many different topics that I would like to write about but one that has been on my mind more recently is staying fit and healthy while traveling. Just for a little disclaimer I am not a fitness expert of any kind, anything in this post is from personal experience only. Since it is still January and this month is the highest for people starting new workouts and getting into their resolutions, I figured now is the best time for this post.

*Top pictures is the skyline of Shanghai, nothing to do with this post but I just really like the picture!

It is really hard to stick to a workout regime while traveling. Not only is my schedule completely messed up but sometimes I am too exhausted to do any form of workout. Eating healthy is also a challenge because I eat what is available, many times I don’t have a choice. So, if I am offered pigs feet and oil rice, then that’s what I’ll be eating.

A gym membership is out of the question because I am not in a place long enough for it to be worth it and can’t work out with weights because I am not about to travel carrying around a set of dumbbells in my backpack….

(video from when I actually did have a gym membership lol)

So, my options are limited to an extent, however if you really want something you are going to work to achieve it. There are of course the fun ways to work out while traveling such as hiking, kayaking, triathlons (pictures below) and other physical activities, but these do not happen every day. Walking is the biggest activity since I tend to walk about 10,000 steps a day. But I try to be more intentional with my work outs.

One thing that I found to be helpful is using Beachbody on Demand. I started by doing Insanity in 2015 when I went to live in Tanzania for 7 months. I got the workouts on a flash drive from a friend… no judgment here…. And they were great! No equipment needed other than my laptop and I could work out even in my small room. Insanity got me in good shape to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro that same year right after completing the program.

I continued to use my bootlegged videos, but I wanted to do more. So I decided to go ahead and pay for the Beachbody on Demand video streaming system. I am glad that I did! There are a lot of different workouts that can be done with whatever equipment I have available at the time.

I highly recommend Beachbody on Demand. It’s what I have been using and been getting great results. Since I use it everyday, I have a coaching account and if you want to sign up follow the link below!

https://mysite.coach.teambeachbody.com/?coachId=2020145&locale=en_US

If you don’t want any kind of subscription and want to workout on your own, here are my recommendations. These are the best options that are cheap and very useful:

#1 Something new I have been using are resistance bands. They are lightweight, take up no space when packing and there are hundreds of workouts you can do with these little bands. Just searching on YouTube you can find a lot of workouts that workout every part of your body using these. This is why resistance bands are my number one choice when traveling.

#2 The second thing that I recommend is a jump rope. This is also very light weight and you can get a very good cardio workout in a very small space.

#3 Your beautiful body! There are thousands of great workouts that can be done by just using your body. While it is hard to find time and energy to work out while traveling, it is important to remember how amazing your body is and how far its gotten you in life. You need to continually take care of you body by giving it the exercise and nutrition it needs to keep being awesome!

A bit shy about posting these but here are a few of my progress pictures

And then there comes the topic on food… oh wonderful food. I love to eat, I have very little self-control when it comes to food. I love everything about food, the community, the preparation, the culture, the joy. Everyone must eat, and eating has become a celebration in many cases. There are specific foods for different occasions and some foods you can only find in certain areas of the world. But everything should be taken in moderation. There are obvious health problems with overeating and so I do try (at times) to make sure I am eating healthy.

I love to travel, and with that I love trying new foods and really immersing myself in a culture. In order to do this, I believe that you need to at least try the local food. This is one reason why I could never be vegan or vegetarian. I do love vegan and vegetarian food and I prefer it to meat, I have never been a big meat eater. I just can’t imagine traveling all the way to new place to refuse to eat their local food. Sure, every country does have vegetables, but there are some local dishes that you will not be able to enjoy if you restrict and limit what you can eat. Imagine traveling to China on Lunar New Year and refusing to make and eat dumplings or visiting a tribe in Tanzania who killed a goat for you, and you push their dish away, or going to Mexico and not enjoying a true street taco, or visiting the Philippines on Christmas on not joining in on the roasted pig.

Below are a few pictures from when we were invited to a village in China and they prepared a meal for us

One reason I travel is to not miss out on life and so I will eat whatever comes my way. I do believe in good stewardship and there are problems with consuming too much meat or purchasing meat from certain places or companies. People say that eating meat affects the environment but that’s not 100% true for everyone. A local family that raises and eats their chickens are not harming the environment. When meat is consumed in a responsible way there are benefits.

I may get hate for saying eat more meat, but please go eat more meat lol When back at home if you chose not to purchase meat yourself then I think that’s great and good for you for being able to do so. When you go all the way to a new country then you should try to live like the locals do and eat whatever it is that they are eating. It may not always be up your ally but at least you got out of your comfort zone to try something different and hopefully learned something about their culture.

January 7, 2020January 22, 2020

New Year and Project PEARLS

Happy 2020 friends! Well it’s the first Monday of 2020 so I guess this is the day that we need to be the most productive, right? I am starting this year’s first Monday with a new blog post!

2019 was an amazing year for travels. I travelled non-stop for the whole year visiting 10 countries with three long layovers (France, Madrid, Hong-Kong). I know a lot of other people would be able to hit more countries if they travelled for a full year but what can I say…I’m a lollygagger!

When I do visit a new country, I try to stay one to three months. Short trips just don’t give enough time to really get to know a place. The most time I spent this year was in Italy for 3 months Morocco for 2 months and Taiwan for 2 months.

When traveling we almost always stay with Airbnb, so in 2019 I pretty much just paid rent to Airbnb. Ever since we first discovered it, it has really changed the way that we travel. I really can’t stay at a hotel anymore knowing that for a cheaper price I will get a larger space with a full kitchen, and a homier feel. Sure, staying a night or two at a nice high-end hotel is nice, but when traveling for longer trips Airbnb is best.

https://www.airbnb.cn/c/alyssias11?currency=USD&s=42&user_id=87791367&ref_device_id=73eeaaf2696e4484&suuid=127e7979-db64-47ca-ab89-1430a1c17902&slevel=0

One think that I also try to do every year is to volunteer somewhere for a bit. In 2019 I volunteered in Manila at Project Pearls.

PEARLS is an acronym for Peace, Education, Aspiration, Respect, Love, and Smiles. It is a program that works feeding children in the slums of Manila.

This was my first trip to the Philippines, but instead of going to the beach where most visitors go, we headed into the slums.

This was one of the worst slums I have personally seen. The houses were built on piles of trash. Families lived where dump-trucks dropped trash and then they would sort through the trash to find food or objects to sell. One of their main food source is called pag-pag, which means to shake off the maggots. It is leftovers found in the trash that is then boiled together, this can create a lot of health issues from eating expired and rotten food such as salmonella and malnutrition.

Project PEARLS offers a safe and healthy breakfast for the children every morning.

The following is a bit from their website on how they first got started:

“In 2008, Melissa Villa and her daughter, Francesca, started a humble project of helping Melissa’s deaf and mute childhood friend, Luz who is living in the slums with her two daughters. Melissa and Francesca helped Luz by sending her two daughters to school. Two years later, Melissa was introduced to the community of Ulingan by Manila-based Belgian photo journalist, Sidney Snoeck, through his photos posted online. The powerful effect of the photos defied physical and territorial boundaries. Upon seeing pictures of children covered in black soot and dirt, Melissa was so touched and she knew that she had to do something for those children. In August 2010, under the leadership of Melissa, her brother Juan Villa, Sidney Snoeck, Pedro Gerardo Silo together with a handful of volunteers and friends from Photo Kalye , Project PEARLS established their roots in Ulingan. The community (Ulingan is a Filipino word for “charcoal factory”) is located in a reclaimed area near the breakwaters of Manila North Harbor.”

We first learned about Project PEARLS through Sidney Snoeck’s son, Brian, who happened to be our Airbnb host! Honestly this was the best Airbnb we stayed at all year. If you are traveling to Manilla please check out his listings, you will not be disappointed! https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/27220874?guests=1&s=42&user_id=87791367&ref_device_id=73eeaaf2696e4484

The place was not very big but just the right size for one or two travellers. And the views from here will be the best in Manila!

I really loved the Philippines: the food, the people, the culture, it was all amazing! I really want to go back, I still have to go to the beach, I’ve heard the beaches are some of the best in the world! So maybe next time we will take some time to go to a different island. But I do want to recommend visiting the not so popular places and the places you won’t find on Instagram or the places influencers won’t go. Sure, the beaches are beautiful, and the fancy places are nice, but take some time this year to go see those that could use your help. Spend you vacation money on a trip that will not only change you but change others as well!

Wishing you all the very best this year and hope that your year is full of blessings! Love you guys!

June 11, 2019

Manila Street Food

The Philippines is a beautiful country that is known for their beautiful beaches, romantic sunsets and amazing food! It has been on my list for a while and I am so happy that this year we were able to make it a reality! However, as opposed to most trips to the Philippines, we never went to the beach. There is water in some of my pictures but that was from the harbor in Manila (not a beach) and lake Taal. I know, I know a lot of people are thinking what a waste to travel all the way there and never see their world famous beaches! But we really wanted our first time in the Philippines to be more of a cultural trip and to really learn about the countries history, food, culture and to get to know the people that live there.

Lets talk food!

So much food! We were eating the street food everyday and it was amazing! The food we saw most often were the fish balls. There was a vendor on almost every corner and these are a must try! They have different kinds of sauce from garlic to sweet and spicy. These were great for when I needed a quick snack!

Kwek Kwek is an other great street food snack that I loved! it is deep fried quail eggs.

Sigsig is one of the most popular dishes, it is more of a meal then just a snack and I was a bit dissapointed that by the time I got my sigsig I was already so full from eating all day, but I loved it anyways! But really what is not to love? it is meat, usually made from pigs head but I saw beef and chicken as well, chopped up and grilled with egg mixed in and a fried egg on top.

Then of course there are all the grilled foods: Isaw (pork or chicken intestines), Adidas (Chicken feet), betamax (chicken blood), and then the basics like chicken teriyaki, grilled beef, etc. Pretty much you can find anything grilled on a stick. My personal favorite was the betamax. I was surprised at how good it got the charcoal taste and I really like the slight chewiness of it.

When going into street food: level advanced there is balut and day old chicks. We actually never got the chance to try balut (there is always next time) but we did eat day old chicks. I am not going to lie, I was scared! these poor looking baby chicks did not look appetizing at all. But I absolutely loved it! Imagine a hard boiled egg mixed with a flavorful and tender chicken.

Going back to beginner level street food there is lechon. Lechon is beautiful! Crispy skin, tender meat, perfect level of fat and spice. Lechon is usually the whole pig roasted on charcoal and you cant go wrong when ordering lechon!

The Philippines is amazing for street food lovers. We ate so much more than I posted about, I only posted on the few that made a deep impact. But I really did not try anything that I would not have again. Eating street food in Manila is not always recommended because it is not the cleanest, so be careful if eating on the streets in Manila and bring plenty of Pepto Bismol LOL

Here are a few more clips from the market and more food and drinks!

We did find a good a “clean” place with all the great street food. It is called Hott Asia Bazaar located in Poplacion, Makati right next to the Gramercy Residences. This bazaar had great food, drinks and live music almost every night. We came here several times during our stay.

So to not make this post too long, I will leave it at that. Next post I will talk more about what we did while staying in Manila. We volunteered at Project PEARLS (https://www.projectpearls.org/) while there and I will have a post on more information on that. So, till next time!