Samovar Tea Bar

Samovar Tea Bar is one of the places I wanted to visit when I was in San Fran. I found out about this place after I moved out of the city and so I didn't get a chance to check this place out until this trip. The cafe's interior is very different and intriguing. So I decided to look up what's the philosophy behind this brand. According to their website:

"Samovar is an alternate reality. A place where we can step out of the rat race. A place where we invite people to slow down, to inhabit the present moment, to disconnect in order to connect.... We’re about enjoying the basic goodness of being present in the moment."—Jesse Jacobs, Founder.

If that's the case, I definitely can see myself disconnecting and slowing down at this place. The interior does exudes a sense of tranquility and calmness. Definitely a good place to just sit back, relax and recharge yourself. I ordered the green tea latte and it was good. The aroma of the green tea was really nice and it was unsweetened so it gave a really clean taste. I especially enjoyed watching how the teas were being prepared. If you are looking for a good place to drink tea, I would recommend you to check this place out.

Hope everybody have a great weekend and for those of you who are in the States, enjoy your Memorial Day Weekend! :) 

ps: they have another location at the Yerba Buena Gardens, Samovar Tea Lounge, which is bigger than this one and have more food selections. 

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Flower Dome

Flower Dome at Gardens By the Bay was the last location we went to for our mini photowalk. The first thing that I felt when walking into the dome was the cool blowing air from the air-con, almost too cold for me I think, especially with the gloomy weather outside. The Flower Dome is the largest greenhouse in the world and is housed by another cool structure, just like the other architecture in the Gardens. We saw different kind of plants and flowers in this place, but to be honest, I'm not a flower kinda person, so I didn't take a lot of pictures of the flowers. The architecture was pretty great tho. Lots of curves, glass, and natural lights. Very interesting structure indeed.

One cool thing that I experienced during our walk in this place was seeing the raindrops falling on the glass above us, as it started raining 10 minutes after we walked in. It almost felt like I'm in the rain without having to get wet :P Such a great experience. Anyway, we ended up sitting down for a while in the dome, watching the rain, and talked for a bit. One of the thing I enjoy the most when meeting other Instagrammers is this, getting to know them outside those pictures they posted on their gallery. We talked about how they first met, their experiences with the Singapore's Instagram community, school life, work life, and a bunch of other things. It still amazes me how much I can relate to and connect with the people who I met through Instagram.

We decided to leave the and headed back to the MRT station after we finished walking around the entire Dome. It's still raining a little bit outside and none of us had a umbrella, so we ended up running back to the MRT trying not to get wet as much as possible. A memorable way to end the meet I should say ;)

ps: Thank you again to Venus & Jessica for such a warm hospitality during our two meets when I was in Singapore. You guys definitely made my Singapore trip more exciting and memorable :)

See part 1 (Supertree Grove) and part 2 (Cloud Forest) of this series if you are interested.

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Greetings from Iceland

Can't believe I've been here in Iceland for a week now. So far, the trip is no less than amazing! Everywhere we turn, a beautiful breathtaking view is waiting for us. I am truly amazed and in awe with what I've seen in this country. We still have a couple of more days left 'til the end of the trip, so I thought I give a quick update here on the blog. I'll still be posting stuff on my instagram and facebook page if anybody wants to get a sneak peek of my travel here in Iceland. Or, you can also follow along my adventure on snapchat (id: @greysuitcase).

For now, here's a shot of Noah from our visit to the famous wrecked airplane site in Iceland. It was quite a view. Will be back with more updates soon! Hope everybody is having a great (long) weekend! :)

p.s: check out @noahskim & @hannahmuhh instagram for more pics from this trip. They take amazing pictures! :)

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Stopover in Seattle

After enjoying the cherry blossom season and the peak of spring in Seoul, I am currently back in Seattle for a short stopover, recuperating from the busy last couple of weeks I've had. The weather is nice here in Seattle, warmer than I thought it would be. And as usual, it's cloudy most of the time, but there're hints of sunshine here and there during different parts of the day.

I had no special plans whatsoever in Seattle other than to mainly rest, catch up on sleep (lots of it) and shop for some winter gears for my next upcoming trip. Although, I managed to squeezed in some catch-up dinners and meet ups with a couple of close friends, including Davina, who I haven't had a proper hang out with for a while. It's always nice to see familiar faces when you are away from home :)

In a couple of hours, I'll be leaving for Iceland (yeay! super excited btw!) with Hannah and Noah, who for those of you who have been following this blog for a while, probably familiar with. I've taken a road trip with them last year in South Korea before they left for the States, and this time, we're going to head to Iceland for 10 days. I've never been to Iceland before and have only read and heard good things about the place. Hannah and Noah on the other hand, have been there before so I've been hearing great stories from them and they can't wait to go back again.

I'll be posting stuff on my instagram, snapchat (id: @greysuitcase) and facebook page if you want to follow along our adventure. In the meantime, check out the video that Noah made during their first trip to Iceland. Honestly, I really wanted to go visit the place right after I saw this vid for the first time. For now, I gotta get ready and do my final packing. Hope everybody is having a great weekend!

Early Spring in Seoul

Around this time last year, things were pretty busy with school so I didn't really have time to go see a lot of the waiting-for-spring-to-come excitements in different parts of Seoul. When the harsh winter wind is no longer slapping your face every time you step outside, four layers of clothing is no longer necessary (I know, I know, four layers is a lot. But hey, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to survive the winter around here ;P), and you can see hints of colors from the budding flowers around the city, that's when you know that winter is almost over and spring is just around the corner. Plus, everybody just seems to be in a better mood with the arrival of more sunny days and the rising temperature. Myself included :)

This year, since I don't have school anymore, I had a chance to visit a couple of places during the end of winter/early spring days here in Seoul and there were some common sights that I encountered during these visits. Some of them include people sitting down on picnic mats on parks, ahjummas & ahjussis wearing extremely bright-colored hiking outfits, and young people wearing spring clothing—even though on some days, it was still pretty darn cold for those thin spring coats in my opinion. But one thing for sure, everybody seemed to be trying to take advantage of the longer daylight to enjoy the warm weather and soaking up the sun as much as possible, while waiting patiently for spring to announces its arrival.

ps: Things have been pretty hectic these past couple of weeks with the traveling, work, family matters, and planning for upcoming trips. There are lots of stories from my Seoul trip and some exciting trips in the near future that I can't wait to share with you guys. Stay tuned! :)

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