ABU DHABI – Dinner at Kuya Juan

Filipino restaurant in UAE that serves alcohol and pork so that is why a lot of Filipinos recommend it. I do not drink or eat pork but was like YEAAH LETS GIVE IT A TRY LOL.

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Tim and I ordered seafood Kare Kare and Chicken Inasal Bacolod style hehe and had ensaladang talong and garlic rice as a side. We ended our meal with a dessert called Leche Flan.

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Leche Flan: Filipino Creme Caramel
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Chicken Inasal Bacolod: Grilled Chicken marinated with Filipino BBQ Sauce
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Seafood Kare Kare: The sauce is made out of peanut butter

Every night, the restaurant has a band that performs old songs and the vibe of the restaurant really does remind me of the Philippines.

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Tim and I give 5/5 for the restaurants service. They are so nice and friendly and make sure you are happy and having a good time.

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MARAMING SALAMAT KUYA JUAN

2018 Christmas in the Desert

My mother-in-law visited Abu Dhabi to spend a warm Christmas and New Years with us. Unlike other countries, Christmas is not a public holiday in the UAE and unfortunately it landed on a weekday so Tim had to take a day off from work. For Christmas, we decided to book a desert safari trip to Al Ain/Abu Dhabi Desert.

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C’mon whats a better way to celebrate Christmas like the Middle Eastern way hehe! The desert safari package included dune bashing, camel ride, henna, shisha, dinner, sand boarding, wearing the traditional outfits and night shows. The shows included Egyptian performance and a belly dancer and since it was Christmas, the belly dancer wore a red outfit and a Santa hat. (LOL) MERRY CHRISTMAS YA’LL

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We had a great time especially that it was our first time dune bashing in Abu Dhabi/Al Ain Desert. It’s not that much different than Dubai but it was indeed an Arabian Christmas Night Adventure 🙂 lelelelelee

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Taste of Abu Dhabi 2018

On Friday 9th of November, Tim and I decided to check out Taste of Abu Dhabi. I’ve been to the ones in Dubai but Tim hasn’t attended any of the events so I kinda pushed it and said lets check out Abu Dhabi.

We had a lovely time. There were live cooking classes, freebies and lots and lots and lots of delicious food.

Our favourites were Coya, Limo, Robertos, Sushina, Matsu and Nolu. All fine dining restaurants and their chefs cooked amazing samples for us to try. It was just delicious.

At night, there were live bands performing old songs  and people were dancing their night away.

I’m glad I got to experience Taste of Abu Dhabi. Can’t wait till next years event 😀

Kayaking in Hatta

Hey Guys,

Bellion Travels is somehow back. Last month, Tim, my brother and I drove to Hatta to check out the Hatta Dam. It’s takes 90 minutes from the main city of Dubai. However, we drove to Sharjah and headed to Hatta from there.

We got there at 11AM and left the place at around 3PM. Each one of us took a single kayak which costs around AED 60 each (approx. £11) for unlimited time. There are other activities such as double kayak, water bike, pedal boat, yellow boat, donut boat and tour boat.

The place was surreal and so calm. I took out my phone and played some 70’s music and just kayaked away. I highly recommend the place. You can also check out the village near by, the fish and vegetable market which is walking distance from the place. If you ever want to stay in Hatta, there’s the Hatta Fort Hotel. Tim and I stayed there for the weekend in 2015. I avoid posting about it because they’ve renovated the hotel and looks different from the time we visited.

We later stopped for lunch with my brothers friends and had shawarma and tabouleh. I highly recommend it and we will be visiting the place once the weather gets better.

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90’s Nostalgia

The first weekend after our trip to Spain was one crazy weekend and one of the best days of my life. I attended the BACKSTREET BOYS concert. YES! You read that right. I WENT TO A BACKSTREET BOYS CONCERT.

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It was EPIC. They sang all their hits and it felt like the 90s again. You can barely spot a teenager at the concert. Just 20’s – 50’s enjoying music sang by the legendary pop boy band. Another cool thing about the concert was MEL C FROM SPICE GIRLS. Who also performed and sang one of the girl band hits, she also sang covers of famous songs and her own songs from her solo album. AHHH!!! It was  perfect weekend spent with my girlfriends and uncle.

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Flamin’ Meat at Meats Flame

Tim and I were fortunate to try Meats Flame before its opening. We were invited for food tasting and had chicken wings and spicy shrimps for starters. For the drinks, we had mango smoothie and strawberry mojito. As main course, we had beef and chicken burgers. In addition to all that, we had sweet potato and beetroot crisps on the side.

Everything was delicious and the food presentation was very artistic. I highly recommend the burger place. Hopefully, when they officially open next week, we will go back. Meat Flames is located on Jumeirah Beach Road, Dubai.

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Stand Up Comedy Show at Hangry Hangers

Hello after a very long break from blogging.

Tim has been helping me redesign the website while I add the logo on the images. The website is up and running but I’ve got lots of images to edit.

So what have we been up to lately?

Tim’s been commuting every day from Abu Dhabi and we’ve been attending workshops and events on weekends. Our recent event was a stand-up comedy live show at Hangry Hanger organised by Dubomedy.

Hangry Hanger is situated in a warehouse in Al Qouz, they’ve got indoor food trucks serving delicious street food. This is a Dubai concept and not a typical food trucks event and it is indoor due to the humid hot weather.

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The event was successfull and lots of people showed up. Tim, Mimi, Ivana, Mohammad and I sat upstairs and watched the 2 hours show and just had a great laugh. So if you ever want to hang out indoors to escape the heat and have fast food out of a truck then hangry hanger is a great place for you to visit.

In addition, if you are interested in becoming a professional comedian, check out Dubomedy because they offer training courses and provide opportunity for you to be able to perform live in UAE.

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Dubai in Three (3) Days

If you are visiting Dubai for 3 days, here are the places we recommend you to visit.

Day 1:

  • Visit Old Dubai and Ride the Abra (Located at the Al Fahidi Metro Station)
  • Dubai Mall, Burj Khalifa and Dubai Fountain.  All those attraction are located in Dubai Mall which is currently the largest mall in the world. (Dubai Mall Metro Station)

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Day 2:

  • Desert Safari, Camel Ride and Dinner at a Bedouin Tent. You can book through any Tour Agency in Dubai and even Hotels can book it for you. We recommend you contact the Tour agency directly, they’ll offer a better rate.
  • Spend the late night in Dubai Marina. There are so many restaurants, bars and cafes to try.

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Day 3:

  • Emirates Mall for Skiing OR Water Park activity either at ATLANTIS or WILD WADI
  • Dinner at Madinat Jumeirah

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There are other places to visit and tons of activities to do. You can also look at visiting IMG World which is the biggest indoor Theme Park and trust me it is worth visiting, there’s the Miracle Garden in Dubai Land and Dubai Parks and Resorts which include Lego Land, Motion Gate and Bollywood.

Hope you will visit Dubai soon 🙂

WE NEED TO CHANGE OUR TRAVEL STYLE

I’ve been travelling since the age of 1. My first trip was to the Philippines; however, my mum and I had a stopover in Brunei which makes it the first country I’ve ever visited. As a child, my travel was limited and it was only between Lebanon and Philippines. Since being born and raised in Dubai, my parents did not want me to forget my roots.

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My first diverse route was to Syria where I visited historical places. Syria was only a 2 hour drive from where we stayed in Lebanon. Then in 2010 I’ve travelled to a new destination outside my comfort zone and that’s where I caught the travel bug. That destination was India, later I couldn’t stop travelling; I visited Oman, Brunei again, Spain, Germany and Malaysia. So from family travels, I diverted to visiting new destinations outside my culture to witness the other countries touristic attractions.

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Years later in 2014, I booked a last minute ticket to Singapore and ended up meeting my husband. Our trip included fun activities such as visiting Singapore Zoo and Universal Studios. In my blog ‘How We Met’ (https://belliontravels.com/2016/06/17/singapore/) , I’ve mentioned that we met every month in a new country to sustain our long distance relationship. Since they were short trips, we became travellers who squeezed a lot of touristic attractions and fun activities in a short period of time.

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Once we got married, our travel habit has changed. Since we both have full time jobs and have limited annual leave, we decided to visit as many places as we can and the trip ends up to be rapido rapido rapido……

After taking 2 weeks off of work, we managed to visit Japan, Philippines, Macau and Hong Kong. I was beyond content and especially that Japan affected me a lot. I thought I took really awesome pictures for the blog and social media accounts until 5 of my friends who visited Japan a week after me took similar pictures and that’s when I realised that Tim and I need to change our travel style.

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When I was having lunch with Tim and my brother ‘Mohammad’, I was telling them that something was missing in my travels. I want something different and unique. At this stage, I’ve decided to travel to new places and learn as much as I can until I find the right style. Where myself and others can benefit from.

So for now and hopefully not for long, we will be the kind of travellers who cram as much knowledge as we can but someday we will find what I’m searching for.

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