Decor Vlog: Decorating a Brooklyn Inspired Bachelor Pad

One of my passions aside from craft and traveling is decoration.  As promised, I will start posting decoration projects in my youtube channel to inspire you guys in decorating your own spaces.

For my first decor vlog, I'll be showing you a condominium studio that I transformed into a Brooklyn Loft themed apartment.

4 Days Bangkok Itinerary with KKday

Aaaah Bangkok, Thailand’s bustling capital! This city is known for being the street food capital of the world. (NETFLIX will definitely agree with this—but let’s save that for another blog). Having said so, Bangkok is not only about street food, there are so many things to do around the country’s capital and also places close to it.

For my recent trip, I partnered with KKday (www.kkday.com) to explore Bangkok and other notable destinations close to it. These can be done in 4 days. Of course, you can adjust these suggested trips depending on the days that you will be spending in the city.

On my part, these were done on 4 consecutive days from Thursday till the weekend.

Here we go!

Grand Palace Half Day Tour

 First things first, before exploring things to do outside Bangkok, let us focus on what to do in the capital.

Exploring Bangkok in Style with TBS 1978 from Hit The Road PH

Before leaving Manila to visit Bangkok for a few weeks, I was able to get a hold of a shoe brand called TBS 1978. I was really excited to add it in my OOTD. Normally whenever I travel, I just bring my trusty hiking boots and a pair of flip flops. This time around knowing that I'll be spending most of my days in the city, it is fitting to dress up a bit and be stylish more than the usual "backpacker get-up" (tho the rugged look is still my comfort zone haha).



To learn more about this brand,

TBS 1978 is a ready-to-wear shoe brand that is proud of its French heritage and has been introduced in the Philippines via Hit The Road PH. It is best known for leather sneakers that bring to you comfort, style and versatility as it integrates its active lifestyle design with premium full- grain leather to marry the need for everyday stylish comfort. 

Each pair is crafted with a cushion in-sole to increase comfort, a Technogrip patterned sole to ensure grip and a full-grain leather exterior that outlasts the test of time.

So now that I got to test it, I must say that it is very comfortable. I walked the whole day thinking that because it was brand new, it needed a little break-in (based from my experience) and I was ready to get some little bruises from it, but amazingly nothing! It felt as if I've been using it for a long time already.

Yilan County Taiwan : How To Go, Where To Stay & Things To Do

I’ve been planning (or let’s say tempted) to visit Taiwan several times last year, ever since they have lifted visas for Filipinos entering the country. I came close to booking a flight during one of the local airline’s seat sale but unfortunately, things didn't really worked out as planned (dreamed). Good thing, before 2018 came to a close, I got a chance to visit Taiwan, though not the capital, I still  got to explore country's northeastern town, Yilan County.

To be honest, before being invited to explore Yilan, I really didn't have any idea what to expect in Yilan. Is it a city buzzling with tall buildings, a small quaint town infused with a smell of rice noodle soup everywhere or a town close to nature where every environmental enthusiast will be happy visiting?

My friend Valerie (@missvalirietan) and I arrived at the Taoyuan Airport in Taipei and welcomed with this placard

Here’s my attempt to tell you what are some cool and awesome things to do when you visit Yilan.

First and foremost, let me tell you some facts about Yilan:

Yilan is situated in Taiwan's Northeastern coastline. Our local guide mentioned that Yilan is regarded as Taiwan’s backyard or backyard garden because it is surrounded by ocean and mountains, making it a nature-destination trip especially if you are coming from a busy city like Taipei.

It Is a famous tourist destination for a lot of local Taiwanese and currently getting some buzz from foreign visitors as well, thanks to the Hsuehshan Tunnel, Asia’s second longest highway tunnel. This tunnel helped in reducing the driving time between Taipei and Yilan to roughly an hour.

#LiveMoreShareMore: Behind The Scenes of Filming a Global Campaign

I think most of you have seen a recent campaign I made for Western Union. It was indeed an amazing opportunity to showcase my passion in a global platform.



In this blog, I want to share with you my experience in working for this campaign ( which I can definitely say, one of the highlights of my 2018).

Now, let's backtrack a few months before its release.

[caption id="attachment_6039" align="alignnone" width="800"] Filming some clips in Marikina[/caption]

Back in June, after months of negotiations, I finally welcomed an international filming crew to Marikina, my hometown in the Philippines, to make two episodes about my life and journey for an award-winning project called #LiveMoreShareMore.

In a sea of influencers, from all over the world, it is still hard to believe that I was one of the few selected content creators to be featured in the series, showcasing inspiring people.

#LiveMoreShareMore was developed by RDB | Robin des Bois, an international Media agency focusing on Influencer Millennial Marketing and Branding Campaigns in Vienna, London and Manila, and the project is powered by Western Union - the global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement in over 200 countries.

After watching previous episodes of the web series featuring influencers such as Nuseir Yassin, creator of the one-minute daily videos channel @nasdaily; Mihaela Noroc, author of the project “The Atlas of Beauty”; Youtuber Maria (@LaCooquette); Filipino yo-yo champion Sean Perez and also videos featuring Mario Rigby, a modern explorer who spent two and half years crossing Africa by foot and kayak, it was my turn to represent my country, not only as a content creator, but also as an artisan, sharing with others how much love goes into each journal I made via my very own Surat Journals project.

[caption id="attachment_6041" align="alignnone" width="800"] With Marcio Delgado and Rainer Frick (briefing for our audio recording sesh)[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_6040" align="alignnone" width="800"] Marcio dicussing some questions that I needed to answer for the shoot[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_6038" align="alignnone" width="800"] Shooting some dramatic shots with Rainer. You can definitely spot this in the final video[/caption]

The team of professionals spending three days with me in Manila and Marikina included German film director Rainer Frick, filming assistant Jan Pilny, Marc David Acob and the London-based Journalist and producer Marcio Delgado, a Global Content Manager and social Influencer Headhunter for RDB and whom signed me for the campaign.

Besides being part of a Global project like that for a brand that has been around for over a century, it is always fascinating to see how it is made by a crew that spends approximately 100 days on the road, each year – this is more time travelling than some of the travel bloggers that I’ve met in Asia or Europe during my own trips.

[caption id="attachment_6043" align="alignnone" width="800"] Been using Western Union ever since I started working abroad. Definitely one of the best options to send money anywhere in the world.[/caption]

“It takes a lot of work to film each episode, several hours per day, and few people realize that. We also have to deal with other challenges while filming abroad, from earthquakes in Mexico to lost luggage in the USA or heat of up to 46C in India, for example. But the end results make it worthwhile.” – says the series producer Marcio Delgado.

It gives you a sense of accomplishment when you hear the words ‘It’s a wrap’ after filming many different sequences that you even don’t know if it will make to the final video. And the best part is when you watch the episode live, again, months later.

All episodes are published across Western Union’s social channels, including Facebook and teasers on Instagram, and they are also made available to watch in a dedicated blog about the Live More project.

In case you haven’t seen my two episodes already, I invite you to have a look at: https://www.westernunion.com/blog/sharemore/#kenneth or by pressing play below

Live Adventure @KennethSurat | #LiveMoreShareMore #WUSharesKenneth

#Ad He designs his own future. Join us as we team up with Kenneth Surat on his journey to inspire positivity and share stories #RightNow

Who do you strive to inspire? #LiveMoreShareMore #WUSharesKenneth #CustomerStories

To find out more about Kenneth check out: http://on.wu.com/Kenneth

Posted by Western Union on Monday, November 5, 2018

Choose Passion @KennethSurat | #LiveMoreShareMore #WUSharesKenneth

#Ad He thinks global but his ❤️ remains local. Join us as we team up with Kenneth Surat to follow him on his entrepreneurial journey #RightNow

What do you aspire to be? #LiveMoreShareMore #WUSharesKenneth #CustomerStories

To find out more about Kenneth check out: http://on.wu.com/Kenneth

Posted by Western Union on Monday, November 12, 2018

 

Episodes of the current second season are published weekly on www.facebook.com/westernunion

Follow Marcio Delgado for some behind-the-scenes updates on Instagram: @marcio_delgado

https://www.instagram.com/p/BkJu1QnjrY4/