Source: Pep.ph
In a vlog dated May 29, 2021, Bea Alonzo recalls how John Lloyd Cruz became her life saver during her first trip to Dubai years ago: "Sa buong five days or one week namin sa Dubai, wala kaming pera. As in sumasama lang kami kay John Lloyd para magpalibre ng meals, ganyan."
With the pandemic putting a downer on any plan of travel at the moment, Bea Alonzo has contented herself with a trip down memory lane through her vlog on YouTube.In a vlog dated May 29, 2021, Bea shows videos of her top ten favorite places in the world and in her annotation, she tells stories about her travel experiences.
The 33-year-old actress recalls, "I was browsing through my old photos, travel photos, and I couldn't help but miss traveling even more.
"I mean, parang nakaka-miss yung mga long flights na dine-dread natin before, di ba?
"I just miss meeting new people, being able to learn about different cultures, being able to try new cuisines.
"And I thought I should just do a video for you to share my past experiences, to share my past journeys. So I decided to create a video of my top 10 destinations."
The One More Chance actress says Dubai in the United Arab Emirates is her "second favorite" travel destination.
And her first time in Dubai sometime between 2005 to 2007 as part of a big group to do a show turned out to be truly memorable for Bea.
Their entourage included John Lloyd Cruz, Sarah Geronimo, Rachelle Ann Go, Erik Santos, and many others.
With Bea tagging along was her mom Mary Ann Ranollo, who didn't realize she had used up their travel fund in one shopping trip to the Gold Souk, the largest and oldest gold market in Dubai.
It was all of Bea's talent fee from the show that went down the drain and that, on the first day of the week-long trip.
Bea recalls, "The first time we ever went to Dubai, parang we had this show with The Champions pa at that time.
"I was really jet-lagged, I was really tired. So sabi ko kay mama, hindi na ako sasama dun sa Gold Souk. She went with the group.
"Ako, natulog lang ako sa hotel. At this point, wala pa akong credit card nito.
"When my mom arrived at the hotel, ang dami na niyang dalang alahas. Sabi niya, 'Anak, isukat mo ito,' ganyan-ganyan.
"And then meron din siya for my brother, for my lola… So nagtanong ako, 'Asan na yung talent fee, Ma?' Nagastos niya na lahat sa Gold Souk."
Luckily for Bea, she had someone to turn to and was willing to help: John Lloyd.
"So sa buong five days or one week namin sa Dubai, wala kaming pera. As in sumasama lang kami kay John Lloyd para magpalibre ng meals, ganyan.
"Binayaran naman namin siya pagdating sa Manila, so that's what happened."
Bea says the experience taught her and her mom a valuable lesson.
"After that, nag-apply na kami ng credit card and lesson learned ni mama, dapat sa first day, hindi mo muna ginagastos lahat ng pera mo."
BEA'S FAVORITE DESTINATIONS IN DUBAI
Bea has been to Dubai several times and one of the many reasons she keeps going back is the warmth of the Filipino community over there.
"Isa rin sa mga dahilan kasi ang babait ng mga Pilipino doon."
However, it was only in 2018 that she was able to fully explore the city and highly recommended in her book is the Dubai Desert Safari.
She enthuses, "I love the Dubai Desert Safari. Actually, yun talaga complete experience.
"You can see the dunes, go on camel rides, yung food nila super sarap, henna painting, may shisha smoking, and at the end of the night, makikita mo para siyang may little show."
Movie clips 👇
More stories:
