Blog update

Melbourne trip

I was in Melbourne again last Jan. 26 to Feb. 7. I was sent there for a database encryption project. Had time to travel to new places but didn't have much pictures since I toured the place alone.

Highlights of my tours were the Yarra River cruise and the trip to Melbourne Zoo.

For the river cruise, I took the Combined tour package, it was a tour up and down the Yarra river. There were a lot of beautiful sites and bridges that we passed during the trip.

Since the Australian Open was on-going while I was there, I was able to watch the Women's final match between Serena Williams and Dinara Safina. The match was pretty boring since Serena bulldozed her way to the championship. The match didn't even took an hour to finish. But the experience was worth it and I did not regret taking the opportunity to watch it. I was hesitant at first to pay AUS $ 25 when I will be watching it outside the arena, in the nearby park, with just a big screen. Fortunately, I still enjoyed it because it's a new experience.

Pagudpud trip



My sis have a blog post about this already and since she's a better writer than me, go to her blog post for the tour details.

Some more info though. The room we had in Ella's Cottages was a bit pricey but it was worth it. It costs us Php 4,500 a night and had 3 double beds, air con, and en-suite bathroom.

Our trike tour guide, Bong Malata, was very nice and accommodating. Original price for each tour was Php 600 per trike but even before I can try to bargain, he already offered a discount to us! So the 2 days tour which should have cost us Php 2,400 we got for Php 2,000 only. And he was like our personal trike driver there because when we had to go somewhere, i.e. market or bus station, he wass just a text away! He would pick us up from wherever we are and deliver us to where we wanted to go! Nice di ba?

We took the Florida bus to Pagudpud. It costs Php 550 per way. Their trip schedule is always at night, you leave Manila at night and arrive in Pagudpud in the morning or you leave Pagudpud at night and arrive in Manila in the morning. There's a bus going to Laoag during th day and from there you can take a bus to Manila if you prefer traveling during the day. Since most of us sleeps like the dead anyway, the night trip was ok with us. We just slept through the 11 hours of travel.

Cebu-Bohol Holy Week Trip



Again, please read dear sister's blog post for more info. :D

For the financial details, our tickets to Cebu took around Php 4,200 each. This excludes the Php 200 terminal fee at NAIA terminal 3 and Cebu airport. The SuperCat round-trip ticket we bought at a discounted price of Php 500 from the GO2 ticket outlet in People Support building in Makati.

We stayed at the Citadel Inn in Panglao, Bohol. We rented a room with 3 double beds at Php 1,800 per night. That's pretty cheap for a tourist spot! It had air con but we had to share 2 bathrooms (1 male and 1 female) with another room. There were no en-suite bathrooms in the Inn. Here's their email address and mobile number for inquiries and reservations:

email: citadelalona@yahoo.com
Mobile number: 09182411763

Citadel Inn was not a beach front place but it was quite near the beach. We only had to walk 5 to 8 minutes to reach Alona Beach.

On our 2nd day of the trip, we rented a boat early in the morning to chase dolphins. On the 3rd day, we had a Chocolate hills tour. We bargained with the organizer to have a discount on the tours and service back to the Tagbilaran port. This is what she offered:

Dolphin watching tour
Original cost was Php 1,800. She offered it to us for Php 1,600 with 2 free snorkel set rental. The tour includes about 1 hour of dolphin chasing and a trip to Balicasag Island for snorkeling fun.

Chocolate Hills tour
Original cost was Php 3,000 but we got it for Php 2,500.

Trans-out or service back to Tagbilaran port
When we arrived in Tagbilaran port, we managed to bargain with a van driver to take us to Citadel Inn for Php 600. Original price was Php 800.

For the trip back, we got a discounted price of Php 500 from the original quote of Php 700.


In Cebu, we booked 2 rooms at Westpoint Inn. The standard room was Php 750 and the Deluxe room was Php 950 per night. We again rented a van for a city tour for Php 2,500. The tour is for 8 hours and Kuya Rolly Estopace (Mobile #: 09164283017) was very nice and friendly. He was not only our driver but also our tour guide for the trip.

Holy Week 2008: Day 4 (Easter Sunday)

We attended mass in Vigan Cathedral on Easter Sunday. The mass was in Ilocano so we did not understand much of the mass. Afterwards, we walked along Calle Crisologo, this is where most of the preserved old houses are located. This is also where most of the souvenir markets are.



We also went back to Baluarte to visit the animals there in broad daylight. The kids had fun riding the small pony kalesa,



the butterfly garden,



and the tigers.



We then continued on our way home. The End.

Holy Week 2008: Day 3 (Black Saturday)

Mother wanted to go to Vigan since Christmas last year. And since no one yet in our party have ever been to Vigan, we were easily convinced to continue with our road trip to Vigan, Ilocos Norte.

The trip was another long one! From Bolinao, Pangasinan we had to travel around 6-8 hours to go to Vigan. After that long trip, we just had to take a picture when we saw the Vigan arch.



We took a kalesa ride to see the more popular spots in Vigan. The kalesa ride costs us 150 per hour and our ride was a little over 2 hours. The ride took us to Bantay Church, Padre Burgo's old house, Hidden Garden, the old houses along the way and to Chavit Singson's Baluarte.



We spent the night at Grandpa's Inn. It costs us less than 3,000 for an aircon dormitory type room. There were 8 double beds and 8 free breakfast the following morning.

Holy Week 2008: Day 2 (Good Friday)

Good Friday arrived bright and early!

We were so excited to go to Treasures of Bolinao so we woke up early and continued with our journey from Alaminos to Bolinao.



When we arrived at Treasures of Bolinao, we were surprised because the rates they told us was way too much than what they advertised in their website. According to the page, day tour was 250/pax for the use of the beach and the pool. We were told that Holy Week rates are higher ... and it seemed way higher! We were asked to pay 660/pax. But this rate includes lunch already and the corkage for snacks and drinks were waived. And since we were already in love with the spectacular sights, we gave in. In return, they gave us a discount. There were 14 people (11 adults and 3 kids) in our party and they only charged us for 12 adults.


We were not able to do much swimming in the beach because the water was either too low or too high. Instead, we took the time to do a lot of picture taking. Here are some of the great shots we had:

Supergirl?



Vince, watch out for the croc at your back!



Run Tito Pitch! Run!



Woahhh!



That is not to say we did no swimming while we were there. There was a pool that satisfied our craving to swim/dip in the water. And make new friends!



And the dramatic sunset view gave us another fantastic backdrop for pictures.

Holy Week 2008: Day 1 (Maundy Thursday)

Our Holy Week outing this year started early. Lola Fely allowed us to deviate from our usual Visita Iglesia and so we were on our way to Pangasinan early Thursday morning.

The traffic along NLEX (North Luzon Expressway) was horrendous! The usual 1 hour drive from Balintawak to Dau Exit tooks us 3 hours! There goes our schedule for the week ...

We had a slight detour on our way to Pangasinan. We visited Apo Tina and had our breakfast in Pampanga.

Afterwards, we continued our trip to Pangasinan with stopovers to churches we passed along the way.

One of the churches we visited was St. Raymund of Penafort Parish in Mangatarem, Pangasinan.



Our plan is to go to Treasures of Bolinao in Bolinao, Pangasinan but the resort was fully booked as well as all nearby resorts and inn so we had to go to Travllers Lodge at Alaminos, Pangasinan first to spend the night. You might be wondering why since we are at Alaminos already, why not go to Hundred Islands instead? The answer: we went there already about 3 years ago. :D


The travel was a bit long since we had many stopovers to do our Visita Iglesia. We had our lunch at a highway restaurant. The food was a bit expensive but the views were great.

North luzon Road Trip - Holy Week 2008

Will post my own version of our trip next time.

In the meantime, take a look at my sister's post.