Blue Coral outing with long time friends

After much planning, Carl, Marlon, Abi and I were able to finally settle to go to Blue Coral for our summer getaway this year.

We had several options since there are a lot of summer resorts along Laiya, San Juan, Batangas but we chose Blue Coral since it has beach front property and swimming pools.

Our trip started with a bus ride from the bus terminal in Buendia. We rode a Lucena bound bus at Php 108 each. We alighted at the Candelaria town and took a jeepney ride to San Juan at Php 18 each. Another jeepney ride after that to Barrio Hugom at Php 30. The jeepney passes through the gates of Blue Coral.

We availed of the day tour buffet offered by the resort. It costs us Php 800 each. The buffet included lunch and merienda. The lunch was ok, not great but ok. The merienda was a disappointment. They served just sandwiches. I liked the food in La Luz, another beach long Laiya, better.

On our way home, we had some trouble getting a jeepney ride from Blue Coral. We rode a tricycle instead. The tricycle ride costs us Php 150! Highway robbery indeed! And this is not even up to San Juan town. This is just to the nearest jeepney terminal that will take us to San Juan town. After that, we took a van to Lipa City. This costs us Php 60 each. There were a lot of people in the Lipa bus terminal and we had to shove our way in a bus back to Buendia.

Here are some of our pictures.

Labor day outing 2008

For our annual Labor Day outing, we went to Poracay!

Poracay lies amidst the remains of the ash fall and lahar flows of the Mt. Pinatubo eruption more than a decade ago. Going there means driving through the mega dike created to contain the lahar flow and through the various constructions they are making there right now. No public transportation passes through Poracay.

The water in their 3 pools was very refreshing. It seems that the water comes from a nearby stream. The water in the pool was not chlorinated and was cool to the skin even if the sun was at it's hottest. There was also a mini lake where we did some "boating". It was a good place to spend one hot day.

We rented a bahay kubo (nipa hut) for 1,500. This nipa hut had it's own toilet with shower, small kitchen and dining area, 1 double size bed, and 1 electric fan. Food can be brought in and there's a grill outside every nipa hut.

Here are some pictures of our day.

AIU-RP Team Building 2008: San Pablo Laguna

This year's AIU-RP Team Building was held at Casa San Pablo at Laguna. It wasn't what I was expecting since the 2 previous team buildings involved more physical activities while this year's team building was more introspective. It was ok but I prefer the previous team building activities.

Here are some of our pics:

Summer 2008: Puerto Galera

My friend Carl was jealous of her officemates who had been touring the country for the past months that she invited us to go to Puerto Galera as soon as she cam home from Japan. And so we were in Galera from April 5 to 7.

We stayed at the Buenalynne's Beach Resort along the White Beach stretch. We stayed there for 2 nights and it was pretty good considering the location and the price. It's a beach front resort and our 2 nights stay costs us Php 3,500 per night. It had 2 double size beds with a/c and a private toilet. We rented an extra mattress for 500 for the 2 nights for 2 of my cousins who came with us. Our party was Carl, Marlon (Carl's hubby), Dianne, Emond, Kuya Dondel, and of course me!








We rode the banana boat at Php 200 per person and we rented a motorized boat for our snorkeling at Php 2,000. The kuyas withe motorized boat made the trip more fun for us! They were a riot! They told us stories of the places we went to and they were funny guys who kidded with us during the trip. They even had a blue starfish that they asked us to have our pictures taken with. We were lucky to have hired them instead of the cheaper kuyas because not only did they brought us to the Coral Gardens where not most of the bankeros go to but they also made sure that we enjoyed our trip. Thanks kuyas!

We also tried the night life at Galera. The place was hopping at night! There were a lot of people in the bars and in the beach itself since the bars cannot accommodate all of the party goers. We tried the Mindoro Sling of Galera and it really has a punch (pun intended)! On our 2nd night, we opted to stay in our room and order the famous cocktail drink and play cards instead.






And of course, Puerto Galera trip is not complete without our tatoos!

Hong Kong Trip: Day 3 (Ocean Park)

We woke up early in the morning to go to Ocean Park. I think it was the first time for me and Dianne to ride a double decker bus. Mom used to ride one when she was younger along Luneta Park.







The line for the tickets was not as efficient as it was in Disneyland. Even though I have already bought the tickets online, I had to queue in line with guests who still need to buy tickets on site. The line was quite long since it was a holiday in Hong Kong. While waiting in line, my sister saw this amazing kid that was climbing up the statues in front of the Ocean Park gate.



The only ride we were able to go to in Ocean Park was the Ocean Park Tower and the Cable Car. All of the other rides were too much for my sister and my mother. So we spent all day visiting the many aquariums. We visited some of the aquariums more than once because we were so fascinated with how they have setup the habitat. Ocean Park's aquariums are by far better than the Melbourne Aquarium.












Unfortunately, we weren't able to see the dolphin show. The auditorium was already jam packed when we got there. But we saw the sea lion show and it was great! Both the sea lions and the trainors were showcasing their acting talents!

We weren't able to see the panda's also because of the renovation. We made a vow that we will return to see the shows/rides we've missed and to see the pandas!

We proceeded to the Harbour to watch the Lights Symphony show. The sky was a bit foggy and so we were not able to see the lights show in their full splendor but it was still great!

Hong Kong Trip: Day 2 (Disneyland)

Day 2 was reserved for Disneyland!

We were told that Hong Kong Disneyland wasn't really that good since it's only like Enchanted Kingdom back home. But contrary to what we were expecting, we had a blast in Disneyland! Maybe it's because Dianne and I are long time Disney fans and so really enjoyed most of the shows in the park.

We rode Space Mountain, the Buzz Lightyear ride, and the Mad Hatter ride. Mom had fun in the Buzz Lightyear ride. At first, it was only me and Dianne who were blasting the enemies but after a few minutes, my Mom took the blaster from me and started firing away! Hehehe.



We had our pics taken with Stitch and Buzz Lightyear. The line for the pics with the other Disney characters, particularly with Mickey and Minnie, was too long!!!

We rode the Disney train but the views were less than I was expecting. It wasn't the exciting ride I thought it was.

The Jungle River Cruise was cool! The same with the Raft ride to Tarzan's house. There was a cute guy in the River Cruise crew but he was suplado. Hehehe.

We also saw the parade but weren't able to stay until the fireworks display. Mother and Dianne wanted to go to the Ladies Market at Mongkok.

Next post will be about our Ocean Park adventures! Will try to post it tomorrow since I am too sleepy right now. Till next post!

Hong Kong Trip: Day 1 (Departure)

The Cebu Pacific flight to Hong Kong was delayed for 2 freaking hours! The crew told us that the plane will be coming from a domestic flight and since there was a power problem in the domestic airport, all domestic flights were delayed. Sigh! And to top it off, I forgot that Cebu Pacific flights do not include the departure tax in their tickets yet. We had to pay for Php 1,620 per person for the travel tax. All of my previous travels have already included the travel tax in the ticket price. Good thing we had extra money in peso that day.

We arrived at Yesinn at about 11pm. We took the A11 bus from the Hong Kong airport to King's Road in Fortress Hill. The cost of the ride was HKD 40 per person. This was the cheapest transpo since the Airport service via MTR costs HKD 100 per person and taxi from airport to Fortress Hill costs HKD 350.

The room was quite small, 1 double bed deck and the toilet was also quite small. But we liked it since the small space was really maximized and it has all the amenities you might need. There's a water heater shower in the toilet, microwave oven, ref, aircon, and water heater.

The small lobby of the hostel even had 1 computer terminal where guests can access the internet for 15mins if there's someone else who will use the computer. This was very useful for us since we had to backup twice the 2 1GB SD card that we brought for our digicam.

The receptionist of the hostel was a very friendly Filipina named Lee who gave us useful tips on how to go around Hong Kong.

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.