Trips and Treats

June 8, 2008, we left Brgy. Lucap (Home of the Hundred Islands) to continue our joyride at Bolinao, a place that is known also for its white sand beaches.

First stop was at the Puerto Del Sol in Ilog Malino, Bolinao, but we find their rates quite costly and our group has no plans of staying long so we ask one of the native there if she can suggest a beach resort that is not so costly but a good one, lucky for us, we asked the right person. The lady pointed us in Patar, that is the farthest Barangay in that area, and said to have really good shorelines.
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A date was set on May 16, 2008, a month before such date, we have planned the group’s (PM/Learning) escapade. Unfortunately, the date coincides with the Company’s outing in Camayan Beach Resort in Subic. Nonetheless, the group decided to push through with the initial plan. We planned to leave Manila at 11oclock in the evening. Come the date May 16, we joined the Company outing and on our way back to Manila at around 7pm, we received a call from one of the group’s leader that the trip is cancelled due to the approaching typhoon in Pangasinan. What a heck of a night, the exitement had faded, the disappointments had surfaced. But lucky for us that we cancelled the trip as on the next day, the typhoon did hit Pangasinan and had left quite a damage in the province. We then decided to set another schedule, and that is June 6 of this year!
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Ever heard of a white sand beach (real one) in Zambales? Well, you will, now! I am talking about Potipot Island, a small island found in Candelaria, Zambales.

Philippines is really a great place to be for beaches! Saying that with conviction! hehe, not that because i have been to other countries, hehe, wala lang, that’s what you call loving your own!
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April 3rd is Mama Ne’s birthday, her 55th i guess, my mother has planned a little out of town celebration to treat her elder sister. The initial plan is to go to Grotto Vista resort for swimming, and it is compulsory to us (her children) to go. We left the house at 5am, but when we reached Bulacan, our eldest sibling (who resides in Bulacan, near the abovementioned resort) texted me that he found a new resort near their place and had booked us already there, so the initial plan of swimming at Grotto Vista was erased and we then proceeded to this new place. The resort is Tierra Fontana, a newly-opened resort in San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan, a few minutes away from Tungko. The resort has just started its operation last holy week.

It has kiddie pool that has 2 and 3 inches heights. A 5 ft adult pool and a very large pool with waves, which depth ranges from 2-10 feet. They also offer free ride up to the highway for customers without rides.
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When we came back from the Underground River tour, we were informed by a staff from Lola Itang that we were not booked for a Honday Bay Tour on the next day as there are no available half day tour (as we need to leave on the same day back to Manila). We were then advised that we can actually go there on our own but might cost us a little more than being in a package tour, and since there would be no other choices, we decided to just make it on our own. We rented a tryke for P300 to take us in the Honday Bay Wharf and fetch us afterwards.

The ride to the wharf via tryke is 20mins. We rented a banca that has a capacity of six persons for 1,100, the bigger one costs only P1,300 and that has a capacity of 12. Before we board the boat we were asked by a Fisherman with his big fish, as we will be needing it for our lunch, a more than a kilo fish (sorry, i forgot what its called) has costs us P200. We also rented snorkeling gears (P100 each) and bought a couple of breads for fishes (P15).

Our first stop has been Cowrie Island, though we did not disembarked as the Island is still under construction (the facilities). Next stop is the Pandan Island, known for its many Pandan plants, we roamed in the Island and navigated for 30mins., and proceeded to Snake Island. Its called Snake not because it has snakes in the island but because of its shape when you’re looking at it in an aerial view. We had our lunch at Snake Island, a very good lunch and we also had our first snorkeling in this island. Lots of beautiful fishes, colorful and lively school of fishes. After, we went to Starfish Island, a great island too, lots of starfish, the boatman managed to get us a live starfish, for the purposes of pictures and had returned it in the sea afterwards.

The travel from one island to another would take 10-20 mins via a motorboat. All islands has great beaches, fine sands and they were actually white in color, just like in Boracay, only that the beaches here are not maintained properly but all in all, great for swimming and snorkeling.

Our last stop is the Pambato Reef, in here we feasts our eyes on beautiful coral reefs, some of which glows, and these were said to be alive, colorful coral reefs and fishes is right in front of us. The experience is really exceptional, our guide has been very accommodating and helpful.

We were back in Lola Itang at exactly 3pm, just in time for us to prepare for our trip back to Manila as our flight would be at 5.45 in the afternoon, and we want to make sure that this time we wont be denied of boarding :D

We made it to the airport at 4.20pm and no hassle so far.

As we have booked beforehand an Underground River tour (that’s P1,200/pax), we were informed that pick.up time would be between 7 to 7:30 in the morning, so 2nd day comes, we got ourselves ready for the full day tour at the famous Puerto Prinsesa Subterranean River.

We were picked up by a van at exactly 7am, we were then informed that there will be eight of us in the day’s tour, so the next 30 mins. has been to pick up the remaining 6 people, 4 of which were foreigners. We then proceeded to a 3-hour drive going to Sabang, the road has been fine for the first 150 km and it became bumpy after, for another 150km. We were impressed by the tour guide (named Frank) as he has an adept knowledge of the province and for 3 hours he keeps on talking and explaining the roots of – and i’d say almost all – the province of Palawan. We reached the wharf at exactly 10:30am and waited for 15mins. for our turn. The boat that would carry us to St. Paul Mountain has a maximum of 6 passengers and they were really strict on that and since there were 9 of us all in all (including the tour guide) we got separated from the group as we preferred to ride the next boat. The sceneries going to the foot of the mountain is so beautiful, the 15mins ride on boat has been quiet. We dock in a beach and through the monkey trail headed to the underground river.

The underground river according to the boatman/guide is 21km long, the water is so deep and it is a combination of fresh and salt water. Regular tourists were only allowed to navigate the 1.5km and should you want to go further, you have to secure a special permit.

The tour of the cave is so exciting, with the different rock formations, one could not deny that it is indeed something that is so familiar to anyone who sees it. They have a cathedral inside and i could not deny that it really is like a cathedral, they also have the vegetable section and a lot more of rock formations to entertain tourists.

After the cave navigation, we again passed by the monkey trail and had a little chat with the monkeys and monitor lizards that comes our way. We then proceeded to the banca were we’ll be brought to the next stop, that is in Sabang beach for a delectable lunch. After lunch we were given ample time to stroll the beach, roam in souvenir stores or even swim in the beautiful beach of Sabang.

On our way back to the busy part of Puerto Prinsesa we stopped in a souvenir shop overlooking the Ulugan Bay, an another beautiful scenery.

Our scheduled flight is 9:45 in the morning via Air Philippines, we arrived in the Centennial airport one hour earlier, much to our surprise the check in counter for our flight does not have a queue line, that actually made me glad, thinking that maybe we’re really that early. Unfortunately, it was the other way around, we were late, no, not late, we were just behind those other passengers who made it in the last count for all the seats in the plane *lol* to cut it short, we were denied to board the plane. A staff from the airline reasoned out that every flight has 5% overbooking for cases that not all confirmed passengers make it to the flight, well, that i find unfair… lesson to learn is whenever you book a flight with Airphils, be at the airport at least 2 hrs before departure time.

Anyway, to compensate our wasted time, we were offered a free roundtrip ticket to any local destination (valid for 1 year) and free meals until the next flight – which, we waited for 6 hours – as our flight was moved to 4pm the same day.. to make things simple and easy for everyone, we agreed and signed the quit claim form.

We arrived at Puerto Prinsesa airport at 5:20 pm, and there we were met by Mildred, a staff from Lola Itang Pension House where we earlier booked our accommodation (visit www.lolaitang.com), the ride to the pension house is 10 minutes in a van (when you book at Lola Itang’s, the airport transfers are free of charge.) Our prior booking for a city tour was cancelled, thank God we need not to pay any… city tour is P500/pax, also at Lola Itang’s, they can do the booking with the tour agencies w/out extra cost.

Lola Itang pension house is within the commercial areas of Rizal avenue in Puerto Prinsesa, and our first day was spent roaming the area.

Pictures are available in the next posts.

Welcome to Bacolod City, the City of Smiles!

From Dumaguete we travelled five hours via land trip heading for Bacolod an overnight side trip from the Oriental Negros. We left Dumaguete at exactly 6am and settled at one of the city’s pension house just before noon. After settling our things we took our lunch in one of the restaurants offering the famous Bacolod chicken inasal so delicious and very affordable. We then headed to our place of destination, that is the Mambukal Resort, a mountain resort famous for its 7 waterfalls. The place is a one-hour drive from the city center.

The resort offers lots of activities, they have several swimming pools of different variety - hot spring, children’s, cold pool - they also have the mud pack activity. Adding to the attraction of the resort are the schools of flying foxes, whatever they call it.

The resort is located at the foot of the Kanlaon Volcano, it has 7 water falls, they do not allow visitors to swim in the first 4 waterfalls as it has became dangerous due to the many earthquakes that has struck the place. In the 5th and 6th falls, where visitors are now allowed to simmer the water, that if you have gotten that far as you have to climb higher for each fall, are not really that enticing, that you’d rather have the first waterfall or go futher and climb more for almost an hour to get to the peak or on the 7th waterfall.

That we did, and its really worth the travel by foot, the track which we have to take is somewhat scary for there might be unwanted animals, mammals and holes that were dangerous, that is why, a guide is really a must when you wanted to climb or go that far. Upon reaching the 7th falls, oh wow, you’ll really love the serenity of the place, the looks, the ambience, the water-very cold-, everything is beautiful, how i loved nature! Truly God’s wondrous deed!

Thanks to Cebupacific’s P1 fare for this trip great savings on our part!

Dumaguete as a well known province was only one of the city of Oriental Negros before this trip i actually thought that Dumaguete is like Iloilo a province in a whole that comprises many municipalities. I was told by a native there that even their place is Sibulan still when asked where they live they tend to answer “from Dumaguete.” This because, Dumaguete is much more known to us than other places in Oriental Negros, therefore saves them from further inquiry.

Our trip to Oriental Negros was coincidentally in time for Sibulan’s Fiesta - where we stayed - therefore we were surprised by the event that we have not prepared ourselves that we are visiting 6 houses for a day’s meal, at first we actually felt challenged and excited, but upon reaching the fourth house, we almost begged our host to take us home, that we’re so full and cannot take to have another house visit. :)
The houses we visited were so hospitable that you will really feel at home.

On our 2nd day here, we went to one of the beaches in San Jose, full of fun, we go boating and funny here is that we got overloaded in a small banca that it turns upsidedown, lucky for us we havent gone far from the shore, full of laughter and good food. The beach is somewhat exclusive, we have it all by ourselves.

We have not fully maximized our stay here as the weather prohibits us, we were not allowed to visit Apo Island as it rains heavily, same with the famous waterfall of the province :(

Im glad i have been here!