Birthday Celebration - Part 2 in Boracay

So, we only had a day to make things really memorable.

We woke up early to start the day beautiful. We were a little worried that rain will ruin the day since it’s a little gloomy and windy. But that didn’t stopped us to enjoy the day. Right after breakfast we went to Puka beach. Our landlord said it is one of the tourist spots of Boracay. We had to take a 15-min ride to get there. There were only a few people present. I can say the place was more suitable for sporty events rather than a family area. We were like swimming in an abandoned island — dramatic. hehe. We really did enjoy the water.

Look, who is the star of the whole day?	Don’t mind this *grin*

Upon deciding to go home, I was bewitched by all the vendors! Haha! It wasn’t really funny because my pocket really got empty. Thank god they were not accepting credit cards! I wonder if they got voodoo dolls in their tents. There are a couple of beautiful accessories that we found. We really took advantage because we really got the best offers since their sales are almost zero. We finished all our negotiations with the vendors around 11am already so we decided to get something to eat. We found a restaurant near the beach. It was more like in a residential area so I did not find out the name of the place but the food was so good that even kapampangan tongues* were pleased. I love their fish dishes, specially the tanigue and sinigang. It was very different from my mom’s dish. Overall, the food is 5 star.

This is not the restaurant I was talking about, I just love that shot.	eek, can you even see my family??

After we satisfied our stomachs, we went straight to our mini island hopping. The island hopping only cost us P1,500 for 6 people. In this season, you can really get the best deals. According to the locals, prices starts to get higher as early as February. At March, everything in the island starts to turn to gold. The island hopping would normally cost P2,000 for 2 people and could go up to P5,000! Actually that was their little sales pitch so I was pumped up even more to try it out and that is how they got me. I guess they were very good eh? Probably works of the voodoo dolls again.

i love the flag

It ends up though that I wouldn’t trade anything else for that experience! And I even got it cheaper! Yey! We had snorkling, more snorkling and another snorkling. I also tried the helmet dive, also known as reef walking or undersea walk. They are going to make you wear a gazillion kilos of helmet and then make you walk 7-feet under the water. In order to attract fishes, they would give you a piece of bread, an ordinary bread, and fishes will start to come at you. The fishes really love them. Maybe they were trained to do that in order to please tourist.. don’t you think? *grin* Anyway, it was still really a very beautiful experience. And we had a little bit of action which made the experience more exciting! I saw a snake on Gerold’s path (Gerold and I were the only brave pipz who tried it) and I was pointing like crazy to the tourist guide about the snake. Then the guide tried to stop the snake, grabbed his head and they rolled and rolled underwater! Actually, that was just a made up story. hehe. The truth is, the guide panic a few seconds or maybe milliseconds and tried to keep gerold away from the snake’s path. Thankfully they both coordinated well and we were back to feeding the little, colorful and fashionable fishes. I even tried to touch plants that hide when you try to touch them. They are probably the “makahiya” version underwater. Since it was unexpected, we weren’t able to prepare the camera for an underwater experience. Poor camera it could not make it. The guide tried to sell us another service though, P500.00 for a few clicks underwater! I just said no and to think I can photoshop myself and would cost me less than 500 (I guess he was just not a good seller :p).

After the helmet dive, we went to a protected area in the sea to see more fishes and a lot of corals. Unfortunately, storm Frank really destroyed the place. According to the locals, it will take another 10 years for the place to come back to it’s old beautiful self. There were still fishes and I was happy to find people who takes care and not destroy of our nature. And who also would have taught that you can have buko juice in the middle of the sea? Haha! Very creative people, there were two small bangka who were selling fresh buko juice! And it was very affordable. That was another something new for the day.

Lastly, we had some timeout by shopping in d’talipapa. Errr.. shopping again? I just tried to stay away from it the very best I can and I was successful! Woot! But then I was already hungry and a unique restaurant offering cooking service caught our attention. This is in d’talipapa and their scheme is that you buy your ingredients in the nearby wet market, a couple of feet away, and they will cook it for you. The service range from 100-300 pesos for a kilo, depending on the kind of food you want. They already have a menu so you just have to select and no, you cannot tell them to cook something they do not know and do not offer. So we bought a blue marlin, prawn (I was eyeing for the lobster but it was already out of budget) and tanigue. If you do not care about the place, this one is for you. Why did I say that? Because as I said earlier, the wet market is just a couple of feet away from the restaurant and it is an open area so you can smell something fishy nearby and I mean really fishy. hehe. But this is a must try in Boracay.

this is the cooking service restaurant, don’t mind the place, just eat the food

So here is the summary for those people who just wish to know where to go instead of reading my novel:

• Helmet dive - P600.00 per person
• Island hopping - P1,500 - P5,000
• D’talipapa
• D’mall
• Puka beach which is at the other end of station 1, 2 and 3
• Restaurants offering cooking service in D’talipapa

—
* I just made this up but anyway, in Philippines, Kapampangans are people from Pampanga and our province is tag as the culinary center of the philippines so you get the point?

Birthday Celebration in Iloilo

I am a year older again! Yikes! Time is running out, my bungalow house has not been started yet and my yacht has not arrived. I need to swim more and dig more. Well, I did the swimming more but less the digging because my last birthday celebration required me to do so.

My family and I went to Iloilo last November 7 and the next day we celebrated my 18^th birthday in Shamrock beach resort with my boyfriend’s family and relatives. Joan (a friend) was teasing me in SMS that I was namamanhikan (entreat) which I think was partly true, haha! I again met his family and his most beloved lola who is 94 years old and I was so surprised and impressed that she was able to travel for 2 hours to get to the destination and still swam in the beach later that afternoon. The weather was cold because it was raining a little. My lola at 70+ barely moved at her time. The most who enjoyed is my nephew who refused a couple of times to get out of the water even with the weather. The best part is that everybody enjoyed and that made me happier. I just only wish I had a cake! (no sweets for me *snip*)

The next day was the Boracay day. We left Iloilo terminal at 6am because it was the earliest schedule in the nearest bus terminal. We travelled 6 hours from Iloilo to Caticlan and thank goodness Ceres bus was comfy. It was still the longest travel ever but I got to see Aklan and Capiz. At the last mountain route, I already felt dizzy. The curves are worst than Baguio and because of my starving little stomach, dizziness attacked me which is really very rare for me. Although I must admit that even at that state I liked what I was seeing, the surrounding place was beautiful and my mom got already excited (and me too!) seeing the Boracay island (it’s her first time).

Arriving at the hotel past 1pm, we were all starving so right after getting our bags in the room, we went straight to Mang Inasal. The bad thing is that since we were so hungry I forgot to take some pictures :(. But the worst experience you can probably have at that time and I think a little funny is that right after we ordered and sat at the table, Lhex (my nephew) started to mumble to his father “uu.. uu..” (means nature is calling ASAP!) and my poor brother left immediately without asking us the direction of the hotel nor did he brought any mobile phone and as expected he was lost. He came back after an hour and was starving to death. Morale lesson: bring a cellphone ALWAYS!

To give a little excitement to my narrative, I’m going to divide it into 2-part story. I’m getting dramatic lately. haha. Actually, the next 2 nights in the island are really exciting (for me) so a single post could make this one a novela. So see you next time!

**UPdate: Here is the part 2 in Boracay

Visiting Philippines Tourist Spots - Iloilo, Guimaras, Boracay & Roxas

It was in 2006 when I first travelled to Iloilo, Philippines for a business trip and it was my first time to ride an airplane. After that, I was going back and forth to Iloilo island. The first time wasn’t really that much fun so I promised myself to come back.

I heard a lot of great things from the locals about 2 destination spots in this place — Guimaras Island and Boracay. Six months later, I booked a flight in Cebu Pacific through their online booking system. I chose Cebu Pacific because it offers the most affordable flights in the Philippines. The online experience was flawless. After looking for free slots on my preferred date, paid with my credit card and voila! I was done! Yippy!

Iloilo City is a fantastic place to go. What I love in this place is the food. I enjoyed the food hopping so much. The best places I’ve been to so far were:

• Buto’t Balat, Mc Arthur Highway branch (there are many branches in Iloilo)
• Al Dente in Sarabia Hotel
• Emillion
• Ted’s Batchoy

I like the spicy calamares of buto’t balat. I still can’t forget it until now. Also the ambiance was very refreshing. It’s a floating restaurant above a fishpond, I thought it was a river but I was told it was just a fishpond. We went there for dinner and the place was lit by candles so the mood became more romantic. It’s perfect for a dinner date.

Al dente and Emillion are really great and expensive as well! First class food and service. I was only able to taste their specialties because it was a company treat. For not so expensive treat and you like batchoy, Ted’s batchoy is for you. It is located just near the City intersection.

If you are in the mood to party, try to visit the smallville area. It is a famous gimmick area near the seashore. I went there and it’s a great place.

After the food hopping, I went to Guimaras Island. From the city, it’s only a 10-minute ride to another port. It is a separate island and you have to ride a pump boat to get there. It probably took us around 15 minutes to get to the Guimaras port. Once you’re there, you’ll have to take another jeepney to get to your destination. The jeepney travel is a bit long from the port to our destination. Since Guimaras is a small island, it is surrounded by different resorts. You can ask the locals for good resorts. Bring all you need when going there because there is not much restaurants or souvenir shops available.

Another place to go in Iloilo is in Jaro. I wish I was able to go to the old church in Jaro city, unfortunately I did not have enough time. Maybe I will next time.

If you are looking for a place to stay in Iloilo, I recommend Highway21 Hotel for a budgeted trip. A room-for-2 only cost me 700.00 pesos a night and that was in 2007. If you want a first class experience, Sarabia Hotel and Days hotel are for you. Sarabia Hotel is in the General Luna Street. It’s just a 5-minute walk from the intersection. Days Hotel on the other hand is at the end of General Luna street, opposite to Sarabia.

I was also able to go to the nearby Boracay. From Iloilo, you have to take a bus or van going to the Caticlan port. It’s a 6 hour trip so it’s a bit long. Boracay is surrounded by white sand and it’s a great place to relax. It is also very commercialized. There are a lot of restaurants and bars and has its own mall. Some of the items and foods are very expensive so you have to really check on the whole place. It is just small so you can roam around. We stayed in Baeay hotel, I could not call it really a hotel, maybe a mini-hotel? But the room has a hotel feeling so I still recommend it. The room cost 1500.00 to 2500.00 a night. The services are good as well and the landlord is very accomodating. If you do not like to travel for another 6 hours again going back to Iloilo City, Cebu Pacific offers flights in Caticlan Port which is already a few minutes away from Boracay island.

This november, I’ll be travelling with my family to Iloilo City, Roxas City and Tacloban, Leyte. We will be visiting a family in Iloilo and then proceed to Boracay. Before going home, we decided to check out Roxas City. Roxas City is famous for its seafoods. It is just 3hours away from Iloilo and Boracay so it’s not really that far. Since Cebu Pacific also has a flight in Roxas, so it’s a good destination spot if you are already in the Iloilo Island. After that, we scheduled a trip the next week to visit our father who is in Tacloban, Leyte and good news, Cebu Pacific is also available in Tacloban city. Wow! What a convenience!

For those people interested in going to Iloilo, I bet you’ll enjoy it. It’s better if you have a local friend who can tour you. I found the places I mentioned because of my co-workers there. If you are in a budget, check out Cebu Pacific Airlines. You may wonder how we were able to booked the trip on November. We are five in number and we are not that wealthy to afford that amount. We took advantage of the absolute zero all-in seat promo offered this month. This last promo was probably the biggest discount I ever heard of. You can go to anywhere in the Philippines for as low as 700.00 pesos! I am not bluffing, it’s real! “Low fare, great value!” This is the motto of Cebu Pacific Airlines and they are living by it. So my other tip for you is to get updated with Cebu Pacific promos. If you are a twitter fan, Cebu Pacific has a twitter account so you will be more updated with what’s new and hot.

Good luck and see you in Iloilo soon. Happy flying to all!