On a vacation high
Ok, I'm finally updating my LJ because the past two weekends have been the most awesome weekends of my life. And I have to write about them because I might forget.
April 21-23, 2007 - Puerto Galera with BAI officemates
Pasensya na, this is the first time my parents allowed me to go out of town with my friends on a just-because-it's-summer-and-we-feel-like-it trip. Finally diba, kahit papaano they're more liberal. ( The Tagaytay trip doesn't count because I was sick the whole time.) I don't think I've ever felt so freeeeee hahahaha.
We stayed at White Beach, but I think we got as far as Tamaraw Resorts. Ganda, wala lang masyadong tao. Even though we had to go through this:
It was worth it. Eh the other guys wanted to people watch. :P
That night we had drinks at Coco Aroma...
and watched Turtle Club Band perform. Galing. Only got one dark picture of them though. At hindi pa sila kumpleto.
Wanted to go dancing after at another bar (forgot the name), but due to, well, a lot of reasons (one, antok na si Diana at delikado ang daan papunta sa room namin at ayaw kami iwanan ng guys at siyempre kailangan ko na rin sumama haaaay; two, kailangan gumising ng maaga eh puyat kaming lahat; three, umaambon na (what a stupid reason hehe, but it was mostly reason #2, actually...then reason #1), we couldn't.
The next morning, we went on a Banana Boat ride and went island hopping! We split into two groups for the simple reason na yung kaya makaupo ng 13 na tao, walang hawakan. Er...no thanks. Paranoid kaming lahat eh hahaha.
The first group took forever to finish. They wouldn't let the boatman flip the ride over. Our group didn't even challenge the boatman. Mostly because of this guy.
Sammy was so excited about the idea of falling into the water hahahaha.
Finally, island hopping!
My snorkelling gear was defective pbfffft. Oh well. P50 rental, what can I expect from that. Trying to feed the fishes (emphasis on the "trying" hehe) was still fun though.
For merienda, we stopped at another island where this (probably) European tourist tried to offer us some watermelon. He didn't sound French or German according to Ms. Cat, our former PM. Whatever, we couldn't understand his language anyway hahaha.
After that it was time to head back to White Beach. Half of our group wanted to report to work the next day (because of their respective deadlines) so they rested, washed up, and rode a boat back to Batangas. They also got lost, hahaha. And got home at around 2 am daw. (Jack: "Sana kasi today (Monday) na rin sila, eh di sabay tayo nawala at masaya.") And me...well I was supposed to go with them pero BI si Dean, ayaw ata balikan ang project namin...niyaya ako...me giving in...hahaha. I didn't regret that decision.
Our last night was spent at Gorgo (no alcoholic drinks this time)...
shopping for souvenirs, drinking fruit shakes, and walking on the sand. Hahaha what.
And no dancing...majority of the people went back to Manila, I assume. :( Oh well, marami pang lakad! But what I really, really regret is that when I saw these cute coverups (little airy pants and dresses squee) I didn't buy them "kasi baka mas mura sa Manila". Eh wala naman akong makita dito. Mura na nga sa Galera eh, naghahanap pa ng mas mura dito. Waaaaah. Stupid stupid. Baka sa sunod naming punta dun, wala na, ibang style na ang nandun.
I'm looking forward to another outing with my BAI officemates. Haaay. I miss them already. (No, I won't see them back at the office on Monday...more on that on my next entry.)
April 26-29, 2007 - Palawan with the family
My mom had a conference or something in Palawan, and we've always wanted to go there...so when it was over, the rest of the family followed. I was kinda bummed when we landed because it was raining. Apparently my mom and her officemates had been gifted with rainmakers and they were playing with them. But mom said that it had been extremely hot (like in Manila) the day before. Now I'm not superstitious, but I didn't touch my mom's rainmaker after that. Anyway, our family stayed at the lovely Asturias Hotel.
Favorite part ko yung pool eh. Hehe.
Nothing much happened on the day we got there. I was so, so sleepy because our flight was at 8 in the morning, and I didn't get any sleep the night before (nag-overtime kasi). What a waste. Next day, it was still drizzling. But we went island hopping anyway.
(With my dad. Lookit my peeling arm! Galera sunburn!)
From Honda Bay, it was a 45-minute ride to Snake Island.
But it was worth it. SO WORTH IT, I'm telling you. Times like that, I really wish that I knew how to swim, and that we had an underwater camera. It was gorgeous. The underwater part, at least hehe. Mababaw pa lang, andun na ang mga isda. Tsaka ang linaw ng tubig. We were warned though, na yung tubig lumalalim kaagad. Para bang dun sa mababaw parang edge na ng cliff. But we didn't let that stop us of course. We had life jackets anyway. Once we got to the deep part of the water, we saw fish of all colors swim past us. There was even like, a wall of fish right in front of us. Ang ganda sobra. In this other part of the water there were corals naman. I saw a sea urchin! And Nemo and Dory! And Nemo's home, whatever it's called again! Bwahaha. It's a good thing our guide, Kuya Duduy, was really helpful. He made us feel that he really wanted to show us the beauty of the island. And in fairness ha, ang tiyaga niya. Hinihila niya kami paulit-ulit on a lifeguard rescue can (only my dad knows how to swim) because we were so makulit. I lost count of the number of trips we took. He did that without a life vest ha. Buti hindi siya napapagod. We ended up staying there longer than expected. Sarap din naman kasi kumain. Sarap talaga ng pagkain dun, at mura pa. We were supposed to go to this hot springs place but my mom was tired. So we went back to the hotel.
The next day, we went to visit the Underground River.
Basically, it's a bat and bird cave. But, it's got a lot of rock formations with interesting shapes. We saw the Nativity, Jesus Christ, a horse, and a fruits and veggies section (corn, puso ng saging, etc.) among other things. It's amazing how the rocks got to look like that.
(This is supposed to be the Nativity.)
When we got back to the pier, we did some shopping. I found two pretty Palawan tops that I really liked but they were too small for me. :( Oh well, at least I got 3 more pairs of beach shorts.
Back to the hotel, we went swimming again to wash our stickiness off (only after taking a quick shower of course).
Then we had dinner at KaLui.
We had to eat outside because all of the tables inside were already occupied. Shame...ganda pa naman sa loob. Wasn't able to take pictures though. Anyway, the overall dining experience was great. I am really bad at writing reviews, but click my Ka Lui link, the person who wrote it says it better. Or maybe search for it on food blogs, I don't know. Basta ang sarap. Ang sarap ng lobster, ang sarap ng dessert.
And so that was our last night at Palawan. I wish we hadn't been tired when we first got there because I know we could have seen so much more. Hopefully we'll have a chance to go back there soon. Next time, with friends naman. Hehe.
April 21-23, 2007 - Puerto Galera with BAI officemates
Pasensya na, this is the first time my parents allowed me to go out of town with my friends on a just-because-it's-summer-and-we-feel-like-it trip. Finally diba, kahit papaano they're more liberal. ( The Tagaytay trip doesn't count because I was sick the whole time.) I don't think I've ever felt so freeeeee hahahaha.
We stayed at White Beach, but I think we got as far as Tamaraw Resorts. Ganda, wala lang masyadong tao. Even though we had to go through this:
It was worth it. Eh the other guys wanted to people watch. :P
That night we had drinks at Coco Aroma...
and watched Turtle Club Band perform. Galing. Only got one dark picture of them though. At hindi pa sila kumpleto.
Wanted to go dancing after at another bar (forgot the name), but due to, well, a lot of reasons (one, antok na si Diana at delikado ang daan papunta sa room namin at ayaw kami iwanan ng guys at siyempre kailangan ko na rin sumama haaaay; two, kailangan gumising ng maaga eh puyat kaming lahat; three, umaambon na (what a stupid reason hehe, but it was mostly reason #2, actually...then reason #1), we couldn't.
The next morning, we went on a Banana Boat ride and went island hopping! We split into two groups for the simple reason na yung kaya makaupo ng 13 na tao, walang hawakan. Er...no thanks. Paranoid kaming lahat eh hahaha.
The first group took forever to finish. They wouldn't let the boatman flip the ride over. Our group didn't even challenge the boatman. Mostly because of this guy.
Sammy was so excited about the idea of falling into the water hahahaha.
Finally, island hopping!
My snorkelling gear was defective pbfffft. Oh well. P50 rental, what can I expect from that. Trying to feed the fishes (emphasis on the "trying" hehe) was still fun though.
For merienda, we stopped at another island where this (probably) European tourist tried to offer us some watermelon. He didn't sound French or German according to Ms. Cat, our former PM. Whatever, we couldn't understand his language anyway hahaha.
After that it was time to head back to White Beach. Half of our group wanted to report to work the next day (because of their respective deadlines) so they rested, washed up, and rode a boat back to Batangas. They also got lost, hahaha. And got home at around 2 am daw. (Jack: "Sana kasi today (Monday) na rin sila, eh di sabay tayo nawala at masaya.") And me...well I was supposed to go with them pero BI si Dean, ayaw ata balikan ang project namin...niyaya ako...me giving in...hahaha. I didn't regret that decision.
Our last night was spent at Gorgo (no alcoholic drinks this time)...
shopping for souvenirs, drinking fruit shakes, and walking on the sand. Hahaha what.
And no dancing...majority of the people went back to Manila, I assume. :( Oh well, marami pang lakad! But what I really, really regret is that when I saw these cute coverups (little airy pants and dresses squee) I didn't buy them "kasi baka mas mura sa Manila". Eh wala naman akong makita dito. Mura na nga sa Galera eh, naghahanap pa ng mas mura dito. Waaaaah. Stupid stupid. Baka sa sunod naming punta dun, wala na, ibang style na ang nandun.
I'm looking forward to another outing with my BAI officemates. Haaay. I miss them already. (No, I won't see them back at the office on Monday...more on that on my next entry.)
April 26-29, 2007 - Palawan with the family
My mom had a conference or something in Palawan, and we've always wanted to go there...so when it was over, the rest of the family followed. I was kinda bummed when we landed because it was raining. Apparently my mom and her officemates had been gifted with rainmakers and they were playing with them. But mom said that it had been extremely hot (like in Manila) the day before. Now I'm not superstitious, but I didn't touch my mom's rainmaker after that. Anyway, our family stayed at the lovely Asturias Hotel.
Favorite part ko yung pool eh. Hehe.
Nothing much happened on the day we got there. I was so, so sleepy because our flight was at 8 in the morning, and I didn't get any sleep the night before (nag-overtime kasi). What a waste. Next day, it was still drizzling. But we went island hopping anyway.
(With my dad. Lookit my peeling arm! Galera sunburn!)
From Honda Bay, it was a 45-minute ride to Snake Island.
But it was worth it. SO WORTH IT, I'm telling you. Times like that, I really wish that I knew how to swim, and that we had an underwater camera. It was gorgeous. The underwater part, at least hehe. Mababaw pa lang, andun na ang mga isda. Tsaka ang linaw ng tubig. We were warned though, na yung tubig lumalalim kaagad. Para bang dun sa mababaw parang edge na ng cliff. But we didn't let that stop us of course. We had life jackets anyway. Once we got to the deep part of the water, we saw fish of all colors swim past us. There was even like, a wall of fish right in front of us. Ang ganda sobra. In this other part of the water there were corals naman. I saw a sea urchin! And Nemo and Dory! And Nemo's home, whatever it's called again! Bwahaha. It's a good thing our guide, Kuya Duduy, was really helpful. He made us feel that he really wanted to show us the beauty of the island. And in fairness ha, ang tiyaga niya. Hinihila niya kami paulit-ulit on a lifeguard rescue can (only my dad knows how to swim) because we were so makulit. I lost count of the number of trips we took. He did that without a life vest ha. Buti hindi siya napapagod. We ended up staying there longer than expected. Sarap din naman kasi kumain. Sarap talaga ng pagkain dun, at mura pa. We were supposed to go to this hot springs place but my mom was tired. So we went back to the hotel.
The next day, we went to visit the Underground River.
Basically, it's a bat and bird cave. But, it's got a lot of rock formations with interesting shapes. We saw the Nativity, Jesus Christ, a horse, and a fruits and veggies section (corn, puso ng saging, etc.) among other things. It's amazing how the rocks got to look like that.
(This is supposed to be the Nativity.)
When we got back to the pier, we did some shopping. I found two pretty Palawan tops that I really liked but they were too small for me. :( Oh well, at least I got 3 more pairs of beach shorts.
Back to the hotel, we went swimming again to wash our stickiness off (only after taking a quick shower of course).
Then we had dinner at KaLui.
We had to eat outside because all of the tables inside were already occupied. Shame...ganda pa naman sa loob. Wasn't able to take pictures though. Anyway, the overall dining experience was great. I am really bad at writing reviews, but click my Ka Lui link, the person who wrote it says it better. Or maybe search for it on food blogs, I don't know. Basta ang sarap. Ang sarap ng lobster, ang sarap ng dessert.
And so that was our last night at Palawan. I wish we hadn't been tired when we first got there because I know we could have seen so much more. Hopefully we'll have a chance to go back there soon. Next time, with friends naman. Hehe.