City of Pines: Baguio City

Baguio City is also known as the Summer Capital of the Philippines(because of the cold weather here) or as the City of Pines.

After visiting Manaoag, we went to Baguio since it is just 2-3 hours ride away from Manaoag via Kennon Road.

There is a terminal of UV Express going to Baguio just across Manaoag. Fare per person costs 90 pesos. And brace yourself for a total roller coaster ride since their route is via Kennon Road. Good thing Althea is sanay na sa byahe.

We left Manaoag around 6am and arrived at Baguio around 9am. We stayed at Baguio for one night only(Sept6-7) since may mga pasok na lahat kinabukasan.

Here is our itinerary, expenses and other details of our Baguio trip:

Day 1:
*We arrived at Baguio around 9am.

*We went to Cafe by the Ruins which is within walking distance from the UV Express terminal. The restaurant has a nice ambiance. The restrooms are clean. The food was great though I find it a little bit pricey. I heard from Lee's mom that everything in their menu was home-made. We ordered Tinapang Bangus for each one of us and Mushroom Omelet for Althea. Tinapang Bangus was very tasty. The mushroom omelet was so-so for me. All meals also come with mixed fresh fruits such as dragon fruit, mango, pineapple and papaya and fresh fruit juice or tea.

*After having a heavy breakfast, we now went to La Brea Inn. Rooms here costs 1,200pesos and up per night. The rooms are spacious and clean. Water coming out from the heater is medyo mahina. Maraming malapit na restaurants. In fact, katabi namin ang Yellow Cab.  Burnham Park is also near La Brea. Staffs are also nice and accommodating.

*Mines View Park- maraming souvenirs dito like bags, knitted cardigans etc. Fleece blanket here also just costs 180pesos for a king size. Sayang nga kasi ang dami na naming bitbit. Picture taking with Boomer, the St. Bernard dog, costs 50pesos for two poses. There are also horses for picture taking, 10pesos per pose. Marami ding inihaw na pusit and mais.

*Kiwi's Bread and Pastry Shop- it is near Mines View Park. The owner is a Kiwi, a citizen of New Zealand. Their breads are delicious and very affordable. L's mom bought a kiwi muffin. It is moist and fluffy and only costs 25 pesos. Btw, the muffin is big. Their triple chocolate cake is also very sumptuous. L's mom ended up ordering different kinds of bread and pastries that we will just pick-up on the next day, before we go to the bus terminal.

*Lunch at Chef at Home- I expected a restaurant actually but this one is just your plain old carinderia type but a little bit leveled-up.  The place is clean. The restroom is also clean. The food was also superb. The owner was there during our visit, which is a foreigner, and he told us that they are opening a new branch in Manila. Try their chicken in sweet and spicy sauce. 

*Wright Park - by the time we finished our lunch, Althea was already grumpy. So we went to Wright Park for some horseback riding. Horse back riding costs 200pesos for 30minutes and 300pesos for one hour.

*The Mansion - It is just across Wright Park but rain is already pouring down so no more picture taking. :p

We then went back again to La Brea Inn. Lee, Thea and I took a nap after taking a bath while his mom and younger brother went to the market to buy some vegetables. We woke up around 6 or 7pm for dinner.

*Canto - Canto is one of the restaurants inside Ketchup Food Community. Only L's brothers went to Canto and just ordered our dinner for take-out. They bought full slab lomo bbq ribs with mashed potato and salad. And the price? 350 pesos! Where in Manila can you buy a full slab that is worth 350pesos?  And no, the quality and taste was not sacrificed. In fact, it is very sulit!

*Night Market - every night from 9pm until 4am the following day, outside Burnham Park, one street lane was closed to give way for this night market. It is an ukay-ukay madness. Aside from ukay-ukay there are also few stalls that sell brand new bags and clothes, silver accessories and also street food.

Day 2:
*Buffet breakfast at Le Monet Hotel - The ambiance is nice and very elegant. Food choices was limited. I'm not that impressed actually even with the taste. Even Lee and his brother, who are both chefs, are not impressed with the food.

*Burnham Park - boating costs 100pesos for 30 minutes, additional 50pesos if you want ng tiga-sagwan. There are also bike for rent but I forgot the rates.

*We then went back at Kiwi's to pick-up the breads and pastries.

*Lunch at Slaughter House - maraming karinderya dito. With our taxi driver's suggestion, we tried the karindera sa may far-left side. We ordered beef kalderata, bulalo and papaitan.

*Packed-up our things back at La Brea.

*We then now finally went to Victory Liner Bus Terminal around 1pm. Our bus will arrived at 1:40pm. Btw, L's mom already made a reservation the day before our trip back home.  We left the terminal around 2pm. We had two stop-overs.

We arrived at Pasay around 9pm.
It was a very tiring trip but it was also a fun and memorable trip.

Summer Fun at WaterCamp Resort, Kawit, Cavite

It's my stepdad's birthday today(May 15, 2013)! Happy birthday Tito Jun! Thanks for being nice and a good provider to us. :)

And as a way of celebrating his birthday,yesterday, May 14,2013, we decided to go to WaterCamp Resort at Kawit, Cavite to take a dip and have same fun.

WaterCamp Resort is just few minutes away from our home. It has six, yes, six pools: 160m lazy river, wave pool, children's interactive pool, pool, kidney-shaped pool, dunk pool and adult pool. They also have a mini playground inside.

Bringing of foods are also allowed inside though they have a canteen and few food stalls inside.

The whole resort is clean and well-maintained. There are trees everywhere. The pools and water are also clean, even the restrooms are clean.

Here are the rates for entrance fee, cabanas/tables, and also for their villas, superior rooms and inns for overnight staying guests based on their website:

The resort is open as early as 7AM but you're only allowed to swim from 8AM onwards. It's our second time here and since on our first time, we arrived before 7am at the resort, ang daming tao na agad! So this time, 6:30AM, umalis na kami ng bahay. We reached the resort at around 7:00AM, whew, wala pa masyadong tao. Actually, kami pa lang ata nandun except for the overnight staying guests.

Staffs are very accommodating and nice. In fact, one of the staffs even helped us in inflating our "salbabidas" (life buoy).  (Yes, meron silang available na "air pump" and free to use pa!)

Here's some of our pictures:

My stepdad and her favorite apo 

Family picture ^_^

Summer Fun at Puerto Galera

Summer Fun '13 @ Puerto Galera

For our summer escapade this year, hubby and I planned to have an overnight stay @ White Beach, Puerto Galera. Of course, our 4 year-old daughter was with us.

Here's our itinerary and some expenses we incurred during our trip. :)

Day 1

3:00 am- We left Cavite( Nag-taxi kami from our house sa Bacoor hanggang sa terminal ng JAM sa LRT-Buendia)

4:00 am - Off to Batangas Pier. Bus fare from Buendia to Batangas is 166.30 pesos each.

6:00 am- We reached Batangas Pier. We head off directly to Terminal 3 to pay for our round-trip ticket. A round trip ticket costs 500 each. You also have to pay the terminal fee and environmental fee. There are 3 fast crafts you can choose from: Minolo Shipping Lines, Father and Sons Lines and... I forgot the other one. Hehe.

We chose Minolo Shipping Lines. Yun daw pinaka-OK based sa mga forums na nabasa ko. Which is true naman, mabilis and malaki and bago. ^_^

Note: If you bring toddlers with you, you are only require to pay the environmental fee, the rest are free. Mas makakamura din if you'll get a roundtrip ticket.

7:30 am - We left the Port. Ang aga namin pero naiwan kami nung 5:45 na trip I guess. Kaya nagintay pa kami ng till 7:30. Anyway, comfortable naman sa loob ng terminal. :)

Golden Hawk

Around 9:00 am- Unluckily, the fast craft dropped us on Muelle and not directly to White Beach. From there, there are Minolo shuttles (free) that brought us to White Beach.

9:30 am- We reached White Beach. We went first to the ticket booth of Minolo to confirm our return trip. 

We then went to Buena Lynne's where we reserved a month earlier an A/C Room which costs 1,500 pesos for an overnight stay.

We were very disappointed with this resort. 

First, if you leave the room, the A/C will automatically shut down because the plug is attached with the door keys. 

Second, the A/C is not working properly. We were in the room for hours yet the temperature is still so hot, we were even sweating. So hubby asked the caretaker if they can transfer us to another room. Good thing, they allowed us to transfer and this time, we were able to remove the keys from the plug so we can leave the A/C on even if we're outside. Hahaha!

Anyway, maraming resort sa White Beach na pwede mong pagpilian. Pagbaba mo pa lang ng fast craft, marami ng lalapit sayo and magaalok ng room. :)

Brunch - 250 pesos. Good for 2. Includes Sinigang, Liempo, Talong with Ensalada and 2 sakto coke. (The food is so-so.)

Fun under the Sun

After few hours, we decided to went back to our resort since the sun is already scorching hot.

We doze off since we woke up so early that day and also had so much fun at the beach. We woke up at around 3pm and decided to get some food. 10am pa yung last naming kain! :p

Merienda - Waffle with egg and bacon @ Food Trip sa Galera- around 100 each (2 thumbs up! :) )

                   Fruit Shake - 60 pesos each

Cravings Satisfied!

After we ate, we headed back to the beach.

Father and Daughter Bonding

Beautiful Sunset

Dinner - We ate at Hiyas Angeline Bar. The food is great! Try their Fillet Mignon, it's superb! The service is also superb! Super bait nung gay na nag-asikaso samin.

By the way, at dinner, almost lahat ng restaurants, may mga tinda na na ihaw-ihaw like pork bbq, chicken bbq, squid, talong. Nakakatuwa kasi lahat ng restaurant, parepareho ng tinda, even yung itsura ng bbq stick they use. :)

Great Food, Great Service!

Heading back to the resort, we saw these fire dancers.  Nakakainis lang, I find the gays na nagseserve sa resto na may mga firedancers na yan na super rude!

Day 2

YUM!

Breakfast - Food Trip sa Galera.  We had honey-cured Chicken wings, Salted eggs with Tomatoes, Sisig and UNLIMITED garlic rice for 175 I guess, nakalimutan ko na, basta around 150-175 pesos.  The food was really great but the service is so frustrating. 

The servers are not attentive. Kuwetuhan ng kwentuhan and pag nakita nila na parang rich yung guest, super entertain sila sa mga yun to the point na hindi na nila inaasikaso yung iba.

After breakfast, balik na ulit kami sa beach.

Hubby and I went for a massage. Back massage for 30minutes costs 100 pesos. Pwede na. actually nung first day namin, ang sarap nung pagkakamasahe samin, kaya lang this day, masyadong hard. Depende din talaga siguro kung sino magmamasahe sayo. If whole body, 200 pesos. They also offer na i-braid yung buhok for 100-200 pesos.

We weren't able to try the different activities since we have our daughter with us. Some of the locals are offering to watch over our child as we go para-sailing but I don't want to have my daughter's safety at stake. 

Fun! Fun! Fun!

Lunch- Pacific Divers. I find the meals a bit over price. The food were all bland. Super mahal tapos wala namang lasa. Sayang.

250/meal. Overpriced!

We bought some shirts as a remembrance of our trip. :)

• White shirt w/ print - 100 pesos
• Black shirt w/ print - 120 pesos
• Kid's size - 80 pesos

12:45 - Our scheduled trip back to Batangas Pier. Unfortunately, the fast craft was ONE HOUR late!

Yung Minolo lang yung parang may waiting shade for their passangers habang nagaantay ng fast craft. Kaya lang, uupo ka sa buhangin, though may mga karton na pwede mong upuan.

Bye Puerto Galera :(

3:00 - We finally reached Batangas Pier. From here, we rode Ceres Bus going to Alabang.

Happiness! :)

All in all, it was a great experience and a memorable trip since I was able to spend it with my Honey and Thea. :)

BUENA LYNNE'S RESORT

WEBSITE

CONTACT PERSON:   MR. JULIETO L. CATAQUIS

CONTACT NUMBER:  0917-489-3630