Update: Lakbayan Grade - January 2013

My Lakbayan grade is B-!How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out at Lakbayan!

Created by Eugene Villar.

Bakit parang di naman tumaas yung grade ko? I really should explore new parts of the country this year.  I've been traveling a lot last year but mainly to places I've already been through because I want to show J around.  This year if our plans take off, we will definitely explore more of Visayas and Mindanao.  :)

Looking forward to year filled with new places, new faces, new experiences and above all, I hope I could get to influence more people to travel and explore the Philippines. ♥

Random: Travel Itch

One Baguio trip circa 2001

I wanted so badly to get away for the weekend... I need to recharge. I miss those weekends when I'd just hop on a bus and go to Baguio to do random lazy stuff.  

I have a Sagada trip in two weeks so I guess I will just wait for that.  Cheers for wanderlust, for more lakwatsa and to fellow lakwatseras! :)  

Bukidnon: Dahilayan Forest and Adventure Park



We initially planned on going swimming when we went home to Bukidnon last month but decided to go against it since it was really chilly.  We decided to just bring the whole family to Dahilayan Park in Manolo Fortich instead. 

Dahilayan is around an hour and a half away from Malaybalay, my hometown and the capital of Bukidnon.  It is probably half an hour away from Cagayan de Oro City. One will have to pass through the vast pineapple plantantation of Del Monte Philippines in Camp Philips and it is truly a delight to see the huge-ness of the plantation even for a local like me (ano pa kaya para kay J na laking ciudad, lol), it is definitely a sight to see and experience. 

Before we reached the park, we dropped by my sister's aunt-in-law's house.  Their place was great and very relaxing.  My mother said she wouldn't mind retiring in a place like that... Ako man, di na ko choosy noh, ganda ng bahay nila! 

My sister Meryl and J

friendly puppy



yep, this is part of their bakuran

with the kids

I was disappointed that there were a LOT of people when we arrived at the park but then if all these people will experience the beauty of my homeland and spread the word it will be a huge help to boost our tourism. With kids in tow, we went on to enjoy the place. 

sibling with mom & niece

Awww, giraffes!

ahemmmm

My sister and brother-in-law tried the Zorbit... you'll go Jack & Jill down the hill strapped inside an orange bubble. Good luck! They came out fine, dizzy but fine. :)

 

that orange bubble

strapped



We continued goofing around and having fun.

Acting, good job!

bagay



mas bagay

Feel na feel namin

it was so chilly someone eventually fell asleep

Next... Experiencing Asia's longest zipline.

The National Museum of The Philippines

The National Museum of the Philippines  is offering free entrance for the whole month of October, we, of course, decided to take advantage of it and took the kids to a mini field trip yesterday. 

It was also J's first time to visit the National Museum and he got all the teasing from me because I couldn't believe that they did not even have a field trip there when he was still studying.  Anyway, I personally think that all students of the country should experience visiting this museum. 

we love stairs and huge windows

Chean and Jaja



Some of the exhibits were pretty 'ordinary' for someone like me who spent half of my life in the province but I think it was pretty educational especially for the batoots since they all grew up here in the city.

One unforgettable piece was that heirloom rosary made of ivory and gold... I mean, man, how regal can you get?! Ivory and gold! My favorite section however was that of the huge jars and Chinese plates. It was fun imagining how the people before us used them for their daily lives... they were very intricate.

It was a kakaibang weekend for the fambam...needless to say, we all had fun. :)

Subic: The Cliff Royale

We came across The Cliff Royale through the net while we were looking for a place to go to for a family event. I can't honestly remember what that occassion was and this was a few months back (yes, this post is long overdue).

So anyway, as mentioned we were looking through the net for a resort for the family and The Cliff Royale seems to be a good option because it's just in Subic, J & myself are frequent Subic visitors - but that's a different story. The family did not end up going there but J & I decided to still visit the resort for future reference.

We decided to go there via public transport, aka, Victory Liner to save on gas and so J can also relax and have a day off driving. We went there on a weekend with a reservation for an overnight stay which I arranged a few days ahead through SMS.

To get there:

• Victory Liner - from Pasay to Olongapo
• Jeepney - just near the Victory Liner Terminal in Olongapo, make sure you get the one with a roof painted in blue. Jeeps are color-coded in Olongapo, the yellow ones go around the city proper while the blue ones ply the neighboring towns outside the city proper. Ask to get off at Baloy Beach (this is pretty known in the area)
• The Cliff Royale is just at the corner of the street going to the resort strip along Baloy beach, they have a giant wooden gate with The Cliff on it. (just right beside Palladium Resort)

lovely lady, I mean, lovely windows ;)

We got the cheapest room because we're only staying overnight and honestly, their cheapest didn't seem cheap for me at all.

• PHP2000/night
• Two wooden double beds
• AC
• TV
• Hot & cold shower
• Personal refrigerator
• Nice stained glass on the windows and the bathroom door

What I didn't like about the room:

• It smells old - like wet wood or old blankets stored and forgotten in the closet, it's not mabango
• Poor ventilation
• Creaking beds
• Bathroom has poor drainage
• No towels - for the price, most resorts would provide fresh towels and toiletries
• It wasn't as clean as I expected

Naturally the room was our first stop and I was already disappointed with what we're getting for the price that we are paying for but I still kept my hopes high and looked forward to enjoying the resort, especially the pool.

the pool

see the color?

Much to my disappointment, yet again, it was nowhere near the clean blue color of a swimming pool, it was green... if I hadn't known better, if there weren't people in it and if I hadn't browsed on their website, I would have thought that it was just a giant pond! A freakin' pond with water lilies and koi -- I am exaggerating, no lilies and no fishes, but it was really moss green, warm and had a lot of sand and floating leaves in it. I confess, we took a dip in that dirty pool. At that point I was thinking that maybe, just maybe, they were gunning for a shabby chic look for the pool and intentinally colored the pool tiles green, I realised it I was wrong when we went in.
After that unfortunate dip in the pool, we just bid our time taking pictures around the resort.

the resort's up there, you have to go through a
cemented spiral staircase to go down the beach

one gazebo had a swing!

The Coffee Shop's famous tacos, yum!

The Coffee Shop is also just walking distance from the resort so I insisted that we have dinner there since it's going to be J's first time to see the giant tacos that Karen & I were boasting about.

After dinner, while walking back to the resort, we saw various bars and night clubs already open for business. I realized this must be one of the famous night strips back in the days when the US base was still here, there were still a lot of foreigners mingling around that night. It would have been an experience to go in on one of the bars to satiate the curiousity but I wanted a quiet night (read: I didn't want J oogling at those girls clad in itsy-bitsy tiny bikinis) so we just dropped by 711 grabbed a few bottles of...was it beer or vodka, I can't remember because I think I passed out just after finishing off half a bottle of whatever it was.

The next morning was a lot better... we went down to the beach, had our quiet time at the shore taking pictures and chatting with some fishermen.

the sun!

great view

effort!

The Cliff Royale seems to be a nice resort but one who has seen it's glory days. Maybe we just caught it in a bad time but they really could do better. Capitalize on their prime location, the beautiful beach, the great view from the cliff and improve on their services. I am nowhere near an expert on managing a resort but I am saying using the eyes of a frequent traveler and a guest.

• Centralize their reservation process - I confirmed our reservation several times, but when we got there it seems like the lady did not have any idea about it. I didn't know if there was really a room reserved for us or we just got lucky there was one available.
• Clean-up - they may be short of manpower or whatever but guests pay special attention on how clean the place is, they should prioritize this...from the rooms to the pool and even to the plants around the resort. If the kids were with us it would have been a disaster not having a clean swimming pool!
• Customer service - we could very well ran-away with the keys to our room because when it was time for check-out, their office was close and we couldn't find anybody except for the gardener. We handed the keys to him.
• Rates - I once stayed in a small resort along Baloy Beach (which was just a few minutes way by feet) - cleaner room, fresh beddings, and friendly staff.

I am not picky traveller. I can do with rustic, I actually love rustic, but at least give me clean. Looking back, the resort would have been okay... but the room and the pool did it. Maybe they just magnified the things that I would usually overlook.

I didn't want to show J my disappointment, afterall, we planned this weekend getaway to unwind and enjoy by ourselves. I still did my best to enjoy and we did enjoy our weekend although I don't think I'll be recommending this resort to any of my friends and definitely not to the family.

Sagada: Kiltepan Sunrise

Of all my trips to Sagada, it is the first time that I've decided to trek to Kiltepan to see the sunrise. 

I am definitely not a morning person but getting up at 4am was well worth it.  Sitting at the edge of the cliff, enveloped in the chilly Sagada fog while waiting for the sun's first rays was nothing short of magical. 

The Saigon Experience

I don't have my travel notebook with me right now so I won't be able to write about the details of the trip but I haven't blogged about the Vietnam trip so I'm going to share some pictures and some of the things I can remember.  It has been 2 years.



I don't have problems sleeping at airports while waiting for a flight.

Since it was only a 6-day trip I only have my North Face backpack with me, I used to be a champion of travelling light like that.  I'm re-learning that skill now as through the years I have accumulated several additions to my "travel essentials".   



Of course, the classic picture-taking at the airport.

 If I can remember it correctly, Vietnam is an hour behind Philippine's +8 GMT time.  We arrived late in the evening at Tan Son Nhat Airport in HCMC which I still prefer to call Saigon, it just sounds nicer for me.  Good thing we already pre-arranged a coaster to pick us up at the airport and bring us to our hotel.  HCMC looked like Manila in the dark except that they have a lot of streets lined up with huge trees even larger than the trees lined up around UPD's Sunken Garden.




Dong Song Xanh's facade.


Although the hotel is located near Pham Ngu Lao -  HCMC's backpacker's district, it was pretty difficult to find Dong Song Xanh because it was tucked into one of HCMC's tiny alley's.  We had to go around for a bit to find it because it was not familiar even for our driver.



Dong Song Xanh's lobby.


Dong Song Xanh looked like a typical 4-storey house (or was it 5?).  We got a room for I think just around $3/night.  Super tipid to think that it accomodated all 9 of us. We opted to get just one room since we just needed to have a place for us to rest a bit and freshen up since we were heading for Siem Reap early the next day.  The lady at the front desk didn't seem so happy that we woke her up that late, she was grumpy and not friendly at all.  She hushed us a lot of times and refused to let out bigger baggages up to our rooms since it would create noise.  We put up with her attitude since we were all tired and were all eager to shower.



Despite the modern-ness of HCMC, you still see a lot of locals wearing the traditional cone-shaped hats.


So we left the hotel early so we can at least roam around Pham Ngu Lao before we leave for Siem Reap.  Pham Ngu Lao seems to be more alive at night than in the mornings.  It was like visiting Malate on a Sunday morning where the bars are just closing up and the the loud music, the smoke and the alcohol from the previous night left a faint hint hanging in the air. 




Pho with beef and fresh mint which was too strong for my taste buds.



I was sooooo tempted to put this inside my backpack. LOL!


Before going to Mai Linh's office for our Siem Reap tickets, we had to meet our college friend, Brian, who is now residing as a designer in HCMC.  He helped us arrange this trip.  He brought us to yet another alley to have breakfast of pho.  There were several  vendors scattered around the area, similar to our pares vendors, they cook their soups and noodles right in their mobile kitchens.  We went to one who even had tables set up in one of the tiny spaces between two buildings. The kind where if you are not careful enough, someone's airconditioner's drips will merge right into your soup. The pho was good, my friends enjoyed it a lot but I wasn't able to finish my bowl since the mint was too strong for my tastebuds.



This is my kind of breakfast food - banh mi.


I found something that I love though, I think they call it banh mi.  This is the Vietnamese version of the French baguette sandwich. They have all sorts of cold cuts and spreads to choose from including the very familiar Laughing Cow cheese spread.  I bought one for myself and took it with me as baon for the long drive to Siem Reap.



Discussing our plan of attack. ;)



I have never seen a city with this many motorbikes!

Seriously.  



How could someone like me who is so scared of crossing the street survive in a city like HCMC.

 

Before boarding our bus for Siem Reap, a group picture with Baray who looks like a local in his motorbike.

It takes a lot of motorbikes to intimidate me because I grew up around some since my father was a motorcross rider.  I was freakin' dumstrucked with the number of motorbikes in this city.

Comparing to Cambodia, it was more difficult to navigate Vietnam as a backpacker not only because of the traffic but also because of the language.  There seems to be more English-speaking people in Cambodia.  Even around Pham Ngu Lao it was difficult to ask for directions since most of the locals speak only very little English.  I also prefer Cambodia's more laid back feel compared to HCMC's hustle and bustle.  


Our Vietnam experience was fun but definitely bitin since it was more of just a stopover.  I am looking forward to going back to Vietnam, maybe explore the more laid-back northern region and experience Ha Long Bay. 

Soon.