Viaje del Sol or "The Way of the Sun", this is the term used to describe the series of interesting stops along Laguna, Batangas and Quezon. My family and I decided to try out this "wonderful journey" over the Holy Week.


First stop was Ang Tahanan ni Aling Meding, in San Pablo, Laguna. This was where we stayed, and it boasted a spectacular view of the Sampaloc lake, with a view of Mt. Makiling and Mt. Banahaw. It was beautiful! The weather was exceptionally pleasant, and the rooms were cozy and clean. The pic above is of Mt. Banahaw from the veranda outside our room.

We had lunch at Kusina ni Salud, and I'll tell you one thing, their seafood kare-kare is awesome! You should also try the hot crispy hito, the turon and their pandan flavored coffee. Yum!

Then, we went back to Tahanan and Maitz, Tere, Sweet, Gabby and I went swimming before going to the famed San Pablo procession. Then, had dinner back at Meding's. Since they didn't serve much seafood, we had no choice but to break abstinence and try out their crispy pata and liempo...(hey, we did charitable acts as penance).

Next day, breakfast at Meding's... and I was completely disappointed with the sloooow service. Food was average (I had the tocino), and it took them an hour to serve it! What's more (and this I can forgive for a famed Filipino hotel and restaurant), they had no brewed coffee and no hot chocolate! All they served were instant coffee and Ovaltine, and it took them twenty minutes to serve that! Disappointing.

We checked out and headed towards Ugu Bigyan's. Famous potter. It was a large compund that had several items on display, for sale and under construction. It was a nice place to visit, because there was also a large garden where you can just relax and take pictures. :)

Lunch was back at Salud's but this time we wanted to try their non-seafood specialties, and we weren't disappointed. Their ribs were great! And of course, we had our fill of desserts... I don't remember the other dishes we ate, but I do recall we pigged out on the ginataan and the turon. :)

There are so many more stops along Viaje del Sol, but we only got to visit 3, and passed by 5 (including Casa San Pablo and Villa Escudero). Maybe we'll be able to go to some other stops in our next visit.

We ended our Holy Week trip with a visit to Southwoods to meet up with the Espiritus and the Picars. We went swimming again, and my aunts and uncles were impressed about how Gabby was enthusiastically playing in the water (maybe he'll take after his ninang when it comes to swimming).

Maitz and I spent time doing laps in the pool, and this time, it was Bea's turn to be pressured by my dad to do laps, since she's the one taking up swimming lessons in the summer. I can still vaguely remember when Maitz and I were very young (and we were into competitive swimming), and my dad would stand at the edge of the pool and make sure we did our laps. The pressure!

Don't get me wrong, now, I'm in absolutely no shape to swim competitively, it's just recreational swimming from now on. :)

That's it for my Holy Week escape, I'll write about Baguio in my next post.

Obivously, my Palm has done nothing to help me blog more... :)

Updates, updates... last July 7 marked the start of the PalakaSun Badminton Tournament, as one of the members of the Red team, we must congratulate the Blue team for almost totally defeating us in all levels, save for one. My partner Louie and I, lost to Arren and Jaime 21-23, 23-21, 11-6. Dang.

Oh well, it's just the first match of the tourney, this week it's Red vs. Green. Good luck to us. :)

I'm currently training at Oracle, taking up Data Modeling and Relational DB design. It's interesting...but somehow not as I expected. The fact that we're in the middle of a storm is not helping. And I spend most of the afternoons freezing in that cold, cold training room listening to the instructor talk about entities and relationships and attributes and denormalization...

My relatives from Hawaii and England are also in town. We're all going to Baguio next week for some family bonding. :) I'm just hoping the weather improves... Baguio was declared a state of calamity today because of landslides and floods... :( But we have faith, hopefully the weather would clear up by Monday.

Oh, and yes, Pirates! The heavy rains and heavy floods did not stop us from watching the Pirates Opening Night. I love Jack Sparrow! :) Although I felt the 2nd movie was somewhat longer and a bit "messy", I was still thoroughly entertained, and some parts got me laughing so hard my jaw hurt. :)

Anyway, that's all I have to say for now. Next week, hopefully I'll have much to say about our trip to Baguio.

Elizabeth Swann: There will come a moment when you have the chance to do the right thing.
Jack Sparrow: I love those moments. I like to wave at them as they pass by.

Food, food and more food...

May is such a fattening month!

1st, mother's day. We had two celebrations, for Lunch, we went to Seaside. First, in Diosdado Macapagal which was jam-packed with cars, so we tried to go to my favorite Jap resto, Red Kimono at the Fort, which was also packed. So, we decided to try another Seaside, this time in Ortigas. There were still a lot of people there, and we had to wait for a table at Aling Tonya's (great food!). Finally, we had a hearty lunch at 3PM, with some of my favorites, salt & pepper squid and butter & garlic shrimps. :)

Then, there's dinner with the Espiritus to celebrate Mother's Day for Nanay. :) We had dinner at Emperor's Court in New World...There was so much food! And since we couldn't eat much since we were still full from lunch, there were a lot of leftovers, which we divided so we can all have "baon" for Monday. We had a blast, as we usually do when we put all of us in the same room.

Fast forward two days later, May 16, my dad's birthday. He's 50 now! Happy birthday pa! Mwah! :) Another heavy dinner, I haven't felt hungry in days!

Next day, May 17, tito JRs bday and the annual blessing of the Espiritu residence. Which meant, another party! This time, with my cousins, aunts and uncles from the Bibiesca clan. My favorites on that night was the turon and the cucumber-something fruit shake...basically, the only things I could eat coz I was still reeling from the aftershocks of so much food.


Then, May 21. I'm a ninang again! This time to Andee, my aunt's baby girl. :) She looks so much like Tere when she was a baby, only Andee cries at the sightest inconvenience...and when she does cry it will rattle you to your very core. I mean, you can't imagine how loud this 3-month old is. But, adorable nonetheless. :) This time, we ate at Cantonese Kitchen in Jupiter, Chinese again.

Lastly, Mich's bday! May 23, we had lunch at Tempura at Convergys building. Food is pretty much like Teriyaki Boy, which was great. I love Japanese food. Happy bday Mich! And thanks for the treat!

And now, I need to work off all these calories... :-p

Last Thursday, my grandmother in Dagupan (dad's side) was rushed to the hospital due to a massive spike in blood pressure. She had cardiac arrest and was in a coma by that evening... by Saturday, she passed away.

Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord.
And Let Perpetual Light shine upon her.
From the gates of hell
Deliver her soul, O Lord.
May she rest in peace.
Amen.

Bohol Escape

Day 1

I love the Centennial airport...

Maybe it's the thought of impending travel that makes the airport such exciting place. The hustle and bustle of people checing in luggage, the lines forming at security checkpoints, the chatter of people around you, talking about their travel plans...

Not to mention the good looking cabin crew and pilots milling about. :)

Seriously though, we were at the airport bright and early last Feb 2. Even though it was a domestic flight, we make it a habit to check in early. Amazingly, our PAL flight to Tagbilaran wasn't delayed. Nothing much happened on the flight, but our landing left much to be desired... rather bumpy, but other than that, it was a pretty uneventful flight.

We met our driver Jun-jun at the airport. From Tagbilaran, it would take another hour to reach Panglao island. We were booked at Sun Apartelle, we got there at about 11 in the morning. The place was very nice, we rented a two bedroom family suite, and there was a living room, dining area and a kitchen. Tere, Maitz, Bea and I slept in one room (two double-bunk beds, I got the top bunk, yay!). While mom, pa and baby Gabby had the other.

On the first day, we decided to drop by the beach to check things out. With visions of white sands (and Bora) in mind, we headed out. Supposedly, it was a 5-min walk from our place to the beach, but as we plodded along the street, wondering where the beach was, we chanced upon some tricycles and decided it would be better to just ride to the beach.

Well, to be honest, when we got there, I was rather disappointed. I was anticipating something very much like Boracay, with people about, restos and bars lined up the beach front, but Bohol was nothing like that. It was so... primitive... so... quaint... so... quiet.

But of course, it didn't stop us from having fun, playing in the sand and waves. A beach is a beach, and I have always been at one with bodies of water. While there, we also met Saison, who we made arrangements with for the next day, for some dolphin watching and island hopping. Day 1 ended early, because in order to see dolphins, you have to be at sea between 6-7, around sunrise. We were all in bed by 10pm, and I think none of us had problems sleeping that night.


Day 2

4:00 AM.

What an ungodly hour...

Still, the promise of a hundred or so dolphins playing alongside the boat prodded me to wake up and pull myself together. We were on time, and were in the middle of the sea a ilttle after 6AM.

The sunrise was beautiful...

Unfortunately, no dolphins.

There were a lot of other boats, it seems even our guides were perplexed at the apparent no-show of these lovable mammals. Citing the tides being rougher than normal, they did, however, offer to take us to other islands. But by that time, maitz and I were already itching to get into the water and do some serious snorkeling. Since, Bohol is more popularly known as a dive spot, more than anything.

They took us someplace near Balicasag island, where our boat was parked (for lack of a better term) at the very edge of a coral formation, meaning, from one side of the boat, your feet will touch the ground (more specifically, corals), but from the other side, its a long, long way down into the deep blue sea.

Our guides gave us some bread to feed to the fishes, I wasn't expecting much, but the water was so clear, that even without the snorkeling mask, you can see the hundreds of different colored fishes swimming about and around your legs... so close you can touch them. And with a piece of bread in your hand, they will charge at you (and I mean they can get pretty aggressive). It was amazing! If only I had an underwater camera. :(

We stayed there for about two hours, feeding fish, having our fingers bit every now and then, swimming about, enjoying the contrast of the warm sun and the cool water. It was just wonderful, I just wanted to stay there. But we had to move out since hunger and fatigue was beginning to set in. So we headed back to shore and had lunch by the shore.

After lunch, we were drinking fresh buko, when the rain started to fall.

Rain meant we were landlocked.

We headed back to our hotel, and waited the worst of it out. We were hoping it could clear up by late afternoon so we could go back to the beach. No such luck, it rained all afternoon, and we had no choice but to just stay inside, and watch TV.

No wonder the dolphins stayed underwater.

In summary, Day 2 started out wonderfully, regardless of the dolphin snub, the snorkeling experience made it all worthwhile. And even though it rained, we just had fun playing with Gabby and lounging about. Which to me, made it a very relaxing day.


Day 3

Another early start. Today was the "Tour of Bohol" day, and by 8AM, we were all strapped in the vehicle. This was the most exciting day, coz we got to see so much in so little time. Here's a rundown:

- Blood Compact Site (see pic). I won't even try to pretend I'm a history expert, but I do know that what they're drinking in those cups, is something I wouldn't want near my lips. :)
- Hanging bridge. Only Papa, Sweet and I had the courage to cross this. It was only scary at the beginning, but not much of a challenge once you get used to it. I bought keychains from the other side as pasalubong.
- Tarsier Encounter at Loboc - My hands-down favorite. These nocturnal wonders were inches away, and looked very much like Gabby with their large eyes. They were incredibly soft to touch, and looked adorable when we were feeding them insects on a stick. :)

- Chocolate Hills. A steep, 300+ step staircase was our challenge here. Tere, Bea, Papa and I plowed on through, which caused us to be lightheaded and out of breath by the time we reached the top. But the view was amazing, hundreds of hills all around. Too bad they weren't so chocolatey. Mama and Maitz took a slower route, but eventually got to the top. And we all went down together using the slower route, taking time to enjoy the different views from the different vantage points.

- Loboc River Cruise & Floating Restaurant. Mom's hands-down favorite. The food was excellent, and the ambiance was... different. :) We were on a floating restaurant cruising through the river, with a very talented singer on board, singing foreign and OPM classics which made some of our boat-mates sing along. Bea was eating a BBQ that seemed to take the shape of a tarsier. The water may not be as clear, but the air was fresh and clean. :)

- Along the way we passed two churches. I forgot the name of the one on the right, but the other one was Baclayon church, one of the oldest stone churches in the Philippines. We only got pics of the interior, so I won't post them here anymore.
- Clarin Ancestral House. Um, a very old house, with very old furniture and very old stuff. The people were very accommodating. There was a cafe, but we arrived in the middle of a power outage. Sayang, according to the people there, their hot chocolate was something to experience.
- Hinagdanan Cave. A cave accessible by a narrow stair, a bit of claustrophobia kicked in, but I made it through. It was dim, warm and damp inside. There was an underground pool, but the sound of bats lingering around freaked me out so I went up right after these shots was taken.

- Prony. Luckily for us, we were able to watch a feature in Saksi about one of the biggest snakes in captivity, which happened to be in Bohol. When we decided to come see it, Tere was petrified, and I laughed in her face. The python's name was Prony, 9 years and 23 feet long, weighing 200 kilos. It was huge... but unfortunately, hibernating. So I wasn't able to torment Tere then and there.
- Daks and Gams Wildlife Park. An array of wild animals, monkeys of different kinds, snakes, iguanas, pawikans, birds, cats... interesting, but sadly, not well maintained. Even the snakes there were hibernating, maybe it's the weather or something.

That ended our tour. We went back to Sun Apartelle, rested a bit, and went back out into the beach. It was high tide already, and we all had a blast going with the waves, knowing that by tomorrow, we would be too lazy to go out.

Had an interesting dinner of burnt longganisa (all of us are to blame for this disaster - long story), ordered out, fixed up our stuff and went to bed, knowing that tomorrow, will be our well earned rest day.

Day 4

Woke up around 8AM, stretched and realized it would be our last day in Bohol. Lay down again, and just enjoyed the fact that I had no pressing deadlines, no production support, and nothing to do for a few more hours.

A few hours later, after packing and making sure everything was set, we headed back to Tagbilaran and waited for our flight. We arrived back in Manila at around 6PM. Once again, I want to reiterate how much I love the Centennial airport. We headed straight to Magallanes for mass, and then afterwards, dropped by Nanay's for a quick visit. Then, we all headed back home, after a wonderful vacation. :-)