The Summer heat is on...and I have countless options where to spend my National Heroes' Day, the Holy week, Labor Day and Independence Day. I told myself to just focus on the first semester of the year otherwise I will be so nauseous thinking of my itinerary for the whole year. Thank God for my country, THE PHILIPPINES, because we celebrate historical events and that we have so much paid holidays that one gets to travel, locally or internationally, if opportunities are seized without thinking thrice! (One considerations would be my travel buddies then the second one would be my financial capacity. If major requirements/concerns are met, then I'm so good to GO and there is no need to entertain a third thought!)
On March 27-29, I am set to fly home (Bacolod City) for some important family occasions. It's my cousin Bethany's 18th Birthday on the March 28 and my Tita Joy's ???? Birthday the following day (can't divulge her age). My cousin Annia is also graduating from her 2nd course (whatelse, NURSING!) on the same dates (maybe one is recognition day and the other one is her graduation rites) so for us.
And so I made a public announcement that I'm going home next week...not to the world wide web I mean, but to my family way before this blog.
But that's not what I wanted to write about. My thoughts have run away with me again.
To cut the chase, I invited some of my friends to have a summer getaway...where? in the Sugar Capital of the World, in the City of Smiles, the in the City of Whales...in Negros Occidental...my homeland!
After quite some engaging travel promotions, we made flight reservations for June 11 to 14, 2009, making use of the long weekend (in celebration of the Philippines Independence Day on the 12th of June).
Most of us are taking the earliest flight to Bacolod at 4:55 in the morning and a few will take the last flight of the day on the 11th due to some very important work responsibilities. That means they will miss one breakfast, one morning snack, one lunch, and one afternoon snack. I feel quite sad for those who will be flying late, to miss sumptuous ilonggo specialties is a crime for me. I would drop anything for a great ilonggo dish. Sigh!
Nonetheless, they can still make it for a feast of chicken inasal for dinner and a very relaxing spa session in Bacolod Spa. That I have to arrange! Hope I can get a big discount. Imagine 20 of us going to the same spa at the same time...Absurd!
So here's my draft of the itinerary of our Trip Mo Trip Ko sa Bacolod:
June 11 - Arrival
Breakfast at Lee's
Tour around Bacolod (Bacolod Museums, etc.)
Lunch at Espera's
The Ruins (and Silay Museums)
Dinner at Manukan Country
June 12 - Gawahon, Victorias City with the H clan
(possible overnight courtesy of the City Government and Giah Enterprises)
June 13 - Lakawon, Cadiz City (or any alternative beach resort)
YOUTH WORSHIP NIGHT: I AM FREE
June 14 - Church @ WIN-Cadiz
To Bacolod (buy pastries, goodies, etc.)
Homeward Bound
Oh, how I wish we could stay longer than 4 days, there's so much to do...and most of all, SO MUCH TO EAT!
For now, I will keep my friends' identities. But as of today, 12 of us have confirmed bookings already. As for the others who are still undecided or lazy to book, I guess they just like to spoil our excitement. Come on! Some, by nature, are really procrastinators--they have extra cash that they can afford to miss the promo fare!
84 Days To Go!
Monday, March 16, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Go A Distance
It's only March...half-way through the last month of the first quarter of 2009 and yesterday it was officially declared as the start of SUMMER--the most exciting time of the year, next to Christmas.
I resolved, on the first day of this year, that I will try to travel as much as I can. And so the quest to fly, drive, walk and possibly swim to different sights began.
I was in the historical Saigon (known today as Ho Chi Minh City) in Vietnam last January 14 with my friend Yasmine (who traveled all the way from California for a month long vacation in the Philippines) and after 3 days we jet-set to Bangkok, the shopping capital of Thailand and stayed there for another 3 days. I am yet to blog on that particular trip. I don't know what kind of adjective you use for the word BUSY. But yeah, I got so busy and I failed to tell the world of my weeklong adventure. It was, I guess, after a few weeks that I got to upload the pictures in my friendster and facebook accounts. My, my!
Last Saturday, March 7, my nursery-to-fourth-year-high-school-except-grade-one classmate, Shugar and our classmate-friend Lester went on a roadtrip to the "mountains" of Antipolo and Angono, Rizal. We hit the road early in the morning as soon as I ate breakfast and parked my car in my officemate's village in King's Ville along Marcos Hi-way. Shugar picked me up and we're on for an adventure with the red Honda City. We first went to the Touch of Glory (Prayer Mountain) as my friends would like to spend time in prayer. It's been 2 years since my last visit and it seems like things have not changed. Then we went to taste and see the well-known artisan restaurant Balaw Balaw in Angono. From prayer mountain, we took the circumferential road to ortigas extension and drove toward Taytay.
The restaurant was not hard to locate as everyone in the area knows it. As soon as we parked outside the resto and went inside to order for lunch, we were told that as we wait for the food we could take a look at the different art works.
We had a good lunch, but not the exotic ones as they ran out of frogs to serve! Thank God! I ordered Sinigang na Manok (Chicken), Shugar ordered Scallops, Lester ordered Squid and for our common interest, we ordered Adobong Itik (Duck).
Then after lunch we went to the intriguing Petroglyphs in Angono. About 3 weeks ago while we were having lunch in the pantry, our BSP-friend Billy who works 2 doors away from my office, came by and told us about his weekend trip to Rizal and there he started to show us some pictures from his camera of the Petroglyphs. Then 2 weeks later, my officemate Rene, his wifey Hazel and their entire offspring had an accidental trip to that same place. Intriguing as it seemed, I decided to drag any of my friends to see what the ancient stone cravings discovered during Marcos era has to offer. It was a tricky trip going to the Petroglyphs. Not far from the Balaw Balaw resto you will find a very nice resort on the top of the mountain and there you have to find your way to the tunnel going to the historical site. Please ask for directions. We had our share of stupidity and not paying attention to signs and that brought us way way too far from the site that we had to drive back for 30 more minutes with several stops for direction. Duh!
For more interesting facts about the place, I recommend that you read Rene's blog and to give credit to his borrowed photos from yours truly. Check this out: http://tagahasik.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html
Our Saturday didn't end that early. After driving back to Manila, we went to Marikina's Riverbank for a quick window shop and drove to Tiendesitas for dinner with another high school classmate Darell.
Because I was driving all day along, I didn't even try to volunteer for the idea of a movie. Usually, I do. But this time, I just want to rest my back, try to mentally file the events of the day in my memory bank, and have a sound sleep. Thank You, LORD!
Now, I'm up and working on our summer getaway in my favorite city in the world, the city of Smiles...BACOLOD! Okay I am biased. Who cares!
And I really do hope my holy week trip to Vigan will push through. I am still trying to figure out what to do on May 1. Maybe travel somewhere else. Near or far, it doesn't really matter. Just go a distance...and discover that while it is a small world, it is an exciting and a beautiful world, after all.
I resolved, on the first day of this year, that I will try to travel as much as I can. And so the quest to fly, drive, walk and possibly swim to different sights began.
I was in the historical Saigon (known today as Ho Chi Minh City) in Vietnam last January 14 with my friend Yasmine (who traveled all the way from California for a month long vacation in the Philippines) and after 3 days we jet-set to Bangkok, the shopping capital of Thailand and stayed there for another 3 days. I am yet to blog on that particular trip. I don't know what kind of adjective you use for the word BUSY. But yeah, I got so busy and I failed to tell the world of my weeklong adventure. It was, I guess, after a few weeks that I got to upload the pictures in my friendster and facebook accounts. My, my!
Last Saturday, March 7, my nursery-to-fourth-year-high-school-except-grade-one classmate, Shugar and our classmate-friend Lester went on a roadtrip to the "mountains" of Antipolo and Angono, Rizal. We hit the road early in the morning as soon as I ate breakfast and parked my car in my officemate's village in King's Ville along Marcos Hi-way. Shugar picked me up and we're on for an adventure with the red Honda City. We first went to the Touch of Glory (Prayer Mountain) as my friends would like to spend time in prayer. It's been 2 years since my last visit and it seems like things have not changed. Then we went to taste and see the well-known artisan restaurant Balaw Balaw in Angono. From prayer mountain, we took the circumferential road to ortigas extension and drove toward Taytay.
The restaurant was not hard to locate as everyone in the area knows it. As soon as we parked outside the resto and went inside to order for lunch, we were told that as we wait for the food we could take a look at the different art works.
We had a good lunch, but not the exotic ones as they ran out of frogs to serve! Thank God! I ordered Sinigang na Manok (Chicken), Shugar ordered Scallops, Lester ordered Squid and for our common interest, we ordered Adobong Itik (Duck).
Then after lunch we went to the intriguing Petroglyphs in Angono. About 3 weeks ago while we were having lunch in the pantry, our BSP-friend Billy who works 2 doors away from my office, came by and told us about his weekend trip to Rizal and there he started to show us some pictures from his camera of the Petroglyphs. Then 2 weeks later, my officemate Rene, his wifey Hazel and their entire offspring had an accidental trip to that same place. Intriguing as it seemed, I decided to drag any of my friends to see what the ancient stone cravings discovered during Marcos era has to offer. It was a tricky trip going to the Petroglyphs. Not far from the Balaw Balaw resto you will find a very nice resort on the top of the mountain and there you have to find your way to the tunnel going to the historical site. Please ask for directions. We had our share of stupidity and not paying attention to signs and that brought us way way too far from the site that we had to drive back for 30 more minutes with several stops for direction. Duh!
For more interesting facts about the place, I recommend that you read Rene's blog and to give credit to his borrowed photos from yours truly. Check this out: http://tagahasik.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html
Our Saturday didn't end that early. After driving back to Manila, we went to Marikina's Riverbank for a quick window shop and drove to Tiendesitas for dinner with another high school classmate Darell.
Because I was driving all day along, I didn't even try to volunteer for the idea of a movie. Usually, I do. But this time, I just want to rest my back, try to mentally file the events of the day in my memory bank, and have a sound sleep. Thank You, LORD!
Now, I'm up and working on our summer getaway in my favorite city in the world, the city of Smiles...BACOLOD! Okay I am biased. Who cares!
And I really do hope my holy week trip to Vigan will push through. I am still trying to figure out what to do on May 1. Maybe travel somewhere else. Near or far, it doesn't really matter. Just go a distance...and discover that while it is a small world, it is an exciting and a beautiful world, after all.
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