vange's nest: travel pal

Showing posts with label travel pal. Show all posts

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Weirdest All Saint's Day

Travelling back to from Bangga-an falls to the town proper was less tiring and fun. Some of the guyz, and girls chose to ride the jeep on its top. We were still in Sagada, so I guess, we will just define what enjoyment means.

While we were on the jeep, we saw a huge fire from afar. We teased each other that George Guesthouse was burning. I never thought that we will just experience a different way to celebrate All Saint's Day with the Sagadans.

As we stopped near the church, we were so tired to see another pile of stairs that we need to take. Walang katapusang stairs, hindi ka "in" sa Sagada kung walang hagdanan.

Photobucket

As Kuya Andrew described it, when you're there, you're like experiencing hell in Earth, but still, you're alive.

It was an awesome experience to see people walking towards the same direction -- somewhere in the mountains were you can see hell. They said it's called Calvary Hill-at night you call it, Calvary Hell.

People compiled and circled around chunks of wood burning and have a little, not so little but made the best bonfire beside the nitso and it was soo weird seeing this "siga" their making, it makes your lungs hurt just by seeing them.

The Calvary Hell

In Manila, we have candles, but in Sagada, it was my first ever All Saint's Day to celebrate away from my family, it was my weirdest All Saint's Day I have experienced, and this will be the most lit cemetery I've seen in my life.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Bangga-an Rice Terraces and Bomod-Ok Falls

We were amazed by the beauty of the place surrounded by too many rice terraces, so we took pictures from afar and awed how natives did it in the first place. The road were ziggy again as we headed towards the where-is Bangga-an Rice Terraces.

And we stopped to a bus station-like covered stop over where we can have a nice view of the place. Kuya Andrew gave us a brief description of the place with these statements:

“Welcome to Bangga-an Rice Terraces. Pupuntahan natin ang Big falls, Bomod-Ok Falls . Maitanung ko lang, lahat ba dito ay physically fit?”

Upon hearing these words, I was kinda hesitant if I have to raise my hands and suggest not to go anymore. But then again, go pa rin ako. Then hearing the next statements from our guide made me refused again.

“Mula dito, andun ang falls (pointing to the farthest that my eyes could reach) at dadaan tayo sa mga rice terraces na ito para makarating dun” Napalunok na lang ako. And we started the trek.

At first we were all having fun taking pictures and such until my legs hurt a lil bit, I started to feel the pain already. Whoo, I realized we still had a long way to go upon seeing the huge rice fields in front of me. First time I had experience in my life walking in a man-made terraces!

We passed a village and my heavy breathing started already. I started feeling an asthma attack is about to grow. The village is kinda small and you will wonder how these people stayed too far from many when for an instance, there’s someone to be hospitalized, you have to pass the pilapil before getting to the main street! Geez, soo amazing!

..And we started to walk again. We passed this very steep dirt and I slipped. I was really afraid cuz the next thing in front of me is bangin. OMG, I don’t wanna die. Not yet!. Bawal ang pahinga so even though my feet really hurts and my muscles started to snap.

We heard water flowing nearby and thought that we were near the falls. No! we were wrong! Oh boy, a long walk again.. And finally, tired, exhausted and find another word in the dictionary to describe how TIRED we were, we have reached a beautiful spot – the falls.

I haven’t seen such a beauty in my life. We were awed by God’s creature hidden by the mountains. You see, we were walking 3 kilometers and any signs of the falls weren’t obvious while we were hiking. It was just there. I was sitting on the rocks feeling the cold moist of the place. Damn, it was all soo good. My guests were all enjoying the water. Tita’s were having their foot massage by the native kid who knew everything about acupressure, and me, I was just feeling everything.

After 30 minutes, we started walking again. Another 3 kilometers of stress and my legs were really hurting. My classmate Noreen (classmate sa pagod), were hiking on my back while the rest were heading up. I wanna see the bus station. But we were really far from there. Until we reached the village, woohooooooooo. Onti na lang.

I almost cried to see we almost made it. As I have seen the bus station, we rested many times and though my ankle wasn’t helping me at all, I just need to follow what others were doing. Walk forever.. Cuz I won’t walk that far ANYMORE.

check out how we walked hard just to get there.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Sagada Scene

The last time I didn't join my family on All Saint’s day was when I got pregnant. I had a major reason since they said it’s bawal daw. And this year, I didn’t join my family again. Why? Destination: Sagada.

I posted a Sagada tour on my travel page for October 17-20 but Ira emailed me and wanted to have a schedule for October 31-November 3. OMG! This is business, how can I say No? I arranged the tour.

October 31

After persuading a 1 day leave at work, well I was still on training as a PAS at that time so I wasn't allowed to take any absences, finally he said YES. But it will be considered an absent. That’s fine, as long as I can take a day leave from the office.

I woke up early as usual, 3pm, packed my things and got ready to go. I brought 2 green bags full of clothes and travel from Sucat all the way to Cubao. It was traffic since the most were going to the bus stations for the holiday break. I was kinda scared cuz I haven’t paid yet, baka maubusan kami ng ticket, although I have made my reservations already.

As early as 6pm, I was surprised arriving soo early seeing only 2 people on the Cable Bus Station aside from the drivers and a so-called cashier. I went straight to Jollibee to have dinner and kill time as well.

7:30pm – went to the station to make payment.

The bus station. It's kinda small, you'll miss it. The only description that you'll make to see it -- It's in front of Trinity University of Asia.

the bus that we took going to Sagada. Kinda dark tho :)

8:00pm – met Ira’s group. All of them were related except for the 2 guys which are Ira’s officemates

8:30pm – rode the bus, expecting that we will leave the station on time, however, we left the station at 9:03pm. My seatmate was a native and I asked too much questions re Sagada. Well, he was too informative but soon, transferred to the other bus for some reason.

traffic @ NLEX. What can you expect during holidays?

Waking up as early as 5:30am at the bus is better when you get a good view. We were at Banaue at that time and I was kinda hesitant which from the terraces that I saw is the infamous Banaue Rice Terraces.

banaue rice terraces, not a good view to see houses all over

mejo malabo, I was on seated on the other side of the bus :D

and before we knew it, we passed through sooper daming bangin and zigzag roads

few more steps, laglag ka. :(

one rocky road

9:30am – arrived in Bontoc. Bontoc is like a city next to Sagada. Streets were modernized and there were hotels all over the place.

bontoc town proper.

and their first pic on this tour :)

10:00am – as we waited for the other Cable Bus because two of the boxes were mistakenly transferred to the other bus. We rode a jeep, which didn’t look like a jeep bound to Sagada.

bangin ulit going to Sagada

11:00am – arrived in Sagada. The jeep took us straight to George Guest House. It was Saturday and a market day in Sagada and we were soo crazy seeing some people wearing their bahags. (unfortunately since we had limited time, I wasnt able to take pics of them :()

we stayed at the penthouse which is kinda roomy and fit everyone. THe two straight boys stayed at the 3rd floor.

picture taken before going down Bangga-an terraces

As I have talked to my contact persons in Sagada, I finally met my guide, Kuya Andrew. We had our lunch buffet which was prepared by Bana’s coffee and filled our starving stomachs with great food.

We rested for a while cuz at 1:30pm, we will start our adventure.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

no stress at all

Day 1

Just right after we fixed our things on the bedroom, we went out excitedly to stroll and find where we can take our good lunch.

It was a hot afternoon but we still continue to stroll.

dennis at the nearest resort

at the d'mall

happy happy, we're in Bora!

beachin dennis

boracay regency

..and just right after the regency, we've seen this store that sells good souvenir items

bracelets..

Since I have been reading forums about Boracay, I always seen a familiar indian restaurant name in Bora, it's called True Food. So we have searched for it and found it before the 'D mall.

true indian food

as this poster's color said...we need more golds to eat here.

The totality of the place, facade and everything is good- a good place to hang out sabi nga.

you will be seated like an indian, with golden pillows that are situated around the short tables.

we seated beside a big open windows and this was what we're facing

The food in the menu were too expensive that we could almost imagine 1 order of rice for P40. We ordered chicken and a seperate curry sauce.

this is it :)

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Burnham baby

We decided to go to burnham and just walk there. Darn, dami pa ring tao, and we had a hard time going to somewhere since it's people traffic.. :( pero eto lang yun e. we had fun.

QA circled

yeah baby!

wawa! naliligaw kami :(

beautiful girls of TP

foot power!

Since we were near Burnham Park, errr, I guess we were really there, we just follow where other people were heading-boat boat boat, man! The slide will show you everything :) (hirap a)

Grabe, though that was the only thing that happened in Baguio (the sole happening), we enjoyed every moment even though we're tired walking around. We starved of course, and Dennis was thinking of eating sumthing unusual and cheap.

We walked along the I-forgot-the-road-name street near the ukay ukay place in Baguio and found this famed carinderia na uber-puno and jampacked.

I took care of ordering food since they went to they nearby ukay-ukay. I was really starving at that time and amazed looking at the menu. I got two words to say..SOO CHEAP!

halata bang gutom?

eto pacute lang :)

The carinderia has two levels, the ground floor is jampacked so we checked at the 2nd level. Damn, you wont imagine a carinderia that I think a reservation is needed to get a table. Puno rin sa taas. So, it's like a regular restaurant that you have to sit and wait first.

So we seated at a sirang bangkito outside the restaurant and waited to be called. After 30minutes we were called. Coolness, our long wait lasted and we were savored by good food this resto-carinderia haven gave us.