Bolinao, Pangasinan Sojourn

The ASEAN summit provided another week of holidays... of course our feet got itchy and we had to go somewhere. I really wanted to go to hundred islands but somehow got to find this eco resort in BOLINAO Pangasinan. I have never been to Pangasinan, so off we go..

The travel time was more of less 4.5 hours from Manila. (depending on driving speed). Good thing the hubby really liked long drives. The eco resort is called BIRDLAND. It took us awhile to look for it. (more or less got help from waze). Its operated by an expat couple, the guy is Filipino raised in the US and had a passion for woodworking (as evidenced by the birdhouses he builds)

They have choices of huts like the pic above... to be more in touch with nature... it really depends on what you would like to experience. Since I was with kids, I chose the aircon rooms. (lol)

The booking came with breakfast... which was pretty good. But I guess overall, I would say, the resort is ok, but a bit overpriced for what they had to offer. (no swimming pool). Even the basic huts were pricey. The view from the balsa (rubber boat we used to get a sunset ride was great)

BOLINAO- things to see

We chose to get the bamboo tricycle offered by the resort... but honestly, you can DRIVE and be more comfortable going to the sights.

We really enjoyed the bolinao falls, it's the best falls I have seen so far.. and I have trekked mountains to reach some of the falls I have seen... this one, you dont even have to trek... when you arrive, its already there. Entrance is 20 pesos and kids get in for free... what a bargain.

if you are daring enough... you can also jump from the falls. They rent out life vests to those who are not confident swimmers. the sides were walkable... only the middle part was a bit deep... and if you try to swim to the falls.. you will get a workout from the force of the water from the falls.The falls and water itself was so refreshing... you can get a natural massage if you walk under the falls itself. what an experience.

---ENCHANTED CAVE

This was quite interesting. The resort itself was well maintained and had several areas aside form the famous enchanted cave where you can relax. some families I saw were even picnicking. You can spend a whole day touring this resort but we decided to make a quick visit. The way down to the cave was a bit slippery (caution to elderly and small children) and you really have to watch your head.

We also went to see the bolinao lighthouse.. nothing much but a photo op place..

because basically, it's near Patar beach, the main stretch of white sand beach in the area. Our resort didn't have much of a beach, mostly rocky terrain. (talked with the owner that the rocks were sharp and wasn't very safe for kids.. another minus for me)

Patar beach was nice... reminded me of pagudpod. the food offerings around there were not as much as if you were in a more "commercial" beach. The halo halo we had was bleh..

Overall, we enjoyed the waterfalls (I think there were two of them but we got to see only 1), nature and adventure... but for accomodation, I think you can do better than the one we got. 

Family time in Coron, Palawan

I have been wanting to go to Coron  for the longest time. So on a whim, I booked the whole family for a 4 day trip.


We stayed at  Coron Westown resort. I booked through agoda because of the extra 10% off I can get off the credit card promo (better check your credit card if they have similar promos)

We booked a family room (it is like a suite... it has 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. - 1 king size bed and 2 queen.) the rooms were clean and nice and worked well with my family (I had 4 kids, 1 yaya and me and my husband) all for about 7,000+ pesos ($155/night). They have smaller rooms that run about 3,800 ($85/night). They are the biggest hotel in town with 3 swimming pools, a playground and spa. You could probably get a cheaper room in town (a bedspacer kind of room with no air-conditioning for maybe 500 pesos but I would rather have aircon anytime!)... The breakfasts were ok. I highly recommend the waffles. (yum)

You can prebook a airport pickup 150 pesos/ way (we booked two way so it's 300 pesos). The airport is a bit far from town... maybe 45 minutes drive.

We took the air philippines flight from manila _ note that this is a propeller type plane. (in case you are queasy about small aircraft)

TOURS
There are a lot of options depending on how many people are in your group and what activities you would like to do. For us, since we were 7, we booked our own boat for the island hopping adventure.

You can join a group tour when  you arrive (there are tour desks when you go out of the airport)

One of the groups is Coron Galeri. I was looking at their tours and I think they are quite affordable - they include lunch and snorkeling equipment.

To breakdown the tour... they have a 650/ pax one where you visit nearer sites (like siete pecados, kayangan lake etc) see their website (this includes all the applicable entrance fees to some islands)- more on that later

For us however, we opted to hire our own boat and shop for our own food in the market (across where you ride the boats). Our reason for this is that we would like to be able to control our time and where we would like to go. We also brought our own snorkel equipment.


For the nearer island hopping. We paid 2,500 for the whole boat and bought some pork liempo, fish, rice and fruits for our lunch. The boatmen were the ones who would cook all the food for us.

Day 1 (note. we also brought our own kiddie life vest for my 2 year old)

We first went to siete pecados  ( seven sins) a protected marine park where you can snorkel and see all the beautiful sea life and coral formations (fee $100 pesos-- yes.. there are fees!) --- careful only that you don't get too near as it is prohibited to step on the corals.

2nd stop was  kayangan lake ( the cleanest lake in the Philippines). warning though. before you can get to the lake. you have an uphill climb (about 200 meters) on a rough man made path (not cemented... only carved). Once you reach the top, you can get a picture taken with the view of the bay (the famous view). then you have another trek down to the other side of the lake.

We went during off peak (even then there was a line trekking up). I had with us our 2 year old and you can guess how we climbed up that hill. (huffing and puffing).

on the other side you can see a very clear lake (fee 100 pesos) - it is made up of brackish water (salt and fresh mixed together). there are wooden walkways you can traverse and from there go snorkeling in the lake.

cleanest lake in the philippines

By the end of the snorkeling time.. it was already lunchtime and we had to go back to the boat. the boatmen had already cooked our lunch (grilled liempo, fish, rice, squid) in the boat. We went to an island where they had nipa huts for us and the kiddies had a nice time eating and then playing in the sand.

kitchen on board

After a fullfilling lunch.. we went to the twin lagoon. I found it a very hard swim (you have to swim from the boat to the side of the mountain to go up to reach the other side. (the path is narrow). On low tide, you can swim under a hole.

I think it was the brackish water but it was VERY hard to swim. (it was like swimming in jello). Here is what it looks like to climb.. (a bit scary since we had a 2 year old the and the rocks on the side were a bit sharp)...

cliffs!

Day one left us exhausted from all the swimming.... so Day 2, we booked an easy day with visting 2 island (about 45 mins boat) also, since it was further away, we paid for more for the boat 4500 for the whole day hire. If you are not coming as a group, I suggest you join one of the tours from Coron galeri. You can also opt to do a calauit day trip (we didn't do that since we were super tired already)

some photos from day 2:

The snorkeling was great.. we got to feed some fish and see a lot. (relaxing day)

all the islands have 100 peso fees (so much so that the boatmen call it the 100 islands! - LOL

notes:
--the marketplace (wet market) is not at all cheap.. meat and chicken are much more expensive than Manila.
-- maquinit hot springs is very near town.. you can drop by as per our tricycle driver's advise, better if it nearing sunset
-- tricyles are 30 pesos per person for ride into town from the hotel.
-- there are several chinese restaurants in town, I just forgot the names ---
-- avoid lobster king (too much hype.. lobster too expensive too!)
-- there is some hiking involved going up some of the lagoons and lakes (if you have elderly or people with limited mobility)


overall.. we had fun but it wasn't the WOW trip I expected. I think I enjoyed our trip to BOHOL more see here (its a 3 part blog post)

Screwed Over

I was on a work related trip the whole of last week.  The week before that, I was ELATED... no.. actually GUSHING to my friends on how I got to book an AMAZING place in Boracay. It was a house rental.

I contacted the administrator of the rental thru email if the house was available for OCT 31- NOV3. They confirmed that it was and I hurriedly booked my tickets (and that of my family) for a total 9 people. I confirmed my booking through email and told them I could send the deposit for the house the following monday (it was a saturday and there was no bank) since I was flying out on Monday and wont be back till saturday again. She affirmed that it was alright.

See here (for our conversation)--- I highlighted my reply...

here is her reply: ( which I assumed was a confirmation that everything was ok)

By her reply, I was confident that I could go on my business trip and pay her when I get back since she said it was ok. However, when I got back.. I was greeted by this email: ( she had such a nice tone to the email too.... and I assumed she was just checking if I could possibly change date)

I told her that I could not possible change dates since I already had tickets and rebooking would cost the same as if I had bought another set of tickets. She them emailed me a sort of "take it or Leave it " option.--- which had a firmer tone than the previous email. it was like saying..screw you... i have a bigger client and you family is no consequence

 I ask you guys..... isn't this being screwed over???? because she got a 16 day booking after I confirmed, that overlapped my booking, she essentially just leaving me out to dry!!!

I felt really angry and disappointed that someone could be so unprofessional. The 5000 pesos she offered did not cover the expense we have to make to move 9 roundtrip tickets at 3000 pesos per person AND I wouldn't have booked the trip if not for wanting to go see that HOUSE!!!

If that were done to you,  wouldn't you feel like someone was slapping you in the face? -- WOULD YOU DEAL with this kind of company? EVEN IF they have a wonderful place?

I am now trying to book other accomodations as my email (to complain at this kind of shabby treatment) is now being ignored.

WARNING TO THOSE WHO WANT TO BOOK HERE..... don't judge a book by it's modern exterior. Expecting to be treated like paying people only to be set aside when a BETTER offer comes along.....


UPDATE: See HERE on what happened next

Loboc river- BOHOL

When presented with a long weekend holiday, what do people of this country do? They go to the beach!!!
Living in an island country has a lot of benefits. I honestly can say I haven't travelled around every part of this country and visited all the possible areas we can visit. (we have 7100 islands you know)

So, when the government announced a 4 day weekend, me and my friend planned a quick trip for our families (talk about itchy feet!). It was hard to book the other more popular destinations as the flights were booked quite fast. We finally decided on BOHOL. It is an area on the lower part of the Philippines- namely located in the group of Visayan islands. The main city is Tagbilaran (you take a 1 hour domestic flight from Manila) but we were housed on the Panglao island (where most of the resorts are located)-- it is a quick bridge ride away from the airport. There is a more remote island also called Balicasag- (where you need to take a boat)

view from the plane..

The first day of the trip, we arrived mid afternoon and decided to check in to our house rental (owned by a friend) Aside from touring a local church, we decided to go on the LOBOC RIVER NIGHT CRUISE that night. The area where the river cruise was located was very well maintained. It also had WIFI access (yes, really). They had souvenir shops and a local cafe.  (wow, this country is getting somewhere)

view from the dock. courtesy of my friend

As with all night cruises, they had dinner included and some form of entertainment. The dinner was buffet style with some local seafood. The dinner was ok but I guess there were a lot of people coming to the river cruise and the food ran out. (we were early and got our share first) One thing to remember though when travelling at night on a river is to bring INSECT REPELLENT. My friends were great fodder for the mosquitos. (hahahaha). There was also a "soloist" on the boat. (he was actually not that good and sang with a distinctive local accent)

fried crablet.. very tasty!

I was really impressed  the way the local government provided lighting throughout the river so you can see a little of the surroundings as the boat travelled. Near the end, there is  a dock where the locals set up a show. They play the guitars and the others dance. It is set up like a cultural show and you can get down and take pictures with them. At the end of the show, you can opt to drop donations for the community on the provided "drop box".

everyone had a guitar

the kids danced really good

this guy really went into the dancing!

the man with the biggest guitar I have ever seen

I don't have nice pictures of the river as It was too dark to take any good ones. However, I am looking forward to writing about our adventures the following day... where we got to see most of the sights in BOHOL. Here is a good video someone else took of the DAYTIME loboc river cruise

Beach

I mentioned i got my camera back. I am also learning to use it more because we are planning to go to Israel next year. (in the itenerary is Jordan ~ petra, Jerusalem, and Egypt). So you see, need to get the photo skills together to get nice pictures for the trip.

here are some of what i took last weekend on a trip to the beach