Profiles

10 Bloggers, 4 Destinations, 10 SLRs and a whole lot of fun!

Featuring the 10 bloggers from Malaysia who travelled Northern Luzon, Philippines.  Backpacking, with style!

*click on the thumbnails to get directed to their blogs 😀

profile pics just taken from your facebooks 😛

Manila

*all of my photos from Manila to Laoag were deleted because my memory card crashed… It was painful 🙁 This was the first time it happened to me… so sad… So all of the photos that I have are from Pagudpod only 🙁 although, my Blackberry captured some photos along the way because I was live blogging 😛 so, some pictures are taken by my BB Curve 🙂

Sorry guys, I don’t have any photos to show you… but theirs.  So follow them and check out their awesome photography and what they have to say about the Philippines.

When in Manila, they booked at Go Hotels.  Go Hotels is a great choice to stay when in Manila.  It is a few steps away from Robinsons Pioneer mall, a walking distance to bus stop and MRT.  So for tourists, this is a great pitstop with the rooms so neat, so clean, but very affordable.  Remember when typhoon Basyang came along and there was a blackout in the metro?  We couldn’t sleep because it was hot in our own homes so we looked for a place to stay for the night… Go Hotels was packed at that time lol.  So don’t forget to book with Go Hotels when in Manila okay? 😀

photo credit: Angeline

What we did in Manila:

1. Rode the MRT and LRT – it wasn’t a good experience for them as we rode the trains rush hour… T_T One MRT/LRT varies from Php 11

2. Rode the pedicab – manual bicycle with three wheels 😛 we took this from Central LRT Station to Fort Santiago in Intramuros

3. Fort Santiago, Intramuros – like I said, I lost all my photos :(  I haven’t been here since our field trip in high school.  I told them about our National Hero Jose Rizal and how he thought the “Pen is mightier than the sword.”  But now that we’re in the digital era, and they are all bloggers, I think it’s safe to say, “The blog is mightier than the sword”.  Kapish? 😛

If you’re visiting Manila, this is definitely one of the places you should go to.

Fort Santiago tickets:

P 50 – Children, Teachers and Students, Senior Citizens and PWD

P 75 – Adults and tourists

Vigan

1.  Breakfast at Hotel Salcedo de Vigan.  I had them try the Vigan Longanisa… yum! I miss eating the longanisa now.

2. Rode the Kalesa.  It was a nice experience but  I feel sad for the horsies though :(  It was extremely hot and I could barely walk under the heat of the sun, let alone have a horse carry us, and run around the city… for an hour 🙁

3. Bantay Church – This church was breathtaking!  I really hate that my memory card got busted because it was my first time here and I took nice photos.  Well, lucky enough I had my blackberry with me… I was live blogging and uploading all photos directly using Smart’s GPRS.  Anyway, this is the Bell Tower of the Bantay Chruch.  This church was built during the Spanish period (1530s) and it’s really really old.  It’s three centuries old… and it’s still standing strong atop a hill.  We went up to see a very nice view of the Sierra Madre Mountains, Abra Mountain, The South China sea and the city of Vigan.

4.  St. Paul’s Cathedral and Plaza Burgos – We dropped by these two places just to get some photos :)  I also told them about the story of Padre Jose Burgos on whom they named the Plaza after.  Padre Jose Burgos is one of the three martyr priests who became a very important part of the Philippine History.  Three priests were executed by cutting their heads of during the Spanish Regime in 1872.  The three priests are popularly known as Gom-Bur-Za (Padre Gomez, Burgos and Zamora).  While riding the kalesa, we also passed by the Padre Burgos Museum.

5.  Calle Crisologo – I always feel like I’m in a time capsule dated a few hundred years back when I’m in this place.  Vigan City is actually one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.  Vigan City is known to be the “the best-preserved example of a planned Spanish colonial town in Asia.”  The Calle Crisologo strip of preserved and maintained houses, cobblestoned street, and antiquities contributed a lot to this title.

6. Dirty Ice Cream – This was the first time they tried dirty ice cream :P  I explained that it’s clean but that’s just what we call it :P  Satkuru

*photo taken by BlackBerry Curve 8520

Laoag

From Vigan to Laoag, we hired 2 SUVs worth 2,500 each (I think… I forgot… but price is around that much).  We asked for them to make a pitstop to Paoay Church 🙂

1.  Paoay Church – This church is once again a part of UNESCO World Heritage site for Philippine’s Baroque Churgues.  Lucky you guys, you stepped on 2 out of 5 World Heritage sites 😛

I explained how the Paoay Church was built.  They didn’t believe me at first lol.  Most of the old churches here in the Philippines are built using egg yokes.  People used to offer eggs for the church to be built.  The egg yokes were put in between the rocks and corrals that make up the church.  The church is also known for its huge buttress on the side as support.

I feel so pandai (smart) now knowing our Philippine history woot!

2. Balay da Blas Pension House – This is where we stayed in Laoag.  Affordable rooms (with breakfast) yet large space.  It was very relaxing here and it was the first time all of us had a good rest :)  We also met the owner of the place and is really very helpful in guiding us on our needs like transportation and food.  To check out their official website and for bookings, click here. :D  Their tag line is “Champaigne and Luxury on a Beer Budget”

3. Dinner at Saramsam – This was one enjoyable dinner as they discovered the scrumptious delight the “poque poque” (poki-poki) gives… and yes, it’s not a bad word 😛 It’s a yummyliscious local food in Ilocos made of Eggpant with tomatoes, onions and egg.  We also ordered Native Tinolang Manok and Pork Adobo.

**sleepy time**

Morning arrives, we headed to Sand Dunes

4. La Paz Sand Dunes – 52 square miles of pure sand… Did you know that Tom Cruise shot a movie here?  They shot “Born on the Fourth of July” in this beach :P  woot!

screen cap from the movie

woot! this time, bloggers invade!

photo credit to Daniel of http://danielctw.com

5.  St. Andrew’s church / Bacarra Church – another gorgeous church in the town of Bacarra.  You will pass by this town if you head from Laoag to Pagudpod.

Pagudpod

On our way to Pagudpod, we had 2 pitstops.

1.  Faro Cabo Cape Bojeador – built on top of a hill overlooking the South China Sea.  This lighthouse is still fully functional and is still working as of date.  It’s more than a year old as it was built in 1887.  It’s the highest lighthouse above sea level in the whole of Philippines.  The hill’s name is Vigia de Nagparitan.

I sound really smart… but they had that info outside the lighthouse 😛

2. Bangui Windmills – always my favorite part of the Northern Luzon trip.  I am an environmentalist and I promote taking care of the environment in my blog.  The windmills are definitely a geeky cool way of keeping Philippines green.  It supplies 50% of energy of the whole Ilocos, which is also the same power requirement of SM Megamall.  Amazing isn’t it!?

3. Patapat Bridge / Patapat Road – It’s the highway… the view is spectacular!  First time I passed by this road, I didn’t know this was an attraction… It was just breathtaking that I didn’t feel like I was in the Philippines or something.

Anyway, we stopped by the middle of the road to take pictures lol.

4. Blue Lagoon – You just need to come here to feel what we felt… The most relaxing trip ever, we ended our Northern Luzon trip on the beautiful beach of Blue Lagoon.

*photo credits to Jeck Simbulan

5. More random stops.  We didn’t stop at highways… We stopped on some areas where we think are beautiful for our cameras.  I don’t know what this place is called (I forgot) but it has a big stone with a whole in the middle.  I wasn’t able to take photos of it though… Just wait for the photos to be uploaded by the other 10 bloggers, or just follow them on their blogs 😀

I have taken photos of the ladies resting on the rocks though 😀

6. Kapuluan Vista Resort – This is where we stayed for the night.  It was really relaxing.  We also strolled along the shoreline of this resort.  We saw many beautiful things.  I saw things I’ve never seen before like Sea Cucumber, weird looking Octopus starfish, Sea Worms, Hermit Crabs having an orgy lol… I also saw Spongebob squarepants!!! First time I ever saw a sea sponge 😛

7. Kabigan Falls – Mountains, Beaches, old towns and cities, what’s next? Waterfalls!

From our hotel, we asked to have us brought to the Kabigan waterfalls.  From Kapuluan resort to the Kabigan waterfalls and back, we only paid 500.  Cheap if you divide it by 11 😛 It’s about a 15 minute drive to the drop off point.  Then we needed to pay 20 pesos each for the falls and 10 pesos each for the tour guides.  Tip is not yet included so if you did enjoy your trek, be generous to the really pleasant tour guides 🙂

We had to trek for 20-30 minutes to the waterfalls and back.  We had a really lovely view on the way, rice crops were everywhere.  You see grasshoppers, dragonflies and many more.  The only thing you need to worry about is the heat of the sun.  Make sure you wear proper sun protection while trekking.  You can spot me using Vaseline’s sunblock in the pictures.

Also, make sure to be hydrated.  Bring your own water or buy buko juice which is being sold on the way.  Bring umbrella if you want because the noon sun is really burning.  So, the tour guides suggest that the earlier you trek here, the less hot it is.  But let me tell you, once you take a dip on the waterfalls, it’s all worth it!!! la la la!

Apologies for the very long post :P  But I hope you liked the photos and the descriptions :D  I also hope it might help you plan your future trips to Northern Luzon :D  If you have any comments or questions, feel free to write on the comment section below… 😀

Maraming Salamat at mabuhay kayong lahat!

Come again soon you guys!

‘till the next adventure,

Hannah

Breakfast, Golf, ATV, Fort Ilocandia

Lunch at La Preciosa

Malacanang of the North and Paoay Lake

Paoay Church

Marcos Museum

Dinner at Sitio Remedios

 

Breakfast, Golf, ATV, Fort Ilocandia

It was a beautiful morning.  I love bread and that’s basically what I had at breakfast at Fort Ilocandia.  I knew that this day is going to be a blast!  And indeed it is because I just had two “first-times” just in the morning activities.  Our first activity for the day was to ride the All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV).  It was fun and hot.  I applied Vaseline sunblock in the morning because I knew we might be fried under the sun.  I was introduced to Vaseline sunblock last on March last year.  They had promo girls roaming around the beach who offered to put sunblock on us.  We loved the scent of the sunblock!  It didn’t smell like sunblock or the pool at all lol.

Riding the ATV is awesome!  It is a bit slow as compared to riding a Go-Kart.  But still, anything automobile – I love!  I couldn’t count how many times I roamed around the track.  😛 I still enjoyed cam-whoring and I had an awesome panning shot taken by the photographer.  The view while we were ATV-ing was just breathtaking because we were riding by the beach 🙂

It was my first time hitting balls on the golf range.  :P  I learn fast and the staff of Fort Ilocandia were very kind to help me improve my form and my swing lol.  I don’t really like watching golf on TV.  It looks boring.  You wait for people to hit their balls.  That’s it. T___T so boring… Zzzzzz… One thing I learned from today’s experience though is that golf needs practice and concentration.  It’s also all about the form.  For the first time, I was super conscious of how I bend and the level of bending involved.  I was also taught how to do a very suave swing 😛

Lunch at La Preciosa

The locals said that people in Ilocos are very frugal.  Their lifestyle is also very very simple.  They rarely go out to eat at restaurants.  Therefore, those who go to restaurants in Ilocos are usually tourists.  The owner of the restaurant was there to greet us and explained every dish that was served.  My favorite was the Pukui Pukui and their Carrot cake is so good in this place – it’s a must-try!

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Malacanang of the North and Paoay Lake

Ilocos Norte is known to be the place of Marcos.  Their family’s involvement in the government started here with his ancestors as Ilocos’ congressman.  The Marcos family really built landmarks and it included this place of theirs – Malacanang of the North.  It’s a house made of wood basically and you will see the Spanish influence in the architecture.  The Furnitures are also something that you must observe.  Most of the furnitures were are made of wood.  You will see how old the furnitures are, but they still look sturdy.

Overlooking the terrace of the Malacanang of the North is Paoay Lake.  It’s a natural lake that stretches to 450 hectares area.

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Paoay Church

It was just breathtaking.  I usually take my camera and shoot immediately when I travel and see a nice landmark… but when I saw the church, I just had to stop, pause and relish the moment.  It was breathtaking… The church combined Baroque architecture and Filipino/Chinese craftmanship.

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Marcos Museum and Sony Bloggie Stills

We were not allowed to take pictures.

I stepped inside the dark room.  It was cold… then on the spotlight, lies the body of Marcos, coated with wax.  His body lies inside a glass coffin.  It reminds me of Snow White.

I had goosbumps when I saw Marcos.  His body was only 3 meters away from me.  It was so close… I felt a strong aura or a strong mood when I saw his face despite the fact that his body was preserved for 21 years now.

My Nikon D40’s Kit Lens is dying.  The Autofocus is not working anymore :(  Using manual focusing on the kit is just a pain to me so I had to resort in alternatives.  I took out the Sony Bloggie and tested out the stills.

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Dinner at Sitio Remedios

The ambiance is really something.  It somehow brought me to a different time.  Like that place was put in a time capsule and here I am now, visiting.

The story of the houses and rooms that you can rent inside the Sitio Remedios resort is very interesting.  They are really old houses from different places.  They were taken down, one-by-one into pieces and brought to Sitio Remedios Resort and reassembled one-by-one.

The houses tell so much story even if you just stare at it.

I was also at awe when I saw the chapel at the center.  The first thing that came to my mind when I entered the small chapel was “I think I want to be wed here.” lol not that I am planning to anytime soon :P  The church stole my heart.  It’s by the beach as well.  A perfect tropical-ish wedding (with a hint of reggae theme) would be perfect here for me…  It matches my personality

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Anyway, that’s it for now… gotta rush for our next destination!