Manila, Philippines Trip (Day 11)

3rd August 2014, Sunday

Chefs in the hotel restaurant

But the abdomen pains kept coming on and off but at least i stopped running to the toilet. And my friend was very worried until she wants to send me to hospital as the hotel doctor only comes in @ 9 am but if i go hospital we won't be able to fly back. But whole morning, she just stayed by me while i rested... :)....Later i asked her to go down have breakfast first when i got up to shower. After my shower, my friend came back very excited..telling me that the breakfast so very nice and was dragging me down to have a look. She tabao 1 apple and 1 banana back for me though...hahaaa....

So we went down and she showed all the food in the different station but i was still not ok to eat all the food. So i took the chicken congee to eat instead, and she was trying to ask for banana which the waiter told us they run out of banana...hahahaa...After eating breakfast, we went back to the room and rest for awhile while waiting for time. Then it was time to leave for the airport (ahhh...) and my abdomen pain also stopped acting so often...We went down to check out and got the hotel staff to help us flag a cab...Waited for some time for a cab to come in...then we reached the airport...

There was no ac in the airport and my friend still need to pay some airport taxes before we can check-in our luggage. When we were going out of the customs, we also need to pay $550 peso per pax to the customs (don't know what it is for...). Really, there is nothing to do in the airport, no shopping too. So we just went in to the waiting area and waited for the plane to come...I ended up sleeping throughout the whole flight...even the meal i got no appetite to eat (just ate a little)...My friend said me like on drugs...kept sleeping...hahahaa...And so we landed back in Singapore...Sianz...Then we went and buy wines and went back separately and my trip ended...

I had a lot of fun in this trip and the experience i had was also different too (all the hiking, caving...etc). And my friend's family, they are all very nice and funny too (her older brother has a serious look but still can tell funny jokes and her youngest brother is also very crappy...hahaa..) and will remember them. Philippines is beautiful in its own ways and there are a lot of places and food to see and try (I can never dare to eat the balut...broke the deal with  my friend...hahahaa). Sometimes really have to appreciate Singapore for some of the things we are being provided....hehehee....And i only remembered 3 words from my friend - "Oo" (Yes) and "Dito" (here) and "Magandang Umaga" (Beautiful Morning) which she always greet me everyday... :)....

Bulacan, Philippines Trip (Day 10)

2nd August 2014, Saturday

The 'Famous' Taho

Today is the last day in Bulacan, i woke up slightly late and found my friend and her family were helping us to pack all the goodies (mangoes and sweets) with newspaper and putting them into small small boxes. Then i went down and to select which photos we took for the past days to print. I selected a few photos to print, so i no need to print when i get back to Singapore (free prints here...heheee). While doing all these, the 'Ta Ho' man is here again!! This time, we managed to get him and my friend bought for me to try it...Nice!! Is soya beancurd with small small pearls and is sweet...I got 2 cups to eat... :)...My friend's brother then told us there was strawberry flavor in Baguio and we didn't eat it when we were there...Missed it already...hahahaa....After that, we all had breakfast and her sister in law made us sausages for me and my friend, specially for us...hohohoho....
They even ate baluts for breakfast...Oh ya...the breakfast is with rice too..like eating lunch or dinner...not breakfast...haha...They even used buffalo's milk (bought from an auntie when she passed by the house) to make white white cheese.....

Inside Bus

After breakfast, it was getting quite late, almost to 10 plus, 11am. And we need to get ready to catch bus to Manila. Then we went shower after all the packing...After showering and everything done, is time to say bye bye to my friend's family. I thanked her sister in law for everything and she still asked mi to go back the next time i visit Philippines....Very nice of her.....My friend's brother drove us to the bus terminal, but the bus to Manila has just left. So we went another 2 more bus terminals to ask but ended up back to the 1st bus terminal...heheee...Anyway we waited for a while before the bus came. Then we said bye bye to my friend's brother and family...They are all very nice people...had a good time when staying with them. And her nephew is a sweet and smart boy who like origami too (advanced level)...i lost to him (but he don't know how to make a star using straws)...hahahaa...Then the bus went off and it's a 2 hour ride to Manila.

Vikings

We reached Manila @ around 4 plus, then we took a cab to our hotel. The hotel lobby was very spacious and was very big too. After check-in, my friend said they upgraded our room. And so we went up to check our room. Hmmm....not as nice as the hotel room we stayed in Baguio...and here the rate is double the price of Baguio hotel. We can see the sea on the right side of our room balcony. We went down to explore the hotel first (saw the food in the hotel restaurant, like not very nice leh), then we went off to our dinner place. My friend specially reserved table for this dinner. It is called Vikings, she said is a popular buffet place and have to reserve. If not, there won't be available tables for walk-in. We took a cab to SM - Mall of Asia, one of the largest malls in Philippines. There is a globe outside the mall too and there are really alot of shops, consists of 2 blocks too. But it was getting close to our dinner reserved time, we walked to the dinner place first. Quite a distance away, and there were alot of people queuing already when we reached Vikings. We waited for awhile before the staff announced that they are ready for customers to go in and we waited for our number to be called.

Sashimi!!

We were shown to our table and there were a lot of different stations for the buffet. They even got Singaporean chicken rice (which i didn't try...hahaa). Ordered a weird blue fish to bbq too, not nice one, got a lot of sashimi slices. While eating, my friend's sister and husband arrived. We all ate together and they chatted. They even tried to speak with me in Mandarin as the husband is learning Mandarin now. He is a German and they are living in Germany now. But there is one question that he tried to ask me in Mandarin but i cannot catch it... :P....Then it started to rain and the winds were very strong (like going to have typhoon like tat)....We stayed on while waiting for the rain to stop and they chatted (at a point they talking about family issues again)...I just went toilet to run away first...hehehee....As it was getting late and we still need to buy our goodies in the supermarket, we went and took a cab. My friend's sister even gave me a purple rock (fengshu type) as a 见面礼. Me and my friend then alighted near the overhead bridge and said bye bye to her sister and husband. Then we ran off and walked back to the supermarket. Went Max's Restaurant to get the Carmel bars, and went to the supermarket to get dried mangoes (but don't have 7D ones, only Cebu ones). And i got some instant noodles and instant juices and some other stuffs...hahahaa....After done shopping, we went out to take a cab. There were a lot of cabs driving by but the cab drivers were all asking for a fixed price and all don't want to go by meter. And the price they asking is double the original price for the same distance.

After a few cabs, my friend gave in and we boarded the cab back to the hotel. My friend said she needs to go out tomorrow morning and wants me to stay in the hotel myself while she is out...I joked with her can i go to the theme park next to the hotel...She looked back at me with her eyes opened big big...hahahaa.... Finally reached hotel...so tired already...My friend lied on the bed and dozed off very fast...So i went for shower and then sat in front of the TV and wrote my journey again. Suddenly my stomach was having pains and soon i was having runs...and also started to vomit too. Whole night cannot really sleep and it was raining heavily again...Think 2 or 3 plus i woke up my friend and let her know...She called the hotel reception to get some medicine for me. But i didn't eat the medicine and tried to sleep back. I was having very sharp abdomen pains (very pain until cannot stand up). At 1 point, i just sat on the carpet while my friend was doing packing...hahaaa....She called the reception again to get the hotel nurse to come and have a look. The nurse came around like 6 plus (or later...can't remember)...asked me a few questions and he gave some pills for mi to stop the vomiting and told me to drink Gatorade (ekkk...). 
Then i slept back after eating the medicine. My friend was saying i didn't get sick when i ate all the food from the roadside stalls but when we ate the food from Vikings, i got sick...hahaaa


Hotel Stayed:
Sofitel Luxury Hotel

Sagada, Philippines Trip (Day 2)

25th July 2014, Friday

Baguio City Market (Opposite the terminal)

We reached Baguio Bus Terminal @ around 4.10 am, didn't managed to sleep on the bus as usual. There, we had some snacks at the canteen and my friend also checked with bus company staff on how we can travel from Baguio to Alaminos City. Then we waited until its time (6.30 am) to go to another bus terminal to take our bus to Sagada. The cabs here were better than Manila, as the drivers will go by the meter, whereas the drivers in Manila will go by agreed price and sometimes it can go up to twice or thrice the original prices. After getting the bus tickets, we waited there for some time before the bus comes.  The bus came @ around 7 plus and we boarded the bus, the bus doesn't look comfortable to sit long hours and it was non-aircon too. Everyone was carrying big bags and trying to put on the bus. And off we went, this was a 6 hours ride to Sagada. 

View taken from bus

Throughout the whole journey, the bus traveled over 1 mountain to another, round up and round down, passing different small towns. My friend was sleeping on and off on the bus cos she said she vomit everytime she travel this same route....hehee....luckily she didn't vomit along the way...As usual, i was looking at the scenery instead of sleeping. It was beautiful, can see green mountains and mountains. And the clouds were floating in the sky, can also see houses below and the bus was traveling on the mountain road which was the same level as the clouds. Then the bus stopped at a pit stop @ some town, for the passengers to use the toilet and buy some snacks. After 10 mins, the bus continued again. Then it's mountains and clouds again....After many rounds of up and down the mountains, we reached Sadaga finally. It was raining and was cold, and we alighted. Then we walked to look for our resting place, we came to Residential Lodge. The owner got her staff to show us the room, the 1st room we seen is a double bed room and the toilet is common for like 200 plus peso per night. The 2nd room we see are bigger, for 6 persons and the toilet is with it. At the same time, there was another group of people looking at the room next door too. My friend found them too noisy and i was ok with the 1st room, so we went ahead with the 1st room.

Baked Chicken with Potato Rosti

We put all our stuffs in the room and rested for a while. We had planned to go the cave today but since it is raining, we can't do caving. So we went for lunch instead, we went to Yogurt House. We chose a table which was outside the balcony and facing the mountain. We ordered a Sweet Spicy Java Chicken with Rice and Baked Chicken with Potato Rosti, Hot Chocolate and Mountain Tea. The potato rosti was crispy and nice...Mountain Tea is not bad, got mountain smell..But don't like the hot chocolate, not very nice. And beside us, there was a group of Filipino chatting away and laughing very loud. There was also a dog downstairs looking up at us, as though it is waiting for food to be thrown down (It do look hungry too...hahaha). After the lunch, we walked down to the tourist information center (which is a small house along the street). But it was not opened, then my friend asked a lady from the opposite shop who called down the guide from upstairs. Then a guy came down and started talking to my friend in Tagalog. Later my friend explained, we can go to see the sunset tomorrow and after that or we go for the sunset and then either the Big Falls or the cave (have to choose 1 instead). So i chose to go to Big Falls and the sunrise way. Then the guide gave us the driver's number so we can message and arrange with him on the timing for tomorrow.

Lemon Tart

After this, we walked to Log Cabin Bar & Cafe to book our dinner for tomorrow. Along the way, we passed by the bus stop and saw an auntie selling rambutans. So my friend bought a bag of rambutans. It was always a buffet night on Saturday for the cafe, we had to make reservation for the dinner. But when we reached there, the owner was saying that there is no buffet dinner for tomorrow... :(...So we went for ala-carte instead and ordered our main courses too (2 big main courses).  Then we walked back, passing the same bus stop and this time, we saw the same auntie selling mangoes and another big fruit. So we bought them too...hahahaa....Then we walked to the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, it is the only church in Sagada and it was just a small simple church. There was no mass when we went there. There was supposed a cemetery behind the church but it was closed off. My friend said she and her friend went there when they were here previously. After that, we walked to Sagada Lemon Pie House to try their lemon tart. We ordered a slice of the lemon tart and mountain tea to relax. Then we walked down the streets to see some of the shops, got selling souvenirs and Sagada weaving products. Then we went back to our hostel as it started to rain again.

There is no tv in our room, the tv is in the living room outside and there is no aircon too. Luckily it was quite cooling from outside. Then i went to take a bath, the water was like....dripping out from the shower head...had to use pail to collect the water and bath with it. And the water was icy cold as the heater was not really strong, after some time, the water will become cold again. Anyway, i did managed to finish my bath. My friend was sleeping and had to wake her up to go bath....hehee....
After shower, we just rested and sleep. Hmmmm....what did we have for dinner?? Should be the mangoes and rambutans....hahahaa....

Hotel Stayed:
Residential Lodge

Manila, Philippines Trip (Day 1)

My TCC Breakfast for Flight Day

24th July 2014, Thursday
Many things happened after my last trip, all my friends left the company and i got a new job due to "retrenchment" but i gained new colleagues in the new company. Lately got to know a new friend from Philippines in the new company, who invited me to go visit Philippines and her hometown. So, why not? Since i need a break from the stupid and boring work, so i agreed to go along. And then my friend booked the air tickets and planned the whole itinerary, even ordered a whole roast pig back at her hometown for our arrival. Oh well, it seems damn long to wait until our flight day and finally it came!! Time to fly away!! We met at the airport @ around 7 plus, and then we checked in our luggage. My friend gave me a Nike cap when we were having breakfast...hehehe....Then we went to our gate to board our plane. Our flight time is 9.35 am, and off we go.

Condo Building

We reached Manila @ around 1 plus in the afternoon. After we arrived, my friend went to draw some cash out for our expenses for the trip. Later we went out to meet her brother (Joseph), who was picking us up. In the airport, the waiting areas were indicated by the starting letter of their surnames. Eg: if the surname is starting with M, then u will need to go to the F-M areas to wait (something like that). This is something interesting...hahaa....Then suddenly, there was a super loud thunder sound, i thought it was going to have typhoon soon (as got reports of typhoons in Philippines earlier in the previous weeks). Then we met up with my friend's brother, and we went to take public bus to their condo building. The bus was like our coach buses, full with people and the ticket man walked in the bus to collect $ and issued the bus tickets. The ride was $25 peso per pax, and it took us like almost an hour to reach our destination due to the traffic jam. The vehicles really didn't move much on the jam, it is how bad people were saying the traffic jams in Manila....kekekee....After the ride in the bus, we reached our stop but we still need to walk a short distance to the condo. My friend was cautioning me to carry my bag infront instead of at the back...

Half Chicken with 3 different sauces

The condo building looks very nice from outside, looks like our HDB buildings. But the space inside was much smaller than our Singapore flats. When i walked in, can see the kitchen on the left side and there were 2 bunk beds. There was another room with 1 bunk bed and the toilet. The flat size was really small. Anyway, we put our luggage there and rested for awhile and we went out for lunch. We went to the mall nearby, and it was amazing that the security guards in the mall were doing bags inspection on people who were going into the mall (And is every shopping mall in Philippines). We went lunch in Max's Restaurant. It's the restaurant where it is selling the carmel bars (which was always brought back by my ex-colleagues previously). Ohh...the fried chicken was nice, crispy and tender. My friend don't let me drink the iced water from the restaurant, so she got her brother to get mineral water from the supermarket..heheee....The whole meal cost like $724 peso, which is like around $21 sgd..

Flan & Ube Turon

After the nice lunch, we went for dessert in Adobe Connection. We ordered Flan Turon and Ube Turon. It was a small triangular shape snack, not a bad snack....hehehee....Then we took a cab to Fiesta Market (along the way, past by the streets and saw tall buildings in the old and new CBD areas), there, are some small stalls selling the local products  from different parts of Philippines. After the viewing of the market, we walked to a shopping mall called SM Aura. It was owned by Philippines's biggest mall developer, SM Prime Holdings. So there were alot of shopping malls under SM around Philippines. This is just one of them, it was a big mall with all the branded shops in it but there wasn't packed with people. There, we walked around while waiting for my friend's sister-in-law to come meet us after work. My friend wanted to buy me a new basketball but we cannot bring it back to Singapore as the ball cannot be inflated to stuff in the luggage....so sadz....

Pork Knuckles

Then my friend's sister-in-law came and we went to phone service provider to get a data SIM card. And waited to top up the prepaid card, i got abit bored and was going to sleep mode soon. Me and my friend went down to the supermarket first to get some stuffs while her sister-in-law was helping us to top up the data card. Then later we all met up in the supermarket, after that we went for dinner @ Elias in Bonifacio High Street. There looked like got a lot of restaurants and shops in the area but didn't managed to walk along the streets to see. Dinner was nice but i was not even hungry for dinner.
But still, ate the rice and dishes but very slowly. My friend was telling her brother that i can finish up the rice very fast in Singapore but don't know what happened, i was like eating so slow in Philippines...hahahaha....

Different types of intestines to bbq

After dinner, it was already like 8 plus and we need to get ready to catch our bus to Baiguo later. So we took cab back to a food market (just behind the condo), which was only opened on Wednesday and Thursday (i think). There were alot of stalls selling different food and drinks but i was still too full to eat anything. I got a mango juice instead, the juice was very thick and can really taste the mango in it. We sat down and ate fishballs while my friend's sister-in-law went back to her office to take her stuffs back. Later we walked back to the condo and had shower, i almost falling asleep on the bed. Joseph and his wife were sleeping already while my friend unpacked some of her stuffs out from her backpack. And we waited until 11 plus and woke Joseph up to bring us to the bus terminal. We took cab to the bus terminal and we boarded the bus when we arrived. There was a lady steward onboard the bus who gave us a bottle of mineral water and a cake. And she also collected $ and issued us our tickets. After that, it was lights out and with that, it was about 4 hours ride to Baiguo.