Sagada, Philippines Trip (Day 4)

27th July 2014, Sunday

Egg Tart

Woke up super early again wanting to see the sunrise, but my friend was feeling feverish suddenly and she even vomited. So i decided not to go for the sunrise, and just go to the cave only if she feel better. But my friend wanted me to go for the sunrise still but i don't feel nice to go alone. I smsed the lady from the group we met in the waterfall to let her know we are not going to see the sunrise. So we just remained in the room and slept back. I woke up @ around 7 plus again, and i heard pigs screaming outside the room. I got up and take a look, i saw there were people trying to grab and tie 2 giant pigs going to bring to market. And the pigs were struggling, they put a pole and tie the pig to it. And it looked very heavy. After that, we managed to wake up and head down to Lemon Tart House to have our breakfast. And they were having egg tart which is only available on Sundays.

We ordered our breakfast and egg tart when we arrived. It was very yummy... ^_^...and the place was cosy too. The egg tart is nicer than the lemon tart. The tables are short short, and the customers will have to sit on the floor. There are 2 table with short short chairs. And they have free wifi too...hahaha...After breakfast, we walked out to wait for the guide for the cave. The guide name Gareth, then we told us that we need to walk 2km to reach the cave. We were thinking we had already hiked 3.8km the day before, so 2km was nothing for us....hahaha....And so we started to walk, the guide also apologized to us that the sunset driver didn't reply to us. The guide told us that Sagada was once buried in the sea and it was later found.

Coffins stacked in the mouth of the cave

 Along the way, the guide showed us the hanging coffins and then we had to climb down a long long steps to the burial cave. The steps weren't easy to climb down too, but the guide was just walking down the steps like it was nothing. We were taking a longer time to climb down...hahaha... we saw the burial cave, there were alot of wooden coffins stacked on top of each other and they were stacked up on the top. The guide gave us an introduction on the coffins there, he said the coffins were already 100 to 600 years old and there were no names indicated on the coffins. So the descendants also won't know which coffin belongs to who. And the coffins were shorter than the normal coffins, this is due to the natives believe that when a person dies, he/she will be return back to the nature and the body will be put in a curl up position (like inside a womb). That's why the coffin is shorter in size. But when Christianity was introduced in Sagada, the natives changed the position of the body to lie down fully and so the coffin size changed to the normal size. To present day, the people there do burial in cemetery but there are still a small percent of the people who still choose to be bury there in this way. The people also believe the coffin is the home for the dead. The guide was telling us that this burial will cost much more and it was more harder as it required a lot of people to carry the coffin and the body down the mountain road. And there are rituals to be done for the burial too. So the people will have to separate the coffin first and re-built it again in the cave first and then they will form a line down from the top to the entrance of the cave. And they will pass the body down  from the the top, and the guide said this is called 'Basketball'. So they will say go basketball when this is required...kekekee....The guide also told us the wake can last for days, depending on how long the relatives come back and the people were more to welcome the souls of the dead to come back to visit them.

Cave Entrance

Then we made our way back up to the road, which means we need to climb the long steps up again. Finally we reached to the top, and we still need to walk to the Sumaging cave. After walking for some time and while walking, the guide had weaved rings from some small branches on the ground (he said this is what the guides do whenever they are bored), we reached the mouth of the cave and the guide told us there was 245 steps down to the bottom of the cave. The guide went down first to prepare the lantern while we slowly climbed the steps. He gave my friend a headlight where she had to wear it on her head.Then the guide told us this is called spelunking (caving), of course my friend already knew it. And he showed us that we need to go down on fours inside the cave too, he showed 2 types of crawl, monkey crawl and crab crawl. So he was telling us as the rocks were slippery too, need to be very careful when climbing down. And so we started our journey down the cave, really need to squat down to climb down the rocks, there was a part where there were bats living upstairs and so he told us not to touch on the rocks down beneath as they were covered with the bats' poo....hehehee....After some time, i had to use my hands to hold on to the rocks, regardless whether it is dirty or not. The rocks will become your support. Then we reached to a point where there was clear water flowing and there were brighter lights shinning. There were people taking photos there and we had to take off our slippers to climb on the rocks. Then the guide told us to take off our slippers n hid them on the rocks in a corner. The guide told us the rocks were flowing stones, and which the water was flowing down the rocks. At first he was telling us to climb down the rocks with the water flowing down to get to the bottom. I was scared to climb down, and my legs were wobbling too. Eventually i climbed down the rocks, and the guide showed us the different stones formations inside. And the water was very clear and cold too, i felt cooling in the water too. Then he showed us at a point, and asked us whether seen snakes before. Then he said it was a joke, snakes cannot live inside cave. It was a stone formation that looked like a very long snake...hehehee....Then the guide told us to climb down a gap down to the lower level, the guide was just climbing down without any problem. I was still wondering how i going to do that....

The King's Curtain

Then after the guide went down and placed the lantern and bag, he came back and told us to climb down by stepping on his legs to help us down. After we climbed down, he showed us the formation named, The King's Curtain (There was a queen, king, princess and a prince 'hippo' previously and turtles too). Then he asked us which way we want to go, 1 is the shorter way and the other way is the longer way and we need to climb inside and the water level will come up to chest level. He also told us that some people they just stop at the center point and don't continue into the cave which is like a waste there. So we chose the longer way as i thought it will be more fun. And there was a really small gap that we need to climb to get inside. Then we walked down along the rocks, it was filled with rushing water too. Then the guide showed us a stone formation that looked like a big bear lying on fours. After that we came to a point that the water was rushing down very strongly and we need to use the ropes to help us climb down. After we climbed down, the water level was quite high and it was icy cold. I was shaking in the water and we had to walked in the water to get to the other side. Then we came to lowest point in the cave. It was cooling and it was beautiful inside. The guide helped us to take our photos too. Then we made our way back to the center part by more climbing on the stones. Then when i saw the rope to climb up, i was so happy that i shouted that we made it back....hahaaa..We climbed up by using the rope up and the guide asked me to crawl inside a small area. But actually, you can walk by it. When i came out, my friend was laughing happily at me, then the guide told me that's what they do for every first timers in the cave. As my friend was not the first time in the cave, she knew it along too...hahhaa....After this, we need to climb back the same route with the same rocks back up to the cave entrance.My friend had a slip on the rocks while climbing. It was really tiring to climb up, as i was really tired from the climbing up and down but it was fun. We completed the whole journey in about 2 hours and i enjoyed it...hehee.. :).....And i survived!!!
My friend was saying we should go for the cave connection instead but the starting point is from another entrance....heheheee

My Lunch

After we climbed back up to the surface, we were all wet and tired. I washed my hands using our water bottle. Then the guide asked us ready to walk back down to the town. Luckily there was a guy driving a pickup and the guide asked him whether can give us a ride down. We managed to get a hitch ride on the pickup, so we don't have to walk down. i just sat there, looking around while my friend chatted with the guide. Then we went back to the hostel first to shower once we got back. The hostel owner saw us and asked whether the caving was fun. After the shower, we headed out again to have our lunch. We went to Sagada's Especialty, there was no other customers except us. And the dogs' smell was very strong in the place. But still, we ordered our lunch to eat. The fried chicken was super nice...After the lunch, it started to rain again. We walked back to our hostel and we ended up sleeping again.....Hahahaa....the weather was so nice to sleep...Woke up @ around 5 plus and waited for the rain to stop. Then we went out to walk around the town and went to the shop opposite our hostel. It was selling their bags made from weaving by hand, and there was a lady doing the weaving too. This is their local products that people will buy, quite good quality too. I bought 4 coin purses and then we left. We then passed by Salt & Pepper cafe again and we went up to have blueberry tart (My friend was niaming to have it when she woke up from her nap...hahaa). After the tart, we went down to the sausages stall again and bought hotdog & sausage again....yum yum....Then we walked along the street...till we reached Maferre country inn. There, there are photos of the old natives villagers inside, where customers can view them but cannot take photos of them. As we were not so hungry, we ordered a soup and a sandwich. The soup was quite nice but don't find the sandwich nice. There was a angmo couple who ordered 2 plates of spaghetti there (1 after another). After the dinner, we went back to our hostel to rest and my friend tried to do some packing as we will be leaving Sagada the next day. Tonight, it was very quiet, there was no dogs barking or crickets singing.

Sagada, Philippines Trip (Day 3)

26th July 2014, Saturday

Not able to sleep throughout the night, as the dogs and the crickets were having 'party' during the night. Even the lizards in our room were also having fun. Woke up @3.30 am to get ready to go see the sunrise. But it was sooooo freezing cold, ended up didn't shower. Went out and see the dark sky, it was filled with a lot of stars, it was soooo beautiful (you won't see it in Singapore). And at the ground, there were 2 people torching a giant pig in the dark. Then we smsed the driver to check with him whether he is coming to pick us up @ the agreed time.While waiting, we ate our fruits.But the driver didn't reply us back, so we ended up going back to sleep instead. But my friend was very upset and angry that the driver didn't reply us back and caused us to miss the sunrise.

My Breakfast.. ^_^

We woke up again @ already 7am plus, then we just got ready to have our breakfast. My friend was still upset with the driver. then we went to the restaurant just beside our hostel. The name is called Bana's Cafe and Reston, and there was a small dog running around. We ordered our breakfast and sat down outside. My friend was reading newspaper and i went around taking photos while waiting for our breakfast to arrive. It was a foggy morning too and can see the clouds floating.We ordered mountain tea as drinks, my friend added honey into it. After some time, our breakfast came and it was nice...very filling breakfast. After breakfast, we walked to the bus stop there. There was a morning market opened and it was filled with people selling vegetables and fruits. Everyone just laid a mat and started selling their stuffs. It was also crowded with people buying and selling. We bought mangoes again and steamed peanuts to bring up to the Big Falls (called Bomod-Ok Falls). Then after walking around the market, we went to the bus stop to find the jeepney that goes to the big fall. As there were alot of parked jeepneys and they were going to different places. So will need to ask the drivers to confirm the route. But before we got up on the jeepney, my friend saw a stall selling cup corns. The corns were white in color and it was mixed with coconut milk in it (sometimes like our corn cup here). Then we went up to the jeepney and waited for the jeepney to leave. But the driver will wait until the jeepney is full, then they will leave.

Jeepneys @ Bus Stop

After some time, it was filled with around 18 people inside and a few kids. Amazingly, everyone is cramped inside and in the middle was packed with all the big heavy market bags of everyone on board. And when someone boards the jeepney with their big heavy basket, the other aunties on board can just open up and see what were being brought and they will chat with the owners when they returned. I tried to move one of the baskets in when my friend was saying the aunties were asking for help to move the baskets in the jeepney. I can't even move an inch on the basket and my friend can just move them in...then she said to me, Filipino ladies are very strong and there was another lady with a kid, replied us that it is very true. One of the passengers even have a super big basin and stuffed it into the jeepney. But it was pressing onto my knees, my friend scared i will be uncomfortable on the ride. She tried to help me lift up the basin and it was very heavy too. Anyway, the jeepney finally moved out, and we were all cramped in it....hahaha....Even on top of the jeeyney, there were people sitting. And whenever there got people wanted to alight, they just shout at the driver to stop. And they will alight and pay the driver.

Hiking Steps

Finally, we reached the stop to go to the big fall. There were 2 ladies sitting at the table at the stop there, collected $ and arranging guide to bring people to the Big Fall. So we had our guide, Peter to bring us down. He asked us to choose our bamboo walking sticks, told us that we need to hike 1.9km down to the fall and then hike 1.9km back up again. So we started to hike down the mountain trail, there were just steps down and really need to depend on the walking stick to help us climb down (as the steps were very steep). The guide was walking very easily and he was just wearing slippers and don't even have walking stick to support him.He even helped my friend to carry her bag and our fruits. We passed by mountains, corns plants, rice terrace (even walked round it and people doing rice harvest too). And there were 3 villages on the left, center and right side. We also see their mining factory below and the toilet doesn't look nice to go in...hahaa....And in the village, there was a small shelter where the guide told us that it was the village's town hall. The government will send representatives down to the village and have a session with the villagers, where the villagers will talk to the representative on what problems they are having and what help they need. There was a small shelter for black giant pigs too, they were sleeping inside. Accordingly to the guide, the natives don't normal wear their traditional clothes now but only wear them during weddings and ritual. Sometimes when there are strong storms, the villagers will conduct rituals by sacrifice 1 pig and 2 chickens and they will stop doing all work for 3 days. So during this period, it will be their holidays. We also saw 3 people were using a trolley machine to deliver their goods up and down to the opposite mountain.

Bomod-Ok Falls

After the village, we walked till a metal bridge where there were holes and below is the clear water from the fall flowing down. And we were near to the waterfall, and we were both sweating. Finally we reached the waterfall and all the hiking was worth it. We saw a 3 Filipino trying to do a jump shot for their photos and they were having fun too. We took some photos with the waterfall too, then we went down to the water. My friend went down first, and started splashing water on me when i was climbing down. The water so damn cold but it was very clear and refreshing. I was also shaking from the cold. We just splashed water onto each other and having fun.... :)....Then later the 3 Filipino also came down the water, but they were coming down very slowly as not to be too wet. My friend saw them, she started being naughty and splashed water onto them...hehehe....We sat on a rock while chilling our mangoes in the water, my friend started to chat with the other group. They were working in South Africa previously and their contracts had ended, and they had come Sagada to play. When one of the ladies asked us whether we were working mates, my friend paused for awhile before answering...hehee...And when she asked me whether we had known each other for very long, i just replied that ya, we had met for 20 years...hahahaa....Then we were eating chips and mangoes there too. The other group even offered us soft drinks...lol...One of them even told my friend that i looked very happy. Then they told my friend that they were going to see the sunrise tomorrow morning, so my friend asked them whether we can join them and share the transport fee with them. Then they wanted to leave, so we got one of them phone number and we stayed in the water for longer time.

Kids playing basketball

3 kids came along and wanted to play in the water too, my friend gave them 1 of our chips. They looked happy while eating it....kekeke....but they just threw the wrapper in the rocks. Then we just stayed on the rock and see the big waterfall, it was really nice and relaxed just by sitting there enjoying the water and view. Then it was time for us to go back cos the last jeepney time is around 1 pm plus. So we had to walk back the same route again. Don't feel like leaving there....i was shaking from cold when i came out of the water. My whole clothes were wet and didn't bring extra clothes too. So we just walked back up the trail again but this time we had to climb up the steps now which is more tedious. And my clothes dried up quite fast as the sun was quite strong. We took 1 hr plus to climb back and it seems alot faster when we climbed back up. Finally we were up back to the stop, waiting for the last jeepney to arrive. My friend started to chat with the ladies there while waiting. The ladies also asked me whether it is nice down there. My friend told them that i don't want to leave the place...hahahaa....Then the jeepney came and we boarded. Luckily this time wasn't so crowded, i almost doze off on the ride back to the town.  As we both hungry, we went for lunch first.

Egg Noodles @ Salt & Pepper

We went to a cafe named Salt & Pepper, we ordered 3 dishes and soft drinks. While waiting, we saw a small shop down the street selling bbq sausages and intestines. Then the food came, the portions of the dishes were big and it was heavy for us..My friend still stood up and walked for awhile to digest...hahahaa....The food was very nice and yummy. But it was really very full, so we went out to the shops to see whether we can find any top-up cards and to walk walk abit. We managed to get the top up card and it started to rain again. As we were still very full, we decided to walk to the dinner cafe to change our reservation time to a later time so that we have more time to digest our lunch.Then we also went to buy t-shirts and coffee beans. Then we walked back to the hostel to have our shower. Since it was raining heavily, so we just ended up taking nap in the room.....hehee....We woke up @ around 6 plus, but it was still raining outside. We just waited until 7.30pm, then we made our way to the dinner cafe. We passed by the same bbq shop opposite Salt & Pepper, i got the sausage and my friend got the intestines to eat. It was soooooo nice....Then we continued walking up to the cafe, but we were both still very full from the lunch. It was a cozy place in the cafe, there was even a fire place. Then our food came, the portion was very big too and we were really eating very slowly....kekeke....And throughout the meal, we were thinking that if the last dish comes, don't know how we going to finish it as it was a whole chicken dish...hahaha....

Potato (don't know what)

But after some time, the chicken dish didn't come. So my friend went and asked the staff, then she was told that the chicken dish was not in our order. So we were so thankful that we don't have to eat the last dish...hahaa...Then one lady from the group we met in the waterfall messaged us for drinks but we rejected as we both don't drink.....heheee....So we walked back to the hostel, along the way, we bought the sausages again....cannot resist it...kekeee...I got a hammer keychain too. My friend ended up sleeping while i do my writing. Later she woke up to eat the fruits we bought, it was very sour and she showed her sour face...so funny....hahaha.....And so we ended up our day.

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.

Nature Parks Walk - Labrador & Hort Parks

Treasures of Hort Park

18th Jan 2014 - Went Labrador & Hort Parks with my friends as our morning exercise again. This time we went to have a walk @ Labrador Park first and today was not cloudy (the sky was not blue) as the last time i came. But at least it was still windy, and the tunnels were not opened again. Don't know when will it open again. I even told my friend the wrong dragon tooth gate...hahaaa....After the walk in the park, we made our way to Hort Park. The park was small and there was a garden fair when we reached there. But there were a lot of beautiful flowers around, and there were a lot of children playing around too. Too bad, we didn't make it back for the Japanese lunch as it wasn't opened yet.

Nature Parks Walk - MacRitchie Reservoir

A type of Fungus

Tree Top Walk

11th Jan 2014 - Went hiking @ MacRitchie Reservoir with my friends as part of our morning exercise. It was nice to have a hike in the morning and i didn't know that MacRitchie Reservoir was soooo big. There was a mountain hiking path and it was surrounded with trees and you even can see complete spider webs around the trees. We even saw a bunch of monkeys and there were 2 or 3 baby monkeys playing around. The monkeys were jumping from tree to tree above us too, it was cute. We took around 4 hours or so to reach the tree top walk, it was a suspend bridge. The wind is blowing when we walked the bridge and the bridge was also slightly too..but the bridge wasn't that long (the one at Southern Ridges is longer). And after that, we continued our hike and we reached a tower which one of my friend didn't want to climb up as she was tired. The rest of us walked up and one of my friend got scared of height when climbing down the stairs. Her boyfriend and me had to hoax her walk slowly down the tower...kekee...Then we continued to walk slowly back to the exit and along the way, we saw some monkeys playing too. By the time we finished our hike (which was around 3.30pm), we were quite tired and sweaty...After that, we all went home separately.

It was quite a walk there, we only walked around one side of the reservoir. Hope we will have another round to walk the other side of the reservoir.


Click here to see the complete walking trail from National Parks, Singapore.

Nature Parks Walk - SengKang Riverside Park

4th Jan 2014 - Went alone @ SengKang Riverside Park to walk the fruits trail. It was windy and so nice to walk and see around the park. There is a reservoir called Punggol Reservoir and a SengKang Floating Wetland. There are some fruit trees in the park too, but i went there too late, so by the time i tried to find the trees, it was getting dark. Saw lightnings too and it looks like going to rain soon. So i had to go home.

Click here for the complete walking trail from National Parks, Singapore