Day 3: Art Appreciation Educational Tour

Day Three

I met Baguio with a beautiful sunrise. The sun rose up like it was eager to see the faces of the new visitors, at the peaks of the mountains and steep overlapping houses  of the city.

My friends who just woke up because we were nearing Baguio.

When we arrived in Baguio, we went straight to our very beautiful hotel—Hotel Supreme. For the first time, we can rest in a bed and not just in a bus seat and relying on stopovers to pee and take a dump. We can have the most beautiful bath in the world. Hotel Supreme was very comfortable even though they don’t have air conditioners. The room and the hotel itself didn’t use any ACs because the Baguio breeze is already a relief of comfort and the temperature was cool enough. It was like an alien planet to me. Ha-ha! Baguio City is located between mountains and mountains of trees and landscapes, hence, the very beautiful weather.

And look at their houses!

They look like the houses of Brazil, overlapping

It is such a nice place (ugh, I miss Baguio so much right now). If you breathe in the air of Baguio, it feels like breathing from a Vicks inhaler. That’s how cool it is. And if you sweat, you don’t sweat hot body water but cold sweat. Ugggh.

My roommates and the look of the room. NO AIRCON. Ha-ha!

My feet feeling the softness of the mattress.

Since we arrived in Baguio just in time for breakfast, we were given the rest of the morning until 9AM to check into our rooms, wash our faces (but not take a bath), change clothes and eat our served breakfast buffet. My roommates and I were a little bit tired from the trip and we dug deep into a beautiful slumber while taking turns in using the bathroom. I only washed myself (half-bath) and changed clothes but my roommates couldn’t take it any longer and took a bath. Ha-ha.

We were already called by our bus mates but Isabelle hasn’t finished yet so the three of us stayed and waited for her to finish, until one of our friends from the bus called and told us we are to take a cab instead because they already left to start the Baguio tour. Bummer.

They started the tour without us. Ha-ha. We are so hardcore.

They left for Tam-Awan Heritage Village and when we were done eating our breakfast, we went out into the city and hailed a cab. Thinking about the unexpected turn out of the events, with Sarah deeply hurt by the misfortune, I was rather happy because I think among all of the other tour participants, we were the only ones who experienced the taxis of Baguio. Well, that’s optimism kicking right there. He-he. Their taxis weren’t cabs but vans, you know the bigger ones. (or FXs) And they don’t have air conditioners!

It was really soothing being able to breathe in the air of Baguio from a running vehicle, with your head peeking out through the window and your eyes closed. Ahhhh, if the air has a flavor it would be chocolate—sweet!

We arrived at Tam-Awan Heritage Village  from the hotel through a taxi ride for only 60++ pesos. What’s more delighting is the fact that we arrived first than the bus that left us. Ha-ha! Which also triggered the anger of one of my roommates, Sarah. She even backfired at one of the tourist guides who decided to leave us instead because the itinerary time should be followed, and they’re already late if they waited for us.

It was a nice feeling being able to be right this time. Ha-ha.

The village is a heritage village of the Igorots of Baguio. There were real Igorots in the place but I wasn’t able to see their dancing because I went up to trek to the peak of the mountain with another group instead. It housed different katutubo sculptures, houses, historical artworks and different developed leisure centers of activities like the restaurant, souvenir shops, traditional houses for rent and a spring(?).

The guide told us that these tiny houses were houses of ‘fertilization’ where the mothers bore their children and the couples made love. It is tradition not to ‘disturb the house’ so that the gods’ blessings would remain inside the house and the people inside it.

Mister Guide

After we were toured around the houses, our guide asked us if we wanted to go to the peak. Because Sarah and I were fortunate enough to be in front, he spoke to the few remaining of us because the others separated and join the other groups to the Igorots dancing. We were very eager to go there because he also suggested that we can shout at the top and hear our own echoes coming back to us like boomerangs. Geez, excitement brewing!

Few people from other groups joined us upon hearing that we were going to go to the top.

Our hiking shoes. After the spontaneous hike, these shoes weren’t exactly the way they had been before—they were deep in mud and they were wet.

The guide told us that the top part of the mountains is a shelter for organisms such as this and their ants were very big and black. They also have umm, I don’t remember about how many but I remember they had a lot of different species of birds.

See how few we were?

And I’ve reached the top!

Group picture at the peak!

The going down part was a bit tricky. Since it was a slippery road, there were times I almost fell out of a rock and got my shoes soaked with dirt. We were also being pressured by people saying that the buses are leaving soon so we hurried down and I had to shut up and concentrate and hold onto leaves and branches to keep myself from falling down. Ha-ha!

But as we reached lower grounds, the drums have just been starting to beat to start the Igorots’ dance. Bummer. We were fooled. But Sarah and I were just too tired to take a look and we went straight into the bus after cleaning up our shoes with a roll of tissue (yes, we finished a roll, that’s how dirty we got).

We waited inside the bus listening to our teacher singing karaoke and we just listened to karaoke music until we reached our next destination: BenCab Museum. (My favorite part of the whole tour.)

The national artist Mr. Benedicto Reyes Cabrera or popularly known as BenCab is widely hailed as a master of contemporary Philippine art. He was born in Manila on April 10, 1942. BenCab began carving a niche for himself in Manila’s art circles shortly after receiving his bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from the University of the Philippines in 1963.

The museum houses most of his works from paintings, sculptures, sketches to installations, photography, assemblages and furnitures. I love his very fresh, unique and world-class point of view in art. The museum when you enter the facility, is art speaking itself because the architecture and the huge garden landscape outside is such a beautiful sight to behold.

Most of his paintings, as what the guide told us, are inspired by this mentally incapable woman named Isabel, that BenCab used to see in the streets of Tondo. When I asked if BenCab ever had an emotional attachment to the woman, the guide told us that the artist just did what he do best and there wasn’t anything between the two of them. Oh and BenCab named the café of the museum, Café Sabel. I am so curious, there must have been something. I stopped asking questions because the guide wanted to convince me that BenCab really didn’t have any feelings for Isabel and I don’t want to be convinced. There is a room for possibilities really and the guide failed to say more to convince me. He-he.

The museum is composed of not only BenCab’s works but national artists from all around the Philippines for exhibit.

The building’s entrance is the topmost floor so the galleries were located below. We had to go down a stairway to enter a gallery, each floor holding a different kind of gallery. Feed your eyes with pictures of objects and things that interest me as I walked alone appreciating art. Enjoy. #char

Bodies made out of printed paper clippings.

Reminds me of Stanley Kubrick’s exhibit.

The following photos were taken on that “erotica” gallery of the museum.

**end**

Another set of erotica, in the field of Photography:

*Enjoy the rest of the exhibit*

After we finished all galleries, we went outside to the garden and rested for a while, enjoying the beautiful breeze of the mountain museum. The landscape looks like a tiny paradise with ponds and flowers of different kinds giving color to the green contrast of the fields. The place looks so beautiful.

happy

If you want to visit BenCab Museum, it is located at Asin Road, in an area known as Km. 6, Tadiangan, Tuba, Benguet, which simply means its six kilometers from the center of Baguio City. You can visit their website at: http://bencabmuseum.org

Oh and yes, I bought a bag for P450 because I am now officially a fan of the place. 🙂

There were slight changes for the bus assignments due to an unexpected accident that happened in bus 2 after they departed from Tam-Awan Heritage Village. I heard their front window got busted and is brought immediately to their station in exchange of a new bus. But I don’t understand why they decided to get our bus and we have to get on the new bus instead. Unfortunately, my things were still inside bus 1 so I got worried and started to call my friends from bus 2 to moderate my things. What would I do without my things! Ugh.

The worry went with me from the museum until we went to the Cathedral in Baguio. Because our bus had such religious teachers on board, the attendance was necessary since it’s Palm Sunday which I hated very much because this activity wasn’t on the itinerary, and I’m sure of it even though I haven’t read it. Our teacher suggested it on the bus ride before we went to BenCab. I hate church. And I feel so bad convincing my friends to ditch mass and eat somewhere (since the church was just a 3 minute walk to SM Baguio) because I think this shit is unnecessary and God can understand how hungry we were. Lol. So we ditched mass and went outside. Called the boys and told them we were in this tiny mall just outside the church, eating siomai and drinking gulaman juice. After we ate, we went out and proceeded to where the others were, just outside the church but still they were attentive to the mass. Ugh. I can’t escape here. This is a comfort zone. So okay, we stayed there until the mass ended.

The mass ended and we walked to the bus.

Before going back to the hotel for dinner and a full-night’s rest, we stopped by Burnham Park to buy our pasalubongs. Since all of the buses were already there, I had the chance to go back to bus 1 and get my things. Fortunately, I recovered all of my belongings and my mood came back. I was happy again.

And because I was happy, I bought everything that caught my attention. I bought every piece of delicacy that I haven’t tasted yet and that I think would be good gifts for my family. I figured I don’t need to spend much on my friends so I bought everything for my family only.

Nighttime came and we went back to the hotel. After dinner, I took a very beautiful bath and put on my favorite night sweater dress then went to my bed, covered myself with the blanket to rest. I was so ready to sleep when the front desk called us on the phone to inform us of a meeting at the hall requested by our teachers. I decided not to go and asked my roommates to take over for me because I am in my pajamas already. But seriously, I didn’t really want to go.

So I stayed in the room with Jonna and ate junk.

My two other roommates came back and shared what they were called for. They also told us about a drinking party in a room 711. Oh, that’s… hardcore. Anyway, I didn’t feel like going out of the room anyway. Might as well indulge myself with Discovery Channel and eat junk until I get drunk.

But we did have a drinking session in our room, with just a few of my friends, few beers and a lot of jokes. Ha-ha! Verga! It was such a chill sesh. We slept at around 1AM already. And I wouldn’t tell if we got wasted or not….. I probably won’t remember. Ha-ha-ha!

Day 2: Art Appreciation Educational Tour

Day Two

So the tour officially starts at 23. Hmmm, I never knew that until now. Ha-ha!

We were fetched by Harannah tours, and I was inside bus 1—a bus that looked so Indian to me with all its beaded curtains, a bus that had disco lights that hurt my eyes, a bus that introduced me to saliva on board and who greeted me with mosquitoes waking up, a bus with karaoke!, and a bus that started a remarkable friendship among all its inhabitants. Char.

Oh and by the way, this is Mai-mai, our very witty and green tourist guide. All her Fs sounded P. Like when she meant food, she says Pood. Friendship, she says Priendship. And that always makes me laugh ha-ha!

My first impressions were pessimistic and as a famous proverb says: “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”, I was smitten with regret upon realizing that that bus is something more than its flaws, that having it occupied by the passengers of bus 2 in exchange of a new and tidier bus, made me feel betrayed. But we’ll get to that story in a short while.

We had free breakfast cared of Jollibee when we arrived at Manila. And after the ambush, we went right back to the bus and went to our first stop in Rizal—Nemiranda Art House (Angono, Rizal)

The house is the residence and art gallery of the Miranda family. Packed with Nemesio Miranda’s artworks and some of his children’s too, the ambience of the house seems kind of creepy at first sight but welcoming at the same time. The wooden floorboards and bamboo ceilings gave me the feeling of the province. I also noticed the presence of a lot of dust everywhere, signs of antiquity.

Nemi Miranda, told us about his fondness of mythical creatures, which explains all the sculptures of mermaids, dragons and the early folklores about animals being gods and goddesses. He was known to be the master of “Imaginative Figurism” (if you google Imaginative Figurism, Nemiranda tops it.)

Mister Nemesio Miranda Jr. everybody!

He did some lectures and told us stories about his life, it was longer than expected and I had to go look around to see if the students were still paying attention but much to my dismay, they went all apathetic and they go around rummaging something to distract them from the talk. After what felt like half an hour? of talking, Mr. Nemesio got back the attention of everyone by getting out his sketch pad and charcoal.

He preferred his charcoal pencils skinned. He told us that by shredding its wooden part and leaving the charcoal behind, would make him feel more comfortable to sketch because he can freely move around and continue without bothering about sharpening.

Mr. Nemesio demonstrated a fast sketching with charcoal as a medium and one of my classmates volunteered to model. This is Marc, and his sketch was done for about 4 minutes? It may not look like him since it was done very quickly but the essential attributes of his face were all in the sketch. Later on, Mr. Nemesio asked for a girl volunteer and Jana volunteered but I wasn’t able to see it because I went to the comfort room to answer the call of nature.

Malakas and Maganda are the Adam and Eve of the Filipinos. The story of creation was about a couple named Malakas and Maganda who sprouted together from a bamboo pole.

creepy selfie is creepy

If you want to visit the art house, Nemiranda Art House is located at 10 Doña Elena St., Doña Justa Village I, Angono, Rizal. You can add them on Facebook: Nemiranda Art House

I don’t remember where we went to next. Gaaaaaaa, there really is something wrong with my memory. I’m really sorry but I am usually like this. It’s hard for me to remember the little things. I don’t remember stuff. Except for those that I have put all my attention into remembering. But I have a feeling we went to SM Taytay after to have our lunch? Or did we go to Blanco Family Museum already?

Oh, I think we went straight ahead to Blanco Family Museum because the museum was just a few blocks away from the art house.

Blanco Family Museum houses all of the Blanco’s paintings from their deceased father Mr. Jose “Pitok” Blanco, down to their current generation of bloodlines. But the art museum proper showcases the painting milestones of Mr. Jose, his wife and their children only, which were jaw dropping because his children painted at an early age of 2-3 years old. The paintings of his children grew to be more and more detailed by the time they reached 5-9 years old and it all developed as they all grew older.

One of Jose’s children, guided us through the paintings.

If you want to visit the museum, it is located at 312 Ibañez St.,Angono Rizal.
Facebook: Blanco Family Museum

After our visit at Blanco Family Museum, we proceeded to SM Taytay for our lunch. They gave us an hour and 30 minute break which me and my roommates spent, wandering around and looking for something to eat and do. We ended up buying take out pizzas at Pizza Hut and eating strawberry cheesecake ice cream at Dairy Queen. I also bought a Stephen King book at Books For Less for 85 pesos. And I also tasted Salvanas for the first time in my life.

We came back to the bus and the tour proceeded to the carving capital of the Philippines—Paete, Laguna. The place gave me a feeling of awe and creepy at the same time. I’m amazed by how the place felt like Vigan to me, although I’ve never been into Vigan but I see pictures of the place and Paete felt like it. All the old wooden and stone houses, very antique street posts and these small shops that looked like they aged a hundred years old. The atmosphere felt creepy too because there are a lot of shops that only sold statues and different carved materials with eyes that looked like they were real. I also sense some paganry because of how united the people in the place were. Ha-ha. But of course, I think I just imagined it.

The bus dropped us at St. James the Apostle Church—the oldest church (and I think the only church they have) in Paete, Laguna. I haven’t had a full picture of the facade of the church since at that particular moment, there were renovations happening at the church and the view was blocked by construction posts. There were also a lot of vendors selling palm leaves, since it’s Palm Sunday the next day, which is a sight to behold by the way. People were just so busy going in and out of the church.

The church looked very very majestic with all the golden lights and all.

Fast Fact! The golden columns and frames you see are not made of gold or stones, they are made of wood garnished with golden paint and carved in all the right places!

My friends amazed by how beautiful the church looked.

Soon afterwards, we were divided into groups by which bus we belonged to and we proceeded to different demonstrations. My group proceeded outside at this building and headed upstairs for the way of the cross presented by a volunteered youth curator. The way of the cross was presented by different statues carved into excellence–so excellent that I failed to take photos of them (but only once) because I was too indulged in listening and looking at all the statues.

The temptation of Jesus Christ.

After the viewing, my group was led outside for the paper mache demonstration. I learned how masks are made out of newspapers and some of the students even did some hands-on to learn more. I didn’t bother to try because my hands were so full that time and it started to drizzle, so I proceeded after the demo, to the bus.

Paper Maché demonstration.

They do ice sculptures too.

I never really thought that after Laguna, we would all proceed to SM Mall of Asia for our dinner. Oh bummer, that place gives me a claustrophobic feeling. They left us off at around say, 7PM? And decided to come pick us up at around 10PM so we could all drive ourselves in the middle of the night, to Baguio City. Oh-oh. #Exciting

Anyway, we wandered off in the mall with no particular direction. The boys went to KFC and I suggested that my roommates and I, go to Sizzlin’ Pepper Steak because I was craving. So we wandered off. I know where the place was located because I went there during my recent visit in Manila, but the last time I was there, it was still daytime, so it was easier to spot where the restaurant is. We wandered off outside and because I have no intention of losing our way, we decided to go back inside and head for the food court instead. What a loser. But the time was running, we had dinner at around 9 already. Hours wasted, wandering and finding a nice place to eat. Ha-ha!

See how grumpy I was?

Even when I was at my comfort place to wait for a friend who used their toilet and ordered nothing, I was still grumpy because of how long it took for the bus to fetch us…

The long wait was over, and the bus fetched us at the right time. Mai-mai told us to prep up for the very loooooong ride to Baguio which shall start in the middle of the night. They all prayed the rosary but I was too asleep to care. I woke up at our first stop over. The night seemed to go on forever and as we neared Baguio, the coldness seemed to rise and rise, so I had to wear my jacket for the first time on the journey.

At our final stop over, I drank a cup of coffee which really was the best idea I ever made so far. It was already around 2 in the morning, if my memory serves me right. My feet were already itching to stand up and most of the times, my butt hurt like hell. I just wanna stand up and walk around, but I can’t. I would be a nuisance to all the people sleeping with loud club music. Thank God for club music and coffee. I was awake until we reached Baguio. I have to be honest, I really did feel a slight panic because of the steep curving road we have to take to reach Baguio, plus the very loud music that worried me a lot. Well, I really don’t have to complain because I don’t want to add up to the noise. I just have to calm down and look at the road with the driver while the rest of the people sleep.

Day 1: Art Appreciation Educational Tour

Last March 22-26, 2013, my Art Appreciation class did a tour on some renowned places all over Manila and Baguio. Museums, buildings, parks and not to mention all those gasoline stores stopovers (He-he!), my summer was highlighted by this educational tour. I was so happy because I had the chance to go back to Manila, (ohhh Manila, my place to be, amidst all those traffic and heat) this time without family ties, all by myself, with the company of my friends and a pocketful of cash. Ha-ha!

For the first time in my life, this tour happened and it wasn’t something usually forgotten and buried in memories abandoned in time, because I’ve acquired the friendship of new people, the knowledge of new ideas and the anticipation of a tomorrow for a lot more memories. I can’t seem to point out an exact thought that made this tour such a memorable one but nevertheless, I think this meant the whole part of its success made it generally unforgettable.

So I’m going to tell you my side of the story, in my own point of view.. with my own little words.

Day One

I arrived at the airport 5 minutes before the call time, or so they say.. For a moment there, I thought what happened to my recent Manila visit that costed me double the price of the usual ticket due to rebooking, would happen again. Or I’ll get left behind and they will all proceed to the tour without me. Fortunately, the odds were in my favor and I arrived earlier than expected. Thanks to the power of my dad’s last minute driving, I think time stopped the moment he hit the gear. Ha-ha!

Fast Fact! I never read the itinerary for the whole tour, so I kept on asking questions from my classmates, which always have different answers. I never really felt confused and lost after hearing answers all over the place, maybe because I have a gut feeling that nothing bad would happen to me on this tour. I was right!

We boarded at around 12 midnight already so it’s officially March 23. I had a problem with the check in procedure because I never really knew that group booking doesn’t give free check-in baggage to all its passengers, that we have to pay for our baggage load upon check-in. I felt so confused that time I had to ask the guy at the ticketing office to clear my mind. Ha-ha. The ending? Well, I had to carry all of my baggage inside the airplane.

We arrived at Manila around 1 am? I guess, and we were told that the bus will arrive at 3. 3 AM came, I asked again and people said the bus will arrive at 4. Oh, okay. That escalated quickly. So that meant we had to wait for another hour. Another hour came, I asked again and they told us, the bus will arrive at 6. For Christ’s sake. But hey, I never complained. That was the thing there. I don’t usually wait, because I’m a very impatient person but to be honest, waiting that time didn’t give weight on my shoulders. Maybe because I was thinking that we were all waiting.. that I am not the only one waiting. And that I didn’t mind because I was waiting with my friends beside me. He-he.

Anyway, I guess the bus arrived at around 5 in the morning. I don’t remember.

A Week in Bora

Boracay Island, Philippines.. Everytime I shall hear that place, I shall get goosebumps and I shall be nostalgic forever. Until my one month promised comeback will happen, I will be nostalgic forever. Nostalgic… forever.

I stayed there for a week starting last November 6, and that one week sure as hell was not enough for me. I think I was really affected that much since we went to Boracay without our parents. My aunt from Australia came home with her husband and decided to take us, the “almost-adult” people of the family, for a trip to Boracay. My sister 21, My cousins, Trizza 22, Rose 19, John 21 and me.. 19. So see? The age gap was so perfect we needn’t worry about relating to each other. What more, our parents weren’t invited at all. Ha-ha!

Despite the heat and my one week absence in school, the trip was worth it.

I am just going to show a montage of the photos I took and then say something about it, if I can say anything! Heeee. It’s rather late you see and my mind is not working properly.

*too much exposure in this picture, sorry, I’m getting pretty lazy to even care right now, but here you see, the people with me throughout the trip. (from left-right: Uncle Kevin, Auntie Gloria, John, Rose, Trizza, Me and the photographer, my sister, Catskie)*

*and we’ve arrived!*

*McDonald’s in Boracay will be opening on the day we pack our bags and leave the place. How unfortunate. Free burgers!!*

It’s not a vacation without any food hopping! In our one week stay in Boracay, I think I gained a lot of unwanted pounds but to the extent that I didn’t care anymore because I was just so happy being happy and full. We did went to a lot of restaurants, always not the same restaurant for dinner. Here are some which I didn’t forget to take pictures from.

This place is famous for their delicious fruit shakes. I ordered a Tropical shake I guess? I forgot. and  it was so delicious indeed!

your stay in Boracay will not be complete without a taste of night life and some booze. Happy Hour at shit.. I forgot the restaurant’s name again! Deparis? I don’t remember…

Coffee break by the beach on a lazy afternoon..

our favorite grocery store for daily supplies

right before we discovered d’talipapa, this used to be a favorite shopping place.

Your stay in Boracay wouldn’t also be complete without trying some of their water sports! We did some: Banana boating, Parasailing and Sunset sailing. Although we would really like to try Cliff diving, Flying fish, Helmet diving and some of their mountain rides.

watching thy sunset

pumping up for parasailing.

200 feet above sea level

It was fun. And the funny thing is, my Aunt never knew until we came home, that we went Parasailing. Ha-ha! The Parasailing costs 650 per head and we didn’t have money so we asked Aunt to pay for us but since our parents back home got paranoid when they found out about the methods of the activity, my Aunt didn’t give us money. That day we went parasailing, we went out for a shopping spree for pasalubongs. The funny thing also, our Aunt gave us 500 pesos each. So that would mean we just have to add 150 pesos to make it 650 and go out parasailing. I think the moment my Aunt handed us 500 pesos our eyes sparkled and our minds connected with the looks we gave to each other saying, “Guys, this is it. Parasailing!!!!”

Haha! It was funny really. It was very rebellious. When my Aunt and Uncle stayed at the hotel to take a rest after lunch, we told her we wanted to go out for a swim, so she allowed us to go by ourselves. And then we went parasailing never mentioning it until our ride home. Haha.

The week I had in Boracay consists of booze every night. Haha. Yes, it’s the first time I’ve been drunk on “that night” in Deparis. Before sleeping, we also had either Red Horse, Vodka, or San Mig. Just drinking as if it was water… awesome water. But soon enough, I had to go home and be the innocent girl again.

Another montage of photos:

our usual bed arrangements.. on the other bed is my sister and Trizza, the eldest ones in the family and us on the other bed.

at Boracay book shop. good books… very expensive. But shit man, books sold in thrift stores only. secondhand book shop but very expensive. tsk.

ewwwww

I styled their outfits that night! Haha, what you see here, are all of my clothes! I just felt like styling them… really…. I brought so many clothes but yeah, so little time to wear them. So I let these girls wear them instead.

Funny thing… the name of the hotel we were staying is “La Carmela de Boracay” and my name is Carmela.. hahaha

I did a little bit of wall climbing too.. I was 5-6 steps away from the peak but I somehow got lost, didn’t know where to put my feet, couldn’t see the rocks so I gave up.

the last night.. 😦

Because of my wishes that something should happen, like a zombie apocalypse perhaps, or a storm or a delayed flight or some tragic accidents (yes.. I like tragedies), just so we can stay longer and not go to school the next day.. since our flight was on a Sunday morning, I complained a lot.

We actually woke up around 4AM because our flight is at 7AM that Sunday but due to some really strong wishful thinking, our flight got CANCELLED. Haha.

But unfortunately, the airline told us that there is an available flight at 1PM on the other airport… 2 hours away. So we had to take a van provided by the airline that would take us to the other side of Aklan. So I got happy, because yes.. road trip! You’ll never know what could happen.

We could fall down a cliff.
We could get stuck because flat tires.
Or some group of hillbillies might do something the hillbillies at the movie “Hills Have Eyes” would. Like send some spikes on the road while we’re running towards it that may cause our tires to explode and then we’ll get stuck and they would all eat us one by one because they’re cannibals.

But it didn’t happen…

We arrived at the other airport safe and sound. Okay.

But another thing happened.. haha. The 1PM flight kept on delaying because it was raining real hard. The place was in low pressure so there is zero visibility causing airlines to cancel flights, or delay some.. if the weather cooperates.

So we waited there for another set of hours..
I guess the weather turned good at around 4PM.

We boarded.. we crashed and burned.. in my head.
We arrived safe and sound, Okay thanks.

So that was it.. my trip in Boracay.
If you ever wanted to stay here, you can always look for a place to stay in Station 2 for affordable prices. If you’re rich enough, you can go stay at some hotels in Station 1.

Actually, the island is divided into 3 stations.
Station 1 consists of 5 star hotels and restaurants.
Station 2 consists of places high/middle class people can afford. D’mall and D’talipapa or most of the pasalubong shops are located here too.
Station 3 consists of the water sports and some restaurants and hotels as well..

If you’re in Boracay, make sure you are with the right people. So you could enjoy, have fun and be merry all at once.

MNL: Day 2

My second day in Manila was exhausting. Hence, the very late post about it. I’m back home already. And I just got home also, from school.. which sucked. But I am not going to talk about my day today. I am going to talk about how my day was 5 days ago. Saturday. I wasn’t expecting something off the hook but something did. It was very pota. Salt.

I woke up on the floor (because we slept on the floor huhu bummer), thinking about time management. That was the very first thing that I thought of because I don’t want to waste anymore time. I need to see something beautiful. I need to spend my time very well.

I got up around 6 in the morning. Turn on my laptop and Facebooked. I have a very interesting app in my Chrome here and I just had enough boredom to try it. It’s called “Bejeweled”. It’s ancient. Very old game but rather fun. I am playing it right now..

After I played for half an hour I guess, I took a bath. The most important thing to pack and I forgot it. I remember thinking about the location of my toothbrush. In Cebu, in a red container along with its other fellowbrushes, and I forgot about it. Oh well. I could live without that. But I’ll live shutting up my whole life. What a very small bathroom my aunt’s house has. I saw a spider, but I wasn’t afraid. I’ve never been afraid of spiders.

It’s amazing being a customer of others’ bathroom because you finish faster than usual. It usually takes me half an hour to take a bath but in 5 minutes, I was done.

My parents came home with a whole lechon. Lechon is whole cooked pig. Filipinos are famous for it but the Cebuanos has the brand with the most delicious ones. It is true.

All they ever complained while eating and slicing the lechon was how AIRY it was. The pig must have been the thinnest tenant on the pen. I settled for the hotdog instead since it was too early to devour cholesterol.

The van came. Yehey.

We riding like the road’s never ending. It’s a shame the windows were tinted and it’s so red inside. My camera is scared.

Enchanted Kingdom
This place is located in Sta. Rosa, Laguna and it was a 2 hour drive from Valenzuela to the place. I took the opportunity to take series of travel footages that I shall be compiling in no time with Hale’s “Bluesky” in the background. Ever since I got my own laptop, which was my sister’s reject.. /sad face, everything seems to work very easier for me. Technology.

Upon arriving at the place, my heart felt glorified. The scene was astounding. The place was spacious. I didn’t manage to take a proper photo of the castle-like facáde of the place because I was mesmerized and everything seems so fantastic to me. But I have this!

We were given brochures that include a map of the very huge place and informations about all of their rides. Since it was Saturday, a weekend, their entrance fee reached to 500 pesos per person, 100 pesos more than the weekday fees. We got in line and I couldn’t stop talking because I just had to get this excitement out of my body. What’s funny is I spoke in dialect, with a dialect tone… very loud. I didn’t care. haha! Nobody would understand me except for the receivers of the conversation (younger sister and brother) which partially had more amount of me talking than listening.

Say hi!

After the waiting was over, I saw a different world! There were balloons, stuff toys, children, ice cream, food, rides, toys everywhere!!! We gathered around and looked for a nice place to start. My ate (eldest sister) suggested the carousel which was a very nice ride for starters. To be honest, it was the first time I have ridden on one. No judging haha.

After the carousel, I remember we, getting into a hot air balloon kinda ride, and it was called “Up Up and Away”. That ride was probably a slight brain turner for me. I started feeling a little bit unsteady. But I managed.

After what felt like a mind buggling ride, I settled myself into roaming around and checking out some of their game stands. I wanted that very large neon frog stuff toy but 20 shots for it, is a thousand pesos already! And I am not even confident I can shoot all 20 shots you know. Dang! So I turned away with a frown on my face and went to see this ride. I forgot what it was called but it’s a skyscraper! (I should’ve kept my brochure!!) Or if not a skyscraper, it was some kind of a launching thing. It looked like this:

It looked interesting, but my mind was somehow moved that time so I walked away from it. I promised to get back to it but shittttttt, I surrendered so quickly! I forgot about it! Anyway, I can come back anytime I want.

On my next ride, my mom and dad were the ones that suggested we should get into it. Haha. It is a train… suitable for any ages. Its route was just 2 round turns in what seemed like a  200 meters yard. A typical backyard ride where you can make fun of yourself for riding such childish ride.. because that’s basically what we did.

Getting ourselves out from the tracks, we decided to throw our game faces on, and prepare for the oh-so-famous “Anchors Away”. This would be my third time but first time in EK. I had my 2 rides here in my locality at St. James Amusement Park located in the North Reclamation just across Parkmall Cebu. I am honestly captivated by how it manages to stir my head making me feel like shit every after flight.

I WAS WRONG WHEN I CLOSED MY EYES BECAUSE I WAS PRAYING FOR THE MISERY TO END. My first reaction while lining up for this shit is.. yeah oh well, this is just another one of those rides blah blah blah. Damn I was super wrong. This was my second to the last ride because this one really attacked me til the tiniest bit of gut I had. I thought this was gonna be just like at St. James, but this was hell.

We were seated at the edge part which I thought was a good idea but no. The ride started to go really further in the 3rd sway. It reached its limit like almost 90 degrees north on the 4th sway and I decided to close my eyes. I didn’t budge anymore. I just want everything to end. I wanted to cry but I didn’t. I don’t like it. I think a total of 20 sways on both sides which means 10 sways on each, was done. I counted… I didn’t have anything else to do. I just held on to the bars and hear my sister shouted for her life. Begging the boat to stop. I wanted to scream but I thought I just need to calm down and be silent for the rest of the sways.

Wrong move.

I should’ve shouted. I should’ve let it drive me to tears. That’s the thrill of it, and I just let it slip away. So kill joy of me. After everything, it all came down to one thing… FIND A BENCH TO SIT THE FUCK DOWN!!!

My family were just there, all of us, since my mom and dad also went on the ride with us, sitting on a bench trying to think straight. I wanted to punch my dad on the face because he was teasing me. And I am so not in the mood for anything annoying. I situated myself at a far bench away from them.. where I can calm my tits down.

I need to drink something… I need to eat….. Finally, I had the guts to speak to my family again for what felt like 10 minutes of contemplating and reflection. We started walking like we just got hit by a bus and went to the foodcourt.

My mom ordered and the rest went on searching for a vacant table. I went straight to the portable public toilet coz I was already pissing on myself. lol. Also for a fast fact, it was my first time being inside a portable public toilet and it was greeeeat. haha. It looked like the Tardis in Doctor Who. You know, the Doctor’s spaceship? A telephone booth. Only this time it was a toilet.

Pardon my cockiness, I took pictures of the look inside:

I took a picture of the toilet seat, but it won’t be proper for me to post it here. I don’t want this post to be crapped on. Ha!

We ate fast food while watching a stage performance showcasing EK’s brand of Music Pop Icons in the music industry. Some performers lip synced to different famous pop songs and even impersonated their artists. Most of the performers gave justice to the icons especially Slash, Elvis Presley, Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, Queen, U2, Boy George of Culture Club, Bon Jovi, Bon Jovi and Michael Jackson (most especially). I wasn’t satisfied with Nicki Minaj and Lady Gaga acts. lol. Although I didn’t see Avril Lavigne performing, I saw her backstage on the 2nd show that was held on the theater and god be good, she really looks like Avril! Only smaller.

Don’t have pictures because I was eating while they were performing but here are some of the videos you may want to watch. They’re a little bit, popular:

You may browse some more footages of the live performances by visiting the uploader’s channel. Only if you like haha.

After everything went back to normal, and since it was already getting pretty dark and we need to go somewhere else pa, we decided on the last ride. We rejected the ever so pleasing sight of the Space Shuttle, EK’s biggest roller coaster, because we don’t want to vomit everything we just ate right. So we went in line for the wet part. (No pun intended)

I forgot the name again!!! But it was some kind of roller coaster in water thingy. We went on sail the rapids, me and my brother on one boat and my two sisters on another boat consecutive to ours. Since we decided that it’ll be the last one, we didn’t worry about getting wet.

The last roll down was really scary because the peak was too high and we only held on to handle bars because there weren’t any seat belts inside the boat. I almost thought we were going to fall down, crack our heads in the rapids and die a very tragic death.

But we didn’t… my brother and I. and my sisters on a boat consecutive to ours…

(I don’t have pictures as because I was afraid my camera might not function anymore since it is not waterproof. But my sister has pictures of us in her camera, I haven’t seen it yet.)

We called it a day after we roam around the rest of the place. We saw Kart racing, the wettest barkada ride there is, in EK, wetter than what we rode on last, we saw the Ferris Wheel which they called, “The Wheel of Fortune”, we ate Dairy Queen ice creams!!, and we stopped by for some souvenir shopping.

I bought an animal print purse for a friend… and I didn’t buy anything for myself. Great. Just greaaaat.

We came into another world. The broadway world! Brooklyn Place. A town inspired by the 1940s New York styled shops and houses. There was also a theater there called “Rialto” that I heard was a 3D theater with you seated on a chair with a seat belt and you get to feel the actions as if you were inside the movie.

“Journey to the Center of the Earth” was currently being screened. Oh and that stuff on the bottom right corner of the photo, the one that the girl was carrying, is the neon frog I was talking about, the thing I really wanted to have that time. So awesome and huge right? Huhu… Here’s a picture of my mom:

That was an accident. It happened that the shutter took a picture of the place looking like it was deserted but it really wasn’t. Haha, this photo made me really happy.

For clarifications, these are all my photos and these were all raw shots. Straight from the camera. But I am not saying I’m a good photographer okay. Nakachamba lag tarung ug lighting ehem… Haha! Not going to translate that.

After I took this photo, it rained pretty hard. We went under the Brooklyn bridge for shelter and waited until the rain has cease fired. It did, well not entirely but it did somehow. We slowly walked our way towards the exit of the premises and that would mean.. outside Enchanted Kingdom. It ended with rain. All the outdoor rides were temporarily disabled hence the idle people all around.

I can’t believe I just left EK without even saying goodbye. 😦
I was too exhausted to even look back and say goodbye. 😦
I just wanted to go to the van and lay down and sleep. 😦
too late….

It’s okay. I’m positive I am going there again some time in the future haha.

Greenhills
Settling inside the van with our memories as the only thing keeping us from sleeping, we ventured unto the pouring rain and headed for Greenhills.

It’s a shopping mall, with lots of affordable items. More like a Divisoria-Colon-Carbon type of place, only air-conditioned. It was a plan already, before we even made it to Manila, that we should at least shop while the food’s still hot. That is, shop while we’re in Manila, where all clothes were cheaper than food.

Now this is Greenhills.

I bought 5 items. A sheer animal print blouse (woah I have eyes on animal printed stuffs I suppose), a John Lennon RayBan shade (that’s what I call it), 2 fashion rings (skull and wings) and a pair of YouTube earrings! That YouTube earrings was a great find. lol

Bonifacio High Street
At around 9 in the evening, we dined. My father met with a friend that I know he has missed so much witnessing from their unending hugs and greetings and very childish gestures. We met up with him and he treated us dinner at Murray’s New Orleans.

The global city was like a version of our I.T. Park here in Cebu, only bigger, wider and abundant. I saw Rizza Cabrera too! Just so you know, she’s a musician, a very unnoticed talent (she should’ve been given a lot of exposure in the industry since she is such a talented artist) and I met her on Tumblr. Before she even decided to band up with her sister where they named themselves, “Walkie Talkies“. She’s the one in eyeglasses. She was so easy to recognize just from hearing her voice. Didn’t bring my eyeglasses with me but I know it was her.

Going back, the place was such a nice beauty during at night. There were still a lot of people, the place don’t seem to sleep. It feels good seeing bermuda grass again. haha

We ate baby back ribs!!

This doesn’t look so delicious… oh well. After we ate, we left my dad with his friend (his friend was a man okay). They were drinking and enjoyed the music of a live band. The band was awesome. I know I’ve seen these guys before. On TV. I just couldn’t seem to get that bit of information out from my brain at the moment.. But here’s a picture of them:

Hit me up if you recognize these men! 😀

Something very terrible happened during the rest of the night until late 2 am. But I will only keep it to myself. It’s really none of the internet’s business really. Haha.

Goodbye Manila (Day 3)
6 AM and I am awake. I took a bath and clothed my naked persuasion. To stay.. to remain, to never go back to Cebu. But I have school. I still have friends. I don’t want to leave without any closure. That would be very mean.

Dressed in blue and typical denim shorts, I fixed myself as we were leaving for Cebu in 6 hours. 11AM and we packed all our stuffs in the hope of leaving just bad memories behind and packing the good ones with us.

We had our brunch at Jollibee Pasay, just few blocks away from the airport. I finally have to say goodbye to my cute little cousins hoping that when I come back, they would have grown already. Hoping for next times and more adventures.

Goodbye.. goodbye.. goodbye.
I didn’t entertain my bladder that time. I would like to dump it in Cebu the minute I get out from the plane to find a toilet room.

This time on the plane, my camera was alive. So I had the opportunity to take pictures of the sky!!! That is what I have been longing to do all my life.

What a beauty to behold!

Do you know Cinnabon? These are Cinnabons!

but only two of them left. These are cinnamon rolls made into a variety with different toppings, flavors and the like. These are really good pastry! Try it some time. We don’t have Cinnabon here in Cebu though.

To end this post, I would’ve wanted to attach the video I shall have finished by the end of the month, if I have time to, packed with footages I took while on drive to Laguna, but I still haven’t got a hold of even one clip because I am very busy. I am a very busy woman you see. But… okay! A photo of me!

Putting my game face on! haha. That concludes my 2 days stay in Manila. xoxo