This morning we woke up at White Rock Resort in Subic, tonight we’re sleeping at the Holiday Inn at Clark, Pampanga.
It was another very early morning, starting with a 6am check out. We had a brief tour of the resort before heading out to the Lighthouse Marina for our breakfast. We were also there for the beach clean up event, though after the usual niceties, we boarded the bus again for a ride to the port.
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We woke up bright and early in Alaminos, Pangasinan, excited for our morning trip to the Hundred Islands. As with the previous evenings, we’re sleeping in a different place tonight: Subic Bay.
My alarm woke me up from a deep slumber at our room at The Manor. Tonight’s accommodation is somewhere in Alaminos, Pangasinan.
Today started out relatively late at 7:30am. We were actually supposed to be waiting at the lobby already, but everybody seemed to have enjoyed their sleep last night, so by 7:30, we were just checking out and having breakfast.
There was a press briefing at the Baguio Country Club. Baguio is taking a different route for promoting tourism in their region: adventure travel. It’s not exactly what you would expect from Baguio, a place known for its temperate climate, fresh produce and ukay-ukay shopping.
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Today, I woke for early check out from our hotel in Laoag, and now I’m writing this from my bed at The Manor in Baguio.
It was a very active Day 3: sand boarding on the dunes of Ilocos Norte, followed by surfing at La Union. The 4×4 and sandboarding adventure was supposed to be held yesterday, but due to schedule problems, we had to adjust today’s schedule to fit the two activities. The 4×4 off road adventure was certainly much more exhilirating during the day. We saw where our daredevil driver was taking us and screamed accordingly.
Today, I woke up in Tuguegarao again. Tonight though, I’ll be sleeping in Laoag, Ilocos Norte.
Our call time this morning was at 5:30am and everybody in the group made sure (or at least tried their hardest) to get some much needed sleep. We started the day with a hearty Cagayan breakfast at Director Bless Diwa’s house, of the Department of Tourism Region 2.
Today, I woke up in Tuguegarao.
It was Day 1 of Lakbay Norte, a Northern Philippines familiarization tour spearheaded by the Northern Philippines Visitors Bureau in cooperation with the visitors bureau of the provinces and cities we are visiting. Together with writers and photographers from major dailies, inflight & travel magazines, and fellow travel bloggers Anton, Ivan, Ferdz, Estan and Melo, we are going on a 7-day whirlwind tour of Northern and Central Philippines to see what these places can offer travelers.
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Finally, a comprehensive map of Manila’s Chinatown! I remember my first trip to Binondo (the one that I can remember anyway). It was late at night and we were driving around this strange new place, guided by friend’s boyfriend who live in the neighborhood. I have absolutely no idea where we are, except that we were in Chinatown. The second time I went to Chinatown was when I joined Ivan Man Dy’s Big Binondo Food Wok tour.
He led us through Ongpin, Binondo’s main street, and down other smaller streets like Nueva and Salazar. He took us to the best places to dine in Chinatown, but I wasn’t really familiar enough with the place to remember where most of the places are.
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Hostelling International Sukhumvit is one of the hostels in Bangkok getting high ratings from travelers who have stayed there. I’ve stayed there twice in 2009, and it’s getting high rating from me as well.
The Sukhumvit area is called the embassy row — almost all of the embassies are located there (including the Philippine embassy). It’s also said that Sukhumvit is where backpackers go when they tire of Khao San Road. Sukhumvit is a very quiet neighborhood, and you can walk for a kilometer without anybody asking you if you want to go on a tuktuk ride or buy a fake Rolex. Though Sukhumvit is not exactly a central station, the BTS run along the main road, so it’s easy to get around without having to deal with Bangkok’s infamous traffic jams.
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Nina, going through quarterlife crisis, decided to stop talking about traveling and actually start traveling. Starting with a solo weekend trip to Cebu to a backpacking trip in Thailand and Singapore, she finally made it out of Asia and into Australia. After spending close to six months down under, she's happily settled in Manila (for now), intent to explore the best things the Philippines has to offer.
