Roaming Around

Boracay Pristine waters and powdery white sand beach in the Philippines. What comes to your mind first? BORACAY! Who is not familiar with this island? I bet none! How to get there? Where to stay? What to do? How much does it cost? We’ll go into details one by one, but let me touch a little bit of its history. This island is originally home to a group of people called “Ati”. According to history, they inhabited the island even before the Spaniards discovered the Philippines. The island to me is a beautiful place, but I can’t help but think that it was a whole lot prettier when it was untouched by commercialism. We (I & my husband) recently decided to check this place off our bucket list. This is where we start. How to get there? Let’s proceed to the quickest way – via plane! There are two entry points you can choose from. The closest to Boracay Island would be the Boracay airport in Caticlan because from there you can rent a tricycle to take you to Catic...

El Nido When you think of Palawan, what comes to mind? I think we all have the same thoughts – PARADISE! Palawan has so much to offer that going there just once is certainly not enough. In this blog, I am going to focus more on one of the famous tourist destination in Palawan, El Nido! El Nido is known for its white-sand beaches, beautiful coral reefs, islets, and amazing rock formations! There may be a whole lot of places that offers almost the same attributes as El Nido, but I tell you that El Nido is worth a visit and should be added to every traveler’s bucket list. The most famous activity in El Nido is island hopping. I have been to countless island hopping in my life and we all know that it can really get boring sometimes until you have reached your destination. El Nido made a difference this time around. As you go on your tour you will be greeted by beautiful rock formations that you cannot help, but get up no matter how bumpy the boat ride can be and just snap that ...

SYDNEY AUSTRALIA This to date, is the farthest I have been to in my travels. This though, is a bit different as this is a “workation” trip. This is also my first travel abroad. This is indeed a very big blessing to begin with as not only am I able to visit Sydney and see the harbor bridge and opera house live and all the other attractions, but I am also able to visit this beautiful country for FREE! Yes – absolutely FREE! How GREAT is our GOD! As I’ve mentioned above, this is a “workation” type of trip. It’s not everyday that you get a chance to visit AU for free so the explorer in me was so ready – after all, I had two weekends to roam around Sydney. We boarded an 8-9 hour flight from Manila to Sydney via PAL and arrived at around 9AM Sydney time. To those who do not know, they are 3 hours advance from Php time during their DST from Nov-April and will go back to their standard time from May-October which then will make them 2 hours advance from our time. This is, except fo...

Malapascua This halcyon island is another gem Cebuanos are proud of and a haven for divers. The island boasts its marine life and hectares of reefs that divers will really enjoy. It is also home to thresher sharks that are present all year-round so I reckon this is a bonus to brave souls. If you just need a place to be away and do some soul-searching this is also a good place for you to unwind and just pretend to cease from existing from the busy city-life even for a short while. I and my equally dog tired friends arrived at the Island after our  Kalanggaman Island exploration. It was a layback Saturday afternoon and we went straight to our hotel where our very inviting beds were waiting for us to plop face down anytime we want. However, it isn’t justifiably right to just stay in one place considering it is our first time to visit this place so we headed out from our hotel to look for a place to dine. There are plenty of options as this island is a commercialized...

Kalanggaman It is no doubt – the best way to start a brand new year! Yep - I kicked off 2018 beaching! Another “must go place” ticked off my list (hoorah). I will keep this blog short, but sweet. There are several entry points to get to this astonishing island, but I will discuss about our itinerary. We have a pre-arranged tour with a travel and tour company that took us on a two-day excursion to both Kalanggam & Malapascua Island. We spent our 1st day traveling northbound of Cebu and the driver dropped us at Maya Port where our boatmen were waiting for us to take us to Kalanggaman Island. The travel took about roughly 3-4 hours. I must warn the faint-hearted though that it was one bumpy ride, but hey – that’s actually normal as per the boatmen. I don’t know for what scientific reason, but according to them it is normal even on a beautiful sunny day (so what more during rainy seasons?). Anyway, so much for that folks! This revelation shouldn’t stop you from expl...

Ilocos “The gladdest moment in human life, me thinks, is a departure into unknown lands.” – Sir Richard Burton Travelling to me is not just something you do because you want to be away from your daily routine, but you do it out of passion, and to me those are two different things. Ilocos has been sitting in my bucket list for quite some time already and I am glad to finally have checked it! I and my husband have this yearly travel thing to celebrate our anniversary and this year we have chosen Ilocos. We’ve put so much thought about it, considered all the pros and cons there are and have finally decided to do it. On a more personal note, I love vintage and antiques. Ilocos, I reckon has plenty to offer when it comes to that. This place, is so far the farthest that we’ve been to and the 1 st province in Luzon we’ve traveled to. How we got there? I know you are itching to hear the answer to that question. Well, okay, I’m not prolonging your agony anymor...

CAMOTES ISLAND (an island worth falling for) One more shot before summer ends, and my final stop before the rainy season arrives is the beautiful  Island of Camotes. I have been to several white sand beaches, but I now have my personal favorite  amongst all – CAMOTES! To tell you honestly, the word beautiful is an understatement. Up to this  writing, I still can’t put to exact words the beauty I just witnessed last weekend that every time I  remember it I just want to start racing my way back to the island. I can talk about how magically beautiful the island is endlessly, but words aren’t enough – you have to  see it for yourself and fall deeply in love with the place just like how I feel ATM. The island offers plenty  of places to discover, and it isn’t limited to beaches with pristine crystal clear waters and wide stretched  fine white sands. To start with, below were our destinations in our Camotes tour. ...