Starting Summer in the Philippines as Early as February

Never would you miss out a fun in an island where you will not seek for the sun, sand, beach, and a little of those fun and memorable activities. Anawangin Cove, San Antonio, Zambales is one of the place where you can bask yourself under the sun, enjoy the beach, and the rigorous activities you can do such as climbing, snorkeling, and enjoying its nature's beauty.

As early as 7 we are all up and started our breakfast. Some ran along the Anawangin beach and some enjoyed sunrise watching. It was a different experience as we turned down our tents and waved goodbye to Anawangin Cove as our sail sets for Capones Grande Island or also known as Faro de Punta Capones. While our pump boat pushes its way against the waves, we have short discussions about the trees that grow along the Anawangin beach which was thought off as pine trees. NO! it’s not a pine tree but another member of the Plantae kingdom, Pinophyta division, and Pinopsida class called the Conifers or Agoho, which adds mystery on the place.

View at the docking station where some adventurers were taking photos near the cliff.

   

The docking station and the tip of the lighthouse at Faro de Punta Capones

Rhei enjoying the boat ride to Capones Grande Island and a view of the Capones Lighthouse tip.

A shot from our boat seeing through clear waters of Capones Island the beautyof corals laying magnificently and greeting us as our boats near docking.

    

The docking area at Faro de Punta Capones.

We docked at Capones Grande Island, went down our pump boat and get wet before we can really step on the islands dry area to climb the island and atop the historic lighthouse which guides international vessels to Subic Bay coming from the north to northwest to Manila Bay. It’s height is 65.0 ft. with a range of 25 nautical mile (46 km) which was constructed by brick masonry and was first lit in August 1, 1890.

We went up at the lighthouse feeling the creeps and excitement, for some will be fear due to its height. Upon reaching the top, you will see a magnificent view of the whole island.

 

Uphill climb at Faro de Punta Capones.

A bottom view of the Faro de Punta Capones from first ten steps of the docking station.

La Entrada - the entrance of the Capones Lighthouse with intricate bolted floral design.

A view of the lighthouse from the entrance.

Before we enter the lighthouse, I took another photo of it where you can see people at the viewing deck.

A shattered window of the Capones Lighthouse.

Kuya Mike and Rhei resting along the intricate staircase of the tower, using the window sleeves as their chairs.

A view of the unattached staircase with intricate details in a whole from floor next to the Capones Lighthouse's lamp.

Wholes around the Capones Lighthouse like those of the submarines and marine vessels giving a magnificent telescopic view of the island.

Top view of the Capones Lighthouse Garrison which was wrecked by previous typhoons.

Marz enjoying a meadow photo shoot with her rasta sarong blown by Capones Island breeze.

After enjoying the view we were asked to go down and this ends our Zambales tour. Sad as we will be back on our regular working lives, we are still happy as we have experienced yet another view of the Philippines and shove this off to our memory banks and treasure chests.  In addition, earning new friends is added atop the list for this trip.

This is just the start of my summer and will share more in the next post!

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-Yu

Zai Jian Macau! Ni Hao Hong Kong!

View from my seat inside the Cotai Water Jet.

Touring Macau ended as quickly as we stepped on our ferry ride to Hong Kong. We paid for 149MOP for the Cotai Jet ride to Hong Kong <They have trips every 30 minutes but it is still best to get your tickets booked ahead of time>. It was a good experience riding the ferry even we cannot see what is going on outside. It was a little bumpy but a safe trip after all. The whole Cotai Jet gives you a feel of an airplane traveling on a cloudy weather. The stewardess was not as helpful as I expected especially when we asked for a copy of the disembarkation slips, she just waived her hands at us to wait and screamed “I’ll get back to you!” and did not get back at all. I no longer want to waste time arguing with this kind of scenario. I have been walking my feet against the ground the whole day and I don’t want another discomfort. So I let myself to have a quick nap <it’s my way of not to feel sea sick… hehehe> and woke up about 30 minutes before docking. So I quickly fill out my disembarkation slip and noticed that the format they wanted for the date was ddmmmyyyy (28JAN2013) so I need to re-write everything and it’s not only me. Ikhay and Kambal did the same thing.

Upon arriving at the Tsim Sha Tsui/Kowloon Ferry Station or the HK-Macau Ferry Terminal we walked past the immigration and find ourselves wandering around the Shun Tak Centre and China Merchant Tower then lead to the UG1 and took a cab to Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui.

You should always keep a copy of your hotel reservation so the cab drivers will be able to read the address and drop you to the right place.

Some passenger keeping themselves busy while traveling.

We rested in our hotel after finding a cheap place to eat which our hotelier informed us “The cheapest food here is in McDonalds!” Yes indeed McDonalds is the cheapest fast food restaurant around our hotel but we rather ate at KFC and tried something different. I ate a bowl size of baked chicken on rice with extra chicken leg part on the side and a cup of soda. I was all starving as there has been no food served during our voyage.

Once we get back to the hotel, we cleaned and readied ourselves for the next day’s plan. Checked what stations we should ride from Tsim Sha Tsui to Disney Land. Indeed, Disney Land day is next and I will write more for you tomorrow.  

Thanks for reading this one. Please do visit my blogsites at http://travelingwithyu.wordpress.com and http://travelingwithyu.blogspot.com, or like my webpage at www.facebook.com/travelingwithyu .

Goldwyn, I did not forget your request. I’m still working on my articles and will get back to you with the budget.

If you have any questions please let me know and I’d be happier to help.

I would like to take the advantage on thanking Ria for giving me a passport holder/jacket. It was very useful! Also, thank you Ate Eileen for the bull cap. I did use it and will still be using it. I had some pictures wearing the cap you gave me and I really like the colour! Again thank you so much for the gifts!