Mt. Pinatubo Climb Itinerary

All is set for our Mt. Pinatubo climb. We are short of hikers but we are still gonna push through.

For those who wanted to know what can we do on Mt. Pinatubo... check out this itinerary:

Tour date: Saturday 24 January 2015

Tour type: Public/shared group tour

Tour cost: Php2090/person

INCLUSIONS

·         round trip aircon van transfer (Manila-Pinatubo base camp-Manila)

·         round trip 4x4 wheel drive adventure

·         local guide

·         conservation fee

·         certificate of conquest

·         assistance of a tour coordinator from team TRIPinas (we trek with our clients)

Optional add-ons :

Shower at the base camp: Php50

Boat ride on the crater lake: currently unavailable

ITINERARY

0230 Meet up (McDonalds El Pueblo in Ortigas area near Megamall)

·         Make sure to have your breakfast and buy your packed lunch and water

·         Meet the tour coordinator - Pay your balance – Orientation - Sign the waiver form

0515 ETA Brgy. Sta. Juliana (base camp)

0530 to 0630 Board 4×4 vehicles.

0730 Start trekking (around 2 hours walking using the old way)

0930 ETA at the crater of Mt. Pinatubo.

Relax, photos, lecture, lunch (at clients' account)

1130 Start return trek (around 2 hours walking using the old way)

1330 Back to the 4x4s.

1430 Back at base camp. Freshen up

1530 Departure from the base camp to Manila.

1730-1830 (depending traffic) ETA Manila

Dingdong - Marian Wedding - The Wedding of the Year

And what's trending now is the DongYan wedding (#dongyanwedding)... This is indeed the Wedding of the Year and also what they call the Royal Wedding this December 30, 2014.

Do you want to know more about it? Check the links below:

http://entertainmentwithyu.blogspot.com/2014/12/dongyan-wedding.html

When an angel went down from heaven and walks down the aisle...

Happy Royal Couple

Meet the designer behind the dress

Proposing ONE MORE TIME! This time it's aired.

The designer behind the SUIT

I've Got My First Loom Band...

Loom bands are pretty popular right now. Even Pope Francis wore one. Also, people in our office brought their kit to make some loom band bracelets while they are on break.

I would like to thank Aiah for making one for me and in return she taught me how to make a fishtail and hexa design. Thank you baby!

While you're already on my site, I will teach how to do a Fishtail Loom Band which is good for starters:

Step 1: Get your rubber bands ready. Group the colors from Red to Violet if you want to form a rainbow or whatever design you are planning to make.

Step 2: Hold your loom fork and loom hook.

Step 3: Get a rubber band and form an infinity sign in your loom fork.

Step 4: Put another rubber band after the first.

Step 5: Put another infinity sign after the last rubber band.

Step 6: Grab your hook, take the bottom rubber band and pull it on top over the 3^rd rubber band. Do the same thing on the other side until you are able to make a bundle or tie.

Step 7: Add another rubber band (do an alternate of infinity and regular) and repeat step 6.

Step 8: Repeat step 7 then 6 until you come up with a long fishtail loom band creation that fits your wrist.

Step 9: Once you got the right length, put remaining 2 rubber bands over the last rubber band on top.

Step 10: Take the last rubber band out of the loom fork with the use of your hook and slid it in a clip.

Step 11: On the other end of the clip, slid the first tie or knot that you made.

Step 12: Pat yourself on the back as you have made your own Rainbow Loom Band Bracelet!

BTW, my sister Amie is selling some loom bands and those who want to learn about it just shoot me an email and will show more designs for you!

Happy looming…

For orders please check this site: http://members.olx.ph/fantasticloomband

Ilocandia Trip 2014 - Day 3

Every beginning has an end and it's our last day in Ilocandia. So we hurried up because we were informed that we should have left the resort around 7:00 AM wherein we just woke up at around 6:00 AM. There is a breakfast we need to prepare for the group which will take about 30 more minutes. Aiah and I were in the kitchen to prepare our breakfast while we move as quickly as we could to pack our bags too.

We visited the Bangui Windmills which were the source of electricity in Ilocandia. There were about 60 of them and were laid near the shores where wind is at its strongest.

Checked out Sinking Bell tower which no longer sinks this time but when my first visit, you will find some remnants of the fallen tower which was made of "tisa".

We ate at Rafael's and enjoyed our last and cheapest meal.

We went back to Calle Crisologo and bought more pasalubong and drove off to Manila.

Ilocandia Trip 2014 - Day 2

We went along and rested on our first at Jun and Carmen Beach Resort at Pagudpud. We swim a little to drench our body with Pagudpud salt water. It's nice to be one with the nature again.

The next day is going to be busy yet another fun adventure with my travel buds Aiah, Ronnie, Katchi, Tin, Pochie, Tina J., JJ (/Jiji), Ryan (Bang!), Rhose, Ate Mimi, and Kuya Noy (power-swerving-driver). Day 2's to go list are the following:

Patapat Viaduct - a nice bridge built beside the mountains which gives you a scenic view of Ilocos waters.

Paraiso ni Anton - a small yet known as a Miraculous Falls

Bantay Abot Cave - a magnificent seems like man-made cave which looks like a whale with an eye or a submerged 5 Philippine centavo coin (It looks like a duck or an elephant or a whale to me). Just an FYI there's a block of rock that fell from the rear side that day when went to Bantay Abot Cave, I'm hoping the local government should at least put a marker not to get inside or near those falling rocks to prevent future accidents.

Blue Lagoon - a mysterious and tranquil view of a vast ocean and fine sand. It's cold waters makes you want to soak and bask in the sun with your friends or love ones.

Hope you like the pictures and it's more than meets the eyes guys. I don't edit photos so you see what you get. The weather is hot which is typical in northern Luzon but you can always find ways to make things cooler.

Chill time and travel time is fun as you get to experience more things along the way!

Time Lapse #1 - Sunset at Rockview Resort

Just want to share this cool time lapse Sisylson "Son" Berroy did. This is a time lapse of our hiking team TamaRaw at Rockview, Bolinao, Pangasinan using GoPro.

Cool stuff Son Berroy!

Watch me do my Buddha Jump at the last part! :)

I hope you like this guys.

Cast:
Sisylson "Son" Berroy
Ellai Janda
Marz Tan
Lani Pangilinan
Rhei Antonio
Alvin Velasquez
Rhose Ann Ramos
Aaron Carreras
Eugene Tucay

I hope I did not miss anyone...

Ilocandia Trip 2014 - Day 1

I went out with 10 of my friends to Ilocandia last May 29 - June 1, 2014 (Ikhay sorry I'm not at there to celebrate your birthday!). We went to the following places in Ilocos and enjoy a long ride from one town to the other.

Here are the places you can visit on Day 1 of your tour which we also went thru.

Calle Crisologo at Vigan

Padre Burgos Church & Plaza at Vigan

Baluarte

Ferdinand E. Marcos Presidential Center 

Paoay Church

Malacañang of the North

Sand Dunes

Kapurpurawan Rock Formation

Above list shows all the places we've been before finding our way to rest at Jun and Carmen's Resort in Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte.

The Taste of Ilocandia...

You will always be listing down these 3 items on my list to have a taste of Ilocos:

• Bagnet
• Longanisa
• Empanda

see more details here:  http://diningwithyu.blogspot.com/2014/06/food-trip-ilocandia.html

Will Visit Ilocandia - The Best Way to End Up Summer! (A Retrospect!)

I will be visiting Vigan, Ilocos Sur, and Ilocos Norte this end of May 2014 and I'm hoping to get more than what I experienced from the last time I went to Ilocandia with My Aunts Mirasol and Minerva.

I remember us going to the following tourists spots:

- Cape Bojeador Lighthouse
- Sinking Bell Tower
- Patapat Viaduct
- Paraiso ni Anton (smallest fall I saw in my entire life but it was said to be miraculous)
- Blue Lagoon

We stayed at Java Hotel for a night then drove to Vigan at Calle Crisologo then Baguio.

Nice to see these places again after 2 years.

Easy Tuna Sandwich...

This is what we always prepare in the office. Everything is no cook and you can just drop by at any Mercury Drug Store or Mini Stop or 7Eleven and you will have all you ingredients ready.

Just make sure you got a can opener or a knife and a mixing bowl and you are good to make your Tuna Sandwich.

Click on the picture to get the recipe...

Enjoy your Tuna Sandwich in less than 10 minutes...

When You Love Someone...

Here's another new music from Jason Mraz which will again remind us of falling in love over and over again. Watch this video on my channel and share the love guys:

Love is a funny thing
Whenever I give it
It comes back to me
And its wonderful to be
Giving out my whole heart as my heart receive...

Enjoy listening guys!

It's COOKING Time!

Hi Friends,

It's Sunday and I think it will be best if we will learn new stuff. I'm thinking of sharing you a recipe which most Filipinos know how to cook. Its a meal that everyone people of any ages would surely love.

Click on the link below for more details:

COOKING SESSION No. 1

Let me know what you wanted me to add on our Sunday digest so I can create them for you. For any recipe request, you can subscribe to my blog and/or leave your comment for me to give you feed.

Have a Blessed Sunday and Happy COOKING!

Enjoying MongKok's Noodles

Lissa and I just got back to our hotel. We enjoyed strolling along Mong Kok's busy street. We watched some performances and those amazing photographers. 

Lissa watching 2 singers (a male and a female duet a Chinese song) under G2000 sign in Mong Kok, Hong Kong

A photographer directing his subjects or customers for a photo shoot!

After a long walk and buying (it's more of haggling) stuff for our colleagues. Lissa and I decided to have our dinner at New Forrest where we ate the following dishes:

Dinner's READY! DIG IN!

Lissa:

Lissa's first Mong Kok meal... Yum!

She had a baked creamy and cheesy pork rice with a cold authentic lemon ice tea on the side.

Mine:

I said spicy and it was really spicy! Yey! Yummy as well, the soup is really good!

I had a spicy Hong Kong noodles with breaded pork chop and an Iced Coffee.

Our meals totaled 100HKD. We are trying to save as much we are under budget... :)

I'll keep you posted guys!

What's Coming this June 26th...?

Paramount released their payoff trailer for their next coming film - TRANSFORMER IV (based on Hasbro) even there has been negative comments from the previous Transformers: Dark of the Moon, it was announced last February 13, 2012:

If you're an avid fan of Transformer from it's old cartoon series to the HD cinematography and animation or visual effect - film, above trailer video is for you. The payoff trailer is for the upcoming TRANSFORMERS: Age of Extinction movie of Paramount which will be shown in Cinemas this coming June 26th.

TRANSFORMERS: Age of Extinction movie will premiere in Indonesia/Philippines this coming June 25, 2014 and will be shown in the US on the 26th of June. The movie is again directed by Michael Bay and executive produced by Stephen Spielberg with a budget of $165M.

Before watching this movie with your movie-buddy or your girlfriend/boyfriend, friends, and/or family you might want to look back at the previous Transformer movies:

The first Transformers was premiered in Sydney last June 12, 2007 which runs for about 144 minutes hitting box office of $709M. It was aired in US on the 3rd of July on the same year.

The second Transformers movie (TRANSFORMERS: Revenge of the Fallen) was released in United Kingdom last June 19, 2009 which running 149 minutes and was released in US on the 24th of June, 2009. It earned about $836M from its budget of $200M.

The third and most controversial Transformers movie has premiered in Moscow, Russia last 23rd of June, 2011 with the length of 154 mins. It was shown in US six (6) days after. TRANSFORMERS: Dark of the Moon was the highest grosser as of all Transformers movie earning $1.123B as of this time.

Let us see if Transformer 3 will be topped by this coming Transformers: Age of the Extinct.


Happy watching and reading! Enjoy your Saturday!

Message From an Old Friend... (Sagada?!?)

An old friend message me in Facebook saying how he enjoyed reading my blog post. I thank him for that and then he asked me if I have any idea about Sagada! Well bro you got me there and this article will hopefully help you out. "Iyayi na co no maco camo sa Sagada! hehehe"

My Sagada trip started when Ikhay and Jonathan asked me to join their tour. It was a tour with GAFA and to tell you guys Kuya Frederick our driver is really fun to be with even he always stays in the van to take a nap (hahaha... laglag). So like anybody who will be going to Sagada for the first time and does not want to take any hassle of commuting and have everything scheduled for you, I would suggest you get this a tour like this one we've got. (I'm not promoting GAFA guys, it's just they are the one who served as our host).

The tour costs around Php 5,000.00+ per head for 13 pax inclusive of the fare, food, and tour package. This might have changed as we had our tour last year of February. So James if you are thinking of going to Sagada, try to consider this (a friendly reminder... lolz)

Pick up point is at Trinoma, I don't know if there's another pick up point and we drove 10 hours to Benguet and about 11-12 hours to Sagada. In Benguet you'll be stop for a short time to have breakfast, photo shoot with the en famous Banawe Rice Terraces as your background, check out some Bulul, and feel the breeze of the Mountain Province then you will be led to uphill-downhill-zigzag drive to Sagada.

Following were included in the package:

• Drive along Sagada
• Extreme or Basic Spelunking (I will tell you about this on the next post)
• Hike at the rice terraces back and forth to Bumud-ok Falls
• See some locals and their tradition
• Eat at Salt & Pepper
• Taste a delectable yogurt (put some strawberries in or wild mountain berries! mangoes too)
•  Enjoy rebound of sounds in the Echo Valley
• See the hanging coffins
• See the only museum in the town
• Enjoy eating Lemon Pie and Egg Pie too
• Get frozen while watching Sunrise at Katilpan
• Enjoy the scenic view Mountain Province can showcase

Hope this gives you a little idea pare koy about Sagada. I will be writing a different article of the whole Sagada feel with photos too.

Mi-quit Tamana Bolinao! Part 2

After eating a full breakfast we head off to Picucubuan just to see the port then moved to Guiguiwanen where I introduced yellowish sand which is like “Polvoron” as per my co-travelers. The sand was really fine but the Guiguiwanen beach which we once enjoyed swimming on when we were kids, no longer looked like the same. The old Marinara bar is no longer there but the view is still as scenic as it was see the vast blue ocean. There were some fish pens at the right side but all in all it is still a great view. 

Then we walked far left to see the Subor or Bukal (Spring) where we found some kids swimming and a lady washing her clothes. After which we climbed up Fatima Hill and saw more of the view from an overlooking. Then walked more toward east and found two (2) lighthouses which are smaller than usual. I remember there was only one (1) lighthouse (parola) before which concluded the other one was a new working lighthouse.

We stroll back to UP Marine Science Institute to supposedly see some giant clams but we failed as the UPMSI’s team is at UP Diliman having their school activity. Nonetheless we were advised to have a boat ride to Silaqui Island for Php 600.00 by the security guard whom my tourists agreed to pass.

I took them to my Uncle’s resort – El Pescador or The Fisherman resort. It was midday and the sun hurts our skin so bad so we decided to go back to my Aunt’s house (supposedly the restaurant – Mitoshi) to have our lunch but we came too early so we had some halo-halo (with fresh ripe mangoes which Bolinao also is famed of) to beat the heat for Php 20.00 only. Had some laugh moments during the waiting period and we were called for our lunch with crabs, grilled Parrot Fish, and Siganid Fish in Cashew Meat Stew. These flavours were all been missed since childhood and it brings back memories of picking ripe cashew fruits and of course keeping the seeds aside for roasting.

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!

Happy reading... for any suggestion or comment just write them up. Ask me question and will answer them as soon as I can.

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Thanks! 

-Yu