Batangas - Balayan Beach Resort

It was too much drama! We hit the beach on Saturday afternoon. The place itself is small, and the beach wasn't very clean -- lots of rocks. We pitched our tents and got ready to have a good time. Jeg was really brave, he went into the deeper end confident that his life savers will keep him afloat. On the other hand, Millicent and Maxine refuse to go farther into the water. The whole day was pretty good, Ate Jane and I smoked up and then ate the biggest dinner ever. Yummy! Then we set up a bonfire. That's when all the drama happened and family issues came up. Sigh. It got to the point that I was so tired from crying and listening to endless bickering that I smoked up again, got high out of my mind and passed out. Oh the herbal goodness of weed. Good thing for Ate who didn't join the discussions and spent the whole night singing Videoke songs with Dette. The next day end up being okay despite all the tensions the night before. We spent much time swimming and joking around. Kuya Jeff had a bad hangover, which was funny in itself.

This has been an interesting birthday weekend indeed. Tomorrow we hit Quezon to visit my cousins Sheena and Rankin and their mom. I can't wait coz there's bound to be lots of sweets!

Turning 24!!!

Yesterday was my 24th birthday. Yikes! The other day, we celebrated my cousin Kuya Chris' birthday which was actually on the 25th. It was so much fun seeing him and JeffJeff and Nikki and Ate Manoneng again. I always love hanging out with Kuya Chris and the gang coz they're totally pure jokes. I was surprised to hear that both JeffJeff and Nikki now have kids...wow! True Aliermos indeed.

Last night, we had dinner at Tito Johnny's place. First we went to the wrong complex, then we got stuck in the elevator of his building and we thought we would die of suffocation! Fortunately we made it out of there coz the food at Tito's place was so good. I got presents which was really awesome. Yay! New bags and jewelry! After dinner, my cousins Ronald, Kai-kai and Kuya Gandy together with Dette, Jason and my siblings and I went to Greenbelt to party. There we met up with Tristan, Queenie and Ate's friends. It was fun =) We saw a celebrity and I got Queenie to dance with him. As usual, the boys were picking up girls and the girls...we were dancing up a storm. We ended up closing up the bar! Hahahaha!


This birthday was soo much fun. Tomorrow (or later on this morning) we head to Batangas for an overnight trip at a beach resort. It is bound to have fun: Bonfire, Weed, Beer and lots of good food!

Bittersweet Days

The past three days have been quite eventful. Long talks, late nights, clubbing, shopping, hair salon disasters...it has been crazy indeed. It was nice seeing Tristan and Queenie again. Tita Ninay and Tita Beth are as funny as ever. On Monday, ,my aunt Cynthia brought us to Eastwood, a city within a city. It was really nice and quite alive even late at night. She also brought us to her house...she has sort of a moat at the front of her house, it is currently dried up but it used to have fish in it. Pretty cool. The next night, Tristan,Marianne, Queenie, VP, Ate and I went to a bar called Decades in Metrowalk, a smaller version of Eastwood. It was pretty fun too. The next day, my sis and I got our hair relaxed at tita Cyn's place and it was a disaster. Our hair got completely toasted..as in steel wool! Ate got it hot oiled and cut shorter the same day at some high class salon and Tita Beth hot oiled mine the next day. We both felt like bawling when we saw what happened. Aaaaah!!!


These past few days have revealed so much to me: misconceptions in the past, wrong timing and the truths about my feelings for another that I never thought was there. Sigh. It has been fun, but a little overwhelming as well.

Revisiting my Childhood

We arrived in Manila yesterday and went straight to Antipolo, my hometown. First we went to the church where thousands of pilgrims visit every year during the month of May. There was a procession when we arrived there but we didn't stay to watch the whole thing. The place is so different now. Lot of big buildings block what used to be a view of the city below the mountains of Antipolo. After the church, we headed for Tres Hermanas. It was nice seeing the old neighbourhood again. It was VP's first time to go back in 12 years and everything was soo different for him. As for the people, they have changed too...older now.. I saw some of my childhood playmates, like Ate Nina and Grace. They're eldest sister is now in Japan and was due to give birth any day now.

That same night, my mom's cousin picked us up and we went to Eastwood, a city within the city. We were so sleepy by the time we got home. 2 hours later, we had to wake up and head for the beach Puerto Azul with the Cayetano family. It was loads of fun. Gian, who's one of the original Sampaguita kids was pure jokes as ever. The place itself was really nice, the water very clear. Fish kept on lurking around Tita Victa's feet. It was so cool. After the beach, we walked around the village a bit. Everything is older now, the streets smaller than we remember. Tonight, we head to Tita Ninay's house. I'm looking forward to seeing Tristan and Queenie again, but I'm sad that our time here in Tres Hermanas was way too short.

Family Fun!

Today was so much fun. We went to visit our aunts out by the sugarcane fields. Tita Jean hired a jeepney for all of us. So cool. It was so nice seeing everyone again. My great aunt Ellen has Alzheimers now and I had to introduce myself to her several times. After eating lunch in their kitchen hut, we went to go see Lola Ellen's husband who, even though he's over 70, still farms. I got to ride a water buffalo (better known as Kalabaw)!!! I almost fell but it was awesome!

Next we went to a fresh water spring resort. We weren't prepared to swim but then I pushed my sister into the water and then she pushed me. So everyone ended up swimming in their civils. It was so much fun. Before we headed home, Tita Tim packed us some mangoes and santol. Yummy! I was so sad to leave, I shall miss them soo much. Tomorrow, we head back to Manila -- complete with live chickens!!! I can't believe they'll actually let us take that on the plane! Oh well, this is the Philippines after all!

Bacolod City

We arrived in Bacolod a couple of days ago. It was awesome seeing my cousins VP (whom we call VPlonggo so as not to confuse with my own brother VP) and MM. It's been 12 years since we last saw each other..and well everyone has grown. MM is 17 and writes his own rap sheets. Pretty cool. So far, we've just chilled with them and their friend and we also went to visit our 2nd cousins. Last night, Tita Jean brought us to a restaurant wherein u pick ur own fresh fish and they cook it right there. It was so good.

Today, Ate left for Iloilo and VPlonggo, MM, Kuya Alwin, VP and I headed for Mambucal Resort. It was soo much fun. First of all, we ate so much food...finished 5 kilos of fish and meat between the 5 of us plus rice, mangoes and eggplant. Yummy! Then we climbed the mountain to reach the waterfalls. There are 13 falls in Mambucal and the climb was hard. We thought VPlonggo wasn't going to make it but at least he reached the 6th falls. Actually, we were so tired that we skipped falls 3-5, went straight to the 6 and stayed there. Kuya Omar's friend Jonas drove us to Mambucal and picked us up too. Omar's friends or FATernity as what they call themselves (hehe), are super nice. The other day, another one of them, Bboy, drove us around and took us to a Chicken place. Roasted chicken is the specialty here in Bacolod. No wonder I'm gaining weight!

Cadiz

The bus ride to Cadiz was long and insane. First, Ate was sitting beside me and VP was alone behind us. Then a gay guy who was totally checkin out VP came on the bus. To avoid a scandal, my sis sat beside my bro. Unfortunately, a Mag-lola sat beside me and the kid threw up. Because I get easily car sick, I almost threw up too...good thing I didn't and I opened the window to let the air out. However, it got cold and I couldn't close the broken window anymore. Then we had to constantly fight with porters who want to carry our bags for pay. Grrr. I also had to fight my way out of the bus because people were crazy and were jamming the bus before those who had to leave could even get off. Aaaaargh!!! When we finally got to Cadiz, our uncle met us up. There, we met our Tita Batita, our 2 cousins and my grandma's eldest sister Lola Hermes. They then took us to Lakowan island...the best beach I've been to so far. We had to ride a boat to get there where we saw lots of black jellyfishes in the water. Since it was a monday, we ended up having the whole island to ourselves! The water was soo nice, cool and clear. We can see fish and starfish and all sorts of other stuff...no jellyfish! Yes! As usual, we had good food: bbq pork and shrimp. Yummy. It sucks how we're only staying in Cadiz overnight. Our relatives here are sooo nice. We head to Bacolod City tomorrow to visit my dad's side of the family.

Too much fun!

Yesterday, we spent the whole day with Tita Belen who's Lolo Luis' only daughter and Myle's mom. We basically saw a lot of Dumaguete and surrounding area. She brought us to a nice fresh spring resort and to her house which was really pretty. She also took us to a couple of old churches, one of which is said to be miraculous. I made a wish ofcourse ;) Last night, ate was being such a bummer and didn't want to go out. I wanted to go out with the guys but I didn't want to put a dent on their boys night out. Luckily, Tita Belen, Kuya Myles, his wife and sis--in-law took me to a nice bar/restaurant right by the ocean. The live band was really good.


Today, after going to mass, Kuya Myles brought the whole gang to the beach. By this time, Mark and Abby's sister Dasha, brother Ryan and their cousins Alana and her bro was with us too. We jammed ourselves in Myles' pick up truck. The boys had to sit at the back. When we got to the beach, the guys were dying of heat and windlash! Poor dudes. After eating some awesome food, I couldn't wait anymore and I had to jump in to the brown sand water. The fun didn't really start until Myles' dad came with the jetski and floating raft. Sooo much crazy fun!!!! I got a chance to ride and drive the jetski. In the afternoon, Myles and Dad dragged the girls + Ryan to a place in the middle of the beach where if it's low tide, white sand pops out. It is also the site for whale watching. The ride to and fro from that place was totally painful. We were all bruised up! Unfortunately, the rope that ties the raft to the jetski broke and the rest of the boys weren't able to go to that spot. It was still great fun anyway. It's too bad we're leaving tomorrow already. I'm going to miss everyone here. Dumaguete city is soo nice. Of all the places I've seen so far, I think this is the only place in the Philippines I can envision myself living in.

Fun times in Dumaguete

The ferry ride was crazy. Thanks to my eagerness to embrace the local experience, we took the economy fare for the ride, putting us in an open air room with 250 cots!! Fortunately, we were at the far corner and had a little privacy. Unfortunately, it rained in the middle of the morning and VP got soaked. Hahaha! We arrived in Dumaguete around 4am and Lolo Luis, Lola Celia and our cousin Myles met us up at the pier. Lolo Luis looks exactly like my grandmother!!! They could be twins, except his male and he dyes his hair black. Super cool! After breakfast, we met some of Lola's grandsons from Zamboanga -- Abby and Mark. They're cool. Kuya Myles with his bro-in-law JR picked us up in the afternoon and we all went to Twin Lakes. It was sooo beautiful! Unfortunately, it was that time of the month and I couldn't swim. Grrrr. Ate and Abby the non-swimmers rented lifejackets. I was hiking among rocks and slipped...now I've got a gash on my knee. The water was really cold and we didn't stay there long. We then headed to the beach where we crashed Kuya Myles' dad's bday party. We ate lots! The food was soo good, especially the chocolate cake. Yummy! This whole day was soo much fun =)

Bantayan Island

It was a crazy bus ride. The seats were all torn up and I swear the driver must have been drinking coz it felt like we were in a rollercoaster! However, the night of no sleep, bumpy bus ride and slow ferry ride was worth seeing the white sands of Bantayan Island - the eggbasket of the Philippine Islands. I was soo excited to hit the water I had to stop myself from jumping off the ferry. However, first things first: relatives. We met one of my dad's cousin from his mom's side. Tito Marcelino let us hop into his pedicab and took us to my great uncle's place. Lolo Tony looked so much like my grandfather it's scary. Unfortunately, since my siblings and I couldn't speak a word of Ilonggo or Cebuano, we couldn't chat much. After visiting the relatives, we finally hit the beach. VP got stung by a jellyfish. Hahaha! It was sooo fun. It's too bad we didn't plan our trip better, it would have been nice to stay overnight. It was sad to leave that beautiful place, but at the same time, I can't wait for the ferry ride ahead of us to Dumaguete, southern tip of Negros Island.

Smoky Flavours

I think I've gained enough weight here in Cebu. My relatives keep feeding us and well, the food is just too good to resist! Today, I chilled mostly at home and chatted it up with my grandmother. I can't understand everything she says coz it's in Cebuano but I get the message. She is soo nice! In the afternoon, my siblings, Tita Nieva and I went to SM Cebu City. We bought our ferry tickets to Dumaguete city and I also bought my backpack for my Spain trip. It only cost me $50!!! What a steal! As usual, my siblings and I shopped for more clothes. My bro is a fan of Bench, a Filipino clothing brand. My cousin Clint met up with us at the mall and took us home for dinner. More food! Then we went out to this really awesome place where you smoke flavours out of a bong while listening to live music. It was really chillin. We were also drinkin Red Horse (8% beer) and got pretty tipsy. Then we headed to Halo, a class C,D,E hiphop bar/club. Ofcourse, we hopped on the stage and boogied down. It was great fun! My cousin had work at 3am so after he dropped us off, he went straight to work...at least that's what I think he did, it's possible he took another day off. hahhaha. Tomorrow is our last night in Cebu city, we're going to try our best to party it up!

Puerto Fino

We finally hit the beach today. As I mentioned earlier, my aunts and uncles don't drive. However, they do own a jeepney (main type of public transportation in the Philippines). So, they told the driver not to go on route today and we took that to Mactan Island where the beaches are mostly located. Before hitting the beach, we passed by the Lapu Lapu shrine. It's the site where explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed by Lapu Lapu, a tribal chief who's considered to be the first Filipino national hero. The beach itself wasn't the greatest. Lots of seaweeds and rocks. The good thing is that there was some sort of company party happenin at the time so we got free live music. After the beach, we went to see Magellan's cross which is the original cross he brought to the Philippines. Then we headed to Sto. Nino Cathedral. The Sto. Nino is a child image of Christ and is an extremely popular image here in the Philippines, associated with all sorts of miracles. Outside the church, people sell candles which you burn in charcoal grills. The vendor then dances and prays for your intentions infront of the altar. Before heading home, we also visited a beautiful Taoist temple. Today, we also saw one of my dad's cousins, Tito Abner whom we haven't seen since we were kids. We also met our cousins, the eldest being Clint who took us to nice dessert place and a pool house later tonight. He also brought us to a viewing spot called Mr. A, which has several huts on a cliff overlooking the city. It was beautiful...except I forgot to bring my glasses and was seeing everything in a blur. Cebu at night is really nice, better than Manila because of the cool ocean breeze.

CEBU

So I've been in Manila for a week now. My last day in Manila was spent in a resort. It was really nice, bamboo huts, big pool, bbq and mangoes plus all my cousins and nieces which was super fun!!!! And it only cost about P100 per person..that's about $2!!!!

I flew into Cebu last night. It is cooler, nicer, cleaner here. It's not as congested as Manila and the people are also friendlier. So far, I've just been hanging out at my relatives' place. The touring starts tomorrow...shopping started today. I'm going to go broke soon! hahahaha. Hopefully, I'll have the chance to hit the beach soon. Unfortunately, none of my aunts drive but my cousin is supposed to meet with us sometime soon and we can "Gimmick" together. That's Filipino slang for going out!

Intramuros

Today, Ate and I took the bus to Cubao to meet with Tita Ninay and Tito Felly, my mom's previous co-workers. As usual, VP was being a bum and didn't want to come. The bus ride was long and we didn't know where to get off. We got yelled at by the bus driver coz we were too slow in getting off the bus. Basically, the bus just stopped in the middle of the highway and I had to jump off coz it started moving already. Aaaaah! It was so nice seeing tita again. Tito Felly is soo nice. He brought us to Greenhills where ate and I bought a lot of pearl jewelry. Soo cheap there! Next, we went to Intramuros (walled city of Manila) where we saw a Manila exhibit and San Agustin Church and Museum. It was beautiful. It was unfortunate that Tita Ninay didn't let Tristan come with her. She said she felt shy towards her officemates. It would've been okay though since only Tito Felly showed up. On the way home, we missed entrance to the mall where Tito Felly was supposed to drop us off. He ended up driving so far away. Too bad VP couldn't join us, he would have had fun. Tomorrow, we hit the resort to celebrate Eya's bday. It's bound to be awesome!

Mabuhay!

So I finally arrived in the Philippines on Sunday night May 1. Man...it is super hot here! sweating all the time. I think i lost weight already! haha. So far, I've been just hanging out w/ my cousins and nieces and nephews. That and going to the mall. I always want to eat coz the food is so good but I've lost my appetite because of the crazy heat. On Monday night we went to a club and watched my cousin play in a band. It was a lot of fun. They have a lot of places here with live bands playing top 40s. Pretty cool. Last night we walked in Bay Walk which is a strip right by Manila Bay. It was really nice and breezy and they've got a bunch of live bands playing too. Nobody ever sleeps here. I guess it's just too hot. Tonight I'm going to my cousin's place again. It is so good to be able to hang out with them again. Next week I'm heading to the southern islands. Beaches!!!!! I can't wait! Oh...and another awesome thing is that it's mango season here right now. Yummy!!!!