it's tag time!

i now interrupt the regular programming with a couple of VITs--very important tags. ;-P really, it's fun to do tags from time to time.

handwritten post (from dhez):

1. sceneries: as in sunsets, cloudless skies, crystal blue waters, the wind, lush green mountains... ah, don't get me started. :)
2. music: gotta have earphones plugged to my ears especially when working.
3. world war 2: i've reveled in my aunts' stories of their lives during the war and even from the peacetime.
(i won't be tagging anyone in particular for this one, but consider yourself tagged if you've reached this part hahaha! ü)


i am beautiful (and sexy), no matter what they say...

from an equally beautiful and sexy blogfriend, pusa:

thank you, thank you! *sniffle*

i now pass on these awards to the following beautiful and sexy blogfriends like me ;-) -- verns, toe, kyels, rochelle, gypsy, beng, mimi and dhez. =)

Summer in November Pt. 8

random roxas city pics

note: this will be my last installment of my roxas city-boracay trip. hope you enjoyed reading it as much as i had posting. =)

cuzes, bro and moi on our first day in roxas. it drizzled again late in the afternoon so it's cloudy as you can see. this was where we heard those (drunk) guys singing/shouting at the nearby ktvs.

tu-KO! (gecko) this is a very big lizard we saw on the first night. it's as fat as my arm and about 7 inches long... and that's just the baby. eep!

roxas city coastline with an island at the backdrop. my tita has a beach house here where we ate lunch the day before we went home. there was a fishing boat on the shore then (not pictured), so it smelled a bit fishy. the fishermen were able to have a good catch that day.

enjoying the sun, sand and sky! (and the water, too! ü)

standing on fine black/gray sand at low tide. it may be of a dark color, but it's as fine as the sand on station 1 in boracay. (which means the sand in station two is a bit coarser. ü)

Summer in November Pt. 7

boracay epilogue (sunday, 4 november 2007)

my trip to boracay would have been totally perfect if not for one thing: i lost my glasses. so from sunday noon up until the end of our trip (6 nov.), i had to look at the world through hazy eyesight. stupid, stupid me! i won't go into the gory details anymore as i could not recall where and what time exactly i lost it, although i have my suspicions--might be when we took a last dip in the water. (to give you an idea how weak my eyes are, i'll give you an illustration: i'm practically kissing the computer/book to be able to read).

right after lunch, we did what other tourists would do: buy souvenirs. shirts, keychains, cell phone toppers that all scream, "I'VE BEEN TO BORACAY!!!" as usual i bought more than what i could give so there are still some more cell phone decorations/keychains (whatever you call them) stashed somewhere in my bag. want one? ;-P (available until supplies last hahaha)

on the pump boat ride back to caticlan, i surmised that once in a while, it would be nice to visit boracay no matter how commercialized it is. what really matters is the people you're with and how you enjoy the place for what it is. so yeah, i'll be going back to boracay, hopefully not 9 years after. there might be an sm or robinson's mall by then. ack!

that's our shadows on the white boracay sand. i'm the one on the left, fixing something in my bag. :-P

back to roxas

if the total travel time we've had last november 2 from roxas to boracay was 5 hours, we actually cut our travel time back to roxas by 2 hours. i noticed that on every trip i've done, the trip back home takes a shorter time. excluding rest and emergency stops, this really happens. what reason that is, it still evades me.

in our case though, one of the reasons would be because the daughter of cuz O's cousin (who told us to hitch a ride with them to and from bora) took a bug in boracay in which medical attention is needed (she's definitely better as of this writing). in just three hours we were at the emergency room in a hospital in roxas city, where our tito and tita (cuz O's parents) and nephew G picked us up.

fun with language barriers

back at our tito and tita's house, we had some time to rest before dinner. nephew G wandered into our room as me and cuzes M and E were lounging on our beds. now for G to even come near us is quite a feat, considering that he's really, really shy and doesn't talk to just anyone except his family. so we stared at G, and he in turn stared back until i said, "G, kiss your titas." so he went around the room to kiss us titas which broke the ice and we started to talk to him in tagalog. the problem is that he answered us back in ilonggo (pls. correct me if i'm wrong here), complete with the lilting sound of the dialect. we were like, oh man, what's he talking about? so for the next few minutes and up to the next day, our conversations generally went something like this:

moi, M or E: G, nasaan si elmo? (G, where is elmo?)
G (speaking in ilonggo): si elmo ara sa balay namon.

okay, this we could understand somehow. he's saying that elmo is in his house. but read on:

moi, M or E: ganun ba? sige, dalhin mo sya dito para paglaruan natin. (is that so? ok, bring him here so we can play with him.)
G: (now speaking in rapid ilonggo which we couldn't catch except for a few stray words)
moi: ha? M, anong sabi nya? (what? M, what did he say?)
M: malay ko! (i don't know!)
G: (speaking in more rapid ilonggo)
moi, M or E: huwaaaaaaaat???
G: (laughing at us coz we couldn't understand him. apparently, he understands tagalog but can't/doesn't want to speak it yet.)

and with this, our lifelong bond with G was sealed. (G is four years old, btw, and the first cousin of K and E.) that adorable little kid has a sister, I, who fortunately came to our rescue the next day as our translator since she knows how to speak in tagalog. at one time, she and G came into our room whispering in ilonggo. cuz E, who apparently just woke up from one of her countless naps (peace, cuz! ü), blurted out, "bakit pa kayo nagbubulungan hindi ko naman kayo maintindihan?!" (why are you whispering? i can't understand you anyway!)

G and sis I. see how comfy he is with us? hopefully he will remember us when he comes to manila this christmas with his family. ^^

Summer in November Pt. 6

food trip galore alla ms. lamon

we originally planned to eat at cyma for dinner on our first night in boracay, but the restaurant was already full by the time we went there (we made a reservation for the next night but still we didn't get to eat there but that's ok). so we went over to true food indian cuisine. since this is our first night, we were already tired by this time. the big fluffy cushions we sat on in true food just about made our stay there oh-so-fine. and the food? it's a bit pricey (about 200 pesos up) but if you're adventurous enough in trying out different types of cuisine, then you'll love this place. sorry there ain't enough pics for this as we were all too busy eating (did i say we were very hungry?) to take pictures.

sweetened lassie at true food indian cuisine. lassie is a really nice drink made from yogurt and can be drank plain, sweetened or even salted. they also offer variations with fruits, but i think if i ordered that it might taste like the commercial yogurt drink.

pat's creek. i was so sleepy by this time (about11pm) but since my bro and cousins were there already, i opted to go too. had only one piece each of the calamares and onion rings and a sip of san mig light from my bro's cup... then the singer's voice woke me up from my lethargic state.

this is rush, a huge lab-golden retriever mix in the restaurant we ate in at d' talipapa. of course we did NOT eat him. he is the pet of the owner according to my bro. isn't he cute? anyway, we bought fish, shrimp and chicken at the wet market and had them cooked over at this resto (just like dampa in parañaque and pasay)and i was more interested in looking at this dog. but hey, the food we had--sauteed ampalaya with egg, sinigang na talakitok, garlic and butter shrimp and adobong atay ng manok--yummeh!

jonah's fruitshake and restaurant. i've heard so many praises about this place so i just had to try it. yep, it's really nice to be sipping a big cold glass of thick, creamy milkshake while stretched out on the beach chairs and tune out the sounds except for the waves, night or day. the milkshakes cost from around 60 pesos up. i ordered banana choco peanut shake (P75)

mañana. this is where we ate on our second night in boracay. we ordered different items and had a taste of everything--nachos, burritos, tacos, enchiladas, fajitas and flautas. i love the side of mexican rice which is quite small, but it's good enough for moi. everything is soooo dee-lee-shus!

mañana restaurant in the daytime. what a happy, happy day, just look at that cloudless sky! me likey!

for our last meal in boracay, we ate in lemon cafe, a restaurant in d'mall where they serve mediterranean food. but since we had to leave early, we opted for brunch and ordered from their breakfast menu. cuz O and i had the big breakfast (which as a really big serving... duh!) which consists of potatoes, bacon, egg sunny side up, sausages and very yummy warm bread which i slathered in butter *drool, drool!* the rest ordered pinoy tapa. i must say, their tapa is one of the best i've tasted. not only has it a really big serving too, but also the meat is very juicy and tender, the flavor is salty-sweet and dip a piece of that in vinegar, ahh, heaven. :-) cuz M couldn't finish hers so i got the last piece and put it in the remaining roll from my breakfast, and had that as my baon on the way back to roxas. :-P

note: the restos mentioned here are all located on the beach front (except for d'talipapa), hence, they are quite pricey for a cheapskate like moi hehehe (think greenbelt, eastwood, and their ilk). but ya know what's the best thing about this food trip? having guy cuzes who get the bills! LOL

well of course not all of them bills but still...

thanks guys! =)

Summer in November Pt. 5

gal gone wild...?

well before you think of those raunchy videos of wild girls during spring break, think again. for someone whose social life is practically zero for most of her existence on earth, this is how wild she can get. (or maybe i unconsciously turned into an oldie... ah, heck). so i guess here is a more appropriate title:

a hairy tale

i've mentioned in my previous post that there are a lot of people offering hair braiding services in boracay. for 300 pesos, one can get a half or full head of cornrows, depending on the hair length. as you have probably seen already on my sidebar, my hair is short so i had no choice but to settle for a half-head of cornrows. nevertheless, i loved it even if people called me iverson or asked when my next basketball game is. ;-) i'll make sure my hair is long next time i go there so i can enjoy it fully.

thinking deeply kuno

look, ma, no dandruff! ;-P

yet in another angle. yeah, yeah, i'm so vain. ;-)

hennatattooballoo

my cornrow getup won't be complete without a henna tattoo. so for any tattoo like the one on my hand, it costs a hundred pesos. anything bigger would cost up to 300 pesos. the guy who did mine and cuz M's tattoos assured us that they would last for two weeks. well, in my case the first week hasn't even passed and it's practically disappeared. as of this writing, my hand is as clean as can be. either the henna wasn't totally that strong to last, or my skin's ph level is... ah, do i even care about my skin's ph level?!?!

scraping me bro's face off

at d'talipapa while waiting for our food to be cooked

triplets...?

related posts:
Summer in November 1
Summer in November 2
Summer in November 3
Summer in November 4
Just Breezing Through

Summer in November Part 4

it's been nine long years since i've been to boracay, and i couldn't remember much as we only stayed overnight and there were oldies around. not much fun, right? right?? come on, i know you agree. ;-P

anywho, what i do remember about that trip was that there weren't that many people around considering that it's summer, and there weren't a lot of shops except the ones for diving and some restaurants. we even got to eat halo-halo on the beachfront. aside from walking around, sleeping by 8PM and the pictures i took at the time, yeah, there wasn't much to remember. (i told you there were oldies with us, so me and my bro didn't get to enjoy the place as much as we wanted to.)

but now, nine years later, with only cousins my age and no oldies around, i am so set to conquer the island!!! ;-P erm, not. quite.

actually, i wondered what boracay looked like these days, and i was kinda surprised to see what's there now: stalls that offer henna tattoos and hair braiding services abound as well as hawkers of pearls, accessories, and even religious items. most surprising thing of all is that there were lots of resorts and restaurants on the beach front; at night it reminded me of baywalk and if it weren't for the sand and the sound of the waves on the shore, i would have thought that i'm in baywalk pre-mayor lim days. aside from that, it's a long weekend so there were so many people. it's good that i didn't expect to have any peace and quiet, boracay being popular a destination.

after a near-disaster at the resort we were supposed to stay in, we found another one that fits all seven of us at el centro resort, located in station 2. the room we got there has four queen sized beds, airconditioner, tv, refrigerator and a really nice and clean bathroom (one thing i expect of a resort is how clean their bathrooms are). they even offered us welcome drinks and free breakfast for the duration of our stay. now how cool is that? click here to check it out.

golden rays of sunshine reflected on the water

we're almost there... the boat ride takes about ten to fifteen minutes from the caticlan jetty port terminal. i have no idea how much the ride is as cuz O beat us all to it in paying for the fare. ;-P

still a nice sunset though the sun's covered by the clouds. nevertheless, it was a perfect day.

now that's peace and quiet--boracay at sunrise. i did NOT take this picture.

hel-lo, bora!

hahaha

thanks to cuz M for some of the pics :-)

Related posts:
Summer in November Part 1
Summer in November Part 2
Summer in November Part 3

Summer in November Part 3

november 2, 2007: road trip to boracay from roxas city!

the people in my father's side of the family are known to fall asleep anywhere... in family gatherings, in any moving vehicle (may it be a car, bus, boat)... anywhere. even i am not spared from that and usually my mum or brothers would tell me to just go back to sleep and wake up only once we arrive at our destination. hah. don't they know that the comforting rumble of the car/bus/boat is very relaxing? but anyway, back to the road trip. we were fortunate that the family of cousin O's cousin is also going to boracay, so we were able to hitch a ride instead of renting a van. i am proud to say that during the 4 1/2 hour travel from roxas city to caticlan, i slept only ONCE. hah-ha! ;-P

here are some pics from the road trip, taken from my brother's phone cam:

when we started on our trip, it was drizzling a bit but the weather has made a turn for the better as we went along.

we got delayed for a bit as one of the van's automatic windows got broken so we stopped to have it fixed. earlier, we had lunch at ramboy's in kalibo, aklan, where they claimed to serve the best liempo. yup, their liempo really tastes great. =)

i see fields of green... lots of green (somewhere in aklan)

whoop-de-doo, we're almost at boracay!

Related posts:
Summer in November Part 1
Summer in November Part 2

Summer in November Part 2

because all of us were tired from the trip from manila, we didn't get to go out until 5pm. cousin O drove us to the beach, which wasn't much as most of the establishments on the beachfront were closed. obviously, all the people were in the cemetery but it was good for us, at least there aren't that many people. the only establishments open were the open air KTVs where some drunk guys were already warbling their throats out. hah, it was funny to hear them sing (shout is more appropriate).

a some kinda panoramic shot of the beach taken with my bro's camera phone. it was drizzling hence the cloudy skies.

white castle... whisky? not!

on the way to the beach, there was this building so out of place in the fishing village where we passed. it was white, big and it looked like a castle. no, it was really a castle, because there's a sign in front of it: don's castle. not kidding! that strange, garish edifice had us laughing. check out this vid my bro took from his camera phone. it's not that good and the car was moving so just try to pause on the parts where the castle is visible:

food trip sa sementeryo (food trip at the cemetery)

this was my first time to go to the cemetery at night time. i never thought that there would be a lot of people by that time but yeah, there were. we visited the mausoleum of cousin O's family and met his relatives (the ones who are alive and kicking, not the dead ones) who immediately offered us different kinds of rice cakes, barbecue and inasal na tinapay. yep, you've heard me right. there's such a thing as inasal na tinapay. basically it's just pan de leche brushed with some barbecue marinade and skewered on a stick and grilled over hot coals. yum-yum! my brother had this when he went to roxas a couple of months ago and he warned me not to get my hopes up. but then again, i'm a bread person so i found this inasal na tinapay really good, especially when paired with pork barbecue.

barbecue and inasal na tinapay. yum-o!

as for the rice cakes, they're similar to palitaw, only smaller and stickier. they can be sprinkled with either linga (sugared sesame seeds) or coconut in syrup (something similar to bukayo, only thinner). if you eat it with linga, then you call that matsikoy and with the coconut, it's called inday-inday. sorry no pictures for this one. =)

read: Summer in November Part 1

Summer in November Part 1

i didn't have any plans of going to roxas city and boracay, but when my cousin M texted me if i want to come, i said sure, no problem. besides, our other cousins would go too, and this would be a good time to bond with them. it has also been a long time since we've visited our other relatives in roxas city so yeah, the timing was good.

to make sure we will get seats at the plane, my brother and i paid 50% of our trip passes. and so the days after passed oh, so slowly that i was raring to go. but of course, came november 1 did so... let's go!!!

my brother and I woke up at the ungodly hour of 3AM to get ready as our flight is at 520AM. really, i don't understand why this flight is so early but then, who am i to complain? we arrived at the airport at about 410 and let me tell you, checking in was a breeze. there was no line and what a relief to receive our boarding passes along with the passengers and not AFTER them.

rainbow in the sky

the flight to roxas was just 40 minutes so i was a bit disappointed that the plane ride had to end so soon. but then, there came the announcement that the weather in roxas was really bad, so we had to stay in the air for a few more minutes until the pilot made another attempt to land. two times this happened and after the second one, we were then informed by the pilot that our flight was to be diverted to iloilo. no problem at all, as long as we can arrive there in one piece.

so when the plane ascended again, we found ourselves in a turbulence. the rain was lashing on the windows and the wind buffeted our plane. it felt like we were on a rollercoaster without the rails. up and down, and left and right we went, i thought that we were going to crash on the water. yep, it was scary. it was the longest five minutes of my life and we were all relieved when the plane finally broke through the clouds. and that was when we saw the most beautiful rainbow. it wasn't curvy; it was more like a vertical rainbow. hmm, the whole situation reminded me of noah's ark.

iloilo adventure

once we landed at iloilo airport, we were then advised to stay on the plane until further notice. (the runway was short, btw). some people disembarked because their final destination was iloilo anyway. after about 15 minutes the captain then informed us that the weather was breaking in roxas city but the visibility is still low. then came the kicker: the pilot will make an attempt to land at roxas once more, but if that attempt is not successful, it will fly back to manila. all passengers, including us, decided to disembark and it was every passenger for himself once outside the airport.

fortunately the guy who sat beside us on the flight offered to come with us to roxas. turned out that he was from there too, so there was no problem. we took a taxi from iloilo airport to jaro where the van and bus stations are. the taxi ride actually cost us a whopping 300 pesos--the meter plus a hundred pesos more because a big part of the highway was flooded due to the river which overflowed (the water even seeped into the taxi after some time, but it wasn't that bad). at this point i didn't care as long as we get to roxas. i felt like i was on amazing race, only there's no race at all. besides, the weather in iloilo was perfect, and the airport certainly was nice as it was built recently. check the picture above. looks a bit like naia terminal 2, right?

when we arrived at the station we found out that the last van to roxas had already departed with only three passengers so we had no choice but to ride the bus, which, i must say, was filled with our co-passengers so we had to wait for another one. the bus to roxas from jaro cost 113 pesos. not bad at all for a two and a half hour trip. i'd like to describe the ride, but i was asleep most of the time. ;-) oh, and guess what? at 9AM my tito texted from roxas airport that the plane has landed, with only eight passengers on board. oh well. i didn't mind it. besides, my brother and i didn't want to gamble on the possibility of flying to roxas again because if the plane didn't land there, our vacation would have ended before it even started. we certainly didn't want that!

roxas city at last

my cousin picked me and my bro up from the bus station at roxas city by lunch time. save for my other cousins and their friends, our aunt and uncle weren't at the house as they were back at the airport to pick up our other cousins who came in via cebu pacific. i enjoyed my lunch of rice and crispy shrimp splashed with lots of vinegar immensely. afterwards, we finally crashed on the beds in the guest room and waited for our cousins to arrive.

tune in for part 2 =)

just breezing through

hi-hi, this is miss lamon reporting straight from the net cafe here in bow-racay!!! ;-P

this is the second day of my engrande bakasyon and i'm sooooo lovin' it. in my previous post, i have mentioned that i'm looking forward to seeing boracay at off-peak season. well, i haven't anticipated that it's a long weekend, so there are lots of people here at this time. but then again, i've been told that there are still less people this time than in summer.

my cousins and i arrived here in boracay at about 3.30 pm, and i think we used our first hour in looking for another (better) accommodations than the one we've already had reserved. well, no problem at all as long as we could get one, and get one we did. the room is bigger (we are 7 in all), the bathroom looks great and the people there even gave us welcome drinks. hmm!!!!!

we just finished our dinner at true food, this really great indian restaurant with really great ambience. instead of the regular tables and chairs, our table was a low one with oversized cushions for our seats... ack, i think i'll save the rest for later, i've too much to say. oh well 'til next time! =)