subic road trip

i didn't expect to be back in subic after 6 months. if the last time was all about celebrating the new year with family, this time it was about four adventurous, (single) ladies (moi, l, mm, mj) out to have some crazy fun. ;-) and by crazy fun i mean spur of the moment, taking whatever comes our way and no-extra-clothes-except-for-the-ones-we're-wearing. (and risking the wrath of some people, which made it even more exciting lol)

when you're out on a road trip with friends, it seems like the world is opening up to you. the road stretches out, beckoning you to go on until you reach your destination. and wherever we looked as we drove along the highways (nlex and sctex), we were like, wow. everything. is. so. beautiful. our raucous conversations were peppered with moments of silence as we took in the sights.

we left manila at 3pm and arrived in subic at around 5.

driving along the nlex. as far as the eye can see

adventure...?

once we entered sbma we just followed the arrows to the different attractions (in the direction of ocean adventure). as zoobic and ocean adventure are situated at the far ends of the earth, we opted to go to treetop adventure instead. treetop adventure is located at the JEST area and has four kinds of attractions: tree top adventure, where one can enjoy trekking and taking a leisurely motorized cable ride among the highest branches (P350/person); forest trekking adventure (P100/person); superman ride (self-explanatory :-), P200/person); and tree drop adventure, where one can descend the 60-foot tree any way he/she likes: by rappelling, the lizard, or the australian style, in which you drop face first. sweet! (P150/person)

because the four of us are adventurous, we decided to try the superman ride. and because we arrived late in the afternoon, the ticket booth was already closed. end of supposedly first adventure in subic.

we contented ourselves with pictures :D

thataway!

food trip, as always.

well, we had another agenda on our list anyway. what adventure is complete without a food trip, right? so we headed out to xtremely xpresso, this ultra-cozy coffee shop that serves a wide range of items, from pizza, pasta, sandwiches, coffee and pastries. xtremely xpresso is also the home of the humongous big ben pizza (P699) and ben's delight burger (one kilo of beef patty! P280). eating at xtremely xpresso is one of my unfinished business from last december/january as i really wanted to try their ben's delight burger after being able to try the normal-sized burger with wasabi dressing (a juicy 1/3 pounder for only P80).

so yes. as we sat comfortably on the couches, we ordered the big ben pizza and ben's delight. it was funny to see the eyes of the other patrons follow the journey of the pizza and burger to our table, and seeing four ladies making a noble attempt in finishing off such large portions of humongous grub.

big ben pizza. 22 inch thin crust pizza loaded with lotsa toppings: sausages, ham, olives, onions, green bell peppers, mushrooms, and cheese!


ben's delight burger, before we had it sliced into 6. for a 1k of beef patty, it sure was juicy even after it was grilled. served simply with lettuce, tomato and bacon. are you up for the challenge?

almost homeless

we enjoyed our time at xtremely xpresso so much that we realized that it was kind of late to be heading back to manila. and because that day was a holiday (june 12, philippines' independence day), most of the lodgings around sbma are either fully booked or the room available does not fall within our budget. the four of us trudged along waterfront road trying to find a room to no avail. as we neared the lighthouse (the last inn along waterfront rd.), we again bumped into some friends from church (we saw each other in xtremely xpresso earlier) and we hung out together at the lighthouse for a while. we then went our separate ways but not without them promising to contact us if they found a place for us to stay.

the lighthouse. the topmost part changes colors.

friendships

when we were sure that we won't find any room to stay, we decided to head back to manila. we haven't gotten far when one of our friends called to say their group has found a place for us, a condo for rent at 2k per night. sweet.

the place is subic world plaza, a new korean-owned three-storey condominium near subic international hotel. 2k per night, P300 for an extra person. the room is quite large, with enough space for a kitchen and living room. it is airconditioned and it comes complete with 2 twin beds, tv, mini refrigerator. it also has a nice bathroom with hot and cold shower.

@ the 3rd floor front desk

everything was well and good, until i got into bed. for almost immediately, i started to sneeze and sniffle nonstop.

seems like the room wasn't occupied for quite some time, and the sheets remained unchanged until we got there and used them. when i woke up early the next day the sneezes started again. oh, glorious dust galore.

will be posting more pics soon :)

note: cheers to mm for the other pics :)

wet sneakers

i know i haven't blogged in here for quite some time; my brain is so fried and add to that, haven't gone food tripping nor had any misadventures in a while so no postable posts. (u blogfriends who are also my facebook friends know what's up tho) heheh. but i knew i had to post this one. it's been raining since the second week of april up until now, which is a very strange thing to happen as it's still supposed to be SUMMER. ok, i just can't accept the fact that the weather is like the rainy season, which is supposed to start by the last week of may. apparently the rainy season has made an early start. so much for my tan lines.

as it rained for the nth time this SUMMER, my beloved old, dilapidated travel buddy (aka chuck taylors) took in water once again while i was walking home from the office last monday. am just glad i didn't sink from all that rainwater. heheh. however, the squish-squish of my sneakers wasn't a fun feeling.

why do i insist on wearing my old pair of chucks when i already have a new pair to destroy, err, enjoy? well, the old ones feel the most comfy. yes, even when water seeps in.

the water seeped in more at the front than at the back. the watermarks are visible inside, on the side down to the heels. and oh, look how worn out the sneakers are. que horror!!! LOL

'til my next misadventure! ciao!

wednesday wramblings (conclusion)

finally... haven't i told you wednesday was a loooooong day for me? well, it just got longer. if there is a misadventure to end all misadventures, this certainly takes the cake.

somwhere between PNU and binondo, h excitedly suggested we take the pasig river ferry going home. and since i like inconveniencing myself most of the time, i agreed. i mean, i could have gotten home the fast way (g. liner bus) or the faster way (lrt 2), right? but noooo siree. an opportunity to ride the pasig river is always considered a treat. and so the ferry wins hands down.

after buying some treats at eng bee tin over at ongpin, we walked back to escolta to the ferry station. the ferry was already there as we were buying our tickets for guadalupe so at least we didn't have to wait for it anymore. it was 7pm at the time already so there's no point in trying to take a look at the view. so h and i engaged in an intense girl talk all the way to guadalupe... or so we thought.

so deep in conversation were we that the announcement that we were in guadalupe just flew over our heads. the only thing that brought us back to earth--with a big bump, i may add-- was the rumbling of the engines, signalling that we were leaving guadalupe station. we were in utter and total shock that we actually couldn't speak for a few seconds. then...

"where are we going?"

unconsciously we were waiting for all the passengers to disembark as we fully understood that guadalupe was the last station. apparently our memory of the route was still stuck in last year's. so as the ferry rumbled on towards the next unknown destination, we sat there, quietly losing our minds and bashing ourselves in our minds for being so heedless. for what seemed like hours (which was actually just 10 or 15 minutes), we finally docked to the next station which is san joaquin (pasig). imagine our shock as we got out of the station and into a street basketball game in a quiet neighborhood (thank God for that).

well, needless to say, we got out of that scrape by asking the old man who sat a few rows in front of us in the ferry where to go and walking alongside the river until we got to the main road.

we had an uneventful taxi ride home.

so, okay! here's a list of the stations along the pasig river ferry route:

Plaza Mexico (operational)

Escolta (operational)

Quiapo/Quezon Bridge (operational)

PUP (operational)

Sta. Ana (operational)

Lambingan (operational)

Valenzuela

Hulo (operational)

Guadalupe (operational)

San Joaquin (operational)

Napindan

Marcos Bridge

Riverbanks Mall

Sta. Elena

ps. most probably napindan is operational as well as there were still passengers after we disembarked. i was still in a state of shock then so i didn't even remember to ask what the latest operational station is. if there's anyone here who knows, well, let me know. ^________^