Ilocos Norte Tour: Day 1

Tweet

Most tourists do not visit Ilocos Norte because it's far from Vigan. I would agree, the travel time from Vigan to the Capital of Ilocos Norte ( Laoag) is approximately 2 hours.

If you are planning to go to Ilocos Norte, there are 3 ways to get here:
          1. Plane ( Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific)
                    - They usually have 1-2 flights per day
          2. Provincial Buses ( Farinas, Florida, Partas)
                    - They have their terminals around Espana Area and Cubao.
                    - The fare ranges from 500- 700 pesos.
          3. Car
                    - Just bring a GPS, and you wouldn't get lost.
                    - Note that gasoline/Diesel price in this province is higher by 10%.

As for our Day 1, We went to these places:

Day 1: Ilocos Norte

Burgos Light Tower

Purpurawan Rock Formation

Windmills

Pagudpod Beach

Burgos Light Tower

Being here, relaxes you as you see the beautiful site of the ocean and the town that surrounds it. However, you can't go to the top most part of the lighthouse, since the government close it for the safety of the tourist.

They also have a museum here, but for the 3rd time I've been here. It was always close. I'm not sure if they would ever open it again. 

Entrance Fee: NONE.

It's absolutely free. 

Purpurawan Rock Formation

This is something new to most of the tourists who have been to Ilocos. I only discovered this place last 2011. I really like the whiteness of the stones. It looks so soft in the pictures, while it gives you an outstanding photo because of it's simplicity and elegance. 

View from a far

More views

Lam-Ang Story

Tourists would have to walk for 1.5km from where your car is parked. I suggest you guys to bring water and umbrella, because it's really hot there. Else, you can buy these things to the merchants there.

There's this part here, where you can stand to have a good background photo. I love how nature do it's best to have a wonderful scenery. If you can see here, there are so many elements in one picture: the sky, the sea, the stones, the plants. I just love it. It's pleasing to my eyes. :))

Entrance Fee: 

Adult - Php 15.00 

Children/Student- Php 10.00

it's an environmental fee. To preserve the beauty of the place. 

Optional Fees:

Riding a horse: Php 50.00 - Php 100.00 (One way)

Bangui Windmills

Every tourist spot here in Ilocos Norte, there's always a beach involved. But hey, it gives the tourist to relax by listening the sound of the waves and enjoying the beauty of the surrounding.

Souvenir

Bangui Windmills, was our 3rd stop for this Day 1 trip. I have been to these place twice, and I still enjoy how big those windmills are. They actually power the electricity of the whole town. We went here to have jump shots, solo profile pics, and Instagram worthy posts. 

If you are planning to buy Windmill key chains  shirts, pearls, or souvenir. This is a perfect place to buy one since a lot of stores selling different products.  they have 5 key chains for Php 100.00. However, according to one of the seller, they can't give huge discounts because most of them earn through a commission based from the products they sell. 

Just try to bargain, they might give you free stuff :)

Entrance Fee: NONE

Pagudpod Beach

Our last stop for our day 1 Ilocos Norte Trip. We had our lunch here, where we rent one cottage for us to cook Barbeque, and other grill-able food. We spent the half of our tour to enjoy the beach and fine sand in this area. 

Some people would call Pagudpod as the "Boracay of the North" because of how fine the sands are. We enjoyed building sand sculptures. Look at our artworks :) We spend 1-2 hours competing with the other team.

You can visit the beach anytime, it's not own privately.

Cottage Rent: 
Php 600.00 for 6 Hours

Restroom/Shower Use:
Php 50.00 - Unlimited use
Php 25.00 - One time use.

We ended the day with a dinner in Macy's Diner at Laoag City. It's really fun having a road trip with your friends :)

Read More

Ilocos Tour Itinerary

Tweet

I would like to share our Ilocos Tour Itinerary with you when my friends visited Ilocos. I lived in the north, so I became their tour guide and tour planner for 4 days. We want to visit as many places as possible. We use our own car to travel around these places to maximize our time.

This is our Itinerary for our 4 day Ilocos Trip:

Day 1: Ilocos Norte

Burgos Light Tower

Purpurawan Rock Formation

Windmills

Pagudpod Beach

*The first 3 places are relatively close to each other. So you can visit them all right away. It’s not budget friendly if you miss one of the 3 places, and go back to it the next day.

Kapurpurawan Rock Formation

Day 2: Ilocos Norte

Kaibigan Falls

Paoay Church

Malacanang of the North

* Kaibigan Falls is at the middle of Pagudpod Area and Laoag Area. We opt not to go there during our first day because we want to swim and enjoy the Pagudpod beach. This is our activity for day 2 because it rained so hard that afternoon.

Paoay Church

Day 3: Ilocos Norte – Ilocos Sur

La Paz Sand Dunes

Pangil Rock Formation

Juan Luna Shrine

Sinait Beach

* This trip is from North to Ilocos Sur. We stayed in our house in Ilocos Sur, so we made the tour like this. We put sand dunes to be our first activity because the sun was shining brightly. We do not want to sand board when it rains.

Places like Sinait Beach and Pangil Rock Formation is not very popular when you search for an Ilocos tour. But, I assure you, that these are some places you can visit to relax and enjoy peaceful view. 

La Paz Sand Dunes

Day 4: Vigan Tour

Baluarte

Pagburnayan

Hidden Garden

Bantay Church

Bridge

Calle Crisologo

Vigan Musical Fountain

* Vigan has a lot of place you can visit to. They have several museums, churches, and shopping area. I would suggest that if you visit vigan, limit it to 1-2 days stay. There are more things to visit in the north (Ilocos Norte) than in Vigan.

Vigan Musical Fountain

For my next post, I will share to you in detail what are the things to expect when you go to these places. I would bring you to the wonders of Ilocos. I hope you can visit these beautiful places because I know you’ll surely enjoy it. 

Enjoy! ^_^

Read More

Viva Manila Tour: Carlos Celdran

Tweet

In my previous post, I showed you all the highlights of our tour during the #vivamanila tour. You can see the post here: Viva Manila: A Carlos Celdran Downtown Tour. Now, I will share to you what we see in the places that we visited. 

Viva Manila Logo

The flow of the VIVAMANILA Downtown Manila Tour

Visit and educate yourself at the MMDA Safety Park 

Jeepney Ride to Mabini St.

Visit an art museum ( Maria Closa: Arts Primities Antiques)

Visit a 1945 store (Tesoro’s)Visit a Hotel [Lotus]

Visit Solidaridad Bookstore

Visit a famous bakery – Hizon’s

Visit HIRAYA Gallery

Free Pika-Pika food from JadeVine c/o Manila City Hall

 Visit Miramar Hotel for their Art Deco 

Group Picture in Luneta/ Rizal Park

September 8, 2013 (Sunday) was a gloomy day. Our meeting point was at MMDA Safety Park. Our tour would start at around 3PM.

Visit and educate yourself at the MMDA Safety Park 

The MMDA Safety park is a place where kids can learn the different street signs. They have miniature traffic lights, pedestrian, bike lane, underpass, overpass and rotonda. It's a perfect place for children to bond with their parents while learning different rules we have in Metro Manila. 

At the MMDA Safety Park

MMDA Park is located in front of Manila Zoo. If you want to have a group tour here, MMDA would be willing to facilitate the tour. 

Visit  an art museum ( Maria Closa: Arts Primities Antiques)

This art museum is along Ermita, Manila. It's a two-floor museum full of paintings and sculptures. The artworks that you can see here are very Pinoy, since most of their works are craved from wood. I'm not sure if they have artworks for sale.

Their Signage

Some of the artworks you can see inside.

Upon leaving Maria Closa, we decided to take a group picture outside with the signage. We were very fortunate to have Mr. Carlo Celdran in our picture. He went to our group and joined the group picture. We were so happy because we don't need to have a picture with him at the end of the tour, where it would be hard for us to squeeze in with other people just to have a decent picture with him.

Have a good picture with him - DONE!

Visit a 1945 store (Tesoro’s) and Visit a Hotel [Lotus]

Tesoro's shop is one of the oldest shop here in Manila that sells Filipino products. They have Barong, Baro't Saya, food from different provinces, keychain, Capiz products, figurines, fans, and many more.

Since we only have 20 minutes to visit 3 places ( at our own pace : Maria Colosa, Teroso and Lotus Hotel), we spent our 5 minutes here to discover the products. There are many interesting product that I'm sure tourists would really love. 

As for the lotus hotel, I have no picture there. Also, I didn't fully understand at first why we were there. I though it's a sponsorship part of the tour, where they would promote their hotel. It turns out, that their art decoration there is beautiful. We didn't have time to appreciate these things. 

Visit Solidaridad Bookstore

This is a bookstore beside Ibarra's Garden. I haven't been here, but I saw a post from Carlos Celdran about the book "Altar of Secrets" by Aries Rufo. This book is usually out of stock if you go to the local bookstores.

Unfortunately, the bookstore was closed. Mr. Carlos Celdran visited this store a day prior to the viva manila tour. They said, they would be open for the tour group of Mr. Celdran. The lady wearing purple ( behindi Mr. Celdran), is very funny.

Not the exact statements, but it goes something like this (translated to english):

Mr. Celdran: They said, they would be open for us. It's already 4:05PM. I even bought a book here yesterday.

Woman wearing purple shirt: Oh they would be open at around 5......

Me: (hoping that it would open....)

Woman: 5 in the morning ( 5:00 AM, the next day)

Me: (laugh)

Because of this unfortunate event, we would then go to Hizon's.

Visit a famous bakery: Hizon's

As far as I can remember, Hizon's is inside Za's Cafe, in front of a "Collezione" store. They sell ensaymada from 85 pesos to 130 pesos. There are 2 sizes ( big and small)

Ensaymada: Quezo de Bola

Quezo de Bola Ensaymada is worth 130 pesos(Big) and 95 pesos(Small)

Ensaymada Cheese is worth 115 pesos(Big) and 85 pesos(Small)

According to the lady there, Quezo de Bola is their popular brand. However, when I tasted the ensaymada, I can't distinguish how is it so special compare to local Ensaymada brand. I might not buy another ensaymada there because it's a bit pricey.

Visit HIRAYA Gallery 

Hiraya Gallery Signage

This is my favorite part of the tour. The paintings being featured on the first floor is from an artist in Batanes, Philippines. I think his idea is about how art now a days are being under appreciated or soon be removed from the picture. 

It's  about the Spolarium at the National Museum

2nd floor painting. I don't know the artist.

These paintings are very catchy to the eyes and I love the meaning behind it. I also agree to the owner of the gallery, she said, one of the prerequisite into being a painter is your capacity to draw. The art would serve as an avenue for the artist to express his ideas for the audience to learn something from it. I am not totally against color splattering artworks, but I am a huge fan of paintings like these.

Free Pika-Pika food from JadeVine c/o Manila City Hall

We were offered by iced tea, coffee, tacos and sandwiches c/o of Manila City Hall Mayor Erap Estrada and Vice Mayor Isko Moreno. I didn't expect to have free food since this is a Free tour. Just to be part of a tour, where Mr. Celdran is the tour guide, is what I look forward from this tour. The free food is a bonus in this tour. 

Beef Tacos = DELICIOUS!

My favorite food, is the Beef Tacos. I swear, the food is really delicious. It has a mexican taste, and not spicy. I like the cheese topping because it gives a bit of balance to the saltiness of the beef. I like the classy presentation of it because of it's bite-size type. I ate 4 beef tacos and 2 sandwiches (Cheese Pimiento and Mayo & Egg spread). 

Visit Miramar Hotel for their Art Deco 

After the yummy food, we visit this hotel to see the different art decorations that they have. This time, I understood that, it's not a sponsorship perk, why we are visiting the different rooms in a hotel. This hotel is along Roxas Boulevard. 

One of my favorite rooms in Miramar hotel, because it's too spacious. and I believe, this is the most expensive room. It has a living room and a bar. The paintings/art deco are all over the hotel. You can see some from the staircase, hallways, rooms, and function rooms. 

This hotel is where Carlo Celdran stayed when the 9-11 event happened. He was watching the news at his room.

After the Miramar tour, Gawad Kalinga offered us a drink. It is the Bayani Brew, made from GK Enchanted Farm.

It was a great way to quench our thirst from the 2 hour walk tour.  There were two flavors, and I picked the yellow one. I personally, don't want how the pink one taste, but my friend loves it. It's a healthy drink, and there are many ingredients involve in each drink. 

THANK YOU SO MUCH GK FOR THIS ONE! 

Group Picture in Luneta/ Rizal Park

A great way to end the viva manila tour, is to visit our national hero's monument. Mr. Carlos want to point out in this part how beautiful Luneta is. However, a Real estate company is building a condominium that would ruin the background of Luneta because the building is 50 stories high. As of now, you'll be able to see the crane building the condominium one by one. 

Group picture with my HS friends

Soon, there would be a building behind this magnificent monument.

We were encouraged by Mr. Celdran to sign a petition to limit the height of the condominium so that, it would not destroy the Luneta Park view. I agree to this cause because we only have very few tourist spot in the Manila, and we want to preserve it. So i signed, the petition.

If you want to sign in the petition, here is the link:

http://www.change.org/petitions/no-to-dmci-s-torre-de-manila-project

I really enjoyed the whole trip. I'm looking forward for his next VIVA Manila tour. I hope it would be around Binondo and Quiapo Area.

Enjoy reading! ^_^

Read More

Mekong River Tour

Tweet

When we have a day to tour around Vietnam. My friend and I chose Mekong River tour as our destination. Our hotel is located near the International Square ( A place with a lot of tourists and travel agency). We booked this Mekong River Tour for only 250,000 VND ( ~approx. 11 USD).

The one day Mekong River Tour includes the following:

• Roundtrip Bus transfer (Coaster Bus)
• One Bottle of Water
• Lunch w/out Drink
• Boat Fees
• Honey Tea
• English Speaking Tour guide 
• Hotel Pick-up and Drop Off

The tips, drinks during lunch, and souvenirs are not included in the trip.

Our Itinerary for Mekong River Tour

Visit a Souvenir Shop (Yes, it's expensive here)
I didn't buy anything here. I just look for things I might buy in other stores. They have rest room, park, souvenir store and cafe in this area. Most of the bus and coaster stop here for tourist to buy more things. 

Outside the store

Meet and Greet with BEES
They will introduce the queen bee food, and let you try different products like honey tea, pollen, chips etc.

Taste the Honey tea with Pollen

Believe it or not, the tea with honey tastes really good. If it's actually allowed, I would take another one.

Free Fruits while enjoying Vietnamese Music

Fruits like Papaya, Dragon Fruit, Pomelo and Pineapple were served to us while this family is singing.

Boat Ride

We rode two boats (Big and Small). Enjoy the fresh air and magnificent view. The water in this river came from different countries like China and other neighboring countries. There are many boats here and the river is so wide. It took us 15-20 mins to arrive to our destination.

You can see the Mekong River Here.

All big boats are equipped with Life Jackets. We'll be safe as long as there's no crocodile swimming around the river.

Yes! There's crocodile here. Do not do what I did in the picture on your left. Someone from our tour group was able to take a picture of a crocodile swimming around this small river, where we use a small boat. 

There are a lot of small boats for a small river path. Yet, They are very good paddlers. We were able to arrive at our destination in less than 10 mins. We gave these old people 40,000 VND as Tip.

The final destination for our small boat trip.

Coconut Candy Making

Candy packaging Corner

All parts of the coconut are somewhat used in this factory. Coconut shells are transformed to house decorations. The Husks are used to create fire. The meat of the coconut are used to make candies and other other food products, while the juice are formed to wine, etc.



Lunch
On our way to our lunch area, we have to ride this boat again. We would pass this area and would have an opportunity for you to take pictures.

I apologize for not being able to take a picture of the food that we eat. However, I still remember the food: Rice + Chicken + Vegetable.

If you want to try exotic food like snakes, iguana, crocodile or squirrel, you can order it. You can see the price for each kind at the picture on top. Some of our tour-mates shared for them to try some of these delicacies. My friend and I, don't want to try these food because it's a little bit creepy.

1 hour Biking
After you're done with your lunch, it's actually free time. You have an option to take a bike (for Free) and tour around the area. Even though I don't know how to use a bike, I tried my best to make it stable. In the end, I still don't know how to use one. 

I recommend to you guys, to just book your tours in the travel agencies in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. They have a lot of travel agencies. We booked our tour on the day of our tour (7:30AM, the departure is at 8:00AM)

I feel so sad, because I only have one day to spend in HCM :( The next time I'll visit HCM, I will go to different travel areas like: Chu Chi Tunnel, Ecological Tour, City tour.

I hope you will try these amazing tour offered by Vietnamese Agencies. 

Read More

Viva Manila: A Carlos Celdran Downtown Tour

Tweet

Carlos Celdran is Filipino tour guide, cultural activist and performer artist (from Wikipedia). I would agree to this. I attended his tour and he was a great tour guide. I am supporting his petition about the Torre being built that would destroy the beauty of Rizal Park. Lastly, I saw him sing a song at the Miramar hotel. He is very famous for his Rabbit Ears headband.

Reminders from Mr. Celdran at MMDA Safety Park

He has been offering tours to the people, both foreigners and locals, to appreciate the beauty and rich culture of the Philippines. Some of his famous tours are: Intramuros Tour, Binondo Tour, Imelda CCP Tour.

We joined the 2^nd Viva Manila Tour last September 8, 2013. Although it rained, it doesn’t stop us to continue the tour and enjoy the magnificent downtown manila. We had a walk tour around Padre Faura, Malate, U.N Avenue, Roxas Blvd. and Ermita. You will learn a lot of fun facts from Carlos. It’s a FREE TOUR, which makes it more FUN.

We discovered this free tour in his Fan Page in Facebook. Here is a sample post that he has.

Some of the facts, I remembered:

1. Imelda Marcos established MMDA. She’s the Queen of MMDA ( Acts like a governor)
2. MMDA top position is not as important as before. (Janitor of the mayors)
3. Imelda is the brain of why Edsa existed.
4. She’s also responsible for the commercialization of the Harrison Park.
5. Ermita was named after the word HERMIT ( I forgot why, forgive me)
6. Carlos lived at the Miramar Hotel and watched the 9-11 news there.

JadeVine's Sign for our tour group 

The flow of the VIVAMANILA Downtown Manila Tour

Visit and educate yourself at the MMDA Safety Park 

Jeepney Ride to Mabini St.

Visit an art museum ( Maria Closa: Arts Primities Antiques)

Visit a 1945 store (Tesoro’s)Visit a Hotel [Lotus]

Visit Solidaridad Bookstore ( unfortunately, the store owner didn’t open for us)

Visit a famous bakery – Hizon’s

Visit HIRAYA Gallery

Free Pika-Pika food from JadeVine c/o Manila City Hall

 Visit Miramar Hotel for their Art Deco 

Group Picture in Luneta/ Rizal Park

My Latest Luneta Pic without any building behind.

  

The whole trip lasted for 3 hours, but it was really worth it. You’ll appreciate how beautiful Manila is. I fell in love with the rich cultural heritage that still exists. After the trip, it made me realize that there are still more places to visit around Manila. I hope that more people can visit these places.

I can't hide my happiness because Carlos Celdran re tweeted, favorited and liked my photo in Twitter and Instagram :) I know he's the admin of his own account and not just any person. :)

I will post our experiences for each destination we been to throughout this trip. I would just like to share to you a glimpse of what a VIVA Manila tour is. Watch out for the next Viva Manila tour on the 3rd week of October.

Enjoy!

Read More

Explorer Tours Vietnam

Tweet

It’s been a while since my last entry in this blog. I would share to you my bad experience when it comes to travel agency in Vietnam. If you see "Explorer Tours Vietnam", Do not book there. They have so many bad reviews already.

It was my first time in Vietnam and we really want to go to Ha Long Bay. We booked for a private tour w/ private cruise so we can have control with our time. We have to pay a fortune for this one [$150 per person] Yes, It’s quite expensive but we have no choice. It was a bad decision to choose this Travel Agency.

Sadly, there was a storm so we have to cancel our trip there. The night before we arrived Hanoi, the travel agent informed us that our trip was cancelled. They suggested that we try this other tour [ Tam Coc – Ha Long Bay on Land]. So we did, because we really don’t have any choice. Our Hanoi experience was destroyed by this travel agency.

What annoyed me during that time are the ff:

1. They informed us late about the cancellation of our trip [7pm], we’re already in the airport. I sent an email for suggestions, they replied late. We just change the tour to tam coc, even if it’s so expensive and seems not worth it ( so we won’t waste our stay in Hanoi)
2. Original time of Pick-up from our Hotel : 6am; They said, since we confirmed late, 8am.  But they arrived in our hotel: 11AM!!
3.  Based from our tour guide, there’s no such thing as the driver of a particular car didn’t agree to anything ( the travel agency told us that, the car that was supposed to be our car for the tour decline, so they have to look for another car with a higher fee.)
4. The travel agency guy is so arrogant. Keeps on saying, he’s already there, but we have to wait for so long.

If you Google them, here are some of the posts you can see.

DO NOT BOOK YOUR TOURS WITH EXPLORERS TOURS VIETNAM. Do not be fooled, they have so many websites with different names. 

If you try to goggle Explorer Tours Vietnam Tripadvisor in Google, you'll read a lot of stories from other tourists. I hope you’ll not experience the same misfortune that we encountered during our stay.

Here's their contact detail:

Merchant Name: Explorer Tours Vietnam

Address: 85 Hang Bo Street, Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi, Vietnam

Tel: (844)39.230.713 

Fax: (844)39.230.835

Email: explorertours@yahoo.com

My suggestion:

1.       Book a tour through your hotel.

2.       Book a tour when you arrive in Vietnam.

3.       Always have a back-up plan of traveling by yourself. You can try hiring local tour guides [triip.me]

Would I still go back to Hanoi, Vietnam?

My answer is: Of course! I haven’t been to Ha Long Bay L I would really love to explore other places in Vietnam. In my next post, I’ll share to you our itinerary for this expensive trip J

P.S the cost of our Tam Coc Tour = $110 per person and we didn’t see the beauty of the place because we arrived late and the rain is already heavy.

Read More