Short Notice Trips Are The Greatest!

It feels so great meeting new people from different countries because you'd get to have a cultural exchange and share the same interests at the same time.  Plus, they're much easier to talk with because they don't judge like my fellowmen does every time.  Seriously.  Or maybe I'm in the wrong circle?

Just like last week I was able to meet up with two Taiwanese guys (Chen and Ray) and a Vietnamese lady (Nala) at Mall Of Asia.  My best bud, Jry, actually called me up a couple of hours prior for the short-notice meet-up.   We were supposed to go to Tagaytay but I discouraged them to do so because the weather isn't looking good and it's close to dusk, so there's no sense going there since we won't be seeing the lake at night time.  So we just went to Harbor Square for dinner and went to Music Bank in Macapagal for videoke.  We actually had a blast!  Chen and Ray singing Chinese songs, most of which are so familiar because of Meteor Garden, and Nala belting out her inner diva.  It was Jry's first time singing in videoke too! lol  Mission accomplished! :)

The next day, we went to Tagaytay and got there past lunch time where we dined at Leslie's Restaurant.  It was foggy so we weren't able to see Taal Lake clearly, it was humid, and there were a lot of tourists.  But I'm glad they liked bulalo, sisig and pinakbet.  

They also were serenaded by this in-house band that goes to each table and they'll sing a song of your choice.  Funny thing about it was that the musicians/singers looked so bored but they sound good.  And we were surprised that they are up to date with the songs!  They even sang Alicia Key's "Girl On Fire."  LOL.

Next stop, Sonya's Garden, since Jry needed a serious back massage.  And, yeah, I had a foot spa bonding with the guys.  Haha!

After the quick massage, we went to People's Park but, unfortunately, it was closed by the time we arrived.  But we still get to see the rest of Cavite at the foot of People's Park.  Then we went back to Mall Of Asia where we had dinner and the best place for us to drop off.  

It was fun yet exhausting trip.  We said our goodbyes with Chen and Ray, and told Nala that she can sleepover at my home so that she could see the different side of the Philippines and not the hustle and bustle of Metro Manila.  But, of course, that will be another story to tell, and a spontaneous one as well.

That was a quick and simple trip with our fellow couchsurfers, but we enjoyed each other's company.  I learned a lot from them and I really had fun.  Hoping to see them soon.  :)

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Next post, Trippin' with Nala.  That I have to write some time next week as I'm sleepy and I have so much work to do later until Sunday.  

Go and explore!  :)

A Taste Of Honey

I normally don't celebrate my birthday.  I just don't.  It's just another ordinary day for me.  But I'm blessed with people who do their best to make my day eventful.  There were two surprise parties back in 2009 and 2011.  Honestly, I'm still in the state of shock whenever I think of it and had this feeling of awkwardness maybe because I don't like that much attention.

Yet, I think the best celebration I had so far was just two weeks ago where I had the chance to get pampered by having a foot reflexology spa at Sonya's Garden, thanks to John and Joyce for the treat!  Actually, my ideal celebration would be a make-over, from head to toe, with all the massages, mani-pedi, hair treatment, new hair cut, facial treatments, and shopping.  I never spent too much for kikay stuff, so, yeah, that's my ideal birthday celebration.

Right after our foot spa, we looked for a place to dine.  We failed to search for the right spot overlooking Taal Lake since most establishments were packed and it was getting dark then, until we passed by this restaurant along the road, named A Taste Of Honey, and decided to give it a try.

Basing from its name, I assumed that all dishes on their menu has honey in it, but I was wrong.  They serve the common Filipino dishes that we usually have in Tagaytay.  Since we were craving for bulalo, we went for it along with grilled liempo, fried halo-halo and honey iced tea. I was supposed to have their honey beer, beer mixed with honey, and opted for san mig light, though I was told that they only serve Red Horse for their honey beer.  So, yeah, I'm not a heavy drinker that's why I ordered their honey iced tea instead.

Mr. Jun Aragon, co-owner of the resto bar, poured our wineglass with their complimentary honey wine that they also sell at the restaurant.  I've tried honey wine before (I bought from the food expo last February) and loved it, and this met my expectations as well.  It's bitter, honey-sweet and sour at the same time.  It's very soothing.

Before settling on our orders, I asked for John's take on what to order but he insists that I'm the birthday celebrant so I should be the one who should decide.  Of course, our attendant heard the entire conversation, so a few minutes later, while I somewhat heard from the kitchen/bar "birthday niya" (it's her birthday), I knew something's up.  And there came the crew singing "Happy Birthday" with this cute dessert.

This was totally surprising and sweet after knowing that they're in soft opening phase (the resto bar just opened a week before.

Then our orders finally arrived on our table.

The verdict:  Bulalo tastes good.  You'd instantly knew how it was prepared--very neat.  The honey iced tea, well, you know how it'll taste like.  And the halo-halo fritters, that was delish too! :)  But since I was expecting it to be a restaurant with dishes infused/mixed with honey, I'd only give this 8 out of 10 stars.

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Oh, did you know that honey is good for our health?  When you feel beat, just have a spoonful of honey or mix it with your drink, or have it on your sandwich and it will totally give you the energy that you need.  It can also improve your digestive system and helps fight disease due to its antioxidants and anti-bacterial properties.  It can also keep you calm at night before sleep with the traditional warm milk and honey.  With that said, drop by A Taste Of Honey along Tagaytay-Nasugbu Highway near Alfonso, Cavite.

Food Porn

I'm fairly new on using a DSLR, Nikon 5100 to be exact, and been practicing photography lately whenever I have the chance.  That's why I'm sharing with you some of my takes and would appreciate it if you comment below.  I prefer available light kind of photography, so, yeah, don't urge me to have all those equipment and tools needed for better photographs (and I don't have the budget for that lol).

our first meal in Coron, Palawan (Dive Link Resort)
Sinigang na Hipon

Fried Chicken at Dive Link Resort

Vegetables with Seafood at Dive Link Resort

Sorbetes aka dirty ice cream at Harbour Center, Coron, Palawan

my breakfast plate at Dive Link Resort

lunch (Coron Island tour) at Smith beach

my lunch plate at Smith beach
sunlight is too harsh.  oh well..

carioca in Busuanga

bananacue in Busuanga

strawberry smoothie and banana smoothie

my strawberry smoothie

I was not a fan of strawberry-flavored drinks or desserts, but this smoothie changed my mind.

Sinigang na Salmon at Centro Coron

Stir-Fried Vegetables, Centro Coron

No Knead Dough that I made yesterday, April 9th

A Taste Of Honey's gift on my birthday, a pineapple pie.  Sure is delish!  I'll be posting my review on the new found place at Tagaytay.  ^_^

Honey Wine by A Taste Of Honey... It's complimentary, btw.  

A Taste of Honey's Fried Halo-Halo

A Taste of Honey's Bulalo

A Taste of Honey's Honey Iced Tea

Tagaytay

Celebrating our seventh year together, bf and I decided to take an overnight trip to Tagaytay.

We rode a bus from Bacoor that has a Mendez-Tagaytay signboard to it.  The trip costs us Php 71 each and the ride lasted for an hour.  We dropped off at Jollibee in Tagaytay rotunda instead of Olivarez terminal where we were supposed to ride a People's Park jeepney that will pass by Crosswinds Grand Quartier Hotel Suites.  We then hopped on the said jeepney at Olivarez terminal and paid Php 14 each for the ride going to Crosswinds.

Here's a brief breakdown in case this happens to be your itinerary:

• SM Bacoor - Olivarez Php 71
• Olivarez Jeep Terminal - Picnic Grove Php 11
• Olivarez Jeep Terminal - Crosswinds Php 14

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http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=104087

Now at Crosswinds, we waited right outside the main entrance while the guard on duty called the suites's shuttle.  I was expecting it to be a coaster type of bus, but it was just a simple sedan.  The entire place was breathtaking.  We drove around the wide streets of the village, pine trees all over the place, colorful country-style houses on every block, and the never ending hills of the place gave us this feeling that we're out of the country and not in Tagaytay.

We arrived at the suite's lobby.  It's a very tiny lobby where the pigeon hall is situated on the left and the reception desk on my right.  We were welcomed by Kenneth, the receptionist.  He asked for bf's credit card and gave him an info sheet to be filled up.  Kenneth walked right outside the lobby's entrance, leaned on the floor and reached for the PDQ machine (credit card swipe machine).  It took him a while there. Then I heard the guard asking if there’s no signal. He nodded. Bf then asked him if they accept cash payments, and he enthusiastically said yes. He should have asked us first so he could have avoided the hassle. Hehe.

I handed Kenneth Php 3,500 and he’s asking for additional Php 1,000 for insurance, but it is refundable upon checking out. You know, just to make sure that any damages that we might be making to their facilities will be covered by it. Yeah, I’m just making assumptions again. :p  Lesson:  Pay in cash at Crosswinds Hotel Suites.

We were then escorted to our room which was just near the lobby.  I fell in love with the room the moment I walked in.  It can be treated as a fully-furnished pad.  Very nice.

I took a quick nap after having an exhausting trip.  As soon as I woke up, bf and I decided to have a quick snack and so we went to the nearby convenience store.  That's nice of them to think of having such a store here at Crosswinds.  It will be difficult for us to go grab a snack outside the hotel because it will take us a long while to reach the village entrance by foot (since the chauffeur was on duty).  But as we were mesmerized by the beauty of the streets toward the store, we took most of our time taking pictures specially on the store's neighbor, Santa's House.

We gone back to our hotel room, ate and drank our snacks, then geared up for our next destination, People's Park.  Since the chauffeur has not arrived the time we went out our hotel room, we decided to go on foot to the village entrance.  It was drizzling then, but humid.  It was a very long walk and a lot of trekking (yup, the place is full of hills), but because the place is breathtaking, we never felt exhausted, but we are way sweaty.

Right across the village entrance, there's a small house situated beside the road.  We asked manong if how long will it take us to get to People's Park by foot, he said it'll take us 45 minutes to an hour.  So we opted to ride a jeep going there.

We hopped on this jeep with a People's Park signage then dropped off at the foot of our destination.  We paid the entrance fee and trekked at the peak of the Park.  It's almost dusk when we arrived so we took a lot of pictures and succumb to the beauty of the place.  If only the place was preserved, it's a good venue for coffee shops and acoustic bars.  It really gets eerie once the darkness seeps in.

There was this tricycle waiting for passengers right outside the park's entrance.  We quenched our thirsts at the nearby store and went back to the tricycle.  We told the driver to take us to the nearest jeep terminal that we saw earlier so we have a ride back to Tagaytay Market for our dinner.  But the driver told us that it will cost us Php 40 for the ride, but it'll only take us five minutes to get there!  The lady who owned the store informed us that our fare back to the terminal would only cost Php 5.  Ugh.  So instead of throwing fists in the air, we walked going to the terminal.  It took us 20 minutes to get there.

Fare/Parking breakdown from People's Park:

• Crosswinds to People's Park (jeep) - Php 8
• Parking fee at People's Park - Car/Jeep/Bus Php 20; Bus Php 40
• People's Park Tricycle to Jeep Terminal for locals - Php 5
• People's Park Tricycle to Jeep Terminal for tourists - Php 40
• Jeep terminal to Olivares - Php 16
• Jeep terminal to Tagaytay City Market - Php 10

Fare from Crosswinds:

• Crosswinds to Olivarez - Php 14

We bought ingredients from the local market and headed back to our hotel.  This time, we were fetched from the village entrance to our place.  It's pretty dark on the road towards the suites, and we're not brave enough to trek down, so we're glad the chauffeur was still there at 8PM.

I cooked Nilagang Baka instead of going out to have our dinner since we can't find a cheap place to eat good Bulalo.

The next morning, we have our complimentary breakfast served in our room: Tocino and Longganisa with fresh squeezed orange juice and I-have-no-idea-if-it's-fresh mango juice.  Both tastes good and very filling.

We checked out at 12 noon and headed to Olivarez terminal for a bus or jeepney ride to Mushroom Burger.

• Crosswinds to Olivarez (jeep) - Php 14
• Olivarez to Mushroom Burger (jeep) - Php 8

The burgers weren't great.  We do think it's just a tourist hype.  Angel's burger or Minute Burger tastes way better.  The mushrooms were okay, I'm a fan.  But what tastes bad was their ketchup-mayo dressing.  It's so old school.  Then having cucumber in it makes it much more cheap on its taste.  It's a complete blah.  I'm going to throw up now.  So it's not worth reviewing anyway.

Then we rode Nasugbu jeep to Sonya's Garden that costs Php 13 each, then tricycle (Php 10 each) to Sonya's.

We had a relaxing full-body massage that costs Php 785 each.  The spa area is situated inside this big room with dividers on it.  So silence is observed in the area.  They gave us this dalandan (?) tea that we absolutely love right after our massage.

To put an end on our short trip, we went to Bag Of Beans near Sonya's and Alfonso.

The venue was packed.  Beautiful interior and aesthetics of the place, though the drink and the food were not good.  I ordered their White Mocha Drink which was so sweet and so bitter at the same time.  There's no subtlety to it!  Gawd.  It was a horrible drink.  And its coffee was kind of sour, which I don't like.  It has something to do with the beans.  Their carrot cake was quite good, but still a bit sweeter than expected.  So sweet drink + sweet cake = unsatisfied customer.

Bf had pancakes and it wasn't good as well!  It must have been beaten for quite a while that it turned out dry.  Very bad pancakes.  Tsk.  For his drink, he had hot chocolate.  It was quite on the sweet side too, but better than my white mocha drink.

Overall, our Bag of Beans experience was unsatisfactory.  Bad service, bad food.  Oh, why bad service?  Because they drop our orders on our table as if we're asking too much from them.  They served pancakes without the syrup and when we asked for it, the server asked why.  Plain stupid.  Sorry for the term.  Anyway, don't try it here if I were you.  I don't know if it's the same on their branch near the Tagaytay rotunda.

From there, we called it a day and we rode a bus to Manila.