Ruby Loves Adventure

A good place to surf, waves are very tame, perfect for beginners.
Its sand is smooth but dark. Glad to have been to this place.

An amazing place to go to. Limestone cliffs and pristine turquoise waters await you. It is also a budget backpacker's dream. A fan cooled room onky cost us P 400 a night. That is $10, $5 per person, as there were 2 of us sharing the room.

I just want to share this photo, and hopefully many more to come :)

Tagged as the new "Boracay", Calaguas Beach in Camarines Norte is the ideal definition of roughing it. With no resorts, no running water, no mobile phone signal and no electricity on the island, why would you possibly want to go there?

Simply put, the simple living lifestyle and the gorgeous, fine, and pure white sand beach that surrounds the area. Two hours by boat from the Paracale Port, this magical island is definitely something of an unexpected hidden wonder for me. So, what is there to do within the island? You could choose to island hop and be dropped off at deserted beaches (if you're lucky enough!) and bum and swim your day away in turquoise blue waters that are so clear you could see the sand at your feet. If you opt to choose within the island, you could opt to walk the stretch of sand, on to the rocky patches where photo ops are ideal, and discover hidden beaches on the other part of the island.
Then again, these beaches are not as fine as the campsite.

Aside from the feeling of remoteness and the roughing it, it is an ideal place to stare at the stars - something you don't see everyday in Manila.

To get to Calaguas Island, you could take a packaged tour (which most people tend to opt for to avoid bringing loads and loads of stuff in the island) or to do it yourself, you could charter a boat from Paracale, which is an hour away from Daet.

Note that the island doesn't have electricity nor resorts, so you'll have to bring your own provisions (ie water, food, flashlights) and tents. If you choose to do the package tour route, you could get an all-in package. I took the travel factor tour instead of DIY as I travelled alone to the island. :)

However, if you are used to the finer things in life, be really prepared to expect only the basic of amenities, there are no airconditioned tents, and if there is no wind then the tent could be stifling if you choose to zip it up, the fresh water is 10 pesos per bucket - so if you need to take a bucket shower be prepared to pay for it. The toilets need to be flushed manually (you'll need to pay P10 if you plan to poo to flush it down) and they are not exactly that clean. Also prepare to brush your teeth using mineral water and just spit anywhere - there are no sinks located in the island.

So if you were going there, bring:
- Loads of wet wipes (you're going to need it)
- Toilet Paper/Tissues
- Food/snacks
- Lots and lots of water
- Your swimsuit
- A book to read
- A sarong to lie on
- A change of clothes

It all started with a whim to travel. Then there was a P288 sale from airphilexpress and I found myself booking a trip to Laoag and three days worth of leave.

Finally landed at Laoag Airport last sunday, march 25th at 630pm then signed up for the free shuttle from the airport to the city centre. Plan was to take a bus to Pagudpud and stay at Cathy's Homestay.

Lucky us, we caught the last trip of the mini bus from Laoag to Pagudpud! Fare was P60 for an ordinary bus and since we were in a bit of a hurry, we weren't gonna complain.

After two hours, we arrived at the Pagudpud town centre! My, it was a deserted area at 9pm! We were dropped off in front of the municipal hall and a tricycle picked us up to get to Cathy's resort in Saud Beach.

Note for those of you planning our sojourn: bring food with you! I actually bought some before the trip but left it in the car! Dohh! The stores close at 7pm in Pagudpud and there's no restaurant near Cathys place so if you don't have food, you'll end up with no dinner!

Just our luck, cathy's was overbooked and so we got to stay at Madrid Beach Resort, Cathy's aunties place. Same price but no breakfast included.

No hot shower but that's fine. It was a semi- early night or us as we were tired after the trip. We have an early day too, we have a tour of Pagudpud starting at 8am!

Photos to follow, when I get back home and manage to upload them.

I was compiling a list of things I did this 2011, and this is the travel bit. You may read my 2011 in Travel part One post here. I couldn't just put out all of my adventures in one post - it was faaar too many!! I <3 this  year - it was amaaazing !


JUNE



June 4 - Baler, Aurora: Mother Falls. Baler Museum. Quezon Par. Balete Park & Millennium Tree. Stayed at Bahia de Baler. Ermita Hill (where the people went up to try and escape the tsunami of so long ago). Old Japanese Tunnel. Souvenir shopping. Baler Catholic Church. Quezon's new house. Marker for Aurora Quezon. Baler City Hall & Square.

June 5 - Baler, Aurora: Surfing Lesson & bumming at Sabang Beach.
Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija (to get a bus back to Manila).

June 10 - the start of my very first ever backpacking trip!!

Cebu-Mactan International Airport. Cebu Ferry Terminal. Supercat ferry to Tagbilaran City, Bohol.
Bohol: Mag-Aso Falls, Kawasan Falls, Canugao Falls (this one was scary - we had to plod through rice fields just to get here!), Sagbayan Peak. Stayed at Darunday Inn. Bojol Grill (dinner).

June 11 - Bohol Countryside Tour: Chocolate Hills at Carmen. Butterfly Center. Man-Made Forest at Bilar. Tarsier Viewing. Loboc River Cruise. Hanging Bridge (ha ha - one of the scariest things I've ever done. Good thing there was shopping in the end to reward me for my bravery ;) ). Python Viewing (Prony).  Baclayon Church. New Blood Compact Site. Bohol Bee Farm (hmmmmm yummy ice cream + bread spread!)



June 12 - Bohol Sea Tour: Dolphin Watching (a success although I did not see much and they did not swim beside the boat). Snorkelling at the Marine Fish Sanctuary. DUmaluan Beach. Hinag-danan Cave. Taver's Inn. Bohol Quality Mall. Plaza Rizal. Bohol City Hall. Tagbilaran Church.

June 13 - Bohol Tourism Office. Macaque Monkey Sanctuary (Cantamucad, Loon). Punta Cruz Watchtower. Island City Mall. Alona Beach.

June 14 - Bohol Sea Tour # 2: Dolphin Watching. Snorkelling at Fish Sanctuary. Balicasag Island. More Dolphin Watching (saw some dolphins swimming past the side of the boat. What's more, is that there were very few boats trying to chase after the dolphin! Amazeballs!). Vanishing Island. Virgin Beach. Rode a habal-habal for the first tmie ever. Bohol Beach Club.

June 15 - Tagbilaran Pier. Supercat ferry to Cebu. Sugbutel Hostel. Crown Regency: 4D Theatre: The Lost Island. Viewing Deck. Edge Coaster. Sky Walk. Ayala Center Cebu. Shopping at Mango. Bufffet dinner at Crown Regency.



June 16 - Fort San Pedro. Plaza Independencia. Cebu City Hall. Magellan's Cross. Basilica del Sto Nino. SM City Cebu. Colon Street. Cathedral & the Museum. Heritage of Cebu Monument. Casa Gorordo. San Diego-Yap Ancestral House. Shamrock (Pasalubong shopping). Basilica del Sto Nino Museum. Dinner at CNT Lechon.

June 17th - End of backpacker trip. Cebu-Mactan International Airport.

June 30th - Ninoy Aquino Terminal 1: Airport Lounge. Business class: Etihad from Manila-Abu Dhabi.


June marked a turning point in my life: I backpacked alone in some parts of Bohol and in Cebu. It's the first time i've travelled solo - so I decided to choose a place where I could be quite familiar with. As we all know, Cebu is almost like Manila. I was supposed to go abroad but the airline tickets were quite expensive when I was trying to book for stuff at the last minute. Nevertheless it made me believe in myself: that I could travel alone and survive by commuting around. Ther was a lot of research involved in this solo trip before I did go though!


JULY

Ahhhh the start of one of my favourite months of 2011. It was another turning point in my life. :) Read on!





July 1 - Abu Dhabi International Airport. Etihad Business Class Lounge. Six Senses Spa: 15 Minute Spa Massage (it was so good, I nearly fell asleep!!). Business Class: Abu Dhabi to London Heathrow Terminal 4. English Breakfast. #1 Pepys Street Apartment. Liverpool Street Underground Stn. #175 Bishopsgate (my office whilst in London - I loved this building). Spitalfields. Mitre Square (ooh where Jack the Ripper killed one of the girls). Tower of London. Tower Bridge. Hays Galleria. HMS Belfast.

I was pretty jetlagged on that day but nothing can stop me from going around my favourite city in the whole entire world!

July 2 - Tower Hill. Kensington High Street. The Gap. H&M. Kensington Park. Kensington Palace. Hyde Park. South Kensington. Gloucester Road. Wembley Stadium. Take That: Progress Live 2011.

Ahhhhh.. I finally saw one of my favorite boy bands ever. LIVE. And with Robbie Williams!!



July 3 - Victoria Tube Station. Westminster Cathedral. Wimbledon: Men's Finals (Nadal vs Djokovic). Queue for hours on end to watch Djokovic win from a screen in Court #2. We may not be inside Centre Court but the atmosphere of just being there. PLus, we saw him come ot with the trophy too! Pimms & Strawberries & Cream. Hmm Yum. Yum.

July 4 - First day at work. 175 Bishopsgate. Hmm. Little did I know that my world is gonna go topsy turvey.

July 6 - Leon's. Spitalfields Market. :) I realized who my real friends were. And yes, what they told me was true. I really was regretting all the things that I said.

July 9 - Buckingham Palace: Changing of the Guards. Starbucks. New Scotland Yard. Westminster Abbey. Houses of Parliament & Big Ben. Trafalgar Square - tried going up the lions, but it was too slippery in the sculpture. Covent Garden. Zizzi Pizza/Pasta Place. The National Gallery.

July 10 - Westminster Cathedral. Ashford OUtlet Store Shopping (Kent, England).

July 15 - Drinks out the back of the office!!! (COney & Barrow)

July 16 - Cambridge, England: London's King Cross (high speeed train to Cambridge). Sedgewick Museum. Nando's (hmm peri-peri chicken at its finest). Punting at the River Cam (so relaxing and so nice!!!). King's College. Cambridge High Street.
July 17 - OXford Street: Primark. New Look. Next. M&S. Chinatown.

July 19 - Drinks at All Bar One (boss's treat!). Tennis lessons of sorts at Islington.

July 20 - Party at my friend's house. The first party we ever threw together - it was a little get together of sorts!

July 22 - Wimbledon Tennis Tournament at work (but not exactly in Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Club). Dog & Fox Bar @ Wimbledon Village.

July 23 - St Pancras Train Station. Canterbury West Train Stn. Canterbury Tales. Canterbury High Street. Canterbury Cathedral.

July 24 - Bearsted. Leeds Castle.

July 26 - Strada Restaurant, St Katherine's Docks (where boats are moored) - quaint little place.

July 28 - Bowls at Finsbury Square. Tried a new sport~ if I could call it a sport.

July 29 - Thames. Millennium Bridge.

July 30 - London Paddington. Oxford. Blenheim Palace (childhood home of Winston Churchill)




July 31 - Kew Gardens. Kew Palace.

Tiring July? Well, wait until the next few months! Such a shame that in July we failed to go out of the "comfort" area of Southeast England and London. We didn't even begin to take overnight trips out until August!!

So, that's it for now. Wait until Part Three and Part four of my Travel 2011 posts! :)

Looking at the tiny little notebook that I have that contains a summary of my goals, dreams, and what I have achieved for specific months and/or days in a certain year, I realized the pages are a lot more written on this year: the 2011 notes definitely added more "scratch" in it - travel ideas that were written down hastily while on the road, directions where to go & anything else. What I love aboout it though, is that the colour of pen I used to write stuff in is still the same: PURPLE :)

There's just something about writing on a piece of paper that appeals to me - nothing like opening up a notebook, old and battered, and looking back on ideas that was written from days/months/years past and the ability to look back on it everytime you want to: without looking for a specific file you have saved down from your computer or worrying about losing your files.

Anyhoo, it's nearly the end of 2011. At the time I'm writing this, it's December 10th, a Saturday, with 3 weeks to go before the last day of the year. I've always loved the New Year - it brings new hope, new joys, new experiences to look forward to. At the same time, the last day of the year gives me more than enough time to look back on the year past and think about what I did for the year: was it worthwhile? Did I make the most of my borrowed time?

Surely some of my old blog posts (and even book reviews) state the fact that we should live everyday to the fullest! And I would say that 2011 has been quite a fruitful year for me. It's one of my best years in the 27 years of my life so far!

And here we go, I will share what I've done for 2011 (so far) travel-wise.




JANUARY

I went to Davao! This is my second time to go to this city. No blog post yet (you'll find that I owe a LOT of blog posts - I never did try to sit down and blog about my travels)

Stayed there for 4 days and 3 nights - from January 17-21.

January 17 - Davao Crocodile Park, People's Park
January 18 - Philippine Eagle Park, Malagos Garden, Sul Orchids (where my mum went crazy buying a whole load of orchids for her to take home), Tribu K'Mindanawan village, Butterfly House, Shrine of Holy Infant Jesus of Prague, Jack's Ridge
January 19 - Pearl Farm.. Aldevinco Shopping Centre. Bangkerohan Market.
January 20 - Museo Dabawenyo, Magsaysay Park, San Pedro Cathedral, City Hall, Rizal Park, Davao Airport.

(Won Cebu Pacific tote bags on the way home from their fun flghts! :) )


Good January - got the airfare on sale so it was well worth it!

FEBRUARY

February 3 - Well, this is not exactly a travel-thing but I watched The Joy Luck Club Play alone at Onstage at Greenbelt!

February 12 - Hot Air Balloon Festval at Clark Field, Pampanga. Well worth sleeping on a bus just to get here. The balloon flight was amazing.
Treetop Adventure: Trekking & Canopy Ride at Subic Bay.
Shopped for some cheap imported goods at Subic too.

February 19th - 18th Philippine Travel Expo. Got a lot of brochures. It was time to plot where I was going and what opportunities were there (little did I know that I was embarking on a huge adventure soon)
World Pyrolympics: Portugal vs the UK. (The UK won 1st runner up for 2011, after winning the 2010 competition).




February 26th - Nido Science Discovery Centre. Not exactly the best science museum in the Philippines (quite expensive admission price, if you'll ask me).
Under the Sea 3D - bought a deal online. Cute little animals :)
World Pyrolympics: China vs France (meehhh - not that impressive).

February was okay, it could have been more memorable but couldn't complain given the opportunities I got :)

MARCH

March 6 - Resorts World, Manila. Saw Kaos - It is a brilliant show, it reminds me of the West End productions. I love Kaos the white lion & Sito the white tiger.

March 18 - Midnight Mercato. It's a food market. Uhmm, I'm not too big on food.

March 20 - The Postal Heritage Tour. Liwasang Bonifacio, Manila Post Office & Museum, The Metropolitan Theatre, Arroceroz Forest Park, Manila City Hall & SM Manila.
I know I promised to have blogged about this adventure but sadly I didn't get the time too. Why I was so lazy before, I couldn't understand.

Manila from the Met Theatre

Living it up in Corregidor

APRIL

April 6 - Good Charlotte live at Glorietta. I wasn't supposed to watch this. Until I got a text rom a friend saying I got tickets. Who am i to turn down such a great opportunity?

April 10 - Corregidor (Including the Malinta Tunnel Light & Sound Show). This place is very, very pretty. It has a lot of history to it, which I absolutely adored. I didn't expect such a brilliant place like this to exist so close to Manila! The ruins are so well-preserved, and it is a place that is just so photogenic.

April 15 - Shakespeare in Hollywood. More of a bookish milestone, but I bought a deal online and watched this alone too. I love watching plays and musicals - even if it means that I am going to have to watch them alone!

Sumaguing Cave, Sagada

April 22 - Banaue, Ifugao, Rice Terraces (Only photo ops though). Sagada - Trekking the Banga-an Rice Terraces & the Bomod-Ok Big Falls (it was absolutely tiring trying to go up the steep & the bazillion steps going up from the falls. I felt my heart beating and screaming at me. Even drank a whole bottle of gatorade!!)

April 23 - Sunrise at Kiltepan viewpoint. Cave Connection - Lumiang & Sumaguing Caves (I loved the caving adventure!! It was such a thrill! I never knew I could do it). Sagada Pottery & Lake Danum.

April 24 - Echo Valley & Hanging Coffins - The Echo valley is soooo pretty!!
St Mary's Episcopal Church - saw the vice mayor giving out coffee. And might I say that the coffee in Sagada is really, really yummy??? Also the yoghurt - some say that it was really sour but it was nothing like I've ever tasted! It was good! Souvenir shopping at both Sagada & Banaue (we stopped over somewhere in Banaue where it was quite cold and foggy - absolutely cool!)


MAY

May 20 - "Defending the Caveman" play at RCBC - another deal I got online. It was cool & funny.

May 21 - Anilao, Batangas. Stayed at Balai Anilao. Island Hopping: Sombrero Island & Eagle Point.

May 22 - Anilao, Batangas. Twin Rock beach.


May was okay - I didn't rally get a chance to do much. I guess I was quite tired from April?

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to write a quick note because I saw that Esme posted about our current situation in the Philippines on her blog: http://chocolateandcroissants.blogspot.com/

Okay, just an update for those living outside the Philippines:
Last Saturday, our country was hit by a typhoon [a hurricane to those who live in the US]. We normally have five categories for storms:
Signal # 1-5, which ranges from the wind speed brought about by the typhoon.

Manila was tagged under Signal # 1 last Saturday.

So to residents, it wasn't much of a big deal. We experience typhoons from June till September so it wasn't really that much of a big deal. Until the rains poured in.
It started raining Friday afternoon, and it didn't stop until Sunday morning.

Apparently in a span of hours, the typhoon Ketsana dumped more rain in Manila than Hurricane Katrina & low-lying areas were immediately flooded.

What's scary was that the flood just came out of nowhere. Areas that never experienced flooding before were suddenly filled with water. Water levels rushed up quite quickly, it caught everyone by surprise.

Thankfully we're still okay. Our kitchen got flooded because the grounds outside cannot take the water in anymore, but we managed to get the water out of our house by Saturday evening. The outside of our village was knee-deep in water, and we never experienced that kind of flooding before.

Some friends got stranded, others tried their best to save what they had.

It was a good thing we had supplies of food. We lost electricity for a few hours but it was turned on again, which prompted us to charge our mobile phones and batteries for flashlights.

At the moment, there is another super typhoon that is headed to the Philippines, it will hit the Northern part of Luzon but it is expected to bring rainfall again. And to think that other areas still have floodwaters in the area.

I guess I could say that I am quite lucky. There isn't much damage to our house [except for a door that expanded with the flood water and can't be closed anymore], as compared to what my fellow Filipinos have suffered.

But like everything, we will rebuild and we are thankful that most of us are still alive.

Haven't been reading much books lately, so updates and/or reviews would be posted as soon as I can.

Thank you so much for all your overwhelming messages!