Visiting Baluarte at 1:00 in the afternoon on Easter Sunday wasn't exactly the best idea for a group of twenty-something pals who tagged along ze impatient parents XD Even the charming Calle Crisologo didn't win their hearts. And I say blame the summer heat that felt like 40° Celsius on our skin.
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Before heading to the Heritage Village, I was expecting to only find old houses and museums and that it would be so hard to look for cheap pasalubongs. Wrong and wrong. Calle Crisologo is actually a whole stretch of souvenir and antique shops. Being a sucker for souvenirs, my initial reaction after seeing this awesome strip of pasalubong goodness was between OH MY #$@%#@$ GAAAHD and HELL YEEEEEAH! :))
The Heritage Village, Calle Crisologo in particular, is a very charming place. It is a heaven for photo enthusiasts and a paradise for antique collectors. One can explore the heritage village via horse carriage for P150/hour. But despite the scorching heat (we arrived at around 10am), we opted to walk around as the place is relatively small and very walkable.
Out of mere curiosity and in an effort to mingle with the locals, Toto asked the man in the registration booth a simple question: "Kelan po nagawa 'tong simbahan?" (When was the church built?).
"Sir, everything you need to know, as in every detail about the Church, is already written in this paper -- for only P50." Whuuuut.The.Heck. It was a simple question answered with a rehearsed line aimed for tourists. Inside the grounds of the church. On Easter Sunday. While the priest was sharing the word of God. But regardless of this shameful incident, our visit to the St. Augustine Church was, for me, the highlight of our Vigan trip (although technically, it's not part of Vigan). It's April 7 and it's Black Saturday surfing, yaaay! :) Woke up extra early today to catch the friendly waves in San Juan. Tatay drove us to the budding surfing capital of the north at around 7AM. It was a short 10-minute ride from our house. This was my second time to try surfing and Kert's first!
I was thrilled when I learned about a new resort located just 5 minutes away from our house in Bacnotan, La Union. A BIG YAAAAAY! :) La Playa Ursula is a newly constructed beachfront resort in Paratong, Bacnotan, La Union. We checked the place out on Good Friday and we were lucky enough to have the whole place all to ourselves! Well, sort of :)
We visited Puerto Princesa at a time when Mayor Hagedorn's team was rigorously campaigning for the Underground River to be included in the New 7 Wonders of the World list. Posters were all around the city, showing instructions on how to vote for PPUR through SMS and through the Internet. Everything was all good - except for the fact that Hagedorn's face was 10x bigger than everything else that was written on the posters XD But yeah, it's how Philippine politics works.
Anyway, we were very excited to see this natural wonder and to know if Puerto Princesa would topple Coron in the top spot of our places-to-see list. More after the jump. Would you buy a 3D/2N Puerto Princesa trip for 2pax with airfare, hotel accommodation and island hopping tour for P9,900.00? I did. I joined the bandwagon and clicked the "buy this deal" button in the MetroDeal website. Hey! That's just P4,950/pax for an all-in package! But did we really save P6,100.00 as advertised on their site? More after the jump.
It has been almost 3 years since I visited this paradise but I can still clearly remember how much we enjoyed this beautiful, ravishing, extraordinary, perfect, stunning, lovely, magnificent, exquisite place named Coron. Too many good words to describe it, seriously. After college graduation, my friends and I initially wanted to go to Hong Kong to celebrate before we all become "professional" citizens of the world. But due to the bird flu scare, we were forced to find another place to visit. My friend, Maan, insisted that we go visit Coron. We wanted to go out of the country but the heavens probably wanted us to explore more of the Philippines before we head somewhere else. This 5D/4N Coron trip turned out to be my best trip yet.
What's after the jump: 1. 5D/4N Itinerary and cost breakdown 2. Ms. Gigi and Gran Vista 3. Places to see 4. Tons of pictures!! :) This is a sample travel plan for a 2D/1N trip to San Juan, La Union for 4pax. Of course you can choose to not do some of the activities here like surfing on the second day. You may also want to stay in a different hotel. Check out my previous post for other hotels' contact information and room rates.
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