La Union Soul Surf Festival 2013

When I saw the poster of this event a month ago, I told myself I would definitely go. In fact, I invited a lot of my friends to go with me. But as the the event gets closer, I was starting to feel it's just a waste of money, most especially because the packages were quite expensive for a quick weekend getaway. So, I decided not to go anymore.

On October 25 (Friday), I saw on Facebook and Instagram that a lot of my friends were already in San Juan, La Union for the event. And luckily, I found out that some of my friends were about to leave Manila early morning of October 26 (Saturday), which I thought was the best time to go because I still had a birthday party to attend on Friday night, plus the Soul Surf main event was Saturday night. So straight from my friend's party, we're off to La Union! We left Marikina at 3am and we arrived in San Juan at around 10am.  I was just asleep in the car during the entire trip. What took us so long to arrive was the traffic due to the roads that were under repair.

We had brunch at the restaurant of Kahuna Resort. I actually didn't like it there because the food was quite expensive and the service was poor; not really worth the price we paid for. After brunch, we headed to Oasis Hotel, which was a 10-minute drive from the beach area. All of the hotels by the beach were fully booked because of the event; and since we're just walk-ins, it's hard for us to find a vacant room. Luckily, one of our friends helped us book a room at Oasis, where she's staying.

A standard room (with two single beds) cost us around Php 4,000, plus an extra Php 550 for extra bed since there were 7 of us to share the room. After resting for 3 hours, we headed out to the beach. We started our drinking session at around 3:30 pm and it's amazing how cheap the beers were: Php 35 for Red Horse and Php 45 for SanMig Light. At around 5pm, the girls and I went around to check out different product/brand booths by the shore. We visited some friends at the Paktor app booth, we had our group photo taken at the Smart Live More booth, and we played beer pong at the Rayban booth. Thanks for the free drinks we got from all of those booths.:))

the Soul Surf vibe

sunset sesh with the girls

lovin' this sunset photo

walking by the shore

Girl Friends Forever (GFFs)

Smart Live More! :)

Beer Pong at the Rayban booth

Team 1 (Me, Farah, and Mikki)

Team 2 (Thina, Grace, Reg)

beer pong champs!

After sunset, we headed to the party grounds. Thanks to Team Paktor PH for giving me a media VIP pass. I've been all over the place trying to join my different groups of friends. Despite having too much alcohol, I managed to survive because of the Monster energy drink my friends gave me. I even forgot to have dinner because we're having too much fun with RAC playing in the background. We grabbed some past midnight meals at Kuyang food cart where I had sisig rice bowl for Php 150. After eating, we headed back to the party for a bit then we went back to the hotel at around 1:30am.

at the concert grounds

and we're drinking straight from the large bottles :))

Team Paktor PH and the birthday girl, Janice

my wingmen gone cray cray

the party scene

Hosts: Raymond G., Nicole A.

sunrise at SCTEX on our way home

When we left the event, there were still a lot of people so I didn't know what time the party ended. Anyway, as I got back to the hotel, I woke everyone up 'cause we had to head back to Manila.

It's one helluvah Saturday! (yeah not weekend 'coz I was there for just 24 hrs haha) Imagine, I only spent a total of Php 700 (gas/transpo, hotel, food, drinks) during the entire trip because everything else was FREE! haha thanks to connections! Anyway, I really should go back next year and stay longer. I super loved the Soul Surf vibe!:)

Awesome Summer 2013

Summer of every year is what I always look forward to for so many reasons. First, it's been raining all year and it would be nice to go to the beach and have fun under the sun even for just a short time. Second, it's vacation from school. Yeah, even now that I'm in my Masters, I'm still excited for summer vacation. It's the time of the year when I can go out of town or out of the country longer, that's why I spent 3 months with my relatives in Japan last year and in 2010, and a month in Boracay in 2009. Third, it covers the Holy Week and the Labor Day weekend, when everyone's out and spending time with friends and families. And lastly, April is my birthday month! And I haven't spent my birthday under the rain.:)

This year, I didn't go to Japan because I had to attend the summer workshops in school that I've missed twice because I was always out of town or out of the country during summer. But since I'm already about to graduate, I was required to attend them. So I stayed and spent three weeks in Boracay (with side trips in Iloilo) instead.

My friend booked me a flight for her wedding in Iloilo, but I told her to book me to Boracay first then I'll just take a land trip to Iloilo for her wedding. So what happened was, I arrived in Boracay on April 19 and spent the weekend with my bestfriend and PLDT friends. The highlight of this weekend was Jay Sean's concert, and the relaxing time with friends at our hotel, The District, and our roadtrip from Caticlan to Iloilo.

On April 21, we arrived in Iloilo and had a food trip. The next day it was my friend's wedding at Punta Villa. Did my own makeup using Urban Decay's Naked palette, while the hairstylist helped me with my hair. The next day, I moved to my friend's place where I stayed for 2 nights. I had my birthday salubong in Bourbon and Flow at Smallville, then the next day, we had my birthday lunch at our friend's resto, BBQ Shack. I really had a great time in Iloilo.

On the day of my birthday I spent 3 hours in the van waiting for it to be filled with passengers. I should've gone to the terminal earlier so I didn't have to wait that long. Anyway, I arrived late in Boracay and went straight to our hotel, LSM Square, owned by my friend's aunt. That was my birthday weekend and I spent it with my friends from graduate school, and some Manila friends. We also had one Couchsurfer who joined us in this trip. We got passes to "Sunkissed" at White House and The District 'coz one of the organisers was my sorority sister. So that's when we discovered why sunset parties were a lot better than late night parties haha! Some friends and I also had a picnic at Puka Beach, the reason why I missed the Ariel's Point cliff diving with my classmates.

When my classmates left, I was adopted by my friends in their hotel. Then I moved to another place when they left. Good thing I never ran out of friends while I was there. I kept moving from one hotel to another. I think I've stayed in a total of 7 hotels in my 3 weeks there haha, and the only accommodation I've paid for was the actual planned trip which was during my birthday weekend.

Anyway, there came the Labor Day weekend. More friends and acquaintances came to the island. It meant sunset parties everyday. The problem with that was, a lot of my friends are already drunk at around 9 or 10 pm that no one's there anymore at 12mn or 1am to party more. haha! El Hombre, Antonov sponsored the sunset parties at Whitehouse and Sur in Station 1. My friends and I loved chilling at Two Seasons 'coz of their Four Cheese Pizza and Oyster Sisig, plus they serve good cocktails too. During the Labor Day weekend, the happy hour at Two Seasons is exclusive only for their in-house guests, but since we were there everyday, the waiters did us a favor. Sur had the longest happy hour, from 2pm to 8pm I guess. And they sold Jack-Coke for Php 100 only and it's Buy 1 Take 1. Summer was so crazy because of those sunset parties. Vans also partnered with Smart in their Smart Live All Out event in Boracay Uptown. We also joined the Vans family as they celebrated the birthday of WynWyn Marquez at Discovery Shores. That same night was Zedd's concert at Club Paraw sponsored by Marlboro. Unfortunately, we didn't make it 'coz the place was so full that even the VVIPs were not allowed to enter the overly crowded venue.

Then on May 5, my friends and I went on a land trip to Iloilo 'coz our flight was on the next morning at around 6am. That flight only cost me Php 1500 via Zest Air. In Iloilo, we had dinner in Villa, where a basket of fresh oysters only costs Php 40. Everything in Iloilo is so cheap that's why I love it there!

So after 3 weeks in Boracay and Iloilo, I could say that I had an awesome summer!!! It's probably one of the best summer vacations I've ever had! Thanks to my friends.:)