A Quick Boracay Summer

So there I was again, without any plans of going to Boracay, I got dragged by a friend who wanted to celebrate her birthday at the island. I was only able to make up my mind on the last minute. And because we took Air Asia, it meant another delayed flight, so we waited for more than 2 hours. 

We flew from Manila to Kalibo International Airport, where we met up with our friend who came from Dumaguete, but flew via Cebu. It was already midnight when we got to the boat from Caticlan to Boracay. The boat rates really inflate at those hours so it's better to take day flights. We got to the island at 1am and we just headed out for a quick meal before going to bed.

So basically we did a lot of eating, photo op, and partying (without even drinking much). But I would say that eating was the highlight of our trip haha! In fact, this was the only Boracay trip wherein I have completed all the daily hotel breakfasts. It's because we've been going to bed early because we're not drunk. Talk about change! haha

It's also great to find out that some other friends were there too, so I got to hangout with them. Anyway, here's how the trip went on:

Boracay Getaway from Roycie S. on Vimeo.

Day 1
Station 2 - Friend got a Henna Tattoo
Two Seasons - Oyster Sisig and Four Cheese Pizza (never fails!)
Station 1- Photo Op and a bit swimming by the beach until sunset
Olé - Late dinner
Summer Place - Friend met up with a guy from Tinder but ended up being with a better person we met by the bar
Epic - I met up with my friends from Manila and hung out 'til the break of dawn

summer girls :) #summer2016 #boracayhits #islandlife #citygirltravels #girlsquad

A photo posted by Roycie S. (@royciepoisie) on Mar 31, 2016 at 4:56am PDT

Day 2
Puka Beach - Swimming and chilling (super pretty beach but the drinks were overpriced)
Spider House - Dinner with new friends
Epic - Party (and some drinking)

Day 3
Real Coffee - Lunch
Don Churros - Churro and Lava Cake fix
Jonah's Fruit Shake - Of course, we won't miss this
Las Brisas - Swimming and bonding by the pool
Station 2 - Buffet Dinner (another must for every Boracay trip)
Epic - My friend's birthday celebration
Then while we're a bit tipsy 'coz of our drinks, we had to go back to the hotel to get our stuff; then we headed to the port then the Kalibo Airport to catch our red-eye flight. However, our flight was ultimately delayed for like 4 hours, so we wished we just stayed and rebooked our flight (it's free anyway).

A photo posted by Roycie S. (@royciepoisie) on Apr 2, 2016 at 5:19am PDT

And that's another quick but awesome summer trip! Where to next? Just wait for it! :)

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!:)

Last Trip of 2012: Ilocos Sur & Ilocos Norte

My guy friends planned a trip to Ilocos, where one of our friends got a family beach house.  They tagged me along since I wasn't doing anything those days. A Lithuanian couch surfer also joined us, since he's in the Philippines for a short vacation. We left Manila at around 5pm on December 28; and we had a stop at NLEX and another one at Rosales, Pangasinan. After 8 hours on the road, we arrived in Vigan, Ilocos Sur at 2am. We had a quick meal at Rizal Park in Santo Domingo, a town near Vigan. The next town was Magsingal, where our friend's place was. We slept from 4am to 11am and headed out after lunch to explore Ilocos Sur. The last time I've been to Ilocos Sur and Norte was 7 years ago, during our field trip in Art Studies class. 

So here's a rundown of the places in Ilocos Sur that we've visited:

1. Crisologo Museum - the ancestral house of the Crisologo's, one of the most influential families in Ilocos Sur.

2. Baluarte - the house and ranch of Chavit Singson, a famous politician who loves collecting animals, even tigers!

3. Bell Belfry - the bell tower in St. Augustine church in Bantay, Ilocos Sur.

4. Calle Crisologo - a historic street in Vigan, which is listed as one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites.

5. Sunset at the beach behind our friend's place in Magsingal - the sunset was so nice, plus the sand was so fine, although it's dark gray.

What's cool about this trip was, our friend's mom was also at their beach house and she was cooking for us while we were there. But of course, we paid for the groceries because only her cooking service was free. haha! We were also able to try the Ilocos miki, a super yummy noodle soup with special noodles called, "miki" that's only available in Ilocos. Our friend's cousin cooked it for us and it was so addicting!:)

So that's our day 1. The next day (30th), we went on a 3-hr trip from Ilocos Sur to Ilocos Norte. We're supposed to swim at a beach in Pagudpud but due to a rainy weather, we were not able to swim. The waves were so huge and the weather was really cold. But at least we were still able to go around Ilocos Norte and visited the following sites:

1. Cape Bojeador Lighthouse - too bad it was prohibited to climb up the lighthouse itself because it's unsafe to do so.

2. Kapupurawan White Rock Formations - it's where Mario Maurer's tagalog movie, "Suddenly its Magic" was shot, plus some fake rock houses were built for "Si Enteng, Si Agimat, at Si Ako", an entry in the 2012 Metro Manila Film Festival.

3. Bangui Windmills - it energy produced by the windmills supplies electricity to the nearby towns.

4. Pannzian Beach and Restaurant - we had late lunch there while it was storming outside; and we loved their adobo.

5. Patapat Bridge - it's a bridge where you can see an ocean on the left and a mountain on the right.

6. Hannah's Resort - one of the famous resorts in Pagudpud; it's where we had coffee since it's too cold to swim. You can also try Blue Lagoon in Pagudpud.

7. Paoay Church - a baroque church that's also one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites.

Due to bad weather, we were not able to explore much of Ilocos Norte. But I still remembered the places we've visited 7 years ago during our Art Studies field trip. That time, we also visited the place of the Marcos family, where the former president's body was still being frozen. That experience really gave me goosebumps. It's so scary to see a dead person inside a glass freezer. Anyway, it's also nice to see the Paoay sand dunes where Panday and Himala was shot. It's like a huge desert. When I first went there, there's not much to do there, but now I've heard tourists can ride some ATVs while playing in the dunes. One place we have also visited 7 years ago was the the Laoag Sinking Bell Tower, as the name suggests, it was said to be sinking year after year. We've also worked on some pottery during our Art Studies field trip there.

Then we went back to the beach house in Ilocos Sur. The next morning, it was still cloudy so we were not able to swim at the beach. We just decided to leave early going back to Manila since it's the 31st of December and we had to catch the New Year's countdown.

The 2-day trip (not counting the days on the road) to Ilocos was quick yet fun. We were able to go to a lot of nice places there in a short span of time. And to talk about the budget, it was so cheap. We paid around Php 2,200 each, not including the pasalubong. So there were four of us and we just divided all the expenses by 4. Here's how much each of us paid:

1. Transportation (gasoline of Mazda 3) - 1,000

2. Food (groceries and snacks) - 1000

3. Toll Fees - 200

TOTAL: Php 2,200 (more or less)

And that's my last trip for 2012. Looking forward to more trips for 2013.:)

xoxo,
citygirl

Brothers and Sisters

It's been a couple of weeks that I've been staying at my friends' house. They were three siblings (Jian, Dos, Kim) and it felt like I was the fourth and Mark was the fifth. haha! But that didn't stop there 'coz we keep growing in number. Maze became officially a sister....while Angelia was just a part time sister haha ('coz she's not really based here in Manila but in Iloilo).

March 3 - It was supposedly Maze' flight to Boracay but she chose to stay so we all went to Timberland to swim!=) Wow, we're all livin' a bum's life while our Kuya Mark's busy at work in his office in Eastwood. haha!=))

in the car

 Timberland!

 power rangers!=))

 yummy milkshakes!

go go power rangers! haha! (locker keys)

star!

sunset

what a good life! haha

We spent the night at Eastwood City where we had dinner (Dencio's) and watched a movie (don't ask what it was 'coz it bored me haha). Kuya Mark's work was done so he was able to join us.

 haha random craziness

 my brothers and sisters =P

 hey look up!=)

dinner (too little servings at Dencio's)

It was such a fun day with my pseudo-siblings!=) I am looking forward to more moments like these. I love my brothers and sisters! Truly awesome treasures.=)