Coron: jewel of palawan

View from Seadive

Seadive resto

Palawan is indeed the last frontier and going there is like setting foot on another country-- far,far away from the travails of city life. If you want to go to Coron but don't want to spend too much, you can join blogger Owen Ferrer's DIY groups or you can just browse the net for tips and make your own trip/schedule like we did.
My sis took these pics below especially for my blog.

Hallway leading to our roomsRelaxing on the hammocks on the 2nd floor verandah.Our fan room and below, bath and toilet. We reserved 2 fan rooms (P700 each room/night) at SeaDive in Coron town and just rested the whole afternoon. The rooms are a bit stuffy on hot days. The seabreeze can't seem to get through. There are no TVs in the rooms so I'm glad we brought some books and my portable dvd player. I'm glad to report that Seadive has plenty of clean water, a strong shower and free-flowing coffee all day.They also have a water dispenser so we didn't have to buy a lot of water like we had to in Bohol. I even joked that we should be called the Sulit family because we had coffee ,tea and water by the restaurant almost 3 times a day. There's also free wi-fi, too bad we didn't have a laptop. But then, why bring your laptop on your vacation, right? Excellent value for money. The only thing that would make this place better is if they had a pool on the 3rd floor as the water surrounding Seadive is not good for swimming.

Then, we went to Makinit Hot Springs at 6pm. The salt water temperature can reach 40 degrees celsius so it's better to go there at night lest you get broiled!

We had dinner at Bistro Coron, which Lonely Planet recommends and we were treated to a truly unforgettable meal!

Tarragon chicken, P165

Chicken cordon bleu, P175

Calamares, P120

Pa's favorite meal on the island: Beef tenderloin with pepper sauce, P280

Fish in herb and butter, P170

Day 2 was our Coron island tour courtesy of our tricycle driver/tour guide Anthony. We bought lapu-lapu (P180 a kilo) , crabs, rice and mangoes for our picnic lunch before riding a small boat to Beach 91 The beaches on Coron island are really small but pristine. Partly because of the hefty P100/person entrance fee but also because the people here know that eco-tourism is their major source of income so they have to keep it clean. Naturally, it became a perfect setting for a photoshoot! Suck in those stomachs!

I love this shot. Wish I was in that pic.




But this is ok, too. Check out our camera case which lets Twinx shoot underwater!

I swear, being on a small island without a TV or newspaper totally made our worries seem so small and insignificant.

Can't decide which one to use for my wallpaper...

More pix coming soon!

duhat update 2

yey! the duhat fruits are ripening! get in my tummy! of course, you may notice some of them are still reddish-violet...in my haste to get my fill, i may have picked some that were still sour.

black saturday in cavite

Kuya Alan came home for a vacation and invited us all over for a reunion even though it was Black Saturday.

Pampa-inggit: Al fresco dining included inihaw na bangus,roasted chicken, sinigang sa miso, kare-kare, steamed okra, pinakbet and fruit salad, brownies or watermelon for dessert

We also played bingo but had to stop becuase Papa kept winning. Nico said "sana hindi ka na manalo..." We also got to chat with tita gina, kuya nicky and wowa who I hope forgave us for having fun and gorging on food on such a holy day.

visita iglesia 2009

It was the Maundy Thursday and Twinx tested out her new camera.

We started at the spanking new, reconstructed Magallanes Church which was closed when we got there last year. The place is huge and there were ushers everywhere! Next stop was San Sebastian, Twinx's favorite church. She tried many times to get a clear picture of the interior but the mass and low light conditions inside proved to be a challenge.She had better luck at San Beda and its painted ceilings.This was St. Jude. Camera out of focus (gutom na yata ang kumuha)

Quiapo Church had fewer than expected people inside probably because mass was over.

Beautiful facade of San Agustin, the only church in Intramuros that survived the American bombing of Intramuros in World War 2 because it was made a red cross refuge. And finally, we prayed at the Manila Cathedral. Again, the pix are a bit blurred...the photographer was already famished....nanginginig na sa gutom! As a sacrifice, we didn't eat anything from the food stalls around the churches like the isaw or the fried squid. We just ate our baon fudgee bars and water before rushing to Max's for dinner! My cheeks are already sunken from extreme hunger. heehee!

tradisyon na ito!

I won! I won! again (again)

I love joining raffles and contests . My old profs used to tell me promos were meant to drive sales and get new patrons but I only joined promos if I were already using the products (like the Samsung)or like in the case of the Havianas, if there was no purchase necessary.
But when I saw that Meiji chocolates had a textraffle promo, I knew I had the perfect excuse to buy some more macademia chocolates. And last March, I got a letter informing me that I had won a 6300 cellphone!

What's my secret? I just keep on joining! I've joined Gobingo, the lotto, and PSR's premyo sa resibo countless times and lost over and over but it hasn't stopped me from joining other raffles/contests. As I read somewhere, You only lose all the bets you don’t make.

Another tip I do have, always be on the lookout for promos that come out in newspapers.Everyone joins the raffles on tv so your chances of winning are exponentially slimmer. Newspaper readers are fewer and some of them are well-off and won't even bother to join.

Duhat update

summertime and the fruit trees are flowering! the duhat flowers are slowly turning into green duhat fruits...can't wait till they turn deep violet and delicious!