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These are our new puppies we got from my grandmother during my recent trip to Anda, Pangasinan.  Aren’t they adorable! and soooo cute!!

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Driving to Anilao was faster than we thought.  About 85% of the time, we were driving on a highway at not less than 60km/hr (I think).  The only time we were driving slow was at C5 and the last 20 minutes of the trip.  It is quite simple: just go to the end of SLEX and and then go towards Batangas City.  Then from there, follow westwards towards Bauan, then to Bagalangit where you would turn left into a narrow road and go through quaint small towns in between winding roads.(...)
Read the rest of Diving at Eagle Point Resort in Anilao (600 words)

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Ayala Triangle Park

We visited the Dutch Embassy today to renew MrC’s passport.  After this we had lunch at the new Ayala Triangle Park.  This is located right at the back of the Makati Stock Exchange and Ayala Corporation’s headquarters.  To get there, enter the big arch close to the corner of Makati and Ayala Avenues and turn right when you reach the park.  You will then see a small building with some tables and chairs in front.  The workers along Paseo de Roxas and Ayala Avenue are surely very lucky to have a nice park such as this.  It’s a nice place to stroll after lunch or even after work (on a mildly warm day).

Buildings along Paseo de Roxas

We decided to go with something familiar – a Pho restaurant.  Too bad it wasn’t exactly that good compared to other Vietnamese restaurants we’ve tried before.  The food was bland and the dips were also bland.  We even had to ask for salt from the staff.  MrC ordered Pho and I ordered pork chop.  I was quite disappointed that the pork chop was fried instead of chargrilled and their sauce wasn’t the same sweet and sour clear dip I have been accustomed to.   The drink I ordered was bottomless dalandan (nothing fancy) and MrC had an iced coffee.

After coming out, we were quite regretful to see many other interesting food places further down the catwalk among them were Amici, and CBD (Cheesesteaks, Burger and Drinks) and also Caramia.

Restaurants at Ayala Triangle Park

I was thinking of buying takeout from Bonchon chicken but the lines were too long.  Most places were either too crowded or totally empty.  This restaurant has just been open for around 2 months so that probably explains why the food wasn’t so good, but then chances of me coming back to that restaurant is close to nil.

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Banaue Native Woman

Of course, one’s trip to the Mountain Province will not be complete without a photo of our dear natives.    I also managed to make the most of that time by talking to a group of elderly Ifugao Natives.  Some of the questions I asked include where they live and how they go home.  They actually live down the cliff, past the nearby terraces among the small residential houses about a few kilometers from where we were standing.  It would take them less than 10 minutes to hike down and eventually reach their respective houses.  Most of them are in their early 60′s to early 70′s and live alone,  if widow(ed).    However, inspite of living alone, they are not lonely.   They live close amongst other natives their age.  During planting/harvesting season they spend most of their days working the fields.  However, most of the time they spend it there sitting for photos and chatting with fellow “semi-retired” friends.  Their families (children and grandchildren) are mostly now working or studying in Baguio.   They told me land is truly getting scarce and the rice harvest is only good for a few months and only for their own consumption.   I also found out that their children or grandchildren would also go back eventually to their respective hometowns for retirement and spend time the same way they are doing now.  (To be continued on Part 5)

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We arrived safely before dark at the Banaue Hotel.  I was pleasantly surprised to see a Welcome sign with my name actually printed on their billboard. How thoughtful of them!  There was parking immediately in front of the hotel.  Check-In went smoothly and we got the Deluxe Rooms with a view – as promised.  The rooms were a bit dated and had no tv and no internet  but was clean and had a wonderful view of the Rice Terraces.    Since there was still some daylight, we spent a bit of time going around shops.  There weren’t so many open that day.

Banaue Native Old Woman Weaving

Luckily, we found an old lady weaving inside one of the shops selling woven crafts and clothes.  She was very friendly to us and told us a bit of her life as a weaver.   We bought a bag, purse and table runner.  She candidly told us that most of the younger ones in her tribe are no longer interested in the craft.

After this, MrC tried to cross a hanging bridge.  I couldn’t bear watching it so I stayed in the car while he and his Dad went across it.

We had dinner at Banaue hotel’s restaurant that night.  Food was okay, if not forgettable.  We were kind of expecting some presentation late that night but unfortunately we were the only ones there, so there was no native dance presentation at 8:00pm.

The next day, we checked out and headed towards the different Banaue Terrace ViewPoints. (Continued on Part 3)

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Road to Banaue

Stop Over on the Way to Banaue

Our road trip was actually a loop passing through the mountains starting from the lowlands using NLEX, to the end of SCTEX, exiting at La Paz and going “cross country” passing through the towns of Zaragoza, Aliaga, Quezon, Santo Domingo, Munoz and CLSU, and finally my home town of San Jose City.  Take note that at that time the road from Aliaga to Quezon was not paved (and very remote) so ask first the locals if it is already paved before using that road.   Otherwise,  proceed eastward towards Talavera instead of going left (North). After San Jose, we started to climb up higher and higher through the mountains passing through Carranglan, Santa Fe, Aritao, Bambang, Solano, Bagabag which is NorthEast in direction.  Along the road there were some slow traffic that went to a total halt.

During this time several kids knocked on our windshields to beg.  It was good that we we have prepared bags of skyflakes, canned tuna, candy and juices to give away during the trip.  Among the towns we passed by Solano stood out as a very progressive town: they have a Jollibee and a McDonalds, many new stores, several gas stations and you could see clearly from the map that the city is planned as all roads are proportianally perpendicular.  It turns out that the town was planned by and named after a Spanish priest.  At Bagabag, we proceed Northwest towards the Bagabag Airport, then we pass by towns of Lamut, Kiangan, Lagawe and then finally Banaue.  From Banaue, we proceed North towards Bontoc and then enter Westward to Halsema Highway and then enter a dirt road further West to Sagada.  The roads were mostly winding, and sometimes steep but at least I’m glad our driver handled it remarkably well.

We navigated this trip totally by using Google Maps with the use of an iPad. (To be continued)

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1. I have succeeded replacing the AT&T microsim with a local prepaid Globe Tattoo sim which I cut myself using a template I found somewhere.  It took awhile before I had the guts to do it but since as of now it is hard to find a prepaid microsim  anywhere.  Globe and Tattoo had publicized that they are selling them but whenever I visit their stores, they only have the postpaid versions (around 999 per month).  I am always with wifi access most of the time but I wanted to have a backup in case there is an outage (either ISP and Meralco).  The Globe tattoo prepaid 3g gets me around 300kbps speed.  I still yet have to try to see if i can put it back to a regular phone without an adapter and try subscribing to a daily unlimited plan.  20 pesos per hour seems okay enough for me for occasional use.
2. I noticed that, it also syncs the same apps that I downloaded for the iPhone and vice versa unless I manually delete them myself before syncing.  I can set it up so that the iPhone app opens at 2x zoom by default.   The Plants and Zombies iPhone version at 2x is acceptable enough and I don’t need to buy it again.
3. I have read and browsed for hours I am worried my  eyesight is getting worse because of it.  Thanks to these apps that make browsing from iPad so much fun: Flipboard, Vinio, and various magazine apps such as Metro, Wired, and Fortune which offer free trials.  I don’t expect to buy individual issues though but I would probably try a subscription at Vinio one of these days.
4. I have not even tried reading ebooks yet but someday I probably will.
5. I did not bother buying a display shield, because the one in my iPhone eventually bubbled up anyways.
6. I find that battery gets empty after 2 days without plugging to the outlet.  I use it for up to 4 hours each day I think.
7. Again, watching streaming video is not so enjoyable now because my home internet is not fast enough for it (Bayantel).  There is no incentive yet for me to buy US VPN service to access US streaming video sites because of this.
8. I am ashamed to admit that I’ve had sore muscles several days at a time because of the IPAD.  It is not heavy but it is also not as light as a small paperback novel.
9. I am considering buying a wireless keyboard for it sometime in the near future.  I would prefer to get something smaller but I am not so sure if non-apple keyboards would work with it.
10. Tried using remote desktop app with it and it works but still I have to do some setup with my router to make my laptop accessible from the internet.  Need to make sure I do it correctly and safe first before I dive deeply into this. But yes, the plan is to have this replace my heavy Thinkpad  when I go out of town.

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