Category Archives: travel

El Nido’s Lagen Island

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Atsushi and I have no plans of having our honeymoon right after the wedding. We both agreed to settle a bit first after all the wedding excitement and wait for a few months before planning on a honeymoon. But then considering we have a couple days free after our families fly back to the hometowns, hubby asked me if we can go someplace in the Philippines at that time. (Yes, we didn’t realize we were on for a more hectic schedule).

Anyways, when hubby asked me about the trip, luckily, DealGrocer was offering a 50% off promo for a 3D/2N stay at El Nido’s Lagen Resort that fell just right smack into our schedule. So yes, naturally, given how this is a once in a lifetime discount knowing how famous El Nido is, we made a go for it.

Downside though is that I made my booking only 3 weeks before our wedding hence our attention was focused on the wedding and ergo we absolutely were not prepared for the El Nido trip. Proof of how we didn’t have the time to look forward to the trip:

  • When I was preparing to go back to Manila for the wedding, I made sure I didn’t leave behind in Japan anything that is essential for the wedding. However I forgot to bring my swimsuits. Not even one. So even with the crazy schedule we had a week before the wedding, we still had to squeeze in some time to shop for my swimsuit when we got back to Manila
  • We didn’t have underwater camera with us. Not even just a waterproof one. We even had to borrow Otosan’s camera because Atsushi’s camera fell in the water during our Boracay trip last December
  • El Nido resort is by far one of the most stringent resorts i’ve ever been to; almost tantamount to going out of the country considering the documents I need to fill out and IDs I need to scan and send to them. Considering I didn’t have a printer and scanner in Manila and hence had to go to the internet shop, there were times that I’m almost exasperated with El Nido and was muttering under my breath in near frustration “this place better be good!!!”

Our flight to El Nido was just hours after Atsushi’s family’s flight back to Japan hence we barely had enough time to rest. Still though, the experience was one unforgettable one.

Chartered plane, anyone? They have three flights to-fro El Nido everyday. One does feel like a celebrity riding these chartered planes what with the red carpet provided when embarking and disembarking the aircraft.

El Nido flights share the same hangar as the Amanpulo ones although each have their own lounges, of course.

Both Lagen and Miniloc Island guests share the same El Nido flight hence guests are given stickers for ID.

Eighteen-seater chartered plane.

So yes, given the capacity and built of the plane, I think nobody would blame us if we hold on all the more with each other. Yihii. 😀

One thing really convenient with our El Nido trip is that after checking in your bags before boarding the plane, the next time you’d see them is in your room already. Hence, the bag tags. It was just so convenient not having to cart your heavy bag along as you ride the boat transfer.

On board the yacht, on our way to Lagen Island. Yep, this is not Titanic.

The pictures doesn’t do justice on the place. But trust that I was squealing with delight the moment we caught sight of the place. It-was-just-so-beautiful.

First day was more on exploring the island by snorkeling, trekking and kayaking. Second day was island hopping and more snorkeling and kayaking. The underwater life is by far the most interesting I’ve seen so far, even after Bohol and Coron.

The snorkel, fins and lifejacket are provided by the resort. What I loved with how they do it though is that you just need to select once. Before having your first activity, they will help you select the right size of gear for you (my first with the fins!), put it on a plastic box and they will carry it for you, even during island hopping. So if you’ll be staying in the island for a week, you don’t have to go and borrow gears in every activity you’ll be having. You’ll be using the same gear for the whole week! Well, unless you want to change it for something else. Anyways, totally convenient. Plus you don’t have to cart wet gear inside your room – they’ll keep it safe for you, till your next activity the following day. Swell.

We were blessed with a very beautiful sunset on our first day in the island. This by far is one of the most beautiful sunset i’ve ever witnessed. It’s so beautiful you can almost taste its sweetness on your tongue. This is fully unedited, mind you, save for the text.

If the weather permits, dinner is by the pool, under the stars, with romantic lighting, complete with a serenade by the island’s crooner, afterwhich there’ll be some program showcasing traditional Filipino dances. Atsushi even tried Tinikling; he wasn’t able to try back in Boracay. After a few hops, says he, once is enough. haha.

If there’s one thing I was reminded of during our El Nido trip is that people are intrinsically good. As I said, Hubby and I weren’t able to bring waterproof cameras. On our second day, there were intermittent showers and we had to get off the boat to kayak to the lagoons. Hence we had to leave behind the camera we borrowed from Otosan. The Small and Big Lagoons were just so beautiful and romantic in that when we were inside the confines of the small lagoon, Hubby and I were really having some misgivings on not being able to bring waterproof camera. Thankfully though, another couple offered to take our pictures and send it later to us, by email. Thankful. So now, we have some mementos of that enchanting Small Lagoon thanks to kindhearted strangers.

Three words to describe our trip to El Nido: opulence, convenience, luxury. And yes, good food!

One thing though. The place looks a lot like Halong Bay. And Halong Bay is considered a UNESCO World Heritage. We hope though El Nido would also be tagged as one.

PS

The next time you go out to the beach and you see garbage, please try help in making our beaches clean by picking up garbage. A small effort can go a long way.

Happy Birthday A!

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Hubby made me extremely happy on my birthday with how he prepared for it – gave me a bouquet of flowers & Godiva chocolates, went to shopping with me and had dinner at a posh French-Japanese fusion restaurant (the kind that takes off your coat off you and puts it back on after your dinner). And now that it’s his turn, I wanted to make it extra special as well.

First off, a meal on a very good resto would be nice. I had in mind Quintessence – a Michelin 3-star-rated French resto in Tokyo. But their phone is like forever busy! After more than an hour of trying, I tried to call their other number – the one designated for confirmation of bookings. And, well, naturally, I was told they don’t accept bookings made through that number. It has to be the other number. But she did cater to my request though – to inquire if they still have a table available for lunch on May 21st. After some checking, the reply: their Saturday lunch is fully booked till July! OMG. I tried 3-star Joel Robuchon (only La Table and Atelier, both 2 stars, serves lunch) and as expected, they’re also fully booked already. I checked out the Tokyo Michelin list; not all in the list is open for lunch. It has to be lunch for two reasons: one, these Michelin rated restos are so expensive, I can only swallow the price for lunch and second, lunch is most convenient for the sched of activities I had in mind for Atsushi’s birthday.

Anyways, after a number of calls, I was able to book for Modern Japanese Esaki. See our review for Esaki on my goodfood blog.

Birthday boy in Esaki.

The Aoyama district has a lot of interesting architecture, both traditional and modern. But we just have to stop at this non-negotiable:

hubby in his favorite place - the bookstore

Anyways, second stop for the day – Rikugien via Komagome Station.

It’s a rich park, if I may judge by how the whole park is walled.

We’re on the brink of the start of summer hence the place was all lush green. Would love to return here on different seasons.

The boon of these goens are the teahouses that sometimes offer pseudo tea ceremonies or even just plainly sell traditional green tea and  sweets. This was one of my main reason for bringing Atsushi here actually – for us to share this tea break.

The other was just for us to simply share a peaceful walk along the greeneries. And have a healthy talk and discussion, besides. I love those walks. 🙂

And of course, we just have to have a traditional picture.

Next stop was back in Yokohama – watch Pirates of the Carribean on the uber posh Colette Mare.Colette Mare has to be posh and really comfortable so that their tickets of 2000yen each is justified. Pirates was cool! Just the right movie for a birthday celebration. Hubby wanted to watch Black Swan as well but knowing how distrubed I was when I watched it, it just wasn’t a birthday sort of movie hence we decided to watch it the following day instead.

By the way, Hubby and I are aiming to have our house smell as good as Colette Mare does. Goodluck!

My birthday present. It’s just a few hundred yen I know. But I figure I ought to start replacing Hubby’s plants that I killed by not watering them more often. Apparently, the water vapor in the air can’t keep them alive. I was so positive the water vapor theory would work. 😀

And to cap the day off, we toasted Hubby’s birthday with the champagne that Maha gave us as her wedding/housewarming gift to us. I love Moet and Chandon! Glad it was with a chill box that we can re-use for later! We don’t have champagne/wine glasses at home yet so we used the mugs that the Hamakawa-sans gave away for their wedding. Tee-hee!

We also finished off the other red wine bottle that Maha brought during our housewarming. End result, I was blabbering coñotic English the rest of the night. 😛

Happy Birthday A!

thankful at chicboy

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Chicboy’s Cebu Lechon Liempo sure is not healthy. And it sure is one dish that bride-to-bes and groom-to-bes need to avoid.

But I had one of my best meals yesterday as i was having Chicboy’s Cebu Lechon Liempo. It’s not only because the liempo is so flavorful and tasty. But as I was having my very late lunch there yesterday, I also received one of the sweetest news that i’ve been waiting for for eternity (technically 6 months, and more excruciatingly, the last 3 months. 🙂  ) Yes. Visa!!!

Would always remember that meal. And how funny and embarrasing it was haha.

And we’re thankful. So thankful. 🙂

Chancery and Canonical Interviews

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Timing was the key for these series of interviews for us. The Pre-Cana and wedding banns are requisites for the interviews hence we attended the Pre-Cana during our Christmas vacation in Tagum and announced our wedding banns from end of November and well into December. We were just in time then to visit the churches for our interviews come early January, just right before Hubbie flies back to Japan.

And what a roadtrip it was. Chancery interview was to be in Lipa Cathedral (or in the seminary of the Chancery Lawyer Fr. Dong Rosales). Canonical interview was to be in St. Francis Xavier Church, Nasugbu Batangas. Both Lipa and Nasugbu are on the edges of Batangas battery limits and would take you some 2 to 3 hours to travel from one to the other. Whew! We actually had to have the Chancery interview on Jan 4 and have the Canonical interview the following day. In between, we visited Caleruega and Ville Sommet and Yellow Coco for Hubbie to see the sites personally. And of course we just have to stay at Sonya’s to check on the place before actually booking our guests.

Chancery interview was so fruitful in that we also found the priest we’ve been looking for to officiate our wedding. I’ve no priest friend and although Mama has a couple or so, flying him to Tagaytay is so out of the question. But both Hubbie and I liked Fr. Dong when we had our interview and he was most kind to show us around Lipa in that we decided to have Fr. Dong for our wedding.

One thing though: he doesn’t allow the Unity Candle on the ceremony. But he allows personal vows so I can settle with that. 😀

Chancery interview certificate! I had to brushout some names though, for privacy and security purposes

Canonical interview was suprisingly really fast! We had to make a queue with the other couples who got there ahead of us (we arrived in St Francis at 8am, left Sonya’s at a quarter to 6 but we were already couple number 11!) but the interview itself was only 2 minutes max each for me and Hubbie. Too bad though I wasn’t able to take a picture of the canonical interview certificate.

Anyways, that’s it, Church documents preps are done! We’re all set for our Church wedding! 😀

PS: Chancery interview is only required for couples where one of the marrying party is non-Catholic, non-Filipino.

Davao-Manila VV, booked!

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Thanks to Cebu Pacific, I was finally able to book my family at a price that was less than what Hubbie and I paid for our Davao-Boracay-Manila flights last December.

Phase 1: I had to wait for when Cebu Pacific announces their seat sales covering the dates around our wedding date. Jan 17, they announced Php888 per person per flight for flights from Mar 1 to April 30.

Total cost: 13,176 php for 11 adults, 1 kid (same price as adult) and 1 infant. Sugoi ne?

I had to book my family with only a one-way flight to Manila though. Risky yes. So in tenterhooks, I waited for when they will announce the next seat sale.

Phase 2: Yey! My worries were allayed. Cebu Pacific offered the same Php888 sale for Davao-Manila vv flights for travels from Mar 1 to May 30! This one was a bit of a headache though. The flights got sold out faster than in the first phase that I had to book my family in two batches!! Total booking time was 3 and half hours!! First batch flies to Davao at 7:30AM, second one flies at 7:30PM.

Total cost: 12,974.72 php for 11 adults, 1 kid (same price as adult) and 1 infant. Apparently, booking them in two batches saved me a couple of hundred pesos haha.

Booking was a challenge!!! But i’m thankful for this blessing as this is one major to-do off my list. Time for sleep! Time check: 1:47AM.

Mawab Impromptu Roadtrip

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Christmas Day. We had a party at our house, organized so that relatives from both my father’s and mother’s side could get to meet me and Atsushi. Around mid-afternoon, Uncle Rafael and Aunt Helen invited us for some road trip and go to their farm in Mawab. My dress wasn’t up for the location but it was an offer we couldn’t refuse and an opportunity we shouldn’t miss hence we made a go for it.

banana plantation

It was a sight for Hubbie to see how a coconut is taken down from its tree.

 

It was an impromptu visit hence we had to make do with resources at hand. Uncle Pael made a spoon out of the coconut’s husk to use in scooping the coconut’s fruit.

ain't Hubbie sweet? ^___^