kathangisip travelogue

Cebu Pacific P1 seat sale this July!

japanesecake — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 02:03:56 +0000

The Philippines’ largest national flag carrier, Cebu Pacific (CEB) promotes our newest routes Zamboanga to Tawi-Tawi and Iloilo to Cagayan de Oro with a P1 seat sale from now until July 7, 2011 or until seats last. This is for travel from October 14 to December 15, 2011.
The P1 seats are available on CEB’s new daily Airbus A319 service from Zamboanga to Tawi-Tawi, as well as its new thrice weekly Airbus A319 service from Iloilo to Cagayan de Oro. It is exclusive of government taxes and surcharges. Both flights will be launched on October 14, 2011.

You can also buy CEB’s trademark low fares to some of our more popular international destinations, for travel from August 1 to September 30, 2011.

P888 seats are available from Manila or Clark to Macau, and from Cebu to Hong Kong including P1,888 seats from Manila to Beijing or Shanghai. This fare is 52% off the lowest year-round fare for Beijing and Shanghai which is P4,999.

Other destinations up for sale are P488 seats from Manila to Naga, for travel from July 16 to September 30, 2011. As well as P688 seats from Manila to Dumaguete, Tacloban or Zamboanga, and P888 seats from Manila to Cagayan de Oro or Davao. This is for travel from August 1 to September 30, 2011.

Tali Beach, Beach House at Nasugbu Batangas

japanesecake — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 07:11:17 +0000

Last June, our very small team from the company I worked in decided to have a little outing out of town. There were a few choices considered, but we have certain criteria for where we want to go to. Number 1 – the place should have a swimming pool. Number 2 – it should have a beach. Number 3 – it should be near Manila. Luckily, Tali Beach in Nasugbu Batangas was available to us..

Tali Beach

Tali Beach actually resides on a private subdivision/community. Only owner’s or guests can go in. As for us, We rented one of the houses there, and were allowed in as guests of the Los Balcones beach house.

We got to know Los Balcones through one of our officemate who has been there a few months back. She was raving about the cliff and the beautiful beach house, that I researched it myself after she told the story. Unfortunately, this place is very expensive if you’re thinking of group that are 20 or less. The place is mostly rented for special events.

We got in touch with the beach house’s manager and booked us a weekend at the place for our outing. By this time, I was already encouraging my office mates to jump at the cliff. I really wanted to.

Los Balcones

Going at Nasugbu, we all went in batches, car pooling to anyone who can take us in.

Entering the Tali Beach, we were halted by the guards on the gate of the community. Like was said, tali beach is a private community. The beach house’s manager already let the guards knew of our arrival.

It’s a few minutes drive before the house, and we already were starting to get excited as the houses we passed by were beautiful. Wishing the houses we passed by is as beautiful as the place we were going to stay in – and it was.

The Beach House

When we arrived in the house. We were immediately awed by the beautiful scenery from the house’s balcony. It was a view of the sea and the sole swimming pool of the house.

The house has 2 floors, and 5 rooms and lots(!) of entertainment items.

They have a wooden monopoly and scrabble play set.

A foozball table which we violated too much while we were there. It was so fun playing that thing.

And a poker set, which we forgot was there, and didn’t even use!

Near the kitchen is the ”Main DVD Home Theatre” system, which has this huge HD flat screen tv. We actually planned to bring one of our office mate’s PS3, but didn’t know if the tv was HD. So there you go, bring your game consoles! hehe

They also have a mini slot machine, a billiard table, and a piano. Need I say more?

We even set up some music through their centralized sound system, which can be heard through the whole house. They also have mic with that sound system.

The rental fee for Los Balcones includes house helpers, for when you want certain foods cooked. We gave them a tip for their services.

There is also a mini bar near the kitchen, but the drinks are not for sale. Bummer.

The Rooms

The house has 5 rooms, I wasn’t able to picture all rooms as I didn’t even realize it was that many. All rooms were just plain room, each room has it’s own bathroom, but there is a common cr downstairs.

The master room was the best room of the house. It has a big bed, a tv, a bath tub. Our boys stayed in this room. Their only complain was the bathroom door is loosely locked,and you can easily be seen from outside. At least that what they told us.

The cliff

One of our office mate, who told us about this place, did her jump on this cliff when she first went here. Unfortunately, she has her monthly visitor so she didn’t do it this time. I was kind of hoping she’d jump first so I could see how to do it. (and if it’s really safe). I’m not very good at swimming, I took a swimming lesson two years ago, and still not as confident as I want to be. Plus the height could possibly post a problem to me.

We went there the morning after we arrived at Tali Beach, it’s about a 5 min walk from the beach house. The water is on it’s perfect height. The afternoon before it was low tide, and people were scared too jump because of that. But that morning when we got there, we found our boss already doing jumps from the highest point. I didn’t believe at first but when he did it. I was so impressed, and decided I will do it. I should do it. This will possibly the last time I’m at this cliff.

So there were three brave souls. J*g, K**n and me. 2 boys and me, the only girl. I watched the two boys first. They know how to swim so I asked one of the boys to wait for me on my jump.

I did it. Two times even! It was my first time to jump on a cliff, and swim on the sea without a vest. It doesn’t hurt at all, except on the initial impact, but I didn’t even feel that as painful. There were even this couple (not with us) who did their couple jump. We don’t have pictures of the jump, we have videos instead, hehe.

There was a lower part of the cliff, which some of my office mates jumped on. It was so cute cause the girls jumped on the lower part and our boys would just rescue and dragged them to ground after. Awesome team work.

After that we went to the beach to do actual swimming, since the wave in the water near the cliff is getting a bit violent. I again loved the water in Tali beach. It’s white, not fine sand, but definitely better than most beaches in Batangas I’ve beent to.

The afternoon before, we did some ridiculous jump shot near this landscaped area near the cliff, then waited on the sunset. Didn’t brought my camera that time since I thought I would be jumping then.

We left the place at around 2, but were allowed by the owner to stay until 5 pm. Gorgeous place.

Oh, before we left I used my awesome GF2 to capture some crazy GIF’s of our team

For more info. Please visit the Los Balcones web site : http://losbalcones.webs.com

More pictures on our album

South Korea Day 5: Neverland

catnap03 — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 03:14:21 +0000

Everland Resort and Theme-park
Gangnam station exit6; then bus 5002 (bus every 15mins) / Suwon station; then bus 66 or 6000 (bus every 30 mins)
Sledding at Everland would have been the highlight of our trip. Prior to our flight, we have checked out several ski resorts. The themed-park Everland was our top choice because of price, location and its attractions. The bus frequency from Gangnam station to Everland is every 15 minutes so we decided to go there. And yes, we learned our lesson when riding buses. We showed a picture of Everland to the driver so that we could get off at the right bus stop. And when we got back, we took a picture of the bus route and show the driver where we would get off.

Disaster at Neverland

We learned that Snow world, including the Snow buster (their sledding ride) was closed. We have already argued with the Everland cashiers because of wrong change. It was stressful because of the language barrier so we decided to get in instead of asking for a refund. It’s probably our age; we’re really not interested in themed parks any more. And yes, this is where T-express can be found… one of the longest and the steepest wooden roller coaster in the world… yet didn’t bother riding it. We could have ridden it, but the waiting time is too long (I’m not sure if I’ve seen the correct queue for this ride).

We went to the European section of the park first, and looked for a place to eat, we ended up in the Amsterdam area of the park and ate sausages and rice. :S

They probably closed snow world because it was late-winter, and the snows were already melting. We have no choice but to take some pictures with Snowbuster as the background. I could just imagine us being crazy like kids while sledding… that dream needs to wait a little longer.

Everland suits families. Its rides are made mostly for children. Inside is a mini-zoo which is quite enjoyable (especially for kids).

Overall, we rode 2 attractions, the lazer-then-shoot-the-monster-while-pretending-to-be-scared and the we’ll-show-that-you-have-been-turned-upside-down mirror ride. I think the mirror attraction was fascinating, except for the introduction part where 2 monster-figures are talking in Korean and we can’t understand a word.hehe. The lazer-shooting attraction was good too… but the waiting time was too much for the attraction itself. I guess Everland would be more enjoyable if we were able to sled in it. BTW, I guess the most interesting part as a Pinoy was the heater inside it. It’s alien-like and don’t resemble a heater at all.

After the ride we dropped by the souvenir store, where they have animal-inspired accessories. It was cute, but way too expensive.

So would I go back to Everland again? Probably never.

That’s it. It was our last day in Korea. It was an enjoyable winter-experience overall.

South Korea Day 4: Rain + winter = travel disaster

catnap03 — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 02:11:37 +0000

If there’s a day I would like to re-create, it would be our 4^th and shopping day. When I got off from bed, it was already raining. I half-wished for snow instead of rain. It seemed that the rain wouldn’t stop… and it didn’t… We endured a very cold, rainy, and windy day inside the malls of Dongdaemun the entire time.

Another reason why I would like to re-create this day was, at that time, I haven’t seen the Korean drama Secret Garden. If I knew, I would have bought that ridiculous-looking hooded jacket/sweat shirt that has ears in it. I also saw a scarf used in that drama. I found it at the mall after Doota. And I’d probably look for the Creshire Cat and SG souvenirs at that time. And the SG mall is the Lotte mall in Dongdaemun.huhuhu… bitter much.

I was the only one who brought an umbrella, so Xty and Lyka bought one each. Japanesecake and Jeff brought their Universal Studio (SG) ponchos… Personally, they looked like walking blue mushrooms.hehehe

Since it’s raining, we ended up at nearby Dongdaemun malls. The rain and wind were harsh so we weren’t able to check out other shopping districts. Dongdaemun is famous for selling wholesale. A market besides Cheonggyecheon stream sells wholesale items at a very good price. The other shops here are mostly clothing and shoes. Since Koreans are vain (in a good way), I wasn’t surprised to see 2 floors worth of merchandise dedicated for men.

There’s not much to talk about our day as we were busy shopping for souvenirs and clothing.

South Korea Day 3: Coffee Prince and Olympic Park

catnap03 — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 17:13:52 +0000

Namdaemun

Gyongbokgung to Namdaemun market via bus

Our next stop is Namdaemun, one of the shopping districts of Seoul. We were looking for a money changer but decided to eat first…tummy first.hehe. Alas! When we came back, they were all closed.

Namdaemun is a place to haggle and buy pasalubong (I saw teas and different types of biscuits here). Unfortunately, some of us don’t have enough money (and it’s already Saturday… no banks), so we didn’t shop. Besides, our shopping day was the following day. There were several interesting items here.

First, the siopao(bun + filling) stand where many lined up for the buns they’re selling (meat, veggies and mongo).

Next is one type of manju, a waffle-like bread with an egg inside. Lastly, the huge pancake with seafood, spring onions???, and other stuff mixed with it. This was similar to what we’ve eaten in China. We bought siopao and the manju. We looked for the pancake-like street food elsewhere but unable to find it…too bad.

We also indulged ourselves in these japanesecake like pancakes accross the siopao store.

Coffee Prince

Hoehyeon station to Hongik University station (exit 7)
Wausan-ro 29ga-gil

This was the only Korean drama included in our itinerary; and was very difficult to find. The directions we found in the web were very difficult to navigate. It took us probably an hour before we finally found the coffee shop.

Inside and out, it looked exactly like Coffee Prince. For those who would like to visit, get off at Hongik University station exit 7 and look for the street Wausan-ro 29ga-gil. It’s located near the end of the street.

We were excited to find it that we immediately took pictures. However, the cafe attendant asked us to buy coffee first before taking pictures. And yes, this was the real set of the Coffee Prince… the veranda, the garage, the counter, the blackboard, and the infamous mural were all authentic… almost… they replaced the mural with a similar sticker.

What to expect with this coffee shop? –Coffee art and a very expensive coffee. Except for the coffee art, there’s nothing special with the coffee… it tasted like any other brewed coffee.

You can get these cute mugs with authentic coffee prince art for 10,000 won (400php). We actually forgot to buy one, due to our schedule.

Before leaving, I had a small argument with the waitress but I couldn’t remember what exactly we talked about…it had something to do with a wrong change.

For those who don’t know coffee prince, here’s a link of its parody (by Big Bang)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEifrbLK9cE

Olympic Park

Hongik University to Mongchontoseong
Next stop was Olympic Park. This was the venue of the 1988 summer Olympics. The park was huge so we opted to get off at Mongchontoseong were the torch and the World Peace park is located. Inside the station were the pictures of the next winter Olympics and the world-known skater, Kim Yu Na.

Mongchontoseong to Hyehwa
And that’s the end of our day.