Bravo Isabelinos! Part 2

Second Stop: Isabela

I opened my eyes and the first thing I noticed was a bunch of crowd walking under the black sky. We arrived at Isabela around 900 pm and we had a quick dinner at the nearest food chain, Chowking.


We're given a VIP pass to watch the Bb. Isabela 2009 pageant because Tito Rey is a relative of Isabela's congressman. Talk about big time! After our last sip in our Black Gulamans, we hurried ourselves to the venue to watch the beautiful ladies ramp with their sexy swimsuits and evening gowns.

As we walk along the wet road to head to our VIP seats, a big crowd filled our eyes that roars in front of the beautiful ladies. The show had already started when we arrived, and I must say Isabelinas are really beautiful. It took several hours before the winners of the pageant are concluded because of some disturbances brought by the rain. Some say that there's no competition at all, for we already knew who will emerge winner of the contest.


After we watched the pageant, we hurried to our car to avoid the big crowd and headed to the congressman's house where we will stay for the night. It was 300am when we arrived there, and I was surprised that we will actually spend our night in a hospital ward! The environment doesn't seems to bother me, and after our night grooming, we quickly hit the sack to pay some rest.

Woke up at around 800am and we were asked to prepare ourselves for the breakfast so that we can quickly head to our next destination, that is the congressman's farm or barn. The farm is really cool! We had the chance to pick some eggs in the chicken house(?) that actually consists of 43,000 chickens! That's a huge number of poultry! We really enjoyed picking eggs, because it doesn't only gave us an experience of how this things are worked, we also learned many things about the eggs and their sizes, the chickens and many more.


After the harvesting, we proceeded to the sorting process. We used a "egg sorting machine" to, uhm, sort the eggs according to its size and weight. It's really cool! I never thought that such machine will be used to classify the eggs we bought in the market as small, medium or large.


The air's getting a little hotter. Our stomachs are starting to create awful sounds. O yes, it's already lunch time. We went upstairs to have some eggs, inihaw na tilapia, and I forgot the other viands. Their food tastes really good! I think maybe it's because the eggs were just harvested from the barn, and the tilapia are freshly catched.

I forgot to tell that they also manage a palaisdaan where tilapia and prawns can be found. It's a really good business, but I also thought that it requires a lot of money to start one, and a very good strategy in producing a large number of fish and chickens and good maintenance.

Some photos at the barn.

We decided to head to our next destination, that is Banawe, since it will take us some hours before arriving there and we need to catch up with the sun so that we can see their beautiful Rice Terraces. We hit the road, and unluckily, we had a wrong turn which really consumes our time. Despite of the sunset, we are still on our way to Banawe because Tita Babie suggested that we can extend a day and spend another night at Banawe so we can just see the Rice Terraces the next morning. But as we drove into the dark, muddy road to Banawe, lumps of big landslides are meeting us in every bank of the road. We had this feeling that we are not welcome there, or we should leave because something dangerous might happen or something like that. So we ended up returning and decided to go home. Feeling disappointed, I just joked myself that I'll just look some pictures of it in the internet. Haha! I just accepted that truth that our next destination is to Bulacan. I feel very thankful because we were able to go home safely, and I think we just made the right decision. :)

It's almost time for dinner and we have to look for a restaurant along the way to fill our bellies. We ended up at Mrs. Gaddies, and I must say their foods are really great! They serve it hot, which was perfect for the rainy weather.

After our dinner, we bought some snack at the nearest grocery store, and then we hit the road again. I easily fell asleep because of the cold weather. The clock reads 200 am when I woke up, and I found out that we actually had a stop over in a Shell gas station. I think the branch is at Santa Fe. Tito Mon told us that Tito Rey can't stay awake any longer, thus may affect his driving. So he, together with Tita Babie, decided to have a nap in their car. While we bought a snack at the Select, and had a chat at the back of the pickup.

Kuya Espi, Me and Raliech.

Kuya Philip.

Cris and Ate Manel.

We even play Uno cards at the cottages there at the station. After sometime, Tito Mon told us that Tito Rey's back on track and we have to leave, and so we hop aboard onto our vehicles. I take a nap again to enjoy the cool weather and to pay some sleep debt.

We arrived at Bulacan around 500am and the first thing we did there is to have a breakfast together. While we were eating, we are telling stories to Tita Julie everything about our trip and some other stuffs: the pageant, the punto that we were always saying while we were on our trip, the places we've been and many more. We enjoy telling stuffs to Tita Julie because she's a very cheerful person. After our morning boost of energy, we were asked to grab a box of eggs that we've collected from the barn. Yay! And so after some egg packing, we bid goodbye to them, and say "Thank You" to Tito Rey, Tita Babie, and Tito Mon for a very exciting and wonderful trip to Isabela and Baguio. I hope this would happen again. I hope. I hope. :)

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Bravo Isabelinos! Part 1

I was given the chance to have a final taste of what summer is all about when we, together with my co-liturgical committee members, were treated for a 3-day north getaway by our Tito and Tita. We got to travel to the places we've never been before (except for Baguio) that's why this trip should be a memorable one.

First Stop: Baguio

It's my second time this summer to embrace the cold breeze at the Philippines' summer capital, and I really enjoyed this second one because we have a very sunny day! The last time I went there is when the rain kept on pouring all over the city, which really added in decreasing the city's temperature a little lower.

We left Malolos around 500 pm and had our first stop at Total NLEX San Fernando to buy some junkfoods that we can eat while we're on our way. Had our dinner afterwards at a Chowking branch after some travelling. We arrived at Baguio around 900 pm and I was really surprised that we actually travelled for only 4 hours! That's a really quick one compared when travelling during the day.



We had our check-in at the Prime Hotel and had our stuff drag to our rooms. After some chit-chats, Tita Dodie (choirmate) dropped by to invite us for some night walk along Session Road to have a coffee break that eventually lead to a midnight snack at Zola Resto\Cafe.


Their overloaded cheese pizza (really don't know what it's called) that resembles a giant scrambled egg is great! It's also my first time to drink a Cerveza Negra, which actually looks like a Coke, because it's colored black and also has those bubbles swimming in it.


Too bad I can't say what it really tastes like because I have a cold.

We have to walk along the road only to find out that there's actually 4 branches of 7-Eleven along Session Road! (and there might be some more on the other sides of the road!) We bid goodbye to Tita Dodie when midnight has already come and prepare ourselves for some good night sleep.

We, Kuya Espi and Raliech, didn't hit the sack yet while others already did. We enjoyed the midnight breeze on the terrace of our room while having a chat about somethings and someone. It's really a good thing we had that "chat". :) Then we're off for some power rest.

DAY 2

We went downstairs to have our breakfast, and after some slicing, we went to the market to check out some segunda mano stuffs. Tita Babie asked us to go back to the hotel so that we can have a round trip on the city. We went to the peak of the Baguio Estates (not sure. hehe), the one near the golf courses, where there stood a Statue of Liberty. Took some jumpshots and group photos which I really enjoyed. Haha!


We planned to go the cemetery there, but it costs more that we've expected so we just decided to visit the Mines View Park for some pasalubongs. We then go to the Good Shepherd's which is famous for their delicious snacks and spreads.

After taking some photos and enjoying the cold breeze of Baguio, we decided to hit the Ambuklao Road and start our trip to Isabela, a very, very long one I should say that almost took us 12 hours before arriving there. And we cannot just passby the beautiful views along our way without taking photos with it. Thank God for these wonderful creations. :)


It's almost lunch time amidst our trip so we decided to look for some eatery or something that can provide us a bulk of what we needed on the road. Along the road came a quite weird-looking eatery called the "Upper Adonot". We have no choice but to have our lunch there since we think that the next eatery that we can see is within the next 3 hours. So we had our lunch there and predictions came true: they actually serve dog meat which we don't consider to eat. Some of us had Beef Steak and Nilaga, others had Fried Chicken, and oh they are so lucky, because their meat is very "makunat". Its slices are big and it feels like you're chewing a gum.


We got also the chance to see the Ambuklao Dam, and according to Tito Rey, it's one of the many dams that provide electricity throughout whole Luzon. Of course, we won't leave without some pictures with it. Haha! :)

We hit the road once more when suddenly we noticed that the sun is near to its setting. The original plan is to go first to Banawe to see their famous Rice Terraces, and since we can't make it until the afternoon, we decided to head to Isabela first. Amidst our trip, Ate Manel can't take it anymore and decided to have a quick vomit because she suffer from motion sickness, so we decided to rest for a second while waiting for her to finish her work.


A quick dose of photos on Ambuklao-By bridge should do the trick before heading to our destination.


My body was starting to get tired and so were my eyes. I hugged my pillow and didn't noticed that I actually fell asleep for hours...
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