Paul Walker 1973 - 2013

How ironic when last Friday, Bea-Nestle and I were talking about our favorite movies which includes Fast and Furious series and how I love Paul Walker.

Then I woke up the next day to the saddest news about Paul Walker's death and it just blew me right out of proportion. The news came so suddenly that I cannot seem to get it out of my head.

Gosh...he just posted a photo on his Instagram account just a day before!!!

Can you imagine? He was living his life. He was shooting a movie, helping the world with his Reach Out World Wide foundation, feeling many emotions and just… breathing. Then a day later, he’s gone. Just like that. :(

I am still reading everything about his life and death. It's still hard to accept, but we have to. Thank you for reaching out to the world with your faith, good and kind-hearted self.
Here’s to you, Paul. Here’s to more races to your very own field where you are the only star. Here’s a goodbye to Brian O'conner...






   And here’s to wishing that you be happy on that midnight train going anywhere.♥

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Love, 

Me.

Note to my future boyfriend...

Dear Future Boyfriend,


I'm always looking for you in all the wrong places, and I'm sorry! I feel like you’re so tired of waiting for me to find you, but I promise I'm trying! I feel like I need you now more than ever. I need you to calm me down. I need you to tell me it’s gonna be okay. I need you to wake me up in the morning and tell me I'm beautiful and say all the right things. When you come, I need you to stay.

Love,

Me

Enchanting Coron Day 3

It was Sunday on our third and last day to Coron. We ate breakfast and headed to the nearest church after. We finished the mass and went to the market to buy souvenirs and pasalubong. We bought shirts, dried fish, keychains, ref magnet at affordable prices. The more you buy these items, the less you will pay.

We walked around the market, ate ice cream since it was so freakin' hot, took more pictures and walked around the town. We headed back to our hotel after buying pasalubong to fix our things as our flight was at 2PM.

Our 3-days stay at Coron, Palawan was just so memorable, unforgettable, amazing, and perfect!

I owe it to the girls that I've been with in this trip. I can't imagine what would the trip like if it's for our crazy moments. I love you forever. 

I owe it to Mr Owen Ferrer, who was very helpful on our tour packages both in island tour and hotel accomodation, as he helped us picked our hotel and offered options.

I owe it our boatman who was very very patient with us, in answering our stupid questions and for the sumptuous and yummy lunch that we had!!!

The Coron trip was one trip that I will treasure and will always look back through and through the years.
 

Enchanting Coron Day 2

The second day of our Coron trip was the most awaited island tour. Our tour was booked through DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Coron. The concept of DIY Coron is that you organize your tour yourself so you get to choose the islands that you want to visit.

There are lots of tours to choose from and we opted for "Coron Island Loop 1" through Mr Owen Ferrer's DIY Coron.

Since our call time for the boat was 8:30 AM, we woke up at 6AM to prepare and ate breakfast at 7AM. There was a tricycle waiting for us at our hotel to dropped us at the wharf.

Our boat

At around 9AM, we were already in Siete Picados. We went snorkeling surrounded by seven small islands.

Note: “Siete” comes from the Spanish word that means seven and denotes the number of small limestone rock formation surrounding the snorkeling site. According to the local townspeople there, the seven rocks represent seven local children that one night set out to attend a celebration. These children never came home that night. In the morning, while searching for these children, the locals saw seven new rock formations standing in the middle of the sea and believed that these were the missing children. From then on, the area has been called Siete Pecados in memory of these children.

This place is still one of the most sought-after spots in Coron. It’s because snorkeling in Siete Pecados is like swimming in a giant aquarium of various fishes accompanied by other beautiful sea creatures.

Snorkeling with KC

After more than an hour, we went to Kayangan Lake. This is the famous view of Kayangan Lake.

From the Coron Travel Brochure – “Prepare to be mesmerized bu its stately beauty and grace. The entrance itself is awe-inspiring, as this is the view from the top. It has been hailed many times over as the cleanest fresh water lake in the country.”

This statement itself captured my interest while still in search for our island tour so I made sure that we have this in our itinerary.

We trekked a little to get the full view of the lake, and what amazed us is that this lake is a combination of sea water on the other side and fresh water on the other!

We then had our lunch at 1PM in Banol Beach. "No to Diet" motto has been implemented since then. (I said. Haha.) We took a dip in the water after eating, took a litte rest and took more pictures on the limestones.

After lunch, we went to Twin Lagoon, then to Skeleton Wreck.

The Twin Lagoon is divided by limestone wall and is connected by a small and narrow opening. We went to the inner lagoon through a balsa, paddled by our boatman. The water in there is so calm, and blue. There are lots of trees which adds color to the environment. It was so relaxing to just float and look into the scene, it was indeed an awesome experience.

Skeleton Wreck is a place in the middle of the sea where a Japanese ship sunk. You can see skeletons of the ship underneath and if you are lucky enough, skeletons of the human warriors. Yay!

The most unforgettable part was when we went to Barracuda Lake. Monette, asked why it was called Barracuda and the boatman said that some barracudas were caught and seen in this place. We trekked a little to get to the lake and went down the water. The place was kinda creepy but since we want to experience it and we were already there, we jumped and did some rounds. Later, Monette panicked and said that she saw a barracuda looking at her with red eyes. We all went hell-crazy swimming to the shore.
But yeah, it was just her imaginative mind... as there was no barracuda in that lake, the barracudas are on the other side of the lake covered by another island.

This is the look of the fish that we are talking about. The source of our panic!

Great Barracuda

It was then a source of our laughter, and until now I can't still help but laugh my heart out until I can no longer produce a sound.

But seriously, Barracuda Lake is a diver's spot so if you are not a diver, you will not see more of its wonder as it is so so so deep.

Me, Donna, Liz

Acel and Donna

Me and Monei




We paid Php1,250 per person for this tour. Inclusions were the boat rental, boat crew as the guide and cook service, lifevest, snorkel gears and picnic lunch.

Picnic Lunch at Banol Beach

Sugpo

Coron's famous Suran fish

Rather than a buffet type of lunch, picnic lunch or picnic meal type is provided here. The boatman who offers this food arrangement will buy your food ahead of time, then they will cook it (grilled) for you and prepare it for you (utensils included) while you are hopping the islands! :)

We went back to the city at 5PM, we stayed at the baywalk and walked a little. There was a zipline activity for Php500 where in you will travel over the sea of 500 meters. We didn't try it though, coz it's scary and we were all too tired.

Coron Baywalk

We went back to our hotel, and as if our snorkeling sessions were not enough, we tried the hotel's swimming pool. The water from the swimming pool felt different and a little refreshing after soaking under the sea. We raced and played around and just talked while swimming. Acel talked about her married life and the different things that she is doing while staying out of the city.

 Thought: It is just so heartwarming that you still end up with the best person that you can be with and who wants to be with you for the rest of your life. Happy ending indeed.

Acel <3 Cassidy

Echanting Coron Day 1

PALAWAN has always been a place that I want to visit before I turn 30. I have been to Puerto Princesa this month, but before I blog about our trip there, I will make one for our Coron trip first. ^_^

Coron is both the name of the largest town on the island of Busuanga, and the name of a different, smaller island just offshore. The area is famous for its World War II wreck diving, and the site has been named in many lists of top dive spots in the world.

The first inhabitants of Coron were the Tagbanuas who belong to the second wave of Indonesians who migrated to this area some 5,000 years ago. They were a nomadic, seafaring people, living mainly by fishing and subsistence agriculture.

We went to Coron, Palawan last June 30- July 2, 2012. We actually booked a tour through a site but we were scammed. We paid Php5,000 per person for the whole package of 3 days, 2 nights with airfare, hotel and tour. We're glad that we were able to booked for our flight before the agency was sued.

Anyways, since we only get the airfare out of the tour package, we went ahead and looked for a budgeted hotel and tours.

We stayed at Princess of Coron, as we want a place with a swimming pool and since the rate is not that high from other hotels without swimming pool. Check their website here: (http://www.princessofcoron.com/).

Princess of Coron Hotel

Our room for 6

 We paid, Php3,000 per night for our group of six, with free breakfast and free airport transfer.  We get to choose the food that we want to eat as they will ask for it the night before.

Our flight was around 10AM, we arrived at Busuanga Airport at 11AM and we were picked up by our hotel crew to check in to our hotel. After we settled our things, we went ahead and started our city tour.

Donna, Acel, me, KC, Monei

Since it's already lunch when we arrived, we asked the people for the best place to eat and they recommended Kawayanan Grill. So we walked from our hotel to try the place.

This eating place is a must see and definitely a must try when you are in Coron. The place is very domesticated, antique but homey. Your friends and family can have a relaxing ambiance after a long day or before that long day starts. There are lots of food choices, but they mostly serve seafood. We ordered a couple of dishes and we paid a little over a thousand pesos for the six of us. Not bad at all.

Sinigang na Hipon

Seafood Sisig

Kangkong with bagoong

Lomi soup



Bottomless Iced tea


After eating, we then walked to Mount Tapyas. Note: The good thing about Coron is that the city is just so small. You can go around and explore the place just by walking. Unlike Puerto Princesa, where in you really in need to hire a van or tricycle.

Start of the 700-stesps

View at the middle of the trail

The way to Mount Tapyas is a 700-steps trail. We went to a stop a couple of times since we were all girls who love to take pictures in between steps.

We reached the top and explore the place after two hours. We then asked the kids to take us some pictures and we were surprised as how knowledgeable they are in using DSLR and cameras. Look at our perfect jumpshot and view of the cross!

KC, me, Monei and Liz

Donna, Acel, KC, Monei, me, Liz

More pics with the girls

Rain poured, as in POURED hard on our way down to the mountain. It was good that there was a shed in the middle of the trail as we stayed there, and minutes later we decided to dripped and soaked in the rain.

We went back to our hotel to change and we headed to Maquinit Hot Spring. We rented a tricycle and we paid Php100 per person for our roundtrip ride.

There is an entrance fee of Php50 per person.

We so love the warm, salty water coming from the mountain as we were able to relax and massage our sore legs.  More picture taking later as KC brought her camera's tripod. It was so great that all our pictures were a group of crazy, wacky, serious, hot,(errr), gorgeous pictures.

We rode to our tricycle back to the city and we ate at a lugawan, which I forgot the name. The price is just the same as a regular lugawan here in Manila.

After having our dinner, we headed back to our hotel to get some rest for the next day, which is on my next blog! The island tour! :)

 

Acel looking and posting our pictures that night in FB! For the sake of her followers. Choss!