My Trip to the Capital

The last week has been busy for me. I had my very first trip to Manila, though not to Luzon as I was in Palawan a few years back for a vacation.

We stayed over with some friends who work in the business capital, Makati.

SM Mall of Asia

Makati and its neighboring cities did not turn out to be what I expected. Yes, the traffic is ever a pain in the neck as projected and commuting is hard. The population is overflowing which leads to the main problem people are facing which is the traffic.

But, it was not as expensive as I expected nor was it as polluted as I dared not hope it to be.

Expense-wise, if you spend your time eating in the malls and restos, then check it will consume half your paycheck. Though, if you spare some time to do marketing and cooking, I think you will save a lot more. The prices for meat products and vegetables and fruits are almost the same in Iloilo, some are even cheaper. True, the beef and fish products are a bit on the pricey side but the pork and chicken products are priced exactly the same in Iloilo. Ours are just fresher :D

Dining at Chili's

The fare is cheap. I think me and the hubby spent a total of 100 pesos in fare excluding the taxi to the airport and my Grab ride to Diliman.

Pollution-wise, the Pasig River stinks and there was trash everywhere on the streams leading to it and basically everywhere. But only a few cars smoke-belch so that's a plus. And the vehicles are not as noisy individually, though there are just a lot of them so it's still too hot to be walking anywhere with cars around you.

Though, I like the effort put in by developers to add green things like trees and shrubs to their buildings. It adds are refreshing vibe to the whole scenario of tall buildings, no sky dilemma.

The greenest place I've seen was the UP Diliman Campus and I hope it stayed that way.

Bringing Tibiao to Diliman

All in all, the experience was not so bad. There are just too many people for my taste. I hope our City of Love does not turn out as bad as Manila when all the developments are done.

A BIG thanks to all of our friends who accommodated us and spared some time in their busy schedules to chit-chat with us.

Daghang salamat sa pagbasa!!!
I post an article once a week... :D

Villa Igang Beach Resort Escapade

A few weekends back, we went on an outing with office mates and friends. We went to a nearby province called Guimaras. Guimaras is the Mango Capital of the Philippines. It’s sweet and tasty mangoes are legendary. That’s why the most popular festival celebrated on the island of Guimaras IS, you guessed it, the Manggahan Festival.

Why did we go there? You ask.

Not to unwind but to join the fun run on the first day of activities of the Manggahan Festival as was planned. But we ended on the beach, anyway.

Let’s do the boring anecdote of our Guimaras trip.

How to get to Villa Igang Resort, Guimaras?

From Iloilo City, you take a boat ride on the Brgy. Ortiz Wharf that will dock on Jordan, Guimaras. The fare is 14.00 Php. From there, you ride a jeep to Nueva Valencia, that will cost you about 40.00 Php. i am not sure if that is the normal price as we hired the whole jeep to accommodate all 19 of us.

What to do on Villa Igang Resort?

There are a lot of beaches on Guimaras. But I am writing about Igang because that is where we stayed.

We paid 100.00 php for the entrance. With this payment, we can go swimming on the beach, go caving and swim with the fishes on the Coral Cave and of course Explore.
If you want to swim on the pool you pay an additional 50.00 php.
And if you want to go boating, that’s 300.00 for 6 persons.
And as Filipinos are very fond of videoke, they also have a videoke machine were you can sing your heart out, as we did.

Where to Stay?

We also stayed on Villa Igang for the night, and we paid 300.00 php per person. But that’s alright as the room assigned to us was very ‘roomy’ and that’s saying something as there are 11 of us staying on the room.

Where to eat?

You can bring your own cooked meal and pay for their corkage fee of 35.00 Php per person.
Or you can bring uncooked meat, fish, pork, anything and pay 100.00 Php per kilo of that but the resort will cook that for you.
Or you can order from them and eat. Each meal serve is good for 2-3 persons and costs 180.00 Php or more depending on the food preparation.

And that’s the way with Igang…

Upon our arrival which is late in the afternoon already, we ordered some dinner then went swimming on the pool. After the swim, we ate and some drank beer and videoke-ed, others played mahjong and other games.

The next day, some of us went to Jordan to join the fun run. Ate breakfast on a diner that served Hawaiian Pizza with a Mango Twist and return to the resort.

Then, we spent the whole morning swimming on the beach. By noon, we ate lunch, packed up and left the resort at 3. Then we stooped over the Manggahan Festival Fair for ‘pasalubong’ or take homes.

Then Goodbye Guimaras, Hello Iloilo!!!

Whether you want to be alone staring at the night sky, or stroll around, goof with friends on the pool, drink and sing with buddies, swim with the fishes and dive to unknown depths, just take everything in stride and enjoy yourself.

I hope you are excited to go on your own trip to Guimaras.

Daghang salamat sa pagbasa!!!