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a 'cultural' sunday

the walls of this contenct  - an intramuros walk by our marvelous tourguide Ivan, was by far one of the most enjoyable tours i've ever had. it was a refreshing look at our colorful history.  i highly recommend it especially for people who hate history. taking this tour might change your mind  

we started in the newly built bahay ng tsinoy. this picture below is a shot of the piedra de china that the chinese used to balance their ships on their way to the philippines. they also use it as a tombstone after a few years.

after the tsinoy house, we headed to san agustin church which composed most of the tour. there used to be two bell towers in the complex but only one survive to this day. the other one welcomes the visitors as you enter the church lobby.

one of my favorite part of the tour was the cemetery. it was also used as a concentration camp (if im not mistaken) during the japanese period. this is the place where the remains of national artist juan luna and historian teodoro agoncillo are found.

next, we headed outside to one of the earliest botanical gardens in the philippines. they are currently reconstructing it, but the remains of the original wall are still there.

this is our fabulous tour guide, Ivan, hard at work :)

the building on the right side is one of the faithful reconstructions based on the original design (external that is) but i forgot what is the name of the building.

these are more pictures inside the san agustin church.

i also loved the part when we went up the choir loft and saw the church itself. the ceilings were painted al fresco but it looked as if it was carved from stone or wood.

we went outside the church for the final leg of our tour. this picture is one of the 'rush' bahay na bato ordered by former first lady imelda marcos for her intramuros restoration project.

finally, we ended our tour at the walls of intramuros itself overlooking the old government buildings of manila.

next stop, binondo wok!

Currently Watching Prison Break - Season One By Prison Break see related

home visitation

Currently Listening Win a Date With Tad Hamilton By Various Artists Days Go By (Jason Wade) see related

the journey to boracay

this wasn't my first time on boracay. i went there five years ago with my family as a side trip when we went to odiongan (yep, there is such a place in romblon). however, this is the first time i've there for more than two days and actually experience boracay. this was also my first time to experience the economy section of a ship. to say that it was a memorable experience would be quite an understatement...

it was part of our annual trip in compassion but any friends who are willing to join the trip with 20 other people are welcome. we were on a very limited budget so we can't travel first class. we took the very hip and clean (sarcastic) MBRS Virgin Mary line. it was tolerable, to say the least, in the economy section. but if you have a distinct hatred to be surrounded with feet while you sleep and eat, i suggest that you avoid this place like the plague. definitely not for the faint at heart  we survived the first round of the trip by sitting on the deck and taking lots and lots of pictures of ourselves. what was that quote by al pacino, who played the devil, in the devil's advocate? vanity is definitely my favorite sin? tsk, tsk, tsk...

since we can't imagine eating surrounded by possibly unhygienic extremities, we searched for a cafeteria to eat our dinner. one such cafeteria transforms into a disco, complete with a dancing dj/waiter, at the stroke of 9PM. whoever thought that people on an overcrowded ship would have the energy and interest to get down and party definitely has a very weird imagination.

the rest of the night went on quietly. my friends, my sister and i managed to squeezed in and get a couple of hours of sleep. it was quite a feat considering that we were three people in one very hard bed. if one person moves to the left, everyone else has to move to the left. we were a very coordinated group  morning finally came and we ate our breakfast in a more "fancy" cafeteria on the upper deck. we had a great view of the odiongan port and the island. needless to say, we were more excited to reach boracay than ever.

when we finally reached the caticlan port, there was another hour or so of enless people, pushing, shouting, sweating and hauling their bags to ride the ferry. the ferry was a mere 10-15 minute ride. we finally reached boracay after a very exhausting 12-15 hour journey.

i've always considered myself as a very laid-back person. i rarely fuss about anything and you can take me anywhere and i hardly complain. but i have to say, traveling economy class during the holy week season has made me change my opinion about myself.

"transition" weekend

  "transition" was the word of the weekend. blame it all on heidi's knack for coining up terms or for using unusual words in a common way. but it a way, it did sum up our weekend getaway in zambales. it was a transition for us. it was our first ever planned weekend getaway. most of our former excursions were spur of the moment decision that miraculously pushed through. i remember one out of town trip where in lory literally woke up lei in the middle of the night to go to Baguio. That was how spontaneous we can be

to say that i had a fun weekend would be a grave understatement. we left early saturday morning and arrived in zambales around 9am. after spending an hour in the town market buying enough food to feed our insatiable hunger, we went to the resort expecting the worst. what can we say, mac said it was a hassle and we took it very literally. we were completely taken aback when we finally saw the accommodations though. it was very charming to say the least

we literally did nothing but be total beach bums for the rest of the weekend. we sat on the beach, stared on the horizon, slept, ate, swam, talked, sang and do everything all over again. one thing i've learned over this weekend is that women really do talk more than men. A LOT MORE. we woke up at 5am on sunday morning and instantly, and i mean instantly, the room was filled with incessant chatter. to quote heid, "wala man lang transition, gising na gising agad!" i've been with these girls for the past eight years now (gosh! i can't believe it's been that long! ) and yet the we never seem to ran out of things to talk about. it doesn't matter if we've discussed that topic a million times before, we can still discuss it and enjoy what we are discussing. weird huh? but i guess that is friendship.

one additional thing we did for the weekend was learn how to surf. yup, surfing in the waves, and not on the information highway   i never imagined i would have the opportunity to do it in the near future. so when mac volunteered to give us free lessons, we were thrilled! hey, that was one faithgoal i checked on my list (learn a new skill). it wasn't as easy as what you see on tv; surfers made it look sooooo easy! but it was certainly just as fun  we covered the basics theories of surfing first, how to stand, the different parts of the board (who knew it had parts?) and others. after practicing for a few minutes on how to stand on the board, we started hitting the waves.

fighting to stay on top of the board and actually standing on the board required a LOT of hard work. even paddling was difficult. a lot of upper body strength is required. and i never knew that those boards were sooo heavy. surfers carry it around like a purse and use it like a skateboard so i thought it was that light as well  it wasn't as easy as what you see on tv; surfers made it look sooooo easy! but it was certainly just as fun. riding on the wave and feeling the wind on your face for just a second was worth all the bruises and scars i got  i will definitely do it again!

It really was the perfect weekend that I’ve always wanted :D

*visit www.crystalbeach.com.ph for more information regarding the place we visited 

Way back in 2005, my friends and i went crazy with her then new phone and decided to have a photo session in the ladies room of one of the oldest building in ortigas. what was our excuse for this madness? the lighting was good and we had nothing else to do :) i never had so much fun posing for the camera since then :)