Perlas nang Silanganan: 2019

Whenever I hear Clark it always trigger memories of when we visited EXPO PILIPINO a long long time ago…

Today, the heavens showed a sign that it’s time to revisit the place!

My wife has a scheduled team building in one of the famous water park in Clark on May 4, 2019. Instead of doing it alone, we decided to join the party because it’s more fun to do it with the Lozanos!

That Saturday morning we took off from Quezon City around 6am and arrived an hour and a half in Angeles City. We need to be in Aqua Planet as early possible so what we did was take out food in one of the fastfood resto along the way and consume it just before we went inside the park.

selfie while waiting for our take out orders

The place almost reached its full capacity so an advice from one of the staff is that you visit the place on a week day. Fortunately, the corporate event where my wife belongs ended early, freeing the park significantly!

Lola Jean with kids

You can just imagine how exhausting that day was, but everything was worth it since it brought smile on the faces of our kids. Priceless!

We spend the night in an apartment near Marquee Mall and that’s another story to tell since things turn out differently than what we expected when we arrived there.

Early the next day we went to Dinosaur Island and Insectlandia. Kids today are really smart. On our way, they casually talked about it that it’s not real and just a robot… until they saw mr. T-REX face to face hahaha…

early birds catches the dinosaurs

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Still with energy, the kids spent all of it on some of the physical activities inside Insectlandia...

are you ready for the challenge?

Our next destination was Nayong Pilipino and it was really sad to find out it was closed and under renovation. If you’re planning to visit, schedule it on August 2019 or latter.

almost...

"Every cloud has a silver lining" and since the place is a “Freeport”, enjoy tax and duty free shopping!

sugar rush!

Puregold Duty Free

When we had enough looking around Puregold Duty Free and exhausting our pockets, it's time to find a good place to eat. What better option than to spend lunch in Meat Plus Cafe! Initially we were browsing through other restaurants here but the moment we saw that there was a Meat Plus Cafe, uwian na! may nanalo na!

Oven Roasted Beef Belly with Soup and Rice (a must have!)

We had some trouble moving around here due to some light rain showers but it didn't stop us from doing what we were here for. So before heading back to our base, we went to check Air Force City Park just a few blocks away to wrap our Clark visit.

It was really a fun filled weekend and we can do this more often on a budget!

By the way, as a piece of advise be careful always on the road since on our way back to QC, five vehicles crashed in NLEX. Not a pleasing sight to see so be safe everyone!

In our journey as professionals, we usually meet different people from different parts of the country and one of the things that we appreciate the most in life is to be able to make connection more than the usual corporate relationships...

It all started almost 6 yrs ago when we suggested to a friend of ours who lives in Mindoro that we pay a visit in their home town. There wasn’t any concrete plans then not until earlier this year.

boat ride to Calapan from Batangas Port

Around 3 o’clock in the afternoon of that faithful day, we arrived in Batangas Port and we’re very fortunate to manage arranging our tickets there without further waiting. After 2 hours we arrived in Calapan Port and decided to have a short break in a fastfood restaurant located in a Mall.

Calapan Port

@ Greenwhich New City Mall, Calapan

Another 2 hours of land travel, we made it to Bandayrel Residences in Bongabong. Our dinner was spent with some meaningful conversations with our friend’s parents and Lola Inang over some of these goodies before we went to slumber…

sinaing to the rescue!

Tamalis is in the house!

Early the next day we took off to Bulalacao Port and arrived there around 7 o’clock in the morning, just in time for our scheduled island hopping. By the way, there is a boat ride here to Caticlan where the famous Boracay Beach is located.

Bulalacao Port

It's time to start the Island Hopping tour!

Our boatmen were really generous and allowed us to visit Islands that were not part of the itinerary!

More often trips during Island hop takes a lot of time and so discouraging sometimes because of the distance, but here... easy peasy lemon squeezy!

Island mapping

First short stop was in Tambaron Island. They offered us to stay here overnight but we declined since we have kids that requires special attention… maybe next time!

Tambaron Island

Next stop is the sandbar in Aslom Island. We arrived a bit late to witness the full stretch of the sandbar but it wasn’t a total loss…

Aslom Island groupie

hurray for today!

Then off to our next Island called Sibalat which is not part of our itinerary. The Island has the smallest footprint but offers a lot especially if the private owner can somehow continue developments being made.

Island's vantage point

Sibalat Island

Next is Alibatan or Target Island which is also privately owned. In here we spent most of our time! Besides having our lunch break, we were really fond of what we found under…

Alibatan Island

Kainan na!

Our last and final destination is Maasin Island. The place is inhabited by approximately 800 voters they said, so that explains why the whole shoreline was filled with boat. Since I’m gonna be driving back to our homebase in Bongabong, I need some time to sleep…

our Ella getting Sunburn

Kapoy!

We took off from Bulalacao late afternoon and if you’re lucky enough, you might get a chance to purchase fresh catch from boatmen.

all ready!!!

Pass halfway on our way back to Bongabong, we got this urge to cross Roxas for snack and ended up in Tita Cor’s Restaurant. The place offers a lot of options but we went for the usual “pancit” and ordered halo-halo in fresh buko nut… wow walastik palagatik!

Tita Cor's Restuarant

beat the heat with this treat!

When we got back to Bongabong, we first went to our Friend’s farm before we spent our last night in their house just a few kms away.

@ Inang's farm house

Saying our farewell the next morning with the Bandayrel family was quite sad especially how we were treated like family in our short stay…

Bandayrel's Residence (in pink)

It is our 3^rd day here in Oriental Mindoro and from Bongabong, we need to be in Puerto Galera before lunch. What we did was eat breakfast in Pinamalayan and bought some goodies in Socorro. Mindoro is famous for their banana products so keep it in your list of “pasalubong”.

Oh Jollibee... you're everywhere!

Pinamalayan Landmark

Our next destination was the famous Tukuran Falls and to get there from the main road you either use your legs or the legs of a Carabao… we chose the latter! If you're curious why it was called "tukuran", it literary means that in tagalog. Large boulders holding up each other in layers... tukod!

true or falls?

Fun and exciting fact! Our kids usually watch our vacation videos where we do something crazy like cliff jumping. When we asked our eldest if she can do what we did, she answered YES with confidence and beauty! So watch her nail it with her bro!

We had our lunch late since we took advantage of the lesser number of tourist arriving that time and enjoyed the area to ourselves… we thought! We also shared our meal with the locals since we brought more than enough food for the gang.

late lunch with the gang

pupur is in the house!

sharing is for caring...

Around 4 o’clock in the afternoon we started rolling towards our final destination here in Mindoro… the white beach in Puerto Galera! We arrived just in time to witness the perfect sunset and although we’ve been here twice, we immediately noticed something different about the place.

Sunset @ White Beach, Puerto Galera

Greenhouse where we spent the night

Had dinner in a nice restaurant where they set up tables and chairs along the shoreline and it felt peaceful contrary to what we had before where loud music & "party all night" were the only way to spend the evening here.

Marco Vincent Aqua Bar

fire dance show

We opted to spend our last day chillaxing by waking up late then geared up for breakfast in a newly opened food park where every rice meal is "unli rice" unless you haven't noticed their sign! Also had some photos along the beach and got another layer of sunburn on our skin.

lifeguard feels

bfast in the newly opened food park

All journey must come to an end so was ours! Packed our things and left Puerto Galera pass noon and along our way back to Calapan Port, we stopped over at a restaurant with a nice view of the ocean to fill our tummies then went to take some photos in Tamaraw Falls. Last time we checked the water fall was dead dry but much to our surprise it has water and a pool below!