Yearly, my mom travels for her Batanes Photo Tour, for 2012 she has a new photo tour in store for fellow photo enthusiasts and globe trotters, who loves traveling. Having traveled to Catanduanes a week ago, she is now on her toes to promoting Catanduanes - Mandy Navasero, Catanduanes Countryside Photo Tour
Schedules for April 13-16 and May 11-14, Sleep on three hotels and try Bicolano dishes @P19,500 inclusive of all.
With the new slogan of Department of Tourism: “It’s more fun, in the Philippines!” A lot of people are coming up with their own version why it’s more fun in the Philippines.
With that in mind, let me say that, It’s more fun in the Philippines – because of BATANES! I went there a few years back, and I wasn’t really thrilled to go there at first. But then, after going to different destinations like Marlboro Hills, seeing the lighthouse, all magnificient and breath taking. Let the pictures speak for itself.
Photos taken by Mandy Navasero
I recently joined my mom’s Taal-Heritage Photo Trek trip a few days ago and I was impressed that Taal has so much to offer, being abundantly rich of our Philippine history.
This will be part 1 of sceneries around Taal that we visited. We first met with the other participants in mom’s office at LRI Design Plaza, it took us 3 hours to arrive at our first destination – Basilica
Quick post…
Our lunch on our last day before heading back to Manila
Calamari again, it was that good and the sauce too. We asked our waiter Jomark if we could ask for more sauce and how much it would cost, he was nice enough to give us a bigger bowl of sauce with no charge. Mind you, they have service charge but I’m happy to pay them the service charge unlike other restaurants.
The hotel gave us free keychains for souveneirs
And here’s the goodies I brought home with me
Macapuno balls, pastillas de leche and turones de mani.
We took a bus ride and it only cost us P78 cheap! The terminal was at Pasay Rotonda.
So, this is my last post for my vacation with the BF, we had so much fun and everything about the trip was pleasant. He’s planning for another trip next year, this should be exciting.
Till then!
Meow..Meow..
For our dinner, here’s what we had…
The broth was good and the beef was soft, unfortunately we weren’t able to finish the pot. Price was reasonable, I just forgot the exact price –sorry.
The Cordon bleu came with gravy, the gravy was tasty and the Cordon itself was really soft. Price was reasonable too.
The only price that I remember is the blended ice tea, it costs P60 or P65 pesos, now I only wish they had bottomless ice tea. It was really good. On the side we also ordered their calamares, the dip that came with it was yummy too and it costs below P200 and had more pieces of calamri compared to Carlos pizza. Definitely a must order in my opinion.
Overall…
We were actually surprised, the food was really good, we were the first customers that night and other customers came along. Buena mano? haha.
My Verdict: 5/5 spoons for the cordon bleu and calamari
It wasn’t extraordinary, but it was tasty and reasonably priced.
3.5/5 spoons for the Bulalo
5/5 for blended ice tea
Will we go back? Definitely! yes! now only if we have a car, hehe.
Till then!
Meow..Meow..
Continuation of our day 2 trip, as mentioned in my earlier posts, BF and I went to Halfway zoo and we rode a jeep going there, it’s a long the road so you won’t definitely miss it. I forgot how much the entrance fee costs, but it’s relatively cheap, but if you want to touch and have your photos taken with a tiger it’s a little bit pricey but worth it.
As soon as you enter the Zoo, you will be greeted with the new baby bengal tiger and Milky the white Lion who is so huge, gigantic enormous huge.
He “seems” friendly, but I’m pretty sure when I stick out my hand, he’d see it as food. Yes, these animals are cute, but when you think of it, you’d feel sorry for them. Cages are not their home but the wild life, then again, I hope they are all taken care of. I just hope those handlers weren’t so rough on these animals.
Here’s a video of Milky, rubbing himself on the cage.
* The voices behind are BF and Me
And here’s a video of me having my picture taken with Julio (looking silly)
The rest are pictures of other animals in the zoo, enjoy.
There were actually a lot of Bengal tigers
There weren’t much animals to see, but BF and I definitely enjoyed, specially with the tigers and lion. Right after, we headed back to Picnic grove to ride a horse. Too bad, we didn’t bring our camera’s, we dropped by our hotel to drop our goodies and bags first.
I was actually scared for my life when I rode the horse, the last time I rode one was when I was a kid, so you could imagine how long it has been. At first, I thought I’d fall off, but that was because I was slouching, I tried a technique by sitting straight, and it was much more easier. My horse trudis ran for a bit, and it was fun, I felt like a cowgirl! No perverted comments or thoughts please, haha!
We arrived at our hotel just in time before it gets dark. We walked to a nearby 711 to buy some soda for midnight snacks, then had dinner at the hotel which I will posting today.
Overall experience…
Both the zoo and riding horses was a lot of fun and the weather was just right. It was truly a pleasant and unforgettable experience. Commuting was a breeze too, except for one incident with the local who was too lazy too pass our 50 pesos to the driver and our money flew out the jeep. It was really stupid, the BF ran and thankfully found the money. That girl couldn’t even look at me at the eyes.
I’m sure some of you have cars to drive to places, but if you don’t you can ride a jeep and a bus going to Halfway zoo, just make sure you go down before you reach Alfonso.
What do you like most about Tagaytay? or your favorite places? I’d like to know them.
Till then!
Meow..Meow..
For our lunch on our day 2 vacation, BF and I ate again at Carlos Pizza, I enjoyed my pasta and pizza, BF only loved their pizza. Here’s what we had
I find it quite pricey, but it was really soft and the white dip, garlic something was really really good. It had a few pieces of calamari.
BF had the bolognese (as usual), I had the italian pasta. My order was okay, a little bit spicy (just the way I like it), the sausages were good too. Nothing special but still good and worth trying. I forgot the prices though, but it both costs less than P190
The quattro formaggi was to die for, maybe because I love blue cheese, the abruzzi was good too, we had left overs which we had as midnight snack that night.
Overall…
I’d give the quattro 5/5 spoons. For drinks we had the usual bottomless ice tea. The first time we ate there with our friends (on our first day) our total bill cost us P2,100 (our orders were the same pizza, 2 calamari’s and 4 bottomless ice tea’s) they have service charge plus VAT sales.
For our lunch, it cost us around P1000+ something. As for the pasta, I’d give mine 3/5 spoons, I liked the pasta I ordered at Piadina better though.
Here are pictures of the place, the first photos were taken on day 1 night time, the rest are day 2photos for our lunch date.
Outside a panoramic view of taal lake
*this photo was taken day 1
Right after our lunch, we took a jeepney ride going to halfway zoo, will post about it tomorrow. By the way, there are branches of Carlos Pizza in the metro, they have one at SM Mall of Asia, I strongly recommend the quattro formaggi, that is if you are into blue cheese ;)
Till my next post!
Meow..Meow..
