Legaspi: The Town of Sleeping Beauty

This enchanting town was about an hour flight away from Manila. Right before we approach the airport prior to landing, the magnificent Mount Mayon came into view. Unlike Manila, Legaspi is a small town comprising of mostly low rise buildings, which enhances the beauty of this volcano with its famous near perfect cone shape.

Mount Mayon is one of the most symmetrical volcanos in the world. However, despite its alluring beauty, it does not sleep. Mount Mayon is an active volcano which erupts about almost every 2 years.  

As we approached the small airport, there aren’t any immigration counters or proper queue as this is a complete domestic airport. For a first timer like my bf, this certainly comes as news for him. Yeah! Our airport transfer exclusively for us!

We stayed at the Tyche Boutique Hotel which has superb location (right next to Hotel St. Ellis). About 5 minutes walk to Pacific Mall and the Embarcadero. And as the hotel is new, the exterior is very distinctive from far, and the interior was clean. One thing I love about the hotel is their customer service. They are friendly and not to mention super helpful. Definitely recommend! 4* for them! We also got a map from them which looks detailed enough but we didn't used it a bit since Legaspi is really easy to get around either by foot or tricycle. 

They have a restaurant attached to the hotel which serves our breakfast! They have a choice of Filipino style or continental style.

Anyway, so we head to this “Small Talk Café” strongly recommended by the hotel staff for our lunch and it was great! I think we were a’lil unlucky because they were having an event inside when we reached. But the food was fantastic nonetheless.

Cordon Blue

Mac'n'Cheese

Thereafter we went back for our half day city tour which was really worth it as it only costs 1000PHP ~ SGD30 since its private (meaning only the 2 of us) and inclusive of pickup and a tour guide.

We went to a few places of interest including the Lignon Hill, Cagsawa Ruins, Daraga Church and Embarcadero. (Read more: Time Travel: The story of Mt Mayon, CagsawaRuins and Daraga Church)

Overlooking Legaspi City

Backfacing Mt Mayon

So we were atop the Lignon hills and there were some activities like zipline. I think they love zipline b'cause there's one at Palawan, oh an at El Nido too. Haha. Well, we weren't exactly interested so we skipped! All of them. 

One thing I don't really like was that everyone, like EVERYONE try to persuade you to take the ATV (all-terrain vehicle) to the "Mayon Lava". Basically, you ride a ATV to the base of Mt Mayon. The thing is, my bf and I wasn't that a huge fan of ATV and I was a'lil turned off by all these. 

Daraga Church

Some compulsory trick shots at the Cagsawa Ruins. SO you are seeing loads of these trick shots at the Cagsawa ruins. (Me too before I was there. I saw tonnes of them online) What happen is that there are many freelance photographer who will gather there and help you take these trick shorts for ANY fee that you pay them. I thought it was rather interesting and so we did!

Behind the scenes

As our main motive for this stop to Legaspi was to swim with the whale sharks in their natural habitat, the guide was very helpful in assisting us accomplish our small mission. He brought us to the Embarcadero and enquire if there are any whale shark sightings in the neighboring waters since it would be a waste if we sign up with no sightings. But NOPE! There were no sightings of any of those majestic creatures of the wild so we have to head over to Donsol for our amazing encounter. (Read: Donsol: The playground of the Gentle Giants)

Spoiler Alert!!!

We came back to Legaspi Town proper after we swam with the magnificent giants!!!!!! YEAH! They were so incredible I was constantly thinking about them throughout the trip. To be honest, I have been secretly praying for weeks before this trip to let me swim with the whale sharks and YES! I swam with them.

So we reached and we unpacked and we had dinner at the Pacific Mall. Some foodie pictures for our stay!

We had another full day at Legaspi which was great as we can rest abit will we indulge in the natural beauty of this place. We had our breakfast and walked over to the wharf.

Since we had some time, we also caught a movie and had a late lunch before heading back to our hotel to pack and prepare for our next part of the trip!

Until later!

Manila: The land with Gigantic malls

So we hop on the earliest flight out for our first day in the Philippines and arrived in Manila at around 10am.

So, when we arrived at the airport, there is only 1 queue in sight. Despite many warnings about the yellow taxi, we went ahead to take them because we are unable to find any other taxis. We took the 40 minutes ride to Makati, their CBD area, due to a bad jam since it’s Friday and it costs us about 14SGD, which I thought it was still alright.

High rise in CBD

The hotel only allowed us to check in at 2pm sharp as their room was not ready. But they were really nice to let us put our bags there while we go shopping and have some lunch!

Our lunch at Reyes Barbecue in Greenbelt 1. Total damage: 340PHP ~ 10SGD. They come with a drink of your choice. Looks like a most economical choice as tonnes of people are queuing for this. And it's delicious too!!! And, oh ya, people in Philippines just loves pork. You will see how in my other posts in other cities. :)

And our dinner at Shakey's in Glorietta 3. Total damage: 830PHP ~ 24SGD. Shakey's in Philippines is like a franchise as we see them everywhere, in Manila, in Legaspi, Cebu and even Palawan. Anyway, we were forced to take the hand tossed pizza as the thin crust one was out of stock. No idea how this could happen but ya. We realised during this trips, tonnes of things could happen! The chicken is tender and soft. But I personally feel that they were a little dry on the insides. The pizza was great though. But a little too much for 2.

We stayed at Prince Plaza II Condotel which was great since shopping malls (Greenbelt) is just right across the street, like literally. The rooms are big too as expected from a Condotel (Condominium + Hotel) and it also includes in room amenities like oven, small dining table, stove and refrigerator.

The entire area consist of Greenbelt (5 zones), Glorietta (4 zones), Landmark and SM Makati. They are HUGE! We spent almost the entire day trying to complete Greenbelt and only about 2/3 of Glorietta. And nope, we didn’t even reached SM Makati. But oh well, it was compensated by our last day in Manila when we went SM Mall of Asia. Will cover more on that later.

When we went back to the airport the following day, we caught a white taxi with the help of the guard for our hotel and guess what, it costs less than 4SGD!!! Now you know why the yellow one is a rip off! ARGH!

Some tips about staying in Manila:

1. Try not to stay out late, go back before 930pm. There’re a lot of kids on streets who will try to sell you things and get real close to you. Personally I wasn’t very comfortable with them touching my arms and bags.

2. Keep your bags in sight as much as possible especially in the evening

3. DO NOT take the yellow taxi; take the white one instead. You can thank me later

Since there isn’t any direct flight from Singapore to most of the smaller islands in Philippines, we decided to purchase a round trip ticket to Manila since it’s really cheap during the promotion period for PAL (Philippine Airlines). I heard from a Singapore taxi uncle that he went during the same period as I did and he paid 350SGD for his budget Tiger Airline flight. I ONLY PAID 276SGD FOR MY PAL FLIGHT!!!! (Including check in luggage and on board meals!) SO MUCH WIN!!!

So anyway, back to the topic on SM Mall of Asia. It is HUGE. So huge it’s difficult to describe how big it is. Perhaps about the land size from Orchard MRT to Somerset MRT in Singapore. One other great thing is that it’s really near to the airport. Only a 5-10 minutes drive in normal traffic conditions. So if alike me, you have a few hours to spend before your boarding, hop on a cab and visit this mall. You will be astonished by the mere size of it. Like its logo suggest, No Other Mall Comes Close.

SM Mall of Asia

The Arena

Life isn't beautiful

It's filled with hundreds of heart wrenching heartbreak, gallons of tears and countless failures. But akin to a pouring thunderstorm, the sun will shine one day. Like a winding hill, there's ups and down in all our lives.

But smooth sailing lives wouldn't be an exciting life.

Without the efforts, hardwork and countless failures, we are unable to appreciate what we achieve each day. It is no feat for most to see, to hear and to run. But for many, opening their eyes to see for the first time in their lives have brought a whole new meaning to them.

Life is hard. Life is full of negativity and sometimes it will knock you down. But struggle makes us stronger and change make us wiser. We are all given a powerful tool called choice, a choice to react, a choice to choose, how would we let these experiences and events define our lives.

Because life isn't beautiful as we imagine. Life is beautiful in ways we couldn't.

Art of getting tan (Part I)

With one random remark from my daddy, off we go to the sunny island of Langkawi in Malaysia. As Langkawi is a pretty small island, our itinerary is pretty simple.

Day 1: Arrival in Langkawi (10pm)

From a close friend of mine, I was able to get reliable car rental local personnel for our car rental.  It's super cheap. I know because i have a friend who went before and the price is barely half! *whee* As our flight arrives at around 10pm, we were pretty worried that any conventional car rental company may be already closed. Furthermore, as our flight was slightly delayed, I was also very worried that Kelvin (our rental) would have left since we’re late. But thank god, he was very patient and waited until we land. *wheee*

So we just took out our GPS and off to our hotel!

Day 2: Cable Car

We left for the cable car at around 10am after we had the breakfast in hotel. The drive to the cable car station in the oriental village was about 35 minutes, though it should be shorter (because we took our time on our way to admire the scenery)

A yatch club along the way

Finally! The Oriental Village!

This place is quite a picturesque place. However, as it is a tourist attraction nonetheless, the things sold here are what you will expect: touristy stuff. We arrived at about 12pm to a horrendous long queue to buy the tickets, under the hot sun! To double that horror, one of the attraction known as Sky Bridge is closed. *dang dang dang*

The sky bridge is down. :(

They offered a package to top up about 50MYR for an express queue but it costs more than double since the cable car ride only costs us about 30MYR. Since we have loads of time, we decided to queue for the cable car.

But the queue was so damn long. We ended up queuing for about an hour. And UP WE GO!

The view is really breathtaking. Hard to believe this is Malaysia, Truely Asia.....

Who can resist some Ramly Burger!

The beautiful Sky Bridge that closed on us. Pmpft!

Even my dad agrees that the wait was all worthwhile when we reached the peak. The weather was totally different, all cool and windy, unlike the cruel sun nearer to home.

And it is super windy!!

Since we are in Langkawi, we have to visit the beach isn’t it! (I think)

I think one great thing about Langkawi is that their beaches were all actually very clean. Comparable to those in Phuket and Krabi to be honest. Now don’t be deceived by these white sand and blue sand. The sand is SCORCHING HOT! THEY BURN! Really. We ran into the water to prevent our small feet from getting burned.

Day 3: Mangrove tour

We booked our Mangrove tour the previous day from a random group we saw at the beach. And yes, it was rather impromptu. We spent about 300MYR to charter a boat (which I think it’s so damn cheap) and they come and pick us up at our resort (sort of). But because the deal seemed too good to be true, I kept worrying that they do not turn up. But luckily they did!!

Bat Cave

Outside bat cave

The baby monkeys are soooooo cute. But the adult monkeys are all so aggressive I don't dare to go any closer. 

They brought us out into the open sea and I think that wasn’t supposed to be part of the package since only our boat went out. *so much win!!!*

Aw the scorching sun!! It's really really hot if not for the breeze on the boat. 



Eagle Feeding

I really thought we were gonna feed the eagles until i realised they are just throwing chunks of fish meat into the water to bring the eagles down. But it was really damn awesome. I have never see so  much eagles in the sky before. 

The monkey cove* or something. The guide was saying something I couldn't make out. But there's really loads of monkeys as well. This one's super close to our boat. He could almost jump right in. 

Floating village*

Kelong*

At the end of the tour was a short break at the floating village where you can have lunch and look at some of the marine collection* they have. This one is a 20kg ray kept in captivity. I have to say I'm surprised they keep these animals.

Ever since I heard my friend’s story about a pink dolphin rescuing her in the water around here I was so obsessed and was hoping so much that a dolphin will appear. And dolphins are supposed to be rare in these water.

Open sea overlooking the Kilim Geoforest Park

When I came back I saw news that there was a cluster of dolphins swimming through the Penang bridge. Fml.

We came back and went for spa and high tea! Such good life.

The standard tourist photo at the Eagle Square!

                                    
    Some other really nice architectures near the Eagle Square

Day 4: Depart from Langkawi

And we have to say goodbye..

 

PS: we lived right next to the airport, about 10 min drive. So it's really centralised and near to everywhere!

Celebration in Singapore!

Unlike most Chinese community around the world, Singapore does not allow fire crackers or fireworks, due to some fire incident in the last few decades. But we do have the twice, I guess, yearly fireworks by our government! Hurray.

River Ang Bao, in Singapore is a yearly Chinese New Year (CNY) event held along the floating platform @ Marina. 

The Helix Bridge

CBD @ Singapore

Although a multi racial country, we also have our own taste of our own CNY celebrations. Anyway, for those who don’t know, this year is also the year of horses under the lunar calendar, so you see loads of horse ornaments and decorations around the Chinese cities. 

The lunar animals, a.k.a zodiac comprises of 12 different animals and I was borned in the year of snake. Ssssss.

So the story goes a little like that. Year, as pronounced in Mandarin is 年 (nian) happened to be a monstrous creature in the past. So people light fire crackers and decorate their houses with the color that the monster creature fears, red. This explains why Chinese generally think that red is an auspicious color since it drives monsters (and bad luck) away.

The huge character reads 春 (chun) which means Spring.

Lion dance is a traditional way of celebrating CNY. Read more here!

Some handmade ornaments in my house for the occasion!

All handmade flowers

Handmade Pineapple (王梨 wang li symbolising the luck will come)

Handmade origami decorations

Happy Chinese New Year and Happy Holidays!