April 28, 2014

Exploring Bolinao

             Summer in the Philippines is always the season for out-of-town trips.  An archipelago as it is, there's so much options to choose from - where to eat, where to go, where to stay and what to see.  We have visited Manaoag and Dagupan, Pangasinan two years ago and even spent a lot of time in Hundred islands in Alaminos but I have not seen Patar beach even if its quiet famous.  With that thought in mind, I invited my friends to backpack in Bolinao, Pangasinan. Its was Friday night when we joined the long list of chance passengers in Victory Liner, Cubao for a direct trip to Bolinao. And what a bad decision, Friday night is actually a tiring night to travel.  Its the night of the week where almost if not all employee's in Metro Manila go back to their provinces for vacation or simply going home for a rest day after a week of making a living in the city.  Fortunately, the administration decided to allowed another bus to travel to Alaminos, Pangasinan when they found out that almost fifty of remaining passengers are actually going to the same destination.

           
             We arrived in Alaminos around 5AM, we then took another bus ride to Bolinao.  Unfortunately, there's not much of an air-con bus available to that town so we ended riding a local non-air-con for our transportation.

April 4, 2014

Calaguas Islands

             Having been to different beaches in the Philippines, I seriously thought I've seen the prettiest and most enchanting of them all.  Arriving in Tinago island and Kinastillohan Island in Calaguas makes me speechless, then realized - I thought wrong.  Seriously, this is the cleanest, awesome beach I've ever seen.

            Calaguas island despite of its beauty and popularity to beach bummers and travelers still get little attention.  It's not because its expensive but its far from Metro Manila and from the most populous town of the region.  This group of islands is part of Camarines Norte, under the jurisdiction of the town of Vinzons.  Another pride of Bicolandia that let you experience the white sand beach - it will definitely rival that of Boracay. Let you get the peace of mind that rival that of Panglao and let you enjoy the freedom from high technology gadgets and connections that interrupts if not ruin your great vacation.


The island is still virgin and unspoiled that you must make sure you have your tent, clean water and food, not to include your gadget batteries in full charge