02.27.08
road trip in pix
not fully recovered from my feb. 16-21 palawan trip, off i went to join a group of officemates for a road trip down south of good ‘ole cebu. thanks to the promise of “no work, come EDSA day,” the whole bunch had a blast during the two-day road trip over the weekend, with monday set as rest day.
as indicated in the itinerary found in an earlier post, the group managed to visit most of the places on the list. unfortunately, my cam conked on me as i regrettably forgot to pack my extra batteries and charger. oh, sure i bought a pack of energizer batteries @PhP164 at the poblacion of barili – but bless their stocks – i was able to use it only to take a pitiful four pix…
first stop: carcar church 
view of the church from the plaza 
bata ivan and dennis lounging as they wait for the others to finish their shoot 
me supposed to be camwhoring but dennis was fast on his feet that he got into the picture; notice the guilty look on his face?? hehe!!! peace cio^^
something’s wrong with this pix… ah, jen – were you supposed to be in the picture? – hehehe, peace line^^ 
the road trip crew minus sean and line’s dad posing before the rented van 
carcar rotunda 
leaving carcar for barili
next stop: lunch stop – mantayupan falls – barili, cebu
three mini falls 
two little men and cute erin 
me again!! 
the magnificent one
jen camwhoring; dennis in the background 
dennis, jen, cel, and lex 
a scenic view; my cam has started to act up at this point 
bata 
me and bata; mga artistahin 
another batch of artistahin: ley, jen, and line 
the last shot of the day 
anyway, for more pix of the trip visit ley’s mycebuphotoblog and yam’s bored and crafty.
enjoy the pix!!!
02.26.08
macau: day 1
line and i arrived at the metropole hotel around 10 a.m. of dec. 28, 2007 – 4 hours earlier than our scheduled arrival. upon the advice of the man at the front desk, we left our bags at the hotel baggage counter and decided to begin our exploration of macau.
we got guide books, pamphlets, and maps to help us explore the area. these materials were free and available at the hotel’s front desk counter. 
pamphlet of macau churches 
inside the above pamphlet: brief background of the churches [ex. the church of st. paul]
the chapel of st. francis xavier [location sa korean tv soap princess hours]. located in another island of macau; coloane village. 
a guide on what’s to be expected in macau for the whole month of december 2007. published by the macau government tourist office 
the exhibit that we missed!!!! 
me with a street map of macau; darn – i misplaced the map. 
fully armed and ready, time to hit the road!
buildings galore. really, really, nice buildings… 
buildings and reflections 
side view of the macau post office 
facade of macau post office building 
santa casa da misericordia 
senado square: love the place… the shops..
centro de turismo de negocios 
macau btc: inside this building, there are two computer units where tourists can use the internet for 30 minutes free of charge [hehe, the guard on duty when we went there was a filipino] 
still at senado square [senado square is just 5-minute walk from where we stayed - metropole hotel]
vetlongwalks: haha, my trip isn’t complete without my mark 
the best shop name: pretty [hehehe.. priming ang drama!!] 
mannequins 
more shops 
line buying lunch 
pork sandwich @ 8 pattacas [hehe, it's actually porkchop sandwich -- as in PORKCHOP! in between sandwich buns] 
drinks @ 10 pattacas each [line's green tea tastes like grass, hehe - she bought another iced choco and threw the green tea. my iced choco is quite okay. not impressive, though] 
this is where we had our lunch before we decided to roam some more while enjoying our sandwiches 
macau’s wet market: inside this building 
nine west, mango, and more… 
alleyways as we search for the ruins of st. paul 
don’t know the names of these places. but it’s here that you’ll find interesting local products 
macau’s dried products [from fish to nuts] 
weird flattened turkey 
more meat products 
dried seahorse 
local shops 
after two hours of walking, line and i decided to hit back to our hotel 
the sights we saw on our way to the hotel 
david beckham 
little crocs 
shop window 
building 
another one 
line 
she took most of the pictures used here … mat salam line^^
wooh, this post has turned out to be a lengthy one. am not even finished with day 1…
will post more pix when i find the time… enjoy macau!
02.22.08
trip down south
upon learning that the 25th of february was declared a non-working holiday, a group of officemates went about planning a weekend trip down south.
without thinking about the dates, i readily advised the group to count me in. it was only later that yam pointed out that i’d only have one full day’s rest if i push with the plan. it didn’t sink in that i’d be a little tired after my feb. 16-21 palawan trip. but anyway there was the come on that was “kawasan falls”. hehe, i’ve been to different places in the luzvimin area, but hasn’t been to the famed “kawasan falls” of dear old cebu [my hometown]. i consider myself a disgrace to cebu for not prioritizing the many local destinations that cebu has to offer. yup, i’ve never been to camotes, bantayan, malapascua, and what have you… hopefully, that should change. the itinerary below should be a good start. 
02.12.08
see you el nido
after writing the “palawan or no” entry, i decided to take a dive - to heck with only one day leave remaining for the year 2008. haha, crossing my fingers tight that nothing untoward would happen. four more nights to go…..
[above photo was lifted from this site - thanks^^]
02.08.08
a taste of macau
line and i left the hostel in hongkong december 28 at a little past 7 o’clock in the morning. from the chungking mansions along nathan road, we hopped on a cab headed for the hong kong/china ferry terminal.
location map: paid HK$20 for the cab fare [courtesy of this site]
when we got to the china ferry terminal, the first boat that we saw bound for macau was sched to leave at 8:00 in the morning. thus, line and i readily went to the counter of First Ferry Macau to get a one-way ticket. the ticket cost us HK$133. click this for hk-macau ferry schedule and fare table of First Ferry Macau.
we then proceeded to their immigration to have our passports stamped. at this point, the events happened too fast. there were so many people at the terminal and at the immigration counter that we never had the time to take pictures of the area. besides, we were a bit cautious of being reprimanded again for taking pictures. we didn’t want what happened at the immigration line in hk to happen to us again. thus, we checked the premises for warnings against taking pictures. scanned the area and spotted several notices prohibiting the taking of pictures within the premises. anyway, as there were several people before us at the immigration counter, line and i practically had to run the stretch from the immigration counter to the passenger waiting lounge of first ferry in order not to miss the ferry’s boarding. if i’m not mistaken we barely had 5 minutes to reach the waiting lounge.
moi on a walkalator going to the boarding area 
seat 40R [ferry is similar to our own ocean jet/supercat fastcraft] 
these are the seats that cushioned our butts for 60-75 minutes – the sailing time from hk to macau. 
had to make my mark – LOL!!
vet: line, pwede guro ta picture dinhi oi!. dali wala may tawo. 
line: bitaw. pwede na guro take ug pictures dinhi. ako pud.
we headed again to the immigration counter to signify that we’ve entered macau and had permission to stay until january 27, 2008. as soon as we were cleared by immigration, line had her dollars converted to pattacas – macau’s currency [MOP], then we left the airport for our hotel.
outside the macau ferry terminal 
macau snapshots…. 
as soon as line was satisfied with the shots she’d taken, we hopped on a cab to take us to the metropole hotel.
we booked an overnight stay at the metropole hotel via www.directrooms.com. we paid US$77 for the standard twin room accommodation.
check-in time at the hotel is 2 p.m. we arrived a little past ten in the morning, thus line asked if we could check-in earlier. the front desk, however, advised us to just leave our bags free of charge and wait for the 2 pm check-in time. that way, we didn’t have to pay for extra charges.
with 4 hours to kill; line and i left the hotel and began exploring macau
random shots again…
at the hk airport, line had hello kitty noodles. now, hello kitty on a billboard..naglipana ang hello kitties sa hk ug macau… 
mc do in macau signage [the resto: a very small place within a building] 
a closer view of hello kitty… on the way to senado square 
more of our macau trip on the next entry….
photo credits: line
02.07.08
palawan or no
one thing is guaranteed. i will not be able to forgive myself if i pass up the opportunity to travel to palawan this feb 16. due to changes in the company, i only have 5 days leave this 2008. for only 2,900++, i’m sched to depart cebu for puerto princesa on feb. 16 and back on feb. 21. this entails that i use four days of my 5-day leave. i could take a dive, but at the expense of my december plans. taking a dive means i only have one day leave ’til december. it further means that for december, if i plan to travel at that time, i could only use the said leave for december 29. granted that i reserve it for december 29, it means that i only have 4 days to travel to wherever it is we [line and hopefully some others] plan to go to because we have to report back to work on december 31. furthermore, it means i have no right to be sick, tired, or whatsover from feb. 21 until december 29 because i no longer have available leave credits to fall back on.
tough.
has to change plans.
i thought about taking the feb. 16 sched and then returning on feb. 19, earlier than the others. in fact, i filed for leaves on feb. 18 and feb. 19. the problem now is that on our itinerary, we depart from puerto princesa on the 17th to el nido. from pp to el nido, travel time is roughly 8 hours regardless of whether you go by land or by sea. it wouldn’t be advisable for me to take this because i just learned that buses from el nido to puerto princesa leave at either 6 a.m. or 8:30 a.m., no night buses. taking this means that my whole stay in palawan will all be moving from point A to point B minus the pleasure of actually experiencing the beauty that palawan promises. this is because i would need to leave on the 18th and take the morning bus in order that i would reach puerto princesa and be there in time for the 12 pm-flight back to cebu on the 19th. i couldn’t very well leave el nido on the 19th because then i would miss my 12 pm-flight. there’s no available flight on the 20th. i couldn’t take other transportation arrangements also because the fees are rather exorbitant to which i’m not willing to pay, much more afford.
option 3.
i could take the safe side and just remain in puerto princesa. however, this defeats the purpose of going with a group. coz then i would have no one to share expenses and experiences with. although it’s not something new [i've traveled on my own before], it’s something that i don’t like to do primarily because i’ll be departing with a group. i have this thing about “if you begin your travel as a group, then return home with the group” mentality. plus i don’t want to be a party pooper. palawan is meant to be experienced with a group.
option 4.
forego the plan. wait for a refund within the next two years from cebu pacific. then, torture oneself for letting go of something that i truly love: exploringthe philippines - the one thing that enlivens my otherwise mundane existence.
p.s. hey universe! if you were in my shoes, what would you do?
there's no special reason for the name except the love of putting my foot in front of the other until i'm breathless. traveling is a new found love for me. though i'm not blessed with beautiful-looking feet, i've gotten the habit of taking photos of my feet every time i set foot on lands outside of my beloved cebu. THANKS FOR VISITING!!! leave me a note or two. send it to vetlongwalks@yahoo.com or drop me a comment here. would love to hear from you!
BE WARNED: i'm no seasoned traveler nor a professional travel writer. contents here are purely accounts of my own travel experience.
[photo taken @ the palawan butterfly garden - feb.08]
-chocolate hills [carmen bohol]
-underground river palawan
-dapdap beach [anda bohol]
-el nido, palawan
-club fort med [boljoon, cebu]
-murcia, negros occidental
-dumaguete, negros oriental
-taal volcano [view from tagaytay]
-sunset in cavite
