Hump Day Giveaway!

It's time for Hump Day $50 Giveaway and today's event is for Google+ Circles. Thanks to the 27 wonderful blogs listed below, we are giving away another $50 so please feel free to visit their blogs after joining. My Tots Exactly | Money Saving Mindy | Experience of a Super Mommy | I Heart Giveaways | Exotic Philippines | Beauty Queen Gene | WAHMaholic | Mirage | Coupon Queen of Texas | Our Food Trip | it's not always about me | Pensive Thoughts | Happy Mothering | SWEXIE | Building Carpenters | Topics on Earth | Mom's Ups and Downs| Frugal Experiments | Kenzie's Kozies | Pinay Mama | Fabulicious Diva | It's all about Me | My Tummy Calls | The Blogger Hub | Travel Unravels |NEW: After entering the mandatory entries, you will be taken to a separate page to add the 25 other sponsors' page on to your Google+ Circles. Please completely ADD ALL 25 on the separate page to be eligible for the 25 points. All the sponsors will verify your entry and if you miss to follow one, your 25-point entry will be disqualified. After adding all 25 entries to your Google+ Circles, come back to the blog page you first entered on to complete the rest of the Rafflecopter tasks. For a short tutorial on how to Follow via GFC or to Add pages to your Google+ Circles, click here. A note though: You can only join this on one blog/page. There will be a maximum of 32 entries ONLY. If you have more than 32, I reserve the right to delete duplicate or fraudulent entries. May I request that you use only one name and email address for quicker validation of entries. On the first mandatory entry, please do not forget to write Swexie referred you since it is a mandatory entry. You must complete the first 2 tasks before the others are enabled, and for all your other entries to count. Thank you very much and good luck. By joining this giveaway, you agree to the Terms and Conditions on the bottom of the form. Contest is open all-day Wednesday, from February 29th, 12:01am EST to February 29th,11:59pm EST (February 29th, 1:01pm Philippine time to March 1st, 12:59pm Philippine time).

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO ADD THE 25 GOOGLE+ PAGES.

Iloilo: A Taste of Dinagyang Festival

November wasn't really the time of Dinagyang Festival but the Ilonggos have surprised us with a taste of it and I enjoyed it so much that I borrowed one of the performers' head dresses. Oh my, it was heavy! Performers were painted in black but they had very wonderful and colorful costumes.

My Iloilo trip was actually for official business and it was a little disappointing that I didn't have the luxury of exploring the place as a tourist. Luckily, one of my friends, Leo Jamorin, agreed to meet me for dinner in one of the best restaurants in Iloilo, Uncle Tom's. 

Uncle Tom's doesn't just serve satisfying and mouth-watering foods, it also has the best value for your money. I remember ordering Baby Back Ribs for dinner and a slice of Chocolate Cake for dessert. Yummy!

Generally, my Iloilo trip was just confined to going to the different hotel venues for our seminar.  

view from 7th floor of Sarabia Manor Hotel

For this Iloilo trip, I know that I have missed a lot. I wasn't able to go to the old churches and I didn't even had a taste of the original Iloilo Batchoy. (Ok, I ate at Ted's, but Ted's is almost everywhere, I want the batchoy which isn't generic). There's a reason for me to go back to Iloilo and maybe add some Bacolod and Boracay side trips next time. 

(--,)

Coron Island Hopping Tour (Coron Day 2, Part 1)

Coron Island Hopping Tour includes the following destinations: Kayangan Lake, Twin Peaks Reef, Atwayan Beach, Coral Garden, CYC Beach, and Twin Lagoon.

For our tour, a motorcab driver fetched us from Coron Village Lodge and dropped us at the Corong Galeri Arts and Crafts (Calamianes Expeditions and Eco Tours) to join the tours. On site, there are a lot of tours to choose from for as low as P650 per person. As you might have read from my previous post, our tours were pre-arranged by Logpose Travel and Tours so our business in going to the Corong Galeri is just to sign up for the tour and execute the standard waiver and for a brief orientation and instructions. All payments were already taken cared of by Logpose, through Leidy Lanado (email address), our tour assistant who is based in Coron.

From the Corong Galeri, we just walked going to the Lualhati Park, where the boats being used for the tours are docked.

First stop: Kayangan Lake

Most of the Coron photos you see on the web are taken at Kayangan Lake. It took only about 15 to 20 minutes going to the entrance of the lake. You'll be amazed at the several rock formation that seem to look like some very mountainous island from afar. As you approach these "islands", you will see that these are actually composed of several individual and smaller rock formations. We can't capture its entire beauty on camera. These photos don't really give justice to the wonders of these places.

entrance to the lake

You need to do a 5-minute trek up the rocky slopes to get this view.
It was a difficult average terrain for an unexperienced me but it was worth it!
Another 5-minute trek down the other side of the mountain is where Kayangan Lake is.

Kayangan Lake

Kayangan Lake

Cave: view inside the cave at Kayangan Lake

Cave at Kayangan Lake

Sorry for the blurry photo
There are lots of tourists enjoying the beauty of the Kayangan Lake

See how clear the water is?

Some smaller rock formations at the Kayangan Lake.

Next Stop: Twin Peaks Reef

Twin Peaks Reef is a good place to snorkel. Fish feeding is also allowed (and actually encouraged) and we spent most of our time enjoying the feeding frenzy of the small fishes.

Look how friendly these fishes are

The water is deep at Twin Peaks, you're literally swimming in the middle of the sea. It is advised to use life vests. Our tour assistant, Leidy, also packed some bread for the fish feeding. I was skimping on the bread and thought that I should economize it since we will also be going island hopping the following day. =)

Next stop: Atwayan Beach and Coral Garden

Atwayan Beach and Coral Garden are two different spots but they're just five minutes away from each other.

We had our lunch at the Atwayan Beach. Lunch was included in the tour package. We were served with grilled pork chop, grilled fish, lato, and bananas for dessert. One of our companions also brought watermelon and it was very delicious.

Atwayan Beach is just a small stretch of white sand beach and is particularly a famous stop-over for lunchtime. It has few huts and each hut can accommodate around 20 persons. There is a place for grilling and cooking but we didn't really use it since our tour guides did the cooking at the boat.

The Coral Garden is another spot for snorkeling and fish feeding. In my opinion, the reef is more beautiful and wider at the Coral Garden than in the Twin Peaks. There are more colorful fishes in the Coral Garden, too.

This post is too long already. CYC Beach and Twin Lagoon will be separately blogged in Part 2.

Hello Coron! (Coron Day 1)

DAY 1:

Arriving at the Busuanga Airport is a real breather! For this tour, we availed of the services of Logpose Travel Agency, which is based in Ermita, Manila. So basically, Logpose has already arranged our hotel accommodation and tours for the five days and four nights stay in Coron.

What to expect upon arriving at the Busuanga Airport.

The Busuanga Airport is small, fan-cooled, and it doesn't have a conveyor for your baggages. But it is clean, well-maintained, and has decent and functional comfort rooms. The arrival area also houses an information desk and a tourist assistance corner.

It will take you about 30 minutes to travel from the Busuanga Airport to Coron proper so it is best to secure your airport transportation ahead of time. According to the locals, there are vans which carry passengers from the airport to Coron proper for a fee.

So, our van driver dropped us at Coron Village Lodge located just within the city poblacion. The location is actually very convenient. It's just a few minutes walk from the Catholic Church, school, restaurants, and the municipal hall.

Outside the reception hall.

Our room
Air-conditioned with hot and cold shower.

There's nothing really fancy at the Coron Village Lodge but you will get the basic things that you need: aircon, tv, a nice bed (or beds), private bathroom, accessibility, and security. You also get a rack (with plentiful of hangers) for your wet suits. Coron Village Lodge has a restaurant that opens and serves breakfast at 7 in the morning. The hotel and restaurant staff are really friendly and accommodating. We really did not expect housekeeping service but we were surprised to see fresh towels and a clean room when we got back from our tour.

At Coron Village Lodge Restaurant, the average meal per person costs around P200. They don't have published room rates on their website or fliers. I actually do not know the exact rate of our room because we took a package price that included the accommodation.

One of the first spots that we went to is the Kawayanan Grill Station. We were so hungry when we arrived and almost all of the people that we asked recommended Kawayanan. 

cozy ambiance at the Kawayanan Grill

lato (Caulerpa lentillifera)
It's an edible green seaweed commonly served with vinegar
I've never seen lato as big as these

Kawayanan Grill mini bar

After satisfying our palates, we opted for a leisurely walk that took us to Coron's Municipal Hall. The coliseum was also nearby, as well as the plaza and the public market. We've been told that fresh seafood is available at the Coron Public Market. You can actually buy fish and request the restaurant to cook it for you. By the way, Kawayanan offers cooking your food at a fee of P250.

at the Coron Municipal Hall

Exploring Coron Town by foot is actually a great activity. You won't get lost because of the ample road signs and directions going to the tourist spots. But if you are not in the mood to exercise your legs, you can opt to hire a pedicab for just P8 minimum fare per person.

Coron Days 2, 3, and 4 are coming up next. (--,)

Oh Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

at Amihan sa Dahican, Mati City
Photo by My Santos

I just can't get over this. 

It was such a wonderful experience.

I will be organizing a Skim and Surf Weekend activity soon.

Hump Day Giveaway: One day only. Win $50

Thanks to the 27 wonderful bloggers listed below, it's time for Hump Day $50 Giveaway once again. This week's task is for Facebook Page likes which is super easy to do. Feel free to visit all the wonderful blogs below once you're done entering the giveaway. You can log on to Rafflecopter via your Facebook account, or your name and email (just make sure your Facebook is opened so you can easily like the pages). Once you've liked the page (Like button turns gray), leave your Facebook Profile Name (not a Business/Blog Page) on the space provided for Extra Info after doing the task so we can verify your entry. It would be best if you enable us to see the pages that you liked in your info tab so we can announce the winner ASAP. My Tots Exactly | Frugal Experiments | Life's Cheap Thrills | Building Carpenters | Beauty and Fashion Diva | Money Saving Mindy | Exotic Philippines | Wrap to Lose Inches with Jolene | The F Blogger | Fashionilicious | The Beauty Encounters | Happy Mothering | Mommy Coupon Swappers | Shop Vintage Clothing | Samut Sari | Teach Me 2 Save | Online To The Fullest | Deals By Gengen Blog | Swexie | Fit N Fab | Hott Mama in the City | WAHMaholic | WAHMaholic Blog Designs | Eating Out | Sonya's Happenings | FoodQuest | My Bric-a-brac A note: Please join only on one blog/page PER GROUP. A maximum of 32 entries will be considered. If you have more than 32 entries, the host reserves the right to delete duplicate or fraudulent entries. Also, please use only one name and email address, or Facebook account for quicker validation of entries.

Surf's Up

My surfing escapade in photos...

Day 1:
Location: Amihan, Dahican, Mati City

Longboard

weeeh! this is the best shot, ever!!!

Day 2:
Location: Bangonay, Bobon, Mati City

Trying Shortboard for the first time.

I needed the push!

Ok, so this thing is HARD to balance...

It's really hard to balance...

  

It's really REALLY really hard to balance...

Ok, get up now...

Screams: I'm going to fall. Waaaaaaaaaah!

Steady... *%#$@*&%#

My shot before the CRASH! Hahaha!

Surfing is an exciting sport, everybody should try it at least once. Thank you Kara for the photos. These are my only good surfing shots and I thank Kara's D7000 for it! (--,)

Please stay tuned as I will be hosting a one-day giveaway with 26 other bloggers. Come back today (Wednesday) at 1:01 PM, Philippine Time (12:01 EST) for a chance to win $50 paypal credits just by liking FB Pages.

Amihan sa Dahican

It was a skim and surf weekend for me and my classmates as we traveled to Dahican in Mati City. We got there via a 3-hour travel by van  from Davao City to Mati City, courtesy of our driver, Kuya Abel, and another 10-minute travel from the Mati City proper to Amihan, Dahican.

Dahican is a 7-kilometer stretch of white sand beach and though not developed, it still remains as my most favorite beach spot in the whole Philippines.

Photo taken by Kara

Amihan sa Dahican is home of the Amihan Team, a team of young skimboarders and surfers and founded by George G. Plaza, a.k.a. Kuya Jun. If you want to know more about Kuya Jun, he was featured in Everyday Heroes section of the Reader's Digest October 2010 issue. Read the RD issue here. To know more about the Amihan Team, read here and here.

Some of the boys from the Amihan Team

Amihan sa Dahican does not have any closed overnight accommodations but you can set up your tent or rent their duyan (hammock). There are no nearby stores so it's a must for you to bring food for the duration of your stay. You can cook your food on site at their kitchen. There are no extra charges if you want to use their kitchen but make sure to bring your own supplies such as uling (charcoal). Our group brought a burner so we need not wait for the other guests and locals to finish cooking before we could use the kitchen. If you do not want to set up your own tent, there are other resorts in Dahican, such as the Botona Beach Resort, Kubo sa Dahican, and Kanakbai. These are all along the Dahican coast.

In Amihan sa Dahican, you can do both skimboarding and surfing. You need not bring your own boards, specially if you don't have one, because there are skimboards and surfboards available on site for rent. You'll be amazed at how young boys and girls are so good at these watersports. You'll be challenged to learn how to skim and surf once you see them catching and riding waves so effortlessly!

On April, there will be a skimboarding competition at Amihan sa Dahican. I hope that I could go back to Mati in time for the upcoming event.

Rates:

Van 
Back and forth from Davao to Mati P6,000.00
The van can accomodate up to 18 passengers.

Accomodation
Fees at the camping site: P50.00 per tent
Hammock P50/hour

Click here to see my surfing photos

If you have questions or inquiries about this post or anything about Dahican,
please don't hesitate to send us an email at admin@swexie.me