Part 1: Laiya Batangas, and Tagaytay City

I don't want to waste old memories so I'm doing another back post :) Last 2009, my friends and I went to Laiya, Batangas for an occulat inspection of prospective resorts that we could stay in for our departmental planning. 

This will be a 2 part post because this post is about our occular inspetion and part 2 is the departmental planning itself :) We ended up in this area of Laiya which was tranquil, clean and relaxing
 I guess the previous visitor went shell hunting and left these on top of the stone fence thing
 There were plenty of coconut trees and it was such a relief to have them there because we were there at around 11 am which was really hot because the sun was high up. This is my friend Ernest who came with us :)
We came to Laiya during the non-peak dead season meaning there aren't much visitors therefore, it was almost empty. We hardly saw anyone else. 
 But that made the place all the more peaceful, you wouldn't want to leave anymore. But there are of course, parts of Laiya that are very populated by locals and tourists but this side was surprisingly left out. Maybe because of the rental price?
 There were hammocks that we could rest on

 And this one is called a Nipa Hut, or the "Bahay Kubo" where we can rest, eat or just sit in. That's Crystal, my other friend who came with us

 It was evidently a provincial areas as there were cows here and there roaming or resting :)
 Crystal and Ernest found a swing and relived their childhood days by using it :)
 After Laiya, we stopped over Tagaytay City to eat, and admire the view of the Taal Volcano. The Taal Volcano is small and active, and the crater is underwater :) The lake surrounding it is called the Taal Lake and many fishermen set up fishing spots around it to catch the Tilapia Fish.
 Tagaytay is a wonderful place. It's a city in the Cavite Province just above Batangas and 2000ft above sea level which is why it's so breezy here that people visit often during the summer.

Well, that's part 1 of my Laiya Batangas post, I'll get back to all of you with part 2 as soon as possible :) mil besos y abrazos chicos!! :)

Food Trip: Kraaaaazy Garlik! :)

What took me so loooooooooooooooooooooooooooong???? well as some of you would know (if you saw it in the news or something), a certain region in the Philippines (specifically the one where I live), experienced literally non-stop rains for 2 weeks and to think there was no typhoon and only monsoon rains. Visibility was just....bad! haha

This monsoon caused so much flooding that for a few days, classes and work were suspended. I think that the flooding 2 years ago during Typhoon Ondoy was worse because in a span of 6 hours, the floods in some areas reached like 25ft. This year's flooding reached almost the same level but slowly.
 This is not even the bad flood yet. This is only about 2 feet high or less.

Anyway, so what did I do? Since we can't really help in relief stuff just yet and we were stuck in a mall (all roads home were flooded so we had to wait for it to subside), we watched the premiere of Bourne Legacy :) Just a quick note, the movie was great except for the start which was long, and dragging and BORING, but after awhile, the film becomes action packed (and not to mention, the scenes were filmed, here in the Philippines ;)) and the fact that the film had a confusing plot (did it even have one?)

We were in the Resorts World Newport Mall anyway, so after the movie my sister and I ate at this restaurant called Krazy Garlic :) I've never eaten in that restaurant before but we had been going to RW for the past few years, I've never tried this restaurant so I suggested that we eat there.
 This is their Amazing Krazy Garlik Salad, which had the little best seller logo beside the name in the menu. This dish is one of the best salads I've ever eaten in my life. According to the menu, it's an Asian salad mix with cucumber, bell pepper, onions and oriental chicken strips tossed in sesame lime dressing and my favorite part, it's topped with crispy fried wanton strips and peanut sauce.  This dish if shared (3-4 persons) costs PhP475 or US$11.30 and if you get the regular size (good for 2), it's PhP275 or roughly US$6.54
 Being a rice eater, I just had to order extra rice because we ordered chicken :)
 Another one of their best sellers is the 40 Kloves Chicken which I really love. Now I know why it's a best seller. It bursts with flavor! It's their chicken marinated in their original garlic creamed sauce, simmered slowly in 40 kloves :) It's just reeeeeally good. The regular size, which is about the size of a half spring chicken and good for 2 persons cost PhP395 or US$9.40 and their shared size (good for 4-5) cost PhP695 or US$16.54.
 We love salad so much that we ordered another one. We ordered the Krazy Garlik Wrap which is something like the mined chicken salad wrap of this Vietnamese restaurant we like, Pho Hoa. This dish has stir fried mined chicken and turnips, with ripe mango strips, garlic chips and coconut flakes. This has their garlic sauce, hoisin and chili sauce on the side :)


yuuuuuuuummyyyyy! I actually want to go and eat there again right now as I write this. I hope I can bring the other members of my family there and I'm sure I'll be back there to try out their other dishes :)

y ya'sta! hasta luego!! besos y abrazos chicos!!! <3

First Snow Experience

Hola Chicos! I'm going to be doing a little back post here. I figured, I've had a lot of experiences in the past worth writing, so why waste them? :) One of my most unforgettable experiences is the first time we saw (and held) snow. My family and I went on a tour of the Alpine countries last 2008 and we were lucky because it was still the early part of Spring.  Just to enlighten some of my other friends, the Philippines is a tropical country that only has summer and rainy seasons. This photo was taken somewhere in Italy on the way to St. Moritz in Switzerland.

 I know I know it's stupid to be playing with someone's backyard snow but what can we do? :) It was so exciting to see snow for the first time :)
 Even the adults enjoyed it :) Our tour mates from different countries found joy in taking our pictures enjoying the settle wet ice of this unknown Backyard.
When we left for St. Mortiz in Switzerland, (we traveled by tour bus), we were brought to Hotel Laudinella which was on higher ground and it was reeeeally cold. 
 That evening it was just cold...
 ...and the place was picture perfect when the lights of St. Moritz are on...
 Our parents from the other room called us in the morning to look out the window and look! It's snowing!!!! Even if it was just wet snow or rain that turned into ice because of the temperature, for u, it was winter wonderland!! :)
 Temperature was down to 3 degrees celsius :)


 It was amazing to see and feel falling snow :) 
 While I took pictures, my cousins and my sister played snowball flights with our Canadian tour mate Bryan :)
 Too bad that we were on our way to another place so while preparing our things, we just admired the view of snowy St. Moritz :)

 It made everything look different. It was just....fantastic! :)
Our next destination was in Como Italy. It was the exact opposite of St. Moritz beause it was really hot. But after Como, we went to Mt. Zermatt in Switzerland which was only accesible by cable train because any non electric vehicle was not allowed up there to preserve the glaciers. But it wasn't snowing there. It was just freeeeaaaakin' cold. It was a quiet, and less polluted place which we really loved. After Mt. Zermatt, we left again for Switzerland, in Lucerne where we experienced the cable cars up Mount Pilatus. 
 From the cable car you can see a beautiful view of Lucerne :)

 The higher you go, the foggier it is

 That instrument behind us is called the Alphorn. It's a large horn that was used before by the people of the Alpine area to communicate with the other people from nearby hills/mountains.

 When we went higher, we saw a biiiiiig chunk of snow!!!!

 The adults had fun too as if they went back in time and became children again :)
 According to this sign, Mt Pilatus is 20132 m or 7000ft high :)...or does this mean we're on the 7000th feet mark?...oh well :)

 Sliding down the chunk of snow :)
 My cousin and I and the Pilatus picture thing :)
This experience is really unforgettable for us and I love hearing about other people's First Snow experiences as well. If you have one,  I'd like to know yours :) Hasta luego!! :)

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