calaguas island: truly a virgin island

i have spent this year's holy week at calaguas island. being one with nature, a great adventure, secluded, with no electricity, no internet and mobile signal, there is serenity - with cerulean skies, amazing landscapes, rolling hills, turquoise waters,fine white sand, calaguas island is truly a virgin island! 

calaguas island is in camarines norte and this is also the first time i set foot in the Bicol region (yey got another pink color in my map). here are some of the photos of this amazing island.

the year that was

 "we write to taste life twice"

i haven't been able to post my (mis)adventures and i really do have plans of updating this blog and sharing with you guys my pusang gala moments but its either im lazy or busy hence its not updated. just need to post this lest i forgot and since this is also my personal diary, and me getting old (ugh) i need to list it down here, so that one day when i am grey and wrinkled i can look back and say oh i've been there and have done those crazy stuff.

the year that was 2011. backlog - travel stories i need to write


1.11.11 - first time to set foot in mindanao, went to Cagayan de Oro, misamis to attend the funeral of Nympha.

January  - went back to CDO, this time this is a planned trip with my friends and also to celebrate my birthday. white water rafting at CDO - 12.32 km river course from Brgy. Mambuaya to Kabula with 14 major rapids and experienced the 'scariest' boat ride going to Camiguin but it was all worth it. Camiguin is a treasure island -  the island also boast of hot spring (arden hot spring can reach up to 39 degrees celcius) and a cold spring (sto nino cold spring), with majestic waterfalls, volcanoes, and white beach.

April (Holy Week 2012) - road trip to Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur

May - family outing  - swimming at laiya, san juan batangas, first time we went out of town wherein it was just us, my immediate family and am so happy that the kids really enjoyed it.

May - company outing at Botolan, Zambales.

June - i was able to kiss the sky and climbed Luzon's highest peak at 2,922 meters above sea level - Mt. Pulag.

June - visited Palawan again, there really are some places here in the Philippines that i would never get tired of going back besides there are a lot of things to do and see in this place they call the last frontier. was able to visit the underground river this time. i have plans of going back to Palawan again next year, target: coron, el nido.

September - boracay. enough said, what is there not to love about this paradise? still planning to go back there again this year, hopefully christmas time or new year.

October - revisited Enchanted Kingdom and became a kid once again :)

11.11.11 - first time to visit Puerto Galera in Mindoro

December - my first out of the country trip - Hong Kong and Macau. can i just add that i was impressed at their transportation system but nothing beats my manila. i still am happy that i live here.

make your own ringtone

what I miss about owning a nokia phone is that I can easily make any song in my audio album my ringtone. or you can just easily download any song to make it your ringtone, yeah I even had lil wayne ringtones

but it’s quite different with my iPhone, I was able to do it when I got my previous iPhone jailbroken but since I got Pandora (my iPhone4, yeah to those new here I like to name my gadgets hahaha) I haven’t  jailbroken it or anything so I am just using the default available iPhone ringtones, and I have been using the old school phone ring for the longest time.  it was cool when iPhone was just new, but now almost everyone has an iPhone and you all got the same ringtone which make me want to be able to make my own ringtone.  glad I found mobile17.com, they have a free apps to make my your own ringtone, you can download that apps here - http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ringtone-maker-by-mobile17/id394588882?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 and it’s such a breeze to get it installed and create your own mobile ringtone. glad to have that option again of having your own personalized ringtone. I used to had a recorded spongebob ending credit song and at the end of the song was the voice of my nephew saying nana hehehe. gotta go, will be busy the next few hours creating my ringtone.

hello kitty iphone jacket

 i love hello kitty iphone jackets and casings. i have bought a number of hello kitty casings (posted some of it too) and i have been changing my cover almost every month. but by far this hello kitty iPhone jacket is my favorite! :))

thanks to aline for buying this for me. at take note mura lang sya. i saw this first online but the shipping charges are crazy expensive so i had to wait for this one to get here, but waited for so long and haven't seen it at our local shops. last december when i visited HK, i saw this in one of the shops kaso super mahalsha and i followed the advise of my cousin not to buy it and wait for these stuff to arrive sa pamilihang bayan ng divisoria hehehe. true enough it's here na - sa halagang 150 lang :))

photo credits to jayson

vacation time

It'll will be holy week tomorrow and it also means that we'll have a long vacation, yey! i always love this season because holy week always falls during summer and that is the best excuse to get away from the city and hit the beach. and it is also the time wherein you can file for a weeklong vacation and most often than not, your leave vacation gets approved :) just like me, today is the 1st day of my 10-day holy week vacation! getting jealous now eh?

so what are you waiting for? book your tickets now and plan your vacation time. i know, you'll gonna say that you're busy or there is no more time to plan the vacation since its just a few days away and most probably most hotels and resorts are already fully booked. worry not, that's why there are travel agencies that have the best tour operators that can help you get that perfect vacation.

actually i would say that it's cheaper and better to plan your own vacation and make your own itinerary, but the thing is there are times that you really are very busy and doesn't have the time to do all the research and early bookings, and you don't usually get those cheap airline sale tickets. take for example my holy week vacation last year, i was very busy with work and wasn't able to get a cheap airline ticket, good thing i was able to find a travel agency that accommodated my request at late notice and i had a great time exploring Ilocos. For this holy week i have also engaged a travel agency for my getaway as i dont have the time to prepare and hustle with the crowd by doing it myself, besides i know that during peak season it is better to go to travel agencies than DIY because it would be cheaper since they offer packages for groups. and you dont have the problem where to get your transportation or where is the next jump off or bus transfers.

i was just lucky with my itinerary in hong kong last year because i had the time to prepare and research and there were lots of available information online hence i was able to pull it off, but i had to ask a help of a tour guide due to time constraint when we visited macau and i am very thankful that we asked for help, otherwise we wont be able to explore macau. and most probably i will get a luxury Italy tours if and when i visit my cousins there.