Bataan

This is a long overdue post from a Bataan trip me and my relatives went to two weeks ago.

My relatives from Canada are here in Manila for a month so we wanted to bring them somewhere, and thus, we decided on Bataan.

I’ve been to Bataan a few months ago with a few officemates where we stayed in Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar. It was a nice surprise for me because I didn’t have any idea at all that a resort like this even exists in the Philippines, let alone in Bataan, which is just a few hours from Manila via NLEX/SCTEX. I told my aunt I would bring them there, and so we did go.

After a few more research, I found out that there are a couple more places to actually visit once in Bataan. So I decided that we go on an overnight trip, stay at Las Casas, then make side trips to Mt. Samat and Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. I’ll share a few bits and pieces of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant and Mt. Samat.

We left Manila around 9 AM and then asked my aunt to drive my car instead as I was sleepy from having woken up 2 AM to catch up on some work before I go on my overnight trip.

Going to Bataan is simple. Go via NLEX, SCTEX towards Subic and take the Dinalupihan exit. This is roughly a 2 hour ride (I think).

Bataan Nuclear Power Plant

Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, as we all Filipinos know is an unused nuclear power plant built during the Marcos regime way back the 1970s-1980s. A few years back, there were talks of reviving this plant, but it looks like it never materialized as it’s still currently sitting in Bataan like a white elephant.

But surprisingly, they finally found a way to make this nuclear power plant into something fruitful and productive – they now offer a tour inside the plant itself!

In fact, when we got there, I was surprised that the tour was very educational and well organized. There was an introduction provided by Cora (lady in orange in the picture) with PowerPoint slides, and even showing us an example of what an “uranium pellet/fuel” would look like. It was very small, just like the size of a bullet, or maybe smaller, which would’ve potentially powered up thousands and thousands of households.

Did you know that the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant has a twin, and that is located in South Korea? They were built at the exact same time, but South Korea’s construction finished earlier than that of the Philippines because Marcos halted the construction of the plant for two years after the Three Mile Island disaster in USA. Marcos wanted to ensure that the errors encountered in Three Mile Island disaster will not happen in our nuclear plant as well. In fact, the BNPP actually had more safety features than that of its twin in South Korea. And South Korea’s nuclear plant is still running up until now. If only we fired up the nuclear power plant and stopped all the politicking nonsense, we probably would have cheaper electricity right now. According to Cora, everything was set. All we had to do was press the start button, and we would have had a Nuclear Power Plant in our country. Such a sad story for something that should’ve been an excellent project.

Going back a bit, the tour will allow you to walk around inside the nuclear power plant itself.

 

We were high tech back then! We already had a biometric device for security purposes. This machine is setup right at the entrance to the facility.

Here’s the control room. Just like in the movies. And that white phone in the middle? That’s supposed to have been a direct line to the president.

 

There are so many things one can learn from joining this tour. I also learned that if the BNPP was successful, a second site was already ready for a plant number two. Unfortunately, of course, there’s nothing there right now.

I’d really like to encourage everyone to take the time out to go to this tour. The entrance fee is only 150 pesos.

Mt. Samat

 

From SCTEX you can already see Mt. Samat and the huge shrine located at the peak of the mountain. This shrine is the Dambana ng Kagitingan on Mount Samat. It is a national shrine built to honor the fallen heroes during World War II when the Japanese invaded the Philippines.

The view from this site is fantastic. One can go further up to the site of the cross either by walking, or via car. My cousin and I decided to climb up by foot, which surprisingly wasn’t as hard and long as I expected it to be. My aunts, on the other hand, decided to stay behind. Once you get up the cross, you can actually further go up inside the cross via an elevator. I think we paid twenty pesos each. But it was wonderful up there. You can see all of Bataan from there. Masarap pa magmuni muni doon. They’ve set up the place so that you can sit back, relax, and enjoy the wonderful view and weather.

  

Unfortunately, there are a few rough patches of road going up the site. There were a lot of visitors including children having their field trip so hopefully the government decides to fix the roads so that more people can go and visit the shrine there.

All in all, Bataan looks to be a thriving place. Hopefully a lot more people discover this place and enjoy what it can share with us, especially as Bataan has an important role in our country’s history.

Weekend at Baguio

The family and I had a spontaneous weekend getaway to Baguio last weekend! Baguio has always been a nice place to enjoy the lovely cool weather and that’s exactly what we got and more!

My brother, while riding the bus last week, saw an ad some where (in one of the buses, I think) that was advertising discounted rates for the Manor at Camp John Hay. Upon checking the website (and after my officemate willingly covered for my on call work over the weekend), we booked a one bedroom suite plus an extra bed… all for the grand total of 5000+. Not bad at all! 50% discount.

It was definitely worth the price because the room was great! Two baths, two LCD televisions, a spacious living room and dining area, plus a nice cozy bedroom. Impressive. Without the discounted rates, we’d probably end up paying 8000 pesos – 10000 pesos for this room! Thanks to my sister, the pictures below are the only two good ones we have of the room! The rest are no good!

Of course, discounted rates are there in the first place because it is the rainy season after all. Thus, we couldn’t walk around the surrounding areas, but in return though, we did enjoy nice bonding moments while eating and hanging out together (even if it’s just within the confines of the Manor).

There’s really nothing much to see in Baguio these days, however, we did discover a new and highly rated place to go to in Baguio - BenCab Museum. BenCab is National Artist for Visual Arts. This, I would say is a really really nice museum, well maintained, has a clean look, and I can say, world class. 

The museum features various painting and art works from different Filipino artists. These were really good. And since it’s located by the hillside, you actually start from the top most floor, going down a floor at a time until you reach the base (which I believe is 4 levels down), where you are greeted to a nice quaint Café with a nice view of the mountains. Unfortunately, it was raining so we couldn’t walk out the open area. Fortunately though, we see the national artist himself down there and so we couldn’t resist not taking a photo with him.

The museum though, has an entrance fee of 100 pesos which for me, is pretty good price with what you can see around the museum.I find other Baguio attractions and Baguio’s beauty to be deteriorating so this was definitely a breath of fresh air. Beautiful and well kept. It has this high class feel to it. We definitely need more of these well maintained attractions in the summer capital of the Philippines.

All in all, the trip was amazing! Although it was only an overnight trip, I realized that family time is really something we need to set aside time for. Nothing beats hanging out with the family!

Quebec Trip: Montmorency Falls, Charlevoix

Another two places we visited was the Montmorency Falls and the Charlevoix City in Quebec Province.

Montmorency Falls

Montmorency Falls is a tourist destination in Quebec Province. It is a huge waterfall situated just close to Quebec City. The entrance we used was from the top, thus, we had to ride the Gondola down (it’s not free by the way) to be able to get a shot like the one below. Unfortunately, it was really windy and rainy during this time so we stayed only for a few minutes at this point and went back up to the top of the falls via the same Gondola.

On top of the waterfall, in the surrounding area, houses the Parc de la Chute-Montmorency. It is a restaurant or meeting area where one can dine, hold business meetings, or even wedding banquets.

Pictures above were taken mid point of the falls, there’s a viewing area. You can see the St. Lawrence river from here. Very pretty sight, especially since you’ll see bits of pieces of snow still there, but melting away. I wonder how beautiful this place would look like during Winter and the Fall seasons.

You’ll also notice in the picture above on the left, that there’s a bridge that crosses across the whole waterfall. Unfortunately, when I got to that point, the battery of my camera died. So no pictures.

You can read more about Montmorency Falls here.

Charlevoix

After dropping by Montmorency Falls and Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, our next pit stop was to go to Charlevoix and do some whale watching and to visit a casino on the side.

Unfortunately, it was such a windy and rainy day that when we got to the whale watching site, there was no boat sailing out! Too bad… but the good thing is, we found this nice trail which ended up in a shore line area with these huge rock formations looking out to a body of water. This sight was amazing. My aunt’s said that it looked similar to the ones in Newfoundland (originally part of the itinerary but had to be scrapped out because of time constraints).

We stayed at Charlevoix for one night, before heading back to Quebec the next day. From Quebec City, we went travelled to Montreal, then to Cornwall, and then back to Mississauga.

More about the next pit stop on another blog post.

Quebec City Trip: Frontenac and Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré

This is supposed to be a continuation of my previous post: Niagara Falls. Took me a while to finally finish this up.

Niagara Falls was just the first stop on that trip. The following day, we drove up to Cornwall, still in Ontario to go to my Aunt’s place first. She lives there and is working as a physical therapist. Cornwall is a nice little town, 4-5 hours away from Mississauga City. I like this place because you can pretty much go from point A to point B by just walking. And it’s a quiet little place, I wouldn’t mind staying there to relax. In fact, my dad once visited this place as well and he fell in love with it, saying that this place would be a great place to retire and live the simple life.

There’s a lot of things one can see in Quebec City.

Château Frontenac

This is a grand hotel located in what I would say is Quebec’s version of Intramuros. It’s in a fort and sits beside this body of water – I think it’s the St. Lawrence River.

This was our first stop in Quebec City. I just love the ambiance of this city. Everyone’s speaking French, the weather is cool, and the architecture is beautiful, like a mini version of Europe. For instance:

Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré

This is one of the most beautiful Basilica’s I’ve seen in my life. The basilica is huge. The basilica per se has been around for hundreds of years, but in the year 1922, the original basilica was destroyed by fire, thus, this one in the picture is actually the rebuilt basilica. If the outside was magnificent, wait until you get inside – it’s breathtakingly beautiful. 

Outside view of the Basilica and the inside ceiling view.

De La Salle is here!

At the back area of the basilica is the “Stations of the Cross”. It’s almost a lifelike replica of the different stations of the cross. I can’t recall in the Philippines where I’d seen a similar Stations of the Cross where you go up the hill as you go to each station. It’s very beautiful. Even though it was cold that day, we visited each station, and trekked all the way to the top.

I can only imagine what this would look like during Fall and Winter season, it would be very very beautiful. You can read more about this Basilica here.

I will need to post these pictures somewhere!!!

This is just the half of the trip – there’s still the Montmorency Falls, Charlevoix, Attempted Whale Watching, Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal. That’ll come in the next post!

Niagara Falls

Traveled all the way to Toronto for my annual vacation!

From Mississauga, Ontario, we went to... Niagara Falls!

Went to Niagara Falls last April 24, 2011. It's just around an hour and a half to two hours away (via car) from Mississauga (where my aunt lives in Ontario). It's actually my second time already, but we went there again because my cousin Kat has not been there yet.

And it's still breathtakingly beautiful.

Niagara Falls is actually right by Canada and US border. But if you're standing in Canadian soil, you have the better view. If you're in US soil, you don't have much of a view. You're probably closer to the falls but there's no view!

And then we went to this central district where there are a ton of places to see. Of all things here, I decided to go inside the Guinness Book of World Records.

Unfortunately, for the 13 dollar entrance, it wasn't worth it as much because a lot of the displays I thought were pretty old already. It's not as updated as it should've been. However, at least I was able to size myself up against the tallest man ever! I didn't even reach his waist!

The Niagara Falls area all in all is really really pretty. I'd love to live here. But I was told that the winter could be hard. Just look at the falls and just imagine how cold it would be during the winter season! We, who are used to warm climates might just find it a bit too hard to stay put here. But nonetheless, I would still brave the cold just to see this magnificent piece of natural architecture!

Next stop... Cornwall, Ontario... and then Quebec City, Quebec!

random thoughts

Gym

I've been religiously going to the gym for the past two weeks. In fact, last week, I even went to the gym 4 times! MWF + Saturday. Been feeling really great again. I can personally attest to the fact that going to the gym really makes one feel better, mentally, physically, and perhaps, even emotionally!

Vacation

On another note, amidst all the busyness and stress from work, I've decided to shift my worry concerns into something more "exciting". My Atlantic and Maritimes road trip happening next week!

I have to fly off first to east coast, to Toronto this coming Saturday. And then by Sunday, we're off to who knows where ( my aunts are preparing and planning the itinerary ). All I know so far is that, we're going on week long road trip passing through Quebec City, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Halifax, St. John's. I cannot wait!! Initially I just wanted to see Quebec City as I envisioned it to have architecture similar to that of Europe. But I didn't expect that we would go all the way towards the east. So aside from Quebec City, I'm really looking forward to Prince Edward Island... a.k.a. PEI.

I remember PEI because when I was watching either Discovery or History Channel, it featured a documentary about how the Confederation Bridge was constructed. It's perhaps one of the longest brige ever to have been built. From the website:

The Confederation Bridge joins the eastern Canadian provinces of Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, making travel throughout the Maritimes easy and convenient. The curved, 12.9 kilometre (8 mile) long bridge is the longest in the world crossing ice-covered water, and a decade after its construction, it endures as one of Canada’s top engineering achievements of the 20th century.

I'm going back to Vancouver May 2, instead of May 1. If I ended up getting the Sunday ticket instead of Monday, there would've been around 100-200 dollar difference. So I decided to go with the cheaper of the two, but will have to work remotely from Toronto on Monday.

Jollibee @ Seattle

For some reason, I've always wanted to try and visit a Jollibee store here in North America. I tried to last May at Las Vegas, but due to time constraints, we couldn't go. And so this time, when I came here, I heard that there was a new Jollibee that opened in Seafood City somewhere in Seattle. Apparently, from what I gathered, there was even a Chowking, Tokyo Tokyo and Red Ribbon beside it. And... when they opened last October or September, the line was so long.

I know we have a ton of these stores back in Manila. But I think it's just different when you're in a foreign land. There's just something about genuine Filipino that makes you want to see it, try it out, and just be plain proud of it.

And so my aunt, together with a couple more relatives went all the way to Seattle, which by they way is around a three hour drive one way to see Jollibee. So almost 6 hours back and forth. And here it is!!

Jollibee!

I love it. I was so excited to see Jollibee. I don't know why. Must be something about how reachable it is now, even if you're so away from the Philippines.

And there's more! Chowking... And Red Ribbon!

Red Ribbon!

Chowking and Tokyo Tokyo

Anyway, we ended up of course eating at Jollibee and mostly the menu is pretty much the same. Except... here it is.... check this menu out! It's a bit blurry though (just used the ipod touch camera for this shot), but you'll notice that they don't have a 1 piece chicken meal, unlike ours where we have a 1 piece chickenjoy meal. Instead... they only have 2-piece and 3 piece!!! chickenjoy meal! As in! Ang tatakaw talaga ng mga tao dito.

Big drinks too, different presentation...

They do have rice, but you'd have to request it. By default, the meals come with mashed potatoes instead of rice.

My 2 piece chicken joy meal

Of course, what Jollibee will be complete without Jollibee himself?

So all in all... this was really a fun trip. I can't get over how many Filipinos there are here, and that Jollibee is really an institution by itself. Even in North America, hinahanap hanap pa din natin siya. When we were parking, I already saw a couple of Filipinos holding Jollibee take outs! And in the store itself, what's also interesting is that you see non Filipinos (only a few when we were there earlier) trying it out too! Makes you really proud that this is a true blue Filipino product.

I don't really eat much Jollibee back in Manila (I like KFC better). But I was really just excited to go eat here this time around. And it was definitely worth the trip. In fact, nag take out pa ako ng cheeseburger, not for me though, for my coworker here.

CDO + Bukidnon

My friend Stella and I had a planned overnight trip to Cagayan de Oro last weekend. She booked us the tickets about a month ago when Air Philippines had a seat sale - the tickets just cost us ~2000 pesos per head round trip. This is the first time Stella and I went on an out of town trip. For the longest time, the farthest we went to together is just Tagaytay. She actually planned everything. I didn't do one thing. Yehey!! That's a change from the usual!

White Water Rafting
This was my second time trying out CDO's white water rafting. The first one was way back 3 - 4 years ago? We were thinking of doing the extreme rafting this time (more rapids, plus a rapid that's a kilometer long!) but due to time constraint, we couldn't book that one. So we decided to just do the advance level.

Since there were only two of us, we had to join in with some other group. So we met this group who half are from Manila, and the other half from Cagayan de Oro. One of them opened a new hotel in CDO so they invited some of the relatives from Manila to try it out. And they were going white water rafting with us too. We ended up sharing the raft with a couple of people from that group. The part I loved the most was riding the kayak. Feel na feel namin ang rapids! And by the second half of the ride, bumabagyo na! Masmasarap mag white water rafting when it's raining. More rapids and mas exciting!

* all pictures are on my friends camera. I really need to buy a new one! Hindi na nakakafocus nang maayos yung camera namin

Bukidnon Trip


There's a new adventure park in Bukidnon which just opened last quarter of 2009. They offer the longest dual zip line in the whole of Asia so of course, we had to try it out! We hired a driver for one whole day to bring us everywhere we want to go for the day.


Nakakatawa talaga itong driver namin.

While we were waiting for our turn for the zip line (they have to drive you all the way up first), our driver, lucky for him, was given a free zip line ride (dahil first driver of the day daw na dumating sa Dahilayan Adventure Park). While he was up there somewhere waiting for his time to ride the zip line, nag text sa amin, ang sabi "ma'am, baka pwede po kuhaan niyo ako ng picture habang nag zip line". Hahaha lol. kakaibang driver ito!

And then when it was our time to go up, we left our camera to the driver, asked him to take a picture of us this time when we ride the line. And he did take our pictures. So when we reviewed our pictures - lo and behold, I knew he'd do that - he took a picture of himself. Tapos may another picture na nag papicture pa siya (with posing eh). Laugh trip! And that doesn't end there, sa kakakalikot yata niya nung camera, he didn't take a still photo of us, instead, naka set to video na pala yung camera! Crap! Video yung nakuha nung posing ni Stella.

Before I forget, nasapawan kasi ng katatawanan ng driver - The zip line was awesome, by the way. I loved it there. Weather was cool. Reminds me of Baguio's weather. Maganda kung ma develop pa yung place na yun. Dadami ang pupunta dun. In fact, there were a lot of people going to the Dahilayan Adventure Park. When we left there around 10 am, there were already probably around 20 who already rode the line and a lot more in line, and then we saw a couple more cars going towards the park. This is pretty good business. And think about it, per head is around 500-600 pesos, depending on which lines you'd be taking.

For lunch, we dropped by Del Monte Country Club. Going to del monte country club, magsawa ka sa pineapples. Of course, we had to buy some pineapples to bring home!

I love it here. When I grow old, I would really love to go live in the province, somewhere quiet and more relaxed than the busy and crazy Manila.

Food
Of course, what trip would be complete without food tripping. Whenever Stella and I go out, food is always the focus of our activities. Number one priority. Just take a look at what we did last Saturday. Right after the white water rafting (roughly around 5-5:30 pm, they provided us with a full meal - barbecue plus rice and drinks). Hindi pa kami nakontento diyan. After getting home and cleaning up, we went to Countryside Steakhouse!

This restaurant is located in Limketkai center. It's pretty nice there, reminds me somewhat of Greenbelt where there are a lot of restaurant choices around. Countryside restaurant, we heard, is popular for their steaks. Stella ordered Beef:


While I ordered... the Ostrich Steak!!


Ostrich steak was really good. I ordered medium rare, but I initially got it as rare. I think sa sobrang kapal nung meat hindi na talaga maluto yung loob. I did ask them to cook it a little bit further and turned out pretty good. The ostrich steak is tasty!

By the end of the meal, masakit na ngipin ko sa kakanguya.

But our food trip didn't end there. Even if we were so full at this point, we saw this restaurant Candy. It's owned by a friend's aunt. The chef trained in France or something so we decided to try out their desserts. We ordered the "sinful" cake slice. Akala ko "senfol" kasi yun ang sabi ng waiter. Sinful naman pala. :)

Look at that cake! It's brownie + some white cream. Yung white cream napakasarap.


Grabeng kabusugan that night.

Back to reality
Unfortunately, vacation is just vacation and it always has to end. We packed up our stuff and headed home. But if there's one thing I learned from this trip, it's that we really need to go have fun once in a while. Do something out of the ordinary! Be free from all problems and headaches. Times like these, not only do we get to rejuvenate, but we end up making new memories!

My One Week Vacation last May (Part 1)

I haven't posted anything related to my big May 2010 Vacation ever since. My relatives from Canada planned out this one week vacation to Las Vegas. And we had side trips to Sedona, Arizona (Grand Canyon!), Hoover Dam then back to Vegas. It was a one week vacation, worth every penny of it (including my losses in the Casino!).

So here I am, arriving late at night in Las Vegas:



I arrived there via Allegiant Air from Bellingham. Since they're like the CebuPac of the USA, I crossed the border first from Vancouver to Bellingham, then took the flight from there. It was almost $200 cheaper! Vegas' airport is huge by the way. And, did I say they had slot machines inside the airport as well?

So our first stop the next day was actually a road trip to Arizona, but we stopped by Sedona first. I loooove Sedona. It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to. Sedona is also known as the "Red Rock Country".



And in order to preserve most of the Red Rock Country feel, even the commercial establishments looked kinda reddish. Beautiful place indeed.



And then off we went straight to Arizona!!



The night before we went to see Grand Canyon, there was almost like a wind storm outside. The wind was so strong all throughout the night and the next morning, things outside the hotel we stayed in were toppled all over. And when we go to the Grand Canyon itself - it even snowed!!! We were not expecting that. I only brought a thing layered jacket. It was freezing up there!

Btw the way, here's a nice family picture we took.


Grand Canyon is beautiful. When you look at it from the view points, it just looks like it's a picture. That's it. It's that awesome too look at. Peaceful too. Grand Canyon is way too big. You go from one end to the other, it'll take you 30 minutes to an hour! But going here is well worth it.

I think we spent two days in Arizone (including Sedona side trip). On our way back to Vegas, we dropped by the West Rim which had the popular Skywalk. The skywalk is like glass floor walkway that hangs on the edge of one of the canyons out there. It's actually not part of the national park of Grand Canyon. This one's being run by a group of native American Indians out there. It's a bit of a tourist trap though. You see, from the main highway going to the Skywalk, it'll take you around 30 minutes to an hour (not to mention you have to drive by a stretch of road that's not paved!). And then once you get there, you need to pay an entrance fee, and that's still aside from the skywalk itself!! Too expensive. But since I was there already, might as well cash out and go pay for it! It was fun though. But I'm probably not going to go back there. haha

Here's the "paid" shot. You can't bring cameras to the skywalk itself. They have official photographers if you want your picture taken.


(additional cash out again!)

That's it for now. I'll save Hoover Dam and my Vegas experience to the next post.

More pictures available in my multiply account too!