The Road Less Traveled

This time last year, my PATTS family had gone on a beautiful trip to the North which I had the opportunity to chronicle in my very first post here on blogspot. For our summer outing this year, we decided to go South so that we could spend less hours on the road and more time admiring the sights.

After numerous retreats at the Assumption and even after all my teen-age drinking sprees in Antipolo, this was my first time to step foot at the Nuestra Senora de Buenviaje otherwise known as the famous Antipolo Church. We got there at the break of dawn so it added more to the solemnity of the church.







Next stop was the Angono Petroglyphs in Binangonan. Which begs the question: saan ba talaga kuya? Angono or Binangonan?

The petroglyphs are supposed to be the oldest known work of art in the Philippines. Human and animal-like figures are engraved on the rockwall. It is included in the National Cultural Treasures of our country. It is sad though because right beside the so-called cultural treasures are 'artworks' put up by vandals. How sad! You will see 'Jack loves Jill' with a heart and an arrow pierced through it. I don't think you will see this in places like Egypt where they preserve such cultural treasures. It just goes to show how uneducated some people can be.


After a quick breakfast at Jollibee in Taytay, we were brought to the Blanco Museum in the Angono town proper. The museum is run by Jose "Pitok" Blanco and his 7 children all of whom are artists just like him. What beautiful paintings they had on display! Please allow me to share a few of them.











I am no art expert nor will I pretend to be one but these paintings are exceptional! More so because all the painters come from one family. I would realize later on that Angono is really an artist's paradise. When we had lunch at Balaw-Balaw Restaurant, they had their own pieces of art work on display and also for sale. In front of Balaw-Balaw is the Nemiranda Restaurant, Musuem and Art Workshop. They live and breathe art in this part of the world. If Annika ever gets serious about her art, I was telling Reymond that I would want her to spend one summer in Angono! It was so inspiring to be in a place like that.


At lunch, I was introduced to the Minaluto. It a family dish served in an oversized bamboo trough reminiscent of a siopao container except that its 10 times bigger. The minaluto has a huge hill of rice in the middle and it is surrounded by such treats as inihaw na talong, crabs, crispy cat fish, lechong kawali, fried chicken, calamari, binagoongan na okra, and itlog na pula among others. Sa sobrang excited namin, I didn't get a picture before the meal was attacked by my tablemates. So as you can see, the minaluto was severely demolished by the time I got my camera out.

From Angono, we took the backroads known as the Sumulong Highway. Again, it was my first time in the area. I kid you not! Who would've thought you could get from Antipolo to Laguna without having to pass Edsa and the South Superhighway. I'm sure the people in the North who frequent Caliraya are aware of this route so you'll have to forgive my ignorance. It was a quiet, serene and scenic trip which I enjoyed thoroughly. From Sumulong, we made our first stop at Pakil, Laguna which is known for their products made out of wood shavings.



Our next stop Paete, Laguna on the other hand is known for their wood carving. Under the sweltering heat, we walked through the streets making occassional stops to buy their products (woodcarved refrigirator magnets for me! my dream is to fill up my ref with one from every place I've been to), eat their food (fried miki noodles with suka for P5.00) or to just simply admire the view. Paete is a quiet, peaceful town with friendly people that I wouldn't mind stopping by if I ever find myself on the Sumulong Highway again. Heehee.

I was super excited for our next stop: Lake Caliraya! Yes, yes, I can see your jaws drop from a mile away. Grabeh noh? I'm maybe 2 hours away from Laguna and yet I've never even been to this area. Well, guess what? Di pa rin ako nakarating!!!!! I thought we would stop by the lake and take pictures, breathe the air and admire the view. Eh bakit kami dineretso sa Japanese War Memorial Marker. Nakakaiyak talaga! Technically, hindi pa rin ako nakarating sa Lake Caliraya. I was only able to view it from the left side of the road. Grrrrrrr. So, kahit sad ako, I still took a group picture of my PATTS family. That's only half of them!



From Lake Caliraya (daw), we took another 40-minute ride to Batis Aramin, our home for the evening. The sprawling resort is right in front of the Kamay ni Hesus memorial (more on that tomorrow) in Lucban, Quezon. My good friend Joanna is from this province and I was telling her how green and beautiful my impression of Quezon is. Ang ganda talaga! And Batis was huge! It had gardens all around, a lake running in the middle of the resort, three swimming pools and recreation areas for basketball and badminton afficionados. What a beautiful place to end the first day of our summer escapade.

Time's Up

The thing i hate most about having an evening flight is that you have to check out at 12 noon, deposit your luggage at the concierge and be left with no bathroom for the whole day. Hassle. I can't even believe I shared that bit of information with you---heehee. Anyway, Maja and I took our time in the morning before checking out at 12 noon. We separated ways with Jaz and Ria as they wanted to have some fast food for lunch. We, on the other hand, wanted to enjoy our last decent meal in HK before returning back to reality.

My newest discovery is the yummy and delectable macarons from Le Gouter Bernardaud. Maja had bought a few from the IFC mall and we decided to buy some at the Harbour Centre to take home to Manila. They are absolutely heavenly! They not only taste great, they come in such bright and vibrant colors that it makes you just want to stare at them instead of eating them. I wish I was as efficient as Gabby in posting links but i aint. You can check LGB through their website at www.legouter.com --- sorry guys, that will have to do!



My other new discovery is Royce! Although J had already made us try this in 2006, this was only the second time I was able to eat some again. Such rich and creamy goodies without the headache I usually get when I eat too much sweets. How sad though that both LGB and Royce are not available in Manila. I need to talk to Joanna about sending me some goodies on one of her flights back home.



Our last lunch was at the Habitu...



Its a great restaurant located by the steps of the Harbour Center leading to the Star Ferry Terminal and right by the dock of the Star Cruises. We sat by the window and it was such a cozy and relaxing meal. We had soup, pasta, pizza -- the works! And it wasn't as pricey as we expected it to be. We were so glad we didn't succumb to the fast food calling!

After lunch, we just walked around aimlessly. We really didn't have anything else to buy and so there wasn't any pressure to get from here to there. By 3pm, we made it back to the hotel for our scheduled pick-up. Since our luggages were now packed and doubled, we were no longer brave enough to take the Airport Express and so we just settled on the shuttle provided by our package. Instead of 3pm though, our shuttle came to get us at 4 already. And when we arrived at the airport, we were told that the flight was delayed. Hmmmm, i'm getting a bit frustrated with Cebu Pacific. We were delayed going to HK and now we were stuck again for another how many hours.

So what's there to do when your flight is delayed? Well, Ria and Maja chose to sit in the waiting area while Jaz and I visited the friendly, neighborhood PUB. Heehee.



Our goal for that evening was to finish all the HK dollars we had left-over from the trip. Since we already shopped to our hearts delight at the Disney store, we were left with no other option but to spend our remaining currency on a nice cold bottle of Heineken. Aaaahhhhh, sarap! Jaz was a bit apprehensive though given my reaction to airplane rides. I assured her though that one bottle would just make me sleepier instead of dizzier.

By 8pm, we thankfully got on the plane that would bring us home. Oh what a relief! Although we were aching to get home and be with our respective families once again, there was also a bit of sadness because we would have to leave our carefree lifestyles and get back to being responsible adults once again. I am hoping though that this will not be the last all-girls trip we will be taking. Instead, I hope it will be the first of many trips I will have with my girlfriends. Maybe we should start planning the next one....

Something New

Feeling rejuvinated after my 8 hour sleep courtesy of Stilnox, I prepared for another shopping marathon and was ready by 9am sharp. Today, our first stop would be the H & M store at Central. Because we are overly ganado, we get there before the shop even opens! Jazmin and I decide to make short trips to Page One (naku, I think we entered every available Page One store in HK!) and to my favorite alley, Li Yuen East Street. Do you know how you buy things that are useless but you go and get it anyway because it's a good deal? Well, those are the kinds of things you will find at Li Yuen East.



I finally take my first trip inside the H & M store and it was 'okay'. Their clothes were average but the price and the quality were competitive. Since I couldn't find any biking jerseys for my spoiled husband, I just bought him shirts praying that I would somehow appease his craving for those damn jerseys. Big mistake. The shirts and the few items I had bought for myself turned out to be a heavy package which I had to lag around HK. Gosh, it was only 11:30 and my right arm was already stiffening up.

After H & M, we peaked inside the newly renovated Landmark mall before riding the MTR for lunch at Causeway Bay. In all my trips to HK, this is the first time I can remember being in Causeway Bay. My mom says we used to go there when I was younger but I hardly remember the place now that I was standing in the middle of Jaffe Road ready to feast on any restaurant that would catch our fancy. After about 10 minutes of walking, we settled on a place that had chinese symbols and a line out front and started our ritual of pointing at the food to be ordered. What a yummy resto! But as I said, its name was in chinese symbols so I can't even recommend the place to you. All I know is that it was on Jaffe Road....

After lunch, Maja brought us to the Laforet Mall. Its a quaint three-storey building which houses boutique shops that carry not so popular brands. I actually enjoy shopping in places like these because at least you dont stand the risk of wearing the same thing as the person beside you. The place was similar to maybe Granville or Greenhills but a little more high-end naman. You could still find nice pieces at reasonable prices.



After the trendy Laforet, Maja directed us by foot to the Times Square Mall. I forgot to mention that this was also Jaz and Ria's first time in the area. Upon reaching the place, we wasted time pa outside looking at the surrounding stores which of course baffled Maja. She couldn't understand why we were spending so much time there when 'heaven' was inside Times Square. True enough, upon entering the mall, the four of us disbursed and tried to enter as many stores as we could. There were just too many stores with too little time. After about 2 hours of roaming around, the girls finally gave up! Since the MTR was supposedly under the building, we decided to take the train instead of getting a cab. What a mistake! The tunnel leading up to the MTR was super loooooooong. Hay naku. And to top it off, we even had to walk from the Tsim Sha Tsui station back to our hotel. By the time I got to my hotel room, my legs and arms were in dire need of Alaxan.

Ria still had the energy to run around while the 3 of us rested. Before dark, Ria had gone back and was forcing us to get off our lazy butts since this was technically our last night in HK. Of the numerous stores we passed on our way to dinner, the one that caught our fancy was HOMELESS. When you have a tool wrench for a doorknob, you cant help but be curious at the stuff they had in their store. True enough, they had all this fancy, one of a kind items that would rival Ikea or maybe even Z Gallery. We had fun poking around and Maja even bought me a souvenir. Sweet.

For the third day in a row, we ate in Happy Garden again. Im sure you would think that by now we would be saturated with their food but as you can see, we were still very excited to eat at this place. As Maja so aptly described, we had a PIESTA! My rice quota for a month was ingested in that meal alone.






After dinner, we rolled ourselves over to the Star Ferry terminal where you could catch fantastic views of HK at night. It was actually a chilly evening but the skies were clear and it was our way of relieving ourselves of the sin of gluttony. Heehee. Our minds were dictating on us to head on over to Mongkok to do some night shopping but our bodies could no longer move. Even Ria had to raise the white flag! By 11, we were savoring our last night here as we took our slow stroll back to the hotel. Not to worry, we still have tom. for our last minute errands....

Out of Bounds

In the past, I used writing to relax me and to take me away from the stress of office work and family duties. But during the last few days, my stress reliever and guilty pleasure has been reading some heavy gossip on the net. I have been consumed by the Brian Gorrell blog and his outrageous stories about members of the Gucci Gang. At first, it was interesting but now, it's just turned into an ugly slugfest of hurtful words and accusations. So to veer away from that, I shall continue my beautiful adventure with my beautiful friends who don't indulge in alleged nefarious and illegal activities. Heehee.

When these girls say, be ready by 9 am, they are knocking on my door and ringing my doorbell by 8:59 am. For a person who goes through many rituals before dressing up, this was indeed a challenge to me. Unlike my roommate the bumbero (her term, not mine!), she can wake up at 8:30 and be out that door by 9. As you can see in the picture, almost all the shops along Granville are still closed as we make our way to the Star Ferry to take us to the Hong Kong Side.







Upon arrival at the IFC, lo and behold, the shops are still closed. Well, most of them were except for a few here and there. We decided to go inside Lane Crawford and look around all the latest clothes by those well-known fashion designers. The clothes looked really pricey, alam mong mamahalin sa tela palang! And of course, they didn't just look pricey. They were very expensive as well! Maja and I looked at one another and sighed. We turned our attention to the more affordable make-up counters and consoled ourselves with a few Shu Uemura purchases.



By 11:30, I was getting cross-eyed since I skipped breakfast to make it to my 9am call time. I convinced the girls to have lunch about the same time we chanced upon Crystal Jade. The first thing that struck me about the place were the words XIAO LONG BAO written underneath the restaurant's name. Yum! Memories of Shanghai. I was super excited to eat that soupy dimsum once again. And the place did not disappoint! We ordered just enough dimsum, yang chow fried rice, deep fried dumpling and spicy peanut noodle soup to get us through the afternoon for what would be....the Maja and Ria shopping extravaganza.

Maja directed our cab to the Hong Kong Island-South Horizons district better known as the Ap Lei Chau area. Its a good 30-minute ride from IFC and its already in the vicinity of Ocean Park. Talk about outskirts! Anyway, our cabbie brought us down at the SPACE outlet. This shop is Prada-owned and despite the fact that the clothes and leather goods were already of last season, the quality was still outstanding! Unlike Ross or Marshalls, you don't have to siphon through loads and loads of stuff before you find the one you want. In fact, it was like being in a Prada store at the mall. The one thing though I couldn't stand was having to deposit your handbag at the counter. Hassle because you have to hold on to your wallet while shopping.

After the SPACE outlet, we took another cab to the Horizon Plaza which was described to us as the Lane Crawford warehouse. OMG. This is where the girls literally went crazy. Marc Jacobs, Kate Spade, Pedro Garcia and all the other brand name designer shoes selling at 30% off. All the clothes and the bags and almost everything at the store was 30% off the discounted price. It was really a steal! Too bad I was wearing my killer boots because it was really a hassle for me to be taking them off and putting them on. It didn't seem to bother Maja and Ria though. They ended up with 5 pairs each! After going to about five more floors and with no more arms left to carry our shopping bags, we took a cab back to our hotel so that we could unload then shop again!



I had just dropped my shopping bags and was about to sit down when Maja and I hear someone knocking on our door. It was Ria and Jaz ready to go to Harbour Centre na. My gaaaaaaad. Patawad. I need to rest kahit 5 minutes lang. So the 2 giddy shoppers left us and headed straight for Canton Road. Maja and I left about 30 minutes after as we took a leisurely walk towards the Ocean Terminal. Look, look, shop, shop until we ended up in Toys R' Us. We finally met up with the 2 giddy shoppers and even bumped into old law school classmate Stef Baltao who also happens to be Ria's first cousin. From there, we dragged our aching feet to....you guessed it! Day 2 in Happy Garden. After having all the rice toppings we could eat, we headed towards the other end of Canton to the coveted LV store. I was so sad when Anna and Rica's bags were both out of stock! Its as if it was my loss as well. Heehee. Maja could no longer walk the mile so we took a cab back to the hotel after getting disappointed at the LV store.

Wala pa talagang 5 minutes, Ria and Jaz were at our door again! These girls take too much vitamins! As soon as we get down to Granville, I head to the first shoe store I see and buy myself a pair of FLAT shoes. It's really against my religion to wear them but at this stage of the game, I needed them to survive the rest of the trip. We go through the whole street, cross-over and make a few purchases and by 11pm, we call it a night. I can't believe we have 2 more days to go and I'm this tired! I must recharge....

Field Trip

Let me first introduce to you the Cast of Characters:
Ria - marathon walker, obsessive compulsive shopper, light packer and stilnox survivor
Jazmin - page one afficionado, tiger skecher, Zoie's personal shopper and my drinking partner
Maja - roommate, outlet researcher, injured foot and happy camper plus Me!

The four of us left our hubbies and children in Manila for 4 glorious days in Hong Kong! It wasn't all glitz and glamor though...we had our fair share of dot.com moments.

Even before we departed Manila, our adventure had already begun. Ria gets questioned by the immigration agent about her purpose in HK. In her most sarcastic tone, she exclaims "shopping!" while looking back at us as if mocking the immigration agent. Kami naman, natawa! Naku Lord, akala ko dun palang, ma-ka-cancel na ang field trip namin. Fortunately though, he was in a good mood and he just let Ria's remark pass. Just when we thought we were home free, we get stuck in the airplane for one hour because one passenger who already had a boarding pass got detained at immigration (ala Jun Lozada?!). As such, his luggages had to be unloaded thus causing the delay. After our one hour wait, we were treated naman to a very heated verbal exchange between two passengers. Ay ya yay. Passenger A was upset because Passenger B's son kept kicking his chair. When A began giving dirty looks and making snide comments, B became agitated and very defensive. With comments like -- "Gusto mo bang patayin ko ang anak ko?", "Para kang walang pinag-aralan!" and " Kung gusto mo ng VIP treatment, dun ka sa VIP plane pumunta!" -- we didn't know if we could make it out of NAIA!

After what seemed like forever, we touched down in HK at 10:30pm. Even if we had a bus waiting to transfer us to our hotel, we chose to ride the airport express so that we could get to our hotel faster. As soon as we got into the Ramada Kowloon, we all looked at one another and we burst into laughter. The room was kinda compact! And the bathroom was just double the size of the one in the airplane. Heehee. But I guess you get what you pay for! On a more positive note, the room was clean and the sheets smelled fresh. For the budget traveller, the Ramada Kowloon is a steal!

We dropped our luggages and with lightning quick speed, we walked to Canton Road for our first HK feast. We initially sat down at the Macau Restaurant on Lock Road but the girls didn't seem to be interested in trying something new. So we walked and walked until we reached Happy Garden. My girls were aghast when they found out I had never eaten there. After our meal, it was then that I realized why they were raving about this place. The food was gooooooood. I'm so glad I discovered something new.

With stomachs full, we made our happy trek back to our hotel occasionally stopping at the few open stores on Granville. We were eager to get some shut-eye to prepare us for the long day ahead....