Manila Ocean Park

Manila Ocean Park
October 18, 2012

Since we met, Randolf Salamat and I have used to celebrating his birthdays out of town. It was one of our ways to bond and create special memories together.But since my schedule has not permitted me to leave Manila, we decided to just look for something crazy to do inside the Metro. Then we heard of Manila Ocean Park's helmet diving.So we thought of giving it a try.

I have tried to do helmet diving in Boracay before. But since it was Randolf Salamat's birthday, I wanted to do helmet diving again- indoor helmet diving! I wanted to make his birthday really special.

We were to choose whether to dive in the shark tank or in the main tank. We were really excited of the thought of diving with sharks. Cool, right? But then we learned that in diving in the shark tank, we would be diving inside a cage, we decided to just  dive inside the main oceanarium tank.

He was playing cool at first. It was as if he was not excited and interested. Not until the couple ahead of us were guided and disappeared under 25 feet! Hahahaha...

Randol Salamat

Randolf Salamat and Wendy Balacano

"US"

Me :D

My The TWO

See my ipod? I had the guts of bringing it down the tank with me. It was dry and safe inside the water resistant pouch but I was not able to use it and kept on hanging until after 2 days.

A huge manta ray swam past us.

 We were instructed not to touch any animal inside the tank but I really wanted to at least poke that "iguana-like" creature staring at us. Hahahaha... luckily, I was not able to touch that thing as we we were instructed to move away from that spot.

My favorite picture :)

The attraction was for 995 pesos. But since we got vouchers from a discount website, we got our tickets half the price, plus the extra P350 for the photo coverage under water. But if you have your own under water camera, you can also bring it with you in the tank.


It was really awesome! Choy thought that the wet suit fits him well. Some reminders? Uhm, oh yes, please don't forget to bring extra undies. As you will be wet even on a wet suit.

So what's the difference of helmet diving in the real ocean vs on a tank? Well, pretty much the same, except that I felt more safer diving indoors.

Here are some more pictures inside Manila Ocean Park

The top of the tank where guests are made to wait. :) 

Padre Burgos Quezon: Borawan Beach

Borawan Beach
Padre Burgos, Quezon Province
October 26- 28, 2012


It was our 4th year anniversary as a cell group (our small group in our church), and so we decided to go off somewhere. It was just so lucky that one of our cell groupmate was from Batangas and offered to be our host in Borawan.

After our stop over in San Juan, Batangas, we headed over to Padre Burgos Quezon. The bus fare by the way from Cubao to San Juan is at 200 pesos. From San Juan, we rented a jeepney that will bring us to Quezon (the jeepney was from our friend's tito so we knew it was far too cheap from the usual rate, so better not to mention it anyway). The ride was around 5 hours. We traveled around 3am, so it was really dark. No wonder why it took us that long to reach Quezon.

Boat rental Rates

We saw ships being repaired at the Port

Island Hopping Rates

After logging in at the Department of Tourism Tourist Center at the Port, we rode a small motor boat.

After a five-minute ride, we reached the island. It was not really in Borawan Island that we stayed overnight, but the Island next to it. It was just low tide, so we were able to walk from the other Island to Borawan (Cool).

The Island was almost perfect for to be a setting of "Survivor".

There is no electricity, no tap water, just the wind and the ocean waters. The place was so amazing. We were all stunned to see such beautiful scenery.

Since there was nothing else to do, even we were all tired of the travel, we all started to explore the island.

The locals guided us to a small cave on top of the mountain.

It was one of the craziest decisions I've made for 2012. To climb a mountain with inexperienced climbers. We almost got ourselves killed (hahaha).

After we had lunch, we started walking to Borawan. We literally walked against the sea grasses and the strong waves (a storm has just passed that week). Borawan was a small deserted island. It was just enough, I'd say, to accommodate around  10 tents. It was that small. I personally wanted to see Borawan because according to what i read on blogs, it was Boracay and Palawan, rolled into one. I've never been to Palawan, so I could not compare the beaches, but to Boracay? Boracay was way too far. The sand in Borawan has lots of fine rocks and dead corals making it difficult to walk. Also, along the beach are large rock formations that seemed to be awkwardly placed in their positions.

One good thing though is that the place still has a very healthy ecosystem. Matter of fact, we saw snakes along the rocks, jellyfishes, and even large black eagle-like birds (I was not really sure eh?). Those kind of animals that you only get to see in themed parks.

Anyway, here are some more pictures. :D

XOXO Debut Party

Our proposed invitation card.

I never had a debut party when I was 18 years old. In fact, I never had a birthday party at all (except for the surprise birthday eat outs my brothers and sisters in faith has arranged for me for the past 4 years). Oddly to say, I was assigned to be an overall coordinator for a debut party of our pastor's daughter. And to make things worse, the party was themed after "GOSSIP GIRL"... which is way way far from my personality.. whew...


Anyway, we'll be doing our photo shoot for the invitation cards on Friday, then shoot a short teaser for the party... Arrghh! Wish me luck! :)

-xoxo

FILA Fun Run 2012

July 7, 2012
Global City, Taguig


Randolf Salamat and I, along with a few church mates went to FILA Fun Run in benefit of the Schools in Iligan City. We all had so much fun, waking up so early, and sweating out. hahah! ;) Milo Fun Run... you're next!

Randolf Salamat and Wendy Balacano

Randolf Salamat bitten... 

Randolf Salamat

Randolf  Salamat

Us

"On The Side of Me" Acoustic Cover (2009)

Originally done by Corrinne May

I'm not the easiest person to love 
I'm often the one who lets things go unresolved 
Yet you choose to be 
on the side of me 
on the side of me 
Yet you choose to be 
on the side of me 
on the side of me 
I'm not too proud of some things 
I've done in my life 
The skeletons in my closet 
Are too big for me to hide 
Yet you choose to be 
on the side of me 
on the side of me 
Blessed Charity 
You're on the side of me 
on the side of me 
'Cause everyone needs a friend to hold 
when it's cold outside 
and there's no place to go 
Everyone needs a friend to hold 
all alone I cried 
there was no place to go 
I remember when nobody cared 
but you 
I'm not the easiest person to love 
But you, you've opened your heart to show me what I'm worth 
'Cause you choose to be 
on the side of me 
on the side of me 
What a mystery 
You're on the side of me 
on the side of me 
'Cause everyone needs a friend to hold 
when it's cold outside 
and there's no place to go 
Everyone needs a friend to hold 
all alone I cried 
there was no place to go 
I remember when nobody cared 
I remember when nobody cared 
Nobody cared 
But you 
Yeah you choose to be 
on the side of me 
on the side of me