Saturday, February 21, 2015

Valentines Day Largey: Island Hopping and Camping at Nagsasa Cove






It's 3 am on Valentines Day. The girls and I are off to the North, our game: beachineering baby! 



Who's excited? Kahit walang tulog, smile lang. :)


The call time was a little early yeah, but that's how we like it. We actually made the request to adjust the time. It's a weekend, a sweldo weekend at that, a bunch of people for sure were thinking the same thing, that is escaping the busy metro. And we sure were glad we made the request. What with getting lost along the way and all, our supposedly 3-hour travel time took significantly much longer than that. Long enough that when the sun broke (by the time I woke up) at around 6am we were still in Bataan, asking for directions. I was asleep most of the time so I guess I didn't really mind. It would have been better however, if the timeline was closely followed. More beach time, chika time, and photo op. Anyways, I think I dozed off again and we were already in San Antonio when I opened my eyes again. Barangay Pundaquit will just be a short distance away.


A quick stop at San Antonio market. Chel and I got hats for P100 each, cheapo right? 
While Ate Joie, Echie, and Jayson were buying supplies, we also took the time to do some last minute chichirya shopping since they'd cost more than double in the island. 

And then after some more driving, tadaa we've... landed? hehe



Pictorial sa Pundaquit. Sorry kuya bangkero, hindi pa kami ready e. :P 

Better. :) This isn't the whole group, though, it's just us from the office with ate Joie, our organizer. 


Island hopping time. Leaving Pundaquit. Medyo mahangin sa labas. Hehehe 


Again, mahangin sa labas. :P




The first stop - Camara Island. 


Apparently, the most decent shot is the one where I was not present.Pssh Wait, so, I ruin the photos? Hahaha 


We, from the office, traveled with these new friends. Ja, Jay, Jayson, and Echie. (Er, Echie, our adobo master, I've met before.) The latter two were our guides and are with Ate Joie in the biz.


Where's Waldo? Where's Joie, I mean. I had to make this photo bigger, in case you can't see Ate Joie dangling from that big rock formation. #astig :D


Next Stop. Capones Lighthouse. :) At this point of the tour, pictures were taken using my phone and obviously the resolution's lower.pfft Had to leave Luna, my trusty p & s on the boat because the water here is higher above our waists. High enough to make protecting just one gadget a challenge since I wasn't able to waterproof all my things. Girl's got a lot more to learn in "beachineering 101" hehe.



Capones' rocky beach. My view from the steps going to the lighthouse.



The steps in question. The lighthouse is about a good ten minutes of hiking from the shore. And even though the hike seemed intimidating from the boat, you'd reach your destination soon enough. Easy peasy, heh. Sooner than you could take the perfect jumpshot when you've reached the landing from these steps, which, pfft! Needless to say failed attempts of said jumpshots would not be posted here. hah!






zeh lighthouse in Capones



Photo op again, of course. :) 



Back at the shore before heading to our last destination and our home for the day - Nagsasa. :D  


After being (slightly?) battered by the waves, on the rocky beach of Capones, it's now time to head to the cove which will be our home for the rest of this vacay. Yay! And since it's already past lunch time, needless to say, we're hungry but our destination won't be in sight until after a half hour or so. But our guides had that covered, we're going to have lunch right then and there. Yes, at the boat. Everyone's already too hungry and tired that no one thought of documenting this part of the ride. 
Or so we thought. Heh. Thankfully Miss Ja took a few shots before eating, so again, yay! 


(c) Miss Ja
And this was what shut us up, hahaha. The experience of eating this after the challenge of getting on the boat; on that rocky, slippery, and wavy Capones shore was just wow! Exagg ba? We don't think so. Shout out to our bangkeros for the yummy lunch! :D 


Now, with our bellies full, we're all a little sleepy. And the gentle swing of the boat was like a hammock for us. Hayy, baboy lang ang peg? Hahaha Anyways, whatever opportunity of napping we had was snatched away when it started drizzling, which, oops! Of course we still haven't changed and were still wearing the clothes soaked in Capones but no one was ready to get rained on, right? Thankfully that was it, just a drizzle and it didn't turn into a full on rain. We reached Nagsasa Cove dry, uhmm almost.


Now with our tummies full we can have all the time we have for beach bumming. Ohhh, this is the life 'sall I'm sayin. We dread for 'going home time' to come. But for now pictorial pa more! Hahaha 


Touch down. Change outfits. Pictorial. Boom! hahaha 




LOVE. Because hey, it's Valentines Day.



Sorry not sorry. pa-cute pa more :P hahaha


And there you go. The Nagsasa Cove leg of this vacay will be posted separately. :)


We would like to thank Ate Joie of Joie's Events, Travel, and Adventure, and our guides Echie and Jayson. :D 



Monday, February 2, 2015

Weekend Eats. Don Day Fresh Korean BBQ Restaurant



The restaurant was located on the second floor of the building in front of Budgetlane in Antipolo at Circumferential road, across the street from Seisha and Max's. 


Well, hello there Antips, we meet again! Heh I have made it a quest to try out different restos at least every sweldo weekend. I'm just so happy that my friends have the same interest - food trip! And this time our palates are craving something Korean. (Well, I kind of influenced them into craving something Korean.kkk) 


There are a lot of choices in Makati and Ortigas area. However, it's a weekend and I make it a point to shun Ortigas Ave or C5 since traffic is terrible no matter what day it is. Such. A. Horror. Story. (I know, it took you longer to read that.kkk mianheyo) The savior: Mareng Google who pointed us to the right direction that is LA, Lower Antipolo?hahaha Antipolo City is just less than half an hour away. Don Day Korean Restaurant is the one nearest my place, so Don Day it is. 


Don Day offers buffet lunch and dinner. The price though, is really not that buffet-ish.Hahaha I mean, starting at P239, this is a deal you should grab, right? 



Their price list. Posted by the (mini) buffet.


So after the Cell Group sesh at church, I made yaya my friends to have dinner in Antipolo. An easy feat, I must say, since it's just near Seisha in circumferential road. It's a coffee shop we used to frequent. Hence, finding Don Day is easy peasy. We left Cainta at past 6 pm and we were already at Antips at around 7. We still had 3 hours or so to enjoy our Korean dinner. So without further delay, tada... The food...




The rate posted above was actually still slashed for their 2nd year anniversary.
We had the Regular buffet + unlimited samgyeopsal (pork belly) which was originally for P335 but we just paid P299 each. The staff is unsure though when asked how long this promo will last. 
As of our time of visit - February 1, prices were:


Regular buffet                               P199
(lunch only)

Regular buffet + unlimited pork     P299
Regular buffet + Pork (5 plates)     P399
Beef (5 plates; combination)
Shabu Shabu                                 P399
Regular buffet + Shabu Shabu        P447


This was how round one looked.hehe Yeah, the plate looked bare. I didn't want to cram everything since I could just go back. We're having a buffet, and you know there's some reminder/tip about not eating too much before sleeping, right? Might as well do some leg workout by going to the buffet table for ... times :-P So what were in it? Banchan: pajeon, kimchi pajeon, baby potatoes, gimbap, tamagoyaki (egg rolls), and chicharon (because who passes up on chicharon?haha) Spicy fried chicken, jeyyuk bokkeum, bulgogi. 


Unli Samgyeopsal, yay! That's Meann's plate at the corner. They also had japchae but I passed on that. I'm not a fan of the sweet potato noodles. 
Others that I didn't try were mandu (dumplings), spring rolls, sisig (by the looks of it, it was definitely sisig but I'm also not sure if they have a version of that in Korea. I might need to ask my students to confirm.kkk) and the other leafy banchan. There were also two kinds of soup, egg and kimchi chigae according to my friend who did try them. 
 

Fresh fruits for dessert. They also had Bingrrae ice cream, frozen yogurt, and popcicles which were priced cheaper than other Korean restos I've tried.hehe Above: Frozen themed strawberry yogurt P60, and coffee flavored ice cream P30.


Flashing the "V" sign while munching on something.kkk Annyeong Haseyo! :) 


Ahh...mashitaa ^^ There were no more pictures of the succeeding rounds. I just had two. And after the ice cream round, I was done. I don't usually go to buffet restaurants because  feel like I can't get the value of my money. But then again, P330 for a filling dinner plus ice cream is not bad. So, where will our hungry tummies and happy feet take us next?.. Did anyone say Marikina? :) 



Don Day Fresh Korean BBQ
Cicumferential Rd.
11 am - 2 pm; Lunch
5 pm - 10 pm; Dinner