Turning back time: Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar

The Beauty of Bataan

Bataan: the first solitary adventure

The Solitary Traveler

This is my first time to visit Bataan and I don't know anyone from the place. It was a challenge for me considering my fear of asking directions and poor navigation skills (I've known that since high school when I failed Trigonometry, I didn't want to participate in discussions and recitations and to me all right angles are wrong).

Big deal, right? But seriously, I'm like that Amazing Race contestant who is crying out of frustration for not knowing which way to go next. I could be James Franco in 127 Hours, except that if I died and no one recognized me, my poor dead body would be thrown out of the sea. Talk about a shark's happy meal.

Four days. Three nights. An unfamiliar place. One great adventure.

So who cares about directions? I guess at one point, every traveler gets lost. Then again, a wandering soul never does, because every place he visits is home.

Montemar Beach Club, Bataan.

An Anawangin weekend.

Southbound Sunday

Enchanted Kingdom. Sonya's Garden. Bag of Beans. Nuvali. Happy people.

A white guy and a sand bar in Negros Oriental

While it was raining cats and dogs in Metro Manila, 6 travelers flew, sailed, walked and rode the bus for a getaway to Western Visayas. Beach hopping in August? Why not? After all, summer isn’t the only legitimate time to go on a beach adventure.

It was a fine Tuesday afternoon in Dumaguete City. After a short nap which was the usual for the group after every meal, we hit the bus to Bais, a town in Negros Oriental. The fish crackers, hard-boiled eggs and iced tea I got from the bus vendor made the 2-hour travel more fun, especially that it was like I’m watching a romantic film as one of my friends share stories and laughter with a passenger she met. He was nice, polite, and ahmm, quite alright. As of this writing, I bet they’re exchanging messages and engage in really long telephone conversations. A love affair in Dumaguete. I hope they end up together.

So my friend was lucky to find ‘love’ in our trip. I wonder what’s in store for me.

After that long bus ride, we sailed again. And after a few minutes, 4 cottages appeared from nowhere as if they were floating in the sea.

We’re here.

The Manjuyod Sandbar is beautiful. Nothing really special compared to the sandbar of Caramoan and the one in my hometown, Pagbilao in the Quezon province. But the place was peaceful and we’re the only ones there so the island was all ours!

We were like kids - running, jumping, doing cartwheels and all. Jumpshots here, taking pictures there, it was the perfect place for the six of us to bond and catch up.

We ended the day sailing back to the town while watching the beautiful sunset.

My girls' visit to Quezon

My ‘gelps’, Joanne and Bea visited my home town for the first time, without any clue of what’s in store for them. Being a good tour guide that I am, I made sure that they’ll have fun.

Where to go?

Of course, a visit to Quezon, OJ style isn’t complete without inviting them to my humble place. So for their first breakfast, I asked my ever trusty yaya to prepare the usual - Longganisang Lucban, eggs, and rice.

We had lunch at Silangang Nayon in Pagbilao. Fresh seafood, fresh air, fresh seawater.

A serving for three people turned out to be good for four, so Joanne ended up eating all that’s left.

For our next stop, we headed to Lucban for a little catching-up at Cafe San Luis. We talked, we laughed, and cried because we laughed so hard. It was crazy, and it was fun.

After dinner, it’s time for cozy fun so we visited a cafe in Lucena City called Eduvigis. A night of cheesecakes and coffee. The night’s topic: lovelife and the chaos it brought us.

A serving for three people turned out to be good for four, so Joanne ended up eating all that’s left.

We wanted to go to the beach the next day but it was so windy there were no boats available to bring us to the island. So we ended up road trippin’ to Tayabas for another pancit habhab adventure.

We ended the day river rafting at Brgy. Mati in Tayabas. Like a scene in Tabing Ilog, I was John Lloyd Cruz that afternoon. Or not. Who cares? I’ve got two girls, and he doesn’t have one.