Doon sa may Baler

I wa able to visit Baler, Aurora last june thanks to A&A Travel and Tours. It was a team building trip. Plus, it was my first getaway with one of my best friend, Gem. 

Our first stop was at lake of Pantabangan dam where we're able to catch the beauty of sunrise.

Baler is known as the surfing capital of the Philippines, so it's a must try activity. We tried to catch waves around 6 am thinking that it wouldn't be that sunny but the sun rise earlier and brighter that day.

We were nervous at first that the waves might hit us and can drown us, but it didn't. Thank to the help of our manongs. We had surfing lesson Php 350/hour. 

My first try wasn't that successful but you gonna try and try until you succeed, and I did! I was very proud of myself. And Im looking forward to surf again whenever I got a chance to. 

                        

 

One of the to do list in Baler is also visiting Mother falls. I think it's around 1hour of walking. The place was crowded so we didn't had the chance to swim around the falls, besides, the water was really cold. 

   Another place to visit is the 600 years old Balete tree. You can go inside and witness/wonder how can nature do this kind of miracles. 

Here's a picture together with the A&A group.

(Time for instant photo shooting daw)

While walking around the night, we had a glimpse of this hostel, it's called "The circle hostel". Suck a original, unique and cool place to stay, either you're with frieds or travelling solo.

And here's the outside part of the place where we stayed. ( I got no pictures inside the room, sorry.)

  

Thank you and see you next time, Baler! 

During our trip we had an immediate side trip to Baguio:

CHECK OUR VIDEO CLIP HERE: https://www.facebook.com/jessicafelipe17/videos/vb.1552909790/10206517678411376/?type=3&theater

#ForeverJ21

Thursday, that was the day of my 21st birthday. I still haven't felt my 20's and i'm not yet ready to deal with myself being 21 years old. But, let me share to you the different happenings for my birthday.

Part 1: September 17,2015

There was this noise in our kitchen that woke me up around 5 a.m. I was guessing who of my apartment mates was making that noise. I had two options: First, I thought of Den making cake for me, and second, I thought of Ryan cooking because maybe he's hungry. At the end, I didn't mind much to avoid spoiling whatever they were preparing.

When my alarm did its job, I opened my door and saw 3 pink roses, breakfast ready, and a plate in our dining table. I immediately guessed who prepared it. The breakfast prepared was ham and french toast with egg in the middle, and there's only one person who I taught such here in the Philippines. He was taking a shower back then when I saw everything, so I knocked heavily at the door as a way of saying "Thank you". We had breakfast together and got ready for a very busy day at school. 

September 17, 2015 was the first day of our College Selection, and I had a lot of responsibilities to do throughout that day. I was in-charge of the participants and players, and had to assure that everything was going well with my fellow ekonomistas. In the morning, while I was watching the hip-hop competition, my classmates gave me a cake, our traditional gift when there's a birthday celebrant.

In the afternoon, I was already tired. I had the option to watch the Mr. and Ms. CBEA or not. I was about to call it a day and go home, but Hannah told me to go and watch the whole show. I wondered why she told me to do so and made me intrigue. 

During the show, Den texted me that he is one of the board of judges and he was on his way to our school. I got excited, and while waiting ,me and my classmates enjoyed the show. Time passed, and the show was about to end and he didn't appeared yet. I tried to call him, text him, and everything. I was already getting mad because he kept on rejecting my calls, nor replying immediately. I lost all hopes when he texted that he didn't make it because there was a breaking news and he had to go back to work. I was all pissed off, but I had to keep calm because I didn't want to ruin my birthday, but he already did ruin it somehow. 

My laoageña classmates already left, i was the only one left, except from my classmates from Batac. 

On my way home, I wanted to pray, but angriness kept on interfering my mind. I couldn't focus. I texted Czarina to accompany me to buy cake and food for a mini feast with my relatives. She came with Aian. After, I insisted them to go and eat somewhere because I was frustrated and everything, but they didn't want me to. So they accompanied me to the apartment. And then that's when everything made sense...

I opened my door and boom! 

These liars planned a surprise birthday for me. I cried and didn't want to enter the door at first, cause i was in a state of anger and surprised at the same time.

They prepared a surprise video with my family and friends from Barcelona. Made me cry more and more.

Later on, we had dinner prepared by kuya Allen. We had games, and had a lot of F-U-N.

Indeed it's one of the best birthdays I've had. Thank you, guys. For all the effort, never mind the lying part and making me angry, I'm very thankful to have you guys in my life. You made my birthday unforgettable. You guys are the best!

Special thanks to the man, Denish, and to my very caring mom, for planing this. Kuya Allen for cooking, and the rest for decorating and for the friendship. Lucky to have you all.

The one who I got mad with. Silly person who lied to me like 3 times because of this surprise birthday party. Most effort award goes to you my dear! 

Part 2: September 19, 2015

Before celebrating my birthday, I already planned to do this. Distribute food to 21 persons. And will make this a traditional action for my birthday from now on. 

Thank you to Czarina+Aian for helping me and Den. 

Smiles like this compensates everything.  

Part 3: DIY Burger party 

Had a simple celebration with my main.

One my of my favorite people.

Side trip: La Presa & La Union.

LA PRESA, BENGUET

You were just a dream that I once knew. Yes, I stepped in the place where they tape the series Forevermore. I'm not really a fan of the serie but I love Liza's beauty, who doesn't?

The actual name of this place is Sitio Pungayan, and sad to say but there were no strawberries. I expected it also to be cold, but it was very hot. Maybe it's because we were nearer to the sun. It's around 40 minutes to arrive the place from the city of Baguio. 

Since it has become a tourist spot, residents have placed fee to everything, even to the house of Liza. 

There's an Php 20 environmental fee, and you can also Agnes's house for Php 25. 

Souvenir shops are everywhere. I even bumped into I love La Presa t-shirt. It's funny, knowing that that called place only exist in the serie. 

I think they were Broccolis. 

THUNDERBIRD, LA UNION 

Such a class A, expensive, big, greece style resort. Their cheapest room was around Php 8,00/night. So we just took pictures (harhar)

Roaming Pangasinan

It's more fun with the Felipe Family!

Part 1:

Pangasinan is indeed a very big province. I was able to roam around from Urdaneta to Bolinao, the northwest part, and Tambobong, southwest part of Pangasinan. I was very lucky to travel with my family and relatives. So I would like to thank each and everyone of them.

Im writing this after many weeks after my trip, so my brain had somehow disarranged how it went.

The main  reason why i went there, in Urdaneta was to attend my sister-in-law father's funeral. And later on spontaneously gathered with my fatherside relatives in Manaoag. Resulting of a roadtrip adventure with the family.

Church of Manaoag parking space

Lingayen, Pangasinan

Capitol of Lingayen

And we finally arrived in our main destination: Tambobong, Pangasinan.

We took a boat that brought us in an white beach island. Time travel was around 20 minutes. It was a really small island because we walked around it in less than 30 minutes.

Part 2: 

I went back again in Pangasinan to visit Bolinao at Hundred Islands with my big bro and his wife's family.

Bolinao kinda dissapointed me, or maybe it's because it was holiday and it was really crowded everywhere. 

Rented this place for Php 3,000. It's very expensive for it's quality but we didn't had a choice. There were no place available anymore. 

So we still had to make the most of it. 

My brother and his wife

Bolinao Lighthouse

I wish I were able to visit Bolinao falls and some caves, but i guess that's the perks of travelling in a group.

We slept overnight at Bolinao and early in the morning we packed up to our next stop:

Hundred islands, baby! It's very hassle to get a boat and stuff cause you  had to register and everything. The weather was unbearable either. It was extremely hot. And I didn't expect hundred islands to be like that. Mostly of the islands were just like rocks. 

I'm afraid of heights but i didn't want to miss this. I jumped. Yey for me! 

Lessons learned during this trip: It's hard to deal but you have to keep up with people who are not into adventures.