LaBoracay or LaBoraNYAY? DAY 1 #TAGALIZED

Well, so eto na ang hubad na katotohanan, sa lahat ng nagtatanong kung mga anak ba kami ng Diyos at taon taon nalang nandito kami sa Boracay lalo na pag Laboracay haha, pwes surprise, oo. LMAO Anak ng Diyos ng diskarte at pakikipagtawaran. Hahaha.

Hindi po kami mayaman, sa katanuyan ay nagbabarko lang kami papuntang Boracay lalo na pag LaBO, dahil namamayagpag ang presyo ng mga airlines. Ngayon, ikukwento ko step by step kung pano kami sumosocial climb pa Bora tuwing Labor day para maging inspirasyon sa mga kapwa namin mga pusang gala. :D

NOTE: Wag gagayahin kung a.) maarte b.) mainipin c.) maraming dada at maraming pera (mag eroplano ka nalang), pero note ulit, gagastos ka pa din ng malaki all in all pero hindi kasing laki pag sinama mo airfare sa expenses.

So here it goes:

Usually mga April 28 kami naalis ng Manila dahil ang start ng bayuhan galore sa LaBoracay from April 29-May 1. Pero kung marami ka namang baong biyaya kahit mga April 27 palang e gumora na kayo. This year (2017), tumapat sa holiday ang April 28, 2017 dahil sa ASEAN, kaya long weekend ang mga tita mo. Maganda para sa mga hindi nanaman lilipad o tatawid ng karagatan, pangit para sa mga katulad namin rarampa sa malayong isla. Haha.


Day 1 (APRIL 28, 2017)

9:00am- Call time, nakakasakyan kami kaya dadaanan namin ang mga OTW (cavite kami lahat)
9:30am- GORA na papunta sa Batangas Port via MCX-SLEX-STAR TOLL (sa slex pa lang traffic na huhu)
1:00pm- Arrive in Batangas Port, secure parking for car for 5 days, hanggang May 2 kami rarampa mga bes (fees below), buy ferry tickets to Calapan, Mindoro, preferably FAST CAT dahil eto ang me pinakaamyos na vessel (for us)

Balyahan sa Batangas Port palang

NOTE: Since hindi kami prepared nanaman, hindi kami nakapg book ahead of time ng FAST CAT, at pag dating namin doon ay fully-booked na at ang next alis pa ay 6PM (aguy), kelangan masunod ang schedule, so bute nalang may aalis ng 1:50pm via Ocean Jet (P250/pax for aircon) . For online reservations sa Fast Cat, please click here.

NOTE 2: Meron din direct Batangas- Caticlan via 2go pero naubusan na kami ng Cabin for 6 kaya nag cutting trip nalang kami pa Caticlan. For more details regarding 2go you can check them here.

Party Party sa Batangas Port
Are you readehhh?

2:00pm- Ferry departed to Calapan Mindoro
3:30pm-  Arrival at Calapan, Mindoro. Now pag dating niyo dito sasakay kayo ng van. And please take note, only the van na papuntang BULALACAO ang sasakyan niyo, kasi nandoon ang FAST CAT ferry bound to Caticlan, which leaves every 10pm and 3am sa gabi.

Dahil 4-5 hours ang biyahe, at minsan malas ka pa sa driver mo na kala mo nangangampanya kung tigilan lahat ng kapitbahay niya, mga around 8pm ka na makakarating sa Bulalacao. Which for us is very risky lalo na super holiday, iniisp namin na baka fully booked na rin ang 10pm na alis ng Fast Cat.

Magkabilang dulo ng mundo mga beshy.

8:30pm- ANG SAYA DIBA, ngayon lang kami nakarating ng BULALACAO. Mananalo nang Congressman yung driver ng van namin sa dami ng kinampanyahan niya.

Fortunately, we still managed to get us tickets for the 10pm departure for Caticlan, although na over-booked na ata sila dahil sa sahig nalang kami sa labas nakaupo at nag royale rumble pa mga tao dahil me hindi pinasakay na Bus.

Para sa Ekonomiya

11:00pm- nakaalis na din ang barko, so from Bulalacao, it's a 3-hr sail to Caticlan, then from there sasakay kayo ulit ng maliit na bangka that will bring you to Boracay island mismo, tapos sasakay kayo ulit ng Tricycle to your hotel. O diba Triathlon lang ang peg hahaha.

3:00am- Nakarating din kami sa Hotel namin namely Francis Hotel, nasa kakaibang lugar to ng Station 2, parang executive subdivision ng mga Local doon haha. Okay ang Hotel at bago palang ito kaya wala pa sa social media. Nga lang nasa tabi siya ng mabahong sapa/kanal na kelangan mo talunan tuwing lalabas. 2 minutes walk to the beach. For reservations kindly contact (0907) 185 3421. Room rates starting at P3,400/pax good for 4pax pero nagawa namin tawaran na good for 6pax na yan pero dalawang double bed lang. Higang bente lang hahaha.

NOTES:
P250- Boat from Batangas port to Calapan Mindoro (Ocean Jet- Aircon)
P290- Van from Calapan to Bulalacao (ililipat pa kayo sa ibang van pero wala na kayo babayaran)
P375-  Fast cat from Bulalacao To Caticlan (ECONOMY) pero dahil super holiday pang aliping upo lang sa labas terrace part yan
P100- Terminal Fee Caticlan
P75- Environmental fee Caticlan
P50- Boat ride to Boracay island from Caticlan Jetty Port
P20- Tricycle
P100- Ambag sa Gas papuntang Batangas Port
P50- Ambag sa Toll gate
P167/pax- Ambag sa Parking fo 5 days for 6pax(200 per day)

P1,477pax- NASA BORACAY KA NA ON LABORUHHCAYYY

Pawisan at Lagkitan sa Batangas Port

So after a long, tiring day na halos manapak na kami ng driver at makipagsaksakan sa barko, makakapgpahinga na din. Halos 16hrs na biyahe total from Cavite (Imus) to Boracay. Pero worth it naman ang natipid ng mga tita mo. At hello, LABORACAY kaya ngayon. HAHAHAHA

Stay tuned for DAY 2! :D

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE HYPED DEATH POOL OF PANGASINAN

Lately, there's this quaint little place in Burgos, Pangasinan that has been receiving tons of limelight from the social media world. The once quiet unspoiled paradise of Cabongaoan Beach is now a favored place for the undying overnight empi-sessions under the moonlight to match the rented karaoke machine from Manong Kubo owner.

So this Holy week of 2017 we decided to check this place out because we wanna see what the hype was really all about and of course to take a glimpse of the famous "death pool" a 15-20ft in diameter hole in the rocky part of the beach that is also 20ft in depth. So of course when you come to a place, you have these wild expectations:

Expectation:

But of course, reality is even more wild:

It's understandable that it is holy week, hence the crowd. But you can put hundreds of bodies in the ocean and the water will stay the same. The first thing I look for when we go to the beach is the 

a.) sand b.) water quality, if that's not really what you're supposed to look for right. Lol.

When we arrived late lunch time, I immediately traversed past the cramped nipa style tables filled with drunk tatays drinking their afternoon beer and went straight to the shore to my great disappointment. The sand is white, not powdery but white. That's good news right? But the water, the one thing that I really came for and drove 7 hours for is plain dirty, not to mention it smells like shit, tbh. 

I submerged for about 2 feet and I can barely see my feet already. I hope that gives you an idea.

The shore is rocky and full of seaweeds which I really don't mind if it did not stank like hell. 

We didn't really took a lot of pictures because there's nothing really to snap onto. It all looked cramped and sweaty everywhere you look.

After we were settled on our room and finally ate our pre-cooked adobo, sunset is fast approaching and we decided that it's best to take advantage of the beautiful weather God has given us in exchange to our disappointment, so we changed and packed all our selfie "gadgets" and made our way out of our room.

Hiding my disappointment

We went to the shore and took advantage of the sunlight:

First groufie

We decided that it's the best time to go to the Death Pool since the sun is setting, and maybe, just maybe, the crowd has already subsided to which we were wrong again of course. Why do we always expect huh?

The death pool is about a 30 minute hike because of the sharp rocks that you need to carefully traverse, please wear slippers (or don't if you have thick worn out feet lols). The rocks are really sharp and can slice your feet wide open if you're lucky. 

When we have arrived, people are still swarming around the so called "death pool" that I didn't even bothered taking a picture (sorry). So we just took photos on the "cliff side" of the rocky platform, with the sun setting behind us, we felt a pang of comfort. 

Aura haha

Sunsets are always loved

with my aura champion friend

Romantic feels 

There's a little hole beside the rocky cliff side part that's where we decided to take a short dip. Beware of the strong waves crashing, it can slam you straight to the wall if you don't hold on to the sides properly.

NFFs (new found friends yay!)

After a few more minutes, we decided to go back to our resort. We stayed at Rendezvous Resort and paid for their Air-conditioned room good for 15pax for P5,000/night. It has its own CR and own kitchen area but no utensils/tools are provided. You can borrow from them, but during our stay, it was next to impossible due to the hundreds of campers outside in line waiting to use the free kawali and ihawan provided on their public cooking station. Luckily we brought our own. We were also provided with free kubo use, but we didn't really used it that much because the other customers already invaded the free tables just because the real renters are still on the beach. Typical Holyweek crowd. We also have a free table outside our room but we think it was stolen because we are the only room that didn't have any table outside. Well, oh well.  

We just decided to drown our sorrows on our own room with our own unlimited supply of Gin and Orange Juice. Lol

TAKE NOTE: Water is scarce. By 7pm, all sari sari stores have already ran out of drinking water. I tried to boil the tap water on our room and guessed what, it also smelled like shit after. So please bring plenty of water, we got drunk pretty early because there's nothing really left to drink but alcohol lols.

The next morning, I woke up early to see if there's any improvement, even just the tiniest one and I'll be forever thankful. But of course, my expectations were quickly shut down the moment I stepped close to the water.

On the far left side of the beach

The water still stinks. 

Fortunately , these lovely coconut trees are here to comfort.

Sunrise beauty.

By 9am, one of our friend has negotiated an Island hopping trip for only P500/boat, we are 11pax so that's 2 boats because they can only carry 10pax on their biggest fishing boat. We were ecstatic! Finally, clear waters and real swimming.

The murky waters and my sad face

So on we go, but fast forward 20 minutes in the ocean, we were already heading back. I'm like WTF? Where's the island and hopping in that? We were not informed that it was only a sight seeing tour of the nearby beaches and rock formations. The boatman said we can go down in the middle of the sea but they don't have a platform to step unto when we hop back to the boat. So being there already, we accepted our fate and just jumped into the open ocean.

    And only about after 5 minutes, the boatman is already signaling us to go back to the boat. I just couldn't believe that after all the disappointment this trip gave us, you wouldn't let us swim and get even the tiniest tint of tan. That's it, I'm ready to leave this place any minute. 

Sightseeing Tour

When we arrived back to our room, we hurriedly took our baths and decided to leave immediately since there's really no more reason to stay. We've had enough.

Our final verdict, please don't go here during peak season, or ever. Lols. Okay you may go once just to see the death pool. But after that you can go to the other beaches in Pangasinan, like Tambobong in Dasol and of course, to the famous Patar beach in Bolinao, it's 1000x better, I promise you. The quality of the water in Bolinao is comparable to Boracay.

I also talked to one of my friends whose originally from Pangasinan, he said that a few years before, Cabongaoan is a pristine paradise, so far from what it is now. The excessive amount of tourists polluted this once quaint  piece of heaven. So this is what we get now.

Sometimes, it's really best to keep some things private and hidden from the world.

Rendezvous Beach Resort:
https://www.facebook.com/RendezvousPlaceBeachCottages/


Expenses:

P500/pax- Room
P350/pax- Toll gate RT (NLEX, SCTEX)- we're just 3pax in the car
P250/pax- Food and drinks ambag
P100/pax- Sightseeing Tour -_-
P200/pax- Other expenses (tubig, yosi, etc)

P1,400/pax- TOTAL EXPENSE