destination: coron - we're on our way! :)

After almost a month, I am finally publishing my series of blog posts for my Coron adventure. :) Damn, I miss Coron!

On Wednesday, the 19th of OCtober, I felt like a giddy little kid waiting for her present from Santa after almost a year of trying her best at not being naughty. Except that not being naughty equals me not traveling and the present from Santa is 5 blissful days in Coron, Palawan. :)

Day 1: We took the Cebu Pacific flight which was (of course) delayed for about an hour. I luckily got a window seat which was really nice because I never get tired of watching the clouds whenever I'm onboard a plane. :)

leaving the hustle and bustle of Manila

a mandatory shot of the clouds from my plane seat

 We landed at the Francisco B. Reyes Airport at around 2:15pm. There was a woman handing out a small piece of paper that we had to fill out - asking if you were there for a visit, how long you'll be there and how you found out about Coron. Me thinks this is a survey acquiring data for their tourism department.

touchdown! busuanga airport

After about 15 minutes, we left the airport via a van that Ralph's Pension Inn (where we will be staying at for the entirety of our Coron adventure) arranged for us. After roughly half an hour, we were dropped off in front of Ralph's, marking the start of our 5-day stint in the town.

the long and (not so) winding road to Coron

We were greeted by Kuya Jun, the owner, given welcome drinks and were lead to our room. We were assigned the Oscar's Suite (our would-be home in Coron) for only 2000php a night.. Btw, all of the rooms at Ralph's were named after Kuya Jun's family members.

welcome drink - sana may maliit na umbrella + a slice of fruit para feel na feel
ang bakasyon. (demanding?!) :P

beds for the four of us

sorry out of focus. hehe.

suite living room

At around 3:15pm, we were already settled in and we headed out for a late lunch-slash-early dinner at Lolo Nonoy's which was a very brief walk from Ralph's. There were a few kubo(s) inside and a few tables as well. Meron silang mga inihaw sa menu. We didn't get to try their grilled food, though. Meron din kasi silang ulam na parang sa mga karinderya. We were so hungry by this time that we just ordered whatever was ready to eat - resulting in the exact same order for 3 of us.

Lolo Nonoy's was just a few steps away from Ralph's. Just look for this red gate!

After we filled our tummies, we went to the boat dock - which was right behind the market - to look for a boatman who can take us on tour for 3 days. We knew what we wanted to do: a Coron Loop tour on the 20th, beach bumming at Malcapuya and Banana Island on the 21st, and off to Calumboyan on the 22nd to go snorkeling for some corals and ship wrecks. Sabi ni Kuya Jun, he can arrange boat rentals for us: 1500php for the Coron Loop Tour, 3500php for the Malcapuya-Banana Island Tour and 4000php for the Calumboyan Tour. But a friend of ours who has just been to Coron told us that we could get the boats cheaper if we haggle with the boatmen by the port. Problem was, mahiyain pala ang mga bangkero sa Coron. Me and my friends just stood there by the port for quite a while - checking out the view and discussing our plans for the night. Maya-maya, may lumapit sa amin na bangkero. Si Kuya Raymundo. Out of the whole lot of them just sitting around, he was the only one brave enough to ask us if we needed a boat for touring. So we went off with the negotiation.

We agreed with 1500php for the Coron Loop Tour, 2800php for the Malcapuya-Banana Island Tour and 3000php for the Calumboyan Tour. Bargain struck. Not bad, I think. :) We were to meet Kuya Raymundo on each morning (before we start our tour) at the market to buy the ingredients for our lunch. Sila na bahala magluto sa island.

After we got the boat/boatman/tours crossed off our list, we went back to the inn, checked our Facebook accounts (pagbigyan nyo na ko, walang signal ang SunCell sa Coron so ito lang ang connection ko sa kabihasnan), and headed out to climb Mt. Tapyas.

The base of Mt. Tapyas was about 2-3 blocks away from Ralph's. It was already getting dark - it was almost 6pm when we headed out to start our trek. There were still a lot of people who were finding their way down the steps but it was already too late to start the climb. After standing there watching people who've just come down complain about how tough the climb was, we decided to wake up early and climb it the following day.

going home.. we'll do the trek the following day (what the eff was I doing with my hair?!)

So what else were we to do? It was too early to sleep and we were still full from our late lunch. Being the drunkards that we are, we looked for a place to get some booze. We went around and found this bar:

this has gotta be my fave bar in Coron! kaso, kamote at mani lang ang pulutan nila.

We looked for other bars in the area but all of the bars had only a couple of other people (who weren't drinking) or had no customers at all. There was one airconditioned bar and one of my friends went to check it - kaso amoy spray net daw. Haha. Some locals were recommending a certain bar (forgot the name, though) but we had to take a tricycle to get there. It was a few minutes drive. Eh ayaw na namin lumayo so we ended up at Lolo Nonoy's - their beer was fairly priced and it was close to Ralph's. The downside: beer bottles were rusty and there were mosquitoes despite the presence of mosquito coils under each table/kubo.

kalawang ba kamo? mukhang hindi talaga uso ang inuman sa Coron

After a couple of buckets, umuwi na din kami at natulog. We had an early day ahead and we didn't want hangovers to start our tours with. :P

Contact Ralph's Pension House at 09154432193. :)

alone with the devil

This is a very interesting book that I've had on my shelf for years but have not finished reading. Written by Dr. Ronald Markham - a forensic psychiatrist, the book talks about some of the famous cases he's handled.

Quoting from the author's introduction of his own book: "I've interviewed mass murderers, serial killers, wife killers, husband killers, child killers... every kind of killer you can imagine. I want you to see and feel what I see and feel when I expose the mind of a murderer. I want you to see and feel their madness too. I want you to experience what it's like to learn that not only is the killer alone with the devil, but that we all are."

I picked this book up from a second hand bookstore ages ago and read parts of it at home. Having a very imaginative mind, I kept picturing the scenes of murder over and over in my head and found myself too scared to sleep. The book haunted me even worse than the most frightening movie. The blood and gore vividly painted in my mind by my traitor-of-a-brain scared me so much that I ended up a sissy and forced my little sister to sleep beside me that night. I slept so close to her then that she probably would've gotten an attack if she were suffering from claustrophobia.

I tried to pick up reading where I left off several times since then but I chickened out each time. I actually made another attempt and pulled it out of my bookshelf earlier today but had to put it back. I figured that the Halloween season is the worst time to read this and scare the hell out of myself. Hmmmm. I wonder when (and IF) I'll ever be able to finish reading this book.

puppy love

Meet my favorite stuffed toy. Isn't he just too cute for words? I've had this cute little puppy for months but I haven't thought of a name for him yet. He's been staying in my room since I got him so he might be getting a bit bored by now. Hmmm. I'd love to take him out with me everywhere I go but he's just too small and I'm afraid I'll lose him! Seriously! He's not even half the size of my hand! (And that's saying something cause I have tiny hands.)

Poor little puppy. Stuck in my bedroom day in and day out. Don't worry, your owner loves you so much and will find a way for you to go out and see the real world. (And hopefully pick a name for you before that happens! :P)

proof that i am not a squib!

I finally, finally got my Pottermore welcome email yesterday! Squeaaaaaaaal! After weeks of checking my email everyday, I am now FINALLY able to explore the Pottermore website. :)

I got my wand from Ollivanders!

Black walnut with dragon core, eleven and a half inches, unyielding. Sweeeet. :)

And guess which house the sorting hat put me in?

"Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness"

Is it weird that I'm ecstatic being in Slytherin? Heeheee. I actually wanted to be in Slytherin or Ravenclaw (but I wanted to be in Slytherin more). Yay, Slytherin ~ I'm a bad, bad girl.Lol. :D

So far, I love reading up the new content from JK Rowling. And I like hanging out at the Diagon Alley - I'm checking out all the shops! :) I can't wait to get my own broomstick! I wonder when they'll open up the Quality Quidditch Supplies shop....

Oh. Oh. Ooooooh. I just brewed my first potion! Cure for boils - the easiest one. Heeheee. It took so looooong though. 80 mins wait time?! Gah. They should shorten that time! Oh well, 3 hard-earned points for Slytherin, there you go! :)

Anyway, if you're in Pottermore, add me up! I'm MistSky181 ~ oh, but introduce yourself first, will you? :)

high heels and painted nails

I've kinda been into high heels lately. Photo above is my most recent purchase. Actually, my mom bought it for me. :) We were in the mall with my little sis a couple of weeks ago and there were shoes on sale in the department store. Mom bought a pair of shoes each for herself, me and my little sister. We got this nice pair of shoes for only 299php (original price - 1099.75php).

The last 4 pairs of shoes that I've bought gotten all had high heels. Must be because I'm such a shortie that I'm enjoying the added height brought by high-heeled footwear. Unfortunately, I can't wear them a lot because my style is too rugged for the elegance that high heels brings (i.e. I wear the first thing I grab from the closet). :P Anyway, let me introduce you to the other 3 pairs of shoes I've acquired recently.

This is what I usually wear when I go out lately. I bought this last month because the "tsinelas" I was wearing at the time has grown too thin that I can not avoid getting my feet wet when I wear it - and you can never predict the weather these days! Rain just falls all of a sudden on a bright, clear day and gets all the roads wet. Oh, this was on sale too. Bought it from Cardam's - SM North Edsa about a month ago at 399php.

Killer red stilettos, eh? Bought it for and wore it at my sister's debut. I fell in love with texture and studs of this pair. It was the  last size and was a tad too small for me but I figured I could do with 3 hours wearing it if I practiced walking around enough. Needless to say, this one's four inches high and caused me leg pains the morning after I wore it. Haha. Btw, I bought this at Divisoria for a fairly low price - I don't remember how much it was exactly, though. It was priced somewhere around 400-500php if my memory serves me right.

This last pair I'm showing you is the pair I wore at a high school friend's wedding held in Amadeo, Cavite (near Tagaytay). I was one of her bridesmaids. Uso na pala ang madaming bridesmaid sa kasal ngaun. This is the most expensive of the 4 pairs I've posted. I don't remember how much it was because (yeah, you guessed it right!) my mom bought this one. Haha. In case you haven't noticed, I am actually quite a cheapskate when it comes to footwear. Anyway, I just took a pic of this earlier. Notice the nail polish on my toes? That matches the one on my fingers! :)

See? This is how my nails looks like at the moment. I had my nails done the other day and I'm loving the light, clean look of this nail art. FYI, yellow was my favorite color when I was in grade school but my color preference has changed a lot since then. It went from yellow to blue to purple to black and has now finally settled into orange. :)

Oh, and because I haven't posted any nail arts recently, let me post two other designs that I've put on my nails. The red one below was how my nails looked like on my sister's debut. Yes, I went sinfully red on that occasion. :)

And this last one was a pink watermelon I had last summer. I know, it looks weird. Haha. All fingers should have had the same design but the lady who does my nails decided to play around with the pinky and ring fingers and it turned out like this. It would have looked better had we decided to do a different one on every nail.

The (half) yellow nails I've got right now is my favorite (so far) out of all the designs I've had painted on my nails. And the red shoes - though I'll probably never get to wear them again - is my favorite pair among those I've posted.

Anyway, gotta end this post now. I need to get on with planning a Coron trip with friends barely a month from now. Byeee~

plans + procrastination

I wasn't able to get tickets to the UAAP Cheerdance Competition which is happening this Saturday. Sad. :(

But on the bright side, I signed the contract for my new part time job yesterday and I've scheduled my shifts earlier. So yay! Money for my luho coming soo-oo-ooon! :P

Aaaaaand my sister promised to go to the 32nd Manila Internnational Book Fair this Saturday. *jumps up and down in excitement kahit na sa totoong buhay eh wala naman nakong perang pambili ng libro*

I've also got some new travel plans that I'm really looking forward to! I'll be spending 5 blissful days in Coron from October 19 to 23 in celebration of a friend's birthday. Birthday shots + beautiful beaches = one hell of a trip. I am soooooo excited!

Btw, I'm supposed to be doing schoolwork right now but my mind can't take schoolwork for a prolonged period of time. I need to have a lot of breaks between studying. Most of the time, mas mahaba pa ung breaks kesa sa pag-aaral na nagagawa ko. Unless I'm cramming. Dun lang talaga tumotodo ang attention ko sa studies. Tsk. Once a crammer, always a crammer.

Pero alam mo ba, sabi sa Wikipedia, "Most healthy teenagers and adults are unable to sustain attention on one thing for more than about 20 minutes at a time, although they can choose repeatedly to re-focus on the same thing". Pero feeling ko, ung attention span ko eh less than the average. Mga 5-10 minutes lang. And my mind constantly refuses to re-focus on studying. I am also a HUGE procrastinator when it comes to my studies. Pag humaharap ako sa mga modules ko bigla akong gaganahang maglinis ng kwarto/ mag-clean-up ng e-mail/ kumain(speaking of pagkain - parang bigla akong nagutom)/ mag-blog (parang ngaun)/ at kung anu-ano pang gawain basta hindi involved sa pag-aaral. Gah. Tamad. Sobra. Magkakadrive na lang ulit ako mag-aral pag malapit (as in super lapit) na ung deadlines ng exams ko. (FYI, home schooled ako. I schedule my exams whenever I want to take them basta maximum is 4 months after enrollment.)

Okay. Sige na. Titigilan ko na ang pagpoprocrastinate. Mag-aaral na ko pramis. Pero maghahanap muna ko ng makakain. Masamang mag-aral ng walang laman ang tyan. (Excuses) Hehe.

~Alright. I'm outta here.

22nd Philippine Travel Mart

I had no one to go with and had barely a thousand pesos in my pocket but that didn't stop me from going to the 22nd Philippine Travel Mart last Saturday. Talk about being travel crazy. Haha. :)

Well, I knew that I was gonna be able to get a lot of free brochures and some freebies so I decided to check it out even though I had just a little money with me. I've got a trip to Cebu-Bohol (and maybe Bantayan Island too if we're not too pressed for time) lined up for December and a few friends were inviting me to go with them to Coron in October and to Siargao and Boracay in November. I figured I'd be able to at least check some booths for infos on those locations. I enjoyed checking out the different booths. I must have gone around the whole venue three times! :P

my favorite booth - i love the flowers and fruits idea. :)

i badly wanted to try sitting on this
- but i would've looked stupid
since i was all alone. :(

magayon - the only bicolano word i know. :P

i love how organic laoag's booth is.

under the sea, under the seeeaaaaaaaa. :P

Well, having less than a thousand pesos, I thought I'll leave the travel mart with just these brochures but I did get a free membership to Resort's World (and they gave me a free bag and a pen). I've never been to Resort's World, though. :P

I was also able to get a reservation for 6-8 people at the Caliraya Resort Club (reservation fee of only 500 pesos). Oh and I got a heap of brochures. Haha. I like the Intramuros brochure the most - it's not the usual glossy brochure.

I also got some travel magazines for free - these are gonna be a tremendous help for my Cebu trip. :) To sum it up, the 40-pesos (student price, beybeh. :D) entrance fee is definitely worth it. Wish I could be there again (with a lot more moolah) next year! :)