Hundred Islands In a Day

My church family invited us for a 3 days/ 2 nights Hundred Islands + Baguio City Trip last January.

It was a very good opportunity to have a bonding with them and to explore Hundred Islands and Baguio, so of course, I tag along and I bring along my two kids. The trip was not expensive since we're on a carpool, accommodation is free, and the food are all home-prepared by our church mates from nearby the place we'll visit. The only disadvantage of course is that I do not have control on the itinerary and we just have to move along with the flow.

We left Cavite on a Thursday night and reached Hundred Islands in Alaminos, Pangasinan on Friday 5:00 am I think. We rest for a while, took our breakfast and rode the boat that will bring us Island Hopping. To quote wiki: "The Hundred Islands National Park (Pangasinan: Kapulo-puloan or Taytay-Bakes) is a national park in the Philippines. The protected area is located in the city of Alaminos, in the province of Pangasinan in northernPhilippines. The islands, totaling 124 at low tide and 123 at high tide, are scattered in Lingayen Gulf covering an area of 16.76 square kilometres (6.47 sq mi). Only three of them have been developed for tourism: Governor Island, Quezon Island, and Children's Island. The Lucap wharf in Alaminos, the entrance to the National Park, is about 240 kilometres (150 mi) north of Manila, the capital of the Philippines.^[1]"

The first stop we had was on Children's Island. There is no entrance fee and there are huts and benches scattered for picnics. It was called Children's Island because it is a nice cove with shallow waters for children. However, the sand was not so fine except in a very few parts. Also, we were there from 9:30 am till lunch time and it was a very bad timing as there are a lot of seaweeds that makes the water itchy for the kids.

Shallow water up to the opposite side.

The island is very safe for the kids. My babies did enjoyed so much.

Bey-Ann has to wear her slippers as the sand is not fine, it hurts.

See...Jeyiah is grumpy without her slippers hehe.

After our lunch, we set out for Marcos Island. Yes, we only have two stops, see, we still have to travel to Baguio in the late afternoon. Marcos Island is better then Children's Island, for adults opinion hehe.
The sand is sooooo fine, that made me even asked if it's real or just atificially dumped. We'll I don't know the answer till now, but I hope it's original and real :).

I soooo love the fine sand...the best.

However, one thing I don't like is the strong and big waves, not kid-friendly, very dangerous. We still enjoy though, just lying in the sand, and playing with the kids.

There are still islands open for tourist in the area but we're not able to explore them. Hopefully, I can come back again in the future on my own itinerary.

My Sagada Trip : A Right Adventure in a Wrong Time

I'm gonna talk about my wrongly timed Sagada Adventure last January.


Last year, I came in contact again with a few friends from my previous company and we have set this Sagada trip as our way of get-together after a long time of not seeing each other.

Sagada in the mountain province of the Philippines is surely a great place to visit. If you love nature, want to escape from the crowded city life, and want to get a glimpse on what a remote, mountainous civilization looks like, then Sagada is your place.

We booked the Sagada Trip thru viajerogabrielletravelandtour at 2899/pax for a group of 14. Luckily we were able to gather some more friends of friends to form the required 14 pax so we have the van exclusively for our group. We were even picked-up from Dasmarinas, Cavite yey :) .

And so we left Dasmarinas at Thursday 8:00 pm for the night trip to Sagada. The van that picked us is GL Grandia so I had to say the ride is comfortable enough. Unfortunately, I was not feeling well since the start of the week (mild flu) and so I was coughing hard all the way to Sagada. Also, I'm not the type that can easily sleep so yeah, I think I only have 2 hours at most of interrupted sleep, yes, interrupted..lol.

The first part of the itinerary is an early breakfast at Banaue Rice Terraces View deck. We reached there around 6:00 am very excited to see the famous rice terraces but the fog was so thick so it was freezing cold. Good thing our breakfast took so long to be served. We took some pictures while waiting and before we  finished breakfast the sun has risen and we were able to have a good look of the rice terraces.

The trip then continued and we reached Sagada around 10 am. The winding road is so scary, wooohh.
We left our things in the van and our tour guide proceeded to bring us to the Echo Valley and the hanging coffins. I remember being cold generally but Mr. Sun was so happy to be around that I have to bring my shawl as cover from the heat, I don't want to get darker, I'm brown already, lol.

The echo valley, the hanging coffins is on the other side.

Okay, we just shout our hearts out and hear our voices' echos in the valley but there was not so much shade there so we left immediately and go to the hanging coffins. It was a good trek down the valley and up again. Good thing I was just wearing my havs, I felt poorly for the groups we passed wearing heels and have so much difficulty trekking, I wonder why they were wearing heels in the first place though..hmmmm.

The hanging coffins.

 It feels creepy to be standing just below the hanging coffins. The tour guide did a good job explaining things and overall it is a very unique and good experience. I am so tired after the walk back to the van and felt weaker as my cough is getting worse but I still have to join the cave spelunking in the afternoon, this is the highlight of the trip after all. We did a quick lunch, bought slippers for the caving, checked in at Pines Lodge, rest for around 15 minutes, and then we're back in the road again for the cave spelunking.

End of Sumaguing Cave Level 2 Exploration. No pics for level 3, cams were not brought.

January is a peak season for tourism in Sagada. We cannot do cave connection since the guide told us half day won't be enough as we are a big group, so yeah, we resort to just do the spelunking at Sumaguing cave. I was not so happy with the arrangement at first because I was looking for real adventure and I want the cave connection. I have been to Puerto Princesa, Palawan and went caving in Ugong Rock. It was not a big cave but I like the twist and turn and squezzing thru tight passages and so when we start Sumaguing caving until we reached level 2, I was still wanting for more..bitin :). I thought that was all but I was so happy later when the guide asked us if we're okay to get wet and proceed to level 3 spelunking. Of course we don't bother to get wet, we want more adventure..lol.
Okay, so it seems that level 3 did satisfied our adventurous selves. There we found the challenging passages, the rappeling moments, and the parts we need to wade thru chest deep waters under the dark...scary but highly recommended. The experience was so good, and we went back to our accomodation later very happy. But by then, all I wanted was to get out of my wet clothes the soonest so I can retire early. I was feeling very ill already.


We start very early the next day for the sunrise viewing at Kiltepan View Point (the famous sea of clouds). By then, I have no voice already, my eyes are red maybe something to do with stress and lack of sleep. I'm afraid to remove my shades coz people may think I have a sore eyes. Still, I go on with the itinerary. Some sturdy 4x4s picked us up at 4:30am I think and uphill we went thru winding dirt road. It was still very dark when we reached our destination. People keep pouring in and I think we waited for 1.5hrs just to view the famous sunrise on the sea of clouds.

Some crowd waiting for the sunrise at Kiltepan Viewpoint.

Unfortunately, the fog was so thick, we cannot see the much awaited sunrise. Anyhow, each of us still took the obligatory shot in this famous spot..haha. This spot should be very nice if the sun is rising in the background amidst the sea of clouds.

The obligatory pic spot haha

We went back to our accomodation, went to Sagada Brew for breakfast and I can't help but to share this very good and big serving of coffee ever. Sorry I forgot what coffee is this, I was really not so mindful of the details that time, I was not planning to write this blog then :).

Best coffee ever..

After breakfast and a short rest, the group proceeded with the next itinerary which is the waterfall trekking. I did not go with them as I prefer to sleep and rest more. Anyway, I came from Mindanao where waterfalls are not new anymore and so I was not that interested to explore more waterfall.
After lunch, I left the group and took a bus to Manila, I did not enjoy the trip anymore and want to go home and see the doctor. There is a bus with direct route from Sagada to Manila every afternoon: 2:00pm and 2:30pm.

...end of this blog...