My Sky Experience Adventure - Cebu

This is the highlight of our trip! Since the day I booked a flight to Cebu I just can't stop thinking about Sky Adventure... Sky Adventure, SKY ADVENTURE!!!

We went there at around 4pm and it wasn't very crowded as I expected, probably cause some people already spent their money to buy tickets for the Pacquiao-Marquez fight? Anyway, for only about Php1,000/head we get to enjoy The Edge Coaster, Sky Walk, 4D Theater and dinner afterwards.

The Edge Coaster.
This is the first of its kind in the world! You get to ride and tightly fastened on a coaster then you can go all the way to it's maximum tilt of 55 degrees looking down and go around the edge of the Crowne Regency Hotel, it is at the 38th floor lang naman! I was extremely excited when I hopped in the coaster, but I lost my poise when our seat tilted! My hand got sweaty and my shin was aching, I was doing my best not to look down (I was so scared!) but I eventually managed to look up on to the horizon and appreciate the awesome view of Cebu city, I felt better. Whew!



Sky Walk Extreme Sky Adventure.
It is about a 15-minute walk around the edge platform on the 37th floor of Crown Regency. The fun part is you walk on a see-through platform with nothing to hold on to, but you sure are safely buckled into a harness and cables connected on the back of your jumpsuit. It was not really that scary at all, I even did a "one foot stand" on the edge for a photograph - ha!


Cameras are not allowed when on both the Edge Coaster and the Sky Walk, but they have official photographers who will be there to capture your extreme moment.


After the Sky Experience Adventure we went in the 4D theater where we get to pick which film we want to see. We chose Lost Island. It short film wasn't that bad but the 4D glasses really kind of made me feel dizzy. Then we had our bonggang bonggang buffet dinner.

The whole Sky Experience Adventure is amazing! And I survived! Do you think you can survive too?

"Larsian sa Fuente" Experience - Cebu City

It is a barbecue place
Those are the only words I was told. I really have no idea what else to expect aside from "everything barbecued". This picture in my head came in, it is probably situated in a nice place where you can just relax and enjoy your dinner. Maybe like "Gerry's Grill", then the scheme is like "Dampa" where you can pick the fresh seafood, pork, chicken, etc and have them cooked the way you wanted them. But it looks so different from the picture I have in mind.

Holy smokes

So finally we arrived. Standing in front of the place "Larsian sa Fuente", I was so curious what the place have in store for us. We stepped inside and we were engulfed in this thick cloud of smoke, it was as if we were walking on clouds. Are we in heaven? I admit that I was quite a bit shocked but that moment actually gave me a sudden feeling of excitement.

Welcome to Larsian
The place is surrounded by different barbecue stalls with lots and lots of tables right in front of each stalls towards the middle! The noise of the vendors calling, inviting and attracting prospective customers amused me. If you close your eyes it is as if they're calling your name wanting your autograph or picture with them (haha). You might also be surprised with the mix of the crowd here. I saw a few foreigners, some dating couples, a young group, a some kind of family gathering. Everybody is welcome!

Lami Kaayo

We had this dozen sticks of pork, liver and gizzard, chorizo, I don't know what else is there... and oh! Chicken. Plus it is served with "hanging rice" or what they call puso. You can say lami kaayo which means delicious.They do not have spoon and fork so forget about table manners and eat with your bare hands! I see some people wrap their hands with plastics so that their hands wouldn't get dirty.

Chicken

Assoted Pork, Liver, Gizzard, Chorizo.

 

My favorite Pusit!

Hanging Rice aka Puso (sing with me: Sana dalawa ang puso ko.).

The Experience
It is truly a fun, wacky, and unforgettable experience and the smell of the food will surely stick to your clothes. It really is so much fun and it is worth sharing and I hope you guys visit this place too! It is located near Fuente Osmeña and Chong Hua Hospital.

Destination: Vigan City, Ilocos Sur

"We've only just VIGAN" (ha-ha OK corny!). Finally, I got a chance to visit this for the first time and appreciate its beauty up close. I'm so thrilled since I only used to see this place in paintings and photos. Vigan is located in the northern part of Luzon and is the capital of the province of Ilocos Sur. It is known for its old colonial houses and buildings around the city. There are also ancestral houses which are turned into hotels and inns. The place makes you feel as if you're living in the past. I was so excited to take pictures until... the screen of my camera suddenly showed "internal memory full" - whaaaat?! I checked again with frustration, silly me I forgot to bring the memory card! Argh! Thank goodness for camera phones!

We first visited Baluarte owned by Governor Chavit. It offers a mini zoo which is open to the public for free.

White peacock.

Blue Peacock

They're sleeping. :D

After the meet and greets with the wild animals, we visited the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity which is one of the oldest churches of Ilocos, it is built in 1590. In some way, this church reminds me of a cake. I love visiting old churches and taking pictures of it.

 

 

Near the shrine is the Bell Tower.

After the interesting tour inside the church and enjoying the fresh air on top of the bell tower, we found this person selling tinubong. It is a sticky rice sweetened with sugar then cooked and stored in a bamboo stick. I'm not a fan of kakanin, but I liked this one!

 

Later, we dropped by the Heritage Village. I love this place! This is the one I see in photos and paintings!!! (LOL). It's bee-yoo-ti-ful!!!

 

 

 Time for merienda and my co-worker Toni brought me to this place near the Vigan Cathedral where people jam in to eat Vigan's very own empanada. I was quite surprised to see that their empanada is very different from the empanada I used to eat in Manila. The empanada I know is made of bread with stuffed meat. However, here in Vigan, their empanada is composed of mixed vegetables, a piece of longanisa and egg in the center, all wrapped in a thin locally made dough. Deep fried to cook, taken out of the frying pan and then it is served to you with a vinegar.

Here is manang cooking empanada.

 

 

Here's the empanada served with vinegar.

After our food trip, we walked around and visited the St. Paul's Cathedral. Unfortunately, it was a weekday and it is closed.

The whole Vigan trip was amazing, but I'm insatiable. I want more! Plus, I am aching to go back since I'm not satisfied with my photos. Hehe. It is still better to take pictures with a D/SLR or digicam, right?

Boracay (Day 5): The Long Way Home

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I didn't hear Bev's "Party Rock Anthem" alarm tone but the sound of the heavy rain woke me up. It was already 7:30AM. Bev jumped off the bed and hurried because their call time for the shuttle service to catch their 11AM flight is 8AM! Unfortunately, we got a news that all flights are cancelled due to bad weather. Darn!

Here are the batches of our flights:
7AM, 11AM, 12:30PM, 4PM, 4:30, and 5PM.
I'm in the 4PM batch.

After tossing and turning on the bed, trying to get more sleep, I finally gave up! I took a shower and went downstairs to have breakfast. Got a clear view from the restaurant that the sun is up and shinning. So what's with the cancellation of flights? I asked my mom and a couple of friends about the weather in Manila, they all said that "the weather is fine except in the evening". But it was done already, all our flights are cancelled and re-booked for the 7PM flight...in Kalibo. Wah!
Looking at the bright side, at least we still got time to do last minute shopping!

Finally, we left the hotel at 3PM. A van drove us to the Boracay port, then had a 5-minute boat ride to Caticlan. Then about an hour and a half drive from Caticlan port to Kalibo Airport. Man, it was tiring! Then we had a few issues in the airport. There were a lot of cancelled and some diverted flights. Again, we were so tired and hungry. Shai and I got home at around 9PM.

That was a long stressful day, but surrounded with this great people in our group? I sure had an unforgettable great time!

Boracay (Day 4): Team Building Activities

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Call time is around 9:30AM. I woke up late from partying last night (wow, party girl?), but just right in time to get ready for our team building activities.

We rode a multicab to take us to a bay and then we hopped into a speed boat towards our destination: A hut on a raft in the middle of the bay, maybe 5 kilometers from the beach.

I think the budget only covers the Jetski and the Banana Boat rental. But we can cough out the cash from our wallet to try the FlyFish and Parasailing (yaman)!

I was so excited to try the Banana Boat! Though they no longer allow to throw the passengers off the Banana Boat on purpose. Which I think lessens the thrill? Hehe. Oh well, I guess for safety reasons.

It's my first time to drive the Jetski! We're allowed to have a partner to ride with us. Mam Sue get to ride with me. I was surprised that when I happen to drive faster, she gets more excited. She's fun! Haha!

I think the FlyFish is more exciting than the Banana Boat ride. Both have similar concepts though. But with the FlyFish, which is also pulled by a speedboat, the inflatable ride has a tendency to -well... almost fly. The front part goes up, almost slipping most of it's passengers off! Don and Ross fell off from it. I just don't like the thought of left alone in a huge body of water.

We ran out of budget to try Parasailing. Oh maybe next time. Only sir Jun and Yana got the time to try it (coughed out cash from their wallets too) Haha! Looks a lot of fun!!!

In the evening, we headed to Astoria for dinner. It was about a kilometer from our hotel and we're so hungry! Good thing we spotted this barbeque place and I saw isaw! If you don't know what isaw is... it's the (ok, this might sound gross) chicken's intestines. But hey! It tastes great if dipped in white vinegar. It's seldom for me to eat isaw, so this is a huge treat for myself.
Our BUGM treated us for dinner in Astoria for his birthday celebration! Thank you sir Elli! You're the coolest!

Boracay (Day 3): The Great Escape

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While the managers are back in the function room for the Strategic Planning. Our group are out for some fun activities!

The island of Boracay is just a small place but there are a lot of things to do here even if you didn't prepare any itineraries.

First up, apply the sunblock!

We can see you now Addrian. ^_^

I guess the whole Boracay trip wouldn't be complete without getting a henna tattoo! There are Henna/tattoo artists around the island, it's not hard to spot one. We got this done just right in front of our hotel.

I got this tribal-like winged heart design for my back.

April got a butterfly design for the back of her shoulder.

11 of us hopped on a boat ride for a snorkeling activity.

Unfortunately, it's a red holiday for me and April. But it's alright, we just took pictures!

Snorkeling time! - Ross

Gearing up.

Fun fun fun!

RJ

All done with snorkeling! Now it's time to eat!

Hmmm... what is he doing?

Ross playing with the water on our boat ride to Ilig-Iligan Beach

Mayette, RJ and April

Time to eat! We ordered a huge fish (sorry, I forgot what it's called), but we asked them to cook half of the fish for Sinigang and then grill the other half of it. The food is great!

After the boat ride back to the Boracay's main. We just walked going to the hotel. Although it's quite far!

April and I took a short rest and out we go again. We went to Jonah's Fruit Shake.

April had a Mango Avocado Shake...

while I had their popular Banana Choco Peanut shake. It tastes so good!

To complete our merienda, we ordered "Army Navy" Sandwich. It is basically a ham and egg sandwich topped with cheese sauce. You must try it!

That night, we had dinner in this Mongolian restaurant. The food is great but I didn't get to finish what I'm eating. My tummy was still full from our merienda in Jonah's.

Much later that night, we went out again partying in Guilly's Island (for the 2nd night in a row)! This time, our BUGM and most of the managers partied with us. We even spotted Piolo Pascual in one corner but he refused to take a picture with us, I guess he just don't want to get too much attention.

We left the party at around 2AM already, most of us decided to just walk home instead of taking a tricycle ride. Ayan tuloy, inabutan kami ng ulan! Probably one reason why most of us got coughs and colds. :D