2008 Oct - Days 2-3: Family Retreat at Punta de Uian, Zambales, Philippines

I planned this vacation while still in Singapore. While browsing through possible vacation places, I was impressed with Punta de Uian and decided to have our family retreat there. At 10 in the morning, we were all set to go to Zambales. We rented a 10-seater van so we could all fit together in one vehicle and enjoy the journey.

Alvin and I were impressed with the new expressway from Clark to Subic. The toll was a bit expensive but it was worth it since we saved a lot of time. Our driver was a bit careful as he drove a little bit slow. Slowly but surely, we reached Punta de Uian at around one in the afternoon.

When Albert saw the pool, he became excited and wanted to have a swim right away. The rest of us were thinking about lunch as the long trip made us starving. Our packed lunch was really yummy. My mom packed dinuguan, shrimp, friend chicken, chicken rolls and kilawin (writing this part of the blog makes me hungry again!)

Punta de Uian is a secluded beach resort and is really on the remote part of Zambales. However, its seclusion is really one of the things that attracted me to it the most. It’s really quiet and it seemed like we owned the place when we were there (we were the only guests at that time.) From the beach, we could see two beautiful islands. Those looking for private and silent moments should visit this resort!

Click this to view more pictures

On day 2 of our retreat, we went for a 30 minute boat ride to Anawangin. The land around the beach is teeming with young pine trees. Anawangin is like a cove surrounded by mountains. It seems that there is no way to get here through land (unless you don’t mind to climb the mountains around it.) Anawangin’s beach has fine sand and is very fantastic.

After our Anawangin side trip, we had to pack up and go back to Pampanga as my sister Joy had a duty at 2 pm. It was a short but fun beach vacation.

Click this to view more pictures

Later at dinner, Tatang (my father) suggested that we go to Jerry’s Grill where he ordered his favorites: cristy pata, specialty rice, sisig and some veggies.

2008 October :Family Retreat at Punta de Uian, Zambales, Philippines

I planned this vacation while still in Singapore. While browsing through possible vacation places, I was impressed with Punta de Uian and decided to have our family retreat there. At 10 in the morning, we were all set to go to Zambales. We rented a 10-seater van so we could all fit together in one vehicle and enjoy the journey.

Alvin and I were impressed with the new expressway from Clark to Subic. The toll was a bit expensive but it was worth it since we saved a lot of time. Our driver was a bit careful as he drove a little bit slow. Slowly but surely, we reached Punta de Uian at around one in the afternoon.

When Albert saw the pool, he became excited and wanted to have a swim right away. The rest of us were thinking about lunch as the long trip made us starving. Our packed lunch was really yummy. My mom packed dinuguan, shrimp, friend chicken, chicken rolls and kilawin (writing this part of the blog makes me hungry again!)

Punta de Uian is a secluded beach resort and is really on the remote part of Zambales. However, its seclusion is really one of the things that attracted me to it the most. It’s really quiet and it seemed like we owned the place when we were there (we were the only guests at that time.) From the beach, we could see two beautiful islands. Those looking for private and silent moments should visit this resort!

Click this to view more pictures

On day 2 of our retreat, we went for a 30 minute boat ride to Anawangin. The land around the beach is teeming with young pine trees. Anawangin is like a cove surrounded by mountains. It seems that there is no way to get here through land (unless you don’t mind to climb the mountains around it.) Anawangin’s beach has fine sand and is very fantastic.

After our Anawangin side trip, we had to pack up and go back to Pampanga as my sister Joy had a duty at 2 pm. It was a short but fun beach vacation.

Click this to view more pictures

Later at dinner, Tatang (my father) suggested that we go to Jerry’s Grill where he ordered his favorites: cristy pata, specialty rice, sisig and some veggies.

2008 October - First day of our trip in Philippines

It had been two long years since we last went back to Pinas for a vacation. We really miss our family, friends, food, culture and the more laid back pace of life there. We’ve been planning to have a vacation earlier but couldn’t due to our hectic schedule here in Singapore. We were like “forced” to have this short vacation because Alvin needed to attend his close friend’s wedding.

So on October 11, we packed our bags and flew via Tiger Airways. Fortunately, Albert didn’t throw tantrums while we were on board. But he was a bit agitated when we were about to land. Tiger didn’t provide the immigration forms on board so we had to fill up in the terminal. This was very inconvenient and Alvin had a hard time chasing Albert in the terminal.

After getting out of the airport, we headed straight to Jun-jun’s Friendship for our yummy lunch. One surprising thing that I noticed was that almost the entire street (where Jun-jun’s was located) was swamped with Korean billboards. Probably a sign of a different kind of “Korean invasion” in Pinas.

After our scrumptious lunch, we went to the Mount Carmel Monastery in Angeles City to thank the Almighty for the safe trip that we had and to bless our one-week stay in Pinas.

We then headed to my mom’s place in Floridablanca and took all the food for Albert’s celebration at the DSWD Orphanage in Lubao, Pampanga. It was already dusk when we reached DSWD. We handed our donations (Nespray milk 1&2, diapers, Milo, sugar and clothes), and started to prepare for the celebration. Then orphanage has quite a number of children, toddlers and infants. We believe that our donations were not really that much but at it really felt good to give to those who need it most. It was truly heartwarming to see the kids enjoying the food and the toys that we brought!

Click this link to view our pictures of the first day or our trip.

http://karensumang.multiply.com/photos/album/97/2008-_Alberts_3rd_Birthday_Celebration_DSWD_centre_in_Lubao_Pampanga

So that was it for our first day in Pinas. I’ll be posting our escapades for the following days shortly!

Phuket, Thailand Trip 2008

On the 20^th of August this year (2008), Alvin and I had a short escapade in Phuket, Thailand. Our Tiger Airways flight left Singapore Budget Terminal on time at around 8:15 in the morning. We reached Phuket at 9:00 in the morning (local time).

A Marriott vacation club offered us a free taxi (and massage) from the airport to Marriott resort and spa. In exchange, we had to attend a 90-minute sales pitch. We took the offer and soon arrived at the hotel after around 30 minutes of travel. The hotel is located on the northeast side of the island near a park/reserve. We had a “VIP” welcome as a hotel staff adorned us with orchid garlands. As we arrived too early, the room was not yet ready so we decided to visit Phuket town.

The taxi (which was actually a private pick-up), cost THB1400 (back and forth). The town is actually quite far from the hotel, around 1 hour of travel time. We reached town by lunch time and by then, we we’re craving for some authentic Thai food. After some discussion and tip from the taxi driver, we decided to have seafood. The driver took us to a seafood restaurant by the bay. One thing we really liked was the tomyam soup. It was really good! We ordered a lot we had to pack the left over so we could have something for dinner at the hotel. After the heavy lunch, we headed to Central Festival and Big C to buy some delicacies to bring back to Singapore. We didn’t find anything fancy to shop.

http://karensumang.multiply.com/photos/album/91/2008-08_Phuket

We went back to Marriott hotel at around 4pm and walked around the beach. A red flag (warning) meant we couldn’t go swimming in the beach. So we just took some pictures and walked around the resort and had a swim at the pool. At dinner, we ate what we packed from the seafood restaurant.

On our 2^nd day, we went to Phi Phi islands. We left our hotel at 9 in the morning and reached Phuket Marina around 9:30. After 30 minutes of waiting, we finally went aboard a speed boat together with some 20 other tourists. Our first stop was at Ao Ling (Monkey Bay) on Koh Phi Phi Don. After that, our boat took us to Hin Klang where we snorkeled for half an hour. We relaxed at Koh Mai Pai (Bamboo Island) before arriving at Koh Phi Phi Don for a buffet lunch. We spent the rest of day at Phi Phi Leh, visiting Maya Bay – where the “The Beach” was filmed. The tour cost us THB3200 per pax, quite expensive but a “must go” experience. Fruits and drinks after stops were provided. On our way back, we had a very bumpy ride and we’re all wet.

http://karensumang.multiply.com/photos/album/93/2008-08_Phi_Phi_Islands

Our 3rd day wasn’t so great as it rained heavily the whole day. We didn’t manage to swim in the resort’s beach. So our appointment for Marriott sales presentation was just nice because of the very bad weather. The presentation was quite enlightening for us. We were toured around their Vacation Club which was just next to JW Marriott. The sales pitch was 3 hours instead of the supposed 90 minutes. We didn’t rush as we couldn’t do anything anyway because of the heavy rain. After the long presentation, we decided to sign up for their basic Time Share at Marriot Vacation Club Mai Kao Beach. I will write a separate blog about the Time Share business of Marriott. After we signed, Mark the sales person gave us a lot of freebies. Free massage, THB2000 which we spent for our dinner, polo shirts and free 3-nights accommodation at Ritz Carlton Bali. After the talk we went for our scheduled massage.

http://karensumang.multiply.com/photos/album/92/2008-08_Marriott_vacation_Club

Our Last day….we are very excited to go home coz we missed Albert so much. Our flight was at 9.15 am so we took our breakfast quite early at the hotel. Tiger Airways was once again on time as we touched down at around 15 minutes past noon in Singapore.