~uGoGirl~

I’m planning another escapade for my summer vacation. I’d like to go visit my aunt and her family, particularly my cute little cousins and their interesting stories. Also, I’d like to go to their place since they practically live beside the sea and the place is quite secluded. They have this gated wall, and when you open the gate you’ll find a wide expanse of sand and sea. I’d love to do the usual things I do when I’m on a beach – swim, scuba dive, pick sea glasses and sea shells, and build sand castles.

It was also there that I met a guy who designs baby cribs and other wood furniture for a living. He takes his inspiration from living beside the sea. A little odd, but I think it works for him since he’s been able to create the most wonderful designs I’ve seen.

I am so visiting them!

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There’s an upcoming three-day weekend next month and since it’s the beach season in the tropical countries, I have been planning to spend it lying on the white sands of Misibis, Albay, Bicol Philippines. As described in one of the websites I saw:

Misibis Residential Resort is a 20-hectare beachfront within a prime enclave, nestling close to the Pacific Ocean. It boasts of a wide stretch of white clean beach, easily reached in 45 minutes from Legazpi City Airport through a scenic 5-minute 3-km sea journey over Sula Channel.

Since it is a privileged and private island world and is not yet known to a lot of tourists, for someone like me who just wants to relax and meditate at the beach, Misibis is haven.
My only problem right now is on how to clear my back acne asap. I tend to have breakouts whenever I’m really stressed *sigh*. Jane, my dermatologist recommended an acne wash, and assured me that my back will become so enticing that it might even beguile people to just stare at it and not bother looking at my front 0:D We’ll see…

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It’s vacation time once again and I have lots of ideas on what activities to do and where to go to have a well-spent vacation. First of all, I’m planning to go to a white sand beach where I could spend my time swimming and scuba diving and having massage treatments. Next, I would love to go mountain climbing and rappelling at this new outdoor recreational facility I heard of. When it gets too hot, I’m planning on going to a place in Scotland, where the weather is cooler than usual during summer days.

Of course my vacation wouldn’t be complete without enjoying the good food and trying out the exotic delicacies in the places I visit. However, I don’t want to gain so much weight so I’m thinking of bringing along a bottle of Akavar. I heard it results to weight loss no matter how much a person eats. I hope it works well for me..

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One of the things I like doing whenever I have the free time is to surf the internet. Each time, I find interesting and informative websites that make me evaluate the way I think about things.

For example, when I read the words “computer monitor arm” in a web page, I really thought it refers to the arm or clipboard placed near the monitor that holds the documents and papers to be typed. Only when I looked at the pictures in the web page did I know that it’s actually the one that holds the monitor itself in place. Using that device, you can place your monitor on a desk, on the wall, or up the ceiling. It’s like the desk stand or wall or ceiling mount being widely used for television sets.

I definitely have more things to learn, and a lot more websites to search.

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It’s almost the Holy Week. I don’t know how most of you spend your Holy Week, but for me, Holy Week generally means hiatus from everything and anything (clear your mind, pamper yourself, meditate, etc.).

For this year though, I might go with my brother and his girlfriend (I know, I’m the third wheel, so might as well invite more friends) on one of those luxury vacations being advertised online. Or perhaps we can go on a five day cruise. Who knows? We just need some time off. That’s it.

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My brother has the biggest room in our house so we all agreed that it’s fitting to put the huge Samsung LCD TV there with the surround sound. To make our viewing experience more exciting, my siblings and I decided to pool our resources and buy home theater lighting.

This isn’t just any money splurge. Our indulgence on that one is in a way an investment in our family relationship. That is, with the enhanced home theater experience, we get to spend more time together at home viewing and talking about movies and TV series, while popping chips and dips. Nice, eh?

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Planning your much awaited and deserved getaway? Why don’t you full blast it by booking your tour with a Spa Hotel? You not only get to have a great tour in your target destinations, you also get to pamper yourself after each tour.

If you’re really into Spa, don’t limit yourself with just a Spa Hotel; take it to the next level by booking in a Spa Resort. Visiting a spa resort offers more than a vacation. It can help you relax, revive, and renew while you reconnect with yourself. It can even help you improve your health and bring your entire being into balance with stress-reducing activities.

Spa resorts vary from inexpensive and basic to luxurious and pampering. Both have their place. To help you select the most appropriate spa resort for you, browse over online specialty guides like AllStays.com which features non-biased spa hotel listings.

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I’m currently in the I-hate-my-job-what-the-hell-am-I-still-doing-here-rotting mode. In fact, I’m on the verge of asking the CEO to demote me or turn me into a freelance-whatever. But then again, I saw flashes of the world of holidays that I have mapped along the course of my budget computation for the year. I hesitated (Well, that and the fact that I’m not yet financially stable with my sidelines.).

The ambiance and workload at the office is still tolerable (or so I kept hammering my brain). And I DID give myself a deadline on how long I intend to stay in my current job – end of 2007. I think I can still hang on for six more months *cross fingers*.

Until then, I will try to squeeze in as much RnR as I can and schedule a lot of out-of-towns with my esca-friends to keep me sane.

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I went to Bulacan last March 4 to get away from my usual house-office routine. I spent two nights and two days at my friend’s house – specifically, in a small, comfortable, modern hut in their garden – to experience a relaxing provincial life. We went swimming, hiking, trekking, biking, duck egg-gathering, and pond-fishing.

It was my first time to go fishing. And I was really proud to have caught two Tilapia. I had an easy time catching the first one – I chalked it up as beginner’s luck. The second one was the tough one. It took me around 20 to 30 minutes (considering that it IS just a pond) just to catch it. The second fish I caught was what I deemed as my prized Tilapia because it was a painstaking effort for me to wait for it to bite off my poor, helpless worm-bait.

My prized Tilapia was also the one that reminded me of the importance of patience and the priceless reward/s you get out of practicing it. During the 20 to 30-minute wait, I had several attacks of what-the-hell-am-I-stupidly-waiting-for-when-I-can-easily-buy-a-bigger-one-in-the-market. It was a tough battle I almost lost.

“The one great ingredient in successful fly-fishing is patience. The man whose fly is always on the water has the best chance. There is always a chance of a fish or two, no matter how hopeless it looks. You never know what may happen in fly-fishing.”

- Francis Francis

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Taking advantage of the remnants of summer days, my friends – Joedel, Dulce, Jef – and I decided to go to an impromptu overnight in Bolinao, Pangasinan, Philippines last June 9.

It was really a dubious last minute decision because we were supposed to go on a road trip to Subic. But due to a series of unfortunate events (e.g. the car we’re supposed to bring wasn’t in A1 condition, the hotel we’re supposed to stay in Subic was overpriced, etc.) Joedel and I resorted to browsing the net for decent beach resorts. We ended up hesitantly choosing Punta Riviera Resort in Bolinao, Pangasinan.

All four of us have never been to Bolinao. And it took us one non-air conditioned bus from Tarlac to Alaminos, a mini non-air conditioned bumpy bus ride from Alaminos to Bolinao, and a long tricycle ride from Bolinao bus station (totaling to around 5 hours) just to reach our final destination - Punta Riviera. The car not being in A1 condition was a blessing, really. It would have cost us a lot of stress and miscalculated turns, and made us cough up a lot of gasoline money to go there.

Upon arrival at the resort, our jaws went hanging open in awe. It was paradise.

What made it even more enchanting is that we were the only customers at that time (It was a Friday and we were on leave so as to avoid the three-day weekend crowd – Monday was declared a holiday). It’s as if there was this mystical Hand that had the entire resort reserved just for us. We were treated like royalty. We had all the staff at our beck and call – literally.

We checked in at Cabana 10, had lunch, rested for a bit, and then dived into the wondrous dam-like structured pool. Yep, we preferred the pool to the beach. For some reason, the beach was not that captivating. Nevertheless, the pool and the resort’s serenely carefree ambiance more than made up for it.

We planned to go island-hopping. After all, the Hundred Islands IS in Pangasinan. But because it will take too much time to go to the port and we only had several hours to spend on the resort, we decided to take a different tour package – the cave and lighthouse tour. We went to the Enchanted Cave, Wonderful Cave, Cindy’s Cave, Cape Bolinao Lighthouse (built by US, 1903), and Boracay of the North Patar White Sands Beach.

Similar to Punta Riviera, we had each tourist spot all to ourselves. We took several pictures in each of the four latter destinations and savored the picturesque view of our last destination – a glorious sunset in Boracay of the North Patar White Sands Beach. The sand-grain was really white and it felt gratifying to walk barefoot on it. After several poses – from candid to seductive, we reluctantly headed back to the resort.

We rested for a while, had dinner, then languorously swam in the pool while sharing nonchalant stories and enjoying the evening beach view. We had a round of drinks before exhaustion fully took over and made us retreat to our cabana.

Next stop… Subic! ^_^

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Photos by: Travel Paradise Philippines

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