Excursions: January 2015

La Busa Italian Restaurant & Bar

I'm never a fan of Italian dishes but still thought of giving this new restaurant in town a try. Afterall, it was a decision made by the majority of the group.

La Busa is located at the ground floor of Tsai Hotel along Wilson Road, Lahug Cebu City.

The Bar. Chill and hangout with their housed wine, Italian and local beers coupled with their authentic Italian dishes.

The interior! The restaurant itself is very small. Indeed, it could only accomodate a very limited number of diners at a time. Reservations is highly encourage to ensure you get a spot to dine in.

I chose their Braised Ribs served with mashed potato. Yeah, forget about rice as they don't serve one.

Mandatory Groufie.

The Menu.

The ambiance of this restaurant won me over. It isn't crowded at all due to its limited space. The food was good but not really great. Haha! Was it because i was not an Italian dish addict? Well, could be but there was really nothing extra ordinary on their dishes.

Cheers!

This blog was written using Blogger Mobile via iPhone 6. All photos were shot using iPhone 6 Gold too.

ROCKing the world of El Nido!

It's 2015 and what a cool way to welcome the year than to splurge into a prestine cold water encapsulated by a panoramic view of limestones forming a perfect cliff backdrop.

January 7, 2015. Right after our Puerto Princessa Underground River Tour, we headed to El Nido. Sounds cool, right? No it isn't that cool. Yes! we were messed up because of the Travel Agency named Fortwally, which by the way i strongly DO NOT recommend to anyone.

Sinulog, the Festival of all Festivals in the Philippines is indeed a very exciting and fun annual event in Cebu City. Yearly, millions of people from all over the world gather on the streets to celebrate the colorful Mardi Gras in honor of the Child Jesus - Senyor Sto. Niño.

After completing the 9-day Novena Mass, one deserved to party all night long. For 2015, i made sure to tick all the parties in my bucketlist. Yes, i was indeed able to attend the 3 biggest parties of Sinulog. The events were listed in chronological order (dates).

1. Life Dance.

Took place on a Friday night, Jan 16, 2015 where 17,000 party goers flocked the Sugbu grounds of SRP Cebu dancing to the beat of the International DJs. Patron passes were at Php1,000 while VIP passes were at Php2,000.

2. Paintensity.

The wet and wild party was held at the Ayala Access Road on January 17,2015, Saturday. Thousands of people soaked in water and all painted in colors while partying to the music of some local DJs.

This event was for free, one just had to like the etc tv facebook page to get in.

3. Royals.

This party kicked off on the Feast day itself, Sunday, January 18, 2015 at the Century Plaza Hotel grounds.

This is an open party free to everyone but we need to wear out crowns to get in.

The party was wild. This is the only time where you shower beers, mud yourselves with paint in different colors and types. Drinks were overflowing from people who partied.

So, planning to come over to Cebu in 2016 Sinulog? Don't you dare miss any of these 3 parties!!!!

Viva Pit Senyor! Prititittttt

Sweet Delight at Fujinoya Philippines!

It's Friday! And what a cool way to welcome the weekend than to lounge at a cozy resto filled with sweets for everyone's delight. Welcome to Fujinoya Philippines! A Japanese Bistro just a few minutes drive from IT Park.

L-R: Matcha Eclairs, Fujinoya Chocolate Cake (best seller), Gateau Ganache, Mango Tart, Salted Caramel Indulgent Cake, Coffee Bacon Brownie.

Fujiyona Philippines is located at Wilson Street, Lahug Cebu City.

After having our dinner at La Busa, we headed to Fujiyona to try some of their desserts. The place was so inviting even from across the street. It was huge. The Interior was awesome. It is definitely a perfect place to unwind, lounge, and catch up with your friends. Well, not to mention, this is a habitat of students who are looking for a place to do their online work and research. Free wifi is provided.

The inside lounge of the Fujiyona.

Below is the Bistro's counter where you take your orders.

Few of their Japanese sweets. Prices range from 80 to 200 pesos per slice of cake. They also serve coffee, tea in both hot and cold drinks. If you are hungry, worry no more as they also serve full Japanese meal.

Obligatory groufie with my officemates at NCR!

I just love how they accentuated their ceilings with these light bulbs! Excellent design!

Exploring God's wonder in Palawan: Underground River

01.07.15. It was on a Wednesday morning when Yanti and i woke up early, ate our breakfast at the Marianne Hotel and had ourselves ready by 7:00AM. This was the time we were supposed to be picked up for our tour but it was not realized as the tour guide only arrived at the hotel at around 7:30AM. It was Marianne Hotel who booked us for an Underground River (UR) tour.

Yes! They are late by 30 minutes. But wait, there's more exciting things which had happened. The guide and van driver took us to Puerto Princessa Gym. I was wondering what we were about to do there, when i was advised by Marielle (Maple Travel & Tours) that they ran out of permit thus, we need to walk in so we could get our permit for the underground river. Permit serves as your ticket to the UR. This is issued by the local government of Puerto Princessa.

It was at 8AM when the permit issuing office opened. We finally got our permit to the UR plus a hardcopy of our certificate of Achievement for having been able to conquer this one of the 7 wonders of nature. This was really a bit off as we were given this paper even though we have not started the tour yet.

From the PP Gym, we headed to several hotels to pick up some other guests who would go with us to UR. It was only by past 9:00AM when we were able to leave the town onwards to UR.

After an hour drive, we had a short stopover at the Buenavista View Deck where a small food stall were housed. This point served as a viewing deck to the Tres Marias island. Too bad i didn't capture the island.

Our next stop over was at the Ugong Rock Adventures (Caving, Zip Lining, Massage, etc). Yes, we only signed up for UR tour but there seems to have been a couple of optional activities. Though this is optional, we didn't really have a choice but to wait for our group to finish their activities.

Yanti and I were so lazy to do the caving so we decided to just grab some refreshments (soda and halohalo). She apparently got bored waiting for the group and decided to go and get some massage.

This view is epic! A pathway which would lead you to the massage set-up under a nipa hut with a beautiful backdrop of the Palawan hills.

Massage area.

Finally! We arrived at the warf at around 12nn. Just in time for lunch. So our guide took us to Gusto Grill to have our lunch buffet (but don't expect much, this was just a carenderia buffet). The food was not bad at all but too far from what we expected by the way Travel agencies oversell their tours. We were advised to have a seafood buffet but we didn't see any sea creatures on the table at all. They served us meat (pork) and veggies instead plus some weird desserts (gelato).

Here i was waiting for our turn at the warf past 1pm. We were queued at number 91. This was really such a waste of time, specially for someone who only wanted to see the UR.

At around 2:15PM, we finally arrived at the drop off point. We kept on telling Marielle to keep an eye of the time as we still had to catch the 6PM (last) trip to El Nido and we need to be back in our hotel by 5PM. Marielle was so positive and we were assured many times that we could get back to our hotel by 5pm.

It was at 3:45PM when we were able to jump off the paddle boat on our way to this Magnificient wonder of Nature.

Good thing Marielle insisted to have us get an audio device with a recording of some UR facts. The VO sounds like a NatGeo talent. There were multilple sections of the UR but honestly, i only remember a few. There's the Cathedral, the Market, and 3 kings. The section's ne were based on the formation inside i.e Mama Mary statue, vegetable resembled rock (eggplant, lettuce, etc.).

I was really amazed with how beautiful the interior of the cave was. It was my first caving experience where i didn't feel like a claustrophobic. The underground river has a total lenght of 8 kilometers but the tour would only ran on the first 1.5km for roughly 45 minutes back and forth.

We finished the tour and was able to come back at the mainland by past 5PM. There was no way for us to get back into our hotel by 6PM as the travel time would take (at the least) an hour and a half. Good thing Marielle was able to make an arrangement with Fortwally Agency to pick up our luggage at the hotel and we were just to wait at Robinsons Mall.

Overall, i really enjoyed cruising inside the cave. However, i would honestly say thay the whole day tour was definitely a waste of time due to some unwanted optional activities. I would suggest thay Travel Agencies should prioritize the Underground River tour over the other sidetrip activities. After all, people go there mainly for the Underground River.

Puerto Princessa Palawan: a good start for 2015!

New year means new beginnings. I preferred to begin my 2015 by exploring the Philippine gem lying along the West Philippine Sea - Palawan. Its capital city, Puerto Princessa serves as the gateway of the Palawan mainland.

01.06.15 on board a Cebu Pacific flight, i with my dearest friend from Sydney were cruising the sky at 30,000 feet above sea level full of excitement for this adventure. After sitting our back to pain in a grumpy, jam-pack, limited legroom cabin for an hour and 15 minutes from Cebu (not to mention the very expensive flight, 5k+), we finally touched down Puerto Princessa Airport.

Hello there! Minutes after we went out the airport, we hired a tricycle to drive us through to our hotel. First impression of both me and Yanti: "very clean surroundings". Indeed, didn't find any trash/plastic along the road. Good job to the people of Puerto Princessa. Also, kidos to their friendliness!

In a trycycle ride.

Kuya driver was good enough to refer is to a travel agency to arrange for our underground river and El Nido Your. We passed by a travel agency close to the airport and made our tour and transfer reservations.

Soon as we dropped our bags off in the hotel, we then headed to tour the city on our own. Yes! We went to Baker's hill by riding a tricycle and then a jeepney and then a tricycle again. We saved a lot. Fare is only 12 pesos for tricycle and 15 pesos for jeepneys. It was our way of experiencing how the locals live in the city.

Here at the Baker's hill.

Posing on top of the hill!

We decided to go out for dinner on our way back to their CBD. Our first choice was "Kalui" as this was the most recommended by the locals and most bloggers however when we arrived there, they were already full. Too bad we didn't make reservations ahead of time. So then we went to our second choice, the Mangan Kayon (formerly Bilao).

Good bargain! At Php 499, we got to have a boodle food set-up with pork, ckicken and seafood. They said this was good for 2 but honestly, this was so much for 4.

Yes, we didn't manage to finish everything. There's just too much! Haha

Marianne Hotel, where we stayed at room 205.

More of Palawan comimg up next!

Unwind over a bottle of wine at La Vie Parisienne.

La Vie Parisienne or Life of the Parisian in English is a wine boutique owned by famous French business tycoon in Cebu - The Lhuilliers. I have been to this place a couple times, from the time it started with just a wine store housed in a container truck to its lavish cherry blossoms and magical themed of it today, I personally have witnessed how this boutique has transformed over time. This place is perfect for friends to unwind and do their chit chat over a bottle of wine and a slice of cheese. French baked breads are also available for those who want to get a little of carbs.