Summer in November (Bolinao trip!)

I landed back in my country on November 26, 2014. I went from winter to summer in a matter of hours. I have no idea how I adjusted with the sudden change of temperature. Two days after that, my sister and her friends from work tagged me along in their outing. It was my first trip in the Philippines after being an OFW (Overseas Filipino Worker). When you live in a tropical country like ours, it’s pretty much summer all year long! But I actually kinda missed it! I’ve had enough frost bites, chapped lips, wind sore and winter depression - it’s time for some fun under the sun!

With a few stop overs, it took us about 7 hours to reach Bolinao, Pangasinan. It was such a long trip and my legs and back hurt like hell when we got off the bus. We checked in at Punta Riviera, one of the resorts near the famous Patar beach. It was off peak so we got a good deal and we were the only guests at the resort when we got there! Ha! It’s like we just rented the whole place for ourselves. Score!

It was almost sunset when we finally dropped our bags in our hotel room. We were so tired from the trip and my chronic tension headache started to creep in but I tried to brush it off with a Filipino dinner and hot cup of coffee.

waking up and seeing this...was priceless!!!

if you've seen my morning hair, I have pretty much nothing to hide!

I wasn’t able to fully appreciate the serenity of the place because I was exhausted from the trip. But the next morning, after we had breakfast and coffee, I automatically went back to cam-whoring.

                          

 

I can't believe I'm actually here!

Sun-kissed skin! Zai jian Winter! 

                          

Our package comes with free breakfast but mostly just the 'silog' food combo(fried rice and egg plus something else). They have menus for lunch, dinner, snacks and desserts which are quite pricey but it's fine with us since we already had a good deal at the discounted room rate. There's one member of the staff there who got a handsome tip from us when we checked out. He's been so nice and efficient and he really stands out among the rest. But even if we told him that the tip that we gave him was just for him, he said he needs to split it with his colleagues. My sister's friends were telling him he doesn't have to since he's the only one who does most of the job. I have no idea what happened to his tip but I was impressed with his attitude towards his job.

When we were ready for the tour, we hired the same tricycle drivers who took us to our resort. First stop was the Patar rock formation.

Up next, the famous light house plus a little souvenir shopping on the side.

I only got my eyes on this shirt!

After the pictorial at the light house, we went straight to the highlight of our trip, the Patar beach!

with my Ate's friends! 

Yup, that's me running away from the waves!

THIS. LIFE!

Well, I actually just stayed pretty much near the shore, haha! But for someone with hydrophobia I think getting this close to the water is pretty tough already, right?!

The beach wasn’t that crowded since it was off peak. It’s a good thing though because I didn’t have to play my introvert card at all. Just several families and few kids running around, it was cool! Not draining at all!

And…we met a very shy 14 year old missionary girl from Texas! She doesn’t speak much Tagalog but they said she’s a bit fluent in the dialect at that place. 

After about 2 hours of sun bathing, we picked up our stuff from our cottage and headed to the parking area, ready to find a good place to have lunch. The tricycle drivers took us to the town again. I’ve been craving for ‘bulalo’ ever since I came home, so that time, that’s what I ordered!

And then, we went back to our resort and totally owned the place.

pool side, baby!

Just before sunset, we headed to our resort's mini island for dramatic sunset photo shoot...

My sister's back shot!

The place for kayaking!

This reminds me of Marimar! Haha!

Trying to be "Thalia" aka Marimar!

I never want to get up!!!

We went for another quick dip at one of the pools before taking a shower and heading for dinner. It was a long, tiring day but it was all worth it! I can't get enough sand and sea and I feel like I had a dream that I was a mermaid and the sea was calling out to me, so, I sneaked out early the next morning. I walked and ran all by myself back to the mini island. I picked some sea shells too, but I'm not planning on selling them!

After about 20 minutes of walking around and taking selfies, I saw some other guests (they arrived at the resort while we were having dinner the night before) walking towards the island to take photos too. I kept a good distance from them. Eventually, their photo session ended and I'm still right there! 

My very confused footprints in the sand!

I only went back to our room when I heard a dog barking from a distance. I noticed I was alone in the island again and no one's gonna hear me crying out for help if the dog attacks me! 

Morning coffee with my gangstah sistah!

I was done packing the night before we left, so, I spent the rest of the morning just walking around the resort. Check out was at 12 noon. After our brunch, we headed back to the bus terminal.

rurouni (wanderer) ~

It was another long road trip back to Manila and I know my back's gonna hurt like crap again but that was one helluva vacation! It was like seeing my country with brand new eyes, really! Before I got the job in China, I've never really been out of Manila. So, I kinda made a promise to myself that before I go out of the country again, I'll make sure to travel to as many places here as possible. It didn't feel so good when my Chinese friends ask me to recommend good places to visit because I haven't been around that much. I only go to malls and places that can be reached through MRT or LRT. Such a shame, I know, but I'm trying to change that now! 

Nice photo bomb moment, Manong!