Punta Fuego 2016

Punta Fuego, Nasugbu, Batangas. October 30 to 31, 2016. 

The view from one of the houses we rented. 

This vacation was really exciting for me and for my family. It's the first time we're going out of town with all of my relatives on my mother's side (except for one family who was based in Iloilo). And where did we decide it to be? At Punta Fuego, Nasugbu, Batangas, for its beaches, pools, and yacht club.

To get everyone there (we're a big extended family), we rented a coaster and left early in the morning, stopping only at a commercial area for lunch before resuming with our journey. The coaster drove us through the winding paths until we finally reached our destination by early afternoon. We unloaded all our luggage into the houses we rented and enjoyed the view and the fresh air: 

Cardona, Rizal Facing Laguna de Bay (Summer 2015)

Laguna de Bay, May 2, 2015 (Click the photos)

Church Summer Conference 2015, granted me this view for three days from a balcony. 

We stayed at Cardona, Rizal, and later learned we were overlooking Laguna de Bay. During the first day, a friend, my brother, and I were debating whether it connects to the sea or a lake, and specifically, which sea or lake this was. She insisted it was the sea while my brother said it was a lake. We then brought up the name of the resort to help shed some light on the water's identity. It was a "bay resort". As I listened, "Laguna Bay" first came to mind, but we weren't sure. The next day, I got my hands briefly on a fellow camper's internet connection and alas, Google Maps finally cleared things up. It was actually Laguna de Bay.

Flower Power

Gosh, midterms week is coming! But rather than studying, why not take some time off and look at these photos of flowers I took during a recent trip to Tagaytay? Aren't they just lovely? (P.S. I'm semi-proud of these photos especially this one up here ^ teehee)

The Foreign Exchange

Korean-pop CD’s neatly stacked next to the stereo, Korean lifestyle magazines topmost on the bookrack, Korean Channel M constantly airing on the television screen – it was my love for all things K- that have driven my feet, along with two of my friends’, to an unofficial ‘Koreatown’ in Jupiter Street, Makati City, (Philippines) one Thursday afternoon. And gosh, did I find my sweet haven.

Authentic restaurants and groceries lined the streets, giving the impression that you were not in a ‘Koreatown’, you were in Korea. Around the corner, however, taxi cabs race past flocks of Western foreigners in bars and cafés, chatting away nonchalantly with their fellow ‘aliens’ – you were at New York.

Amidst this entire culture clash, were the locals, adding up to the already chaotic mixture of people, a mixture that gave the area an unrecognizable quality, a familiar, yet foreign atmosphere. I then stretched the rest of the day exploring these streets as a tourist in my own country, camera hanging around my neck, enjoying the company of foreigners and locals alike. And I ended up being taught a lesson in the process.