Mel and the New Normal

I was heavily dependent on my Samsung S4 during this road trip. For some reason, J's Iphone gave my zilch information in Baguio on its map, while the S4 gamely showed us the places to eat in the map and reviews! I had just bought it a few days ago through my old Globe plan, and it came in really handy during this trip. 

J and I are, like, the worst kind of clients a travel service can have. Let me expound on this. I am what you call a "sale booker" when it comes to flights. Meaning, I only book flights when it's Piso sale at Cebu Pac. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother. I can say that about 98% of my ticket purchases were done on Piso sale. Aside from that, J and I are masters of commute. And we love it. Meaning, we commute everywhere when we travel! (This got us in trouble in Bangkok though.) For us, commuting is part of immersing yourself in the culture. So we walk and commute everywhere. So we hate any fixed tours. We are also super cheap people. We don't mind staying in places that look like bathrooms, as long as they're safe. If you're wondering why we do this, it's because J and I travel differently from other people. Everyday, J and I work. By everyday, I mean, EVERYDAY. We don't have rest days, weekends, etc. We work everyday. We work until 10PM. The goo...

It was part of our agenda to visit either Ocean Adventure or Zoobic. We left the decision up to the kids, since they were old enough to make the choice. They chose Zoobic! Although Mika had already gone to Zoobic a few years back (without Josh, since Josh was still a baby that time), she barely remembered it, and wanted to see it again. The place was much nicer than I remembered it. The swags reminded me of my work! Everything was clean and well-kept. You usually expect some parks to deteriorate over time, but Zoobic was really well-maintained. This must be the highlight of my kid's summer -- touching this baby cub and getting to feed it! If I'm not mistaken it was P300 for 1 shot =p But they allowed us to take picture using our phone also, so that's okay. It's like you were paying for them to touch the cub. I really don't remember Zoobic having nice signages like this before. This was the first sign that welcomed us upon entering the park with out gui...

Hill Station is a very popular area in Baguio now. Just a stone's throne away from SM Baguio, I never noticed it until I read about it in Anton's blog Ourawesomeplanet.com. As we passed by it going around Session, I promised we'd come back and check it out. The library in the adjacent Mt. Cloud Bookshop has starred several times on the IG feed of my friends. Entrance Signages Look upon entering. It was quite dark, as it was also dark outside.  With my cousin Trish, and her BF Martin At this point (a month later) for the life of me, I cannot recall the names of these dishes. Peruvian chicken? It was good, though nothing blockbuster for me.  Personally, this was the dish that I enjoyed. It was their house salad, and it included native Baguio ingredients (what else?) like strawberries, candied walnuts. It was so fresh, like it was picked off their backyars. (It probably was!) Another memorable dish, their ice cream incorporating Baguio flavors ...

For some darn reason, I thought the ride to Subic FROM Baguio would be shorter than the ride from Manila TO Subic.  I was sooooo wrong. As I was staring at the blinking dot on the GPS, I couldn't believe how mistaken I was. Subic was wayyyyy farther if you were coming from Baguio! Since I had underestimated the whole distance-time ratio, we missed lunch. We were starving, it was 1PM and we were just about to hit SCTEX! So we stopped at one of these places and bought their native specialty. Forgive me, I forgot the name, it was some coconut treat similar to Puto Bumbong in texture. It was yummy, but the kids weren't so into it. They ended up just nibbling from a box of snacks we had prepared for the trip. (Looking back, that was a good call, even if that box took up half the backseat of our car. Our kids always want to have something in their mouths, it must be that age.) Luckily, we had clear, beautiful skies alllll the way thru. And of course, being SCTEX, it was...

So glad my S4 takes panoramic shots! Looking forward to sharing more pictures soon!