One Year of Roadtrip

So, I posted last December 28 that we will be celebrating our first year anniversary down south remember? Actually, it was not our original plan. Honestly, we have no plans! Haha! I was involved in a very toxic project sometime in September last year so I wasn't able to prepare a bonggacious anniversary celebration. Plus, we were not sure if my planned vacation that December will push through. Initially, my plan was to have my vacation starting December 17 then I'll be back second week of January. Yep that long! It's allowed as long as the project allows it. Unfortunately, our project, which was scheduled to finish by end of November, extended until before Christmas. They said that if we were unlucky, we might work after Christmas also. Good thing was that we were able to do what we have to do before Christmas. Well, I just had to do that Sunday work but it's ok.

So going back to the "plan", I first wanted an out of the country vacay but we lacked prep time. Next, I wanted for us to at least ride a plane to a local destination, but the uncertainty of the project timing still didn't work with us. Then, I said at least give me the best resort in Luzon so we can do roadtrip. Unfortunately, we cannot afford to give away money in case I have to go to the office the last minute. My vacation was only finalized by December 23, the nearest good beach that I can think of then was Puerto Galera. But of course, we promised not to stay in the White Beach because it will be normally crowded for sure.

By morning of December 27, we used UEJ and drive to Batangas Port. It was very hard then to find a secured parking since it's full everywhere. Good thing we found this establishment that allows cars to park in their garden.

After finding parking, we rode a Ferry going to the beach. I forgot what liner we rode or what route but definitely not Balatero which is the dock in the White Beach area. I will find my notes then update this post asap. Anyway, we were supposed to dock in the shores of our resort itself but, for some reasons, we were brought here -

That's exactly where I wanted to stay but they were fully booked! Argh. So we chose the next best thing -

The shore -

The centerpieces -

I noticed they have a lot of these flowers -

See?

After a sumptuous lunch, which of course I forgot to take pictures, we headed to the beach!

Then nang magsawa, gumora na kami sa White Beach. Why? May kamahalan kasi ang food sa Aninuan. So we decided to try to find something good to eat sa White Beach. And I want to see how it has changed since the last time I saw it, which was 2007 pa!

As expected it was crowded. And there were a lot of vendors selling their products and a lot of manangs na nagaalok ng massage! Gosh siguro naka-100 na "Hindi po" ako. Aww. After filling our stomachs, we head back to the resort na. We chilled by the cabana for a while then bedtime na. Alam na! :P

We woke up not-so-early the next morning. Just in time for the free breakfast. So what's the free? Eerrr American Breakfast lang daw namely toasted bread, jam, butter at mangoes. We ordered another pasta para may iba naman. Na mind you kapresyo na ng super bundat na dinner namin sa White Beach the night before. Okkkkk!

After breakfast, we headed to the beach again bago pa umaraw ng bongga. Here's another shot of D's fave pose. This was our part of the beach, almost solo! Unlike sa White Beach na di ka makaswim sa dami ng tao.

Here's their pool naman -

 Here's the pahingahan area -

Another spot to muni-muni -

The very happy us -

I said happy diba? Parang bliss yata -

Happy 1st year anniversary to us! 

Hoping for more years to come,
Yosh

{SUPPLIER RATING} Lights and Sounds

CYBERSOUND PRO

CONTACT: 0922-833 9865

cybersoundpro@yahoo.com

DAMAGE: P5,000

As a w@wie, my first choice was of course Rejectkrew. Their rates were reasonable but upon further research in the W@W's archive I found a supplier that can offer half of Rejectkrew's price. Here's the story behind our booking of them - HERE.

Judging from the package that they sent me, I thought they were heaven sent. I even asked Akustik JAM to check if the list below was good enough for them. Fortunately, they said it's ok. 

Oh by the way, please don't mind the multiply page. We all know that multiply no longer exists na naman.

About their performance, I wasn't able to pay that much attention to them during the reception. My head was full of dreams and music! Oohh music! Nice! So they did their job well then? Yeah I guess so. Judging from these pictures, I'm confident they delivered well -

Smoke and Bubble Machine -

Music that made our guests dance -

Green laser lights at night-

Also they were able to accommodate my music requests. I just provided all the necessary CDs they needed. Plus a backup CD just in case the first one fails to work.

Two thumbs up,
Yosh

Beijing Day 4: Beijing Zoo and Beijing Olympic Park

This day was the last full day we had in China so we decided to make the most out of it. I've told you in my earlier kwentos that our hotel is one hour away from Beijing right? Well, we interviewed our friend kung pano sya pumapasok sa office sa Beijing. She told us that she usually takes the subway. Oohh interesting diba? So we asked them if we can skip renting a cab for our last day then just take the subway. Tutal around the city na lang naman ang mga pupuntahan namin. Sige daw! Yey!

This was the entrance. Parang pinagandang LRT2 lang -

The surprising part was 2 yuan lang sya anywhere! Around 14php lang. Wow!

Kahit saan dito oh!

At bawal daw magsuicide sa kanila. May harang ang railway so di ka makakatalon. Hehe!

Sosyal naman yung loob.

Pero mas sosyal si ate oh nakataas pa ang paa sa jowa. Ginaya tuloy ng jowa ko. Hehe

Beijing Day 3: Great Wall of China and Temple of Heaven

The 3rd day was my favorite day! This was the day I set foot on the Great Wall. Well, we've been to China in 2007 and I was super devastated to learn that Guandong is very far from Beijing. Argh. So when we returned to China I told D that I'm willing to give up other sights just for the Great Wall. That, and Pandas. Hehe!

We were down at the lobby earlier than our sundo so we camwhore muna.

We needed to start the day early because we will be travelling for 2hours going to Badaling. According to our friends and to my research, Badaling is the less-crowded part of the wall. Apparently, there's more entrance going in. By 7:30am, we were already on the van going to Badaling. Around 9:30, we were here -

We rode another shuttle to go up. There's a tour guide but naturally I didn't understand a thing he said.

The ticket booth lines were short. Wow we're off to a good start! But surprise surprise! The lines going to the lift naman were very long pala! It didn't help that it was very hot also. Well, our friend told us to wear something warm because it will be very cold up in the wall so I wore long-sleeves! Argh!

Here's the lift by the way. If you want to have the lift to yourself or to your group exclusively, get ready to be disappointed. They will not allow that. It's understandable naman with the long lines after us pa.

Here's the view when we're a little bit up na. See that long winding line? We were there!

Here's a few more minutes up. It's so magnificent!

Beijing Day 2: Walking in Fucheng, Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City and Xidan Shopping District

We went home a bit late the day before. Remember our drinking session in the Yinding bridge? Read it HERE. So the next day, our Chinese friends said we will not start the tour early. Too bad for us since we cannot force ourselves to sleep in late. We just decided to walk around the hotel's vicinity to find something interesting. Here's D doing some camwhoring -

See that red arc thing decoration up front? And the rock with red lettering? That's not there yesterday. And then there's this -

Fireworks!! Then it was followed by a convoy of vehicles going inside the hotel. Oohh someone's getting married pala. Akala ko naman for the Mooncake Festival. Actually, I've been expecting a lot since yesterday but I saw no grand celebration. It seemed to be a no big deal to them. 

Anyhoo, we got tired of walking around that we decided to return to the hotel to avail our free breakfast. Look at this - 

It's kinda healthy and unhealthy at the same time. There's a lot of choices! Well, we really like Chinese food so it's to our advantage. After breakfast, we went up to our room to prepare for our tour.

Beijing Day 1: Hutong Tour, Beijing Bell and Drum Tower, Yinding Byway and Hutong Pizza

Hey hey hey! Remember my post about getting a Chinese Visa HERE? We got approved and I said see you in China right? Ohh I do hope you saw us. We went there six months ago! Hahahaha! Ang tagal na! Sorry naman. Busy ang bakla e.

So going back, we went there just in time for the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival or Mooncake Festival! We reached Beijing International Airport early morning on September 19. That's the exact date of the festival. We were fetched by some Chinese friends. We rode a rented taxi that took us to our hotel which was one hour away from the airport. They said it's cheaper than the hotels in Beijing especially then that it's holiday. We just settled our things in the room, rested for a little bit then larga na agad! Here's our room by the way -

Ang ganda diba?? The CR was equally stunning. Tapos meron pa nito -

Pano kaya yun? Hehe! Hindi lang namin tinry. May kamahalan kasi. Hahahaha!

Next, hutong tour! Hutong, by the way, are eskinitas in tagalog. As in bike and kabayo lang ang kasya. Then there's a lot of stores and street foods! Our guide pointed out that you'll know it's holiday based on the mass of people in the hutongs. On normal days, the alleys are peaceful but during holidays like that day aba hindi mahulugang karayom! Ganto kasikip -

Here's D trying out the street food. Mejo hesitant pa sya - 

Masarap naman e! Here's a sample of what you will find inside the stores -

Among other things. There's a lot more to see! Then when we got tired, we hailed a cab. I mean a bike. Whatever! Eto sya -

{SUPPLIER RATING} Photobooth

LENSCAPE PHOTOBOOTH

CONTACT: 0917-5969442

https://www.facebook.com/lenscape.imagesevents?fref=ts

DAMAGE: P8,000 2 hours +1 service (Bridal Fair Rate)

Lenscape was another Bridal Fair find. This was one aspect we thought we would like to see their output first. If you remember, I am very picky in terms of pictures. As much as possible, I want to capture every moment of my wedding, including the moment where my guests were having fun. We chose Lenscape because of it's very promising offer during that bridal fair. We were sold by its Quality over Speed performance. Check my post about it HERE.

This was our package from Lenscape - 

The quote was made March 2012 so rates and packages may be different now. Do check their FB page for the updated one.

I had a very good communication experience with Anna. She easily accomodated my request to have the full payment be paid on the day of the wedding itself. I requested that because in their contract they wanted me to pay full one week in advance. I'm not comfortable with that so I asked her to change it which she willingly obliged.

I also told her that I want to customize my backdrop. They do customize but it will be of additional charge but if I will provide my own then it will be free. Here's my customized backdrop by the way -

It's made of real CAUTION tape. Nice eh?

Here's the bridal fair photo we had from them. We liked its semi-saturated effect.

We chose the strip package so we can keep the other half of the picture for our album. One of my friends found it small, some said its unique. But that's how we like it! What disappointed me was the picture quality. It was totally different from the bridal fair. The pictures were a bit dark. I think the lights setup was not bright enough. Sorry for the poor quality of the picture below, but to give you an idea, here's some samples - 

As for the guestbook, my request to make it white was not granted. Apparently, they only have black albums. Ok no problem. The outside of the album was not bad either.

What disappointed me was the inside of the album. It totally looked scattered. Maybe I should blame my guests for not writing in an organized manner? Nah! But I have to admit, I cannot rely on the photobooth technicians to man where the guests will write all the freaking time! To I guess it's acceptable.

I gave them the middle score because I think they should improve the lighting. I'm just wondering why they have good setup at the fair but bad setup in my wedding. Maybe it's a different team who handled the setup? Oh then I guess they should focus on educating their team so they'll have uniform results.

Picture not so perfect,
Yosh