Boracay Day 5 - Ariel's point

Another checked for my travel bucket list today! Today was the most 'adventurous' day for us. Time for some height and get wet!

The Ariel's point is one of the highlight of the trip. Okay, nothing fanciful for the trip but you get to leap off the cliff and dunk into the sea. Can't get to do this in Singapore, for sure. 

We pre-arranged the trip with the Ariel's point personnel. The day started before 10am where we had to gather at Ariel's House (Whote Beach Station 1) for a pre-trip briefing. This is to safeguard our safety.

After which, we took the boat out to our destination. The service was real good and they provide water and beer (yes, if you want, you can beer all day) throughout the day. The boat ride took about 40 minutes and there we reached. 

Okay, while we had to pluck up our courage to do the 5 meters jump, there were fellow tourists who took the plunge at the 15 meters. Kudos to them, for sure. 

There we stood to do our jump. I'm glad I did both the 5 & 8 meters dip and okay, leave the 15 metres for my next trip there!

Cliff dive plank @ Ariel's Point

Besides cliff dive, you can also do other activities like suntanning, kayaking, snorkelling or just swim and relax!

A buffet lunch was included in the 2,000 pesos cost. 

The other activities

The day ended at around 5pm and well, it's our last night at this beautiful island. Have another look at how the sunset paints the background for the night.

Sunset, yet again!

Time for our last dinner and it's time for seafood at 'I love my backyard'. This restaurant is situated in the centre of D'mall. Not very hard to find but believe it, it is very hard to get a table. We tried once but could not get a table immediately. So this time round, we waited for half an hour before we had our butt seated at this restaurant. Great dinner to end off the day and to round up the trip.

Seafood platter @ I love my backyard

I will be back, Boracay!

Boracay Day 4 - Spider House

Another amazing weather to start off another beautiful day.Today, there is no itinerary. We have nothing in mind and we just wanted to go with the flow. So well, enjoy the moment, and my photos. 

White Beach

Okay, there was one place in mind - Spider House. Wanted to go there to relax for the afternoon and to enjoy the sunset. Heard that the sunset looked great there.

Spider House

The fantastic view of the sunset. I simply loved it! No photoshop, no human intervention. The place just looked amazing and well, I have to say, even better in real life!

Sunset!

Boracay Day 3 - Island Hopping to Crystal Cove, Puka Beach

The island hopping trip starts at 10am. So we headed to the beach to people watch after our breakfast. 

The colour combination is really great. Blue sky blended with the sea water. Simply amazing to just relax by the beach and doing nothing. This is also another interesting part of travelling. 

Here we went, start of our island hopping day!

White Beach

As mentioned earlier in my post, this island hopping is a 6-hrs program and it costs 800 peso, including lunch and water. Oh, but it excludes snorkeling fee which costs 20 peso. So if you are not in for snorkeling, you need not pay this fee. So, do take note. 

First stop was at the middle of the sea and it's time to snorkelling. Well, I do not have a waterproof camera and thus, not able to capture any underwater pictures. But do it yourself and you will love the sea creatures! The sea was rather choppy but not too bad as the fishes were lured near us as the crew dropped bread crumbs into the sea. 

You will be given life vest. Do wear it for safety precautions though I saw some tour mates not wearing. 

After snorkeling, we stepped onto the first island - Crystal Cove. A nice place to spend the late morning. Okay - 2 choice once we embarked on the island. Pay to visit the crystal cove or just relax at the beach. I think it costs 100 Peso.

So step in and enjoy the view. We did not manage to visit the Cove 2 as it was high tide. What a waste!

View from Crystal Cove

View from Crystal Cove

Lunch was buffet style and the food was okay.

After Lunch, off we went to Puka Beach. The stay there was quite s short one and sorry no photos as I was a little deterred by the hot weather.

So after Puka Beach stay, off we went to the next snorkeling spot. This spot was not as great as the first one.

Alright. that's about it on our third day at Boracay.

Boracay Day 2 - Parasailing, Joanh's Fruit Shake , Sunset

Woke up to a wonderful day. We started off our day with the Hotel breakfast. There are 5 choices to it and is the usual choice of eggs, either bacon or ham. Salads and drinks are available too. Not those buffet style.. So sit back, relax and wait to be served. 

After the breakfast, we stepped out of the hotel to have the first taste of Boracay's daylight. Wonderful feeling. We headed back to the White beach and started our beach retreat. 

We read and did our research about the activities available on the island. First stop was to look for Diamond Water Sports. We read that it provided good service for parasailing. That was something that we wanted to try for the first time. So headed up towards Station 1 of the beach. It was not long that we stumbled upon some beach tentage, one of which happened to be Diamond Water Sports. At first, we thought we were looking for a shop front and did not really trust what the counter people were saying. We just treated it as touting. And yes, a lot of people were at the beach, trying to sell us their service/activities when we walked past them. Not a single moment was spared. 

So after some persuasion by the crew, we took up parasailing and Sunset Paraw Sailing for the day. It costs us 1,500 peso each for the activities. Not a bad deal, I guess, since he quoted us 1,500 peso for Parasailing alone. 

And after the payment, he led us to the beach. Oh god, that's efficient! Without any preparation and we were to embark on our first activity. I just had a heavy breakfast. But well, that's not a bad timing for the Parasailing as the weather would have been hotter if we were to delay the trip. 

So here we waited for the boat to pick us up to the middle of the sea -

Beautiful beach and water!

So the parachute looked great here against the blue sky. The view up there was fantastic too. Oh did I mentioned, for this trip out to the sea, it would take around 15 minutes. That's just us on this boat, so well, I guess, it was considered a 'private' tour. 

There were 3 crew personnel on board with us. One as the driver and the other 2 to take care of us, giving us instructions, helping us with the safety and of course, as a free lance photographer for us. 

Us, high up into the sky

And we went higher and higher up and before we landed back to the boat, we got a dip into the sea. Well, it was not those sudden drop like a freefall.. The wind was too strong for that. Slowly as we came closer to the boat, they asked if we wanted a dip. Yes, it was a choice. So we went for it. What's not getting wet for sea sports. So be in your swim wear for this!

High up, dip in

And so it ended, in a blink of an eye. Since we were at Station 1, we decided to walk further down to catch the Willy's Rock. Oh well, it looked nice from far but we did not make our way up to it. The algae there was not that pleasant after all.

White Beach Station 1, Willy's Rock

Okay, another highlight in Station 1 is Joanh's Fruit Shake & Snack bar. They say, it serves the best fruit on the island. Well, try it and answer that question for yourself. I had the mango shake and on such hot sunny day, it was really great.

They served the takeaway in a normal mineral water bottle but they 'poked' a hole at the cap to put in the straw. A nice way to bring around the bottle as the circumference is not as big as those plastic cup! Yummy!

Joanh's Fruit Shake & Snack bar, fruit shake

After making a trip to Station 1, we decided to head to Station 3 - reason being, we wanted to book our island hopping snorkelling trip for tomorrow. It was mentioned in some websites that ALLAN BOAT provided good service for this activity. It was noted that the counter is located near Villa De Oro Hotel. So we just headed off, trying to find the Hotel . Okay, once you passed Mcdonald's dessert kiosk, you are about to reach the ALLAN BOAT counter. Just keep a lookout. 

So we booked the 6-hrs Island hopping (Puka beach, Crystal Cove visit, 2 snorkelling points, Lunch)....at 800 peso each. Not too bad a deal since it included lunch. So after settling the itinerary for the next day, it was time for Lunch. 

Not knowing what to have, we decided to pop into Smoke Resto that is at an alley in D'mall. It is a local Filipino eatery which serves the local delights. A well hidden small and cozy restaurant and I got an impression that it is somewhere near to Tilapia n’ Chips. This place is really crowded and true enough, it sticks to its shop name. It was rather smoky with an open kitchen concept. 

I ordered the Kao Pad which is actually Chicken, Egg, Mango with rice. The chicken meat was tender and well seasoned. The 'sourness' of the mango added another flavour to this dish. A very nice combination of fruit and meat into a rice bowl. Well, maybe add a little greens will do wonders! Quite a good choice to start off my lunch in Boracay. 

Kao Pad (Chicken, Egg, Mango and Rice) at Smoke Resto

After lunch, we decided to head back to the hotel for a quick wash up. After which, we strolled away the D'mall market. Okay, shops were quite standard - Clothes, souvenirs, food. 

We took the 'free' pass to enjoy the Red Coconut beach front facilities. Sat at the beach chairs and well, I stayed in the shade. Could not bear to let my 'burnt' skin get worst. Yes, I got a burnt and I still can't get over it. Why? I applied the sunblock duly. *cried*

So, waited for the sunset and off we went for the Sunset Paraw Sailing. Was really looking forward to sunset. But well, it was a little disappointing for me. I guessed we went out too early and did not really catch a complete sunset. 

The ride was actually quite fast, say 10 minutes and we were back at shore. Oh god! So if you really wanted to view a sunset on the paraw, do it really near to sunset. But here's my view while on it. Or maybe, try to do a sunset parasailing, it seems nice to be up there!

Parasailing in action

The sun I captured, ready to set in minutes....

Sun about to set

And the sunset we viewed on shore... Enjoy!

Girl chasing the sunset?

Couple admiring the beauty

The coconut trees waving to the sun

The sail against the sun as backdrop

What a wonderful view!

Sail right in

Though the view of the sun setting was great, I found peace and serenity looking at the other end of the sky. Splendid view especially with the fluffy clouds. Crowds at the beach were really enjoying their time. Relaxing and well, I guess a self reflection would be great!

Sky at the other end of the sunset

Okay, last view before we headed to dinner!

Can't get enough of it... Good night!

Alight, sunlight down and everyone seemed hungry. Restaurants, cafes and eatery were full of people. We decided to pop into Andok's.  In search of desserts, we just order the half grilled chicken. Juicy meat at affordable price.

@ Andok's - grilled chicken

Okay, we got crazy crepes for desserts but no pictures. Try it out for yourself. Time to head back to Hotel to wash up and rest. Tomorrow will be a day out at sea! Cheers!

Boracay Day 1

I have to say, the trip did not started off smoothly. Tigerairway got delayed by almost 2 hours plus and we did not know it as we did not have to do a counter check in. Oh well, the schedule was a little pretty tight for us as we read that the journey from Kalibo International Airport to Caticlan Jetty Port to Hotel would take us 2 - 3 hours. Thus, with the delay, the flight would reach Kalibo after 4pm and so, by the time we reached Boracay Island, we would have missed the sunset. Oh well, that's life. 

Okay, once we reached the Kalibo International Airport, we took around 30 minutes to clear the customs as there were not many immigration counters in the small airport. Forget about duty free shopping as I did not see much except maybe for a small shop after we cleared the customs. 

Do not feel lost once you got out of the airport. If you have booked your land transfer tickets, that's pretty good as you could head off to look for the concerned company. 

As for us, we decided to purchase ours on the spot as we read that it could be cheaper. Some company really quoted as low as 500 peso per person for the return trip. But it seems too good to be true, that we decided to head to the South West Tour counter. For the official internet price, they quoted 1,225 peso per person for door to door return services, inclusive of bus/ boat/ van/ government fees (environmental fee and terminal fee).  On the spot, they quoted 1,080 peso. Not a lot of discounts, though we mentioned that some friends paid 900 peso for the same service. Well, I guess the plane delay was a good catch for the companies as they knew that we could not afford to delay our trip.

Then there we started our 'road' trip to the jetty. We saw the sun setting and the sky began to turn dark. Not a very good way to start the trip as I felt lost in the darkness. But I have to praise the service of the South West Tour. They had people stationed at every pit stop to ensure that we were on the correct path to the ferry. But do note, if you can carry your own luggage and if you do not wish to have a porter, please hold your luggage close to you and reject any help from anyone. At times, you might think that they were staff of the company, but in actual fact, they were free lance porters who would collect tips from you. 

Alright, after the bus ride, after the ferry ride and the van ride, we finally reached Red Coco Inn Boracay in darkness. A group of friendly staff welcomed us and that was really great. We did the check in, get into the room to rest a bit before hunger strike us. We decided to head outside with the directions from the hotel crew.

Not having our orientation clear and not knowing what to eat, we stumbled upon Tilapia n’ Chips. Well, the name of shop determined my first meal in Boracay - Golden Fried Tilapia. We ordered the set menu for the Golden Fried Tilapia which comes with rice, a side (coleslaw or fries) and chicken noodle soup brownie and a glass of ice lemon tea. All in for 380 peso which was quite a good deal. 

Alight, skip the chicken noodle soup if you do not like pretty salty stuff. The highlight of the meal was simply the Tilapia fish. The service crew was nice and taught us how to make the sauce for the dip. It was simply fish sauce, with lime and chili. Simple, yet nice! The fish was simply awesome, fresh and tender. The meat was really great.

This place, though a little far from the beach, was a clean cozy place with reasonable servings of food. Delicious and inexpensive and well, an added service of WIFI if you really need to share great food with your family and friends back home!

Golden Fried Tilapia with rice and coleslaw

Alight, time to end the day with a short walk by the beach. It was crowded with people and the loud music was great. You can see the beach and the sea as it was dark and the beachfront restaurants make shift their tables and chairs to the beach. Well, tomorrow, we will explore the white beach in day light!

Address:
Located next to Crafts department store, just a few doors down.
Mon - Sun: 11:00 am - 10:00 pm

Red Coco Inn Boracay

A short getaway to Boracay, Philippines in April. Weather was great, and it was really relaxing. 

We stayed at Red Coco Inn Boracay. It is located at Station 2 but not at the beach front. It is stationed along the main road and well, it takes about 5-10 minutes to get to the white beach or wet market (D'talipapa).

But fear not as we are allowed to use the beachfront facilities of their sister company - Red Coconut at Station 2. Thus, we were still able to rest and relax by the beach.

The room was spacious and there is a sofa for us to rest but we used that to put our backpack and luggage. Essential amenities was in place such as the television, air con and of course, internet access if you can't leave your gadgets out. The room was nice and cozy which serve its purpose for sleeping or relaxing.

The staff were great too especially the security officers. I really think they did beyond their call of duty like opening the door for us when we got in and out of the hotel, or they even helped out with the reception and the breakfast crews when they were nowhere to be sighted. 

As a note that they are not having construction during the day - from 9 to 9. Was informed that they are expanding their hotel rooms and also to build a pool for their guests. 

I would say, I would definitely be back to stay after the construction is done. A good place to have, which is slightly away from the crowded beach but not that far off.

The cozy room

Hotel Website

Hanoi Day 4 - Sapa

3rd day at Sapa and we took another half day trek. The view was different and maybe as we had enough rest, this trek was much better than what we had on Day 1. 

After the trek, we went to the city centre to walk.

Goodbye Sapa, you have been good to us. No rain when we visited and the weather was cooling, much to my liking. I loved the peaceful days we had there and I simply enjoyed the breakfast, lunch and dinner at Sapa Eden Hotel.

Hanoi Day 3 -Sapa

Hello SUN, how beautiful was you when you rose from the horizon. I simply love sunrise, for no reason. I was not expecting a sunrise view for this trip, at least not at Sapa. 

Sunrise View from Sapa Eden Hotel

Off to the Sunday Market. This was a wrong move, I guessed. The road was bumpy and I was a little disappointed by the Market. I think we took almost 2 -3 hours there and we only spent like less than an hour to comb the whole place. Not the best market I visited, but nonetheless, I saw the cultural side of the tribes in Sapa - Vietnam. 

Lunch was served once again, and this meal was well, oily and the Vietnamese coffee was sweet. Too sweet for a liking.

A least unexpected trip was bringing us to the border between Vietnam and China. Cross the border and welcome to China. The only such border I crossed was that between Singapore and Malaysia. And the other I came near to was the DMZ at South Korea. So this would be the third such border for me. Nice~.

The trip ended back at the hotel!

Hanoi Day 1

2nd trip to Vietnam and this time round, to Hanoi, Sapa and Halong Bay. 

The 2-way airport transfer, the arrangement for trains, activities in Sapa and to Halong Bay were done with an agency which I googled on line. Read that the service was great and decided to engage them to help out with the transportation arrangement. This proved to be a good move for us as we worry about the booking of the transportation. Everything was done through email and deposit paid through paypal. That's it. We just have

So off we went and reached Hanoi in late morning. After we reached, the representative from the tour agency picked us up at the airport and brought us to the resting place which we left our luggage at. This was because we were leaving for Sapa on an overnight train and thus, we did not book any hotel for the night. The agency was great that they let out a room at their place for us to leave our luggage and to rest. 

Not to waste the rest of the afternoon resting, we engaged the service of Hanoi Kids which is a student-run voluntary organization organizing English-speaking city tours for tourists. This was great. The 2 volunteers whom we met were friendly and nice. The arrangement was to meet us at the travel agent's place and then, off we went to visit the city. 

We went to the Temple of literature. This place was the first university of Vietnam where the royal exams were held in the past. Then, we went around the city and to the Hoàn Kiếm Lake. A very pleasant place to be at, peace at mind despite the hectic traffic behind. Dinner was at a roadside stall which the volunteers recommended. First taste of the famous pho in vietnam. Yumz.  

Temple of Literature

Walking around the city

The beauty of the Hoàn Kiếm Lake 

Chicken Pho

Time to board the night train to Sapa. It was a comfortable ride, at least to me. I slept through the ride!

Seoul 2014 - Day 7 - Hongdae Free Market, Ewha Women’s University

Today was spent at doing last minute shopping at Hongdae  and Ewha Women's University. Nothing much to emphasize but well, enjoy the walking and buying!

But before that, time for our early lunch at Gogung. This place is famous for its Jeonju bibimbap. Really had a great meal here and it's our very first and only authentic bibimbap in Seoul this time round. Had the seafood pancake too.. Loved it! 

I would definitely recommend this place and well, will be back when I'm back in Seoul!

Address:
37, Myeongdong 8ga-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul
서울특별시 중구 명동8가길 37 (충무로2가)

Direction:
Myeongdong Station(Subway Line 4), Exit 10.
Go straight for 30m towards Migliore.
The restaurant is located behind Sejong Hotel.

Gogung, Jeonju bibimbap

After the heavy brunch, we headed to some shopping at Myeongdong before heading to Hondae.

Well, time for a late lunch now. Did a last minute google search and found this place:

(심슨탕) Sim Seun Tang for its Budae Jjigae (Korean Army Base Stew). Not a very big place to start off with but it's definitely cozy. The service crew did not speak much English and the menu is totally in Korean. Well, some pointing, some nodding and some simple English and that's it - we ordered our lunch .

If you are a kpop fan, maybe you can spot your idol's signature hidden somewhere!

Address:
Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul. 355-210

(심슨탕) Sim Seun Tang -Budae Jjigae (Korean Army Base Stew)

A long day of shopping and we ended up eating Korean BBQ near our hotel - 

Ssamsarang. Why here? Because we always saw it when we visited the convenience stall but we did not have the time to visit it. Well, lucky us that we managed to step in and had our dinner. Simply loved it there. It is a very nice traditional Korean BBQ restaurant. The owner is very nice and even cooked for us and taught us the correct way to have our food. Simply loved their service and well, the food too!

Direction:
Chungmuro Station exit 8. look out for the 7-Eleven convenience store. This restaurant is just a couple of shops away.

Ssamsarang Korean BBQ near Chungmuro Station

Seoul 2014 - Day 6 - COEX Aquarium, Noryangjin fish market, Hangang River Park

Breakfast first before we split up for our morning activities. After some research on where we can have breakfast at 9am, we stumbled upon O’sulloc Tea House which opens at 9am. Cool, and we were the first customers of that day. This cafe is situated in Myeongdong and is very accessible. It has three-storey seating space and it feels very peaceful inside. Free wifi, if you are looking for a cafe to relax and surf the internet. 

If you love green tea, this is a place you should visit. Most of the food and drinks item revolves around green tea. The green matcha latte was really good, I love it. The food was not too bad. Do give it a try if you are around the corner. 

O’sulloc Tea House

Address:
Seoul-si Jung-gu Myeongdong-gil 48
(Myeongdong2-ga)

Direction:
Myeongdong Station, Exit 6, turn left onto Myeongdong 8-gil.
Go straight about 400m, and you will see O´sulloc Tea House on the right.

After breakfast, we headed to COEX Aquarium which is at COEX Mall. Unfortunately for us, the mall was under some major renovation and the shops were not fully opened. It was quite confusing to pass through the constructions to get to the Aquarium but we made our way there. Not posting the fishes photos here as I really took quite a fair bit. But here's the transport direction:

Myeongdong Station (Line 4) -> Transfer at Seoul Natl Univ of Education (Line 2) -> Samseong (line 2)

So what's next after the fishes was of course Lunch. Today, we made our way to Noryangjin fish market. This fish market is really full of fresh seafood. It is really huge but we did not bother to roam the whole place as we soon realised that each stall sells similar stuff. We finally decided on the stall with a friendly Chinese lady who was able to communicate with us in Mandarin. I guess communication was important now as we were buying something that has no price tag to it. 

Noryangjin fish market

After some recommendations and negotiations, we bought what we want and the lady brought us to a small restaurant on the second level. We did not bother to ask for the price for helping us to cook the seafood as we reckon it will be almost the same since it is so competitive. So, here's our Fresh seafood lunch from the market.

Left: Raw octopus
Top right: Abalone
Bottom Right: Scallop

The food is really fresh. This is my first time eating raw octopus. The feeling was not that fantastic. Though it was not the whole octopus, the tentacles were still moving. Well, it was pretty tough to chew. Not the best dish on the table, in my opinion. 

The abalone was really tender and nice. And the scallops was stirred fried and it was flavourful. 

Direction:
Subway Noryangjin Station (Exit 1) and walk across the overhead bridge to the market. Please remember it is EXIT 1 instead of exit 9. There are 2 exit points at the station. Though Exit 9 can still bring you to the fish market, it will take a walk at the street. Exit 1 is nearer!

Next up, we went to the Hangang River Park, in hope to see Cherry blossom trees. Luck was a little on us and we managed to catch a few trees with blooming. Nice view, how I wish I could see the full blossom. 

Hangang Rive Park - blooming trees

We saw a cart selling strawberries, and decided to get a box - Sat at the park, admiring the scenery and well, enjoy the strawberries. 

Our main aim was actually to catch the sunset cruise at Hangang River. Not sure well, but a cruise was always enjoyable. Relaxing and nice way to end the day. 

Hangang River Cruise

Headed back to Myeongdong for dinner and we settled at two-two chicken shop. Fried chicken was in trend and well, we cannot miss it, right? We had the original and spicy. The meat was a little dry for the original but the marinated ones was great. But for the price, we thought there were more chicken servings. 

Two Two chicken

So when the night was still young, we went for mid night shopping at Dong dae mon using the shuttle bus service provided by the hotel! Loving this service!