Island Caravan - Traveling Made Even Better!

If only traveling was that simple, I would book a ticket and fly anywhere in a heart beat. I love the entire package that comes with traveling: canvassing for the best air fare rates, searching for the nicest accommodations, arranging for hotel transfers & transportation, booking the most reasonable tour, and what not. However, all these could be stressful and such a hassle at times. So, why bother if Island Caravan can do all these for you, at the best possible rates you could ever find!

Visit their Facebook for more details and updates on the best available travel packages:)

They're a reliable travel agency (trust me, I know the owner personally:p) which caters to local and international tours alike, for both small and big groups. Moreover, they also have educational tours which include seminars, tours, food tasting, and just about anything that you would request them include in the said package. An example of a tour they covered was this one held last September 7, 2012 for the HRIM students of Our Lady of Guadalupe Colleges. The package included the ff:

• a tour at the Department of Tourism Head Office
• a seminar on Hotel Familiarization by Palm Plaza Hotel
• a seminar on Coffee Brewery by Bo's Coffee
• a seminar on Bartending by TGI Fridays

Gone Gaga Over Greenhills & Zark's

A week ago, we were finally able to push through with my very much awaited shopping spree at Greenhills.  Our plans for the day got pushed back at a later time though due to the bad weather. It just kept on raining the entire day! But this didn't stop me from going to Greenhills Shopping Center. Greenhills is probably the second most convenient way of getting good bargains (The top of my list goes to Landmark which is very accessible, having it located at huge Ayala Centers.) You can find literally everything at Greenhills, from gadgets, clothing, bags, designer imitations, even furniture. My goal was to find clothes & bags since online shops have been tempting me for the longest time; however I enjoy actual shopping more than browsing through the internet for cheap finds.

Disclaimer - I do not own these photos. Just found them on Google. Credits go to: Above & Bottom (Click on the words to direct you to the web pages of the photos' owners.)

Thanks to Leo for accompanying me and bearing with me as I went through a lot of stalls for the best bargains:) Anyway, when we got there, it was already past 3 in the afternoon and we haven't had lunch yet. Initially, I wanted to try Sunrise Buckets because I've heard a lot of good reviews about their buffalo wings unfortunately, we couldn't find where it is (haha! we barely go to Greenhills, that's why the area is very foreign to both of us), plus it was still raining so we gave up and decided to just grab a bite somewhere within the shopping district's vicinity. I was craving for Army Navy, thus that's where we decided to fuel up before shopping.

 We shared their delicious cheese quesadilla which was gone in a breeze. Also had a burrito each and of course their Libertea to quench our thirst:)

After the heavy and delightful meal, off we went to shop. Yay for me!:) Retail therapy just feels so good! I was able to get a few tops and a bag. I was dismayed though for not seeing much of the brandless bags which come from Bangkok & Thailand. I found only 2-3 stalls selling these kinds of bags which are found all over online shops. 2 of them sell over priced items! Also, if you happen to be reading this and you supply bags, accessories & clothing items from Bangkok, please do contact me at katherinegregorio@ymail.com. I'm thinking of putting up a small shop of my own. (Just an idea, but why not! I love selling goods.)

With the items I bought, I was contented enough to give up and call it a day. Going in and out of stalls made us real thirsty, so Happy Lemon it is. :) Leo is very fond of trying different drinks but I on the other hand am contented with the ONLY order I know: Cocoa with Rock Salt & Cheese. I wouldn't want to try something new and later on hate its taste. haha!

We then went to The Fort for S&R grocery shopping which is a part of his weekend chores. We're definitely back at our comfort zone! I just love how chill & laid back the South is compared to the North:) The traffic of the North is simply chaotic & unbearable.

Anyway, for dinner we also decided to finally try Zark's Burgers, a famous burger place best known for its delicious grilled burgers which are very affordable. They started off as a burger joint for students located at Taft and later on extended its branches due to its gaining popularity among the youth. Amazing how they became famous through word of mouth:)

Leo decided to have the Zark's Burger (I can't really remember how it's called.), and I tried their wings. I must admit, it's my first time to be served with a burger LIKE this. Having a huge and thick burger patty smothered with melted cheese. Of course they had to serve it this way so that you'll see how the cheese really melts! I know that burgers are naturally oily, but this is just delicious, very filling, and affordable. Not to mention, the fries which come alongside with it if you upgrade your order to a Meal (burger + fries + drinks), are also huge! Zark's is definitely one of the very few fast food restaurants which offer both quality and quantity:)

I decided to try their Buffalo Wings since I wasn't AS hungry when we ate here. I don't think I could finish an entire burger. The wings were okay specially the dip which came along with it, however, I still love Brooklyn's wings more. ;-) Overall, I really enjoyed this day! Talk about shopping and food tripping!:)

 Sept 15, 2012

BY THE WAY, A HUGE SHOUT OUT TO MY FREQUENT READERS!:) Thank you! 

Eating & Chilling, Best Done at Tagaytay

Tagaytay is among our family's "Hot Spots" simply because of the cold weather and it's accessibility from Manila. It's so near that you could afford to have a quick day trip here for lunch, dinner & drinks. And yes, we just spent the weekend there:)

Whenever we visit Tagaytay, we basically enjoy the cold weather, the view & the food! We've seen all of Tagaytay already that we often end up pigging out. The mix of restaurants there mostly can also be found in Manila, except for a few. Last weekend, we decided to have late lunch at our favorite Filipino cuisine restaurant, Gerry's Grill:) Compared to Dencio's and Giligan's which offer the same cuisine & price ranges, Gerry's is still the best choice:) (Have tried Leslie's, I still prefer Gerry's. haha!) Also, I appreciate the nature loving ambiance in all branches:)

Gerry's Iced Tea, such a refreshing drink! Freshly brewed iced tea which perfectly pairs up with the food they serve. 

Crispy Pata. If you're a meat lover who enjoys patas, this is a must order:)

 Inihaw na Pusit. We ordered the wrong kind, their Sizzling Pusit is better! Served in a sizzling plate with sauce.

Beef Kare Kare. After my mom's own kare kare, I must say, Gerry's version is good as well! (But if you happen to have visited Tootsie's, they have the BEST kare kare ever!)

Tinomok. Meat with shrimp, flakes, fish, wrapped in gabi leaves boiled in coconut milk. It's a better version of Laing, originally from Bicol (If I'm not mistaken), and tastes real good!

We were supposed to get our staple Gerry's dish: Sizzling Sisig:) However, my mom has a Gerry's card thingy, which entitles her to free dishes. During our visit, they gave us fried lapu lapu & it was good! It's actually deep fried in some breading which included coconut.  

We were so full & fueled up! Such a Filipino delight for our tummies:)


P.S. If you happen to be a frequent visitor of my blog (hihi, huge THANKS!), please don't expect me to post much about salad, diet food & the likes, for you shall be disappointed. haha:)


Anyway, we dropped by Summit Ridge because my parents had the urge to buy "supplies," which I wasn't sure of not until I saw what they bought. Some drinks, nuts, chocolates & water. I guess it's part of the whole "family out of town tradition." :) 

We then headed to our hotel, Royale Tagaytay to chill. This hotel is kind of far from the city proper, but the rooms are nice, they have good amenities & I love the choices for their complimentary breakfast & the midnight snack (puto bumbong or bibingka - the bibingka's delicious & very filling!) which comes along with the hotel room. 

My brothers played billiards while my parents dozed off, and meanwhile, I watched National Geographic :) The channel never appeals to me when I'm at home, but I noticed that I do have the habit of watching Nat Geo whenever we stay at hotels. And, before we knew it, time for dinner! (I mentioned we go here for food tripping, right?!)

We had to go out and eat already because Tagaytay doesn't have night life. Everything closes earlier than the usual Manila store / restaurant hours. That night, the road was creepy because of the fog! The weather was cold, however it rained from time to time, thus the fog after it. It was foggy everywhere. We could only see the car directly in front of us, and the headlights of cars approaching us. The rest was just covered by fog. 

Moving on, the youngest of the family has this special say on where to go & where to eat. Always works that way! Good thing we basically have the same taste:) That evening, Nikko had an intense craving for Shakey's thus, Shakey's it was!:) We had our pizza, pasta, chicken 'n chips deal. I don't have to describe the dishes right? Come on, everyone knows how good Shakey's is!:)

Their thin crust pizza screams party in the tummy! Don't ever go for the thick crust. Shakey's isn't Shakey's without the thin crust. I guess I was too busy to take a picture of their famous Chicken 'n Chips (mojos!). Shakey's was once the best pizza parlor in town, dating back to the days when they had a live band playing. When I was a kid, I remember going all the way to Sucat to eat at Shakey's, because of their ambiance. My parents' fondness of this place was indeed passed on to us as well. :)

After dinner, there's got to be coffee - you know it! Next stop: Starbucks. Never have we been to Tagaytay without going to Starbucks - NEVER. It's such a good chill out place, specially with their cold weather! Normally, we prefer the one overlooking the lake. But since we were at Summit Ridge, we decided to have our traditional coffee there instead. 

As soon as we went inside, something at the pastry counter instantly caught my attention - the new Green Tea & Berry Cheesecake. We got it in a heart beat. And oh my, we wanted to have more! The top part is green tea, the bottom is a mix of berries, topped with white chocolate. It was heaven for my taste buds, seriously! Cheesecake enthusiasts, what are you waiting for?! I believe it's one of the best cakes Starbucks has ever created. For the drinks, my dad got his usual cappuccino, and the rest are Green Tea Frappuccinos with hazelnut syrup, which I introduced to them and obviously, they loved it. :) Green Tea party it is!

 I always enjoy times like this with my family. Just chilling, not caring a bit about time. We simply talked and browsed through magazines. After which, we went back to the hotel, watched more shows (while both my brothers played DOTA), and had a very good night's sleep.

My parents woke us up for breakfast - one of the best parts of staying in a hotel, indeed! I had breakfast in my PJ's, so I wasn't able to get snap shots of the food either, but they serve good breakfast meals! When my parents were slowly enjoying their hot chocolate, I went around. Sadly, the weather isn't as nice because it was occasionally raining. But still, here are a few photos:)

P.S. Happy Father's Day to my forever superman!:)

Check out time came. It was actually lunch time already (12 noon), but we were still full from the huge breakfast we had. We decided to have a stop over at one of the gas stations for a late lunch. But of course, we can't go home without dropping by the famous Rowena's for a box or 2 of buko tarts!:) You can't seriously go home from Tagaytay without these tarts!

Here ends my Tagaytay bliss! The typical over night stay I usually have with my family:)

Trip to Subic: A Classic

For some reason, Subic never gets old. It only has a few unique tourist spots - that you could visit them all in a stay of 3 days and 2 nights. Despite this, we have been among the frequent Subic-goers, since I was little. We've even established our top choices of hotels which offer the best packages & rates. Unfortunately some of them have closed already. So that's how often we go to Subic - we've seen it develop, we know which hotels & stores have closed, and which ones are new.

As a kid, any place that's more than 2 hours away from home is FAR. Through the years, my definition of FAR has changed. I guess its proximity and accessibility from Manila is one of the reasons why we've been frequent tourists of Subic, especially now that the SCT-Ex made travelling faster and even more convenient.


We've just spent the weekend at Subic, however, since we've been to ALL that's there to visit - we ended up just enjoying the place, staying at the hotel, munching & going shopping. The photos I'll be including in this entry will be a collection of pictures I've taken through the years, and of course the most recent ones:)

I guess despite the fact that we've seen all of Subic & that there's nothing much to do, we keep on coming back since it has become a family tradition & it has become a part of our "growth." Whenever my parents would ask us if we wanted to go to Subic, I'd always answer with: "Uh, what are we going to do there?" haha! That's the adventurous side of me who likes going to new places, with new activities to do. I guess Subic will always be that special place we'd still frequently visit, despite its remoteness & the very hot weather.

Here are my Top Picks of must do / must go to, however I don't have pictures of all the places, since some of them were shot using cameras which used film (Did I mention we've been going there since forever? haha):

OCEAN ADVENTURE

One of my favorite places in Subic! We've been to Ocean Adventure thrice already, latest was just this January 2012. I instantly felt like a kid the moment we went in, what more when I saw the dolphins & whales. They have improved a lot compared to our 1st visit, which was back when they newly opened. And my 2nd visit, back when I was in high school (or grade school? not sure!). It's best to go there at around 1pm, or exactly during opening time. They have developed a systematic way of attending to their guests to be able to maximize the stay. This will take roughly 4 hours, because they have different attractions & performances which start at a specific time. Ticket is approximately Php450-500 per head and take it from me, it is very much worth it! Plus you have the option to swim with the dolphins for a higher cost. Always wanted this but never tried it because it was just too costly! I wasn't able to get good shots of the sea lions, but that's the best show, next to the dolphins, of course! Ocean Adventure is a 45 minute to an hour drive from the Subic proper. And this is a must visit for those who haven't been here:)

ADVENTURES OF OLANGAPO JONES: foreign 

performers grace the air as they show off their stunts

ZOOBIC SAFARI

Photo from:  

http://philippinesplace.blogspot.com/2011/01/zoobic-safari.html

Zoobic Safari is a zoo (haha obviously), with lesser variety of animals, located in the heart of a jungle - popular for its close encounter with the tigers. It has been years since we last went here. We planned to go back a couple of times already, but never happened due to time constraint and the weather. You'll need probably 3-4 hours for the tour, where in you'll walk to visit the animals and ride to have a close encounter. Our visit there dated years back, also when Zoobic has just newly opened. I believe a lot has changed already. We tried the close encounter, but didn't get a chicken to feed the tigers (we were little & were engrossed by the thought), plus it was noon time, so the tigers were hiding. Tip: get a chicken to feed them! I don't have photos since digital cameras weren't the thing yet back then - yes, that's how long since we've been there! (Photos were from the websites acknowledged)

Photo from: http://www.vistapinas.com/article/zoobic-safari

TREE TOP ADVENTURE

The Tree Top Adventure is more for the outgoing people. We've been here several years ago, so I am not so sure as to how far has it developed. Nothing much to see, just a few animals (monkeys, birds, bats), hanging bridges, and of course the suspended-in-the air activities, such as zip line:) They have a minimal entrance fee and added charges for the activities.

BAT KINGDOM

This used to be a must visit for field trips back then. It's basically a parking lot over seeing tall trees with bats hanging upside down during the day time and wild monkeys roaming freely underneath. Unfortunately, bats are highly sensitive to noise. So, through the years of numerous visitors, especially field trip goers, the bats have fled to find a more peaceful place to stay. Thus, the extinction of the so called bat kingdom. All there's left would be a group of monkeys, which are wild. I had a close encounter with one, which was scary because they're too stubborn & again, wild. I was trying to throw a small portion of a Nutella sandwich to a monkey a few feet across me, without me noticing a huge male monkey was already standing next to me, grabbing the sandwich bag. It even had the rudeness to show its teeth despite my generosity. Since then, we never went down to feed them! Another instance, was when we parked behind a car (we stayed inside though). The owners of the car were not inside, so a monkey climbed the car and later on attempted to remove its side mirror until it was shooed away. Such  wild creatures!

These creatures are just roaming freely at Subic's rich forrests, occasionally stays beside the road (uphill portion). They got used to people feeding them junk food of all sorts! Being the tourists we are, we still enjoy seeing them in Subic. 

These are among the remaining Hot Spots for Tourists left. Others such as the: Jungle Suvival Tour, Go Kart Race Track, Crown Peak's Mini Golf, Butterfly Garden, Bay Walk (elevated area where you can stroll at) are no longer there:( 

BLAST FROM THE PAST: This was back in 1999, when Crown Peak offered packages with a boat ride. :)

(Left)
FAST & THE FURIOUS: Me & my brothers enjoying the Go Kart Racing Track last 2008

(Bottom)

GOING SOLO: I'm a boy deep inside. I've always enjoyed Go Kart Racing & all other guy activities.

Despite the changes, we still keep coming back probably for a change of environment. Subic has always been so peaceful & serene, compared to Manila. "The Walking Dead" series can surely have a shooting there without disturbing anyone. It's like an abandoned place but has been preserved well.

Subic doesn't have any night life at all though. Their duty free shops close at 7:30 PM. That's when you can go to the restaurants by the bay, then... either go to Starbucks or Pier One or Gilligans. We usually stroll at the bay walk (which is now gone), so we ended up at Pier One instead to get some drinks & enjoy the live band.

They have a newly constructed mall, very similar to Greenbelt 5, only smaller - Harbor Point. It's not much of a tourist spot, but they do have a good mix of stores & restaurants. Soon to open are Mango, Guess, CPK, Claw Daddys, and a whole lot more! They have the all time favorite Starbucks, however, their customer service there needs improvement!

MEAT PLUS CAFE

Indeed, you should never leave Subic without grabbing a bite from Meat Plus Cafe. I've always noticed this Cafe, but never paid attention to it. We just discovered this around 2 years ago. And to our surprise, they do have the BEST STEAKS EVER. We've tried Burgoo, Outback, TGI Friday's, Racks, etc, nothing beats Meat Plus. Well there's Tender Bob's - and we're not sure if they are owned by the same people running Meat Plus. They have some things common though - the A1 steak sauce, their utensils & THE BOMB (Must try heavenly potatoes!), and their steaks taste the same, some how:) However, they've got different menus. 

 

(ABOVE: Tenderloin, cooked medium well)


So far, I've tried the Baby Back Ribs, Tenderloin, New York End cut, & steak ala pobre (not sure if this is correct). All are good & they do justify the prices, which are reasonable considering they're steaks!:) (Approx Php 250-300/head)


Best side dishes are the Potato Skins (Php 55) & The Bomb (Php 75).


NY Cheesecake is also too delicious! It's a bit pricey though. That slice is Php 200, but it's pure cream cheese - pure heaven!:)

My brother who has a great love & taste for steaks, really enjoys it here, so does the entire family:) I'm sure you will too! This place is packed with people every time we go there.

Here ends our Subic routine! Oh and of course, we just have to always in ALL WAYS, shop at their duty free stores - this routine is unbreakable! Not to mention, they have tax free gas stations, so better fuel up before heading back to Manila!:)