Things I Miss In Tabon - Part 1

I am stressed but at the same time excited of my move tomorrow. I am going home...I am moving back home. Thinking about going home, there is a lot of things in my mind that I hope to do. I know moving can be very stressing and so I thought of giving myself and my whole family a treat even just a simple beach bonding after all my stuffs are placed and settled in our house. Talking about beach, there is only one lovely beach near us and that is Tabon. 

Located approximately15 minutes away from home, it wouldn't be too much for the whole family to ride down there. It will be worth it. There is a lot things that I missed about the place. What are they?

The grilling or barbecuing. One good way for a whole family to bond is to gather around the grill (we do the redneck style) to grill some fresh fish and meat. Oh my I missed it! I could smell the aroma of a good barbecue sauce right now.  

The sunset. It is such a view to behold. Nothing can be more serene than seeing the mighty sun slowly setting in the west. And nothing can be a nicer spot for that view but in the beach. 

The fun things my younger sisters do with sunset. They are quite creative when it comes to it. Well I am sure anyone can be creative but my sisters are special for they are my sisters. Wink and Lol!. Anyway, above are just two playful shots of them with the sunset.

The Night Swimming. Have you noticed that when at night the seawater feels warm? The first few plunges may feel cold but later on, the water gets warmer and warmer on the skin that you don't feel like getting out. I missed it! Plus, night swimming with family and friends is a lot of fun!

There will be more next post.....

The Hilly and Rocky Roads to Mt. Linabo

Before the sacrifice climb to Linabo Peak, we first sacrificed out bikes' wheels to run through the hilly, a bit zigzag and rocky roads.

 

A motion picture this is! Credit to my sister Cheem for taking the pictures to my command while I was driving. Great job! Now I know I drove that fast. 

Then there goes the rocky road! It was my first time to actually driving a bike on hilly and rocky roads and it wasn't easy! You've got to have strong arms to hold the handlebars. Going there by car would be easy but not when you reach the parking area for you'll truly be having a hard time looking for a space especially when going there right on Holy Thursday. 

Since we went there on Good Friday, looking for a parking space was easy. I wasn't able to take a picture of the parking area that day but I have here a photo taken by Cheem on Holy Thursday. Parking fee was Php30.00 per bike. 

So finally we arrived at the foot of Mt. Linabo after the 10 to 15 minutes drive from the main road. We were all excited for the climb. To be continued.....

The Drive To Mt. Linabo

It was Good Friday. The idea to climb to the 3003 steps to Linabo Peak just popped in my head at the last minute. I asked Cheep to climb with me since we weren't able to climb on the Holy Thursday, which she agreed. Pabz and Cheem, who climbed already on the Holy Thursday excitedly went to climb with us too. Darn, weren't they tired?

So all four of us got ourselves and our two bikes (mine and Cheem's) ready. We left the apartment around 2:00pm. We were all excited. There we drove down the center city to look for a gas station. Cheem's bike, which I was driving that day with Cheem was out of gas. Pabz on the other hand drove mine with Cheep. It was a bit chaotic search for a gas station for there wasn't one gas station opened that day. Every single station is closed even the stores. Darn again! Where could we find gas and where could we find a store to buy foods to bring along our climb? Good thing, there was this sidewalk stall we saw selling bottled gasoline as we headed out Dipolog City to Turno. The foods? We bought enough at Quick Pick, good thing it was opened. Thanks to the owner Kevin for opening his store on the Good Friday or else we'll be buying foods at the stores in Linabo with doubled prices!

Anyway, we headed to our drive to Mt. Linabo. It was a smooth drive halfway there for the road, although hilly and zigzag, was concrete.

Entering Mt. Linabo. Zigzag, a bit hilly, and rocky roads awaited. The banner says "Katkat Sakripisyo" or "Sacrifice Climb". 

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At The Beach on Easter Sunday

I spent the Easter Sunday with family. From Dipolog City, I drove my bike home to Manukan with my sisters, father and friend Pabz. We arrived around one in the afternoon to push through my plan to take my parents and sisters to Saluyong for a fun pool swimming. But since we arrived late and nowhere could we find a jeep for hire to climb up to Saluyong, we just decided to go to Tabon, where there is a semi-white sand beach that I called little Boracay of Ponot. It was about fifteen minutes drive on motorbike.

I hired a tricycle for mama, papa and the kids' transportation. It cost me 300 pesos back and forth. We arrived there almost 3:00 p.m. We started the grilling right away so we could enjoy the sea early. We grilled some fish and pork meat and brought some colas and liquors. We brought a table too to put the foods and stuffs so it was like a beach picnic.

Sunset came, we were all amazed with the view. My little sisters playfully posed with the setting sun with our friend Pabz as their photographer. Pabz was as well amazed with the little paradise as it was his first time there. He enjoyed a lot during that short beach outing.

 

The night came, our parents and the kids went home first. It was about 8:00 in the evening when the tricycle driver came to pick them up. And so we were left there with the cousins and we all had a great time swimming and drinking some beer.

We stayed there for about two hours. The four of us (me, pabz, cheem and cheep) made use of that time to enjoy the sea and the bonding as much as we could for after that, when we go back to the city, we'll be back to our busy city life.

Attended MTV Exit Traffic Jam

I attended MTV Exit Traffic Jam last Friday held at Dipolog Sunset Boulevard wherein many of the local rock bands here in Dipolog and bands from Metro Manila gathered together, showed off their talents and rocked the stage.

 Photos not mine.

It was a free live concert for a cause made possible by the groups of Anti-Human Trafficking advocates along with the generous sponsors. To name one of the sponsors was Bewear Apparels, a local indie store of custom printed tees in Dipolog City owned and managed by a friend.

 Linking this to: 

 366 Blog Photo Challenge

Dinner At CLS Food Plaza

 

 We had a father-daughter bonding slash dinner last night at New CLS Food Plaza here in Dipolog City. It was an unplanned dinning in the said diner but because my electric burner crashed coincidentally just in time for dinner last night, I thought of just taking my father out and sisters and had our dinner at our favorite diner CLS. Besides, dad has been craving for Sinigang na Bangus and I thought CLS has it.

Papa and Cheep.

Cheep still wearing her P.E. uniform stroke a pose with Papa. Notice the rhum on the table? That is our father's water. He drinks rhum and/or coconut wine everyday. We, his daughters are used to it now. Well, I stuck with my favorite lemon grass iced tea while my sisters had mango juice.

Anyway, we had Balamban Liempo, Sweet and Sour Pork, Bicol Express, and of course the Sinigang. It was my first try of Bicol Express from CLS kitchen and theirs is way better than the ones I've tasted before.

Here's the Sinigang. It is not Bangus though but Marlin, CLS was out of milk fish that night. It was all good. At least we got to have some sour soup. Sigh! It's still nice to eat sinigang that is not cooked by yourself. I ate most of the spinach and never touched a slice of okra. 

My best gay friend was in the picture that night too. To pay Pabz unconditional help that comes over in just one call, respect and loyalty to us, I took him with us to dine out too.

A Trip to The Mountain of Sitog

I am still feeling the bad effects of that unexpected eight hours mountain trip up the hilly and rocky mountain terrain to Sitog. I never expected to have traveled to that said mountain nor going there through a motor bike that long under the raging heat of the sun. I've been to few mountains before but were never that far. Worst, my father went with me not expecting it was that exhausting. What a pity! His old body sure feels sore until now from that nerve-wracking trip. Even I still feel the impact. My spirit still flying upon remembering the deadly cliffs on each side of the road.

I posted this picture in my other blog Passion Babbles for Quotography. 

The reason of that trip was to check the agricultural land offered to us by the owner as a collateral for the money he planned to borrow. Above is the view of the land. There is one part of the land (not shown) that is packed with coconut trees. The area is more than a hectare and with the amount the owner wanted in exchange of my temporary cultivation and management of this land I thought would earn me much profit out of the harvest. But, I backed out for the place is way from the city. Hiring vehicles to and fro during the harvest time surely be very costly. It won't do no good. 

The other reason of the trip was to check the land with a nipa hut that's for sale not far from the said agricultural land. The price truly was affordable but I could bear living in a place where there's no water and electricity. Plus, I can't live in a place which I found way far from the civilization.  

And, I definitely don't like the idea of travelling on a zigzaggy, hilly and rocky road for eight hours back and fourth. No! No!

It would have been great if it wasn't that far of a place. Even my father declined the idea of buying the land and lending money out to the owner. It was a long and tiring for both father and I but at least we had shared that experience plus we enjoyed the scenic view of the mountain.

One Fun Night In Balai Resto Bar

I was reunited with Lyn, one of the friends I had in College. I was glad to see her again after she gave up college and run away from her home to live together with her boyfriend. She was able to escape from her kind of live in partner and joined the night out with our other friends one weekend night.

Where else could we be hanging out? Balai Resto Bar is where we like hanging out the most these days so we took her there. It was so much fun being with the craziest and the noisiest mongos Lyn (in yellow) of the Mongos Clan again. She hasn't changed.  

The night out wouldn't be completed without Pabz. He's present most of my night outs for he's the only person I can trust when I get drunk. 

My sister Cheem, her boyfriend and two of her friends joined us too. They bought a round of drinks and a serve of Calamares for pulutan. It was another fun night out party I had with friends.

Monkey Trail at Puerto Prinsesa Palawan

The fact that our wedding anniversary is fast approaching, I can't help but look back the days when hubby and I were enjoying the first two weeks of marriage. Everything was perfect. We were both happy as we explored a bit of Puerto Prinsesa, Palawan during our honeymoon.

One fun activity we did in Palawan that I haven't talked about yet in this blog was the Monkey Trail. It was actually not included in our package tour but we did it anyway. We did it after rowing in the Underground River. We were given enough time to eat and rest before heading back to the resort we were staying. We got bored waiting for the rest of the tourists to finish eating that we thought of going for a trail.

One of the monkeys who stole some of our foods. Lol! He was cool enough to strike a pose for my camera.

We were hesitant to climb at first afraid we'll get caught for it was restricted during our tour but our  curiosity to see what is up there didn't stop us though. We headed up to look for the monkeys. 

We climbed up higher and higher but there weren't any signs of monkeys. It seemed like all of them were down where the tourists were at to snatch some foods. We were disappointed to see no monkeys, we climbed back down and had a rest. 

Revisiting Derek's Place

My friend Pabz invited me out the other night to hang-out with his friends in Derek's Place, a bar with videoke. Singing is one thing I love doing so I went with him. So instead of sitting on my personal office chairs at home, I sat on a tall concert chair while singing my favorite song there. I took my sister Cheem along with me who loves singing more than anything. We had a lot of fun singing there as if we were acoustic singers. Here are few of the photos taken that night.

It's quite been a long time since I last stepped on Derek's place. It was 2007, my college days. The said bar was one of the most visited bars before that is always packed with costumers mostly students anytime of the day. That night of my revisit, the place lacked a lot of things although many students still love hanging out there. The rotten chairs can tell the place is a bit deserted. I find it the last place to chill for there were a lot of mosquitoes and the crews were lousy.  Well, at least we enjoyed the singing part.