Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Touring Around The World In Sampaguita Gardens

To get past this towering gate, please pay 10 bucks

What's inside that we have to pay for entrance?

Oh, "Cory yellow ribbon" becomes a lantern. (Posting date happens to also be the date of PNoy's inauguration as 15th president.)

After roasting ourselves over the weekend under the Boracay sun, we extended our anniversary celebration in Kalibo where we explored an interesting place, Sampaguita Gardens. On our way from Boracay to this place, hubby just mentioned that we will get a massage somewhere. So I wondered why we have to pay entrance at the gate.

Let's check out what's inside!

Nature!

Green is in!

Segregate!

This is cool! Literally.

Cooling down

As we entered its premises, I found out that it is some sort of a theme park ideal for touring kids, only, it carries an assortment of themes. It has a humid coffee shop with an out-of-order air conditioning system. But I love the biscocho they sell there, more milky than buttery and oily.


Disneyland of Kalibo


Mickey and Minnie, not really!

Walking up its long driveway, I discovered a giant "playhouse" which I think was inspired by Disneyland. Theme ideas seemed to be patterned from places where the owner had been to. Souvenir items are sold inside, including items with the wedding and Christmas themes. The second floor houses the Christmas exhibit where you have to pay an entrance to see it. The wedding dolls were timely to remind us of our own wedding four years ago.


Happy Anniversary!


The estate also accommodates a not-quite-maintained swimming pool, a "hotel building," which reminded me of an elementary school building, and a garden where some replicas of tourist spots across the globe are stationed. But the place I am interested to explore would have been a building with huge wooden double doors carved with mandala design. I think a sort of mandala maze might have been housed inside. Only, it was locked and the only thing that greeted us there was a CCTV camera.


Open up, we will pay for entrance

Every breath you take, I'll be watching you...

Let me in!
Nancy Drew's Adventure Into The Mystery of the Locked Door

So, we were all sweat (as it was in mid-afternoon in the summer) when we landed in very humid and windy Bangkok, err, I mean, when we entered their Thai-themed spa. Air conditioning might have been on vacation leave and in its place was a brawny industrial fan. One funny thing was that we had our massage Swedish-Shiatsu style while a gold-plated Thai buddha patiently waited outside with his palms together. But still, the massage was really good. A telltale sign was that hubby snored. The facilities were impressive, quite old and not well-maintained. Or let's just say that they were not used often.


Fishy-fishy!

El Nino phenomenon

How deer the dare! Oh, deer!

Horse back-breaking ride
Merry, but doesn't go 'Round!


We heard that this place was not doing quite well, explaining its sad state. Well, if only the owner would invest in the customer service training for the staff and market it to Boracay holidaymakers. We're curious how they operate in December when one of their favorite themes comes into season.


Penchant for all things Christmas

Christmas all year long!

Parking area

Monday, June 28, 2010

Eat, Pray, Love*, Etc

Eat

Pray

Love

Eat.
Pray.
Love. Etcetera

These were what we planned to do to celebrate our fourth year as Mr. and Mrs.
in Boracay last May 1. Of course, it would be a shame not to add a fourth item on the list of things-to-do on the beach - Swim. So we soaked in the clear waters and basked in the sun in this famed island. We rambled a lot and had a relaxing Nigi Nigi massage.
Anchovy Pizza Lover

Ice Cream Lover
Eat!
We ate Anchovy Lovers' pizza (two nights in a row), pasta, ice cream, yogurt, grilled food, eat-all-you-can, Korean, Chocnut, and lots of liquids including Jonas Shake. We were even invited to a free lunch from Astoria Plaza and attended an instant "Married Couple Decision-Making Skills" workshop. Hehe, actually, it was their sales pitch to couples to "invest" in their time share. At first glance, their offer was tempting. It should be, it was a sales pitch! But after a few wasted hours away from the beach and the rays of the holiday sunshine, we realized as a team that it was not meant for us as it does not fulfill our definition of
investment. Still, we considered the experience a good but unlikely activity for us to grow as a couple. It was then that we made it a rule to never get into a deal that does not allow you to sleep on it. Ooops! As I am writing this, I realized that this experience took place during our prior Boracay visit last March, not this May. But the funny thing was that we again got several lunch invitations from the same company during our second visit this year. To think they said that their offer would only last that day when they were buttering us up. Quite scheming, huh!


God lover


Pray.
Good weather, enjoyable holiday, a growing and lasting marriage, and kids. These were some of the prayers we sighed to the One Up Above. We opted for the Boracay Church instead of the myriad of aqua sports vended like fresh fish in the island when Sunday came. The aqua sports peddler seem to find it weird when we told him we can't go rolling and tumbling inside the Zorb nor could we meet Nemo by wearing an underwater helmet because we would be going to Mass.


Lovers
Love.
Four years into married life and we are still counting and looking forward to many more honeymoons. Having no child yet affords us this luxury. But don't get us wrong, we really want a baby, pretty soon.



Etcetera.



Drive. (Look, ma, no hands!)


Ride

Travel

9 days before the National Elections


Travel some more (Are we there yet?)
Ride some more (Are we there yet?)

Walk
Stalk
"Hang out" (the wet swim gear)
Play! (PSP)

Explore

Read



Shoot


Tell
Tell
Tell
Tell

*Title borrowed from the book "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Mr. Trigger Happy - Shooting Some Hot Babes!










So the hubby went home to Manila more than a month ago as their National Conference was in Baguio. He made a side trip to an exhibit of one of the kind of things that gets him drooling - CARS! Hush-hush! He has no idea that I am doing a post like this.










I doubt if saliva can fuel photography but he took one salivating drive down the trigger happy highway with our camera, shooting like mad akin to overspeeding or drinking and driving, or something like that. The saliva might have intoxicated him into thinking that he was the appointed official photographer of the car show leading him to take more than 150 shots!








It was never ending as I was viewing them on the LCD screen. As I am about to delete them, I thought of doing him a favor and save some of these shots here. Thus, the post. Although browsing through the endless shots and choosing which ones to put here may drive me mad. And indeed, there were shots that could drive wifey mad.











To hubby: Hey, hey, don't get "pikon" with the bon mots, ok?