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On January 01, my family went to White Cove, Laiya Batangas to jump start a year of lakwatsa. You’ve heard the saying — whatever you have in the first day of the year, you’ll have the whole year round. That’s why we always welcome the New Year with a feast, hope that no one’s sick or broken hearted at the time, and the family is celebrating together. I was not able to come with them because I was not prepared, and I never go to the beach unprepared. I was not informed that we were going out of town that day, and the only clothes I had on my bag were overnight clothes, and this was because I do not live with my parents, so all my gears are in my apartment, far away.

At night, with Laiya on my mind, I thought of a place that I would want to go to. I thought of Subic because Amrei, my travel buddy and designated driver, has been saying that she wanted to drive to Subic and experience the beautiful Subic Clark Tarlac Express Way (SCTEx). We also wanted to go to the zoo and shake hands with some monkeys on the way.

So off we go at 11 AM of the second day of the year. We stopped by at a convenience store in Timog Avenue to pick up chips and water while we fill the gas of the car. At around 1PM, we’re in North Luzon Expressway (NLEx). The first stop over is a Shell Station but we opted to stop at the Petron Station in Balagtas.

This is our favorite stop over, last time I was here was last November when we drove off to Dagupan.

We entered the Subic Bay Freeport Zone at around 2:30 PM, we followed the signs that said “BEACHES” which was also the same way as Zoobic Safari. We took a left turn after exiting SCTEx and drove until there were signs that said “Beaches”. We  realized that we’re on the wrong route when all we can see was the way to Camayan Cove and Ocean Adventure, after passing by the Zoobic Safari road and meeting some monkeys on the way, and since we’re already there, we went ahead and checked out Camayan Cove. The place was fully booked. We turned back and checked out two other beaches at the other end of the road — Bungaree Beach, at Php150 (3.27 USD) entrance fee, without overnight rooms. Then All Hands Resort, P150 entrance and only one type of room available for overnight stay at Php 4,500 (98.09 USD). Since it seems that this was not going to work, we headed back to where we should’ve come to in the first place — Olongapo’s National Road where most of the Subic Bay beaches are. We checked out several other resorts, where the look, feel and rates vary wildly, before we finally found a nice place. Playa Papagayo. Read more about our fun stay at Playa Papagayo.

We were able to catch the last minutes of sun, had a wonderful dinner at Playa Papagayo, rested for a while and went out at night to have a few round of beer and billiards. In the morning, we got our free continental breakfast, enjoyed some more morning beach, and checked out at 1 PM to go to the Zoobic Safari. Read more about our tour in the Zoobic Safari.

Related Posts:

Playa Papagayo Beach Inn and Restaurant
Cantina Mexicana, Playa Papagayo Beach Inn and Restaurant, Subic Bay
Zoobic Safari – The Only Tiger Safari in the Philippines

It’s the Year of the Tiger, so what better way to start the year than singing along with “Eye of the Tiger” and visiting the tigers in the Country’s Only Tiger Safari?

We invited our housemates to come with us and they agreed with our brilliant plan: search the net for resorts, pack our bags and drive to Subic. In the morning of January 02, we called in some resorts along the National Highway of Olongapo where most resorts in Subic Bay are and we did not find a good deal because most resorts do not have a room large enough for four people (they can only accommodate three in a room) or small enough for four people (they could give us a family room), plus most of them were already booked so the choices were really limited. Fortunately, we ended up renting a room in probably one of the nicest places in the area – Playa Papagayo.

We checked in at Playa Papagayo at around 5PM and stayed there until 1PM the next day, January 03. We then headed off to the Subic Bay Freeport Zone to go to Zoobic – The Only Tiger Safari in The Philippines. We had lunch at Binalot at Rizal Highway, beside the Freezone Gas Station.

The zoo is approximately a 20-minute drive from the National Highway. The zoo is inside the a forest and the way there is already a sight to see, uncommon to most developed cities — a very good road system with sufficient road signage and a super lush vegetation. And yes, there are monkeys on the road! The day before, when we were looking for a resort to stay at, we saw a vehicle parked on the side of the road and the passengers were feeding the monkeys! We immediately stopped the car and gave them pieces of our strawberry muffin.

We already know where to turn to get to the Zoobic Safari, but we did not know that it’s still a little bit of ride from the main road.

At the parking area, there’s a small hut that serves as an information booth. They will tell you what to do and where to go. Near the ticketing booth is the waiting area, until you are called by the tour guide. In the waiting area is the Siberian white tiger and some more other tigers in their own cage. The “Picture with the Tiger” booth is in front of the White Tiger. Photo with the tiger for 1-2 persons is Php 240 (around 5 USD).

The walking tour was around a little more than an hour, plus the show that’s around 30 minutes, and a tram/car tour for about another hour. There are really a lot of animals to meet in the zoo. It would have been also a very informative tour, only that a group was consisted of around 50 members so walking in the trail to see an animal was quite inefficient because we could not see the animal inside the cage at once. And we could not take a good view of the animals to take their pictures so we need to let the other members of the tour to go first.

The tour guide has a loud megaphone but I think the tour would be a lot better if the members of the tour is trimmed to half. Anyways, here are other photos from the Zoo.

Related Posts:

Subic Trip
Cantina Mexicana, Playa Papagayo Beach Inn and Restaurant
Playa Papagayo Beach Inn and Restaurant

Zoobi Safari’s Website