altum viditur

calm water on the way to Capones Island

One of the best things to do on the island, aside from just hanging around and not being able to enjoy the beach, is go up and take a tour of the lighthouse. The lighthouse is at the back of the island when you’re facing the open sea.

reference: Pundaquit’s Website

the Capones Island lighthouse on top of a big rock formation, from afar

Capones Island is 3 kilometers away from its neighboring island, Camara Island. Both islands are side-trip destinations from the more popular Anawangin Cove. offshore).  A Spanish-era lighthouse which visitors can explore lies on top of the Island.

a steep ascend to the lighthouse

To get to the lighthouse, visitors would go up a steep hill (but actually is a large rock formation) from the shore.

beautiful rocks that will make your ascend a bit difficult

hundreds of slippers scattered in the rocky shore of the island

I never found out why but there were a hundred of footwear scattered all over the rocky shore of the island. Maybe the visitors were not careful during their trek that they bust their footwear there. It’s the only realistic explanation, though it wasn’t very hard to trek along the rocky ground. I hope to find out why when I come back.

Before reaching the lighthouse, visitors will enter a forest-like area, then a canopy of trees that will show the gate that welcomes everyone to the lighthouse.

on the way to the Capones Island lighthouse, lush greens

canopy of trees (view of the ocean)

the lighthouse at Capones Island

Inside, everyone can explore the whole vicinity. Visitors are allowed to go to the top of the lighthouse to view the ocean. There is a beautiful spiral staircase in the main entrance, and some enchanting Spanish floors, walls, doors and windows.

spiral staircase – ornate, rusty and beautiful

Spanish window with the view of the sky, the ocean and the hills

After exploring the lighthouse, we frolicked in the water around the island for a while before boarding our boat to Camara Island.

Related Posts:

Getting to Anawangin Cove, Zambales
Anawangin Cove, Zambales (part 1) – The Beach
Anawangin Cove, Zambales (part 2) – The River
Anawangin Cove, Zambales (part 3) – The Open Field
Anawangin Cove, Zambales (part 4) – The View Deck
Anawangin Cove, Zambales – The Sunset Skies
Camara Island, Pundaquit Zambales

Camara Island is the closest island from the shores of Pundaquit Zambales. The island, like its close neighbor Capones, is also a big lump of rock with very little soil. Trees aren’t that many but because of the rock formations and angle of the island, it’s not hard to find shade and scenic spots for a great photo shoot.

The island has a great view of the open ocean. It has two sides separated by a white sandbar that becomes visible during the lowtide and disappears during the high tide. Big rocks that dwarf the tourists are plenty on this island. It won’t be long till you find yourself taking photos of them or with them and just be astonished by their size and weight.

reference: Pundaquit’s Website

We were in Camara Island very briefly, less than 30 minutes, coming from Capones Island to see the lighthouse. Camara and Capones Islands were our side trip destinations from staying overnight at Anawangin Cove.

Approaching Camara Island

It has fine white sand and a sandbar that was not visible at the time we were there, but we knew it was there because there was a group of tourists who were quite far from the shore, but the water’s still knee-level. I wasn’t able to enjoy much though, because on my first few minutes in the water, my foot caught a thorn. Luckily I got my army pocket knife with tweezers. Careful, a lot of areas underwater were a bit thorny.

our boat docked at the white sand beach

But enjoy it just the same, it’s a wonderful view!

view of the sea from Camara Island

Related Posts:

Getting to Anawangin Cove, Zambales
Anawangin Cove, Zambales (part 1) – The Beach
Anawangin Cove, Zambales (part 2) – The River
Anawangin Cove, Zambales (part 3) – The Open Field
Anawangin Cove, Zambales (part 4) – The View Deck
Anawangin Cove, Zambales – The Sunset Skies
Capones Island, Pundaquit Zambales

Facade

Souk Kafe is a small lovely restaurant in Robinson’s Dasmariñas Cavite that offers Western and Eastern cuisine. It has a cozy and thematic ambiance, with foreign-language music piping out from the speakers. Because of the numerous shisha pipes on display, I expected Persian food, but to my surprise, their menu is really interesting with servings of Arabic, Indian, Persian, Italian and Spanish food.

Shisha, wines and a mix of cultures

Shisha Pipes and Wines

Braai Mix Salt and Spice

Mana Pizza - Daily Heavenly Bread. 10 inches of blessing for only Php 99!

Seafood Soup (creamy crabmeat soup infused with garam masala) Php 75

Crab Crostini (crab sticks on top of fresh tomato slices topped with cheese then baked)

extra order of salsa

my mango shake's cream melted already

Chicken Sezzane (sesame-coated chicken fillet with slightly spicy sauce served with mixed vigetable sautee as side dish)

Alokozay Iced Tea Php 48

sppon, fork and knife wrapped in decorative napkin

After a historical day tour at Intramuros, and crossing the street to check out Binondo,  we went to Rizal Avenue (the road where LRT Line 1 is) to go to Harbour Square to have an early dinner. We tried the new Night Kebab Persian Restaurant at the second floor. We got a view of the sunset, the skyline, and well, the spectacular Manila Bay at night.

Night Kebab a newly opened persian restaurant that gives a hip and young vibe. We ordered the following:

Night Kebab Salad - Php100

The salad is good! It’s fresh and the white sauce is creamy.

Vaziri Kebab Php 290

It has a stick of Beef Kebab, and a stick of Chicken Kebab. I liked the yummy chicken better!

Plain Basmati Rice Php 50 – Long-grained rice.

Melon Shake Php 85

Milky! It’s been a long time since I’ve had melon, and good thing this shake was good!

Mango Shake Php 85

We ordered for Motabal or anything with eggplant but unfortunately, they ran out of the dishes with eggplant. But the kind gentleman who helped the waiter get our orders, who turned out to be the owner of the place, said he’d gladly grill us eggplants. So he did, with a bit of presentation. And he only charged us Php 40 for it.

Grilled Eggplant - not on the menu, special request only :)

Related Posts:
Manila, Manila… Simply No Place Like Manila
The Manila Cathedral, Intramuros Manila
Plaza Roma, Intramuros Manila
Palacio del Gobernador

Today was an official National Holiday for the Philippines because it’s National Heroes Day or Araw ng Mga Bayani in Filipino.

Since there’s no work, and to go with the theme, I proposed to a friend to have a trip to Intramuros, for a historical and cultural experience.

We came from Caloocan (my parents’ house) so instead of going to our usual route from Quezon City, where I currently live, my dad suggested that we go to C3, take North Bay and straight to Anda Circle, where one side of Intramuros is. Around 20 minutes later, we saw an entrance to the walled city.

We went straight to the famous Manila Cathedral, and parked in the parking space in front of it. Flat parking rate is Php 40.00 (less than a US$). We took photos of the cathedral and the plaza in front of it — Plaza Roma. Then approached a security officer, clad in his Katipunero outfit and asked him where we’ll find good restaurants in the area, where we should start walking, and what we’re going to see if we go straight, left or right. He gave us the information we needed and gave us a vicinity map.

We decided to trace the route of the wall along Bonifacio Drive, where we saw a bigger part of the Golf Course, some historical passage ways, eateries, and ruins.

We then cut our walk along that side short and passed by Real, seeing the the back side of the San Agustin Church and Convent, then turning right to General Luna to see San Agustin Church once again. I’ve seen San Agustin Church when I was in college, making it a part of my paper in a Renaissance Studies class. The church’s paint has changed now, but all others, it still remains the same.

Then we crossed the street to check out Barbara’s, one of the famous restaurants in the area. Unfortunately, the restaurant is closed, but the cafe (The Coffee Shop) was open. We checked out the menu but we’re not really hungry then, we wanted to have more food options. Before we left the area, we went inside The Papier Tolé Shop- crafts store specializing in paper tole and other trinkets, my friend bought a figurine. We asked the store’s staff where we could find more restaurants. He said we could check out Casa Marinero, Patio Conchita and Tamayo’s. He told us where to find these places. Luckily, we were able to see all of them, but still opted not to eat there. We were looking for a little ambiance, like what the whole Intramuros gives — hispanic and cozy. When we reached the cathedral back, we asked the security officers again about where to eat. They told us to try Illustrado, highly recommending it since the place was said to be used for a few (film) shootings. Since it was high noon, we went back to the car and drove to Illustrado for lunch.

After lunch, we drove to Fort Santiago. At first, it only looked like a park to me — a big and clean park. With a few historical details like cannons and old bombshells here and there. But if you look closely and explore more, you’ll find some interesting ruins, and items. Then walk to the end of the oval park and cross the moat to get to the more historical part of Fort Santiago — museums at the place where our very own National Hero Jose P. Rizal was jailed before he was shot in Luneta. What a way to celebrate National Heroes day!

We wanted to go to Luneta but opted to cross the Pasig River instead and go to Binondo, particularly the Chinatown. Unfortunately, a lot of establishments were closed, and the few ones that were open are the ones selling Tikoy, fruits and jewelry. We were actually looking for more interesting finds like vintage gadgets or novelty shops, maybe? But the whole of Binondo was still full of patrons buying bargains and eating at different Chinese restaurants so the traffic was a still a bit heavy. So we just made a ride around the Binondo – Sta. Cruz area, passing by the Binondo Church, Ongpin and back to the Jones Bridge.

We then went to Rizal Avenue (the road where LRT Line 1 is) to go to Harbour Square to have an early dinner. We tried the new Night Kebab restaurant at the second floor. We got a view of the sunset, the skyline, and well, the spectacular Manila Bay by night.

In less than eight hours, we relived a historical and cultural experience in Intramuros and hopped to a shopping frenzy at Binondo, then off to a more modern dining experience at Harbour Square beside Manila Bay where the sunset was awesome. Truly, simply no place like Manila.

Related Posts:

The Manila Cathedral, Intramuros Manila
Plaza Roma, Intramuros Manila
Palacio del Gobernador
Night Kebab, Persian Restaurant, Harbour Square, CCP Complex

Here’s a video i found from youtube.com with a guy starting to party and getting everyone in the crowd all up on their feet and dancing. This guy danced to the tune of Unstoppable by Santogold now Santigold. I bet the crowd could not resist his moves, though at first, they seemed reluctant, they still gave in.

This video is taken from Sasquatch Music Festival 2009 last month, I did a little background check and according to the ever reliable Wikipedia, Sasquatch! Music Festival is a music festival held annually at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington. It is presented by the House of Blues. There is an emphasis on indie rock bands and singer-songwriters, although there are also alternative rock and hip hop acts. The festival features three separate stages (Sasquatch! Main Stage, Wookie Stage, & Yeti Stage). Headliners from past festivals include Beastie Boys, Beck, Björk, Kings of Leon, Jane’s Addiction, Coldplay, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, Nine Inch Nails, Pixies, The Postal Service, M.I.A., Death Cab for Cutie, Modest Mouse, R.E.M and String Cheese Incident.

He really is Unstoppable.

Though the sun setting and fading out from the horizon is not visible from Anawangin Cove, you will surely appreciate the sky at dawn. As I have mentioned in previous articles about the cove, the sky that one sees from Brgy. Pundaquit to Anawangin Cove has a naturally beautiful blue gradation, fading to white as it touches the horizon.

As there is no electricity in the cove, no one will miss the vibrant colors of the sky as it changes from blue to warm colors, while the water catches and reflects the hues.

Related Posts:

Getting to Anawangin Cove, Zambales
Anawangin Cove, Zambales (part 1) – The Beach
Anawangin Cove, Zambales (part 2) – The River
Anawangin Cove, Zambales (part 3) – The Open Field
Anawangin Cove, Zambales (part 4) – The View Deck
Capones Island, Pundaquit Zambales
Camara Island, Pundaquit Zambales

scenic

Continued from Anawangin Cove, Zambales (part 3) – The Open Field

I wondered why the photos of Anawangin Cove that I see online are shots from the top. I did not know that there’s actually a view deck. No one mentioned it in blogs that I’ve read. It always seemed like an areal shot from hiking Mt. Pundaquit. Truth is, the view deck is only about 5-10 minutes of trekking. Easy, breezy and really pretty. :)

easy

These are what you see on the way to the top:

breezy

pretty

The view deck has two levels, the one steeper than the other. We settled for the lower deck. Enough to see the whole cove.

view of the sand, swamp, trees and mountains

cove next to Anawangin

We would have waited for the sunset but we did not bring flashlights with us, and the group’s mainly composed of inexperienced hikers, so going down the hill would be difficult in the dark. Sunrise and sunsets cannot be seen on the cove because mountains and rock formations would obstruct the view. But the blue sky turning red was a wonderful scene.

before the blue skies turn to red

Thanks to Reden, Redentor and Dave, our tour guides from Adventure Road Trip for the fun weekend!

Related Posts:

Getting to Anawangin Cove, Zambales
Anawangin Cove, Zambales (part 1) – The Beach
Anawangin Cove, Zambales (part 2) – The River
Anawangin Cove, Zambales (part 3) – The Open Field
Anawangin Cove, Zambales – The Sunset Skies
Capones Island, Pundaquit Zambales
Camara Island, Pundaquit Zambales

From Anawangin Cove, Zambales (part 2) – The River / Swamp

Dave took us to the Anawangin Cove’s open field at the back of the island. It’s a nice place to play frisbee! He said wild tamaraws roam freely there. Too bad they were not around when we came. But there were a lot of dungs and mud baths. Since there’s no electricity in Anawangin, and the open field reminded me of the UP Sunken Garden, but much wider, and Jma said it’s like a “party place”, I named the area as “The Anawangin Concert Grounds”. We would have a blast mosh pitting in the mud baths! Haha.

The open field is like a challenge in Tomb Raider, you can see a vast open field, and the trees that surrounded it. You can run towards the trees, but some are dead ends, some are opening up to unknown forests.

The golden Mt. Pundaquit more visible in the open field.

After taking photos, Dave led us back to the beach. Crossing the shallow river once more, I did not pass the chance to experience it more than dipping my feet on it. I laid down the shallow flowing water. It was soothing. I did not want to leave, but we need to go to the view deck to see the whole island.

Related Posts:

Getting to Anawangin Cove, Zambales
Anawangin Cove, Zambales (part 1) – The Beach
Anawangin Cove, Zambales (part 2) – The River
Anawangin Cove, Zambales (part 4) – The View Deck
Anawangin Cove, Zambales – The Dawn
Capones Island, Pundaquit Zambales
Camara Island, Pundaquit Zambales

Here’s a first timer tourist’s guide to Singapore from another first timer tourist. This contains the walking, shopping, sight seeing and eating that I’ve done the first time I was in Singapore last December. I went back soon on March for the Indigo Girls concert.

Essential:

First thing that you need to do is be familiar with the MRT stations. The MRT can take you to most of the places you need to go to.

Here’s a hi-res map:

The trains are always on time and the stations are easy to navigate because of the numerous signage that point you to your destination. MRT rides cost .80 to 1.90 SGD, quite affordable for its efficiency.

Here’s our itinerary (click on linked items to see related article/s):

The First Day

1. Vivo City
- Food Republic – Toast Box and Java Kitchen

2. Sentosa
- Islander Card
- Sentosa Express
- Skyride and Luge Car
- Underwater World
- Dolphin Show
- 4D Magix Show
- Songs of the Sea

3. Clarke Quay

The Second Day:

1. Ikea

2. Suntec City Mall
- Fountain of Wealth

3. The Merlion

4. Hawker Center / Hawkers, Esplanade

5. Orchard Road

view from The Merlion's bridge

The Third Day:

1. Singapore Cable Car

2. Museums
- National Museum of Singapore
- Singapore Art Museum
- 8Q SAM

3. Bugis

4. Night Safari

5. Mustafa – 24 hour mall

The Fourth Day

1. Funan / Funan DigitaLife Mall

2. Chinatown

3. Marina Square

4. Ikea

—
Other useful tips:

If you’re a smoker, prepare to be watchful, most places are smoke-free and there are only small smoking areas which you have to spot while strolling. Don’t worry too much, if you’re mindful about it, you’ll find these smoking areas.

Transportation

Go to ticketing offices in the MRT stations to inquire about the Tourist Pass – an all day transportation tap card – if you think you will be heavily relying on public transportation. There are also the standard card (enter – exit MRT card with 1 SGD deposit) and a prepaid card for MRT and buses.

I’ve seen two types of taxis – Comfort Taxi and Silvercab. Comfort is blue and dominant in the streets and looks like a mini cooper. Silvercab is white, seldom and intimidating. Its cabs are Mercedes Benzes! Really. Don’t get intimidated (like I did), I heard that the fare is the same.

Food

Rice is about .50 SGD a cup at the Hawkers, Coke in can at vendo machines is 1.60 t0 1.80 SGD. A decent meal is at 4 to 7 SGD the cheapest. Airport food is ok, at 7 to 15 SGD. We tried the Hor Fun, Mui Fun and another food when we get there. Milkshakes are nice too, it’s got a faint taste of tea.

I have yet to update this once I’ve posted the write ups about the other destinations. :)