Camiguin in my bucketlist

After that Boracay escapade with new found friends, my energy for travel hasn't waned yet. Well I was planning for an adventure to the south of the country.  The last vacation I had to Mindanao was when I was a first grader. It was not a vacation technically but rather to attend a funeral.  It was my first time to ride a plane and a first time with PAL.  Well this time around, yeah in the first to fifth of May, I had my first solo travel and definitely a bucketlist.  I flew to Camiguin :)

Camiguin is an Island closer to Mindanao than the Visayas region and the people there speaks Cebuano.  It was a backpack travel.  I only had with me my camera, a knapsack, a camera, some cash, and my roud trip open jaw plane tickets.

I had to wake up at around 4am on that faithful day.  I was excited and fearful.  But my confidence was so high nevertheless to conquer my first solo travel.  I was a bit nervous when I waited for my flight knowing that the plane I am gonna be in will be a turbo prop type.  It was small and the fact that the flight crew was weighing everyone made it all jittery.  I recalled that before the crew gave me my ticket, she offered me another ticket round trip, anywhere I like, anytime, if I opted to cancel my flight.  I thought of it for two seconds. Apart of me wanted to back out but my heart acted on itself and commanded my mouth to say no. And there you go everything was set on the roll.  When it was time to board, we were fetched by a bus.  The sunset was so beautiful; it's fiery - the kind you see in movies and it jolted my stomach. It was a bit unexplainable and I suddenly realized to take out my camera to document this holy journey of mine.  I panicked.  I couldn't get my camera to turn on.  I checked and the batteries weren't there.  I tapped my forehead a bit as I recalled I was charging my cam to full battery before I left.  I did not lose hope and in my blue pouch I found a dangling wire with the charger and the battery in it. Such was a great relief.  I put in the battery and began flicking my camera.  The  bus trip was fast so I couldn't get hold of any good photo. But I managed to get some few shots.  Right upon this moment, it's my first time to really see the photos as I was trying to conserve the battery at that time which made me  thought not to browse the photographs I took.

 It was good 30 minutes ride in the plane and I was greeted with Camiguin airport which was so cute.  I do not know where to go when we landed and the first mission was to find a place where to drop my belongings.  I was not expecting a nice place but then I realized it has to be decent enough to sleep.  I took a motorella its how they called the trike going to a recommended hotel, GV hotel.  I did not have really a lot of time to look for another place so I said yes to the room which is 450 pesos a night. I asked the receptionist how to get around and he offered my an island tour whole day and all the attractions for 800pesos in a motorbike with a driver.  I told him I was not interested in touring all the spots I just wanted to see the most of the beautiful attractions there is and so he agreed for 500pesos.  I am not that stingy but I try to negotiate as much as possible.  So there, after I put all my belongings inside my room, changed clothes and took some bites of otap (biscuits) I went down of the hotel ready and pumped.

Mission of that day were white island, sunken cemetery, station of the cross, the ruins and lastly the majestic katibawasan falls.  Oops! It is my first time to learn doing some selfies and I felt I terribly did some injustice to it.  And I was so surprised to eat some sea urchins :P After the white island adventure I had my first official station of the cross all the way to the sky as it was on the mountain side.  The hike was tiring, and at times would shook my knees but then I went on and took the challenge.  I went to the ruins of when the volcano in the island erupted.  Then to the sunken cemetery and lastly to ever gorgeous katibawasan falls.
 
To be continued ....

The passing year ....

It's been a while that I've not blogged.  All I have might be lame excuses to justify that but here are the things which kept me so busy.

The company -  The company that I have started with friends is in a limbo right now. I wished it were with a soothing and exciting music but no.  Things got difficult to handle.  Aside from my day job, I have MBA.  Mamul was right, joggling beyond two interests will choke you.  That's a lesson learned.

People: friends and associates - I learned to know who are those that you need to waste time with and not feel guilty about it. To know those who are to have with good terms with you and to those you can just let pass by.  It's quite difficult to discern but experience with people makes you have that skill.  Oh well, enjoying the company with others is exciting but it's important we determine which matters, which gives us lessons to be had and inspire us to pursue more of our goals.  Now, family is different ;)

MBA - The first subject I took is one of the toughest.  Quantitative Analysis, is synonymous to business Mathematics.  I admit, the road was full of learning, bumps and humps - enjoyable!  MBA is one of those great decisions I have aside from the fact, that my new company is paying it for me.  I just need to get a grade of 85 and I need not repay the company and luckily,  I got a really good rating.  If I am not mistaken I got 90-95 range :) Anyway,  meeting new people and establishing relationships is one of the perks in studying MBA. Learning from their experiences will surely equip me for anything I'll venture out be in business or corporate career.  You see, I am planning to be really an awesome businessman so there, Ateneo de Manila University's MBA-Regis will be another ticket to more success.... Tagay !!!

Vacation - My last vacation was like ages ago. Hmmmm ... 6 months ago.  We are talking here of local destinations as my budget honestly do not permit me to go overseas.  Even if I'd like to go out of the country, as much as the yearning, I just can't at this moment.  Oh well, it's summer and I am having some great plans in my bag :D

Cars - I bought a second hand Mazda 2 with the help of my who works at Mazda.  I love my car, just like how I love our pet dog.  It's colored white and runs in gasoline.  Yeah, it's automatic.  Whenever I go to my day job or if I am leaving the office, I am so excited because I get to pass by the grand old bridge of Cebu - Marcelo Fernan bridge.  This bridge brings old memories with my mom, like when we go to the Lapu-Lapu Church. You'd also love the sunset, the mountains and the open sea which separates the cities of Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu.  The towering buildings in Cebu is another sight to behold, as to how the island is progressing will surely captivate the onlookers.  Maybe next time, Id bring my Leica with me to point and shoot.  I should be doing this though with somebody else in front of the wheels :P

House - You've read and heard me at the back of your mind, yes I bought oh not like in cash but as a form of debt a new house and lot.  I have been paying for it this past few months and they'll be building the house after I paid some 10% of the total amount of the house. I am a bit worried though of my ballooning expenses but quite challenged and new happy for this new property.  This might be a good asset and investment in the future.

Investment - I am currently investing in the stock market.  I have learned a few tricks because of my MBA class.  It's fun to trade as I always and if you want to learn from my experience, just PM me and I'll be willing to help you out of your financial management. Though I cannot rule out you'll be successful with it, but I  promise you, it will give you enough confidence in handling your budget - putting your financial obligations and wants in order.

Project - There's a new start up that I am planning to build and that's one of the reasons I am not enrolling in Operations Management subject at AGSB.  Though I am not quite 100% sure of this to not enroll, but my personal calling of becoming a successful technopreneur is way on top of anything right now.  This self actualization has been bugging me and I believe the universe will help me out with this.  The Almighty will absolutely give me the fuel to drive me to my success and world domination :P

These are the things which made me busy...!

Somewhere in Orchard {feeling like a tourist}

I went to Orchard again.  The plan of the day was to checkout some cargo shipping to Cebu from Singapore.  At lucky plaza, where most Filipinos would send their monies, I found LBC.  LBC is a Filipino freight company and they have an office in Singapore. The last time I went to Lucky Plaza I couldn't find the place. 

For air express service, my 30 kilos will cost me around 240 SGD, quite expensive!  And I asked the teller about the size of the box and she told me that the one displayed is for sea cargo so they needed to weigh first my stuff which by the way I have to bring to their office as they are going to check it themselves and the pricing will be per kilo.  I think I'm gonna go for the sea cargo.  Anyway, most of the stuff which I'm gonna be sending will be books both read and unread.  The price for sea cargo will be 50% less SGD so I can save on that but then the draw back will be the delivery time - like it's gonna be some 25 freaking days.  I'm okay with it actually, since I have to at least save a bit :)

After the long inquiry with that kind lady who answered all of my questions, I went out and began the shoot.  But before I took a lot of pictures, I decided to buy again the flavor of the road ice cream bar wrapped in bread - this is by the way a Singapore style of eating some ice cream which is actually a must try.  It will cost you a jaw dropping 1 SGD ;)

Here are my pics for the day:

After some long walks, I got tired and checkout the movies at the Cathay.  I watched "The Expatriate". The movie is average I would say and there were moments that it felt dragging and the story is a bit long for a simple plot.  The movie was somewhere along the line of Jolie's "Salt" but with less action and drama.  I actually wanted more action and thrill :D