Day 3: Bukidnon (Dahilayan Forest Park + Dahilayan Adventure Park + Pineappling) * Oh my god, this post is ridiculously delayed, really. The following events transpired last January 21, 2012. It is already March 19, 2012. Whaddup. Photos c/o Andrew Valencia and/or Jhan the guide. 01.19.12-01.23.12 Our CDO trip was jampacked with adventure (see day 1 and day 2 here), and it’s kind of hard to pick which activity/adventure I loved best because they were all fun in their own right. But the place I loved the most in our CDO-Bukidnon-Camiguin-Iligan trip was undoubtedly Bukidnon. I don’t know, blame it on Karlo and his Baguio roots perhaps that I’ve become a mountain-loving person (I always used to vote in favor of the beach), but Bukidnon was just… *sigh*. I imagine that maybe that’s what Baguio might have been like 20-30 years ago: pine tree-lined, nippy aired, quiet. We actually got to Bukidnon late afternoon of Day 2. And we stopped for the best pineapple I have ever tasted in my life before getting to the Dahilayan area. And they had this super awesome cutting mechanism that creates perfect slices of pineapple and leaves some sweet pineapple juice at the bottom of the fruit. I do not have pictures of the perfect slices or of us drinking from the fruit, but I have this: Haha. I want that pineapple slicer. Anyway, we spent the night at Dahilayan Forest Park, which we were able to avail promo rates for despite being walk-ins (we seemed to be the only people there that night). Forest Park was a “splurge” for our group at ~P600/person for the night (in their Deluxe room) because the room and facilities were nicer and the sunrise view promisingly more epic than it would have been at Cowboy Grill, which was only a few steps away, but also highly recommended. I forget how much their rates were exactly, but I remember thinking that we had to spend an extra P200 (more or less) to stay at Forest Park vs. Cowboy Grill. It was nice just hanging around and chatting that night after all the physical activity and adrenaline pumping in the last two days. So we kind of just pigged out that night with pizza and chips we brought, plus beer or hot chocolate. Yum. Perfect for cool mountain air. Ah. And then we woke up early the next day, around 7-ish.And this was the first thing I did: I apologize for my face (sup, biyatch?), but yeah, I was sleepy (and apparently, so was Karlo, based on this picture). I hadn’t changed out of my PJ’s, nor did I have breakfast yet, which is probably not recommended before taking on the Zorbit anyway. And well, we Zorbived (lol) but yeah, it might have been useful if the Zorbit staff told us it would be better if similar weighing people were in the Zorbit together so that the rolling would be smoother. But oh well, this led to our initial whoaaaa’s turning into owwwww’s after sort of feeling our heads hit the bottom of the Zorbit hard. That definitely woke us up. :P After that, zipline! But before getting to the longest zipline, a rollercoaster ride on this baby first. Mucho fun. :D Buh-bye, world. Peace out. The zipline is so long, you could get bored while flying. Haha. But it’s something I’m glad to get off my unwritten bucket list. After all that excitement, we head to lunch at the Del Monte plantation or wherever it is that they serve their steaks. I’m not a steak person so I wouldn’t really go there for the steak. And my steak friends said it was just okay, so I guess either way, I wouldn’t really recommend going there for the steak. But ooh la la, they had bottomless pineapple juice their for P20. That, I would go for. Then we stopped on the side of the road before leaving Bukidnon for some obligatory jump shots in the pineapple field. :D Ah, how I love pineapple. And how I loved Bukidnon. :) But yeah, at this point, we were also rushing to the ferry to Camiguin, which I will write about soon enough. For now, you can watch this video by  @avalaunched a.k.a. Ardent Videos for a quick summary of our adventure-filled trip. :D And if you want a helpful guide/driver/photographer in one, get in touch with Jhan at (0927) 407 8359 , and tell him you found out about him through my blog. :P Pine & zipline, Jen Twitter | Facebook | Vimeo | Youtube
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Day 3: Bukidnon (Dahilayan Forest Park + Dahilayan Adventure Park + Pineappling)

* Oh my god, this post is ridiculously delayed, really. The following events transpired last January 21, 2012. It is already March 19, 2012. Whaddup. Photos c/o Andrew Valencia and/or Jhan the guide.


01.19.12-01.23.12


Our CDO trip was jampacked with adventure (see day 1 and day 2 here), and it’s kind of hard to pick which activity/adventure I loved best because they were all fun in their own right. But the place I loved the most in our CDO-Bukidnon-Camiguin-Iligan trip was undoubtedly Bukidnon.
I don’t know, blame it on Karlo and his Baguio roots perhaps that I’ve become a mountain-loving person (I always used to vote in favor of the beach), but Bukidnon was just… *sigh*. I imagine that maybe that’s what Baguio might have been like 20-30 years ago: pine tree-lined, nippy aired, quiet.
We actually got to Bukidnon late afternoon of Day 2. And we stopped for the best pineapple I have ever tasted in my life before getting to the Dahilayan area. And they had this super awesome cutting mechanism that creates perfect slices of pineapple and leaves some sweet pineapple juice at the bottom of the fruit. I do not have pictures of the perfect slices or of us drinking from the fruit, but I have this:
Haha. I want that pineapple slicer.
Anyway, we spent the night at Dahilayan Forest Park, which we were able to avail promo rates for despite being walk-ins (we seemed to be the only people there that night). Forest Park was a “splurge” for our group at ~P600/person for the night (in their Deluxe room) because the room and facilities were nicer and the sunrise view promisingly more epic than it would have been at Cowboy Grill, which was only a few steps away, but also highly recommended.
I forget how much their rates were exactly, but I remember thinking that we had to spend an extra P200 (more or less) to stay at Forest Park vs. Cowboy Grill.
It was nice just hanging around and chatting that night after all the physical activity and adrenaline pumping in the last two days. So we kind of just pigged out that night with pizza and chips we brought, plus beer or hot chocolate. Yum. Perfect for cool mountain air. Ah.
And then we woke up early the next day, around 7-ish.
And this was the first thing I did:
I apologize for my face (sup, biyatch?), but yeah, I was sleepy (and apparently, so was Karlo, based on this picture). I hadn’t changed out of my PJ’s, nor did I have breakfast yet, which is probably not recommended before taking on the Zorbit anyway. And well, we Zorbived (lol) but yeah, it might have been useful if the Zorbit staff told us it would be better if similar weighing people were in the Zorbit together so that the rolling would be smoother. But oh well, this led to our initial whoaaaa’s turning into owwwww’s after sort of feeling our heads hit the bottom of the Zorbit hard. That definitely woke us up. :P
After that, zipline!
But before getting to the longest zipline, a rollercoaster ride on this baby first. Mucho fun. :D
Buh-bye, world. Peace out.
The zipline is so long, you could get bored while flying. Haha.
But it’s something I’m glad to get off my unwritten bucket list.
After all that excitement, we head to lunch at the Del Monte plantation or wherever it is that they serve their steaks.
I’m not a steak person so I wouldn’t really go there for the steak.
And my steak friends said it was just okay, so I guess either way, I wouldn’t really recommend going there for the steak.
But ooh la la, they had bottomless pineapple juice their for P20. That, I would go for.
Then we stopped on the side of the road before leaving Bukidnon for some obligatory jump shots in the pineapple field. :D
Ah, how I love pineapple. And how I loved Bukidnon. :)
But yeah, at this point, we were also rushing to the ferry to Camiguin, which I will write about soon enough.
For now, you can watch this video by   a.k.a. Ardent Videos for a quick summary of our adventure-filled trip. :D


And if you want a helpful guide/driver/photographer in one, get in touch with Jhan at (0927) 407 8359 , and tell him you found out about him through my blog. :P


Pine & zipline,

Jen
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Day 2: Cagayan de Oro (white water rafting) + road trip to Bukidnon (January 24, 2012) * Day 2 sure took a while to post. 01.19.12-01.23.12 Okay, since this is a much-delayed back-post. I won’t say much apart from white water rafting in CDO was awesome. I know a lot of potential tourists are still scared of the aftermath of Sendong on CDO and the rest of Northern Mindanao, but I’m glad we pushed through with the trip despite warnings against going. Wewound up seeing the beauty the region still has to offer, helped support the local economy, and are now legit witnesses and worthy word-of-mouth spreaders that YES, CDO IS FINE. So anyway, we took the advanced course, but at no point did I really feel like my life was in peril, and I’m happy about that. It was thrilling enough, and I enjoyed it enough to want to do it again, but yeah, I’m good without the near-death experiences. So for those extreme sports enthusiasts, there is also an EXTREME course which you can opt to take at your own risk. Here are some more pictures from our half-day adventure. :) There was one point that I remember being totally oblivious to what was going on, but really just getting confused that our guides kept spinning the raft around and we still weren’t moving. We were stuck between two large rocks I think, and our raft was really filling up with water! I believe they told us to shift our weight from one side of the raft to the other and back, whenever they tried to wriggle us out, but yeah, LAG ata ako. I’d only always find out it was time to switch sides when I turned around and found no one behind me. Haha. I’m sorry I look bored in this picture. I have no idea why. :P One of our friends had actually fallen out of the raft at this point. So yeah, it definitely wasn’t a boring moment. But yeah, we survived everything, and here we are with are guardians / lifesavers / heros. We wouldn’t have made it if not for their skillful maneuvering. :) And yeah, our guide really kept us entertained in the calm areas of the river with a lot of punny stories. Ho ho. Guide: “Yung mga rocks po na yun, lava rocks.”Us ignorant tourists: “Ah, wow, talaga?”Guide: “Oo, tuwing umaga kasi, meron diyang nag-la-lava.”*badum tush!*  So yeah, if you guys are going to go white water rafting in CDO, get in touch with our guide, and it’ll be like paying for a white water rafting adventure + stand-up comedian in one go. :P Read about Day 1 (CDO: Mapawa River Trek) here. You can also check out this video of our adventure-filled tripby @avalaunched a.k.a. Ardent Videos. :D White Water Rafting: Red Rafts (request for Jake Taponggot!)Northern Mindanao private van / tour guide: Jhan - (0927) 407 8359  Cheers,Jen  Follow my tweets • Find me on Facebook • Sign up for my newsletter • E-mail me 
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Day 2: Cagayan de Oro (white water rafting) + road trip to Bukidnon (January 24, 2012)

* Day 2 sure took a while to post.

01.19.12-01.23.12

Okay, since this is a much-delayed back-post. I won’t say much apart from white water rafting in CDO was awesome. I know a lot of potential tourists are still scared of the aftermath of Sendong on CDO and the rest of Northern Mindanao, but I’m glad we pushed through with the trip despite warnings against going. Wewound up seeing the beauty the region still has to offer, helped support the local economy, and are now legit witnesses and worthy word-of-mouth spreaders that YES, CDO IS FINE.

So anyway, we took the advanced course, but at no point did I really feel like my life was in peril, and I’m happy about that. It was thrilling enough, and I enjoyed it enough to want to do it again, but yeah, I’m good without the near-death experiences. So for those extreme sports enthusiasts, there is also an EXTREME course which you can opt to take at your own risk.

Here are some more pictures from our half-day adventure. :)

There was one point that I remember being totally oblivious to what was going on, but really just getting confused that our guides kept spinning the raft around and we still weren’t moving. We were stuck between two large rocks I think, and our raft was really filling up with water! I believe they told us to shift our weight from one side of the raft to the other and back, whenever they tried to wriggle us out, but yeah, LAG ata ako. I’d only always find out it was time to switch sides when I turned around and found no one behind me. Haha. I’m sorry I look bored in this picture. I have no idea why. :P One of our friends had actually fallen out of the raft at this point. So yeah, it definitely wasn’t a boring moment.

But yeah, we survived everything, and here we are with are guardians / lifesavers / heros. We wouldn’t have made it if not for their skillful maneuvering. :) And yeah, our guide really kept us entertained in the calm areas of the river with a lot of punny stories. Ho ho.

Guide: “Yung mga rocks po na yun, lava rocks.”
Us ignorant tourists: “Ah, wow, talaga?”
Guide: “Oo, tuwing umaga kasi, meron diyang nag-la-lava.”
*badum tush!* 

So yeah, if you guys are going to go white water rafting in CDO, get in touch with our guide, and it’ll be like paying for a white water rafting adventure + stand-up comedian in one go. :P

Read about Day 1 (CDO: Mapawa River Trek) here.

You can also check out this video of our adventure-filled trip
by  a.k.a. Ardent Videos. :D

White Water Rafting: Red Rafts (request for Jake Taponggot!)
Northern Mindanao private van / tour guide: Jhan - (0927) 407 8359 

Cheers,
Jen 

Follow my tweets • Find me on Facebook • Sign up for my newsletter • E-mail me 

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Day 1: Cagayan de Oro (Mapawa river trek) * Great photo above (and all succeeding shots, actually) is courtesy of our tour guide/driver Jhan (using my friend Andrew’s camera) who turned out to have a real eye for good shots. :D 01.19.12-01.23.12 It would be a day packed with activity, as with all our days in our jam-packed 5-day trip around Cagayan de Oro, Bukidnon, Camiguin and Iligan. It didn’t matter that we were taking a 4:15 a.m. flight from Manila to CDO. We had activities lined up at 7:00 a.m. :P After a drive-thru breakfast we headed for the Mapawa River Trek, which wasn’t as highlighted an activity as white water rafting, but turned out to be a really more than worthwhile adventure. :) Memorable parts of the trek were: The HUGE tree at the start of the trek The natural water slide, a roughly 25-ft. cliff dive, and a 60-ft. waterfall rappelling.Here’s a picture BEFORE the cliff dive. And AFTER the cliff dive. And yes, waterfall rappelling is as awesome as it sounds. I wish it was an even longer way down though. :P * This is a photo that Andrew was actually able to take. :P Once we got down, we had a banana leaf lunch of rice and adobo, relaxed by the river a bit and headed back to our pick-up point in search of more adventure for the afternoon, which we would find in a 150-ft. treetop rappelling at Macahambus Adventure Park. :) You can’t really tell. But Karlo was really terrified here. :PUp until the last minute, he couldn’t decide if he wanted to do it or not. But yeah, he eventually succumbed to peer pressure or fear of being called a pussy. :D See how happy he is when he reaches the bottom? :) And then we were pretty much spent for the day, so we headed back to our hotel to get some R&R for the white water rafting scheduled on the next day. :)1 day down, 4 to go!In the meantime, check out this video by  @avalaunched a.k.a. Ardent Videos of our adventure-filled trip. :D
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Day 1: Cagayan de Oro (Mapawa river trek)

* Great photo above (and all succeeding shots, actually) is courtesy of our tour guide/driver Jhan (using my friend Andrew’s camera) who turned out to have a real eye for good shots. :D

01.19.12-01.23.12

It would be a day packed with activity, as with all our days in our jam-packed 5-day trip around Cagayan de Oro, Bukidnon, Camiguin and Iligan. It didn’t matter that we were taking a 4:15 a.m. flight from Manila to CDO. We had activities lined up at 7:00 a.m. :P

After a drive-thru breakfast we headed for the Mapawa River Trek, which wasn’t as highlighted an activity as white water rafting, but turned out to be a really more than worthwhile adventure. :) Memorable parts of the trek were:

The HUGE tree at the start of the trek

The natural water slide, a roughly 25-ft. cliff dive, and a 60-ft. waterfall rappelling.
Here’s a picture BEFORE the cliff dive.

And AFTER the cliff dive.

And yes, waterfall rappelling is as awesome as it sounds. I wish it was an even longer way down though. :P

* This is a photo that Andrew was actually able to take. :P

Once we got down, we had a banana leaf lunch of rice and adobo, relaxed by the river a bit and headed back to our pick-up point in search of more adventure for the afternoon, which we would find in a 150-ft. treetop rappelling at Macahambus Adventure Park. :)

You can’t really tell. But Karlo was really terrified here. :P
Up until the last minute, he couldn’t decide if he wanted to do it or not. But yeah, he eventually succumbed to peer pressure or fear of being called a pussy. :D See how happy he is when he reaches the bottom? :)

And then we were pretty much spent for the day, so we headed back to our hotel to get some R&R for the white water rafting scheduled on the next day. :)

1 day down, 4 to go!
In the meantime, check out this video by   a.k.a. Ardent Videos of our adventure-filled trip. :D

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My Cagayan de Oro-Bukidnon-Camiguin-Iligan Trip last Jan. 19-23, 2012
Steadfastly documented and edited by one of my favorite travel companions,  a.k.a. Ardent Videos.

This is proof that CDO and the rest of Northern Mindanao are indeed recovering from Sendong. So yeah, watch the video, (LIKE it on YouTube), spread the word and help boost tourism in that beautiful region once again. :)

Read about our Mapawa River Trek & Rappelling, and White Water-Rafting in CDO.

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Am I Ready for Extended Solo Travel?

8.21.2011 AM

I spent a good part of yesterday looking and trying to book flights during Cebu Pacific’s seat sale. Though it still didn’t come out as cheap as my trips to Japan and Coron, Palawan last year, I think it was a pretty decent seat sale compared to their other “seat sales” as of late.

Travel dates were perfect as they ran through January to mid-March 2012. I think this is the best time to travel (and November, in tropical regions, but this is not an option for me this year since I still have to attend to the business…though I did sneak in a 4-day trip to Singapore to watch The National).

I decided I wanted to book a trip with some friends, and then a trip alone.
So after finally settling on a location and date with some friends, and after the kilobyte battle to book the flight, it was settled. I’m going to Cagayan de Oro with Karlo, Bea & Andrew on January 19-23. Not too exotic, I know.

But I had planned on having Karlo/Bea take home my extra luggage from Cagayan de Oro upon our return to Manila, then I’d take a connecting flight to Catarman, then book a flight back to Manila from Calbayog 5 days later. Unfortunately (or fortunately), the promo fare was gone after I had resolved myself to this decision.

I think some part of me was also really hesitant to:
1) Go to a relatively much less popular destination (as compared to pop tourist places like Cebu, Davao, Bacolod, CDO, Boracay, Palawan or even Laoag or Sagada)
2) Go alone
3) Go right after another trip and thus be: a) Unable to attend to the business, and b) Away from the comforts of home and basically anything familiar for 10 days straight

I just realized in booking the flights that it’s not just the people around me (i.e. Nica/future PdP local management team) that I have to prepare for my departure, but myself. I think I was almost relieved when I had run out of the supposed connecting Catarman flight from my Cagayan de Oro return.

But I’ll get there by 2013.
I just need to make money.
And find couches to surf on.
Spent a bit of time updating my couchsurfing profile yesterday. :P

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